Sketches of the campaign in northern Mexico : in eighteen hundred forty-six and seven / by an officer of the First Regiment of Ohio volunteers.

FIGHTING THE TIGER-TiHE STRIPED PIG. 231
was made by a few vigilant officers to break up these ambulatory " hells," but with indifferent success; as even the soldiers who had been bitten made it a point of honor not to
reveal the haunts of "the Tigers." Though they changed
their spots frequently to avoid detection, yet our patrols
occasionally surprised them in the sequestered recesses of the
chaparral, and captured considerable sums of money, together
with blankets, stools, tables, etc; all of which were confiscated for the benefit of the hospital.
It was even more difficult to combat the parent of vices,
drunkenness; and the "striped pig"* proved to be a more
formidable beast than the " spotted tiger." No Maine
Liquor Law, no military authority, or moral suasion, could
restrain the appetite of some old Bacchanalians in the regiment. A few of them were always taken with fits of piety
on Sunday, and seldom failed to solicit permission to attend
divine service at the cathedral in Monterey. Of course,
being in town, they must needs " go the whole pig;" and
on these occasions they generally returned to camp in such a
state of uproarious excitement, that the officers on duty were
fain to offer them an asylum with the usual restoratives in
the guard-tent. Many Americans suffered a severe penalty
for their indulgences, from the knife or lasso of the Mexican
bravos. These murders were too often followed by the tacit
* This singular sobriquet, (the meaning of which it is unnecessary to explain to
an American reader,) is even more applicable in Mexico than in Massachusetts,
where, I believe, it originated; for in the former country, pulque and other intoxicating liquors are actually kept in hogs' skins. And since the time our Saviour
caused the swine on the shores of Galilee to be possessed by the devils of Legion,
we venture to assert that those valuable domestic animals have never been filled
with more filthy and disgusting spirits.