But the Houyhnhnms train up their youth to ftrength, speed, and hardinefs, by exercifing them in running races up and down steep hills, and over hard ftony 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 diftrict meet, to fhew their proficiency in running and leaping, and other feats of ftrength and agility; where the victor is rewarded, with a fong in his or her praife. On this feftival, the fervants drive a herd of Yahoos into the field, laden with hay, and oats, and milk, for repaft to the Houyhnhnms; after which these brutes are immediately driven back again, for fear of being noifome to the affembly. 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 continueth about five or fix days. Here they enquire into the ftate and condition of the feveral diftricts; whether they abound, or be deficient in hay or oats, or cows or Yahoos? And wherever there is any want (which is but feldom) it is immediately fupplied by unanimous confent and contribution. Here likewife the regulation of children is fettled: As for inftance, if a Houyhnhnm hath too males, he changeth one of them with another that hath too females; and when a child hath been loft by any casualty, where the mother is past breeding, it is determined what family in the district shall breed another to fupply the lofs. VOL. V. L 1 CHAP. CHAP. IX. A grand debate at the general assembly of the Houyhnhnms, and how it was determined. The learning of the Houyhnhnms. Their buildings. Their manner of burials. The defectiveness of their language. NE of thefe grand affemblies was held in my time, about three months before my departure, whether my mafter went as the reprefentative of our diftrict. In this council was refumed their old debate, and indeed the only debate that ever happened in their country; whereof my mafter, after his return, gave me a very particular account. The queftion to be debated was, Whether the Yahoos fhould be exterminated from the face of the earth? One of the members for the affirmative, offered feveral arguments of great ftrength and weight; alledging, that as the Yahoos were the most filthy, noifome, and deformed animal which nature ever produced, fo they were the moft reftive and indocible, mifchievous and malicious: They would privately fuck the teats of the Houyhnhnms cows; kill and devour their cats, trample down their oats and grafs, if they were not continually watched, and commit a thousand other extravagancies. He took no tice of a general tradition, that Yahoos had not been always in their country; but that, many ages ago, two of these brutes appeared together upon a mountain; whether produced by the heat of the fun, and corrupted mud and flime, or from the ooze and froth of the fea, was never known That these Yahoos engendered, and their brood in a fhort time grew fo numerous as to over-run and infeft the whole nation: That the Houyhnhnms, to get rid of this evil, made a general hunting, and at laft inclofed the whole herd; and destroying the elder, every Houyhnhnm kept two young ones in a kennel, and brought them to fuch a degree of tamenefs, as an animal fo favage by nature can be capable of acquiring; ufing them for draught and carriage: That there feemed to be much truth in this tradition, and that thofe creatures could not be Ylnhniamfhý (or aborogines of the land) becaufe of the violent hatred the Houyhnhnms, as well as all other animals, bore them; which although their evil difpofition fufficiently deferved, could never have arrived at fo high a degree, if they had been Aborigines; or else they would have long fince been rooted out: That the inhabitants, taking a fancy to use the fervice of the Yahoos, had very imprudently neglected to cultivate the breed of affes, which are a comely animal, easily kept, more tame and orderly, without any offenfive fmell, ftrong enough for labour, although they yield to the other in agility of body; and, if L12 their their braying be no agreeable found, it is far preferable to the horrible howlings of the Yahoos. Several others declared their fentiments to the fame purpose, when my mafter proposed an expedient to the affembly, whereof he had indeed borrowed the hint from me. He approved of the tradition mentioned by the honourable member who spoke before; and affirmed, that the two Yahoos, faid to be firft feen among them, had been driven thither over the fea : That coming to land, and being forfaken by their companions, they retired to the mountains, and, degenerating by degrees, became, in procefs of time, much more favage than those of their own fpecies in the country from whence thefe two originals came. The reafon of this affertion was, that he had now in his poffeffion a certain wonderful Yahoo (meaning myfelf) which most of them had heard of, and many of them had feen. He then related to them, how he first found me: That my body was all covered with an artificial composure of the skins and hairs of other animals: That I fpoke in a language of my own, and had thoroughly learned theirs That I had related to him the accidents which brought me thither: That, when he faw me without my covering, I was an exact Yahoo in every part, only of a whiter colour, less hairy, and with shorter claws. He added, how I had endeavoured to perfuade him, that, in my own and other countries, the Yahoos acted as the governing, rational animal, and held the Houyhnhnms in fervitude: That he obferved in me all the qualities of a Yahoo, only a little more civilized by fome tincture of reafon; which, however, was in a degree as far inferior to the Houyhnhnm race, as the Yahoos of their country were to me: That, among other things, I mentioned a custom we had, of caftrating Houyhnhnms when they were young, in order to render them tame; that the operation was eafy and fafe; that it was no fhame to learn wifdom from brutes, as induftry is taught by the ant, and building by the fwallow (for fo I tranflate the word lybannh, although it be a much larger fowl): That this invention might be practifed upon the younger Yahoos here, which, befides rendering them tractable and fitter for ufe, would in an age put an end to the whole fpecies, without destroying life: That in the mean time the Houyhnhnmus fhould be exhorted to cultivate the breed of affes, which as they are in all refpects more valuable brutes, fo they have this advantage, to be fit for fervice at five years old, which the others are not till twelve. This was all my mafter thought fit to tell me at that time, of what paffed in the grand council. But he was pleafed to conceal one particular, which related perfonally to myself, whereof I foon felt the unhappy effect, as the reader will know in its proper place, and from whence I date all the fucceeding misfortunes of my life. The Houyhnhnms have no letters, and confequently their knowledge is all traditional. there happening few events of any moment a mong L13 |