The Third Sultanpur Wolf Boy

When I was Assistant-commissioner of Sultanpore, Oude, shortly after the Mutiny had been quelled, either in 1860 or 1861, the police brought in a male child which they declared they had recovered from a wolf den. Whether this was true or not I cannot positively assert, but inquiries were made at the time, and there seemed no reason for doubting it.

As regards the child, I saw him when he was just brought in, and almost daily until I left the station. He seemed to be about four years old, and sat up like a dog, both arms straight down in front of him, with his hands flattened out on the ground, and his legs drawn up under him like a dog; he moved by hops something like a monkey, but never stood. up on his legs, and always kept his hands on the ground. He gave vent to snarls and sounds, not actual barks like a dog, but something between a bark and a grunt. He would not touch cooked food, but ate raw meat ravenously. The police officer took charge of him, and gradually broke him in to taking milk, then milk and bread, and so on. He certainly was not an idiot, for, after being tamed, he was sent to school, and eventually taken into the police force. Everyone at the time considered it a clear case of a wolf-child. Whether such things are, or were, will always be a disputed point. I see no reason against it, and the natives thoroughly believe in the idea: but at the same time, they believe in many legends which are absolutely absurd.