32 THE HOG. 



In Germany almost every village has its swineherd, who at breali 

 of day goes from house to house collecting his noisy troop, blowing 

 his s'till more noisy cow-horn, and cracking his clumsy whip, until 

 the place echoes with the din. The following very amusing account 

 of that important personage, the Schwein- General, has lately been 

 given in a popular work : 



" Every morning I hear the blast of a horn, when, proceeding 

 from almost every door in the street, behold a pig ! The pigs ge- 

 nerally proceed of their own accord ; but shortly after they have 

 passed, there comes a little bare-headed, bare-footed, stunted child 

 about eleven years old. This little attendant of the old pig-driver 

 facetiously called at Langen-Schwalbach the ' Schwein -General, 

 knows every house from which a pig ought to have proceeded: she 

 can tell by the door being open or shut, or even by footmarks, 

 whether the creature has joined the herd, or is still snoring in its sty 

 A single glance determines whether she shall pass a yard, or enter 

 it ; and if a pig, from indolence or greediness, be loitering on the 

 road, the sting of the wasp cannot be sharper or more spiteful than 

 the cut she gives it. 



" Besides the little girl who brought up the rear, the herd was 

 preceded by a boy of about fourteen, whose duty it was not to let 

 the foremost advance too fast. In the middle of the drove, sur- 

 rounded like a shepherd by his flock, slowly stalked the ' Schwein- 

 General.' In his left hand he held a staff, while round his right 

 shoulder hung a terrific whip. At the end of a short handle, turn- 

 ing upon a swivel, there was a lash about nine feet long, each joint 

 being an iron ring, which, decreasing in size, was closely connected 

 with its neighbor by a band of hard greasy leather. The pliability, 

 the weight, and the force of this iron whip, rendered it an argument 

 which the obstinacy even of the pig was unable to resist ; yet, as 

 the old man proceeded down the town, he endeavored to speak 

 kindly to the herd. 



" As soon as the herd had got out of the town, they began gradu- 

 ally to ascend the rocky, barren mountain which appeared towering 

 above them, and then the labors of the Schwein- General and his 

 staff became greater than ever ; in due time the drove reached the 

 ground which was devoted for that day's exercise, the whole moun- 

 tain being thus taken in regular succession. 



" In this situation do the pigs remain every morning for four hours, 

 enjoying little else but air and exercise. At about nine or ten 

 o'clock they begin their march homeward, and nothing can form a 

 greater contrast than their entry does to their exit from their native 

 town. 



" Their eager anxiety to get to the dinner trough that awaits them 

 is almost ungovernable, and they no sooner reach the first houses ot 

 the town than away each of them starts towards his home. 



" At half-pa< four the same horn is heard again ; the pigs once 



