Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ixvi. (1922), No. 3 n 



The Highland crofters in some parts of the Hebrides 

 began to keep pigs after Dr. Johnson's day, but for one reason 

 or another, and chiefly because of the prevaihng prejudice 

 against the animal, pig-rearing was abandoned. In Skye the 

 superstitious abhorrence of the pig was revived as a result of 

 a tragic occurrence. A hungry pig wandered into a house 

 and killed and partly devoured a baby in a cradle. I heard 

 this tradition when in Skye a few years ago. " Who," said 

 a native to me, '' would eat the flesh of an animal which 

 devours human beings? " 



Although the pig was generally associated with the devil, 

 there is Highland evidence which suggests that it might, as 

 a supernatural being, be, like the fairies, of assistance to man- 

 kind. An interesting story, also related by Gregorson Camp- 

 bell, connects the pig with the fairies (Gaelic sithchean = 

 supernatural beings). It relates to the belief that seed corn 

 might be increased by working spells and sowing in silence. 

 If the sower is spoken to the supply of seed corn suddenlv 

 goes down. Campbell's story is as follows : — 



''A man in the Ross of Mull, about to sow his land, filled 

 a sheet with seed oats, and commenced. He went on sowing 

 but the sheet remained full. At last a neighbour took 

 notice of the strange phenomenon and said, ' The face of 

 your evil and iniquity be upon you, is the sheet never to be 

 empty ? ' 



When this was said a little brown bird leapt out of the 

 sheet, and the supply of corn ceased. The bird w^as called 

 Tore Sona, i.e., Happy Hog (more correctly Happy Boar), 

 . and when any of the man's descendants fall in with any 

 luck they are asked if the Tore Sona still follows the familv" 

 (31, 99). 



The Lucky or Sacred White Boar figures in one of the 

 legends associated with Glasgow's patron saint, St. Kentigern 

 (St. Mungo). Joceline, a monk of Furness, relates that when 

 '' the most holy Kentigern " was in Wales he " found a place 

 fit for building a tabernacle (monastery) to the Lord, the God 

 of Jacob," by following a white boar. Followed by " a great 

 crowd of his disciples " Kentigern had wandered over hills 

 and through valleys and forests, 



'' when lo and behold a single wild boar from the w^ood, 

 entirely white, met them, and approaching the feet of the 

 saint, moving his head, sometimes advancing a little, and 



