AN ECCENTRIC FAMILY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6763, 21 July 1883, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN ECCENTRIC FAMILY.

A Russian newspaper relates a visit paid by one of its staff to a family consisting of a father and two sons, who, for some unexplained reason, have elected to renounce civilised life and its customs, in order to live in dens as savages. These three singular individuals are not, it is alleged, insane; but their conduct would certainly lead to the conclusion that they are no longer rationalminded beings. They were formerly in comfortable circumstances, and established in the village of Tchkari as carpenters. On a sudden they disappeared, however, and after a time their relatives discovered their retreat in a wood, where they had constructed a hut, in the floor of which three holes. were burrowed, used by them to sleep in. Their personal appearance had undergone as great a change as their manner of living. Hair and nails had been allowed to grow, decent raiment had been exchanged for skins, and when addressed, instead of replying in intelligible language, they "howled b'ke maniacs." The Russian journalist says that he was nearly regretting the curiosity that prompted him to visit the " savages," for on his appearance they threw themselves upon him and attempted to bite. If all this does not constitute madne3B on the part of a respectable village tradesman and his sons, at would be difficult to say what do;s.