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35 - Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift · Classic Adventure Books - Daily

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eight, the author relate several particulars of the Yahoos,
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  Speaker 1: the great virtues of the Wynhams, the education and exercise
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  Speaker 1: of their youth, their general assembly. As I ought to
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  Speaker 1: have understood human nature much better than I supposed it
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  Speaker 1: possible for my master to do so, it was easy
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  Speaker 1: to apply the character he gave the Yahoos to myself
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  Speaker 1: and my countrymen, and I believed I could make yet
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  Speaker 1: further discoveries from my own observation. I therefore often begged
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  Speaker 1: his honor to let me go among the herds of
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  Speaker 1: Yahoos in the neighborhood, to which he always very graciously consented,
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  Speaker 1: being perfectly convinced that the hatred I bore these brutes
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  Speaker 1: would never suffer me to be corrupted by them. And
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  Speaker 1: his Honor ordered one of his servants, a strong sorrel nag,
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  Speaker 1: very honest and good natured, to be my guide, without
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  Speaker 1: whose protection I durst not undertake such adventures. For I
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  Speaker 1: have already told the reader how much I was pestered
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  Speaker 1: by these odious animals upon my first arrival, and I
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  Speaker 1: afterwards failed very narrowly three or four times of falling
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  Speaker 1: into their clutches. When I happened to stray at any
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  Speaker 1: distance without my hanger, and I have reason to believe
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  Speaker 1: they had some imagination that I was of their own species,
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  Speaker 1: which I often assisted myself by stripping up my sleeves
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  Speaker 1: and showing my naked arms and breasts in their sight
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  Speaker 1: when my protector was with me, at which times they
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  Speaker 1: would approach near as they durst and imitate my actions
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  Speaker 1: after the manner of monkeys, but ever with great signs
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  Speaker 1: of hatred. As a tame jackdaw with cap and stockings
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  Speaker 1: is always persecuted by the wild ones when he happens
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  Speaker 1: to be got among them. They are prodigiously nimble from
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  Speaker 1: their infancy. However, I once caught a young male of
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  Speaker 1: three years old, and endeavored by all marks of tenderness
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  Speaker 1: to make it quiet. But the little imp fell, squalling
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  Speaker 1: and scratching and biting with such violence that I was
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  Speaker 1: forced to let it go, and it was high time
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  Speaker 1: for A whole troop of old ones came about us
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  Speaker 1: at the noise, But finding the cub was safe for
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  Speaker 1: a way, it ran, and my sorrel nag being by,
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  Speaker 1: they durst not venture near us. I observed the young
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  Speaker 1: animal's flesh to smell very rank and the stink was
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  Speaker 1: somewhat between a weasel and a fox, but much more disagreeable.
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  Speaker 1: I forgot another circumstance, and perhaps I might have the
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  Speaker 1: reader's pardon if it were wholly admitted that while I
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  Speaker 1: held the odious vermin in my hands, it voided its
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  Speaker 1: filthy excrements of a yellow liquid substance all over my clothes.
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  Speaker 1: But by good fortune, there was a small brook hard by,
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  Speaker 1: where I washed myself as clean as I could, although
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  Speaker 1: I durst not come into my master's presence until I
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  Speaker 1: was sufficiently aired by what I could discover. They are
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  Speaker 1: whose appear to be the most unteachable of all animals,
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  Speaker 1: their capacity never reaching higher than to draw or carry burdens.
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  Speaker 1: Yet I am of opinion this defect arises chiefly from
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  Speaker 1: a perverse, restive disposition, For they are cunning, malicious, treacherous,
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  Speaker 1: and revengeful. They are strong and hardy, but of a
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  Speaker 1: cowardly spirit, and by consequence insolent, abject, and cruel. It
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  Speaker 1: is observed that to the red head of both sexes
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  Speaker 1: are more libidinous and mischievous than the rest, whom Yet
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  Speaker 1: they much exceed in strength and activity. The huinnums keep
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  Speaker 1: the yahoos for present use in huts not far from
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  Speaker 1: the house, But the rest are sent abroad to certain fields,
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  Speaker 1: where they dig up roots, eat several kinds of herbs,
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  Speaker 1: and search about for carrion, or sometimes catch Weasels. All
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  Speaker 1: are himmers, a sort of wild rat, which they greedily devour.
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  Speaker 1: Nature has taught them to dig deep holes with their
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  Speaker 1: nails on the side of a rising ground, wherein they
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  Speaker 1: lie by themselves. Only the kennels of the females are larger,
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  Speaker 1: sufficient to hold two or three cubs. They swim from
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  Speaker 1: their infancy like frogs, and are able to continue long
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  Speaker 1: under water, where they often take fish, which the females
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  Speaker 1: carry home to their young. And upon this occasion, I
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  Speaker 1: hope the reader will pardon my relating an odd adventure.
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  Speaker 1: Being one day abroad with my protector, the sorrow or Nag,
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  Speaker 1: and the weather exceedingly hot, I entreated him to let
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  Speaker 1: me bathe in a river that was near. He consented,
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  Speaker 1: and I immediately stripped myself stark naked, and went down
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  Speaker 1: softly into the stream. It happened that a young female
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  Speaker 1: Yahoo standing behind a bank, saw the whole proceeding, and
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  Speaker 1: inflamed by desire as the nag, and I conjectured, came
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  Speaker 1: running with all speed, and leaped into the water within
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  Speaker 1: five yards of the place where I bathed. I was
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  Speaker 1: never in my life so terribly frightened. The nag was
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  Speaker 1: grazing at some distance, not suspecting any harm, she embraced
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  Speaker 1: me after a most fulsome manner. I roared as loud
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  Speaker 1: as I could, and the nag came galloping towards me,
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  Speaker 1: whereupon she quitted her grasp with the utmost reluctancy, and
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  Speaker 1: leaped upon the opposite bank, where she stood, gazing and
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  Speaker 1: towel all the time I was putting on my clothes.
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  Speaker 1: This was a matter of diversion to my master and
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  Speaker 1: his family, as well as of mortification to myself. For
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  Speaker 1: now I could no longer deny that I was a
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  Speaker 1: real yahoo in every limb and feature, since the females
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  Speaker 1: had a natural propensity to me as one of their
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  Speaker 1: own species. Neither was the hair of this brute of
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  Speaker 1: a red color, which might have been some excuse for
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  Speaker 1: an appetite. I littlely regular, but black as a slow
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  Speaker 1: and her countenance did not make an appearance altogether so
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  Speaker 1: hideous as the rest of her kind. For I think
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  Speaker 1: she could not be above eleven years old having lived
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  Speaker 1: three years in this country. The reader, I suppose, will
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  Speaker 1: expect that I should, like other travelers, give him some
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  Speaker 1: account of the manners and customs of his inhabitants, which
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  Speaker 1: it was indeed my principal study to learn. As these
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  Speaker 1: noble whinnams are endowed by nature with a general disposition
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  Speaker 1: to all virtues, and have no conceptions or ideas of
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  Speaker 1: what evil is in a rational creature, so their grand
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  Speaker 1: maxim is to cultivate reason and to be wholly governed
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  Speaker 1: by it. Neither is reason among them a point problematic
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  Speaker 1: as with us, wheremen can argue with plausibility on both
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  Speaker 1: sides of the question, but strikes you with immediate conviction,
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  Speaker 1: as it must needs do where it is not mingled, obscured,
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  Speaker 1: or discolored by passion and interest. I remember it was
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  Speaker 1: with extreme difficulty that I could bring my master to
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  Speaker 1: understand the meaning of the word opinion, or how a
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  Speaker 1: point could be disputed, because reason taught us to affirm
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  Speaker 1: or deny only where we are certain, and beyond our knowledge,
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  Speaker 1: we cannot do either, so that controversies, wrangling, disputes, and
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  Speaker 1: positiveness in false dubious propositions are evils unknown among the Winnhams.
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  Speaker 1: In the like manner, when I used to explain to
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  Speaker 1: him our several systems of natural philosophy, he would laugh
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  Speaker 1: that a creature pretending to reason should value itself upon
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  Speaker 1: the knowledge of other people's conjectures, and in things with
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  Speaker 1: that knowledge, if it were certain, could be of no use.
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  Speaker 1: Wherein he agreed entirely with the sentiments of Socrates, as
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  Speaker 1: Plato delivers them, which I mention as the highest honor
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  Speaker 1: I can do that, Prince of philosophers. I have often
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  Speaker 1: since reflected what destruction such doctrine would make in the
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  Speaker 1: libraries of Europe, and how many paths of fame would
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  Speaker 1: be then shut up in the learned world. Friendship and
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  Speaker 1: benevolence are the two principal virtues among the Winnhams, and
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  Speaker 1: these not confined to particular objects, but universal to the
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  Speaker 1: whole race. For a stranger from the remoter part is
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  Speaker 1: equally treated with the nearest neighbor, and wherever he goes
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  Speaker 1: looks upon himself as at home. They preserve decency and civilty,
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  Speaker 1: and the highest degrees, but are altogether ignorant of ceremony.
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  Speaker 1: They have no fondness for their cults or foals, but
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  Speaker 1: the care they take in educating them proceeds entirely from
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  Speaker 1: the dictates of reason. And I observed my master to
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  Speaker 1: show the same affection to his neighbour's issue that he
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  Speaker 1: had for his own. They will have it that a
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  Speaker 1: nature teaches them to love the whole species, and it
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  Speaker 1: is reason only that makes a distinction of persons where
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  Speaker 1: there is a superior degree of virtue. When the matron
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  Speaker 1: Hinnhams have produced one of each sex, they no longer
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  Speaker 1: a company with their consorts, except they lose one of
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  Speaker 1: their issue by some casualty, which very seldom happens. But
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  Speaker 1: in such a case they meet again. So when the
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  Speaker 1: like accident befels a person whose wife is past bearing,
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  Speaker 1: some other couple bestow on him one of their own cults,
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  Speaker 1: and then go together again until the mother is pregnant.
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  Speaker 1: This caution is necessary to prevent the country from being
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  Speaker 1: overburdened with numbers. But the race of inferior Hunhams bred
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  Speaker 1: up to be servants is not so strictly limited upon
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  Speaker 1: this article. These are allowed to produce three of each
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  Speaker 1: sex to be domestics in the noble families. In their marriages,
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  Speaker 1: they are exactly careful to choose such colours as will
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  Speaker 1: not make any disagreeable mixture in the breed. Strength is
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  Speaker 1: chiefly valued in the male, and comeliness in the female,
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  Speaker 1: not upon the account of love, but to preserve the
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  Speaker 1: race from degenerating. For where a female happens to excel
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  Speaker 1: in strength, a consort is chosen with regard to comeliness. Courtship, love, presents, jointers,
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  Speaker 1: settlements have no place in their thoughts or terms whereby
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  Speaker 1: to express them in their language. The young couple meet
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  Speaker 1: and are joined merely because it is the determination of
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  Speaker 1: their parents and friends. It is what they see done
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  Speaker 1: every day, and they look upon it as one of
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  Speaker 1: the necessary actions of a reasonable being. But the violation
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  Speaker 1: of marriage or any other unchastity was never heard of,
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  Speaker 1: and the married pair pass their lives with the same
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  Speaker 1: friendship and mutual benevolence that they bear to all others
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  Speaker 1: of the same species who come in their way, without jealousy, fondness, quarreling,
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  Speaker 1: or discontent. In educating the youth of both sexes, their
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  Speaker 1: method is admirable and highly deserves our imagination. These are
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  Speaker 1: not suffered to taste a grain of oats, except upon
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  Speaker 1: certain days till eighteen years old, nor milk, but very rarely.
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  Speaker 1: And in summer they graze two hours in the morning
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  Speaker 1: and as many in the evening, which their parents likewise observe.
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  Speaker 1: But the servants are not allowed above half that time,
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  Speaker 1: and a great part of their grass is brought home,
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  Speaker 1: which they eat at the most convenient hours, when they
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  Speaker 1: can be best spared from work. Temperance, industry, exercise, and
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  Speaker 1: cleanliness are the lessons equally enjoined to the young ones
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  Speaker 1: of both sexes. And by Master thought it monstrous in
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  Speaker 1: us to give the females a different kind of education
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  Speaker 1: from the males, except in some articles of domestic management, whereby,
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  Speaker 1: as he truly observed, one half of our natives were
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  Speaker 1: good for nothing but bringing children into the world. And
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  Speaker 1: trust the care of our children to such useless animals,
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  Speaker 1: he said, was yet a greater instance of brutality. But
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  Speaker 1: the Whinnams train up their youth to strength, speed and
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  Speaker 1: hardiness by exercising them in running races up and down
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  Speaker 1: steep hills and over hard stony grounds. And when they
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  Speaker 1: are all in a sweat, they are ordered to leap
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  Speaker 1: over head and ears into a pond or river. Four
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  Speaker 1: times a year the youth of a certain district meet
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  Speaker 1: to show their proficiency in running and leaping, and other
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  Speaker 1: feats of strength and agility, whether the victory is rewarded
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  Speaker 1: with a song in his or her praise. On this festival,
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  Speaker 1: the servants driver heard of yahoos into the field laden
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  Speaker 1: with hay and oats and milk for a repast to
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  Speaker 1: the Whinnams, after which these brutes are immediately driven back
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  Speaker 1: again for fear of becoming noisome to the assembly. Every
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  Speaker 1: fourth year at the vernal equinox, there is a representative
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  Speaker 1: council of the whole nation, which meets in a plain
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  Speaker 1: about twenty miles from our house, and continues about five
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  Speaker 1: or six days. Here they inquire into the state and
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  Speaker 1: condition of the several districts, whether they are abound or
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  Speaker 1: be deficient in hays or oats, or cows or yahoos,
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  Speaker 1: and wherever there is any want, which is but seldom
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  Speaker 1: it is immediately supplied by unanimous consent and contribution. Here
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  Speaker 1: likewise the regulation of children is settled, as for instance,
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  Speaker 1: if a Whynham has two males, he changes one of
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  Speaker 1: them with another that has two females. And when a
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  Speaker 1: child has been lost by any casualty where the mother
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  Speaker 1: is past breeding, it is determined what family in the
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  Speaker 1: district shall breed another to supply the loss. And apart
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  Speaker 1: four Chapter eight