THROWN TO THE WOLVES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3200, 22 April 1911, Page 3

THROWN TO THE WOLVES.

BRIDE AND BRIDEGROOM’S FATE. 100 GUESTS EATEN ALIVE. Ghastly almost to a degree of incredibility is the story of a wedding party attacked by wolves in Asiatic .Russia. The exceptionally severe weather had been the cause of many minor tragedies in which the wolves had played a part, but perhaps none has ever been known so terrible as ithat now reported, since m this instance no fewer than 118 persons are said to have perished. A wedding party numbering _ 120 persons, set out in 30 sledges to drive 20 miles from the village of Obstipoff to Tashkend. The gound was thickly covered with snow, and the progress was necessarily delayed, but the greater part of the journey was accomplished in safety. At a distance of a few miles from Tashkend the horses, suddenly became restive, and the speculation of the travellers changed to horror when they discerned a black cloud moving rapidly towards them across the snowficld. Its nearer approach showed it to be composed of hundreds of wolves, yelping furiously, and evidently frantic with hunger, and within a few seconds the hindmost sledges were surrounded. Panic seized the party, and those in the van whipped up their horses, and made despcralte attempts to escape, regardless of their companions, but the terrified horses seemed almost incapable of movenient. A scene frightful beyond description was now enacted. Men, women, and children, shrieking with fear, defended themselves with whatever weapons they could, but to no- avail, and one after another fell amidst the snarling beasts. The wolves, roused still further by the taste of blood, rushed towards the leading sledges, and though the first dozen ocnveyances managed to stave them off for a time it was only ait a terrible cost, since it is asserted that the » omen occupants were thrown out to be devoured by the animals. The pursuit, however, never slackened, and the sickening carnage went 011 until only the foremost sledge—that containing the bride and bridegroom—remained beyond the wolves’ reach. A nightmare race was kept up for a few hundred yards, and it seemed as though the danger was being evaded, when suddenly a fresh pack of wolves appeared. The two men accompanying the bridal couple demanded that the bride should be sacrificed, but the bridegroom rejected the cowardly proposition, whereupon the men seized* and overpowered the pair and threw them out to meet a horrible fate. Then they succeeded in rousing their horses to a last effort, and though attacked in turn, beat off the wolves, and eventually reached Tashkend the only two survivors of the happy party which had set. out from Obstipoff. Both men were in a semidemented state from their experience.