Batit—Ldentification of the Animals and Plants of India. 319 
when the foals are young, a party of five or six native hunters, mounted on 
hardy Sind mares, chase down as many foals as they succeed in tiring, 
which lie down when utterly fatigued, and suffer themselves to be 
bound and carried off. In general they refuse sustenance at first, and 
about one-third only of those which are taken are reared; but these 
command high prices, and find a ready sale with the native princes. 
The profits are shared by the party, who do not attempt a second chase 
in the same year, lest they should scare the herd from the district, as 
these men regard the sale of a few Ghor-khurs annually as a regular 
source of subsistence.’’*” 
13. Tue Pre (Ys). 
Sus indicus, Schinz.—Indian Wild Boar. 
Among statements by Ktesias which cannot be accepted, is the fol- 
lowing, as related by Photios :*—‘‘ India does not, however, produce 
the pig, either the tame sort or the wild.” -Adlian in reproducing the 
same, adds that the ‘‘ Indians so abhor the flesh of this animal that 
they would as soon taste human flesh as taste pork.” Aristotle and 
- Palladius also repeat the story of the absence of swine, which, if it had 
been true, would naturally suggest the inquiry how came the Indians 
to abhor the flesh, and, still more, how came the fact to be known? 
It is notorious that certain tracts of India at the present day do not 
contain wild pigs, and also that several large sections of the people de- 
test the pig, and would not allow it to be kept in their villages. 
There are, however, some Hindus of high caste who will eat the flesh 
of the wild boar, and the Sind Emirs had pig preserves for purposes of 
sport. If other evidence were wanting that the pig is not a modern 
importation, and that the wild pig is not feral, appeal may be made to 
the fossil remains of pigs found in the Sivalik hills to show that it be- 
longs to the ancestral fauna. Among some of the aboriginal and other 
tribes the keeping of pigs is, and probably always has been, a prevalent 
custom. Ancient Sanscrit writings would probably furnish evidence 
of the existence of pigs in India before the time of Ktesias. 
14. Seer anv Goats (IIpoBara kat aiyes.) 
Ovis et Capra. 
Both Photios® and A®lian state that the sheep and goats of India 
are bigger than asses. The former adds that they produce from four 
to six young at a time, and the latter that they never produce less 
than three, but venerally four. 
37 Mammals of India, p. 287. 
38 Cf. J. W. M‘Crindle’s Ancient India, pp. 17, 46, 47. : 
39 Hcloga in Photii, Bibl. Ixxii. 13. Cf. Anc. India, by J. W. M‘Crindle, p. 17. 
