among themselves. But as no pig will read these pages we need not treat of that point. During the Middle Ages pigs and sows were frequently brought before the criminal courts for offenses committed by them — they seem to have been particularly fond of attacking, mangling and killing children. In 1386 the judge at Falaise condemned a sow to be mutilated in the leg and head, and afterwards to be hung, for having torn the face and arm and then killing a child. This sow was executed in the public square clothed in a man's dress. The execution cost ten sous six deniers tournois, besides a new glove for the headsman. On the tenth of January, 1457, a sow was convicted of the murder of an infant named Jehan Martin, of Savigny, and sentenced to be hanged; her six sucklings were also in cluded in the indictment as accomplices, but in default of any positive proof that they had assisted in mangling the deceased, they were restored to their owner, on condition that he should give bail for their appearance should further evidence be forthcoming to prove their complicity in their mother's guilt. About a month later, on the Friday after the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, the sucklings were again brought into court, and as their owner, Jehan Bailly, declined to be answerable for their future good conduct, they were declared forfeited to the noble damsel Katherine de Barnault, Lady of Savigny. In the "Annuaire du Department de 18 l'Aisne (1812)" are full details of the sen tence pronounced upon a hog, June 14, 1494, by the mayor of St. Martin de Laon, for having defacie and strangled a child in its cradle. The sentence concludes thus : "We, in detestation and horror of this crime, and in order to make an example and satisfy justice, have declared, judged, sentenced, pronounced and appointed, that

the said hog, being detained a prisoner and confined in the said abbey, shall be, by the executioner, hung and strangled upon a gib bet, near and adjoining the gallows in the jurisdiction of the said monks, being near their copyhold of Avin. In witness of which we have sealed this present with our seal." The sealing was with red wax, and upon the back of the paper is written, " Sen tence on a hog, executed by justice; brought into the copyhold of Clermont, and strangled upon a gibbet at Avin." In 1497 a sow was condemned to be beaten to death for having eaten the chin of a child belonging to the village of Charonne, in France. The sentence declared that the flesh of the sow should be thrown to the dogs, and that the owner of the animal and his wife should make a pilgrimage to Notre Dame de Pontoise, where, being the day of Pentecost, they should cry, " Mercy," after which they were to bring back a certificate that this had been complied with. Lionnois, in his " Histoire de Nancy," gives a full report of the law proceedings on the delivery of a condemned pig to the execu tioner of Nancy, in 1572. Among the musty records of the past we even find the charges of such executions, for instance, " For expenses within the jail, 6 sols; Item, to the executioner who came from Paris to Meulan to put the sentence in execution by the command of our lord the Bailiff and of the King's Attorney, 54 sols; Item, for carriage that conveyed her to ex ecution, 6 sols; Item, for ropes to tie and haul her up, 2 sols 8 deniers; Item, for gloves, 12 deniers; amounting in the whole to 69 sols 8 deniers." This was a bill in 1403. (A sol was a sou; a denier the twelfth part of one.) The conduct of the pig in the court room was usually disrespectful and militated against him; the records show that while