Napoleon sent for pots of black and white paint and led the way down to the five-barred gate that gave on to the main road.
Then Snowball (for it was Snowball who was best at writing) took a brush between the two knuckles of his trotter, painted out MANOR FARM from the top bar of the gate and in its place painted ANIMAL FARM.
This was to be the name of the farm from now onwards.
After this they went back to the farm buildings, where Snowball and Napoleon sent for a ladder which they caused to be set against the end wall of the big barn.
They explained that by their studies of the past three months the pigs had succeeded in reducing the principles of Animalism to Seven Commandments.
These Seven Commandments would now be inscribed on the wall; they would form an unalterable law by which all the animals on Animal Farm must live for ever after.
With some difficulty (for it is not easy for a pig to balance himself on a ladder) Snowball climbed up and set to work, with Squealer a few rungs below him holding the paint-pot.
The Commandments were written on the tarred wall in great white letters that could be read thirty yards away.
They ran thus:
THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS