He is very inoffensive, but speaks little, and that little imperfectly; and he is still impatient of intercourse with his fellow-men, particularly with such as are disposed to tease him with questions.  I asked him whether he had any recollection of having been with 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 anywhere in the jungles, or on the plains, it would excite little interest, where dead bodies are so often found exposed, and so soon eaten by dogs, jackals, vultures, &c., and would scarcely ever lead to any particular inquiry.

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CHAPTER V.

Salone district—­Rajah Lal Hunmunt Sing of Dharoopoor—­Soil of Oude—­ Relative fertility of the mutteear and doomutteea—­Either may become oosur, or barren, from neglect, and is reclaimed, when it does so, with difficulty—­Shah Puna Ata, a holy man in charge of an eleemosynary endowment at Salone—­Effects of his curses—­Invasion of British Boundary—­Military Force with the Nazim—­State and character of this Force—­Rae Bareilly in the Byswara district—­Bandha, or Misletoe—­Rana Benee Madhoo, of Shunkerpoor—­Law of Primogeniture—­ Title of Rana contested between Benee Madhoo and Rogonath Sing—­ Bridge and avenue at Rae Bareilly—­Eligible place for cantonment and civil establishments—­State