VOL. XIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 66g 



What is most particular in this hog, and makes the greatest difference in it 

 from any other animal I know of in the world, is the teat or navel, or foramen 

 rather, on the hindpart of the back. All who mention this animal, consider 

 this as a thing so extraordinary and uncommon, that their amazement has so 

 far clouded their reason, as to betray them into most extravagant conjectures 

 and opinions concerning it. Not any one that 1 have met with affording the 

 least glimmering of a probable truth. 



These animals are found in Panama, and New Spain; in Nicaragua, in Terra 

 Firma, and in Brasil. They are usually met with in the mountains and woods; 

 and go in herds together. They feed on roots, acorns, and fruits ; but, as the 

 greatest delicacy, they hunt for all sorts of poisonous serpents and toads; and 

 having caught them, holding them with their fore feet, with a great deal of 

 dexterity, with their teeth they strip off their skin from the head to the tail, 

 then greedily devour them. And it is said they eat the root or bark of a certain 

 tree, as an antidote against the poison; by which means they are well fed, and 

 grow large. When they are tamed, they will feed on any thing. But naturally 

 they are very fierce. f 



Oviedus remarks that the swine the Spaniards left on the islands of St. 

 Domingo, St. Joannes, and Jamaica, multiplied, and increased. But those in 

 Terra Firma durst never go in the woods; but were destroyed by the lions, 

 tigers, and lupi cervarii. Yet in these woods, there are great herds of these 

 tajaqus, that can make their party good against the fiercest beasts. If any of 

 them be wounded, he presently gets to his assistance a great number of his 

 kind; and never desists till he has revenged the injury or is slain. They are 

 always at enmity with the tigers. And there is often found the body of a tiger, 

 and many of these tajaqus slain together. If they spy a man, they will fiercely 

 set on him ; and his best escape is to g^t up a tree, which they will most furiously 

 assault with their teeth ; nor will they easily leave him till forced by hunger, or 

 slain by him, by clubs, darts, or a gun. It is said, it is usual to take them, 

 viz. by a man's showing himself to them, whom it is known they will presently 

 pursue. If they are hunted, the dogs are often torn in pieces by them. Their 

 flesh is esteemed very good, and much desired by the inhabitants, though they 

 have but little fat. 



To come now to the anatomy ; having divided the muscles of the belly, what 

 was most remarkable was the structure of the stomachs, of which it had three. 

 Into the middlemost was inserted the oesophagus or gullet; which we may 

 therefore call the first ventricle or stomach. From this, on one side was a large 

 passage into the second; which pouching out had its two ends winding like a 



