The most famous "Mowgli" and "Tarzans" in history: 6 mysterious and tragic stories of "wild" children

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In all such cases, there are only two possible scenarios: the child accidentally got lost and ended up in the forest, or his living conditions are so terrible that it is much better among animals than with people. The stories of these children are not at all like the tales of Tarzan and Mowgli. They had to fight animals for food, they had to learn to survive on their own in the wild. Full of mysteries and true tragedy, the stories of little "savages", from a boy who was kept as a pet at the court of King George, to an Indian raised by wolves, further in the review.

1. John of Liege

One of the earliest English-language descriptions of a feral child concerns "John of Liege." It was a boy who supposedly spent most of his youth in the Belgian forests all alone.

According to Sir Kenelm Digby's account of 1644, John first fled into the forest at the age of five, fleeing enemy soldiers during the religious war. But while his family and the rest of his village returned to their homes after the danger had passed, young John was too scared to get out of hiding. He went deep into the forest, where he lived for sixteen years, feeding on roots and forest berries.

Finally, John returned to society at the age of twenty-one when he was caught trying to steal food from a local farm. By that time, he was completely wild. The boy was naked and overgrown with hair, he completely forgot human speech. The most amazing thing is that the years spent in the forest led to the fact that he developed a simple canine sense of smell, which allows him to sniff food from a long distance. According to Digby, John eventually spoke up again, but his heightened senses were dulled when he returned to civilization.

2. Wild Boy Peter

In the summer of 1725, a naked, mute teenage boy was found living alone in the forests of northern Germany. The child was brought to the British King George I, who fell in love with him and sent him to court. The boy was christened Peter and became a jester at the royal court in London. He was regularly exhibited at parties to entertain royal guests. The nobles were fascinated by the Wild Boy's habit of tossing about on all fours. They laughed at his disdain for table manners and his tendency to pick in his pockets and try to kiss the ladies of the court.

All attempts to introduce Peter to civilization were unsuccessful - he never learned to speak and preferred to sleep on the floor. Eventually he was sent to the village, where he lived until his death in 1785. There were many rumors and versions of how the child got into such a situation. The true story of how he got into the forest and went wild has never been revealed. Some researchers have argued that his parents may have simply abandoned him. The boy was abandoned because he suffered from Pitt-Hopkins syndrome. It is a very rare neurological disorder characterized by a learning disability and an inability to develop speech.

3. Marie-Angelica Memmy Le Blanc

In 1731, the French village of Songhi was stunned to see a wild young woman armed with a wooden club. This "savage" was dressed in animal skins. The girl was between ten and eighteen years old. She was strikingly strong for her height and age. On one occasion, she even killed a local guard dog with her baton.

When the villagers finally managed to lure the young lady out of the protection of the trees, they were amazed. It was found that she spoke only with the help of animalistic exclamations and squeaks. The girl also preferred to eat raw meat, removing the skin and gnawing the carcass of a freshly killed animal right on the spot. Over time, the girl learned to speak French and became more civilized. Later she was baptized under the name Marie-Angelique Memmy Le Blanc and sent to live in a monastery. Further details of her origins did not appear until 1765. After Angelica said that she fled to the forest after she was kidnapped and brought to Europe as a slave. Many contemporaries of Memmie le Blanc believed that she was originally an Eskimo. Recent research suggests that she was most likely from the Mesquake tribe, who was born in the territory of modern Wisconsin.

4. Victor of Aveyron

Victor's mysterious story began in 1800, when a twelve-year-old boy was found wandering in a forest near Aveyron, France. The wild child was naked and dumb. The abundance of scars on his body seemed to indicate that he had been subjected to severe corporal punishment from a very young age. He refused to be washed or touched at all. The boy completely ignored human contact and was often overcome by violent outbursts. The years of isolation also led him to develop a remarkable form of extreme hearing selectivity. The boy could not pay attention to the sound of a pistol shot right behind him, but was immediately perked up by the crackling of a walnut, one of his favorite foods.

The French authorities considered the child imbecile, but a school counselor for the deaf named Jean-Marc Gaspard Itard believed it was possible to teach him the language. Itar worked for several years with a boy whom he named "Victor". He was eventually forced to wash, wear clothes, and even show signs of sympathy. However, human speech was forever inaccessible to the boy. Itar tirelessly taught Victor to understand basic verbal questions and commands. Everything turned out to be in vain: he died at the age of forty without uttering a single full sentence.

5. Kaspar Hauser

On May 26, 1828, a teenage boy appeared in Nuremberg, Germany with a seemingly incredible story. Calling himself "Kaspar Hauser", the young man said that he had spent the last thirteen years in a small room. His only friends were a few wooden toys and a mysterious man who appeared every day to bring him food and water. The young man had two very mysterious notes with him. They claimed that he came into the care of his captor in early childhood. The boy was never allowed to leave the house, but now he is allowed to make a career in the military.

Hauser's spooky story brought him instant fame across Europe. Many were surprised at the peculiarities of the foundling - he supposedly had excellent night vision, but very often fell into a real stupor when faced with new impressions. Others suspected that his story might be a hoax. They argued that the boy had learned language and writing too easily, and that his complexion was not pale enough for a man who had spent most of his life indoors.

The situation became even more bizarre in 1833, when Hauser died from a mysterious, possibly self-inflicted stab wound. Since then, dozens of the wildest theories have been voiced about its origins. There are even versions that in fact he was a special royal blood, who became a victim of a conspiracy. The confinement was orchestrated to prevent him from taking the throne. However, it is still unclear whether Kaspar Hauser was a real "wild child" or just a skillful swindler.

6. Dina Sanichar

This boy is known as the "Wolf Boy". Dina Sanichar was first discovered in 1867. A group of hunters spotted a strange creature sleeping on the floor of a cave in Bulandshehr, India. They mistook him for a wild animal.

When the men finally smoked the creature out of hiding, they were surprised to find that it was actually a boy of about six years old. The child appears to have lived in the wilderness for most of his life and supposedly survived running on all fours with a pack of wolves. The hunters took the boy to the Sikandra Mission orphanage in Agra, where he was accepted and named Dina Sanichar. Over the next few years, missionaries tried to rehabilitate the "wolf boy," but the years in the wild took their toll. Sanichar never learned to speak until his death in 1895. He preferred to gnaw bones and eat raw animal meat rather than cooked food. Some have since speculated that his story may have inspired Rudyard Kipling to write the story of the feral boy "Mowgli" in his Jungle Book stories.

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