264 ANIMAL ARTISANS 



description. Each flower and weed was tasted by the 

 little pigs with the air of a connoisseur trying a new 

 dish, and when they found a horse lying asleep taking 

 its Sunday rest, the whole litter stood in a semicircle 

 round its head as if grouped to sing in a pantomime. 



Pigs are so funny, and every one so thoroughly 

 recognises the fact now, that it seems rather odd that 

 the discovery should be so recent. There is plenty 

 of allusion to the pig as a filthy, ugly creature in the 

 East, and many old English anecdotes of their cunning 

 and knowing ways about weather and food, but except 

 the pig-selling scene in "The Acharnians," which is 

 sadly wanting in humour, there is hardly any early 

 recognition of the comicality of pigs. The reason 

 is that it is only the modern 'improved pig that is 

 comical. His alone are the round stern, the curly 

 tail, the short nose, the dumpling cheeks, and the 

 fine high spirits. The wretched greyhound-pig of the 

 East, or of the unimproved breeds of Europe, has 

 not an atom of humour in him. Even a young wild 

 boar is a glum little fellow, only growing lively as 

 he grows hungry. We owe the comic pig to the 

 encouragement of the Smithfield show and the Royal 

 Agricultural Society, and these and other similar 

 institutions have profited in a quite unexpected direc- 

 tion by the comical appearance of the animal they 

 have helped to produce ; for the whole demeanour 

 of the modern pig is so mirth-provoking that the 

 pig department at a show is always crowded, and 

 every human face seen there is wreathed in smiles. 

 A full " entry " of pigs is almost essential for a good 



