are collected into a compact body and driven home
for a night's repose in their several sties.

The amount of intelligence and docility displayed by the pigs in
these mountain regions, is much more considerable than that
usually allowed to this animal, and the manner in which these
immense herds of swine are collected, and again distributed,
without an accident or mistake, is a sight both curious and
interesting; for it is all done without the assistance of a dog,
or the aid even of the human voice, and solely by the crack of
the long-lashed and heavily-loaded whip, which the swine-herd
carries, and cracks much after the fashion of the French
postilion; and which, though he frequently cracks, waking a
hundred sharp echoes from the woods and rocks, he seldom has to
use correctionally; the animal soon acquiring a thorough
knowledge of the meaning of each crack; and once having felt its
leaded thong, a lasting remembrance of its power. At early dawn,
the swine-herd takes his stand at the outskirts of the first
village, and begins flourishing through the misty air his
immensely long lash, keeping a sort of rude time with the crack,
crack, crack, crack, crack, crack of his whip. The nearest pigs,
hearing the well-remembered sound, rouse from their straw, and
rush from their sties into the road, followed by all their
litters. As soon as a sufficient number are collected, the drove
is set in motion, receiving, right and left, as they advance,
fresh numbers; whole communities, or solitary individuals,
streaming in from all quarters, and taking their place, without
distinction, in the general herd; and, as if conscious where
their breakfast lay, without wasting a moment on idle
investigation, all eagerly push on to the mountains. In this
manner village after village is collected, till the drove not
unfrequently consists of several thousands. The feeding-ground
has, of course, often to be changed, and the drove have
sometimes to be driven many miles, and to a considerable height
up the mountain, before the whip gives the signal for the
dispersion of the body and the order to feed, when the herdsman
proceeds to form himself a shelter, and look after his own
comfort for the rest of the day. As soon as twilight sets in,
the whip is again heard echoing the signal for muster; and in