The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1881-01-15
Our Olio.
The Origin of Roast Pig.


which my friend was obliging enough tt
read and explain to me, for the first sew
|, enty thousand ages ate their meat raw
clawing or biting it from the living ami
NAL, just as they do in Abyssinia to TIM
day. This period is not obscurely hintee
at by their great Confucius in the seconc
chapter of his Mundane Mutations, where
he designates kind of golden age by the
term Chofaug, literally the Cooks Holl
day. The manuscript goes on to say, thai
the art of roasting, or rather brolllng
(which I take to be the elder brother)
was accidentally discovered in the manner
following. The swineherd Ho-ti, having
gone out into the woods one morning, as
his manner was, to collect mast for his
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 bundle of straw,
which, kindling quickly, spread the con-
fagration over every part OF their poor
mansion, till it was reduced to ashes.
Together with the cottage, "a sorry antedi-
luvian make shift of building, you may
think it, what was of much more import
ance, fine litter of new-farrowed pigs, no
less than nine in number, perished. China
pigs have been esteemed luxury all over
the East, from the remotest periods that
we read of. Bo-bo was in the utmost con-
sternation, as you may think, not SO much
for the 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, at any time, as for the
loss of the pigs. While he was thinking
what he should say to his father, and
wringing his hands over the smoking ren-
nants of one of those untimely sufferers,
an odor assailed his nostrils, unlike any
scent which he had before experienced.
What could it proceed from ?-not from
the burnt cottage-he had smelt that smell
before, Indeed, this was by no means the
first accident of the kind which had oc-
Cured through the negligence of this un-
lucky young frebrand. Much less did it
resemble that of any known herb, weed, or
flower. A premonitory moistening at the
same time overfowed his neither lip. He
knew not what to think. He next stoop-
ed down to feel the pig, if there were any
signs of life in it. He burnt his fingers,
and to cool them he applied them in his
BOBBY fashion to his mouth. Some of the
crumbs of the scorched skin had come
away with his fingers, and for the first
time in his life Gin the worlds life, in
indeed, for before him no man had known
it, he tasted cracking! Again he felt
and fumbled at the pig. 1t did not burn
him so much now, still he licked his fin
gers from sort of habit. The truth at
length broke into his slow understanding
that it was the pig that smelt so, and the
pig that tasted so delicious and surren-
dering himself up to the newborn pleas
ure, he fell to tearing up whole handfuls
of the scorched skin with the flesh nextit,
and was examining it down his throat in
his beastly fashion, when his sire entered
amid the smoking rafters, armed with
retributory cudgel, and finding how affairs
stood, began to rain blows upon the young
rogue's shoulders, as thick as hail-stones,
which Bobo needed not any more than if
they had been flies. The tickling pleas
ure, which he experienced in his lower
regions, had rendered him quite callous to
any inconvenience he might feel in those
remote quarters. His father might lay
on, but 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, something like the following
dialogue ensued -
"You graceless whelp, what have you
got there devouring? Is it not enough
that you have burnt me down three houses
with your dogs tricks, and be hanged to
you but you must be eating fire, and I
know not what? What have you got
there, 1 say?"
80 father, the pig, the pig do come
and taste how nice the burnt pig eats.
The ears of Ho-ti tingled with horror.
He cursed his son, and he cursed himself
that ever he should beget son that should
eat burnt pig.
Bo bo, whose scent was wonderfully
sharpened since morning, soon raked out
another pig, and fairly rending it asunder,
thrust the lesser half by main force into
the fists of Ho-ti, still shouting out, "Eat,
eat, eat the burnt pig, father, only taste
o Lord with such-like barbarous ejac-
ulations, cramming all the while as if he
would choke.
Ho-ti trembled in every joint while he
grasped the abominable thing, wavering
whether he should not put his son to
death for an unnatural monster, when the
cracking scorching his fingers, as it had
done his sons, and applying the same rem
edy to them, he in his turn tasted some of
its favor, which, make what sour mouths
he would for pretence, proved not alto
gether displeasing to him. In conclusion
for the manuscript here is little tedious,
both father and son fairly sat down to the
mess, and never left off till they had des-
patched all that remained of the litter.
Ro.ho was strictlv anininad not IN lat