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Show 'iThaz maternal spint worked in the great bear none can tell But it is certain she looked upon the little hairless thing as only another kind of cub " CAN you picture in your mind a helpless human infant being adopted and mothered and successfully brought up by a mother bear7 Probably you can t, and are inclined to relegate- all such tales to the company of ancient f myths and legends like that telling of Romulus and Remus who were nurtured by the she-wolf and grew up to be the founders of the impe-i impe-i rial city of Rome t 'Nevertheless ev dence accuma Utes in favor of such actual happen ings Legends when have their birth in simple pastoral times and retain their freshness all down the centuries never can be d sm ssed as pure inventions Latterlv occasion al tales about d scoveres of wild men and women of the woods with their suggestion of bab es adopted and reared by an mals are nsuallv short lived because these are days of popular incredulity Tet all such stories are part of an immemor al tradition that is not without its Rtrnnz Doints of credibility The most recent report of this kind is so circumstantial that the problems it involves are the subject of serious scientific discussion notably in the London Lancet, the foremost medica paper of the wor d Some natives of the village of Natnl Tal m the United Provinces of India surprised and captured a strange creature while following bear tracks into a thicket of wood At first they thought their captive was an ape of a ejecies unfamiliar to them It snarled at its captors at first showing a very human set of teth Then seeming assured that no harm was intended the strange creature began to whimper in a startlngly human manner Now the nati es observing that the creature had very little hair on its body while the hair of its head was thick and fine and fell to its shoulders realized that their captive was a human child a little girl six or seven years old Being taken to the village and washed and calmed by gentle treatment, the c illd proved to be of the white race Its skin though deeply tanned and the features showed plain ly that It was not a native child At once the theory was established In accordance with village traditions that the child had been abandoned in the woods when a helpless In fant and had been adopted by a mother bear It seemed unable to articulate anything that resembled human speech It was extremely agile climbing trees like a monkey Its toes were long grasping things with the facility of fingers this condition doubtless due to its tree-climbing habits After a few days it readily ate raw food but would not touch any thing that had been cooked When berries and wild honey were offered it plainly showed Its pleasure and ate ravenously The wild child could stand erect and walk in that position but much preferred running about on all fours In short It duplicated most of the actions and habits described in published accounts of the Boy of the Ar dennes captured in the time of Charles IX of France while following a she-wolf about the woods rhere are several reasons familiar to stu dents of nat iral history why a she bear of all anlmaU Is best fitted to perform the functions of an a lotted mother to a human child As Mr W T Hornaday writes in his American Natural History BFffsss jjjj jf A Dog Nursing Little Foxes A Photograph of a Not Uncommon Manifestation of the All Em , bracing Maternal Instinct in Animals Contrary to general belief a bear is natur ally cheerful and good tempered The maternal instinct is strong in the mother bear She cherishes her two cubs with affection and trains them up in the way they should go If one of the twins dies or meets with a fatal accident the mother bear grieves bitterly and will accept in its place almost any helpless thing that needs mother ing With these facts fixed in the mind It does not require a great stretch of the imagination to picture a human Infant surviving and progressing pro-gressing into sturdy childhood as the foster cub of a bereaved mother bear It should be remembered in the first place that bear cubs are born with very little hair on their bodies and are the weakest and most helpless of four footed Infants A bereaved mother bear finding in the woods an abandoned human baby lying on its back and whimper ing the very picture of helplessness would know instinctively that it could do nothing for itself and would act accordingly For the abandoned baby s part a newly born human Infant Is no more than a little animal any way It is conscious of but two needs a steady supply of Its natural food and the comfort of animal heat Very young children have no repugnance to the closest associations with animal pets They delight in romping with great shaggy dogs and the delight seems mutual Thev would be equally contented and fearless with a bear for a playmate And all animals appear to respect fearlessness when It Is coupled with helpless ness So It Is entirely reasonable to suppose that the abandoned baby and the bereaved mother bear would be friends from the start On the babys part at least that friendship would be cemented by its discovery of an lnexhaust ible supply of rich warm milk In fact the first few months of the baby s life foster mothered by a bear present no very difficult problems to the Imagination Beyond the influence of human associations the little human animal will simply develop in animal Instead of human directions At first the baby nestling In the warmth of the mother bears hairy flank doubtless feels Itself as comfortable as an ordinary baby snuggling in its mother's arms in a dainty bed Having no powers of comparison It is satisfied with comfort Now a mother bear In Its native lair Is a A Real Babe in the Woods This Little Lost Girl Who for Seven Years Knew Only Wild Animals healthy animal and the rood which it yields for the baby s beyond criticism from a hygie nic standpoint No danger there of germ nfection or a little stomach upset because the source of supply is nervous or ill tempered In the meantime thousands of other babies in the absence of really capable mothers are being fed unsatls factory messes scientifically prepared pre-pared by a nurse under a doc tors supervision and grow rainner ana paier every aay A little further along in its career the baby with an adopted bear cub twin brother dls covers that it has the jolllest play fellow im aginable The baby and the bear cub tumble tach other about in the most joyous fashion gaining health and strength every minute while ordinary babtes are boring themselves playing with inanimate mechanical toys In one case there is a rugged little animal glad to be alive in the other probably a peevish bit of humanity composed largely of aches and pains and a general state of dlssatlsfac tion At the stage where training of the infant n nd begins the baby with the bear foster mo her doubtless discovers that life is not all eating sleeping and joyous tumbling about tth its cub brother in the sunshine By dint or many a cuff from its great hairy guardian t learns the meaning bf obedience for those c iffs from a great hairy paw hurt But this babv has become so used to rough and tumble pla that these punitive hurts are of small consequence to the backaches and longings for out-of doors and playtime suffered by or dlnarv children of the same age when first compelled to sit for hours with their noses in an uninteresting book The bear nurtured baby's training goes on even In Its play W hlle ordinary children aro at their futile game of hide-and seek the bear mother is teaching Its cub and the adopted baby how to steer clear of dangerous enemies and using practically the same kind of gan p to accomplish that end In a very short time both the cub and the babv are adept at the art of concealment which is fortunate for them for the mother bear cannot always be on guard when wolves are prowling about The climate was all in favor of the baby brought up by a bear mother In British India Hardened by the constant exposure of its skin to the air It was soon proof against the chills of the mild winters As bear cubs are com paratlvely small at birth their nurBlng per od is continued into the second year So by the time weaned her strangely assorted offspring the baby was active and nimble on its chubby legs quite able to forage for food with Its cub twin brother under the guidance of the mother bear With respect to food this wild child was fortunate too The commonest Bpecles of bears in India and on the Malay penins la live almost entirely on berries and w Id boney For variety they make occasional forays on ant hills b t with plenty of berries and honey In the mother bear s larder It was not necessary for her human cub to ac quire an appetite for Insects One thing this baby acked and that was weapons for self defense Its bear cub twin brother soon learned to deliver a mighty c ff with its paw and to rip open the nwary wolf with Its teeth but the wild child had to rely in times of danger pon ItB aler senses its nimble feet and Its ability to shin up a tree like a flash and swing fearlessly from limb to limb At this stage of Its development it was cap tured by the strange creatures who walked uprght on two legs whose ugly skins were loose and flapping and who constantly hurled uncouth jabberlngs at each other A STUDY IN CONTRASTS The First Days of the Average Baby Sclent fie Milk for the Civilized Baby When the Ordinary Child Had Dolls The Stud es of the Average Child Hide and Seek of Civilized Child hood At Seven the Ordinary Qlrl Is Acquiring Finger Facility And the First Days of the Girl But None for the Little Child She Had Little Bears for mates mm And the Tu tlon of the Bear Girl And the Hide and Seek the Girl Knew But When Found the Beat Had Developed Her To |
