20 Donald A. Mackenzie — Scottish Pork Taboo 



in the "Statistical Account of Scotland, 1793 " (xvi, 460), with 

 reference to the parishes of wSandwick and Stromness, Orknev : 



'' In a part of the parish of Sandwick, every family that 

 has a herd of swine, kills a sow on the 17th day of 

 December, and thence it is called Sow-day. There is no 

 tradition as to the orii^in of this practise." 



In the Whitley Stokes edition of "Three Irish Glossaries 

 (London, 1862, p. 1 of preface) the editor refers to " lupait," 

 and says it is explained as "the name of the pig that w^as 

 killed on Martin's festival, and it seems to me " (added the 

 ancient commentator quoted by Stokes) " it was to the Lord 

 it was offered." 



The Egyptians, according- to Herodotus, sacrificed the pig 

 to the moon and to Osiris. " The poorer follvs who cannot 

 afford live pigs, form pigs of dough, which they bake and 

 offer in sacrifice" (II, 47). 



In ancient Egypt and elsewhere pigs were kept by those 

 who did not eat them except sacrificially. " The admission of 

 swine into the fields, mentioned by Herodotus, should rather," 

 wrote Wilkinson, " have been before than after they had 

 sowed the land, since their habits would do little good for the 

 farmer, and other animals would answer as well for * treading 

 in the grain ' ; but they may have been used before for 

 clearing the fields of roots and weeds encouraged by the 

 inundation ; and this seems to be confirmed by the herd of 

 pigs with water plants represented in the tombs" (34, ii, 18). 

 Mr. Robert Henderson, the Galloway farmer, informs us that 

 pigs were used in Scotland as in Egypt. " They may like- 

 wise," he said, "be allowed to go upon the new sown wheat, 

 provided the ground is dry, as their tramping is of some 

 service to that grain " (13, 36-7). 



It was not because the pig was a rare animal in ancient 

 Scotland, or because it was not domesticated, that a prejudice 

 arose against the use of its flesh as food. Wild swine were 

 numerous. As late as 1851 some remained. Mr. James 

 Dickson, cattle dealer and author, states : "In the north of 

 Scotland, and in some of the Highland districts, they have 



a small and half-wild kind of breed This breed is often 



seen running nearly wild" (8, 217). Mr. Robert Henderson 

 mentioned several breeds in the Highlands and Lowlands, and 

 he refers to those that "pick up seaweed and shell-fish." 

 " Pigs," he writes, " are a. kind of natural scavengers " and 

 ' will feed on almost anything.' In miry and marshy ground 



