Page:The Hog.djvu/64

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62
THE HOG.

from, all human dwellings, where they grow very fat upon the abundance of oak and beech mast. In some parts where great numbers of swine are allowed to run almost wild, a triangular yoke is fixed round their necks to prevent them from breaking through fences.—Weld's Travels in North America. They are of a reddish-brown color, with round black spots; there are some quite wild, which any body is at liberty to shoot. These animals are never housed, even in the vicinity of Harmony. In the depth of winter the young ones often perish with cold, or are devoured by the mothers; and then dead swine will be seen lying about in all directions, some partly devoured by others. The negligence and want of feeling with which these animals are treated is very great, and consequently they can never be expected to prosper, or yield those advantages which might be derived from them under proper treatment.

OHIO.

Professor Silliman, in his account of Ohio, says that large numbers of hogs pass the winter in the woods quite independent of the assistance of man, subsisting on nuts and acorns. Single individuals of these are occasionally destroyed by bears and wolves, but a herd of ten or twenty hogs are more than a match for a wolf or panther. Indeed an old hunter once saw a panther spring from a tree into a drove of wood hogs, and scarcely had he touched the ground than the larger ones fell upon him with their tusks and the weight of their bodies, and killed and tore him in pieces in a few moments. Arcana of Science, 1828.

MEXICO.

In Mexico fine breeds of pigs are kept by many persons of wealth as an article of trade as well as of consumption, and the greatest possible care and attention are paid to the cleanliness and comfort of these animals; nay, more, the Mexican pigs may be said to possess the luxuries of life, for two Indian lads are kept to sing the grunting herd to sleep. These boys are chosen for the strength of their lungs and their taste and judgment in delighting the ears and lulling the senses of the porcine harmonists, and they take it by turns to chant throughout the whole day; nor does their performance appear to be unappreciated by their strange audience, but rather to afford exceeding delight and gratification.

HEBRIDES.

The New Hebrides, the Marquesas, the Friendly and Society Islands, and New Guinea, abound with a breed of swine closely resembling the Chinese, and these being almost the only domestic