intended) was forbidden by the Mosaic laws as food? Surely the same objection could not apply to this latter animal as to the hog. Whatever the motive might have been, both among the Egyptians and the Jews, which led them to forbid the use of swine's flesh on the table, a regard to the health of the people was not one. Locusts were permitted by the latter, but creeping things in general denied, as were also fishes destitute of apparent scales. Among the ancient Greeks and Romans, the flesh of the pig was held in great estimation. The art of rearing, breeding, or fattening these animals, was made a complete study; and the dishes prepared from the meat were dressed with epicurean refinement, and in many modes. One dish consisted of a young pig whole, stuffed with beccaficoes and other small birds, together with oysters, and served in wine and rich gravy. This dish was termed Porcus Trojanus, in allusion to the wooden horse, filled with men, which the Trojans introduced into their city—an unpleasant allusion, one would think, seeng that the Romans boasted their Trojan descent. However, such was the name of this celebrated and most expensive dish, so costly, indeed, that sumptuary regulations were passed respecting it.
Esteemed, however, as the flesh of the hog was by the Greeks and Romans, commonly as the animal was kept, and carefully and even curiously as it was fed, in order to gratify the appetites of the wealthy and luxurious, yet the swineherd, as may be inferred from the silence of the classic writers, and especially of the poets who painted rural life, was not held in much estimation. No gods or heroes are described as keeping swine. Theocritus never introduces the swineherd into his idyls, nor does Virgil admit him into his eclogues, among his tuneful shepherds. Homer indeed honors Eumæus, the swineherd of Ulysses, with many commendations; but he is a remarkable exception. Perhaps a general feeling prevailed, and still in some measure prevails, that the feeders of the gluttonous and wallowing swine became assimilated in habits and manners to the animals under their charge; or, it may be, that the prejudices of the Egyptians relative to this useful class of men, extended to Greece or Italy, giving a bias to popular opinion.
From the earliest times in our own island, 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. In an ancient Saxon grant, quoted
