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 drank, 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 however
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 recognised 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
neighbours. 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.
Pages:
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344