Page:The Hog.djvu/39

37 Nor are these cases without parallel, for Montfaucon informs us that Heliogabalus, the Roman emperor, trained boars, stags, and asses to run in his chariot; and Pennant states that in Minorca, and that part of Murray which lies between the Spey and Elgin, swine have been converted into beasts of draught, and that it is by no means unusual to see a cow, a sow, and two young horses yoked together in a plough, and that the sow is the best drawer of the four. In Minorca, the ass and hog may be regularly seen working together in turning up land.

Henderson gives another, and a very simple account, illustrative of the tractability of swine:

"About twenty-five years ago my father farmed very extensively in various parts of the kingdom, and upon one of his farms in Redkirk, in the parish of Gretna Green, Dumfriesshire, kept at times upward of one hundred swine. It so happened that the keeper of that flock was either taken unwell or abruptly left his service one harvest, when every creature able to work was employed in reaping. A brother and I, being the only idlers about the premises, the above flock was given in charge to us for a few days, until the proper keeper was found; we were then reluctantly obliged to march off with our 'hirsel' early every morning to a clover-field about a mile distant, with our dinners, books, and great-coats, &c., packed upon our backs: we, however, soon began to think it was a great hardship for us to be groaning under our loads while so many stout, able ponies were trotting along before us at their ease, and immediately set about training one of them to relieve us of our burdens, which we accomplished in a few days by occasionally scratching the animal and feeding it with bread, &c., out of our hands. It became at last so docile as to stand every morning until it received the burden girted upon it, and then marched on in the rear, which place it was trained to keep, as we had more than once lost our dinners when it was allowed to join the herd; and in the same manner we soon trained two or three more into carrying the baggage in turns. Having been so successful in this training exploit, we then thought it would be turning our punishment into pleasure if we could train each of us one to ride: this was no sooner thought of than commenced, and although we received many a tumble, yet we soon accomplished our design, and succeeded in breaking in each two or three chargers. At length our system became so complete, that we not only rode to and from the field, but whenever any of the herd were likely to stray, or go into some adjoining field of corn, &c., each alternately mounted his charger, and went off at full gallop to turn back and punish the transgressors.

"Such as were trained, seldom or never went astray, being always about hand, and in readiness to be mounted; in short, such days as my father was from home, it was not unusual for a group of servants