great herd of swine, 2,000 in number,
mentioned in the narrative of the possessed, was feeding in
the territory of Gadara, which belonged to the Decapolis;
and the prodigal son became a swineherd with the native of a
far country into which he had wandered; in neither of these
cases is there reason for thinking that the possessors of
these herds were Jews.[109]

Having failed in my search, so far, I took up the next book of
reference at hand, Kitto's "Cyclopaedia" (vol. iii. 1876). There, under
"Swine," the writer, Colonel Hamilton Smith, seemed at first to give
me what I wanted, as he says that swine "appear to have been
repeatedly introduced and reared by the Hebrew people,[110]
notwithstanding the strong prohibition in the Law of Moses (Is. lxv.
4)." But, in the first place, Isaiah's writings form no part of the
"Law of Moses"; and, in the second place, the people denounced by the
prophet in this passage are neither the possessors of pigs, nor
swineherds, but these "which eat swine's flesh and broth of abominable
things is in their vessels." And when, in despair, I turned to the
provisions of the Law itself, my difficulty was not cleared up.
Leviticus xi. 8 (Revised Version) says, in reference to the pig and
other unclean animals: "Of their flesh ye shall not eat, and their
carcasses ye shall not touch." In the revised version of Deuteronomy,
xiv. 8, the words of the prohibition are identical, and a skilful
refiner might possibly satisfy himself, even if he satisfied nobody
else, that "carcase" means the body of a live animal as well as a dead
one; and that, since swineherds could hardly avoid contact with their
charges, their calling was implicitly forbidden.[111] Unfortunately,
the authorised version expressly says "dead carcase"; and thus the
most rabbinically minded of reconcilers might find his casuistry
foiled by that great source of surprises, the "original Hebrew." That
such check is at any rate possible, is clear from the fact that the
legal uncleanness of some animals, as food, did not interfere with
their being lawfully possessed, cared for, and sold by Jews. The
provisions for the ransoming of unclean beasts (Lev. xxvii. 27) and
for the redemption of their sucklings (Numbers xviii. 15) sufficiently
prove this. As the late Dr. Kalisch has observed in his "Commentary"
on Leviticus, part ii. p. 129, note:--

Though asses and horses, camels and dogs, were kept by the