MAMMALS. 627 



into the mouth, but swallowing it together with a large amount of saliva. 

 When first swallowed it goes to the first stomach, or paunch, and thence 

 passes to the second division. In these it becomes wilted and softened, 

 and then, when the animal is at rest, it is forced up into the mouth, to be 

 chewed again. It now descends to the third and fourth stomachs, where 

 it undergoes true digestion. 



The true pigs all belong to the Old World. The domesticated animal 

 appears to have originated from two distinct species. The pig of Europe 

 and of our barnyards had its origin in the wild boar of Europe, while the 

 domesticated swine of the Orient came from a species the home of which is 

 in India. In later years these two distinct forms have been mixed, to the 

 great improvement of our breeds. Only one feature needs mention in 

 connection with our domesticated swine. The Levitical prohibition of pork 

 was a sanitary measure, the full bearings of which have only recently been 

 appreciated. There can be but little doubt that in the times that these 

 laws were made trichinosis existed as it does to-day, and the observance of 

 the fact that suffering and even death occasionally resulted from an indul- 

 gence in the flesh of swine led to the prohibition of the pig as a source of 

 food supply. We now know that thorough cooking does away with all 

 danger on this score. The wild boars of Europe and Asia (there are sev- 

 eral species) are celebrated as furnishing much sport for the hunter. They 

 are largely solitary in their habits, dwelling in the dense forests, and root- 

 ing through the ground in search of food of every sort. They are savage 

 and courageous beasts, and their chase is attended with more excitement 

 than one would imagine by looking into a pen filled with their fattened 

 domesticated descendants. The wild species are thin, long-legged creatures, 

 which run swiftly, and the long tushes of the males render them formi- 

 dable antagonists for horses and dogs. 



Of the strange ' pig-deer ' of the Malay Archipelago, Wallace writes : 

 " This extraordinary creature resembles a pig in its general appearance, 

 but it does not dig with its snout, as it feeds on fallen fruits. The tusks 

 of the lower jaws are very long and sharp ; but the upper ones, instead of 

 growing downwards in the usual way, are completely reversed, growing up 

 out of long sockets through the skin on each side of the snout, curving 

 backwards to near the eyes, and in old animals often reaching eight or ten 

 inches in length. It is difficult to understand what can be the use of these 

 extraordinary horn-like teeth. Some of the old writers supposed that they 

 served as hooks by which the creature could rest its head on a branch. 

 But the way in which they usually diverge, just over and in front of the 

 eye, has suggested the more probable idea that they serve to guard these 

 organs from thorns and spines while hunting for fallen fruits among the 



