deavored to place him on his feet. But he still continued to sleep, and seemed, like a person apparently dead, to be distinguishable from one who is really so, only by his vital heat. At length, after many troublesome and painful experiments upon the sleeper's capacity of feeling, he opened his eyes, he awoke, he gazed at the bright colors of the Captain's glittering uniform which he seemed to regard with childish satisfaction, and then groaned out his "Reuta, &c." Captain von W—

knew nothing of the stranger, nor could he learn anything relating to him from the letter which he had brought. And as, by questioning, nothing could be got out of him but, "Reuta wähn &c : or "woas nit;" nothing remained to be done, but to leave the solution of this riddle and the care of the stran

ger's person to the city police. He was accordingly sent forthwith to the

police office. At about 8 o'clock in the evening his journey thither, which, in his situation, was a course of martyrdom, was accomplished. In the guard room, besides some of the inferior magistrates, several soldiers of the police were present. All of them regarded the strange lad as a most extraordinary phenom

enon. Nor was it easy to decide to which of the common rubricks of police business his case appertained. The common official questions, what is your name? what is your business? whence came you? for what purpose are you come? where is your passport? and the like, were here of no avail. "Ae Reuta waehn wie mei Votta waehn is," or; 66 woas nit, "or, which he also often repeated in a lamentable tone, "hoam weissa!" were the only words which, on the most diverse occasions, he uttered.*

He appeared neither to know nor to suspect where he was. He betrayed neither fear, nor astonishment, nor confusion; he rather showed an almost brutish dulness, which either leaves external objects entirely unnoticed, or stares at them without thought, and suffers them to pass without being affected by them. His tears and whimpering, while he was always pointing to his tottering feet, and his awkward, and at the same time

*To these expressions, and particularly, "Reuta waehn," &c. he attached, as was afterwards discovered, no particular meaning. They were only sounds, which had been taught him like a parrot, and which he uttered as the common expressions of all his ideas, sensations and desires.

childish demeanor soon excited the compassion of all who were present. A soldier brought him a piece of meat and a glass of beer; but, as at the house of Captain von W, he rejected both with abhorrence, and ate only bread with fresh water. Another person gave him a piece of coin. At this he showed the joy of a little child; played with it and by several times crying ross, ross, [horse, horse] as well as by certain motions of his hands, he seemed to express his wish to hang this coin about the neck of some horse. His whole conduct and demeanor, seemed to be that of a child scarcely two or three years old, with the body of a young

man..

The only difference of opinion that seemed to exist among the greater part of these police men, was, whether he should be considered as an idiot or a madman, or as a kind of savage. One or two of them expressed, however, a doubt, whether, under the appearance of this boy some cunning deceiver might not possibly be concealed. This suspicion received no small degree of confirmation from the following circumstance. Some person thought of trying whether he could

write; and handing him a pen with ink, laid a sheet of paper before him with an intimation that he should write. This appeared to give him pleasure, he took the pen, by no means awkwardly, between his fingers, and wrote, to the astonishment of all who were present, in legible characters, the name, Kaspari Hauser.

He was now told to add also the name of the place whence he came. But he did nothing more than occasionally to groan out, his "Reuta waehn " &c, his "hoam weissa," and his " woas nit."

As nothing more could be done, for the present, he was delivered to a servant of the police, who conducted him to the tower at the Vestner gate, which is used as a place of confinement for rogues, and vagabonds, &c. Upon this comparatively short way he sank down groaning at almost every step, if, indeed, his groping movements may be called steps. Having reached the small apartment in which, together with another prisoner of the police, he was confined, he sank down immediately upon his straw bed, in a profound sleep.

CHAPTER II.

CASPAR HAUSER- this name he has hitherto retained

wore upon his head, when he came to Nuremberg, a round and rather coarse felt hat, shaped like those worn in cities, lined with yellow silk, and bound with red leather, inside of which a picture of the city of Munchen, half scratched out, was still visible. The toes of his naked feet peeped forth from a pair of high heeled boots, shod with iron shoes and nails, which were much torn and did not fit him. Around his neck was tied a black silk neck cloth, a coarse shirt,* and a half faded red spotted stuff waistcoat, he wore a sort of jacket, such

Over

* Which imprudently, together with the boots, was, as was asserted, on account of their bad condition, thrown away very soon after this occurrence took place. So little attention was paid to things which, in point of circumstantial evidence, might have become highly important.