THE HOG. 413 



to the latter people. It is more safe to assume, that the 

 prohibition of the use of swine's flesh was a law, of whose 

 ultimate purposes we are ignorant, connected with the cere- 

 monial system of the Jewish ritual. We can no more know 

 why the Hog was prohibited than other animals, as the Hare, 

 whose habits are in no degree unclean, and whose flesh has 

 never been supposed to produce leprosy, or other maladies of 

 the country. 



Mohammed, in imitation probably of the Jews, or in com- 

 pliance with prejudices existing in his own country, inter- 

 dicted, in like manner, the flesh of the Hog to his disciples ; 

 and Mohammedans observe the law of the Prophet in every 

 country, however suitable for this species of food. Here 

 there is no Divine ordinance promulgated for purposes which 

 to us are unknown ; but the art of an impostor has prevailed 

 against the common sense of mankind, in a matter affecting 

 the means of comfortable subsistence throughout a great 

 part of the habitable world. 



The flesh of the Hog is nutritive and wholesome, and it is 

 an error to suppose that it is more unsuited to warmer coun- 

 tries than any other species of animal food. On the con- 

 trary, this kind of flesh seems peculiarly suited to the warmer 

 countries. It is in them that the animal arrives naturally 

 at his greatest perfection of form, and his flesh at its greatest 

 delicacy and excellence. It is the principal animal food 

 made use of by the Chinese, and by the people of the hottest 

 islands of the Indian Archipelago, and it is used by the 

 Negroes all over the burning regions which they inhabit. 

 The practice of Europeans, who reside in the warmest parts 

 of the Old and New Continents, shews, that not only is the 

 flesh of the Hog not unsuited to the warmer countries, but 

 that it is the best and wholesomest animal food that can be 

 used. That it is the cause of leprosy, is not in accordance 

 with effects observed. The Egyptians and Jews, who ab- 

 stained from this food altogether, were the greatest victims of 



