ABSTRACT
On 9 January 1800, a young boy aged about 11 or 12 appeared from the woods sur-
rounding the village of St-Sernin-sur-Rance in southern France. He walked erect, but
could not speak and made only unintelligible cries. He wore only a tattered shirt and
was completely unworried by his nakedness. He had entered the garden of the local
tanner, intent on digging some vegetables to eat, when he was caught. As is the norm
in such small rural villages, word quickly spread about the capture of the ‘wild savage’.
So began the story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron,1 as he was to be known – the story of
a wild child who would soon become the talk of Europe.
