The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1876-01-22
A DISSERTATION UPON ROAST PIG.
Ely CHARLES LAMB.

Ely CHARLES LAMB
Mankind, says Chinese manuscript
which my friend NJ. was obliging enough
to read and explain to me, for the first
seventy thousand ages, ate their meat raw,
clawing or biting it from the living animal,
just as they do in Abyssina to this day.
This period is not obscurely limited at by
their great Confucius, in the second chap,
ter Of his Mundane Mutations, where he
designates a kind of golden age by the
term Cho-fang, literally the cooks holy
day.
The manuscript goes on to say, that the
art of roasting, or rather broilng, (Which
take to be the elder brothcr,) was acct
IDENTIFY discovered in the manner following.
/ The swine helder, Ho ii, having gone out
/ into the woods one morning, as his manner
was, TO collect mast for bis hogs, left his
/ cottage in the care Of his eldest son Bo-bo,
a great lubberly boy, who, being fond of
! playing with fire, as youngsters of his age
/ commonly are, let some sparks escape into
Il bundle of straw, which, kindling quickly,
spread the conllagration over every part of
their poor mansion, till it was reduced to
ashes. Together with the cottage, "a sorry
antediluvian make-shifr of building, you
may think it, what WAS of much more
Importance, d fine litter of newt arrowed
pigs, no less than nine in number, persisted.
China pigs have been esteemed luxury all
over the East from the remotest periods We
read of. Bo-bo was in the utmost couSter-
nation, as you may think, not so much for
he sake OF the tenement, which his father
and he could easily build up again with
few dry branches, and the labor of an
hour or two, ut any time, as for the loss of
the pigs. While he was thinking what he
should say 10 his father, and wringing his
hands over the smoking remnants of one of
those untimely sufferers, an odour assailed
his nostrils, unlike any scent which he had
before experienced. What could it proceed
from mot from the burnt cottage-he
had smelt that smell before-indeed, this
was 10y no means the first accident of the
kind which lad occurred through the neg
ligcnce of this unlucky young iirebrand.
Much less did it resemble that of any known
herb, weed, or flower. 4 premonito!y
moistening at the same time overlooked his
neither lip. He knew not what to think.
He next stopped down to feel the pig, if
there were any signs of life in it. He
I I Il
piled them in his BOBBY fashion to his
mouth. Some of the crumbs Of the scorch-
ed skin had come away with his fingers,
aud for the first time in his life lin the
worlds life indeed, for before him no man
had known it, he tasted-crackling, Again
he felt and fumbIed at the pig. 1t did not
burn him so much now still he licked his
fingers from a sort of habit. The truth at
that it was the pig that smelt so, and the
pig that tasted so delicious: and, surren-
dcrins himself mp to the new born pleasure,
| he fell to tearing up whole handfuls of the
scorched skin with the flesh next it, and
was examining it down his throat in his
beastly fashion, when his sire entered amid
the smoking rafterS, armed with retribu-
tory cudgcl. and finding how affairs stood,
began to rain blows upon the young rogue's
shoulders, as thick as hai-st0nes, which
| 30 bo needed not any more than if they
had been flies. The tickling pleasure which
he experienced in his lower regions, had
| rendered him quite callous to any incon-
venences he might feel in those remote
| quarters. His father might lay on, bat he
could not beat him from his pig till he had
| fairly made an end of it, when, becoming
| little more sensible of his situation. some
thing like the following dialogue ensued:
You graceless whelp, what have you
got there dcvouring? Is it not enough
that ynu have burnt me down three houses
with your dogs tricks and be hanged to
you, but you must be eating fire, and
know not what-what have you got there,
say?'
"Oh, father, the pig, the pig, do come
and taste how nice the burnt pig eats
The cars of Ho ii tinglcd with horror.
| He cursed his son, and he cursed himself,
that ever he should beset son that should
eat burnt pig.
Bo- DO, whose scent was wonderfully
sharpcned since morning, soon raked out
another pig, and, fairly rendng it asunder,
| thrust the lesser half by main force into
the fists of lio ii, still shouting out, Eat,
eat, eat the burnt pig, father, only taste
| oh Lord, with such-like barbarous eisc-
| ulations, examining all the while as if he
would choke.
IIo ii trembled every joint while he
grasp7d the abominable thing, wavering
whether he should not put his son to death
| for an unnatural young monster, when the
! cracking scorching his fingers as it had
done his sons, and applying the same
remedy to them, he in his turn tasted some
. of its favour, which, make what sour
mouths he would for a pretence proved
not altogether displeasing to him. In con
clusion tfor the manuscript here is little
tedious,) both father and son fairly sat
down to the mess, and never left off till
they lad dispatched all that remained of
the litter.
Bc-bo was strictly enioined not to let the
secret escape, for the neghbors would Ger
tainly have stoned them for a couple of
abominable wretches, who could think of