Mowgli from Kipling's book actually had a prototype - a real-life wild child raised by wolves. Mowgli from Kipling's book actually had a prototype - a real-life wild child raised by wolves. How Mowgli was accepted into the school

This amazing tale tells the story of a small child who is caught in a wolf pack and survives. The wolves fed him with their milk, warmed him, and protected him. Then they taught themselves to get food and defend themselves. I don’t know whether Kipling put any sacred meaning into his tale, but some images appeared in my mind.

In a wolf pack

The tale begins with the fact that in the jungle the tiger Shere Khan (the tiger lord) attacked people. The adults ran away, but the child somehow got behind them and came to the wolf's hole. The wolf knew that it was a human cub, and he conquered the mother wolf with his gullibility, eating just like wolf cubs. She accepted him and loved him as her own child. At the council of the flock, the teacher Baloo and the panther Bagheera (who knew people well since she was born and raised in a cage, having matured, ran away) stood up for Mowgli and the flock accepted him.

Mowgli

His mother wolf gave him the name Mowgli, which means little frog. The frog is a very interesting ancient creature - it lives in water, breathes air, and buries itself in the sand for the winter. She, like the child, has no protective fur, not even a shell. The human child is also defenseless.

Jungle World

With the help of our 5 senses: smell, touch, taste, sight and hearing, Mowgli got acquainted with the world around him, mastered the three elements: air, water and earth. He listened to the rustling of grass, the squeak of a bat in the night, the splashing of fish in the water, the light breath of the night air, the cries of birds, and recognized the smell of a plant. The life of the jungle became important and understandable to him. Baloo the Bear taught the cubs the Laws of the Jungle. “You and I are of the same blood” Do not be afraid of the world around you and do not threaten it, but coexist peacefully. Everything that Mowgli taught the jungle is our subconscious, that is, that part of a person’s behavioral reaction to life situations that is unpredictable and almost uncontrollable by our consciousness. It's called instinct. It was developed by the biological world of the earth that preceded us, from the simplest single-celled creatures to animals and birds.

Have there ever been real Mowglis in human history?

Yes, they are dating. But unlike the fairy-tale Mowgli, they have little chance of returning to human society as full-fledged people. In the magazine ChiP No. 1 for 2012. An article was published about the story of two girls.

« In the fall of 1920, Christian preachers in one of the distant villages found two girls in a wolf's hole along with wolves. In appearance, one is about eight years old, and the younger one is about one and a half years old. They were named Amala and Kamala. No one knows when and how they got into the wolf pack. After long adventures, they were able to be taken to a church orphanage.

Among people

The babies were very weak, they did not understand what and how to eat, and did not know how to drink from cups. They loved milk, but lapped it up with their tongues like dogs. They were washed and cut. They began to look like ordinary children. They were not afraid of the dark at all; at night they constantly looked for loopholes in the fence to escape. We ran on all fours, our knees hardly straightened. They could smell raw meat in the kitchen 70 meters or more away. One day, Kamala rushed into the kitchen from afar with a brutal expression on her face and, growling dully and baring her teeth, tried to grab a piece of meat from the table. By smell, they immediately detected a dead animal or bird and immediately ate the easy prey. Then they started to get sick from the rotten meat. In the end, these infections became the main cause of their death. The younger girl died a year later, and the eldest nine years after entering the shelter. In the cold winter they tried to dress them, but they tore their clothes into small pieces as soon as the teachers left the room.

In the heat, the girls' skin remained cool and smooth; They drank no more fluids than usual and did not sweat. Their skin never became oily and dirt did not stick to it. They didn’t communicate with the children—they looked for wolves and puppies and got angry when they couldn’t find them. They drove away ordinary children, baring their teeth.

Gradual adaptation in the shelter

We fell in love with the adult teacher. However, their relationship was not like that of a grandmother with her grandchildren, but like that of an owner with devoted dogs. Both showed very little emotion; they did not smile or laugh. No one heard from them either the usual children's crying or cries of joy. While living with wolves, they had no one to learn speech skills from. After Amala's death, Kamala began looking for company among kids and chickens, but she was most attracted to a hyena puppy as a companion. The head teacher gave her massages with mustard oil and her joints gradually softened. She began to straighten her legs. I began to feel cold and pulled the blanket over myself when going outside and put on a dress. Gradually I mastered a small vocabulary. I even tried to hum them somehow - I mastered the rhythm. In September 1929, Kamala died. Doctors were unable to make a clear diagnosis.

conclusions

Children raised by animals are discovered from time to time in different parts of the world. The case with the girls proves that the human body, and above all its brain, has enormous adaptation capabilities. Modern genetics claims that the human genome has many hidden capabilities that are activated when it is vital for the body. The second conclusion: adaptation to the environment occurs in children at a very early age. The pediatricians are right: the child begins to develop from the very first days of life. This is important for parents to know«.

This is due to a person’s subconscious reaction to the environment. Those genes that are necessary for survival are activated. The environment tells you. (“Smart Cells.” Bruce Lipton)

Let's return to our Mowgli.

Mowgli has grown up. The world began to seduce him. The monkeys saw one of their own in him: “he’s like us, he can do everything, he knows everything, he’s ours.” Balu Bear and Bagheera warn the guy about the danger - this is a trap. But Mowgli is careless. An imperfect person is easily seduced. We spend a lot of time in our lives on empty vanity, vanity in our own name, worldly hype. It can be difficult to escape from these furry, tenacious paws. They pass us on to each other: from vice to vice, from one passion to another. The monkeys—the vanity of the world—offer him to see the dead city. And only after getting into it, Mowgli understood what the teachers had warned about. Birds from the heights of heaven saw where Mowgli was and told them to the teachers.

Kaa

Boa constrictor Kaa is a very strict teacher and educator. He brings to reason those who cannot be reasoned with except through strict submission. Mowgli is gaining experience.

Shere Khan

We, people of the physical world of the planet, constantly feel in ourselves such qualities as good and evil. Moreover, evil is the most active. In the fairy tale, he is personified by Shere Khan. He is constantly looking for an opportunity to destroy a human cub. Bagheera suggests how to defeat the tiger: “get the Red Flower.” Animals do not control fire. Only a reasonable person knows how to use fire - the fourth element. First, it is the physical fire of a fire, cooking, making tools and weapons. Growing up, humanity masters the fire of Love, in any case, we all really want this. This is the most powerful fire in the Universe. Evil is powerless before him.

Mowgli - the leader of the pack

Mowgli drove Shere Khan away and became the leader of the pack. The pack is all our subconscious qualities (feelings) that we manifest instinctively. That is, a person, growing up, learns to subordinate his feelings to the mind. But even thoughts are different. We don’t invite bad thoughts, they come on their own, like red dogs in a fairy tale. And you have to fight them. They prevent you from loving unselfishly. They force you to weigh the pros and cons and, instead of Love, you end up with pure arithmetic. Mowgli with the pack and the Teachers defeated the red dogs. And Mowgli returned to the people: where he came from. That's the whole story about Mowgli the frog.

Joseph Rudyard Kipling

At seven o'clock on a very hot evening in the middle of the mountains of Hindustan, the father wolf woke up after a day's rest, scratched himself, yawned and straightened his paws to get rid of the numbness that remained in them after sleep. The mother wolf lay with her large gray nose stretched out over her four cubs curled up into balls and squeaking. The light of the moon fell into the opening of the cave in which they all lived.
“Brr,” said the wolf father, “it’s time to go hunting.” He was about to set off when he saw a small shadow with a shaggy tail. She appeared in the opening of the cave and squealed:
- May happiness go with you, chief of wolves, may your noble children have strong white teeth, may they always succeed in everything, so that they never forget the hungry!
The jackal Tabaqui, the eternal sycophant, spoke. The wolves of India despise the jackal because it runs around and gossips, and also eats scraps and pieces of skin thrown around the villages. But they are also afraid of Tabaka, since jackals can sometimes “go crazy”, then they stop being cowards and rush at everyone. Even a tiger runs and hides when a little jackal goes mad, because it is the most dangerous disease for a wild animal. People call it hydrophobia. The animals say that this is madness and hide from the patient.
“Come in and take a look,” said the wolf-father, not too friendly. - We don't have food.
“For a wolf, no,” said Tabaqui, “but for such a modest creature like me, a dry bone is an excellent treat.” What are we, the tribe of jackals? Can we choose and be capricious?
He trotted into the depths of the cave and there he found the bone of a wild goat with some meat still left on it. The jackal began to gnaw at her merrily.
“Thank you for the wonderful treat,” he said, licking his lips. - Oh, how beautiful your noble children are. What big eyes they have. And how they are still young. Yes, yes, I should have remembered that royal children are made adults from the very beginning.
Tabaqui knew that praising children to their faces brought them unhappiness, and he was pleased that the wolves, mother and father, were alarmed and felt awkward.
Tabaqui sat silently, glad that he had caused trouble, then said:
- Shere Khan chose a place for hunting. He told me that he would hunt in these mountains until the new moon appeared.
Shere Khan was a tiger who lived on the bank of a river at a distance of twenty miles from the cave of the wolves.
“He has no right to do this,” the wolf-father said angrily. - According to the laws of the jungle, he has no right to change hunting sites without warning other animals. He will scare away all the game for ten miles in the area, and I need provisions.
“It’s not for nothing that Shere Khan’s mother called him lame,” the she-wolf calmly remarked. - He has been lame in one leg since birth. That's why he only kills livestock. Now the villagers are angry with him and he has come here to anger our human neighbors. They will look for him, inspect the forest and thickets, and we and our children will have to flee when they set fire to the grass. Needless to say, we can thank Shere Khan.
- Should I convey your gratitude to him? - asked Tabaqui.
- Get out! - shouted the wolf-father. - Go hunting with your master! You've already caused us enough trouble!
“I’ll leave,” Tabaqui said calmly. - Do you hear Shere Khan screaming in the thicket? I might not tell you he's here.
The wolf father listened. Below, in the valley stretching along a small river, the angry roar of a tiger was heard, it was clear that he had not caught anything.
“Madman,” said the wolf-father. - Start the night with such noise! Does he think that our wild goats are like his fat, motionless village bulls?
- Shut up. “Today he is not hunting goats or bulls,” said the she-wolf. - He's chasing a man.
The tiger's cry gave way to a loud buzzing purr that seemed to be heard from everywhere. It is this noise that frightens woodcutters and gypsies sleeping in the open air, and sometimes makes them run straight into the tiger's mouth.
- A person? - the wolf-father was surprised, showing all his white teeth. - Ugh! Are there not enough bugs and frogs in the swamps here? Does he really still want to feast on people on our land?
The law of the jungle, in which there is not a single unreasonable rule, prohibits animals from eating human flesh. The main reason for this is that if the forest animals kill people, sooner or later white men on elephants with guns and hundreds of brown savages with gongs and torches will appear in the forest. Then all the animals will suffer. Among themselves, the inhabitants of the jungle say that man is the weakest and most defenseless of all animals, and therefore should not be touched. In addition, according to them (and quite rightly), animals that eat people become covered with scabs and lose teeth.
The purring became louder and suddenly ended in a furious growl.
After this, a howl was heard, in which it was difficult to recognize the voice of a tiger, but meanwhile it was Shere Khan howling.
“He missed,” said the mother wolf. - What is this?
The father wolf ran out of the cave and heard Shere Khan grumbling angrily as he made his way through the thicket.
“The fool threw himself on the woodcutter’s fire and burned his paws,” the father wolf remarked, chuckling. - Tabaki is with him.
“Someone is coming up the hill,” said the she-wolf, pricking up one ear. - Get ready.
There was a rustling sound in the bushes, and the wolf crouched down slightly, preparing to jump. If you looked at him now, you would see the most amazing thing in the world: a wolf stopped mid-jump. He jumped before he saw what he was throwing himself at, and immediately tried to stop. Because of this, he jumped high and fell to almost the same place from which he began the jump.
“Man,” said the wolf. - Look, human cub!
Just opposite him stood a naked brown boy, apparently just learning to walk. The child was holding on to a low branch of a bush.
He looked the wolf straight in the eyes and smiled.
“A human cub,” repeated the mother wolf. - I’ve never seen what kind of children they have, bring him here.
A wolf, accustomed to carrying its own wolf cubs from place to place, can, if necessary, take an egg into its mouth without breaking it. He lifted the child by the back without scratching him. In the cave, the wolf placed the child among his cubs.
- How small he is! And completely without hair. Look, brave one! - the she-wolf said tenderly.
The boy pushed the wolf cubs aside, getting closer to her soft fur.
- Yeah, he wants to feed, just like the others. So this is what kind of babies people have! I think no she-wolf has ever had such a small animal live with her cubs.
“I heard that this happened, but not in our pack and not in my time,” said the father wolf. “He has no fur at all, and I could kill him with my paw.” But look, he's not afraid of us.
The light of the moon that fell into the opening of the wolf's cave disappeared, because the huge quadrangular head of Shere Khan and his shoulders occupied the entire entrance hole. Tabaqui stood behind him and barked:
- Mister, master, he came here!
“Shere Khan did us a great honor,” said the wolf-father, but his eyes flashed angrily. - What would Shere Khan want?
- Give me my loot. A human cub has come here,” said the tiger. - His parents ran away. Give it to me.
The wolf father told the truth: Shere Khan really burned his paw, and the pain irritated him. But the tiger could not crawl into the cave opening, which was too narrow for him.
“Wolves are free people,” said the wolf-father. - They listen to the orders of the leader of the pack and should not obey various striped cattle killers. The human baby is ours, we can kill it if we want.
- Whether you want it or not! Who's talking about what you want? I swear by the bull I killed! Do I really have to suffocate for a long time in your stuffy cave to get my property? This is what I say, Shere Khan.
His roar filled the cave. The she-wolf shook off the cubs and jumped towards the tiger. Her eyes glowed in the darkness, like two green moons, and looked straight into the sparkling eyes of the tiger.
- You say, and I answer, Raksha (demon): the human cub is mine, lame, and it will remain with me. They won't kill him. He will live with us, run and hunt with the pack. And in the end, know that you are a hunter of little hairless cubs, you are a frog eater, a fish winner, he will hunt you! Now get out, you burned animal, now lame than the day you were born! Go away!
The wolf father was amazed. He had almost forgotten the days when he married the mother wolf after a fair fight with five other wolves. Then she still ran in a pack, and she was not called a demon. Shere Khan could talk to his father wolf, but he did not dare to speak out against the she-wolf. He knew that in a narrow opening she would defeat him, and so he began to back away from the passage, and when he found himself in the open, he shouted:
- Every dog ​​barks in its own yard. We’ll also see what the flock will say when they learn that you have adopted a human cub. It is mine and one day it will fall into my teeth. Do you hear this, furry thieves?
The she-wolf, panting, rushed to her children, and the wolf-father seriously remarked to her:
- Shere Khan speaks the truth. The little one needs to be shown to the pack. Do you still want to keep it, Raksha?
- Will I leave him? - she shouted. “He came here without fur, at night, all alone and hungry, and yet he was not afraid. Look, he's already pushed one of my kids away. And this lame killer wants to kill him! Will I leave him? Of course I'll leave it. Lie down, lie down, my little frog. Oh, you are Mowgli, because I want to call you Mowgli the Frog, someday you will hunt Shere Khan as he hunted you.
- But what will the flock say? - asked the wolf.
The law of the jungle says that every wolf after marriage can, if he wishes, live separately. However, as soon as his wolf cubs learn to stand on their feet, he is obliged to bring them to the council of wolves, which usually meets once a month during the full moon. The rest of the wolves examine the cubs and get to know them. After this, the little ones are allowed to run wherever they want, and until they kill the first goat, not a single adult wolf dares to cause them any harm. And whoever kills or offends the wolf cub will be executed.
The father wolf was waiting for his wolf cubs to learn to run. And then one night, when the pack council met, he took them, Mowgli and the she-wolf with him and went to the rock where the council took place. There, on the top of a mountain covered with stones, there could be about a hundred wolves. Akela, the large gray lone wolf who ruled the entire pack, lay stretched out on the rock at full length. A little lower sat about forty wolves of different heights, different shades, from ash-gray warriors who could handle a bull one on one, to dark, almost black three-year-olds who imagined that they were just as strong. Akela had been managing them for a whole year. In his youth, he fell into a wolf trap twice, and once people beat him so badly with sticks that they considered him dead and abandoned him, so he knew all human customs. There was little talk at the council. The wolf cubs crowded together in the middle of a circle formed by their sitting parent wolves. From time to time one of the adult wolves calmly approached the wolf cub, looked at him carefully and with silent steps returned to his original place. Sometimes one or the other mother pushed her wolf cub into a brightly moonlit place so that they would not forget to examine him. From his rock Akela shouted:
- You know the law, you know the law! Look well, oh wolves!
And the mother wolves anxiously repeated:
- Look carefully, oh, wolves!
Suddenly all the fur rose on Raksha’s neck - it was the wolf-father who pushed Mowgli the Frog, as they called the child, into the very middle of the circle. The child sat smiling and played with pebbles that sparkled in the moonlight.
Akela did not raise his head from his paws and continued to shout monotonously:
- Look carefully!
From behind the rocks the dull roar of Shere Khan was heard:
- He is mine! Give it to me. Why do the free wolf people need a human cub?
Akela didn’t even bat an eyelid. He just repeated:
- Look carefully, wolves. What does the free wolf people care about anyone's orders except the orders of the free people? Take a good look.
There was a dull growl, and one young three-year-old wolf repeated Shere Khan's question:
- Why do free people need a human cub?
The law of the jungle says: if they start arguing about whether the pack can or cannot accept a wolf cub, at least two members of the pack (of course, not its father or mother) must say that it should be considered one of their own.
-Who will speak for this cub? - Akela asked. - Who will say that you need to accept it?
There was no answer. The mother wolf was preparing for the last battle. It should be noted that in the council, besides the wolves, only Baloo, a sleepy dark bear who teaches the wolf cubs the laws of the jungle, can speak. Old Baloo, who has the right to go wherever he pleases because he eats only nuts, roots and honey, stood up on his hind legs and grumbled:
- A human cub? I say he needs to be accepted into the pack. He won't harm anyone. I'm not in the habit of chatting, but I tell the truth. Let him run with the pack, let him live with the others. I will teach him myself.
“We need a second voice,” Akela noted. - Balu clearly said what he wants, and he is our teacher. Who else wants to say?
A shadow slipped into the circle. It was Bagheera, the black panther, black as ink, but with spots that were visible in some of her movements. Everyone knew Bagheera, and no one dared to contradict her, because she was cunning like Tabaqui, strong like a wild buffalo, and unrestrained like a wounded elephant. But she spoke in a voice as soft as wild honey, and her skin was softer than fluff.
“Oh, Akela, and you, free people,” she purred, “I have no right to speak in your meeting, but the law of the jungle says that if animals debate whether to kill or not kill a new cub, its life can be bought.” The law does not say who has and who does not have the right to pay for his life. Is it true?
“Okay, okay,” said the eternally hungry young wolves. - Listen to Bagheera. You can buy a small one. This is what the law says.
- I know that I have no right to speak here, and therefore I ask permission to continue.
“Speak, speak,” cried the wolves.
“It’s a shame to kill a defenseless baby not covered with fur.” In addition, it may be useful to you. Balu spoke for him. Now to Balu’s words I will add a buffalo carcass, very fatty and fresh. It lies a mile away from here, I will give it to you if you will accept a human cub into the pack.
Many voices were heard.
- What's the harm in accepting him? He will die during the winter rains. The sun will burn him. Well, what harm can a hairless frog do to us? Let him run with the pack. Where is the buffalo, Bagheera? Let's accept it.
After this, Akela’s deep voice was heard:
- Look carefully, look carefully, oh, wolves.
The child was still playing with pebbles and did not notice that the wolves began to approach him one after another. Finally, they all ran down to the dead buffalo. Only Akela, Bagheera, Baloo and the wolves who accepted Mowgli remained on the rock. Shere Khan's roar could still be heard in the darkness, angry that Mowgli was not his.
“That’s good,” said Akela, “people and their cubs are very smart.” Over time it will be useful to us.
“Of course, he will come to the rescue in difficult times, because no one can hope to always control the pack,” Bagheera noted.
Akela said nothing. He thought that for every wolf leader there comes a time when he loses his strength, is replaced by another wolf and, as a rule, is killed.
“Take Mowgli away,” he said to the wolf-father. - Raise him as is customary among free people.
So Mowgli was accepted into the wolf pack.
Now you have to go back ten or eleven years and imagine for yourself what an amazing life Mowgli led among the wolves. He grew up and was raised with wolf cubs, although of course they had already become adult wolves while he was still a child. The wolf father taught the boy to hunt and introduced him to everything that was in the jungle. Finally, every rustle of grass, every movement of the warm night air, every exclamation of an owl overhead, every scratch of the claws of a bat that climbed a tree, every splash of a fish in the water became clear to him. When Mowgli was not studying, he basked in the sun, slept, ate and slept again; when he felt hot, he swam in small forest swamps. When he wanted honey (Balu said that honey and nuts taste as good as raw meat), he climbed the tree for them. Bagheera taught him to climb trees. She often lay on one of the top branches of the tree and called to him:
- Come here, little brother.
At first Mowgli crawled through the trees like a slow-moving creature, but soon he learned to glide between the branches almost as boldly as a gray monkey. When the flock gathered, he also came to the council rock. One day he noticed that under his gaze the wolves lowered their eyes, and sometimes he did this as a joke. Sometimes he took out the thorns of the thorns that had dug into the paws of the wolves, since all animals often suffer from splinters. Sometimes at night Mowgli would come down from the mountains to the cultivated fields and look with curiosity at the villagers in their huts. However, he was afraid of people and did not trust them, because one day Bagheera showed him a rectangular box with sliding doors, so cunningly hidden in the bushes that Mowgli almost fell into it. The panther told him that it was a trap.
Most of all, he loved to go with Bagheera into the dark, warm middle of the forest and sleep there all day, and at night watch the panther hunt. Hungry, Bagheera deftly killed the game. Mowgli hunted just as well as she did. When he grew up and began to understand everything that was said to him, Bagheera said that he should never touch the buffaloes, because his life was paid for with a buffalo.
“The whole jungle is yours,” said Bagheera, “and you can kill all kinds of game, but in memory of the buffalo whose life was paid for you, you must never kill them or eat their meat.” This is the law of the jungle.
Mowgli obeyed.
He became stronger and stronger as he lived in freedom. Once or twice the mother wolf told him that Shere Khan could not be trusted and that he must eventually kill the tiger.
Of course, the young wolf would always remember this advice, but Mowgli forgot about it, since he was only a boy, despite the fact that he would call himself a wolf if he could speak humanly.
Shere Khan met him every now and then in the jungle, because Akela grew old, became weaker and could not still control the flock. The lame tiger managed to make friends with the younger wolves. Now they ran after him and picked up the remains of his prey. This is something Akela would never allow if he still had power. Shere Khan flattered them and constantly said that he was surprised how such beautiful young hunters could obey a dying wolf and a human cub!
“They tell me,” said Shere Khan, “that in the council you do not dare look him in the eye.”
In response to this, the young wolves grumbled angrily and raised their bristles. Bagheera, who had eyes and ears everywhere, knew about this and told Mowgli twice that Shere Khan would kill him, in response Mowgli only laughed:
- I have a flock and I have you. Baloo, although he is very lazy, will also hit twice. What should I be afraid of?
One very hot day, new rumors reached Bagheera, and it is not known where they came from. Maybe the porcupine told her about it. Bagheera and Mowgli were in a remote part of the forest, and the boy lay with his head resting against Bagheera's beautiful black fur. The Panther told him:
- Little brother, how many times have I told you that Shere Khan is your enemy?
“As many times as there are fruits on this palm tree,” answered Mowgli, who, of course, could not count. - But why are you talking about this? I want to sleep, Bagheera, and the conversation about Shere Khan will be as long as the tail of Mora’s peacock.
- But now is not the time to sleep. Baloo knows it, I know it, the pack knows it, even stupid deer know it. Tabaqui warned you too.
“Yes,” answered Mowgli. “Recently Tabaqui came to me and began to assure me that I was the son of a man and that I didn’t even dare to tear a truffle out of the ground, but I grabbed Tabaqui by the tail and threw him over a palm tree twice.
- This is silly. Of course, Tabaqui loves to do evil and cause trouble, but if you hadn’t beaten him, he would have told you a lot that concerns you personally. Open your eyes, brother. Shere Khan dare not kill you in the jungle, but remember that Akela is very old and the day will soon come when he will not be able to catch a goat for himself. Then he will cease to be the boss. Many of the wolves who examined you on the council rock have also grown old, and the young ones believe Shere Khan and say that a human child does not dare live in a pack. Soon you will be an adult.
- What is a person? Can't he run in a pack with his wolf brothers? - asked Mowgli. “I was born in the jungle, I followed the law of the jungle, and we don’t have a single wolf from whose paw I wouldn’t pull a splinter.” They are, of course, my brothers.
Bagheera stretched out on the grass at full length and closed her eyes.
“Little brother,” she said, “scratch my throat, under my jaw.”
Mowgli extended his strong hand and under Bagheera's silken chin, where the strong chewing muscles covered with shiny fur ran, he felt a small hairless scar.
“No one in the jungle knows that Bagheera has this sign - the mark of the collar, and meanwhile, little brother, I was born among people, and my mother died in a cage in the royal palace in Udipuri. That's why I paid the council for you when you were a little hairless cub. Yes, I was also born among people. I was fed behind iron bars, from a cast iron cup. Finally, one night I felt that I was a panther, a free panther, and not a toy for people. I broke the lock, which shattered under my paw, and broke free. It is because I know people that I have become stronger than Shere Khan himself. Isn't that right?
“Yes,” said Mowgli, “all the jungle is afraid of Bagheera.” Everyone is afraid except Mowgli.
“Oh, you are a human cub,” the black panther said tenderly. - But listen: just as I returned to the jungle, so you will return to the people, to your brothers the people, unless you are killed in the council.
- Why, why can they kill me? - asked Mowgli.
“Look at me,” said Bagheera, and Mowgli fixed his eyes on her. Half a minute later the big panther turned away.
“For this,” she said, straightening her paw. “Even I can’t look you in the eyes, and yet I was born among people and I love you, little brother.” The others hate you because they can't look you in the eye, because you're smart, because you pulled splinters out of their clutches, because you're human.
“I didn’t know that,” Mowgli said gloomily and frowned.
- Do you know what they do in the jungle? Hit first, talk later. It is clear from your carelessness that you are human. But be more prudent. I feel that when Akela fails in his hunt (and he finds it more and more difficult to catch game), the pack will turn against him and against you. Then the council will gather on the rock and... and... I know what will happen. - Bagheera jumped up. - Now run to the human huts in the valley and take a piece of the red flower that they keep there. Then you will have a stronger friend than me, Baloo and all those wolves who love you. Get yourself a red flower.
Bagheera called fire a red flower, because none of the jungle animals dares to say the word “fire.” They are all mortally afraid of it and come up with thousands of names for it.
- Red flower? - asked Mowgli. - The one that blooms near their huts at dusk? I'll get it!
“This is the speech of a human cub,” Bagheera said proudly. - Remember that it is stored in small pots. Bring one of them and hide it in your place just in case.
“Okay,” said Mowgli, “I’m going.” But are you sure, oh my Bagheera,” he wrapped his arms around his beautiful neck and looked deep into his big eyes, “are you sure that all this is the work of Shere Khan?
- I swear by the broken lock that freed me, I speak the truth, my little brother.
“Then I swear by the buffalo that was paid for me, I will repay Shere Khan,” said Mowgli and jumped up.
“You are a man. You are a real man,” thought Bagheera. Mowgli ran through the forest, his heart beating fast. In the evening, when the fog was already rising, he came to the wolf's cave, took a deep breath and looked down into the valley. The young wolves left, but the mother wolf, sitting in the depths of the cave, understood from Mowgli’s breathing that something was bothering her little frog.
- What's wrong with you, son? - she asked.
“Shere Khan’s stupid talk,” he said. - Tonight I will go down to the plowed fields.
And he ran down to the stream in the depths of the valley. Suddenly Mowgli stopped. He heard the howl of a pack that was hunting. Soon the stomping feet of a wild goat and its snorting were heard, then angry exclamations and the howling of young wolves:
- Akela, Akela! Let the lone wolf show his strength. Place for the leader of the pack. Throw yourself in, Akela.
Apparently the lone wolf jumped but didn't catch the goat. Mowgli heard the wolf's teeth clanking, and a minute later the goat knocked the boy down with his front leg.
Mowgli did not wait to see what would happen next. He ran on his way. The screaming and howling became weaker as he approached the crops near which people lived.
“Bagheera spoke the truth,” he thought, trying to fit into a large chute for feeding cattle near the window of one hut. “Tomorrow will be a bitter day for Akela and for me.”
Mowgli pressed his face to the window and looked at the fire blazing in the hearth. He saw a woman sitting in the hut stand up and throw some black pieces into the flames.
When morning came and a white cold fog stretched over the ground, some child took one of the pots, filled it with red coals, covered it with his clothes and went with it to the cows.
“Is this really all?” thought Mowgli, “if a little man can treat him like that, then I have nothing to fear from him.”
He walked around the corner, met the boy, snatched the pot from his hands and disappeared into the fog. The boy screamed loudly in fear.
“People are very similar to me,” thought Mowgli and began to blow into the pot, as the woman did in front of him. “This thing will die if I don’t feed it.” And he threw dry branches and dry bark onto the coals. Halfway down the hill, Mowgli met Bagheera, the morning dew glistening on her like moonstones.
“Akela didn’t catch the goat,” said the panther. - They would have killed him yesterday, but they need you. They were looking for you.
- I was near the plowed fields. I'm ready, look! - Mowgli picked up a pot of coals.
- Fine. You know, I saw that people put a dry branch into this thing, and then a red flower blooms on it. Are not you afraid?
- No, what should I be afraid of? Now I remember, if it was not a dream, how before I became a wolf, I lay near a red flower, and I felt warm and pleasant.
All that day Mowgli sat in the cave, tending his coals. He threw dry branches on them to see what would happen next. Then Mowgli found a bitch that he really liked, and when Tabaqui came in the evening and rather rudely said that the wolves were waiting for Mowgli near the council rock, he laughed so much that the frightened jackal ran away. And Mowgli boldly went to the rock.
Akela lay at its foot as a sign that the place of leader of the pack was free, and Shere Khan with his retinue of wolves, feeding on the remains of his prey, walked back and forth along the mountain area. Bagheera lay down next to Mowgli, and he himself sat down on a stone, placing a pot of coals between his legs. When everyone had gathered, Shere Khan began to speak. While Akela was in power, the tiger did not dare to do this.
“He has no right to speak in the council,” Bagheera whispered, “say that, he will be scared.”
Mowgli jumped up.
“Free people,” he shouted, “is Shere Khan the leader of the pack?” What does the tiger have to do with our leaders?
“The leader’s place is not occupied, and they ask me to speak,” Shere Khan began.
- Who is asking? - Mowgli was surprised. “Are we jackals to listen to this cattle butcher?” Leadership concerns only the pack.
Shouts were heard:
- Be silent, spawn of man. Let him talk. He fulfilled our law.
Finally the older members of the pack thundered:
- Let the Dead Wolf speak.
When the leader of the pack fails to hunt, he is called the Dead Wolf.
Akela slowly and wearily raised his head and spoke:
- Free people, and so are you, Shere Khan's jackals. For twelve years I have been leading you hunting, and during all this time none of the pack has been caught in a trap or harmed. Now I have failed. You know what conspiracy was hatched. You know that I was brought to an unusually strong goat to show my weakness. It was a smart idea. Now you can kill me here on the council rock, and I ask which of you wants to fight a lone wolf? By the law of the jungle, I can demand that you go out alone.
There was a long silence; none of the wolves wanted to fight Akela to the death. Then Shere Khan roared:
- Well, leave this toothless madman! But the human cub has already lived too long. Free people, he was my prey from the very beginning! Give it to me. For ten years he constantly confused the jungle. Give it to me or I will always hunt with you and not leave you a single bone. He is a man, the spawn of a man, and I hate him to the core.
Half the flock shouted:
- Man, man! Why do we need it? Let him go to his place.
- And will turn all the villagers against us? - Shere Khan shouted. - No, give it to me. He is a man, and none of us can look him in the eye.
Akela raised his head again and said:
- He ate our food. He slept with us. He hunted game for us. He didn't break a single rule of the jungle.
- And I paid for it with a whole buffalo. The value was small, but Bagheera’s honor is worth a lot, and for this she will fight,” the panther said insinuatingly.
- What does it mean to see a buffalo that was eaten by wolves ten years ago? - the wolves said mockingly. - What do we care about old bones?
- Or before this word? - Bagheera asked, and her white teeth flashed from under her lips. - Tell me: are you called a free people or not?
“Human spawn cannot run with the inhabitants of the jungle,” said Shere Khan. - Give it to me.
“He is our brother, although not of our blood,” Akela continued, “and you want to kill him.” Indeed, I have lived too long. Some of you eat livestock, as I have heard, go with Shere Khan in the dark nights and drag children from the villages. So you are cowards, and I am talking to cowards. I know that I will die and that my life has no price, otherwise I would offer it for Mowgli's life. But for the honor of the pack I tell you: if you allow a man-cub to come home, I will not defend myself when the wolves want to kill me. I will die without a fight. This will save at least three wolves. There is nothing more I can do, but if you agree, I will spare you the shameful murder of a brother who did nothing wrong to you, a brother whose life was purchased according to the laws of the jungle.
There were shouts:
- He is a man, a man, a man.
And most of the wolves began to gather around Shere Khan.
“Well, now everything is in your hands,” Bagheera said to Mowgli. - We can only fight.
Mowgli stood up, holding a pot of coals, he was angry, rage and sadness raged within him.
“Listen, you,” he shouted, “why do you need this lame guy?” You told me so many times today that I am a human being, that it seems to me that you are telling the truth. So, I don't call you my brothers anymore. You are dogs, every person will say so about you. It is not for you to say what you will and will not do. I will talk about this. And so that you can see more clearly what the matter is, I, a man, brought a piece of the red flower that you dogs are afraid of.
He threw the pot on the ground, and the hot coals set fire to the dry moss, and it burst into flames. Everyone retreated in horror from the jumping flames.
Mowgli lowered a large dry branch he had captured into the fire, its branches caught fire and began to crack. Then he began to wave it over the heads of the frightened wolves.
“Now you are their master,” Bagheera said in a whisper. - Save Akela from death. He has always been your friend.
Akela, the sullen old wolf who never asked for mercy, looked up at Mowgli with pitiful eyes. The boy stood naked. His long black hair spilled over his shoulders, the flame of a burning branch illuminated him.
“Wonderful,” said Mowgli, looking around. - I see that you are dogs. I will go to my brothers, if they are truly my brothers. The jungle is gone for me, and I need to forget your language, but I will be more merciful than you. I was your brother and I promise you that when I become a man and settle among people, I will not betray you as you betrayed me. “He kicked the fire and sparks flew in all directions. - There should be no quarrels in the pack! But I must pay one debt before leaving.
He walked up to Shere Khan, who was blinking his eyes stupidly, and grabbed him by the hair on his chin. Bagheera followed Mowgli just in case.
“Get up, dog,” Mowgli shouted. - Get up when a person speaks to you, or I will set your fur on fire.
Shere Khan pressed his ears to his head and closed his eyes, because the burning branch was very close to him.
“This livestock eater said that he would kill me in the council because he failed to kill me when I was a child.” Look, we humans beat dogs this way and that way. Move your mustache, limp, and I will put a red flower on your back.
He hit Shere Khan on the head with a burning branch, and the tiger only squealed in fear.
- Well, now you're marked, jungle cat. Get out! Just remember: the next time I come to the rock of council, as a man should come, I will cover my head and shoulders with the skin of Shere Khan! Akela will live as he pleases. You won't kill him because I don't want you to. I also think that you will not sit here for a long time, sticking out your tongues, as if you were free animals, and not dogs that I will drive out like this. Get out!
The fire burned brightly at the end of the branch, and Mowgli struck it right and left. The wolves ran away howling, their fur smoldering from sparks. Finally, only Akela, Bagheera and about ten wolves remained on the rock, taking Mowgli’s side. At that moment, Mowgli felt a strange pain inside, such as he had never experienced before. He held his breath, sobbed, and tears rolled down his face.
- What is it, what is it? - he said. - I don’t want to leave the jungle, and I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Am I dying, Bagheera?
- No, little brother. “These are only tears, human tears,” said Bagheera. - Now I know that you are an adult, not a cub. True, from now on the jungle is closed to you. Let them roll, Mowgli. These are just tears!
So Mowgli sat and cried as if his heart was breaking. He had never cried before.
“Now,” he said, “I will go to the people.” But first I must say goodbye to my mother. - He went to the cave in which Raksha and the wolf-father lived. Mowgli cried for a long time, clinging to her fur, and four young wolves howled with grief.
-You won't forget me? - asked Mowgli.
“Never as long as we stand on our paws,” they answered. - When you become a man, come to the foot of the mountain. We will talk and play with you at night among the sown fields.
“Come back soon,” said the wolf-father. - Come back quickly, smart frog, because both I and your mother are already old.
“Come back quickly, my little hairless son,” said Raksha, “because know, child of man: I loved you more than my own children.”
“I will, of course, come back,” said Mowgli, “I will return to put Shere Khan’s skin on the council rock.” Don't forget me! Tell them not to forget me in the jungle!
It was dawn. Mowgli walked down the mountain alone to those mysterious creatures called people.

Many believe that the story of the Indian wolf boy Dean Sanichara inspired Rudyard Kipling to write his most famous and beloved by millions of readers, The Jungle Book.

Like Mowgli, Dean was a wild boy raised by wolves, although his life was very different from the fictional hero. Book Mowgli surprised readers with his upbringing. Having been in an Indian forest, he was adopted by animals who fed, protected and protected him. Dean was also raised by wolves, but this real-life boy's life was not so fairy-tale.

Born in India, living there until he was 6 years old, and then moving to England with his parents, the young writer Rudyard returned to his small homeland a decade later. His famous "The Jungle Book" was published in 1895.

It turns out that Mowgli's story was born two decades after Din Sanichar was caught by Indian hunters in a pack of wolves. But unlike the smart book hero, Dean was mentally retarded, despite years of reintegration into human society.

Dean was not the only boy whose unusual life was embodied in a book narrative. But it was his life story that had a direct influence on one of the most famous British writers.

Hunters kidnapped him and killed his wolf companion

The hunters accidentally stumbled upon Dean in the jungle and witnessed him walking on all fours following his wolf friend. Curiosity got the better of them, and they began a whole hunt for the boy to catch him.

They made numerous attempts to lure the wild child and separate him from the wolf, but they were unable to separate them. The hunters killed the wolf at the first opportunity. Everything happened right before the boy's eyes.

He was labeled as mentally retarded as soon as he entered the orphanage

The hunters brought Dean to an orphanage, where the missionaries baptized him and gave him the name Sanichar, which means "Saturday" in Urdu, because that was the day of the week he came to the orphanage. At that time, Father Erhardt was in charge of the mission, and tried to get to know and understand the boy better.

Dean had a rather difficult time adapting to his new life, because everyone considered him mentally retarded. However, he demonstrated the ability to reason and was eager to complete certain tasks from time to time.

He never learned to speak or write

Children learn to speak during the first two years of their lives. Some children pronounce “mama” or “dada” as early as six months and after a couple of years they begin to calmly communicate in sentences. These time milestones coincide with the child's mental, emotional, and behavioral development.

However, Dean never speaks. Despite numerous attempts by those around him to teach him speech, the wolf boy never learned human language or learned to write. He communicated all his life by making animal sounds.

The boy quickly learned to smoke

The baby had an aversion to clothes and refused to talk, but he liked to walk on his feet rather than on all fours, although this was not easy for him. Very soon he adopted a bad habit from adults and became addicted to smoking. Perhaps this was the cause of tuberculosis, which later killed him.

He preferred to eat raw meat and sharpen his teeth on bones

Most children begin to grow teeth between four and seven months of age and have a full set of teeth by age three. Most likely, at first it was very difficult for Dean to eat without teeth in a pack of wolves, because wolves are carnivores and eat mainly raw game.

But over time, he seemed to have become accustomed only to the food that the flock ate. When he first appeared at the orphanage, the boy flatly refused to eat cooked food. But he greedily attacked the raw pieces of meat and, with a growl, gnawed at the bones.

He hated walking around dressed

Immediately after the boy was delivered from the jungle, people tried to instill in him the skills of living in society and forced him to dress. Having learned to walk like a human being, he forced himself to put on pants and a shirt for almost twenty years.

In addition to him, another wolf boy from Kronstadt was later brought to the orphanage, who shared Dean’s reluctance to dress. They both liked to run around naked in the jungle.

He managed to make friends with only one orphan - the same wild child

Dean spent most of his childhood with animals and found it quite difficult to get used to people. But despite this, he managed to immediately find a common language with another wild child who lived in the same shelter.

The father-rector of the orphanage believed that a “bond of sympathy” was instantly established between the boys and they even taught each other new skills of human behavior. For example, how to drink liquids from mugs. They both grew up in the wild, so they were much more comfortable together, because they understood each other.

During this period, several more children were found raised by animals in the Indian jungle.

No matter how strange it may sound, in addition to Dean, at the end of the 19th century, other wolf cubs were found in the Indian jungle. One of the missionaries found a wild child near Jalpaigur in 1892. The next year, a boy was found who loved to eat frogs in Batsipur near Dalsingarai.

Two years later, the child was found near Sultanpur and they say that he subsequently settled well among people and even went to work for the police. The last one to be found was 3 years later, a child near Shadzhampur, who could not adapt to life among people at all, although they tried to “tame” him for 14 years.

Dean was unable to fully adapt to society and tuberculosis killed him

After living in the orphanage for almost a decade, Dean was unable to catch up in his mental development. The eighteen-year-old boy barely reached 152 centimeters in height. The young man was low-browed and had big teeth; he was constantly nervous and felt “out of place.”

He is believed to have died at the age of twenty-nine due to tuberculosis in 1895. However, according to other sources, he was 34 years old by that time.

Evidence of the existence of children raised by wolves first appeared in India in the 50s of the 19th century.

The 1851 pamphlet An Account of Wolves Raising Children in Their Packs by Indian Statistics by Sir William Henry Sleeman is one of the first facts to explain the existence of six wolf children in India. Five of these wild children were found in what is now Sultanpur. One was caught in the area of ​​modern Bahraich.

According to Sleeman, there were many wolves that lived near the city of Sultanpur and other areas on the banks of the Gomtri River, and they ran with "a lot of children."

Raised by wolves, children were killed in the jungle by tigers and other predators

Why were there only children raised by wolves in the jungle, and not adult boys or girls? It is likely that many children did not survive their childhood. Perhaps they died of starvation or were killed by wolves or other predatory animals themselves.

In The Jungle Book, Mowgli's most terrible opponent was the tiger Shere Khan. In India, even at that time, there were many tigers that could easily attack a child in a wolf pack, because people cannot run as fast as wolves. During the 19th century, hunters often found dead bodies of children in the jungle, gnawed by wild animals.

Wild children: truth or deception?

Over the years, there have been numerous stories of feral children being captured and reintroduced to society, but many of the stories have since been debunked.

One of the most famous cases in the 1920s involved two girls, Amala and Kamala, who were almost nine years old when they were rescued from a wolf pack. The man who found them told everyone that the babies howled at the moon, walked on all fours and ate only raw meat. He tried to teach them to walk and talk.

Researchers were fascinated by this story and wrote many stories and books about them. But later it turned out that the girls were not raised by wolves at all, but from birth they were disabled with congenital defects of the limbs.

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