Nobles were fascinated by the “Wild Boy’s” habit of scurrying about on all fours, and they laughed at his disregard for table manners and his penchant for picking pockets and trying to kiss ladies of the court. Christened “Peter,” the boy soon became the toast of London, and he was regularly trotted out as a party favor to entertain royal guests. The child was brought before the British King George I, who took a liking to him and had him shipped to his court. In the summer of 1725, a naked and mute adolescent boy was found living alone in the woods of northern Germany.
According to Digby, John eventually began talking again, but his heightened senses dulled once he was back in civilization.
By then, he was reportedly “naked and all overgrown with hair,” and had “quite forgotten the use of all language.” Most astonishing of all, his years in the bush had led him to develop a dog-like sense of smell, allowing him to sniff out food from great distances. John finally returned to society at age 21, when he was caught trying to steal food from a local farm. He struck off alone into the depths of the forest, where he survived for 16 years on roots and wild berries. But while his family and the rest of his village returned to their homes after the danger had passed, young John was too terrified to come out of hiding. According to a 1644 account by Sir Kenelm Digby, John first fled to the woods at the age of 5 to escape enemy soldiers during a religious war. One of the earliest English-language accounts of a feral child concerns “John of Liège,” a boy who supposedly spent most of his youth in isolation in the Belgian wilderness.
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