strength 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 a repaft to the Houyhnhnms; after which thefe brutes are immediately driven back again, for fear of being noifome 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 continueth about five or fix 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 yaboos? and wherever there is any want (which is but feldom) it is immediately fupplied by unanimous confent and contribution. Here likewise the regulation of children is fettled: as for inftance, if a Houyhnhnm hath two males, he changeth one of them with another that hath two females: and when a child hath been loft by any cafualty, where the mother is past breeding, it is determined what family in the district shall breed another to supply the lofs. CHAP. IX. A grand debate at the general affembly of the Houyhnhnms, and how it was determined. The learning of the Houyhnhnms. Their buildings. Their manner of burials. The defectiveness of their language. O NE of thefe grand affemblies was held in my time, about three months before my departure, whither my mafter went as the representative of our district.. In this council was resumed 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 yaboos 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 moft filthy, noifome, and deformed animal which nature ever produced, fo they were the - molt most 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 grass, if they were not continually watched, and commit a thousand other extravagancies. He took notice of a general tradition, that jaboos 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 upon corrupted mud and flime, or from the ooze and froth of the fea, was never known: that thefe yahoos engendered, and their -brood in a fhort time grew fo numerous as to over-run and infest the whole nation: that the Houyhnhnms to get rid of this evil made a general hunting, and at last 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 Ylnhniamfhy (or Aborigines of the land) because of the violent hatred the Houyhnhnms, as well as all other animals, bore them; which altho' 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 ufe the fervice of the yaboos, had very imprudently neglected to cultivate the breed of affes, which are a comely animal, eafily kept, more tame and orderly, without any offenfive fmell, ftrong enough for labour, altho they yield to the other in agility of body; and, if their braying be no agreeable found, it is far preferable to the horrible howlings of the yaboos.. SEVERAL others declared their fentiments to the fame purpose, when my mafter propofed 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, be came. came in process of time much more favage, than those of their own fpecies in the country from whence these two originals came. The reafon of this affertion was, that he had now in his poffeffion a certain wonderful yahoo (meaning myfelf) which moft 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 compofure of the fkins 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, lefs hairy, and with fhorter claws. He added, how I had endeavoured to perfuade him, that in my own and other countries the yabuos 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 degreeas 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 wisdom from brutes, as induftry is taught by the ant, and building by the fwallow (for fo I tranflate the word lybannh, altho' 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 deftroying life: that in the mean time the Houyhnhnms 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 THE Houyhnhnms have no letters, and confequently their knowledge is all traditional. But there happening few events of any moment among a people fo well united, naturally difpofed to every virtue, wholly governed by reason, and cut off from all commerce with other nations; the hiftorical part is eafily preferved without burthening their memories. I have already obferved that they are fubject to no diseases, and therefore can have no need of phyficians. However, they have excellent medicines compofed of herbs to cure accidental bruises and cuts in the pastern or frog of the foot by fharp ftones, as well as other maims and hurts in the feveral parts of the body. THEY calculate the year by the revolution of the fun and the moon, but ufe no fubdivifions into weeks. They are well enough acquainted with the motions of those two luminaries, and underftand the nature of eclipfes; and this is the utmoft progrefs of their aftronomy. IN poetry they must be allowed to excel all other mortals; wherein the juftness of their fimilies, and the minutenefs as well as exactness of their defcriptions, are indeed inimitable. Their verfes abound very much in both of thefe; and ufually contain either fome exalted notions of friendship and benevolence, or the praifes of thofe, who were victors in races and other bodily exercises. Their buildings, altho' very rude and fimple, are not inconvenient, but well contrived to defend them from all injuries of cold and heat. They have a kind of tree, which at forty years old loofens in the root, and falls with the first storm; it grows very ftrait, and being pointed like ftakes, with a fharp ftone (for the Houyhnhnms know not the use of iron) they stick them erect in the ground about ten inches afunder, and then weave in oats, ftraw, or fometimes wattles, betwixt them. The roof is made after the fame manner, and fo are the doors. THE Houyhnhnms ufe the hollow part, between the paftern and the hoof, of their fore-feet, as we do our hands, and this with greater dexterity, than I could at firft imagine. I have feen a white mare of our family thread a needle (which I lent her on purpose) with that joint. They milk their cows, reap their oats, and do all the work which requires hands, in the fame manner. They have a kind of hard flints, which by grinding a gainst other ftones they form into inftruments, that ferve inftead of wedges, axes, and hammers. With tools made of these flints they likewife cut their hay, and reap their oats, which there grow naturally in feveral fields; the yahoos draw home the fheaves in carriages, and the fervants tread them in certain covered huts to get out the grain, which is kept in ftores. They make a rude kind of earthen and wooden veffels, and bake the former in the fun. If they can avoid cafualties, they die only of old age, and are buried in the obfcureft places that can be found, their friends and relations expreffing neither joy nor grief at their departure; nor does the dying perfon difcover the leaft regret that he is leaving the world, any more than if he were upon returning home from a vifit to one of his neighbours. I remember my mafter having once made an appointment with a friend and his family to come to his house upon fome affair of importance, on the day fixed the mistress and her two children came ve ry late; she made two excufes, firft for her husband, who, as she said, happened that very morning to lhnuwnb. The word is ftrongly expreffive in their language, but not eafily rendered into English; it fignifies to retire to his firft mother. Her excufe for not coming fooner was, that her husband dying late in the morning, fhe was a good while confulting her fervants about a convenient place where his body fhould be laid; and I obferved, The behaved herself at our house as chearfully as the reft: fhe died about three months after. THEY live generally to feventy, or feventy five years, very feldom to fourfcore: fome weeks before their death they feel a gradual decay; but without pain. During this time they are much vifited by their friends, because they cannot go abroad with their ufual eafe and fatisfa tion. However, about ten days before their death, which they feldom fail in computing, they return the vi fits that have been made them by thofe who are neareft in the neighbourhood, being carried in a convenient fledge drawn by yahoos ; which vehicle they ufe, not only upon this occafion, but when they grow old, upon long journies, or when they are lamed by any accident. And therefore when the dying Houyhnhnms return thofe vifits, |