Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/149

CH. IX.] excitement of the moment, whilst it sweetens, strengthens, and embalms the prospects of the future.

Wrapped in these reflections, I passed a large drove of pigs; the largest I had ever seen in point of number, but the smallest with regard to size. They were of the narrow-haunched China breed, greatly extenuated towards the loins and tail, or, as Shakespeare says, with "marvellous thin hams", particularly hog-backed and long-snouted, but they looked clean and healthy, and were destined for the market of the metropolis; in which the consumption of them is very great, as mutton is only used as a dainty, on days of festivity; the sheep being preserved on account of their wool, and the swine being thus obliged to supply their place in the shambles. The aversion which the people feel towards Judaism may, perhaps, have influenced them in this propensity to swine flesh, reversing the proverb of "love me, love my cat"; for,