THE WILD PIG. 75 



and they will look like making an attack upon 

 you as if to rescue their distressed comrade. 



Remember that the wild pigs lived mostly in 

 wooded places, where there grew plenty of thick 

 grass, brambles, and undergrowth, so that when 

 a herd of pigs were searching for roots and food 

 they could not keep each other in sight. 



The herd therefore had to adopt some sound 

 or signal to keep its members together, and to 

 tell each other and the leader of their herd when 

 they were attacked. 



The constant grunt, grunt, grunt of a pig 

 would be a splendid and effective signal to keep 

 a herd of pigs together when they were search- 

 ing for food amidst the undergrowth, out of 

 sight of one another. 



And no more effective sound could a wild pig 

 have used, when attacked, than his piercing 

 squeal. 



So you see a pig's grunt and squeal are really 

 forms of rude speech, or signals of speech, to 

 keep the herd together for mutual help, and are 

 also calls from a pig in suffering or danger to 

 the other pigs of the herd for help. 



The leader of the herd never failed to answer 

 these squeals of alarm and for assistance; for 

 the wild boar was a brave and perfectly fearless 

 beast, and would attack anything, however small 

 and however large, and by means of his powerful 



