Nafferton filed that， and asked what sort of people lookedafter Pig. This started an ethnological excursus on swineherds，and drew from Pinecoffin long tables showing the proportionper thousand of the caste in the Derajat. Nafferton filedthat bundle， and explained that the figures which he wantedreferred to the Cis-Sutlej states， where he understood thatPigs were very fine and large， and where he proposed to starta Piggery. By this time， Government had quite forgotten theirinstructions to Mr. Pinecoffin.
They were like the gentlemen， in Keats’ poem， who turnedwell-oiled wheels to skin other people. But Pinecoffin wasjust entering into the spirit of the Pig-hunt， as Nafferton wellknew he would do. He had a fair amount of work of his own toclear away； but he sat up of nights reducing Pig to five placesof decimals for the honor of his Service. He was not going toappear ignorant of so easy a subject as Pig.
Then Government sent him on special duty to Kohat， to“inquire into” the big-seven-foot， iron-shod spades of thatDistrict. People had been killing each other with those peacefultools； and Government wished to know “whether a modifiedform of agricultural implement could not， tentatively and asa temporary measure， be introduced among the agriculturalpopulation without needlessly or unduly exasperating theexisting religious sentiments of the peasantry.”
Between those spades and Nafferton’s Pig， Pinecoffin wasrather heavily burdened.
Nafferton now began to take up “（a） The food-supply ofthe indigenous Pig， with a view to the improvement of itscapacities as a flesh-former. （b） The acclimatization of theexotic Pig， maintaining its distinctive peculiarities.” Pinecoffinreplied exhaustively that the exotic Pig would become mergedin the indigenous type； and quoted horse-breeding statistics toprove this.
The side-issue was debated， at great length on Pinecoffin’sside， till Nafferton owned that he had been in the wrong，and moved the previous question. When Pinecoffin hadquite written himself out about flesh-formers， and fibrins，and glucose and the nitrogenous constituents of maize andlucerne， Nafferton raised the question of expense. By thistime Pinecoffin， who had been transferred from Kohat， haddeveloped a Pig theory of his own， which he stated in thirtythreefolio pages—all carefully filed by Nafferton. Who askedfor more.
These things took ten months， and Pinecoffin’s interest inthe potential Piggery seemed to die down after he had statedhis own views. But Nafferton bombarded him with letters on“the Imperial aspect of the scheme， as tending to officializethe sale of pork， and thereby calculated to give offence tothe Mahomedan population of Upper India.” He guessed thatPinecoffin would want some broad， free-hand work after hisniggling， stippling， decimal details.
Pinecoffin handled the latest development of the case inmasterly style， and proved that no “popular ebullition ofexcitement was to be apprehended.” Nafferton said that therewas nothing like Civilian insight in matters of this kind， andlured him up a bye-path—“the possible profits to accrue tothe Government from the sale of hog-bristles.” There is anextensive literature of hog-bristles， and the shoe， brush， andcolorman’s trades recognize more varieties of bristles than youwould think possible. After Pinecoffin had wondered a little atNafferton’s rage for information， he sent back a monograph，fifty-one pages， on “Products of the Pig.” This led him， underNafferton’s tender handling， straight to the Cawnpore factories，the trade in hog-skin for saddles—and thence to the tanners.