SWINE IN CEYLON AND HINDOSTAN. 65 



cradle suspended upon a pole, carried by two men. But he says, 

 " the difficulty is to get the animal into this conveyance, and this is 

 accomplished by the cradle being placed in front of the pig, and 

 the owner then vigorously pulling at 'porky's tail,' and in the spirit 

 of opposition the animal darts into the place they have prepared 

 for him. At the journey's end, the bearers dislodge him by spitting 

 in his face." 



Mr. Lay states that " pork is very plentiful in China, but never 

 agreeable to the European eye, from its shining, flabby appearance ; 

 it does not taste either like our pork, and is only tolerable when 

 cut into thin slices and fried in soy to correct the grossness of its 

 natural juices. The natives cut it in long slices or rashers, and 

 dry it in the sun, and thus prepared it is not unpleasant in flavor, 

 although it is then by no means easy to distinguish it from dogs' or 

 cats' flesh similarly prepared." 



CEYLON. 



In speaking of Ceylon, and its neighborhood, an intelligent travel- 

 ler says: "The swine here are a long-legged, ugly breed, allowed 

 to run wild and pick up whatever food they can get. I never saw, 

 at any native cottage or farm, a pig penned up or put to fatten, and 

 yet the natives are very fond of hog's flesh, and never hold any 

 feast or festival without this meat constituting the chief and most 

 approved dishes." 



HINDOSTAN. 



The existence of a breed of swine in Hindostan and the Birmese 

 empire is mentioned by several travellers, but scarcely one gives 

 any account of them. It would seem, however, that they are iden- 

 tical with the Siamese breed. Hogs are also enumerated as among 

 the wild beasts of Central India. Some of the Hindoo tribes use 

 hog's blood for all the purposes to which other nations apply holy 

 water ; but pork is not eaten, excepting by Europeans and the lowest 

 caste of Hindoos. In the Eastern Archipelago and the Moluccas, a 

 breed of wild swine exists bearing great resemblance to the Chinese, 

 but rather longer in the legs and lighter in the body, and affording 

 delicious meat. 



TURKEY AND ARABIA. 



In Turkey, Syria, Persia, Arabia, and the north-eastern parts of 

 Asia, comparatively few pigs are found, and these are of an iron- 

 gray, black, and occasionally brown hue; short-legged, small, round 

 in the body, very apt to fatten, and attaining the weight of from 

 350 to 400 Ibs. And there arc two ways of accounting for this t 



