The Victorian literature of the day was obsessed with the idea of the “wild child” and the “noble savage,” particularly ones with European lineages like Tarzan and Hawkeye. In Jim Corbett, a man who had spent most of his life scouting and hunting through the local forests with indigenous shikaris, well-heeled Britons like Eddie Knowles no doubt imagined they saw some of those romantic notions played out in real life.
