The hog is a cosmopolite, adapting itself to almost every climate;
though its natural haunts--like those of the hippopotamus, the elephant,
the rhinoceros, and most of the thick-skinned animals--are in warm
countries. They are most abundant in China, the East Indies, and the
immense range of islands extending throughout the whole Southern and
Pacific oceans; but they are also numerous throughout Europe, from its
Southern coast to the Russian dominions within the Arctic.
As far back as the records of history extend, this animal appears to
have been known, and his flesh made use of as food. Nearly fifteen
hundred years before Christ, Moses gave those laws to the Israelites
which have given rise to so much discussion; and it is evident that, had
not pork been the prevailing food of that nation at the time, such
stringent commandments and prohibitions would not have been necessary.
The various allusions to this kind of meat, which repeatedly occur in
the writings of the old Greek authors, show the esteem in which it was
held among that nation; and it appears that the Romans made the art of
breeding, rearing, and fattening pigs a study. In fact, the hog was very
highly prized among the early nations of Europe; and some of the
ancients even paid it divine honors.
The Jews, the Egyptians, and the Mohammedans alone appear to have
abstained from the flesh of swine. The former were expressly denied its
use by the laws of Moses. "And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and
be cloven-footed, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean unto you."
Lev. xi. 7. Upon this prohibition, Mohammed, probably, founded his own.
For the Mosaic prohibition, various reasons have been assigned: the
alleged extreme filthiness of the animal; it being afflicted with a
leprosy; the great indigestibility of its flesh in hot climates; the
intent to make the Jews "a peculiar people;" a preventive of gluttony;
and an admonition of abstinence from sensual and disgusting habits.
At what period the animal was reclaimed from his wild State, and by what
nation, cannot be stated. From the earliest times, in England, the hog
has been regarded as a very important animal, and vast herds were tended
by swineherds, who watched over their safety in the woods, and collected
them under shelter at night. Its flesh was the staple article of
consumption in every household, and much of the wealth of the rich and
free portion of the community consisted in these animals. Hence bequests
of swine, with land for their support, were often made; rights and
privileges connected with their feeding, and the extent of woodland to
be occupied by a given number, were granted according to established
rules. Long after the end of the Saxon dynasty, the practice of feeding
swine upon the mast and acorns of the forest was continued till the
forests were cut down, and the land laid open for the plough.
Nature designed the hog to fulfil many important functions in a forest
country. By his burrowing after roots and the like, he turns up and
destroys the larvae of innumerable insects, which would otherwise injure
the trees as well as their fruit. He destroys the slug-snail and adder,
and thus not only rids the forests of these injurious and unpleasant
inhabitants, but also makes them subservient to his own nourishment, and
therefore to the benefit of mankind. The fruits which he eats are such
as would otherwise rot on the ground and be wasted, or yield nutriment
to vermin; and his diggings for earth-nuts and the like, loosens the
soil, and benefits the roots of the trees. Hogs in forest land may,
therefore, be regarded as eminently beneficial; and it is only the abuse
which is to be feared.
The hog is popularly regarded as a stupid, brutal, rapacious, and filthy
animal, grovelling and disgusting in all his habits, intractable and
obstinate in temper. The most offensive epithets among men are borrowed
from him, or his peculiarities. In their native state, however, swine
seem by no means destitute of natural affections; they are gregarious,
assemble together in defence of each other, herd together for warmth,
and appear to have feelings in common; no mother is more tender to her
young than the sow, or more resolute in their defence. Neglected as this
animal has ever been by authors, recorded instances are not wanting of
their sagacity, tractability, and susceptibility of affection. Among the
European peasantry, where the hog is, so to speak, one of the family, he
may often be seen following his master from place to place, and grunting
his recognition of his protectors.
The hog, in point of actual fact, is also a much more cleanly animal
than he has the credit of being. He is fond of a good, cleanly bed; and
when this is not provided for him, it is oftentimes interesting to note
the degree of sagacity with which he will forage for himself. It is,
however, so much the vogue to believe that he may be kept in any state
of neglect, that the terms "pig," and "pig-sty" are usually regarded as
synonymous with all that is dirty and disgusting. His rolling in the mud
is cited as a proof of his filthy habits. This practice, which he shares
in common with all the pachydermatous animals, is undoubtedly the
teaching of instinct, and for the purpose of cooling himself and keeping
off flies.
Pigs are exceedingly fond of comfort and warmth, and will nestle
together in order to obtain the latter, and often struggle vehemently to
secure the warmest berth. They are likewise peculiarly sensitive of
approaching changes in the weather, and may often be observed suddenly
leaving the places in which they had been quietly feeding, and running
off to their styes at full speed, making loud outcries. When storms are
overhanging, they collect straw in their mouths, and run about as if
inviting their companions to do the same; and if there is a shed or
shelter near at hand, they will carry it there and deposit it, as if for
the purpose of preparing a bed.
In their domesticated state, they are, undeniably, very greedy animals;
eating is the business of their lives; nor do they appear to be very
delicate as to the kind or quality of food which is placed before them.
Although naturally herbivorous animals, they have been known to devour
carrion with all the voracity of beasts of prey, to eat and mangle
infants, and even gorge their appetites with their own young. It is not,
however, unreasonable to believe that the last revolting act--rarely if
ever happening in a state of nature--arises more from the pain and
irritation produced by the state of confinement, and often filth, in
which the animal is kept, and the disturbances to which it is subjected,
than from any actual ferocity; for it is well known that a sow is always
unusually irritable at this period, snapping at all animals that
approach her. If she is gently treated, properly supplied with
sustenance, and sequestered from all annoyance, there is little danger
of this practice ever happening.
All the offences which swine commit are attributed to a disposition
innately bad; whereas they too often arise from bad management, or total
neglect. They are legitimate objects for the sport of idle boys, hunted
with curs, pelted with stones, often neglected and obliged to find a
meal for themselves, or wander about half-starved. Made thus the
Ishmaelites of our domestic animals, is it a matter of wonder that they
should, under such circumstances, incline to display Ishmaelitish
traits? In any well-regulated farm-yard, the swine are as tractable and
as little disposed to wander or trespass as any of the animals that it
contains.
The WILD BOAR is generally admitted to be the parent of the stock from
which all our domesticated breeds and varieties have sprung. This animal
is generally of a dusky brown or iron-gray color, inclining to black,
and diversified with black spots or streaks. The body is covered with
coarse hairs, intermixed with a downy wool; these hairs become bristles
as they approach the neck and shoulders, and are in those places so long
as to form a mane, which the animal erects when irritated. The head is
short, the forehead broad and flat, the ears short, rounded at the tips,
and inclined toward the neck, the jaw armed with sharp, crooked tusks,
which curve slightly upward, and are capable of inflicting fearful
wounds, the eye full, neck thick and muscular, the shoulders high, the
loins broad, the tail stiff, and finished off with a tuft of bristles at
the tip, the haunch well turned, and the leg strong. A full-grown wild
boar in India averages from thirty to forty inches in height at the
shoulder; the African wild boar is about twenty-eight or thirty inches
high.
The wild boar is a very active and powerful animal, and becomes fiercer
as he grows older. When existing in a state of nature, he is generally
found in moist, shady, and well-wooded situations, not far remote from
streams or water. In India, they are found in the thick jungles, in
plantations of sugar-cane or rice, or in the thick patches of high, long
grass. In England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, their resorts have
been in the woods and forests. This animal is naturally herbivorous,
and appears to feed by choice upon plants, fruits, and roots. He will,
however, eat the worms and larvae which he finds in the ground, also
snakes and other such reptiles, and the eggs of birds. They seldom quit
their coverts during the day, but prowl about in search of food during
twilight and the night. Their acute sense of smell enables them to
detect the presence of roots or fruits deeply imbedded in the soil, and
they often do considerable mischief by ploughing up the ground in search
of them, particularly as they do not, like the common hog, root up a
little spot here and there, but plough long, continuous, furrows.
The wild boar, properly so called, is neither a solitary nor a
gregarious animal. For the first two or three years, the whole herd
follows the sow, and all unite in defence against any enemies, calling
upon each other with loud cries in case of emergency, and forming in
regular line of battle, the weakest occupying the rear. When arrived at
maturity, the animals wander alone, as if in perfect consciousness of
their strength, and appear as if they neither sought nor avoided any
living creature. They are reputed to live about thirty years; as they
grow old, the hair becomes gray, and the tusks begin to show symptoms of
decay. Old boars rarely associate with a herd, but seem to keep apart
from the rest, and from each other.
The female produces but one litter in the year, much smaller in number
than those of the domestic pig; she carries her young sixteen or twenty
weeks, and generally is only seen with the male during the rutting
season. She suckles her young for several months, and continues to
protect them for some time afterward; if attacked at that time, she will
defend herself and them with exceeding courage and fierceness. Many
sows will often be found herding together, each followed by her litter
of young; and in such parties they are exceedingly formidable to man and
beast. Neither they nor the boar, however, seem desirous of attacking
any thing; and only when roused by aggression, or disturbed in their
retreat, do they turn upon their enemies and manifest the mighty
strength with which Nature has endowed them. When attacked by dogs, the
wild boar at first sullenly retreats, turning upon them from time to
time and menacing them with his tusks; but gradually his anger rises,
and at length he stands at bay, fights furiously for his life, and tears
and rends his persecutors. He has even been observed to single out the
most tormenting of them, and rush savagely upon him. Hunting this animal
has been a favorite sport, in almost all countries in which it has been
found, from the earliest ages.
[Illustration: THE WILD BOAR AT BAY.]
Wild boars lingered in the forests of England and Scotland for several
centuries after the Norman conquest, and many tracts of land in those
countries derived their name from this circumstance; while instances of
valor in their destruction are recorded in the heraldic devices of many
of their noble families. The precise period at which the animal became
exterminated there cannot be precisely ascertained. They had, however,
evidently been long extinct in the time of Charles I., since he
endeavored to re-introduce them, and was at considerable expense to
procure a wild boar and his mate from Germany. They still exist in Upper
Austria, on the Syrian Alps, in many parts of Hungary, and in the
forests of Poland, Spain, Russia, and Sweden; and the inhabitants of
those countries hunt them with hounds, or attack them with fire-arms, or
with the proper boar-spear.
All the varieties of the domestic hog will breed with the wild boar; the
period of gestation is the same in the wild and the tame sow; their
anatomical structure is identical; their general form bears the same
characters; and their habits, so far as they are not changed by
domestication, remain the same. Where individuals of the pure wild race
have been caught young and subjected to the same treatment as a domestic
pig, their fierceness has disappeared, they have become more social and
less nocturnal in their habits, lost their activity, and lived more to
eat. In the course of one or two generations, even the form undergoes
certain modifications; the body becomes larger and heavier; the legs
shorter, and less adapted for exercise; the formidable tusks of the
boar, being no longer needed as weapons of defence, disappear; the shape
of the head and neck alters; and in character as well as in form, the
animal adapts itself to its situation. Nor does it appear that a return
to their native wilds restores to them their original appearance; for,
in whatever country pigs have escaped from the control of man, and bred
in the wilderness and woods, not a single instance is on record in which
they have resumed the habits and form of the wild boar. They, indeed,
become fierce, wild, gaunt, and grisly, and live upon roots and fruits;
but they are, notwithstanding, merely degenerated swine, and they still
associate together in herds, and do not walk solitary and alone, like
their grim ancestors.