Page:Account of a most surprising savage girl.pdf/10

10 she discovered a horror that appeared altogether extraordinary. Of this she once gave a strong instance. A man who had heard of her abhorrence of being touched, resolved nevertheless to embrace her, in spite of the danger that he ran in going too near her. She had in her hand at the time, a piece of raw beef, which she was devouring with great satisfaction. The instant she saw the man near her, in the attitude of taking hold of her arm, she gave him such a violent stroke on the face, both with her hand and the piece of flesh she held in it, that he was so stunned and blinded, as to be scarcely able to keep his feet: the savage, at the same time, believing the strangers around to be so many enemies, who intended to murder her, or dreading, perhaps, punishment for what she had done, sprung our of their hands towards a window, through which she had a view of trees and a river, intending to jump from it, and so make her escape; which she would certainly have done, if they had not again caught hold of her.

She appeared particularly fond of fish, either from her natural taste, or from her acquiring by constant practice, from her childhood, the faculty of catching them in the water with more ease than she could