dren 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 fhall breed another to fupply the loss. CHA P. 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. NE of thefe grand affemblies was held in my time, about three months before my departure, whither 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 question he 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 restive and indocile, 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 thoufand other extravagancies. He took notice of a general tradition, that yahoos had not been always in their country; but that, many ages ago, two of thefe 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 infeft the whole nation: that the Houyhnhnnis, to get rid of this evil, made a general hunting, and at laft inclofed the whole herd; and, deftroying the elder, every Houyhnhnm kept two young ones in a kennel, and brought them to fuch a degree of tameness, 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 those creatures could not be Yluhniamfhy, or aborigines of the land,) because of the violent hatred the Houyhnhnms, as well as all other animals, bore them; which, although their evil difpofition fufficiently deserved, could never have arrived at fo high a degree, if they had been Aborigines; or elfe they would have long fince been routed 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, eafily 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 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 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 fpoke before; and affirmed, that the two yaboos, faid to be the 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 deVOL. V. U grees, grees, became in procefs of time much more favage, than thofe 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 teen. 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 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 rea fon; 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 inentioned a cuftom we had of caftrating Houyhnhnms when they were young, in order to render them tame; that the operation was eafy and safe; that it was no fhame to learn wifdom from brutes, as industry is taught by the ant, and building by the fwallow, (for fo I tranflate the word lyhannh, 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 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 this advantage, to be fit for service 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 myfelf, 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. But there happening few events of any moment among a peo ple fo well united, naturally disposed to every virfue, wholly governed by reafon, and cut off from all commerce with other nations; the historical part is eafily preferved without burdening their memories. I have already obferved, that they are fubject to no difeafes, and therefore can have no need of phyficians. However, they have excellent medicines compofed of herbs, to cure accidental bruifes, and cuts in the paftern 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 thofe two luminaries, and understand the nature of eclipfes; and this is the utmost progrefs of their aftronomy. In poetry they must be allowed to excel all other mortals; wherein the juftnefs of their fimilies, and the minuteness as well as exactness of their defcrip. tions, 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 praises of thofe, who were victors in races and other bodily exercises. Their buildings, although very rude and fimple, are not inconvenient, but well contrived to defend them from all in juries of cold and heat. They have a kind of tree, which at forty years old loofens in the root, and falls with the first ftorm; it grows very ftrait, and being pointed like ftakes, with a fharp ftone (for the Houyhnhnms know not the use of iron,) they ftick them erect in the ground about ten inches. afunder, and then weave in oat-ftraw, or fomctimes wattles, betwixt them. The roof is made af ter the fame manner, and so 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 first imagine, I have feen a white mare of our family thread a needle, (which I lent her on purpofe,) 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 against 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 theaves 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 re. turning home from a visit 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 very late; he made two excufes, firft for her hus band, |