SOME LESSER DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 89 



gentle women vses to recreate thamselfes, althoch be mony 

 and infinite, I will nocht heir make mentione." 



These quotations are sufficient to show that Scotland 

 took its share in that marvellous juggling with the endow- 

 ments of nature which, from two or three wild species, of 

 similar shape and character, equally ferocious, bloodthirsty 

 and deceitful, has created the docility, gentleness and faith- 

 fulness of the deerhound and the " toy," dogs that bark 

 and silent dogs, dogs that rely upon their sight and dogs 

 that, as Boece quaintly says, rely upon the "sent and 

 smell of their neis [nose]," dogs whose ears are their chief 

 guide, dogs that point the game and dogs that retrieve it, 

 dogs that depend on length of limb and dogs that depend on 

 strength of jaw, dogs for the fray and dogs for the home. 



THE WILD BOAR TURNED SWINE 



" Swine, though never esteemed for their Beauty, in their 

 Nature rather disagreeable," nevertheless possess a special 

 interest, since there can be little doubt that they belong to 

 the limited number of domesticated animals which were led 

 from the forest to the fold within the bounds of Scotland. 

 And Scotland can show, better than most countries, the steps 

 of that sorry progress. 



Th'e Wild Boar (Sus scrofa] (Fig. 20, p. 91), common in 

 the great forest areas of Europe, especially in the woods of 

 the Vosges, as well as in Asia and North Africa, was at one 

 time also a common denizen of the forests of Britain. Its 

 remains have been found in peat at Balgone in Haddington- 

 shire, as well as in the marl mosses ; and numerous tusks, 

 found amongst the food refuse of the prehistoric peoples 

 of Scotland, tell of the far-off times when 



The sad barbarian, roving, mixed 



With beasts of prey, or for his acorn meal 



Fought the fierce tusky boar. 



At each period of early Scottish development, it is re- 

 presented. The frequent occurrence of its bones in the 

 Neolithic chambered and horned cairns of Caithness and 

 Orkney ; in cave deposits, as at Colonsay, where its 

 gradual extinction can be traced; in kitchen-middens and 

 shell-mounds; in crannogs or lake-dwellings, as at Lochlee 



