The Bankipur Wolf Boy

Zoolfukar Khan, a respectable landholder of Bankeepoor, in the estate of Hasunpoor, ten miles from the Sultanpoor cantonments, mentions that about eight or nine years ago a trooper came to town, with a lad of about nine or ten years of age whom he had rescued from wolves among the ravines on the road; that he knew not what to do with him, and left him to the common charity of the village, that he ate everything opened to him, including bread, but before taking it he carefully smelt at it, and always preferred undressed meat to everything else; that he walked on his legs like other people when he saw him, though there were evident signs on his knees and elbows of his having gone, very long, on all fours; and when asked to run on all fours he used to do so, and went so fast that no one would overtake him; how long he had been with the trooper, or long it took him to learn to walk on his legs, he knows not. He could not talk, or utter any very articulate sounds. He understood signs, and heard exceedingly well, and would assist the cultivators in turning trespassing cattle out of their fields, when told by signs to do so. Boodhoo, a Brahmin cultivator of the village, took care of him, and he remained with him for three months, when he was claimed and taken off by his father, a shepherd, who said that the boy was six years old when the wolf took him at night some four years before; he did not like to leave Boodhoo, the Brahmin, and the father was obliged to drag him away. What became of him afterwards he never heard. The lad had no hair upon his body, nor had any dislike to wear clothes, while he saw him. The statement confirmed by the people of the village.