"an abomination", and not allowed to enter temples. The Gauls and Achæans, on the other hand, honoured the swineherd and ate pork freely, while in the Teutonic Valhal and the Celtic (Irish) Paradise, swine's flesh was the reward of heroes. In Scotland, however, the ancient prejudice against pork exists in localities even at the present day, and the devil is the "black pig". Professor Sir John Rhys, in his Celtic Folklore, records that in Wales the black sow of All-Hallows was similarly regarded as the devil. Even in parts of Ireland the hatred of pork still prevails, especially among certain families. This evidence, considered with that afforded by the study of skull forms, suggests that Mediterranean racial ideas may not yet be wholly extinct in our own country. "Strange to say," writes Mr. R. N. Bradley, in his recent work on Malta and the Mediterranean Race, "it is in these lands remote from the origin that some of the best indications of the (Mediterranean) race are to be found." The Gaulish treatment of the boar appears to be Asiatic. Brahma, in one of the Hindu creation myths, assumes the form of a boar, the "lord of creatures", and tosses up the earth with his tusks from the primordial deep.
Another myth which seems to have acquired a remote racial colouring is the particular form of the dragon story which probably radiated from Asia Minor. The hero is represented in Egypt by Horus, with his finger on his lips, in his character as Harpocrates, as the Greeks named this mysterious form of the god. The god Sutekh of Rameses II, as we show, was also a dragon slayer. So was Hercules, who fought with the Hydra, and Thor, who at Ragnarok overcame the Midgard Serpent. Sigurd, Siegfried, the Teutonic heroes, and the Celtic Finn-mac-Coul suck a finger or thumb after slaying the dragon, or one of its forms, and cooking part of it, to
