Sleeping With A Pig In The Bedroom

My Chinese relatives, living in a very rural area near the Yalu River, North Korea and the city of Dalian in Northeast China, kept their pigs outside the kitchen door – which actually had no door.

As a result, the pigs would wander in during dinner, which would be cooking in an open, stone fireplace.

 And you’d  find a pig in the bedroom on occasion.

Seemed rather primitive, even for rural China.   With the Chinese, there’s a practical reason for everything.  Even when not stated.

An epiphany this morning, thanks to an NPR piece on the mating habits of insects.

It’s all about females and female mosquitoes – not pigs, turns out.

Female mosquitoes love to bite warm blooded creatures – including humans.  They suck  blood for the protein; for reproduction purposes.

The males (ah, another example of the male species not REALLY being the overly aggressive ones) do NOT bite.

 Comparatively speaking, they’re love bugs…or rather love insects.

The female mosquitoes  wander the nights, looking for victims and the red nectar needed for making baby mosquitoes – by the millions.

And they end up frequently in your bedroom – especially if you’re rural, poor Chinese and have nothing to cover door or windows.

Pigs are even more warm blooded that humans.  So mosquitoes are attracted to the pig in the bedroom…and don’t bite the people in the bed.

Makes you  almost want to sleep with a pig in the bedroom. 

But I’ve already done that.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93049810