238 ANDROSCOGGIN COUNTY SOCIETY. 



luxury was discovered by a Roman priest, ■whose name has not come 

 do^Yn to us. He had been broiling a piece of pork, to be oflfered to 

 the god in wllose temple he officiated, and seizing it by the thumb 

 and forefinger for the purpose of conveying it to the altar, he was 

 compelled to drop it, and instinctively placed the thumb and finger 

 in his mouth. They happened to be covered with the juice of the 

 steak, which he tasted, and lost all sense of pain in the exquisite 

 enjoyment thus conveyed to the palate. Being a man of genius, he 

 proceeded to place another slice on the coals, which, being cooled, 

 he incontinently devoured, losing sight of his official duties, which 

 required him to place the meat before the god. 



For a long time he pursued this course, until his sleek and jolly 

 appearance attracted attention, and he was watched and the secret 

 discovered. He would have been put to death, but having persuaded 

 the judges on his trial to eat a steak, he was therefore not only 

 acquitted, but made High Priest, or Pontifex Maximus, as they 

 called it, as a reward for the benefit he had conferred on mankind. 

 Pork-steaks immediately became the rage, and broils were continu- 

 ally going on from that time all over the empire ; for the Romans 

 were a good deal quicker-witted than the Chinese, who always think 

 it necessary to burn down a house every time they roast a pig, and 

 they did not suppose that pork-steaks could be cooked only in tem- 

 ples. It was a blessed day for mankind, but a bad one for the 

 swine, when the priest burned his fingers, for as soon as the news 

 spread into Judea, all the Christians belonging to that nation deter- 

 mined to eat pork-steak, and for this purpose procured the repeal of 

 the act prohibiting the same soon after the year one of the Christian 

 era. * Another evidence of the exalted character and great value of 

 the swine, is the fact that he has found many close imitators in the 

 human family, between whose tastes, habits and appearance and his 

 own, no perceptible diffijrence can be traced. 



In stature the hog is short but portly. His weight at the present 

 time rarely exceeds five hundred pounds, yet your Committee have 

 seen hogs-heads of an enormous size ; they are supposed to have 

 once belonged to an ancient race of mammoth swine all extinct. In 

 character, the hog is ^'■independent,'''' particularly "o« 7ce/" fixed 

 in the maintenance of his opinion, and like old Hickory, '■'■hard to 

 drive f of marked individuaUtij even in early youth, as has been 



