One of the most intriguing types of legend about the werewolves connected with children, was brought up in the midst of wolves, like wild beasts, and to such an extent over the habits and habits of animals that normal life among the people was impossible.

The boy-the wolf is known since the most ancient times, and the story of Romulus and Remus was one of the earliest of the reported cases. Feral children, by themselves, with only a tangential relationship to the legend of the werewolf, apparently, had a certain influence on the tradition that has developed around this terrible creatures, and only for this reason it is appropriate to mention some of the most famous cases of savagery.

Boy-monkey twelve years old, found in the jungle in the South of Ceylon playing with monkeys, was examined by doctors and representatives of the civil authorities. It turned out that he was behind in mental development, and was, apparently, for this reason, abandoned in the jungle. The child has learned to mimic the behavior of monkeys and so survived.

The boy, who was named Tissa, unable to speak and only cried and mumbling like a monkey. He sat like a monkey, and could not stand unaided. Moved it only on all fours. Moreover, when he was given a plate with food, he dumped it on the ground before moving in to feed. An important difference between a boy monkey and boy-the wolf that we will discuss is the most adaptable first. After a few weeks, the boy-monkey wore clothes and eat from a plate. Boys-wolves, as a rule, remain wild, they are quite capable of learning.

Naturally, in the light of the legends about the werewolf more interesting for us boys-wolves. They can be divided into two categories: "lycanthropy", on which we focus, and "the wild boys", the usually timid children victims of gross and cruel treatment. (Boy-monkey probably falls into the latter category.)

It is difficult to assume, of course, that boy-the wolf is something other than the victim of an accident or a whim of nature. But hardly anyone will deny that its existence has had a tremendous impact on the formation of legends about lycanthrope. Anyone seen such a wild child, covered with scratches and sores, with long matted hair, dirty makers pose typical of animals, with broken teeth and a long, resembling a wolf claws, nails, with fetid breath, mouth, covered in blood from eaten raw meat, and among other things, witnessed his ferocity and heard resembling a wolf howl and growl, which he published, he could not but shudder.

There are a number of factors necessary for scientists to establish Homo ferus, especially if we are talking about "lycanthropic" version. Its typical representative deprived of many characteristic features: love, normal emotions and especially laughter; he is silent, except for those moments when growls, snorting or howls; he walks on all fours, like a four-legged; he is not able to live among the people and must lead the life, animals, and most importantly, he can live without any human assistance. In short, he should dwell in the forest and to be among the beasts. But there are other manifestations of Homo ferus, which are also often seen in the context of lycanthropy.

In one of the mountain villages of Kabardino-Balkaria appeared wild man, dressed in animal skins and hand-made shoes. Long thick beard covered almost paltila. The stranger had difficulty pronouncing words. Here is a brief its history.

After ejecting Nazi troops from the North Caucasus during the great Patriotic war in the village left two policemen, who had faithfully served the occupants. To avoid the deserved punishment for many crimes that were done, they fled to the mountains, taking the rifle and ammo - a zinc mailbox. They went into the blind area, settled in the cave, practically not available neither hunters nor the tourists. Ate cured meats mountain tours, which preserved for the future, and dried berries, roots, wild fruits, mushrooms and nuts - many of them in the surrounding lavish forests and Alpine meadows.

They lived together for eight years together, for fear of retribution, and not knowing that the war has ended.

One of the fleeing ill with cancer of the throat. The other was treated him, forcing him to swallow a thimble with sharpened edges on a leather strap. Forcibly pulling him back, he brutally, brutally "cleansed" throat companion from the tumor by cutting off the sharp edges of the thimble living tissue. It hurts eventually died. And the man was left completely alone. 28 years he lived in complete solitude. He sewed clothes and shoes from skins mountain tours. They were here in abundance, ammunition enough, and dilapidated clothing finally disintegrated.

Voluntary exile forgotten how to talk, because in all the years only twice saw people, and at a considerable distance, because I was afraid to get in contact with accidentally wandered into these parts of tourists.

During one of his campaigns for many tens of kilometers to the field, from which the fugitive gathered corn on the cob, he met a cat and took it with him to the cave. Now the animal brightened the existence of a cave dweller. There were already two. Someone had to take care of. But a couple of years, the cat ate not that of a Fox, not the wolves.

. And again loneliness... is Now a fugitive not made. He decided finally to surrender into the hands of the authorities and went to his native village. Here relatives hardly recognized him. "The war is over?" "was his first question. "Stalin is alive?" - the second. He explained that the war ended more than thirty years ago. Stalin died long ago, and Amnesty sinful policeman freed from responsibility for their crimes. ' The hermit was washed, dressed, put in order, gave him shelter. As they say, had accepted into the team and even married.

It is amazing that a sixty-year old man outwardly looked like a man thirty years old - no karatnogo tooth, no wrinkles. However, spiritually he is completely degraded, and ageing in society was rapidly. Before our eyes he was languishing in unusual conditions of civilization.

He was never able to live among people went again from the village to the mountains. But now as a shepherd. Say, properly performed its obligations, trying very rarely appear on the people.

And now we call the most famous classic" children-Volkov: this is Peter, wild boy from Hannover, Victor of Aveyron, the famous Kaspar Hauser from Nuremberg and wild girl Kamala, Indian, which later began to bring up the priest. Rousseau and Linnaeus gave their comments, exploring the mystery of the wild boy, but the true representative of this kind, lycanthropic option Homo ferus, far from noble savage, whose portrait drawn Rousseau.

Of course, some children found in the wild, has really been able to return to a society of people, but we do not know exactly how long they were among the beasts. Maybe they just restored the knowledge gained in the early years and temporarily forgotten because of the need to live in the woods for two or three years?

Recalling the numerous legends about licantropa, involuntarily pay attention to details, background. Undoubtedly, they are more suitable adventure novel than unbiased documentary work. This often confuses us when parsing some of the most striking the imagination of legends. Lucien Malson, a Professor from France, a serious study of the problems of feral children, is of the opinion that any myth contains elements of truth, and do not immediately reject any unusual case only because of the fact that some part of it is obviously fictitious. This is very sound advice.

Apparently, the oldest and most described the case of savagery boy named child-wolf of Hesse, occurred in the XIV century. The local people began to notice that in the forests around the town lives ghostly creature that whenever people happened to stumble on it, they quickly disappeared in the bushes. Treated him with superstitious fear. The real proof of his existence was obtained only in 1344, when it strange wild creature finally caught. To the surprise of the people, it was a boy who had run wild, moved on all fours like a wolf, unable to talk.

Found that the child, who was about eight years old, was in the wild, half of his life. The boy, according to all evidence was found by wolves, which has been dug for him the hole, and kept him alive, warming bodies even in most severe winters. Some accounts say that they have covered the floor of his Nora leaves, forming something like a nest. As we have seen, this fact does not lie beyond the boundaries of the possible and confirmed by other stories about feral children. The child is so used to walk on all fours that his feet had to tie Board to help him keep to the right and walk as men. To speak coherently he could not, and could only growl and make sounds, animals, eating only raw food and was probably happier in those wild, where he was by the will of fate. Child-wolf of Hesse became a celebrity his time, he was even taken to England to show the Royal court.

Around the same time in the dense forests of Bavaria was found the other poor. He is known as the child-the wolf from Waterway, and his fate is very similar to the fate of the boy from Hesse, although he apparently got in a hard, almost hopeless circumstances - when he was found, he was for over twelve years.

These two cases, as well as those that have occurred before, unfortunately, were not timely deeply studied, scientists have engaged in, and only in the end of XVIII century, after four centuries after the events described above.

Refer again to the expert opinion of Professor Malsana. The scientist believes that we should not be surprised if inhuman environment builds nonhuman child. It is the same opinion of Jean Guitar, heroic teacher and psychologist who for many years worked to establish contact with the boy-wolf of the Aveyron, and to give him an education. But before to tell the story of Victor, I will mention a few small, but very interesting cases.

So in 1803 in the town Overdijk in Holland was found dichev boy, whose age could not be defined. Its distinguishing feature was that he ate the bird's eggs, juveniles or adults, which he caught. He knew perfectly imitate the bird cries... the Greatest number of children Volkov gave the world India, perhaps because its residents because of poverty were forced to leave children in the jungle. From 1843 to 1933 from India received no less than sixteen reports found children wolves of both sexes, have been discovered the children Panthers and children-leopards. However, some of these stories are absolutely unreal. Found children-the animals were almost totally unable to change habits acquired during life in the jungle. This is not surprising, given that some of them have lived among animals to ten years.

Valentine ball first reported the details of Indian children wolves in his book "Life in the jungles of India", published in London in 1880. Although ball received information from the "second hand", their authenticity is not in doubt. The first child-wolf, the above-mentioned book, Dina Sanitar, was caught by the peasants of the village of Minspare in 1872. He was about six years old, and he had all the classic signs of Homo ferus.

He was wild, completely naked, silent - could produce a line guttural growl and, like beasts had razor-sharp teeth that were pointed from the permanent glotania bones. Of course, it was impossible to determine how long he spent in the jungle, but his physical strength and a strong Constitution talked about the fact that he is perfectly cobelsa to wild life. And all these children are wolves, he went on chetverenkah and fiercely resisted all attempts to dress him.

Unlike many other children-Volkov, Dean lived among people for quite a long time to twenty years. But despite the patient teaching, his achievements during this long period were as follows: he learned to dress right to stand, although to him it's never been easy, and enjoy the dishes.

Ball and tells about the other boy-wolf, from Lucknow - child of ten years, which found two years after Dina. He fetched up in an orphanage of Sikandra, but despite numerous attempts to teach him, the child remained absolutely wild; however, it is questionable achievement was that he learned to smoke cigarettes. The two boys never learned to speak.

Among children Volkov, you can highlight a few of the most prominent representatives of which, undoubtedly, could help the legend about the werewolves to hold on for the last hundred years. Two of the most famous kids, girls-wolves, Kamalu and Amalu found in 1920. Dr. J.. Singh, Trustee orphanage in Mindapore, wrote a long and detailed report of their observations for the two girls wolves that were in his care; the recording was done for a long time, so the accuracy of his observations there is no doubt, moreover, they are confirmed by other witnesses. So, let's turn to the records of the doctor.

In October 1920, when he read the sermon in the area Hodamora, he was approached by several excited locals and told about "fantastic creatures"living in the jungle. The doctor decided to go to see these creatures. It started deep in the jungle, and after dusk and he accompanied him residents saw a family of wolves, when they dug on the side of a ravine holes. Ahead there were three adults wolf, then ran two wolves, and behind them moved, by definition, the frightened peasants, two "monster". There were two strange animals Singh could not be classified.

They walked on four legs and a long, matted hair from her face. After "monster" jumped out of the den, Dr. Singh barely kept his companions gathered to shoot at them with rifles. He proposed to catch them. However, "monster" caused such fear that he was forced to go to a remote village to find volunteers to capture them. A week later the doctor came back to the wolf's lair. Two wolves was not in it, and a she-wolf guarding the entrance, was shot. Reverend Singh and his henchmen were amazed to discover in the lair of the two cubs and two human cubs. The latter were naked, covered with sores and bruises, but were more aggressive than their fellow wolves, and were prepared to vigorously defend their territory.

Children were taken away from their dens, and give local residents the same at the first opportunity, got rid of them, and Dr. Singh found girls a few days later, half-dead with hunger. He tried to go out, making them is, milk and other nutritious foods. Younger, Amade, was only eighteen months old, and the eldest, Kamala beach - so their obresti Dr. Singh is about eight years. Skin both was pretty piaras on and blistered, languages leaned over their mouths, and they smiled, showing their teeth and breathed hard.

Even more amazing facts revealed later. The children were unable to see in the afternoon and escaped solar light in the dark corners. At night they sang and danced about the room in search of the way out. They slept only five to six hours a day, eat only raw meat and drank, Laka liquid. Both girls were crawling on my knees and elbows while he was present in the room but on the street they quickly ran, getting up on hands and feet. They roared on people, curved back, like wolves, at the approach of him whom they considered dangerous. They "hunted"chasing chickens and other domestic animals, scoured the yard in search of discarded guts and greedily devoured them.

But these children are wolves have lived long in a civilized environment. The younger the girl, Amala, lived in captivity for less than a year, she died of nephritis in September 1921. Kamala lived about nine years. Gradually it has learned to walk, although until the end of her life and not the Boas elk to get rid of his wolf gait. She started to wash, to use the glass and even learned a few words, but continued to eat raw meat and giblets, escaped dogs. What she learned primitive speech, means that at birth she had no mental defects and that her wolf habits were entirely taken over from "foster parents.

It is not surprising that simple Indian peasants were scared "monsters" from the cave - even in 1920 fear werewolf, CD and before the wolf, remained one of the most ancient primitive instincts of man.

With the death of Kamala beach ended one of the most interesting stories of our time, though talking about it and studying it continues to this day. Many of the circumstances surrounding the lives of these children-wolves, covered with darkness. For example, natural questions arise: why children were not immediately eaten by wolves? Where did the second girl? But nature holds these secrets.

We turn now to the last example from this series - Victor, wild boy of Aveyron.

Victor from Aveyron appeared earlier Caspar Hauser, and his case is less mysterious. It also contains a number of unique circumstances, but Victor and his whole life has been, undoubtedly, a more detailed study. The beginning of its history as two drops of water similar to the beginning of the story another boy-wolf, excluding, of course, Caspar.

It happened in 1797 (strange young man on the streets of Nuremberg will appear only after 32 years), when the peasants remote area in the tarn Department (southern France) for the first time noticed a strange creature hiding in dense thickets. The peasants feared naked and restriping "wild man" and, despite numerous meetings, could not establish close contact. In April 1797 this boy, who, as it turned out, it was about nine years, noticed playing near the small village of Labason. Local residents caught him and put in the barn, but the child ran away from there and had long disappeared in the forest.

About fifteen months before his noticed again. In July 1798 three hunters with great difficulty caught savage and placed in a house in a nearby village. The hosts showed complete disorder, and only a week Victor's gone again, jumping out of the window. This time a lone naked child survived in the forest is extremely cold winter, which testifies to his extraordinary fitness. He apparently acquired the endurance of prehistoric man and the ability to survive without proper clothing in extreme climatic conditions.

He probably liked the area, since January 9, 1800, he appeared again near the La basin and was immediately detained by a group of peasants. Boy was naked, with matted hair, covered with scars and sores and extremely scared. The next day he was taken to the hospital and there for the first time carefully examined. The first examined the Victor, the so-called child, scientist Pierre-Joseph Banter. Later, Boater wrote a detailed report, published in Paris under the name of "Historical notes on the wild man of the Aveyron". The report aroused interest of doctors and naturalists.

Inactor was probably the most unusual of all children-wolves subjected to long-term study. Like many such children, he was angry for no apparent reason, covered with twilight and woke up with the dawn and was unable to understand what he sees in the mirror my reflection.

But Victor loved looking at his reflection in the calm water of the pond; long hours of the night he stared spellbound at the moon; he didn't want the other kids or their game, and he had lit the fire of the wooden toys.

The sounds of a foundling, reminded grunting. Perhaps the most unnatural its peculiarity was that he never smiled and only weird twisted mouth. Victor just could not concentrate. He was constantly tormented by convulsions.

Leather boy was to such an extent insensitive to pain that he could get his hands out of the fire burning logs. The smell was too special: he did not feel some smells, even if the substance is brought to his nose. Surprising his ears: in ongoing experiments, the boy did not show the slightest excitement or fear, when near it shot out of a cannon, but turned on very weak sounds, such as footsteps running behind the man. And what is especially surprising: he could not distinguish between the music and the human voice from the other sounds. Victor, as did his fellow sufferers, did not like to sleep on the bed and generally calmly endured any discomfort. But boy, is able to endure the hardships of wild life, was quite unadapted to life civilized: even a monkey faster adopted many human habits than this child-wolf.

Especially amazed researchers its strong immunity to cold - boy wintered in the woods naked. From food preferred berries and chestnuts, abhor more sophisticated food.

The child was constantly torn loose, but now the guards were on the alert, and all his attempts ended in failure. Soon the boy was transported to Paris, where it was examined by Dr. Pinel, known at that time psychologist. He categorically stated that he is just a moron, and this explains all deviations in its development.

But Victor unexpectedly lucky. The young doctor Jean-Marc ITAR who was only 25 years old when he first met Viktor, in 1800, he was appointed to the position of the chief doctor in the Imperial Institute for the deaf in Paris.

ITAR examined the boy and did not agree with the great Pinel. He spent six years in persistent and patient struggle, trying to return Victor, poor savage of Aveyron, back to the human condition. His pioneering efforts, the understanding of the needs of his patients and deep knowledge of the issue were rewarded: the status of Victor has improved significantly, although he was not a member of human society in the conventional sense.

ITAR denied honored psychologist of Pinel: Victor was not congenital idiot, he was a child deprived of the ability to develop normally, and although ITAR could not erase from his mind the years spent among beasts, he has enriched his life by returning a human child to the people.

Victor was a classic example of this boy-wolf, he never learned to speak, despite the heroic efforts of Dr. Guitar.

Apparently, his greatest intellectual achievement for all this time was a moment of inspiration when he took the pencil from the old trochanter. But he fell in love with a variety of homework, especially willingly chopped wood. He could do this for hours, never to grow tired and not hiding the obvious pleasure.

Six years Dr. ITAR worked with Victor, and his observations, published later, testify to the great talent of this man in his chosen field.

Now we can say that the fate of Victor was quite happy when compared with those cases that we have already analyzed. About him always well cared for, he lived in the Annex to the Paris Institute for the deaf. Moreover, committed and, as you can feel, enlightened government appointed a cash assistance of a certain Madame Guerin, looking for Victor. Died Victor from Aveyron in 1828, when he was forty years old.

...In early 1996 in one of the remote areas of China was caught strange little creature - coated child, who was nicknamed "boy-Panda".

Hunters found the baby in the company of nice and slow bamboo bears. This is the third time in history when a human child has grown among Panda: the first was recorded in 1892, and the second in 1923)

Who examined the boy scientists noted the many anomalies in his behavior: he only moved on all fours, and on the legs even they could not stand it fell; washed and licked himself like a cat; ate the leaves and young shoots; itching and snorting like a wild animal; growled, if he was unhappy with something.

. HOU men Lu, a biologist from Beijing, who studied boy-Pandu, believes that boy, probably in early childhood lost parents, and perhaps deliberately left in the forest, frightened by his appearance. And no wonder: the baby was born with significant genetic disorders - his whole body is covered with thick hair. Then, obviously, it was found pandas and was mistaken, so to speak, for a family member. Accordingly and raised. Aside from a few minor differences, boy-Panda behaved exactly like his adoptive "parent".

New Mowgli caught 36-year-old hunter Kwan Wai. And now the foster child lives with him, his wife and five year old daughter.

. Scientists believe that this child must be from half to two years. On hands and feet, he had long strong nails, more like claws, he promptly climbing and first biting and scratching all who approached. However, after several weeks of stay in the family a little paoblica and even started showing affection to the new "mom" and "sister". He learned to stand up and say a few words. But still, if upset about something, he never cries and whimpers like a dog.

"The family Kwan was very fond of the baby, in spite of his odd appearance and habits of wild animal, " says Dr. Lu. - They say that they would like to keep him. However, the boy is of great scientific value: studying it, we can better understand the processes of human development in society and outside it. And so we're going to take the child in Peking University to conduct a multi-stage research. However, after this I do not see any obstacles for it to be returned in a new house".