THE HOG. 209 



was the animal, that she nearly overthrew an officer in 

 her passage. 



Sharon Turner mentions his seeing a large pig at 

 Ross, which, at the word of command, could pick out 

 from an alphabet on the ground, and that without mis- 

 take, the name of any person present, and also the 

 figures for the hour of the day. It went round a paper 

 dial on the floor, and placed its snout first on the hour, 

 and then in another circuit on the minute. " There 

 was," says Mr. Turner, " no visible concert that I could 

 trace between it and its master, so that the assisting 

 tokens were the more intellectual. The owner men- 

 tioned that being more dull at learning than some, it 

 had taken him three months' close labour to teach him." 

 No doubt it was directed by some signs made by its 

 owner. 



The writer has often visited a village in Wiltshire, 

 where a pig was made to answer the purposes of its 

 master in a different way. This man allowed the ani- 

 mal to get its living as it could, and consequently it fre- 

 quently did so at the cost of those who were near. On 

 one occasion, however, the depredator was caught in the 

 fact, and shut up in the pound. A short time after, a 

 busy neighbour went to the owner with the tidings ; 

 the answer he received was brief : " I know it, and I 



p 



