92 THE DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS 



nearly as domesticated as the hereditary domestics together 

 with the presence of a primitive breed of pigs in the Western 

 Highlands and Islands, give good grounds for supposing 

 that the prehistoric peoples of Scotland domesticated their 

 own pigs. 



DOMESTICATED PIGS IN SCOTLAND 



It is clear that at whatever early age the domestication 

 of the pig took place in Scotland, for many centuries its 

 herds were allowed to roam at large, picking up what food 

 the forest yielded in the autumn, and encouraged to glean 

 probably not too precarious a living by performing the work 

 of scavengers in the towns and villages. Their enthusiasm 

 in this latter labour made them in the end such a nuisance 

 that the Assize of Haddington felt compelled, on the i2th 

 of July 1530, to check their activities, for under that date 



The Sys [Assize] ordains that the hangman sail escheit to hymself all 

 swyne doggs and catts at he fyndis one [on] the gait [street] fra this nycht 

 furcht [forward]. 



And this statute not having the desired effect of clearing off 

 the roving herds, the Council further ordained : " Penult of 

 Octr. 1543 Item all muk to be put off the Gait and all 

 swyne to be put off the Towne." The estimation in which 

 the pig was held, and its domesticated quality about this 

 time, may be judged from the then Food Controller's price, 

 fixed in 1551, when young swine ("gryse") were valued at 

 i8d. each, less than the price of a couple of capons (is. each) 

 and little more than the price of a goose (is. 4^.). 



The ancient " Leges Forestarum," generally attributed 

 to the reign of William the Lion (1165-1214 A.D.), but 

 perhaps of somewhat later date, give evidence of the roving 

 nature of the early herds of swine ; for while they provided 

 that proclamation should be made in the parish kirk that 

 swine as a rule were prohibited from entering the forest, 

 they summoned burghers and husbandmen to bring their 

 herds in the autumn to where oaks abounded, so that the 

 king might benefit from the pannagium, a payment in kind 

 due for pasturage on the feasts of acorns the Crown 

 claiming the best of ten swine and the forester a hog. 



What became of these wild, roving, worthless Scottish 



