The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-05-13
BRER HOG.
A Wise Beast, "a weather Prophet and
Fine Fighter When Wild.

A Wise Beast, "a weather Prophet and
Fine Fighter When Wild.
New York Sun.
Hogs are not stupid-the popular impress
sion to the contrary notwithstanding In
weather wise. Negroes say, "Oie Brer
Hawg, he kin see de wind" Certainly Brer
Hogs behavior is sometimes such as to
give color of reason TO the belief. The
wind may blow softly, the sun shine warm
in clear blue sky. but if that mysterious
sense warns the hog of change, he gets
ready for it upon the instant.
Hogs in herd are tremendously gregart-
Gus, they feed and range and sleep in
gangs Their leaf-beds are heaDed together
as soon as the frost falls. The older animals
begin the heaping, and the pigs quickly
fall in line. At first the mound is moderate,
but when cold or snow threatens it grows
as IL by magic. Not only leaves, but low,
bushy brush and strawy sedge are gnawed
off and carried in great mouthfuls to re-
inforce the bed. If twenty hogs are to
sleep in ii il will be breast high to a man
before the accumulation ceases. Then as
soon as feeding is over the hogs make a
dash for 1t, burrow under and bury them
selves, head and ears, in it's depths. They
lie cross-and-pile, any fashion, indeed,
which brings them as close together as pos
sible. As the cold increases in the night,
those upon the outer edge push under and
between their sleeping mates, thus rousing
them to squeal discomfort.
A sucking sow makes her own bed and
drives away from 1t everything except her
pigs. She heaps 1T conically, gets upon top,
works herself halfway down in it, then
whirls around and around, until she has
followed for herself and her piggies snug
nest After she lies down in it, with her
pigs strung along her side, she rises upon
her forelegs, and with her snout f1irts the
bed-stuf all over her litter.
Upon a bitter day the pigs do not leave
the bed. Hogs of every sort indeed lie
ell ~ fl.4 1rsx
by hunger.
A curious fact is that a pig will not
squeal if caught and lifted by the tail.
Darky pig-abstractors take advantage of
under the noses of their lawful owners.
But woe betide even the most law-abiding
captor who seizes upon pig by leg or ear
round the middle. Piggy not only
squeals, and tries to bite but his squealng
calls every other hog within hearing to a
fierce attempt at rescue. Bristling, gnaSh-
ing their tusks, foaming and red-eyed, they
charge down upon the ravager. If he runs,
they run after; If he stands, they ring him
about, uttering the while a peculiar sound,
something between a squeal and cultural
roar. Oddly enough, sucking mothers are
hardly so fierce as other members of the
herd. But 1t is the part of wisdom to drop
your pig and run, as, otherwise, you are
ir danger of serious injury.
Sight of vicious or even teasing dog
no doubt, brings back to the herd hog a
memory of the time when his forbears
fought off wolves. For he adopts the same
method of defense-forms a ring with his
stronger companions. inside of which the
weaker are sheltered The ring faces out,
bristling and uttering its cultural war cry.
If the dog leaps at 1t il swiftly becomes a
longish oval, reaching out to meet and rend
him.
Inside the foreleg every hog has five
curious, small indentations, whose use no
anatomist has ever discovered Tradition
calls them the marks of the devil, which,
entering into herd of swine, made them
rush violently down into the sea. They are,
perhaps, an eighth of an inch I'm depth,
and as big around as small pea. Negroes
say that it,, by chance, they become
clogged, the pig will not thrive, and the ex-
perience of many hog-raisers goes to con-
firm the saying.
Hogs learn quickly to discriminate. They
will set up a prodigious squealing when
hungry at sight of their habitual feeder,
yet pay no attention to any other person.
They also learn their own calls, as dis
tnguished from those of other animals.
Up in the region of mountains and moon
shine whisky, hogs are called with long
wooden trumpets, whose sound is like that
OF hunting horn, but more powerful and
carrying further. Revenue vigilance is, of
course, the horns reason of being-its
blasts do not awaken suspicion would
the usual calling. The hogs ranging miles
or mountain side come when they hear the
trumpet little before daylight, for their
beloved swill, but cannot be deceived by
blasts of any other horn.
oiHS once upon a time three pet
pigs were trained to come for their morn
ing mush and milk at the sound of Dixie"
most vigorously sung. They never fail to
hear and heed, even though a half a mile
on, yet paid no attention whatever to any
other song or sound. Another pig, friend
less and astray, fell into the way of feed
ing with the cows in pen, and until he was
transmitted into bacon answered only to
the call of Sock GOVT Soo-ook.' And still
another learned to regulate feeding by the
sound OF the big farm bell and came grunt-
ing and galloping to the trough whenever
he heard its clamor
While a fat pig is about the LATEST and
the clumsiest of created things, one lean
and hungry is among the most active in
mind and body. A fearless forager, the
renee that turns him has to be almost bull
let ana bomb proof. He learns to climb
post and rail as a dog climbs, to throw
down snake rail after the manner of
breachy cattle. to evade barbed wire as
shrewdly as politician evades the fulfill
ment or a promise and to wcrm his way
through everything in manner to justify
the angry farmer, who said: 81 don't know
about camel going through the eye of a
needle. but If 1t was hog I'd bet on his
No other animal has been more modified
by civilization, and aone reverts more
quickly to the original wild state. Three
generations OF running wild suffice to turn
the smooth, round, short-snouted Berkshire
all meat, almost no feet, into the razor
back or hazel-spltter, thin, lank. leggy,
lop-eared. sharp-snouted. an 1shmael in
bristles, running like deer, IL running be
possible. fighting as only a wild hog can
fight when battle is imperative. The tusks
which have been half obliterated in the
process OF civilization get back size and
strength At a year old they are formida-
bic, at two murderous, at three or five
more deadly than sword They afford a
certain index Of age up to six years, but
are commonly broken in fights long before
that time. Wild boars are very fll-tem-
pered. and when worsted In fighting often