342 
pliny's natural histoey. 
[Book VIII. 
happens when any one of them has eaten of a certain herb ^ 
Their bite is very destructive to trees, and they make the 
olive barren by licking it for which reason they are not 
sacrificed to Minerva. 
CHAP. 77. (51.) — THE HOG.^^ 
The period for coupling the hog lasts from the return of the 
west wind to the vernal equinox ; the proper age commences 
in the eighth month, indeed, in some places, in the fourth 
even, and continues until the eighth year.^^ They bring forth 
twice in the year, the time of gestation being four months ; 
the number at a birth amounts to twent3^ even, but the}^ can- 
not rear so large a number.^^ Mgidius informs us, that those 
which are produced within ten days of the winter solstice are 
born with teeth. One coupling is sufficient, but it is repeated, 
on account of their extreme liability to abortion ; the remedy 
for which is not to allow coupling the first time the female is 
in heat, nor until its ears are flaccid and pendant. The males 
do not generate after they are three years old. "When the 
females become feeble from old age, they receive the males 
h'ing down.^^ It is not looked upon as anything portentous 
when they eat their young. The young of the hog is con- 
sidered in a state of purity for sacrifice when five days old,^^ the 
lamb on the seventh day, and the calf on the thirtieth, Co- 
runcanius asserts, that ruminant animals are not proper for 
According to Hardouin, the herb referred to is tbe eryngium proba- 
bly the " eringo be cites various authorities in support of bis opinion. — B. 
Tbis is repeated in B. xvii. c. 24. — B. 
^2 Yarro, B. i. c. 2, says : " Hence it is tbat tbey sacrificed no goats to 
Minerva, on account of tbe ohve be tben explains wby tbe circunistance 
of tbe goat injuring tbe olive-tree was a reason for not offering it in sacri- 
fice to Minerva, tbe patroness of tbis tree. Ovid, on tbe otber band, in 
the Fasti, B. i. 1. 360, says tbat tbe goat was sacrificed to Baccbus, because 
it gnawed tbe vine. 
9^ We bave an account of tbe bog in Varro, B. ii. c. 4, from wbom most 
of Pliny's remarks are probably derived. — B. 
9* Varro, B. ii. c. 4, and Columella, B. vii. c. 9. fix upon tbe seventh 
year. — B. 
^•^ Varro, and Columella, ubi supra ^ recommend tbat tbe sow should not 
be allowed to rear more than eight young ones at each birth. — B. 
^ Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 13.— B. 
^"^ Varro, ubisupra^ says on the tenth day; Hardouin endeavours to prove 
that the number in Varro was originally five. — B. 
