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_ CHAPTER VIII
[The author relates several particulars of the Yahoos. The great
virtues of the Houyhnhnms. The education and exercise of their
youth. Their general assembly.]
As I ought to have understood human nature much better than I
supposed it possible for my master to do, so it was easy to apply
the character he gave of the Yahoos to myself and my countrymen;
and I believed I could yet make further discoveries, from my own
observation. I therefore often begged his honour to let me go
among the herds of Yahoos in the neighbourhood; to which he always
very graciously consented, being perfectly convinced that the
hatred I bore these brutes would never suffer me to be corrupted by
them; and his honour ordered one of his servants, a strong sorrel
nag, very honest and good-natured, to be my guard; without whose
protection I durst not undertake such adventures. For I have
already told the reader how much I was pestered by these odious
animals, upon my first arrival; and I afterwards failed very
narrowly, three or four times, of falling into their clutches, when
I happened to stray at any distance without my hanger. And I have
reason to believe they had some imagination that I was of their own
species, which I often assisted myself by stripping up my sleeves,
and showing my naked arms and breasts in their sight, when my
protector was with me. At which times they would approach as near
as they durst, and imitate my actions after the manner of monkeys,
but ever with great signs of hatred; as a tame jackdaw with cap and
stockings is always persecuted by the wild ones, when he happens to
be got among them.
They are prodigiously nimble from their infancy. However, I once
caught a young male of three years old, and endeavoured, by all
marks of tenderness, to make it quiet; but the little imp fell a
squalling, and scratching, and biting with such violence, that I
was forced to let it go; and it was high time, for a whole troop of
old ones came about us at the noise, but finding the cub was safe
(for away it ran), and my sorrel nag being by, they durst not
venture near us. I observed the young animal's flesh to smell very
rank, and the stink was somewhat between a weasel and a fox, but
much more disagreeable. I forgot another circumstance (and perhaps
I might have the reader's pardon if it were wholly omitted), that
while I held the odious vermin in my hands, it voided its filthy
excrements of a yellow liquid substance all over my clothes; but by
good fortune there was a small brook hard by, where I washed myself
as clean as I could; although I durst not come into my master's
presence until I were sufficiently aired.
By what I could discover, the Yahoos appear to be the most
unteachable of all animals: their capacity never reaching higher
than to draw or carry burdens. Yet I am of opinion, this defect
arises chiefly from a perverse, restive disposition; for they are
cunning, malicious, treacherous, and revengeful. They are strong
and hardy, but of a cowardly spirit, and, by consequence, insolent,
abject, and cruel. It is observed, that the red haired of both
sexes are more libidinous and mischievous than the rest, whom yet
they much exceed in strength and activity.
The Houyhnhnms keep the Yahoos for present use in huts not far from
the house; but the rest are sent abroad to certain fields, where
they dig up roots, eat several kinds of herbs, and search about for
carrion, or sometimes catch weasels and luhimuhs (a sort of wild
rat), which they greedily devour. Nature has taught them to dig
deep holes with their nails on the side of a rising ground, wherein
they lie by themselves; only the kennels of the females are larger,
sufficient to hold two or three cubs.
They swim from their infancy like frogs, and are able to continue
long under water, where they often take fish, which the females
carry home to their young. And, upon this occasion, I hope the
reader will pardon my relating an odd adventure.
Being one day abroad with my protector the sorrel nag, and the
weather exceeding hot, I entreated him to let me bathe in a river
that was near. He consented, and I immediately stripped myself
stark naked, and went down softly into the stream. It happened
that a young female Yahoo, standing behind a bank, saw the whole
proceeding, and inflamed by desire, as the nag and I conjectured,
came running with all speed, and leaped into the water, within five
yards of the place where I bathed. I was never in my life so
terribly frightened. The nag was grazing at some distance, not
suspecting any harm. She embraced me after a most fulsome manner.
I roared as loud as I could, and the nag came galloping towards me,
whereupon she quitted her grasp, with the utmost reluctancy, and
leaped upon the opposite bank, where she stood gazing and howling
all the time I was putting on my clothes.
This was a matter of diversion to my master and his family, as well
as of mortification to myself. For now I could no longer deny that
I was a real Yahoo in every limb and feature, since the females had
a natural propensity to me, as one of their own species. Neither
was the hair of this brute of a red colour (which might have been
some excuse for an appetite a little irregular), but black as a
sloe, and her countenance did not make an appearance altogether so
hideous as the rest of her kind; for I think she could not be above
eleven years old.
Having lived three years in this country, the reader, I suppose,
will expect that I should, like other travellers, give him some
account of the manners and customs of its inhabitants, which it was
indeed my principal study to learn.
As these noble Houyhnhnms are endowed by nature with a general
disposition to all virtues, and have no conceptions or ideas of
what is evil in a rational creature, so their grand maxim is, to
cultivate reason, and to be wholly governed by it. Neither is
reason among them a point problematical, as with us, where men can
argue with plausibility on both sides of the question, but strikes
you with immediate conviction; as it must needs do, where it is not
mingled, obscured, or discoloured, by passion and interest. I
remember it was with extreme difficulty that I could bring my
master to understand the meaning of the word opinion, or how a
point could be disputable; because reason taught us to affirm or
deny only where we are certain; and beyond our knowledge we cannot
do either. So that controversies, wranglings, disputes, and
positiveness, in false or dubious propositions, are evils unknown
among the Houyhnhnms. In the like manner, when I used to explain
to him our several systems of natural philosophy, he would laugh,
"that a creature pretending to reason, should value itself upon the
knowledge of other people's conjectures, and in things where that
knowledge, if it were certain, could be of no use." Wherein he
agreed entirely with the sentiments of Socrates, as Plato delivers
them; which I mention as the highest honour I can do that prince of
philosophers. I have often since reflected, what destruction such
doctrine would make in the libraries of Europe; and how many paths
of fame would be then shut up in the learned world.
Friendship and benevolence are the two principal virtues among the
Houyhnhnms; and these not confined to particular objects, but
universal to the whole race; for a stranger from the remotest part
is equally treated with the nearest neighbour, and wherever he
goes, looks upon himself as at home. They preserve decency and
civility in the highest degrees, but are altogether ignorant of
ceremony. They have no fondness for their colts or foals, but the
care they take in educating them proceeds entirely from the
dictates of reason. And I observed my master to show the same
affection to his neighbour's issue, that he had for his own. They
will have it that nature teaches them to love the whole species,
and it is reason only that makes a distinction of persons, where
there is a superior degree of virtue.
When the matron Houyhnhnms have produced one of each sex, they no
longer accompany with their consorts, except they lose one of their
issue by some casualty, which very seldom happens; but in such a
case they meet again; or when the like accident befalls a person
whose wife is past bearing, some other couple bestow on him one of
their own colts, and then go together again until the mother is
pregnant. This caution is necessary, to prevent the country from
being overburdened with numbers. But the race of inferior
Houyhnhnms, bred up to be servants, is not so strictly limited upon
this article: these are allowed to produce three of each sex, to
be domestics in the noble families.
In their marriages, they are exactly careful to choose such colours
as will not make any disagreeable mixture in the breed. Strength
is chiefly valued in the male, and comeliness in the female; not
upon the account of love, but to preserve the race from
degenerating; for where a female happens to excel in strength, a
consort is chosen, with regard to comeliness.
Courtship, love, presents, jointures, settlements have no place in
their thoughts, or terms whereby to express them in their language.
The young couple meet, and are joined, merely because it is the
determination of their parents and friends; it is what they see
done every day, and they look upon it as one of the necessary
actions of a reasonable being. But the violation of marriage, or
any other unchastity, was never heard of; and the married pair pass
their lives with the same friendship and mutual benevolence, that
they bear to all others of the same species who come in their way,
without jealousy, fondness, quarrelling, or discontent.
In educating the youth of both sexes, their method is admirable,
and highly deserves our imitation. These are not suffered to taste
a grain of oats, except upon certain days, till eighteen years old;
nor milk, but very rarely; and in summer they graze two hours in
the morning, and as many in the evening, which their parents
likewise observe; but the servants are not allowed above half that
time, and a great part of their grass is brought home, which they
eat at the most convenient hours, when they can be best spared from
work.
Temperance, industry, exercise, and cleanliness, are the lessons
equally enjoined to the young ones of both sexes: and my master
thought it monstrous in us, to give the females a different kind of
education from the males, except in some articles of domestic
management; whereby, as he truly observed, one half of our natives
were good for nothing but bringing children into the world; and to
trust the care of our children to such useless animals, he said,
was yet a greater instance of brutality.
But the Houyhnhnms train up their youth to strength, speed, and
hardiness, by exercising them in running races up and down steep
hills, and over hard stony grounds; and when they are all in a
sweat, they are ordered to leap over head and ears into a pond or
river. Four times a year the youth of a certain district meet to
show their proficiency in running and leaping, and other feats of
strength and agility; where the victor is rewarded with a song in
his or her praise. On this festival, the servants drive a herd of
Yahoos into the field, laden with hay, and oats, and milk, for a
repast to the Houyhnhnms; after which, these brutes are immediately
driven back again, for fear of being noisome to the assembly.
Every fourth year, at the vernal equinox, there is a representative
council of the whole nation, which meets in a plain about twenty
miles from our house, and continues about five or six days. Here
they inquire into the state and condition of the several districts;
whether they abound or be deficient in hay or oats, or cows, or
Yahoos; and wherever there is any want (which is but seldom) it is
immediately supplied by unanimous consent and contribution. Here
likewise the regulation of children is settled: as for instance,
if a Houyhnhnm has two males, he changes one of them with another
that has two females; and when a child has been lost by any
casualty, where the mother is past breeding, it is determined what
family in the district shall breed another to supply the loss.
______
Content of PART IV - A VOYAGE TO THE COUNTRY OF THE HOUYHNHNMS CHAPTER VIII [Jonathan Swift's novel: Gulliver's Travels] _
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