74 6 



SWINE. 



to eat the offal of their own species. The flesh of such ill-fed animals is always flabby 

 and of ill-savor, and is also injurious to those by whom it is consumed. 



In this country, the Hog is used not only for food, but for the sake of the hide, 

 which, when prepared after a peculiar fashion, is found to make the best leather for 

 saddles. The bristles which are so largely used in the manufacture of brushes are 

 almost exclusively imported from the Continent. 



Both to the Jews and the Mahometans the Hog is a forbidden article of diet, the 

 latter prohibition being evidently in imitation of the former. In the Mosaical law the 

 Hog is spoken of as an unclean animal that might not be eaten, although for what reason 

 is not easy to ascertain, and the Rabbinical mandates which exercised such a potent 

 sway over the people laid such a stress upon the interdict that they declared the animal 

 itself to be a vile and foul beast, and pronounced a sentence of uncleanness against 

 those who came in contact with a Hog or with anything which it had touched. It must 

 be remarked, that the Egyptians, among whom the Hebrews had so long resided, held 



WILD BOAR. Sus scrota. 



similar views of the Hog, and that might be in deference to their prejudices which they 

 had contracted from their former masters. The Hebrews were taught in their law to 

 hold the animal in the same light in which it had been regarded by those to whom they 

 had been accustomed to look with reverence. By some persons it is thought that the 

 flesh of the Hog is harmful to those who reside in hot countries ; but even granting 

 this to be the case a matter which is by no means certain it affords no clue to the 

 cause why the Hog should have been held as a vile and unclean beast by the polished 

 and learned Egyptians, who depicted so accurately the various animals found in their 

 country, and employed them so largely in their symbolical literature. 



In its wild and domesticated state, the Hog is a most prolific animal, producing from 

 eight to twelve pigs twice in each year, when it is in full vigor and in good health. 

 Gilbert White records a sow which, when she died, was the parent of no less than three 

 hundred pigs. 



We are rather apt to speak libellously of the Hog, and to ascribe to it qualities which 

 are of our own creation. Although it is a large feeder, it really is not more gluttonous 



