# The Hog (Youatt)/Chapter 4

CHAPTER IV
The wild boar (sus scrofa; var. aper) 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
THE WILD BOAR.
with a downy wool; these hairs become bristles as they approach the neck and shoulders, and are here so long as to form a species of 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 towards the neck, the jaw armed with sharp crooked tusks ​which curve slightly upwards, 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 legs 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 he exists in a state of nature, he will usually be 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-canes, rice, or rhur, 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 larvæ which he finds in the ground, also snakes and other such reptiles, and the eggs of birds; and Buffon states that wild boars have been seen to devour the flesh of dead horses, while other authors accuse them of devouring hares, leverets, partridges, and indeed all kinds of small game, and feeding greedily upon carrion; but this has also been asserted to be only the case when they are pressed by hunger. 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. But 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 said to live about thirty years; as they grow old the hair becomes gray, and the tusks begin to show symptoms of decay. Old boars are rarely found associating with a herd, but seem to keep apart from the rest, and from each other.
The female produces but one litter in the year, and her litters are 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 after wards; if attacked then, 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 ones, and in such parties they are exceedingly formidable to man and beast. Neither they nor the boar, however, appear to want to attack any thing, but only when roused by aggression, or disturbed in their retreat, do they turn upon their enemies and manifest their mighty strength with which nature has endowed them, otherwise they pursue their way in a kind of solitary savage majesty. Occasionally when two males encounter each other, a fierce and furious battle will ensue, especially if this happens during the rutting season, when their passions are inflamed. 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 ire 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 the wild boar has been a favorite sport, in almost all the countries in which this animal was found, from the earliest ages. In all the ancient Grecian and Roman classical writers, some allusions to this animal will be found. Homer, whose vivid portraitures of the actions and habits of princes and warriors nearly thirty years ago, are known to almost every scholar, again and again refers to this savage denizen of the forests, nor can we deny ourselves the pleasure of extracting the following graphic lines:—
"Soon as the morn, new roll'd in purple light,
Pierc'd with her golden shafts the rear of night,
Ulysses, and his brave maternal race
The young Antolici, assay the chase;
Parnassus, thick perplex'd with horrid shades,
With deep-mouthed hounds the hunter troop invades;
What time the sun from ocean's peaceful stream
Darts o'er the lawn his horizontal beam.
The pack impatient snuff the tainted gale;
The thorny wilds the woodmen fierce assail;
And foremost of the Train, his cornel spear
Ulysses wav'd to rouse the savage war;
Deep in the rough recesses of the wood,
A lofty copse, the growth of ages stood;
Nor winter's boreal blast, nor thund'rous show'r,
Nor solar ray could pierce the shady bower,
With wither'd foliage strew'd, a heavy store!
The warm pavilion of a dreadful boar.
Rous'd by the hounds' and hunters' mingling cries,
The savage from his leafy shelter flies,
With fiery glare his sanguine eye-balls shine
And bristles high impale his horrid chine.
Young Ithacus advanced, defies the foe,
Poising his lifted lance in act to throw:
The savage renders vain the wound decreed,
And springs impetuous with opponent speed!
His tusks oblique he aim'd, the knee to gore;
Aslope they glanced, the sinewy fibres tore,
And bar'd the bone: Ulysses undismay'd,
Soon with redoubled force the wound repaid;
To the right shoulder-joint the spear applied,
His further flank with streaming purple dyed;
On earth he rush'd with agonizing pain.
With joy, and vast surprise, the applauding train
Viewed his enormous back extended on the plain."
The wild boar formed part of the sports, pageants, and wild-beast shows and fights of the Romans. On the return of Severus from Arabia and Egypt, in the tenth year of his reign, sixty wild boars fought each other; and in the year that Gordian the First was ædile, he entertained the people of Rome, at his own expense, once a month; and "on the sixth month there were two hundred stags, thirty wild horses, one hundred wild sheep, twenty elks, one hundred Cyprian bulls, three hundred red Barbary ostriches, thirty wild asses, and one hundred and fifty wild boars," given out to be hunted, and became the property of whosoever was fortunate enough to catch them.
During the middle ages, hunting the wild boar formed one of the chief amusements of the nobility, in most European countries. The dogs provided for this sport were of the slow, heavy kind, anciently known by the name of the "boarhound." None but the largest and oldest boars were hunted, and these afforded a very exciting and often dangerous sport, lasting for many hours; for when first the animal was "reared," he contented himself with slowly going away, just keeping ahead of his pursuers, and apparently caring but little for them, and pausing every half mile to rest himself, and give battle to his assailants, who are, however, too wary to advance upon him until he becomes tired; then he takes his final stand, and dogs and ​hunters close around him, and a mortal combat ensues, in which the beast eventually falls a victim.
In treatises on venery and hunting, the technical term for the boar in the first year is "a pig of the sounder;" in the second, "a hog;" in the third, "a hog steer;" and in the fourth, "a boar."
Many of the forests in our own country were infested by wild boars. The Anglo-Saxons seem, from the rude frescoes and prints which are handed down to us, to have hunted this animal on foot with no other weapon but the boar-spear, and attended by powerful dogs; and apparently with such success, that at the Norman conquest William the First thought it necessary to make some strict laws for the preservation of this beast of the chase. The period for hunting the wild boar among the Anglo-Saxons was in September. Howel Dha, the celebrated Welsh lawgiver, gave permission to his chief huntsman to chase the boar from the middle of November until the end of December.
These animals continued to linger in the forests of England and Scotland for several centuries after the Norman conquest, and many tracts of land have derived their name from this occurrence, while instances of valor in their destruction are recorded in the heraldic devices of many a noble family. Fitzstephen, a writer of the twelfth century, informs us that wild boars, stags, fallow-deer, and bulls, abounded in the vast forests which existed on the northern side of London in the time of Henry II. The learned Whittaker informs us that this animal roved at liberty over the woods of the parish of Manchester for many centuries after the Romans departed from that station, and hence the name of Barlow (boar-ground) came to be assigned to a district in the south-western portion. In Cumberland, the appellation "Wild Boar's Fell," still points out the haunts of this animal. The forests of Bernwood in Buckinghamshire, of Stainmore in Westmoreland, and those extensive woody districts which once existed in Hertfordshire and over the Chiltern Hills, were formerly peopled with wild boars, wolves, stags, and wild bulls. Many ancient Scottish writers, too, speak of the existence of this animal in the woods of Caledonia. In the county of Fife there exists a tract of country formerly called Muckross (which in the Celtic signifies Boar's Promontory); it is said to have been famous as the haunt of wild boars. One part of it was called the Boar Hills, which name has since been corrupted into Byro Hills. It lies in the vicinity of St. Andrew's, and in the cathedral church of that city two enormous boar's tusks were formerly to be seen chained to the high altar, in commemoration of an immense brute slain by the inhabitants after it had long ravaged the surrounding country.
The precise period at which the wild boar became exterminated in England and Scotland cannot be correctly ascertained. Master John ​Gifford and William Twety, who lived in the reign of Edward II., composed a book on the craft of hunting, part in verse and part in prose, and among the beasts mentioned in those hunted we find—
"To venery I cast me fyrst to go;
Of whiche foure beasts there be; that is to say,
The hare, the herte, the wulfhe the wild boor also."
In the time of Charles I. they had evidently been long extinct, for he endeavored to reintroduce them, and was at considerable expense in order to procure a wild boar and his mate from Germany. These are said to have been turned into the New Forest, where they propagated greatly. The breed commonly called "forest pigs," have many of the characteristics of the wild boar.
Throughout the whole of England, the boar's head was formerly a standard Christmas dish, served with many ceremonies, and ushered in by an ancient chorus chanted by all present, the words of which are preserved in " Ritson's Ancient Song:—
"The bore's heed in hand bring I,
With "garlands" gay and rosemary,
I pray you all synge merily,
Qui estis in convivio.   The bore's heed, I understande,
Is the "chefe" servyce in the lande
Loke where ever it be founde,
Servite cum cantico.
Be gladde, lordes, bothe more and lasse,
For this hath ordeyned our stewarde,
To chere you all this Christmasse,
The bore's heed with mustarde.'
Queen Margaret, wife of James IV. of Scotland, "at the first course of her wedding dinner," was served with a "wyld bore's head gylt within a fayr platter."
King Henry II. himself bore this ancient dish into the hall, attended with trumpeters and great ceremony, when his son was crowned.
The boar's head is to the present day placed upon the table of the Queen's College, Oxford, on Christmas day, but now it is neatly carved in wood instead of being the actual head of the animal. This ceremony is said to have originated in a tabender belonging to that college having slain a wild boar on Christmas-day, which had long infested the neighborhood of Oxford.
The abbot of St. Germain, in Yorkshire, was bound to send yearly a present of a boar's head to the hangman, which a monk was obliged to carry on his own. This rent was paid yearly, at the feast of St. Vincent, the patron of the Benedictines, and on that day the executioner took precedency in the procession of monks.
​France, too, formerly had its trackless forests, through which the grisly boar roved in savage grandeur its boar hunts its legends of sanguinary combats with these monsters. The "wild boar of Ardennes" has been the theme of many a lay and romance. But civilization, the increase of population, and the progress of agriculture, have here, too, been at work. Still, however, in the large tracts of forest land which yet exist and supply the towns with fuel, boars are still occasionally to be met with, although they cannot be regarded as so wild or ferocious as the ancient breed. At Chantilly, within forty miles of Paris, the late Prince of Condé, who died in 1830, kept a pack of hounds expressly for the purpose of hunting the boar; and some English gentlemen who visited the hunting palace in the summer of 1830, were informed by the huntsman that a few days previously he had seen no less than fourteen wild hogs at one time. But the good old "wild boar hunt," as once existed, with all its perils and excitements, is now extinct in France as well as in Germany. Where any traces of it remain, they resolve themselves into a battue of a most harmless description, which takes place in the parks of the princes or nobles. The drivers beat up the woods, the wild swine run until they come in contact with a fence stretched across the park for the purpose, and about the centre of which, at an opening in the wood, a sort of stage is raised, on which the sportsmen stand and fire at the swine as they run past. Germany being a country boasting forests of immense extent, was once the most celebrated of all nations for its wild boars and boar-hunts; and in many parts wild hogs are still abundant, and various methods are adopted to destroy them, as well for amusement as to turn their carcasses to account, which furnish those finely-flavored hams called Westphalian.
The most simple and effectual way is to find out the haunts of the boar, and place a matchlock on rests, well charged, and concealed by brambles near it. A rope is attached to the trigger, and carried below the rests to the trunk of a tree at some little distance, so as to intersect the animal's path to the forest. Over this the hog inevitably stumbles, and thus discharges the piece, and receives the ball in the neck or shoulder.
The ordinary method of shooting the hog in Germany is as follows:—
The huntsman, jäger, goes out with an ugly but useful animal, not unlike a shepherd's dog, but smaller, which is in German language called "a sow-finder." The business of this creature is to seek the hog, and so well trained is he that no other animal will turn him from that particular scent. On meeting with the object of his search he gives tongue incessantly, and with active but cautious irritation pursues the boar till he is at bay; then, by continual teasing, he manages to turn him sideways to his master, the shoulder ​affording the best aim for readily disabling him. In this situation the sagacious dog contrives to keep him until his master fires; then if the wounded boar makes off, the boar-hound (a species of blood-hound ) is let loose, who pursues him for miles, giving tongue, nor will he leave him even if other boars come in the way.
At the wild boar park of the Emperor of Austria, which is at Hüttelsdorf, near Vienna, Mr. Howitt states that he saw "numbers of swine of all ages and sizes, from the grisly old boar to the sow and her troop of suckling young ones. Here some grim old fellow as black as jet, or of a sun-burnt and savage gray, lay basking in the deep grass, and at our approach uttered a deep guff, and starting up, bolted into the wood. Others were lying their length under the broad trees, others scampering about with cocked tails. The sows and their young seemed most savage and impatient of our presence. Some were tame enough to come at the whistle of the keeper, and scores ran voraciously when he shook one of the wild cornel-trees, which grew plentifully in the forest. This is a tree as large as an apple-tree, bearing, in autumn, fruit of about the size of cherries, and of a coral red color. The swine are very fond of it, and as the trees were shook, and it pattered to the ground, they came running on all sides, and stood in the thickets eager for our departure, when they rushed ravenously forward and devoured it."
"After all," he continues, "the wild swine here can present but a faint idea of what they were in their ancient wilds. They are all of the true breed, and cannot for a moment be confounded with the tame variety; there is the tusked mouth, the thick fore-quarter, the narrow hind-quarter, the mane, the coarse bristles, the speed of gait, indicative of the wild breed, but they appeared tame and pigmy in comparison with the huge savage monsters bred in the obscure recesses of deep forests, and unacquainted with the sight of man.
"Hunters tell us that, notwithstanding the orders of Government to exterminate swine in the open forests, on account of the mischief they do to cultivated land, there are numbers in the forests in Hanover and Westphalia, huge, gaunt, and ferocious as ever. These will snuff the most distant approach of danger, and with terrific noises rush into the densest woods; or surrounding a solitary and unarmed individual, especially a woman or a child, will scour round and round them, coming nearer and nearer at every circle, until at last, bursting in upon them, they tear them limb from limb and devour them. Tame swine, which are herded in these forests and become mixed in breed with the wild, acquire the same blood-thirsty propensities, and will, in their herds, surround and devour persons in a similar manner."
The wild breed abound in Upper Austria, on the Styrian Alps, and in many parts of Hungary. In the latter country, a recent author speaking of them, says: "These animals have lost some little ​of their natural ferocity, but they still fly at the approach of strangers, and in their form and habits preserve all the characteristics of the true wild boar, from which stock they are descended without intermixture of any other breed. I am told, too, that their flesh has all the peculiar flavor of the wild boar. This animal, in a completely savage state, is now becoming very scarce in Hungary, and is only met with in the most secluded forests, and in the recesses of the Carpathian mountains.
The forests of Poland, Spain, Russia, and Sweden, still contain animals of the wild boar tribe, and the inhabitants of these countries hunt them with hounds, or attack them with fire-arms, or with the proper boar-spear.
But the most exciting accounts we now have of this sport are furnished by our countrymen in the East, who diversify their other hunts and field-sports by occasionally chasing the wild hog. Captain Williamson, in his graphic volume, gives some very animated accounts of the perils of this chase, as does also Mr. Johnston; and if any thing could reconcile us to the pursuing, tormenting, and shedding the blood of an animal who only puts forth his strength in self-defence, it would be the bravery and presence of mind exhibited by some of the huntsmen. One or two quotations will illustrate the habits of the wild hogs of India, as well as the mode in which they are hunted.
"The pace and powers of 'the wild hog' are not to be estimated by any comparison with those of the tame one. Persons unacquainted with the vigor and speed of the jungle hog will be surprised to learn that it requires a good horse to keep near a moderately-sized hog, and that it is by no means uncommon to see what is considered as a moderately-sized animal overthrow many horses in succession. The fact is, that from April to November, during which period the canes and corn are off the grounds, the wild hogs are compelled to wander from the copses and long grass jungles in which they take refuge, to greater distances, in search of food, by which means they are not only kept low in flesh, but, from their daily exercises, get confirmed in good wind, and seem rather to attack the hunter than to run away; and this is not merely during the space of a few hundred yards, but for a considerable distance. I recollect being one of four well-mounted riders, who were completely distanced in a chase of about three miles.
"In crossing the country early in June, about sunrise, we saw at a considerable distance a hog trotting over a plain to his cover, which was a large extent of brambles and copse, from which we could not hope to drive him. As there appeared no chance of overtaking him, we agreed to let him proceed unmolested, and to be at the place whence he had come by daybreak on the next morning. We accordingly were up early on the following morning, ​anticipating the pleasure of being at his heels, but on arriving at the spot in which we had observed him on the preceding day we found him nearer to his cover than before.
"Knowing that when hogs take the alarm they are apt to change their route and their hours, we were not surprised at this manœuvring. We were still earlier on the third morning, when we took our positions nearer his place of nightly resort, and had the satisfaction to find that we were in time to bear him company homeward. Here, however, some delay took place. The hog on his first breaking from the small jungle where we awaited him, and through which he had to pass, after glutting himself in a swamp among some rye, sown extremely thick for transplanting, found that he was watched. He, therefore, after trotting out a hundred yards, gave a sort of snort and returned. This was precisely what we wished for.
"It was not yet day, and the desire to intercept our prey had made us push forward so as to place our people far behind. They, however, came up to the number of a hundred, and after beating the cover for a short time, our friend took fairly to the plain.
"As we were careful not to dispirit, and had cautiously kept from that side on which we wished him to bolt, he gained upon us a little. He had to go at least three miles, and the whole of the plain was laid out in paddy, or rice fields.
"The hog kept a-head the whole way, so that there was no possibility of our throwing a distant spear.
"The swine generally establish themselves in cane or grain plantations, when these are high and afford good shelter, and here they live for several months; but about the middle of March, or, at the latest, the beginning of April, they are obliged to shift their quarters, as the cane and grains are generally cut about that time.
"Hogs are often found in March with three or four inches of fat on the chines and shoulders.
"It usually requires a great number of persons to drive the hogs out of the sugar-canes, on account of their extent.
"The hog, being forced from his covert, is crowded upon by several horsemen with spears, which they use in the manner of javelins. They pursue the animal at speed as he makes his way to the nearest covert, darting their spears into his body as they come up to him.
"Many may be seen with scars, evidently the result of wounds received on former occasions, and such are extremely difficult to deal with. They will break out of the line repeatedly, dash at all they meet with, and eventually create such terror as effectually to discourage the beaters, who thence get into groups, and, though they continue their vociferation, act so timorously as to render it expedient to withdraw them for the purpose of trying a fresh cover. It is ​very common to see a plough at work at the very edge of the canes where the villagers are beating for hogs; and as the bullocks employed are extremely skittish and wild, it often happens that they take fright and run off with the plough, which frequently is broken to pieces. The ploughman, alarmed equally with his cattle, also takes to flight, as do all the peasants who may see the bristling animal galloping from his haunt."
Mr. Johnson describes another scene eminently charisteristic of the desperate fierceness and strength of the wild hog. He was one of a party of eight persons, on a sporting excursion near Patna on the banks of the Soane. Returning one morning from shooting, they met with a very large boar, which they did not fire at or molest, as, although several of the party were fond of hunting, they had no spears with them. The next morning they all sallied forth in search of him, and just as they had arrived at the spot where they had seen him the day before, they discovered him at some distance galloping off towards a grass jungle on the banks of the river.
They pressed their horses as fast as possible, and were nearly up with him when he disappeared all at once.
The horses were then nearly at their full speed, and four of them could not be pulled up in time to prevent their going into a deep branch of the river, the banks of which were at least fourteen or fifteen feet high. Happily, there was no water in, or any thing but fine sand, and no person was hurt. One of the horses, that was exceedingly vicious, got loose, attacked the others, and obliged them and all the rest, to recede.
A few days afterwards they went again, early in the morning, in pursuit of the same hog, and found him farther off from the grass jungle, in a rhur-field, from which with much difficulty they drove him into a plain, where he stood at bay challenging the whole party, and boldly charging every horse that came within fifty yards of him, grunting loudly as he advanced.
"The horse I rode," says Mr Johnston, "would not go near him, and when I was at considerable distance off, he charged another horse with such ferocity that mine reared and plunged in so violent a manner as to throw me off. Two or three others were dismounted at nearly the same time; and though there were many horses present that had been long accustomed to the sport, not one of them would stand his charges. He fairly drove the whole party off the field, and gently trotted on to the grass jungle, foaming and grinding his tusks."
In Morocco the wild boar is the most common and prolific of all the ferocious animals found there; the sow produces several large litters in the year; and were it not that the young form the favorite food of the lion, the country would be overrun with these animals.
​In the woods of South America there are abundance of wild swine, possessing all the ferocity of the boar. The following fearful scene occurred in Columbia. A party of six hunters had gone out on a sporting expedition. They fell in with a herd of swine, upon which four of them, less experienced than the others, immediately fired, and the swine advanced fiercely to attack them. The four young men, intimidated, took to flight without warning their companions, or considering the danger to which they were exposed. They climbed up into some trees, but the other two were quickly surrounded by the swine. They made a long and desperate defence with their lances, but were at length dragged down. One of them was torn to pieces, and the other dreadfully lacerated, and left for dead by the swine, who now watched the four fugitives in the trees until sunset. Then, probably yielding to the calls of nature, they retired. The surviving hunters then came down and assisted their wounded companion into the canoe, and carried off the remains of the unfortunate man who had fallen in this horrible encounter. (Cochrane's Columbia, vol. i.)
We have entered thus much at length into the history of the wild boar, because no one can for a moment doubt that it is the parent stock from which the domesticated breeds of swine originally sprung; the well-known fact that all kinds breed with the boar, is in itself a sufficient testimony; but to this we can add that the period of gestation is the same in the wild and tame sow; the anatomical structure is identical; the general form bears the same characters; and the habits, so far as they are not altered 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 noctural 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 position. 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 woods and wildernesses, there does not appear to be a single instance recorded by any naturalist in which they have resumed the habits and form of the wild boar. They become fierce, wild, gaunt, and grisly, and live upon roots and fruits; but they are still merely degenerated swine, and they still associate together in herds, nor "walk the glade in savage solitary grandeur" like their grim ancestors.
​We shall now proceed to notice some of the accounts given of the swine found in various parts of the world, previous to entering upon a consideration of the breeds peculiar to our own country.