^54 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



It is not reasonable to believe that an aversion 

 so general among a celebrated nation should have 

 no other foundaiion, as some people have imagined, 

 than a natural abhorrence to the voracious appetite 

 which leads these animals to wallow in heaps of 

 the vilest ordure. It would have been necessary 

 for the same reason to reject the flesh of fowls, 

 which, it is well known, greedily devour the vilest 

 and the most disgusting aliments. 



The custom of abstaining from hog's flesh un- 

 doubtedly originated from the necessity of a strict 

 regimen, indispensable under a scorching atmo- 

 sphere ; and this will be irresistibly evident, when 

 it is observed, that the race of hogs natural to 

 warm climates rather resemble the hog of Chhuiy or 

 of Slam and India, than the European hog * ; that 

 these hogs of China, even when brought up in our 

 cold climates, afford food, more delicate indeed, 

 but much fatter, than that of the common hog; 

 that this food, very white and relishing, but so 

 fat in Egypt, in Syria, and even in the southern 

 parts of Greece, oppresses the most robust appe- 

 tites ; in a word, that for these reasons alone, they 

 were induced to consider this animal as pernicious, 

 on account of the indigestion, and of the unplea- 

 sant risings which it occasions in stomachs already 

 i^^ weakened by the excess of heat. 



* BufFon, Nat. Hist, of Quadrup. — Susparcus. 



On 



