It is said the Kabyls tattoo figures of animals on their foreheads, cheeks, nose, or temples, in order to distinguish their various tribes. A similar practice obtains generally in central Africa and the Caroline archipelago.
The plague, sent by Artemis to punish Æneus, who had neglected to offer up to her a portion of a sacrifice, was a "monstrous boar," afterwards slain by Meleagros, Atalanta, and others, in the famous Kalydonian hunt, is evidently a Greek form of a mythical "monster, which in former ages prowled over the neighbourhood, inflicting injury on man and beast."
The boar, or the boar's head, was a favourite helmet crest or "totem" amongst our Teutonic ancestors, both Scandinavian and German. This animal was sacred to the goddess Friga, or Freya, whom Tacitus, in his "Germania," styles the "mother of the gods," and from whom our Friday is named. She was propitiated by the warriors in order to secure her protection in battle. This practice is often referred to in the sagas, as well as in the earliest known example of Anglo-Saxon poetry extant, "Beowulf." The following illustrations are from this remarkable poem:--
When we in battle our mail hoods defended, When troops rushed together and boar-crests crashed.
Then commanded he to bring in The boar, an ornament to the head, The helmet lofty in war.
Surrounded with lordly chains, Even as in days of yore, The weapon-smith had wrought it, Had wondrously finished it, Had set it round with shapes of swine, That never afterwards brand or war-knife Might have power to bite it. They seemed a boar's form To bear over their cheeks; Twisted with gold, Variegated and hardened in the fire; This kept the guard of life.
At the pile was Easy to be seen The mail shirt covered with gore, The hog of gold, The boar hard as iron.
In the episode relating the events attendant on the battle of Finsburgh, in the same poem, we find similar importance attached to the boar, as the warrior's protector. We read--
Of the martial Scyldings, The best of warriors, On the pile was ready; At the heap was Easy to be seen The blood-stained tunic, The swine all golden, The boar iron-hard, etc.
In the "Life of Merlin," Arthur and his kinsman, Hoel, are described as "two lions," and "two moons." In the same poem, Hoel is styled the "Armorican boar."