Feral Children in Legend, Literature -- and Life Quiz

Answer: Paris

After Paris' mother dreamed that she gave birth, not to a child but to a burning faggot writhing with fire snakes, a seer prophesied (correctly) that the boy would bring about the destruction of Troy. He was abandoned to die of exposure, but was kept alive by a she-bear.

This is not particularly far-fetched: I am writing in February 2002, and as recently as October 2001 Iranian authorities reported finding a lost sixteen-month old baby who had been kept alive in a she-bear's den, suckled by the mother bear.

Answer: wolf

Twin brothers Romulus and Remus were the sons of Rhea Silvia, daughter of Numitor, who had been deposed as king of Alba Longa by his own brother Amulius. To prevent the continuance of the true royal line, Amulius caused Rhea Silvia to become a vestal virgin.

However, the maid was impregnated, apparently by the god Mars, who appeared to her in a dream. The progeny of the union were abandoned to die of exposure, but were suckled by a she-wolf (in addition, and less plausibly, a woodpecker fetched food for them). Eventually the twins grew up to restore their grandfather to his throne before founding a city of their own.

Answer: doe

Oisin's mother had been transformed into a deer by an evil druid. For a brief period she was freed from the enchantment by Finn mac Cumhal, who made her his wife. However, shortly after becoming pregnant, the hapless Saba was once again captured by the druid and turned back into a deer.

Her human son was born, and she raised him as best she could in cervine form until she was slain by the druid. Luckily for Oisin, his father Finn found him not long afterward. Finn raised the boy and taught him human speech, only then hearing the boy's story and discovering that he was his son.

Answer: Krishna, suckled by elephant

Krishna's childhood was spent in the company of his parents, Nanda and Yasoda.

Answer: John Clayton

The anthropoid apes or mangani of Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel knew him as Tarzan, but his birth name was John Clayton. (William Cecil Clayton, John's cousin, bore John's 'rightful' aristocratic title until John's true identity was generally revealed. Taylor and Davidson were the protagonists of, respectfully, Pierre Boulle's novel Planet of the Apes and Tim Burton's brilliant 2001 film adaptation thereof.) Robinson Crusoe is the eponymous hero in the novel by Daniel Defoe.

Answer: wolves

Mowgli, 'Little Frog' in the Hindi-inspired animal language created by Jungle Books author Rudyard Kipling, was raised by a family of wolves. Kipling is said to have been inspired by a real-life case of a wolf-boy found near Lucknow. The Lucknow boy was culturally lupine, and was never successfully brought into human society.

Answer: Orson

Valentine and Orson (French 'ourson,' little bear) were the sons of Bellisant (or Bellyssant), sister to Pepin and wife of Alexander of Constantinople. Bellisant, an outcast, gave birth in a wood near Orleans to her two sons. Lost soon thereafter, Valentine was rescued and returned to civilization, but Orson was snatched up by a bear to feed to her cubs.

However, the bear cubs befriended the boy rather than eat him, so the bear raised him as one of her own. Orson became something of an Enkidu to Valentine's Gilgamesh, growing up a 'wild man of the forest' against whom Valentine ultimately contended in battle before befriending and reclaiming him as a lost brother.

After the reconciliation, Orson learned human speech and ultimately made it big in the French aristocracy, marrying Fezon, daughter of the duke of Aquitaine.

Answer: lioness

Believing (incorrectly) that his twin sons Octavian and Florent had been fathered by another man, Octavian exiles his wife and her infants. Octavian is immediately snatched up by a lioness, and Florent by an ape. The lioness is caught up by a griffin, who flies with lioness and Octavian both to a distant island.

There, the lioness kills the griffin, and raises Octavian as her own cub. Florent, by contrast, is quickly rescued from the ape by a knight, and although he is subsequently stolen from the knight by outlaws, who sell him to a pilgrim, he remains within the human community.

In the end, of course, everyone becomes a famous knight, is reunited, and lives happily ever after.

Answer: wolves

Kamala appeared to be about eight years old when the girls were found, Amala about eighteen months. The girls were fierce violent when found, and never adjusted to human society. Indeed, even their appearance and posture were reportedly bestial to such a degree that it has been theorized that some mechanism of DNA transfer through the vector of the mother wolf's milk may have been operative.

In any event, the younger girl died of parasites and dysentary in 1921, and her older sister in 1929, never having learned much more than thirty words (and those entirely idiosyncratic to her, being neither English nor Bengali).

Answer: Moscow

Unlike many feral children, Ivan Mishukov lived with his human family until he was four, so he could speak human language. After recapture and a period of transition, Ivan appears to be doing well in school, but he reports that he dreams of dogs when he sleeps at night.

Answer: Chile

'Axel' was abandoned by his family when five, and escaped from a children's center soon after. After being taken from the cave where he was living with the pack of dogs who had taken him in, he was placed in a new children's center. He escaped from there in November 2001, and, as of the date of this writing, has not been recaptured.

Answer: monkeys

John was found living among vervet monkeys. An English psychologist who briefly observed him reported it was impossible the vervets had actually cared for him 'in any real sense,' indeed that no nonhuman animal could possibly provide care for a human child.

However, his assessment was at odds both with the details of the boy's story (once he re-learned human speech), with reports of witnesses (who said that the vervets fiercely attempted to defend John from the humans attempting to 'save' him), and with the assessments of primatologists amazed by his ability to interact with vervets.

In any event, John is now classified as mildly mentally retarded, but has a fine singing voice, and at the age of fourteen was a member of the Pearl of Africa children's choir.

Answer: True

Three years later, the child was found again, almost blind, possibly from malnutrition. His hands and feet were calloused like paws. He bit and scratched anyone who came near, and ate small birds and raw meat. After being returned to his family, he eventually learned to walk bipedally.

Answer: False

Are you kidding? Reptiles?

Answer: False

There is evidence that feral children sometimes have astounding resistance to cold, and sometimes to pain. But they are frequently on the point of expiring from parasites and disease when found by humans;. They often have severe physical ailments associated with malnutrition and they frequently end up with severe joint and/or spinal problems.

They are often mentally retarded as a result of their upbringing outside the human community.