TBACTABILITY OF SWINE. 37 



Nor are these cases without parallel, for Montfaucon informs us 

 that Heliogabalus, the Roman emperor, trained boars, stags, and 

 asses to run in his chariot; and Pennant states that in Minorca, and 

 that part of Murray which lies between the Spey and Elgic, swi.ne 

 have been converted into beasts of draught, and that it is by no 

 means unusual to see a cow, a sow, and two young horses yoked 

 together in a plough, and that the sow is the best drawer of the four 

 In Minorca, the ass and hog may be regularly seen working together 

 in turning up land. 



Henderson gives another, and a very simple account, illustrative 

 of the tractability of swine : 



" Afeout twenty-five years ago my father farmed very extensively 

 in various parts of the kingdom, and upon one of his farms in 

 Redkirk, in the parish of Gretna Green, Dumfriesshire, kept at 

 times upward of one hundred swine. It so happened that the 

 keeper of that flock was either taken unwell or abruptly left his 

 service one harvest, when every creature able to work was employed 

 in reaping. A brother and I, being the only idlers about the premises, 

 the above flock was given in charge to us for a few days, until the pro- 

 per keeper was found ; we were then reluctantly obliged to march off 

 with our ' hirsel ' early every morning to a clover-field about a mile 

 distant, with our dinners, books, and great-coats, &c., packed upon 

 our backs : we, however, soon began to think it was a great hard- 

 ship for us to be groaning under our loads while so many stout, able 

 ponies were trotting along before us at their ease, and immediately 

 set about training one of them to relieve us of our burdens, which 

 we accomplished in a few days by occasionally scratching the animal 

 and feeding it with bread, &c., out of our hands. It became at last 

 so docile as to stand every morning until it received the burden 

 girted upon it, and then marched on in the rear, which place it was 

 trained to keep, as we had more than once lost our dinners when it 

 was allowed to join the herd ; and in the same manner we soon 

 trained two or three more into carrying the baggage in turns. 

 Having been so successful in this training exploit, we then thought 

 it would be turning our punishment into pleasure if we could train 

 each of us one to ride : this was no sooner thought of than com- 

 menced, and although we received many a tumble, yet we soon ac- 

 complished our design, and succeeded in breaking in each two or 

 three chargers. At length our system became so complete, that we 

 not only rode to and from the field, but whenever any of the herd 

 were likely to stray, or go into some adjoining field of corn, &c., 

 each alternately mounted his charger, and went off* at full gallop to 

 turn back and punish the transgressors. 



" Such as were trained, seldom or never went astray, being always 

 about hand, and in readiness to be mounted ; in short, such days as 

 my father was from home, i f , was not unusual for a group of servants 



