refuse of all sorts which was thrown out of the
houses. One of the sons of Louis le Gros, while passing, on the 2nd of
October, 1131, in the Rue du Martroi, between the Hotel de Ville and the
church of St. Gervais, fractured his skull by a fall from his horse,
caused by a pig running between that animal's legs. This accident led to
the first order being issued by the provosts, to the effect that breeding
pigs within the town was forbidden. Custom, however, deep-rooted for
centuries, resisted this order, and many others on the same subject which
followed it: for we find, under Francis I., a license was issued to the
executioner, empowering him to capture all the stray pigs which he could
find in Paris, and to take them to the Hotel Dieu, when he should receive
either five sous in silver or the head of the animal.

It is said that the holy men of St. Antoine, in virtue of the privilege
attached to the popular legend of their patron, who was generally
represented with a pig, objected to this order, and long after maintained
the exclusive right of allowing their pigs to roam in the streets of the
capital.

The obstinate determination with which every one tried to evade the
administrative laws on this subject, is explained, in fact, by the general
taste of the French nation for pork. This taste appears somewhat strange
at a time when this kind of food was supposed to engender leprosy, a
disease with which France was at that time overrun.

[Illustration: Fig. 86.--Stall of Carved Wood (Fifteenth Century),
representing the Proverb, "Margaritas ante Porcos," "Throwing Pearls
before Swine," from Rouen Cathedral.]

Pigs' meat made up generally the greater part of the domestic banquets.
There was no great feast at which hams, sausages, and black puddings were
not served in profusion on all the tables; and as Easter Day, which
brought to a close the prolonged fastings of Lent, was one of the great
feasts, this food formed the most important dish on that occasion. It is
possible that the necessity for providing for the consumption of that day
originated the celebrated ham fair, which was and is still held annually
on the Thursday of Passion Week in front of Notre-Dame, where the dealers
from all parts of France, and especially from Normandy and Lower
Brittany, assembled with their swine.

Sanitary measures were taken in Paris and in the various towns in order to
prevent the evil effects likely to arise from the enormous consump