98 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



"The hog was justly classed by the Jews among the vilest 

 animals in the scale of animated nature ; and it can not he 

 doubted that his keeper shared in the contempt and abhorrence 

 which he had excited. The prodigal son in the parable had 

 spent his ah 1 in riotous living, and was ready to perish 

 through want, before he submitted to the humiliating employ- 

 ment of feeding swine." 



"Swine," Heroditus says, "are accounted such impure beasts 

 by the Egyptians, that if a man touches one even by accident, 

 he presently hastens to the river and, in all his clothes, plunges 

 into the water. For this reason swine-herds alone of the 

 Egyptians are not allowed to enter any of their temples ; neither 

 will any one give his daughter in marriage to one of that pro- 

 fession, nor take a wife born of such parents, so that they are 

 necessitated to intermarry among themselves." 



The Brahminical tribes of India share with the Jews, Moham- 

 medans, and Egyptians this aversion to the hog. The modern 

 Copts, descendants of the ancient Egyptians, rear no swine, arid 

 the Jews of the present day abstain from their flesh as of old. 



It was Ouvier's opinion that "in hot climates the flesh of 

 swine is not good;" and Mr. Sonnini remarks that " in Egypt, 

 Syria, and even the southern parts of Greece, this meat, though 

 very white and delicate, is so far from being firm, and is so 

 overcharged with fat, that it disagrees with the strongest 

 stomachs. It is therefore considered unwholesome, and this 

 will account for its proscription by the legislators and priests 

 of the East. Such abstinence was doubtless indispensable to 

 health under the burning suns of Arabia and Egypt." HOAV 

 is it under the burning suns of Carolina and Georgia ? 



III.-BKEEDS. 



The various breeds which have been reared by crosses be- 

 tween those procured from different countries are so numerous, 

 that to give anything like a detailed description of them would 

 fill a large volume. We shall refer to only a ftnv of the more 

 important of them. 



