At the meeting of the Cambrian Archæological Society, Lord Cawdor in the
chair, I read a letter on this subject from the resident at Lucknow,
Colonel Sleeman, to whom India is indebted for the suppression of
Thuggee, and other widely extended benefits. Though backed by such good
authority, the letter in question was received with considerable
incredulity, although Colonel Sleeman represents that he has with him
one of these wolf-nurtured youths.
Since reading the letter, I have received from the Colonel's brother a
more full account, printed in India, and containing additional cases,
which I should have no objection to print in the pages of "N. & Q." In
the meantime, further information from Indian experience, where mothers
so often expose their children, would be thankfully received.
I appended my letter, for want of a better opportunity, and at the
request of several members, to a paper on the doctrine of the Myth, read
at the time; observing, that if the account is credible, perhaps Niebuhr
may have been precipitate in treating the nurture of the founders of
Rome as fabulous, and consigning to the Myth facts of infrequent
occurrence. There is both danger and the want of philosophy in rejecting
the marvellous, merely as such.
Nor is the invention of Lupa, for the name of the mother of the Roman
twins, by any means satisfactory. May not the mysteries of Lycanthropy
have had their origin in such a not infrequent fact, if Col. Sleeman may
be trusted, as the rearing of infants by wolves?