with terrible wounds made by their claws on both fides, altho' they feldom were able to kill one another for want of fuch convenient instruments of death, as we had invented. At other times the like battles have been fought between the yahoos of feveral neighbourhoods, without any visible caufe: thofe of one district watching all opportunities to furprise the next, before they are prepared. But, if they find their project hath miscarried, they return home, and, for want of enemies, engage in what I call a civil war among themselves.

THAT in fome fields of his country there are certain frining ftones of feveral colours, whereof the yahoos are violently fond; and when part of these ftones is fixed in the earth, as it fometimes happeneth, they will dig with their claws for whole days to get them out; then carry them away, and hide them by heaps in their kennels; but ftill looking round with great caution for fear their comrades fhould find out their treasure. My master said, he could never discover the reafon of this unnatural appetite, or how thefe ones could be of any use to a yaboo; but now he believed it might proceed from the fame principle of avarice, which I had ascribed to mankind: that he had once, by way of experiment, privately removed a heap of these fones from the place where one of his yahoos had buried it: whereupon the fordid animal, miffing his treafure, by his loud lamenting brought the whole herd to the place, there miferably howled, then fell to biting and tearing the reft; began to pine away, would neither eat, nor fleep, nor work, till he ordered a fervant privately to convey the ftones into the fame hole, and hide them as before; which when his yaboo had found, he prefently recovered his fpirits and good humour, but took care to remove them to a better hiding-place, and hath ever fince been a very serviceable brute*.

My mafter farther affured me, which I also observed myfelf, that in the fields where the jhining ftones abound, the fiercest and most frequent battles are fought, occafioned by perpetual inroads of the neighbouring yahoos.

Nothing can be faid to make avarice a greater reproach to mankind, except that it is a vice which this defcription will not eure. Hawkes.

He faid, it was common, when two yahoos difcovered fuch a stone in a field, and were contending which of them should be the proprietor, a third would take the advantage, and carry it away from them both; which my mafter would needs contend to have fome kind of refemblance with our fuits at law; wherein I thought it for our credit not to undeceive him; fince the decifion he mentioned was much more equitable than many decrees among us: because the plaintiff and defendant there loft nothing befide the one they contended for, whereas our courts of equity would never have difmiffed the caufe, while either of them had any thing left.

My mafter continuing his difcourfe faid, there was nothing that rendered the yahoos more odious, than their undiftinguishing appetite to devour every thing that came in their way, whether herbs, roots, berries, the corrupted flesh of animals, or all mingled together: and it was peculiar in their temper, that they were fonder of what they could get by rapine or ftealth at a greater diftance, than much better food provided for them at home. If their prey held out, they would eat till they were ready to burft, after which nature had pointed out to them a certain root that gave them a general e

vacuation.

THERE was also another kind of root very juicy but fomewhat rare and difficult to be found, which the yaboos fought for with much eagerness, and would fuck it with great delight; it produced in them the fame effects, that wine hath upon us. It would make them fometimes hug, and fometimes tear one another; they would hòwl, and grin, and chatter, and reel, and tumble, and then fall asleep in the mud.

I did indeed obferve, that the yaboos were the only animals in this country fubject to any diseases; which however were much fewer than horfes have among us, and contracted not by any ill treatment they met with, but by the naftiness and greediness of that fordid brute. Neither has their language any more than a general appellation for those maladies, which is borrowed from the name of the beast, and called hnea-yahoo or the yaboa's evil, and the cure prescribed is a mixture of their own dung and urine, forcibly put down the yabao's throat.

Part IV. This I have fince often known to have been taken with fuccefs, and do here freely recommend it to my countrymen for the public good, as an admirable specific against all diseases produced by repletion.

As to learning, government, arts, manufactures, and the like, my mafter confeffed, he could find little or no refemblance between the yahoos of that country and those in ours. For he only meant to obferve, what parity there was in our natures. He had heard indeed fome curious Houyhnhnms obferve, that in moft herds there was a fort of ruling yahoo (as among us there is generally fome leading or principal stag in a park) who was always more deformed in body, and mischievous in disposition, than any of the reft. That this leader had ufually a favourite as like himself as he could get, whofe employment was to lick his mafter's feet and pofteriors, and drive the female yahoos to his kennel* ; for which he was now and then rewarded with a piece of afs's flesh. This favourite is hated by the whole herd, and therefore to protect himself keeps always near the perfon of his leader. He ufually continues in office till a worfe can be found; but the very moment he is discarded, his fucceffor at the -head of all the yahoos in that diftrict, young and old, male and female, come in a body, and discharge their excrements upon him from head to foot. But how far this might be applicable to our courts and favourites, and minifters of fate, my mafter faid I could beft determine.

I durft make no return to this malicious infinuation, which debafed human understanding below the fagacity of a common, bound, who hath judgment enough to diftinguish and follow the cry of the ablest dog in the pack, without being ever mistaken.

My master told me there was fome qualities remark able in the yahoos, which he had not obferved me to mention, or at leaft very flightly, in the accounts I had given him of human kind; he faid, thofe animals like other brutes had their females in common; but in this they differed, that the fhe yahoo would admit the male, while fhe was pregnant; and that the hees would quarrel and. fight

Flattery and pimping. Hawkef.

fight with the females, as fiercely as with each other. Both which practices were fuch degrees of infamous brutality, as no other fenfitive creature ever arrived at.

ANOTHER thing he wondered at in the yaboos, was their ftrange difpofition to naftiness and dirt; whereas there appears to be a natural love of cleanliness in all other animals. As to the two former accufations, I was glad to let them pass without any reply; because I had not a word to offer upon them in defence of my fpecies, which otherwise I certainly had done from my own inclinations. But I could have easily vindicated human kind from the imputation of fingularity upon the laft article, if there had been any fine in that country (as unluckily for me there were not) which, altho? it may be a fweeter quadruped than a yahoo, cannot, I humbly conceive, in juftice pretend to more cleanliness; and fo his honour himself must have owned, if he had seen their filthy way of feeding, and their cuftom of wallowing and fleeping in the mud.

My mafter likewise mentioned another quality, which his fervants had discovered in several yahoos, and to him was wholly unaccountable. He faid, a fancy would fometimes take a yahoo to retire into a corner, to lie down, and howl, and groan, and spurn away all that came near him, altho' he were young and fat, wanted neither food nor water; nor did the fervants imagine what could poffibly ail him. And the only remedy they found was, to fet him to hard work, after which he would infallibly come to himself. To this I was filent out of partiality to my own kind; yet here I could plainly difcover the true feeds of spleen, which only feizeth on the lazy, the luxurious, and the rich; who, if they were forced to undergo the fame regimen, I would undertake for the cure.

His honour had farther observed, that a female yahoo would often stand behind a bank or a bush to gaze on the young males paffing by, and then appear, and hide, ufing many antic geftures and grimaces, at which time it was observed that she had a moft offenfive smell; and, when any of the males advanced, would flowly retire, looking often back, and with a counterfeit fhew of fear

run

run off into fome convenient place, where she knew the male would follow her.

Ar other times, if a female ftranger came among them, three or four of her own sex would get about her, and stare, and chatter, and grin, and smell her all over; and then turn off with geftures, that seemed to express contempt and disdain.

PERHAPS my mafter might refine a little in these speculations, which he had drawn from what he observed himself, or had been told him by others: however I could not reflect without fome amazement and much forrow, that the rudiments of lewdness, coquetry, cenfure, and scandal, should have place by instinct in womankind. I expected every moment, that my mafter would accufe the yahoos of those unnatural appetites in both fexes, fo common among us. But nature, it feems, hath not been fo expert a school-mistress; and thefe politer pleafures are entirely the productions of art and reafon on our fide of the globe.

The author relates feveral particulars of the yahoos. The great virtues of the Houyhnhnms. The education and exercife of their youth. Their general affem

bly.

A

SI ought to have understood human nature much better, than I fuppofed it poffible for my mafter to do, fo it was eafy to apply the character he gave of the yaboos to myfelf, and my countrymen; and I believed, I could yet make farther discoveries from my own obfervation. 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 those brutes would never fuffer me to be corrupted by them; and his honour ordered one of his fervants, a strong forrel nag, very neft and good-natured, to be my guard, without whofe protection I durft not undertake fuch adventures. For I have already told the reader, how much I was pestered

ho

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