Gulliver's Travels

he 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 breast 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.