The Chupra Wolf Boy

At Chupra, twenty miles east from Sultanpoor, lived a cultivator with his wife and son, who was then three years of age. In March, 1843, the man went to cut his crop of wheat and pulse, and the woman took her basket and went with him to glean, leading her son by the arm. The boy had lately recovered from a severe scald on the left knee which he got in the cold weather, from tumbling into the fire, at which he had been warming himself, while his parents were at work. As the father was reaping and the mother gleaning, the boy sat upon the grass. A wolf rushed upon him suddenly from behind a bush, caught him up by the loins, and made off with him towards the ravines. The father was at a distance at the time, but the mother followed, screaming as loud as she could for assistance. The people of the village ran to her aid, but they soon lost sight of the wolf and his prey.

She heard nothing more of her boy for six years, and had in that interval lost her husband. At the end of that time, two sipahees came, in the month of February, 1849, from the town of Singramow, which is ten miles from Chupra, on the bank of the Khobae rivulet. While they sat on the border of the jungle, which extended down to the stream, watching for hogs, which commonly come down to drink at that time in the morning, they saw there three wolf cubs and a boy come out from the jungle, and go down together to the stream to drink. The sipahees watched them till they had drunk and were about to return, when, they rushed towards them. All four ran towards a den in the ravines. The sipahees followed as fast as they could; but the three cubs had got in before the sipahees could come up with them, and the boy was half way in when one of the sipahees caught him by the hind leg, and drew him back. He seemed very angry and ferocious, bit at them, and seized in his teeth the barrel of one of their guns, which they put forward to keep him off, and shook it. They how- ever secured him, brought him home, and kept him for twenty days. They could for that time make him eat nothing but raw flesh and they fed him upon hares and birds. They found it difficult to provide him with sufficient food, and took him to the bazaar in the village of Koeleepoor; and there let him go to be fed by the charitable people of the place till he might be recognized and claimed by his parents. One market-day a man from the village of Chupra happened to see him in the bazaar, and on his return mentioned the circumstance to his neighbors. The poor cultivator's widow, on hearing this, asked him to describe the boy more minutely, when she found that the boy had the mark of a scald on the left knee, and three marks of the teeth of an animal on each side of his loins, the widow told him that her boy when taken off had lately recovered from a scald on the left knee, and was seized by the loins when the wolf took him off, and that the boy he had seen must be her lost child.

She went off forthwith to the Koelee bazaar, and in addition to the two marks above described, discovered a third mark on his thigh, with which her child was born. She took him home to her village, where he was recognized by all her neighbors. She kept him for two months, and all the sporting landholders in the neighborhood sent her game for him to feed upon. He continued to dip his face in the water to drink; but he sucked in the water, and did not lap it up like a dog or wolf. His body continued to smell offensively. When the mother went to her work, the boy always ran into the jungle, and she could never get him to speak. He followed his mother for what he could get to eat, but showed no particular affection for her; and she could never bring herself to feel much for him; and after two months, finding him of no use to her, and despairing of ever making anything of him, she left him to the common charity of the village. He soon after learned to eat bread when it was given to him, and ate what- ever else he could get during the day, but always went off to the jungle at night. He used to mutter something, but could never be got to articulate any words distinctly. The front of his knees and elbows had become hardened from going on all fours with the wolves. If any clothes are put on him he takes them off, and commonly tears them to pieces in doing so.

He still prefers raw flesh to cooked, and feeds on carrion whenever he can get it. The boys of the village are in the habit of amusing themselves by catching frogs and throwing them to him; and he catches and eats them. When a bullock dies, and the skin is removed he goes and eats it like a village dog. The boy is still in the village, and this is the description given of him by the mother herself, who still lives at Chupra. She has never experienced any return of affection for him, nor had he shown any such feeling for her. Her story is confirmed by all her neighbors, and by the head landholders, cultivators, and shopkeepers of the village.

In the village of Chupray, to the east of Sultanpore, lived a man and his wife, with their child of three years. In March, 1843, the family went out one morning to work in the fields. The child had a large scar on its right cheek, the consequence of a burn it had suffered in falling into the fire some months before. The parents were at their work, and the child was rolling about on the grass at some distance, when a wolf rushed upon it from the adjacent jungle, seized it by the back, and galloped off with it, in spite of the pursuit and cries of the parents. For several days search was made, under the direction of the father, by his friends and neighbours, but in vain, and at length all hope was abandoned of finding any trace of the lost child.

Six years elapsed without the mother (who had lost her husband in the interval) hearing anything of her child. In the month of February, 1849, two sepoys, who had come on furlough to the town of Singramow, near Chupray, left home one fine morning to ramble on the banks of the little river which runs through the village. Sitting by the water-side, and enjoying the breeze, they all at once saw, to their amazement, three young wolves in company with a little boy, steal cautiously out of the jungle to the river, where they quenched their thirst. The sepoys, recovering from their first amazement, ran off in pursuit of the little troop, and succeeded in capturing the child just as he was creeping into a cave where the three wolf-cubs had preceded him. He tried at first to defend himself with his teeth against his captors, but the latter held him tight, and took him to their lodgings, where they fed him for three weeks on raw flesh and game. At last, finding the cost of keeping him too heavy, they resolved to take him to the Kholepoor Bazaar, where some charitable persons had promised to undertake his support. A labourer from Chuprah, who saw the little boy at the bazaar, related, on his return to the village, the particulars of his capture by the sepoys, and thus the story reached the ears of his mother. She lost no time in going to the bazar, and at once recognised on the child's body, not only the scar on the cheek, and that left by the wolf's teeth on his back, but also a mark on the thigh which he had at his birth.

Satisfied of the identity of the poor creature, she took him back with her to the village, where all her neighbours instantly recognised the boy. For many months the mother endeavoured by assiduous care to bring her child back to human ways and habits; but her efforts were all in vain, and at last, in disgust, she resolved to abandon him to public charity. The child was then received by the servants of the officer who told me this strange history, and they treated him as they would have done a wild dog.

Thus he continued to live for about a year; his body exhaled a very disagreeable odour; his knees and elbows were hardened like horn, doubtless from the habit of walking on all fours, which he had contracted among his companions, the young wolves. Every night he repaired to the neighbouring jungle, and never failed to take his part of the carrion he picked up on his way. He generally walked upright, but took his food on all fours in the company of a dog with which he formed a great intimacy. He was never seen to laugh, nor heard to speak. He died almost suddenly, after having swallowed a great quantity of water.