Manchester Memoirs. Vol, Ixvi. (1922), No. 3 23 



period, so apparently did the Egyptian pig taboo. In Troy 

 the star-spangled sow mother took the place of the star- 

 spangled goddess-cow Hathor. The sow mother was also 

 known in Crete where it was believed by one of the cults that 

 Minos, or Zeus-Dionysus was suckled by a sow (the goddess), 

 as Romulus and Remus were by the wolf, and other heroes 

 were by the sheep, the deer, the cow, etc. '' Wherefore," it 

 has been recorded, '' all the Cretans consider this animal (the 

 sow) sacred, and will not taste of its flesh ; and the men of 

 Praesos perform sacred rites with the sow, making her the first 

 offering at the sacrifice." Demeter had a sow as well as a 

 mare form, and the pig-taboo of her cult has survived in 

 Northern Arcadia. Professor Elliot Smith has discussed the 

 connection of the pig with the Great Mother and clearly 

 indicated why the animal acquired because of this connection 

 an "unpleasant reputation" (30, 216 — 221). 



It has to be recognised, however, that in Scotland, as in 

 England, a different treatment of the pig obtained in certain 

 areas. The white boar-god (in Egypt, Osiris), who was killed 

 by the black boar (Set), figures in the legends regarding St. 

 Kentigern and may be identical with the solar boar of the 

 Inverness sculptured stone — a stone which does not have a 

 single Christian symbol. This boar may have been the god 

 of the Pictish '' Ores " (Young boars ") who formed a mili- 

 tary aristocracy of the Baltic amber traders of Celtic speech 

 referred to by Tacitus, and of other peoples, including the 

 ancient tribes of pre-Roman England whose warriors wore on 

 their armour protective boar images (3, 87 and 135, 6), and 

 those Scylding warriors who fought under a '' boar's-head 

 banner " (10, no). The boar god was the son of the sow- 

 goddess. Originally the boar was eaten once a year as in 

 Egypt, and it may be that the prominence formerly given to 

 the boar's head at the Christmas festival should be regarded 

 as a relic of ancient sacrifice. 



'' The boar's head in hand bear I, 

 Bedecked with bays and rosemary ; 

 And I pray you, my masters, be merry. 



Quot estis in convivio, 



Caput apri defero, 



Reddens laudes Domino,'^ 



is from a traditional carol sung at Queen's College, Oxford 

 (27, 259). The cult which in Scotland has tabooed pork does 

 not, however, appear to have been identical with the one which 



