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and associate with men or boys, but he failed. He continued to be alarmed at the sight of men, but was brought to Colonel Gray, who commanded the first Oude Local Infantry, at Sultanpoor. He and Mrs. Gray, and all the officers in cantonments, saw him often, and kept him for several days. But he soon after ran off into the jungle, while the shepherd was asleep. The shepherd afterwards went to reside in another village, and I could not ascertain whether he recovered the boy or not.

Zoolfukar Khan, a respectable landholder of Bankepoor, in the estate of Hasunpoor, ten miles east from the Sultanpoor cantonments, mentions that about eight or nine years ago a trooper came to the 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 every thing offered to him, including bread, but before taking it he carefully smelt at it, and always preferred undressed meat to every thing 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 could overtake him; how long he had been with the trooper, or how 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 under stood 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 off 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 he any dislike to wear clothes, while he saw him. This statement was confirmed by the people of the village.

About seven years ago, a trooper belonging to the king, and in attendance on Rajah Hurdut Sing of Bondee, alias Bum

notee, on the left bank of the Ghagra river, in the Bahraetch district, was passing near a small stream which flows into that river, when he saw two wolf-cubs and a boy drinking in the stream. He had a man with him on foot, and they managed to seize the boy, who appeared to be about ten years of age. He took him up on the pummel of his saddle, but he was so wild and fierce, that he tore the trooper's clothes, and bit him severely in several places, though he had tied his hands together. He brought him to Bondee, where the Rajah had him tied up in his artillery gun-shed, and gave him raw flesh to eat, but he several times cut his ropes and ran off; and after three months the Rajah got tired of him, and let him go. He was then taken by a Cashmeeree mimic, or comedian, (bhand,) who fed and took care of him for six months; but at the end of that time he also got tired of him, (for his habits were filthy,) and let him go to wander about the Bondee bazaar. He one day ran off with a joint of meat from a butcher's shop, and soon after upset some things, in the shop of a bunneeah, who let fly an arrow at him. The arrow penetrated the boy's thigh. At this time Sanaollah, a Cashmere merchant of Lucknow, was at Bondee, selling some shawl goods to the Rajah, on the occasion of his brother's marriage. He had many servants with him, and among them, Janoo, a khidmutghar lad, and an old sipahee, named Ramzan Khan. Janoo took compassion upon the poor boy, extracted the arrow from his thigh, had his wound dressed, and prepared a bed for him under the mangotree, where he himself lodged, but kept him tied to a tent-pin. He would at that time eat nothing but raw flesh. To wean him from this, Janoo, with the consent of his master, gave him rice and pulse to eat. He rejected them for several days, and ate nothing; but Janoo persevered, and by degrees made him eat the balls which he prepared for him; he was fourteen or fifteen days in bringing him to do this. The odor from his body was very offens ive, and Janoo had him rubbed with mustard-seed soaked in water, after the oil had been taken from it, (khullee,).in the hope of removing this smell. He continued this for some months, and fed him upon rice, pulse, and flour bread, but the odor did not leave him. He had hardened marks upon his knees and elbows,

from having gone on all-fours. In about six weeks after he had been tied up under the tree, with a good deal of beating and rubbing of his joints with oil, he was made to stand and walk upon his legs like other human beings. He was never heard to utter more than one articulate sound, and that was "Aboodeca," the name of the little daughter of the Cashmere mimic, who had treated him with kindness, and for whom he had shown some kind of attachment. In about four months he began to understand and obey signs. He was by them made to prepare the hookah, put lighted charcoal upon the tobacco, and bring it to Janoo, or present it to whomsoever he pointed out.

One night, while the boy was lying under the tree, near Janoo, Janoo saw two wolves come up stealthily, and smell at the boy. They then touched him, and he got up, and, instead of being frightened, the boy put his hands upon their heads, and they began to play with him. They capered around him, and he threw straw and leaves at them. Janoo tried to drive them off, but he could not, and became much alarmed; and he called out to the sentry over the guns, Meer Akbur Allee, and told him that the wolves were going to eat the boy. He replied, "Come away and leave him, or they will eat you also;" but when he saw them begin to play together, his fears subsided, and he kept quiet. Gaining confidence by degrees, he drove them away; but, after going a little distance, they returned, and began to play again with the boy. At last he succeeded in driving them off altogether. The night after, three wolves came, and the boy and they played together. A few nights after, four wolves came, but at no time did more than four come. They came four or five times, and Janoo had no longer any fear of them; and he thinks that the first two that came must have been the two cubs with which the boy was first found, and that they were prevented from seizing him by recognizing the smell. They licked his face with their tongues as he put his hands on their heads.

Soon after, his master, Sanaollah, returned to Lucknow, and threatened Janoo to turn him out of his service unless he let go the boy. He persisted in taking the boy with him, and his master relented. He had a string tied to his arm, and led him along by it, and put a bundle of

clothes on his head. As they passed a jungle, the boy would throw down the bundle, and try to run into the jungle, but on being beaten, he would put up his hands in supplication, take up the bundle, and go on; but he seemed soon to forget the beating, and did the same thing at almost every jungle they came through. By degrees he became quite docile. Janoo was one day, about three months after their return to Lucknow, sent away by his master for a day or two on some business, and before his return, the boy had run off, and he could never find him again. About two months after the boy had gone, a women, of the weaver caste, came with a letter from a relation of the Rajah, Hurdut Sing, to Sanaollah, stating that she resided in the village of Chureyrakotra, on his estate, and had had her son, then about four years of age, taken from her, about five or six years before, by a wolf; and, from the description which she gave of him, he, the Rajah's relation, thought he must be the boy whom his servant, Janoo, took away with him. She said that her boy had two marks upon him, one on the chest of a boil, and one of something else on the forehead; and as these marks corresponded precisely with those found upon the boy, neither she nor they had any doubt that he was her lost son. She remained for four months with the merchant Sanaollah, and Janoo, his kidmutghar, at Lucknow; but the boy could not be found, and she returned home, praying that information might be sent to her should he be discovered. Sanaollah, Janoo, and Ramzan Khan, are still at Lucknow, and before me have all three declared all the circumstances here stated to be strictly true. The boy was altogether about five months with Sanaollah and his servants, from the time they got him; and he had been taken about four months and a half before. The wolf must have had several litters of whelps during the six or seven years that the boy was with her. Janoo further adds, that he, after a month or two, ventured to try a waist-band upon the boy, but he often tore it off in distress or anger. After he had become reconciled to this, in about two months, he ventured to put on him a vest and a pair of trowsers. had great difficulty in making him keep them on, with threats and occasional beatings. He would disencumber him

He

Rajah Hurdut Sewae, who is now in Lucknow on business, tells me (28th January, 1851) that the sowar brought the boy to Bondee, and there kept him for a short time, as long as he remained; but as soon as he went off, the boy came to him, and he kept him for three months; that he appeared to him to be twelve years of age; that he ate raw meat as long as he remained with him, with evident pleasure, whenever it was offered to him, but would not touch the bread and other dressed food put before him; that he went on all-fours, but would stand and go awkwardly on two legs when threatened or made to do so; that he seemed to understand signs, but could not understand or utter a word; that he seldom attempted to bite any one, nor did he tear the clothes that he put upon him; that Sanaollah, the Cashmeerce merchant, used at that time to come to him often with shawls for sale, and must have taken the boy away with him, but he does not recollect having given the boy to him. He says that he never himself sent any letter to Sanaollah with the mother of the boy, but his brother or some other relation of his may have written one for her.

self of them whenever left alone, but put | ive, but speaks little, and that little imthem on again in alarm when discovered; perfectly; and he is still impatient of inand to the last often injured or destroyed tercourse with his fellow-men, particularly them by rubbing them against trees or with such as are disposed to tease him posts, like a beast, when any part of his with questions. I asked him whether he body itched. This habit he could never had any recollection of having been with break him of wolves. He said, "The wolf died long before the hermit;" but he seemed to recollect nothing more, and there is no mark on his knees or elbows to indicate that he ever went on all-fours. That he was found as a wild boy in the forest, there can be no doubt; but I do not feel at all sure that he ever lived with wolves. From what I have seen and heard, I should doubt whether any boy who had been many years with wolves, up to the age of eight or ten, could ever attain the average intellect of man. I have never heard of a man who had been spared and nurtured by wolves having been found; and, as many boys have been recovered from wolves after they had been many years with them, we must conclude, that after a time they either die from living exclusively on animal food, before they attain the age of manhood, or are destroyed by the wolves themselves, or other beasts of prey, in the jungles, from whom they are unable to escape, like the wolves themselves, from want of the same speed. The wolf or wolves, by whom they have been spared and nurtured, must die or be destroyed in a few years, and other wolves may kill and eat them. Tigers generally feed for two or three days upon the bullock they kill, and remain all the time when not feeding, concealed in the vicinity. If they found such a boy feeding upon their prey, they would certainly kill him, and most likely eat him. If such a boy passed such a dead body, he would certainly feed upon it. Tigers often spring upon and kill dogs and wolves thus found feeding upon their prey. They could more easily kill boys, and would certainly be more disposed to eat them. If the dead body of such a boy were found any where in the jungles, or on the plains, it would excite little interest, where dead bodies are so often found exposed, and so soon caten by dogs, jackals, vultures, etc., and would scarcely ever lead to any particular inquiry.

It is remarkable, that I can discover no well-established instance of a man who had been nurtured in a wolf's den having been found. There is, at Lucknow, an old man who was found in the Oude Tarae, when a lad, by the hut of an old hermit who had died. He is supposed to have been taken from wolves by this old hermit. The trooper who found him brought him to the king some forty years ago, and he has been ever since supported by the king comfortably. He is still called the "wild man of the woods." He was one day sent to me at my request, and I talked with him. His features indicate him to be of the Tharoo tribe, who are found only in that forest. He is very inoffens

From Oolburn's New Monthly.

THE THUNDER

GUST.

Ir was a bright evening in July-not a | assembled in great force; they counted cloud in the clear, blue sky, not a breath some nineteen or twenty, and now they of air in the heavens, not a leaf stirring on the trees-an evening when all nature seemed to be possessed of the very spirit of repose, which had hushed the song of the birds, the hum of the summer insect, and even given to human voices a soft and modulated tone, such as many, at least, were guiltless of during the toil and struggle of the long working-day.

Brightly and serenely the sun was sinking to its rest, casting deeper and deeper shadows, yet leaving the world no less fair than it had been during the dazzling light of noon. Many scenes, indeed, were rendered fairer and more attractive by the gentle approach of evening; and, perhaps, none more so than the one to which I am about to introduce my reader -the white, thatched-roofed, ivy-covered cottage of the old sailor, Edward Bruce.

For sixty years he had served his country, but from want of interest he still remained a lieutenant, to which post he had been promoted on the occasion of cutting out a French sloop of war under almost fabulous difficulties. Soon after this, when the war was at its hight and England wanted hands to man her ships, he was sent down, in charge of a pressgang, to the retired village of Datchley, it having been ascertained that many disguised seamen were lurking in its vicinity.

In this place he was singularly successful. About dusk the small ale-house was filled with dissipated-looking Quakers and red-faced clergymen, (the favorite disguises of the sons of Neptune at that period,) for the ale-house was a sort of decoy the sailors could not resist; and though night after night some were taken, yet night after night did they frequent it. Many a desperate struggle now took place in its hitherto quiet parlor, and many a fatal wound was here given and received.

One evening the disguised mariners had

no longer feared the press-gang, but wished to measure themselves with it. They sang uproarious songs, and did all they could to attract attention. About midnight they were gratified; a desperate encounter took place, the parlor, the tap-room, the bar, all and each became the scenes of fearful conflict. But the King's men were overmatched, driven. back, beaten down; and Ned Bruce was stunned with a crowbar, trampled under foot, and had his left arm broken. When he came to himself, the struggle had ceased

all was utter darkness; he tried to rise, but fell back into a pool of his own blood. Half an hour passed, and the moon rose, darting its uncertain rays through the broken window-panes, upon the sanded floor, and upon the pale face of a dead man. It was the boatswain's mate, who had accompanied Bruce on his dangerous enterprise.

Seaton was a tall, powerful man, and the rays of the moon made him look gigantic. His under-lip he had bitten right through in his agony; his bluechecked shirt was stiff with congealed blood; a knife had found its way to his heart, his right hand was clenched, and in its grasp was a handful of human hair.

Bruce gazed with horror upon the ghastly features beside him, and, enfeebled from the effects of the blow he had himself received, fell, without sense or mo tion across the dead body of his old shipmate.

A long and severe illness followed, during which he was carefully tended by the village surgeon and his daughter, the prettiest and-as Ned Bruce soon began to think-the sweetest girl in Datchley. Before he was quite recovered they were engaged; and four months from the time he had been wounded, they were married.

Many years after, he quitted the navy, and settled down with his wife and only

"Will you have some more ?" asked Mrs. Bruce. "If you would like it, do not be ashamed to say so."

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daughter in the cottage above mentioned. I tive, but took a long, deep draught of the Kate Bruce was now eighteen-far hand- cool liquid. somer than her mother had been; and the old man would gaze almost with adoration on the beautiful face of his child, or listen to the soft tones of her voice as she read aloud to him from some favorite author, recalling the time when his gentle Susan had soothed in the same way the tedious hours of suffering so many long years ago.

And now, on the evening I have described at the commencement of my story, they were all sitting under the green porch of their sunny home, the old man smoking his pipe, the mother at her knitting, and Katie reading aloud a stirring tale of the sea.

"Who are these ?" said the latter, suddenly pausing in her task, as footsteps sounded on the gravel path of the little garden.

Bruce and his wife raised their eyes at the same moment, and saw, standing within a few paces of them, a man and a boy, the boy apparently leading the man, who had a black bandage over his eyes. There seemed something almost supernatural in his aspect. In figure he was straight as a dart, rather below than above the middle hight. His shoulders were of great breadth, and looked even broader from his slender waist. He was dressed in a sailor's jacket, and a pair of flowing white duck trowsers, with a clean bluechecked shirt, and a Manilla hat, completed his attire. His whiskers and hair-at least such parts as were visible-were as white as snow, forming a startling contrast to his youthful figure. The boy was a ragged little urchin of about twelve.

"Will you give me a glass of water, if you please ?" said the sailor, touching his hat."I have walked far and am thirsty, and the boy says I am near a house." "To be sure I will, shipmate,” answered Bruce.

Kate ran into the house and brought out a bowl of milk. The man put the vessel to his parched lips, but stopped suddenly.

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"No lady, I thank you"Shipmate," cried Bruce, interrupting him, "how old are you ?"

"Nine-and-twenty. You start, sir-I do not wonder. I look older, and they tell me I am gray.”

"They tell you you are gray," said Bruce, with astonishment; "don't you know that you are so ?"

answered the

"How should I?" stranger, bitterly. And, as he spoke, he lifed the bandage from his eyes. His features were handsome, but where his eyes had been were only two white, sightless orbs!

The mother and daughter could scarcely suppress a scream, and even Bruce shuddered as he said:

"But how did this happen, lad? Have you been long blind ?"

"Not long enough to get accustomed to it. Three months ago I saw as well and as far as most men. I lost my sight by lightning, reefing the main-topsail, off the island of Madagascar. But goodnight, sir. Thank you, ladies, I have yet far to go."

"By the living jingo," said the old man," but we don't part like that. You shall sleep here to-night, and have a good supper and a good bed, and tell me all about yourself, and all the ins and outs of the gale in which you lost your day. lights. Kate, give the poor fellow a chair, and a pipe of the precious weed."

The stranger hesitated; he seemed struggling with some inward feeling; a refusal was on his lips, when Mrs. Bruce interposed:

"Oh! do stay," she said, with earnest kindness.

And Kate repeated eagerly: "You must stay."

A ruddier glow overspread the tanned cheek of the mariner as he silently sank into the chair that the last speaker had placed for him. After a few minutes he seemed to collect his thoughts, and began his story thus:

"My father I never knew. He was a boatswain's mate in the Royal Navy, and lost his life some few months after my birth- ""

"In action ?" asked the old lieutenant.

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