Page:Account of a most surprising savage girl, who was caught wild in the woods of Champagne, a province in France.pdf/5

 brought her to the castle, carried her first into the kitchen, till M. d'Epinoy should be informed of her arrival. The first hing there that appeared to draw her attention, was some fowls which the cook was dressing; at these she flew with much amazing agility, that the astonished cook beheld one in her teeth before he imagined she had reached it. M. d'Epinoy arrived in the mean time, and seeing what she was eating, caused to give her an unskinned rabbit; she instantly stripped off the skin; and devoured it.

Those who considered her then were of opinion that she was about nine years of age. She seemed black, as I have already said; but it appeared; after washing her several times that she was naturally white, as she still continues. They observed likewise; that her fingers and in particular her thumbs were very large; in proportion to the rest of her hands which was otherwise neat enough. And to this day, her thumbs retain somewhat of that largeness. By her account, these large strong thumbs were very useful to her during her wild life in the woods; for when she had a mind to go from one tree to another, if the branches of then two trees were but a small