Latest / Classic Adventure Books Library / 36 - Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
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- Chapter nine, a grand debate at the General Assembly of the Whinnams, and how it was determined the learning of the Whinnams, their buildings, their manner of burials, the defectiveness of their language. One of these grand assemblies was held in my time, about three months before my departure, whither my Master 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 master after his return gave me a very particular account. The question to be debated was whether the Yahoo should be exterminated from the face of the earth. One of the members for the affirmative offered several arguments of great strength and weight, alleging that as the Yahoos were the most filthy, noisome, and deformed animals which nature ever produced, so they were the most restive and indosable, mischief and malicious. They would privately suck the teats of the Whinnam's cows kill and avow their cats, trample down their oats and grass if they were not continually watched, and commit a thousand other extravagances. He took notice of a general tradition that yahoos had not always been in their country, but that many ages ago two of these brutes appeared together upon a mountain, whether produced by the heat of the sun, upon corrupted mud and slime, or from the ooze and froth of the sea, was never known. That these yahoos engendered and their brood in a short time grew so numerous as to overrun and infest the whole nation, that the Whinnams, to get rid of this evil, made a general hunting, and at last enclosed the whole herd, and destroying the elder. Every Whynam kept two young ones in a kennel and brought them to such a degree of tameness as an animal so savage by nature can be capable of acquiring, using them for draft and carriage, that this seemed to be much truth in this tradition, and that those creatures could not be yin Yiamshi or aborigines of the land, because of the violent hatred of the Whidhams, as well as all other animals bore them, which, although their evil disposition sufficiently deserved, could never have arrived at so high a degree if they had been aborigines, or else they would have long since been rooted out, that the inhabitants, taken a fancy to use the service of the yahoos, had very imprudently neglected to cultivate the breed of asses, which are a comely animal, easily kept more tame and orderly, without any offensive smell, strong enough for labour, although they yield to the other in agility of body, and if their brain be no agreeable sound, it is far preferable to the horrible howlings of the yahoos. Several others declared their sentiments to the same purpose. When my master proposed an expedient to the assembly, whereof he had borrowed the hint from me, he approved of the tradition mentioned by the honorable member who spoke before, and affirmed that the two yahoos said to be seen first among them, had been driven thither over the sea, that coming to land, and being forsaken by their companions, they retired to the mountains, and, degenerating by degrees, became in process of time, much more savage than those of their own species in the country. Whence these two originals came. The reason of this assertion was that he had now in his possession a certain wonderful Yahoo, meaning myself, which most of them had heard of, and many of them had seen. 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 spoke 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 saw me without my covering, I was an exact Yahoo, in every part, only of a whiter, color less, hairy, and with shorter claws. He added, how I had endeavored to persuade him that in my own and other countries, the Yahoos acted as the governing rational animal, and held the hoynums in servitude. That he observed in me all the qualities of a Yahoo, only a little more civilized by some tincature of reason, which however, was in a degree as far inferior to the Whinnham race as the Yahoos of their country were. To me, that, among other things, I mentioned a custom we had of castrating Winnhems when they were young, in order to render them tame, That the operation was easy and safe, that it was no shame to learn wisdom from brutes, as industry is taught by the end, and building by the swallow. For so I translate the word to lahana, although it be a much larger fowl, that this invention might be practiced upon the younger yahoos here, which, besides rendering them tractable and fitter for use, would in an age, put an end to the whole species without destroying life. That in the meantime the Wynhams should be exhorted to cultivate the breed of asses, which, as they are in all respects more valuable brutes. So they have this advantage to be fit for service at five years old, which the others are not till twelve. This was all my master thought fit to tell me at that time of what passed in the Grand Council, that he was pleased to conceal one particular which related personally to myself, whereof I soon felt the unhappy effect, as the reader will know in its proper place, and whence I date all the succeeding misfortunes of my life. The Whinnams have no letters, and consequently their knowledge is all traditional. But there happening few events of any moment among a people so well united, naturally disposed to every virtue, wholly governed by reason, and cut off from all commerce with other nations. The historical part is easily preserved without burdening their memories. I have already observed that they are subject to no diseases, and therefore can have no need of physicians. However, they have excellent medicines composed of herbs, to cure accidental bruises and cuts in the pastern or frog of the foot by sharp stones, well as other mames and hurts in the several parts of the body. They calculate the year by the revolution of the Sun and moon, but use no subdivisions into weeks. They are well enough acquainted with the motions of those two luminaries and understand the nature of eclipses, and this is the utmost progress of their astronomy. In poetry, they must be allowed to excel all other mortals, and the minuteness, as well as exactness, of their descriptions are indeed inimitable. Their verses abound very much in both of these, and usually containing the sum exalted notions of friendship and benevolence, or the praises of those who are victors, and races, and other bodily exercises. Their buildings, although very rude and simple, 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 loosens in the root and falls with the first storm. It grows very straight, and being pointed like stakes with the sharp stone. For the Winnams know not the use of iron, they stick them erect in the ground about ten inches asunder, and then weave in oat, straw, or sometimes wattles between them. The roof is made after the same manner, and so are the doors. The Winhums use the hollow part between the pastern and the hoof of their forefoot, as we do our hands, and this with greater dexterity than I could at first imagine. I have seen a white mare of our family thread a needle which I lenter on purpose with that joint. They milk their cows, reap their oats, and do all the work which requires hands in the same manner. They have a kind of hard flints, which, by grinding against other stones, they form into instruments that serve instead of wedges, axes, and hammers, with tools made of these flints. They likewise cut their hay and reap their oats, which they grow naturally in several fields. The yahoos draw home the sheaves and carriages, and the servants tread them in certain covered huts. To get out the grain which is kept in stores, they make a rude kind of earthen and wooden vessels, and bake the former in the sun. If they can avoid casualties. They die only of old age, and are buried in the obscurest places that can be found, their friends and relations expressing neither joy nor grief at their departure. Nor does the dying person discover the least regret that he is leaving the world, any more than if he were returning home from a visit to one of his neighbors. I remember my master having once made an appointment with a friend and his family to come to his house upon some affair of importance. On the day fixed the mistress in her the two children came very late. She made two excuses, first for a husband, who, as she said, happened that very morning to s new one. The word is strongly expressive in their language, but not easily rendered into English. It signifies to retire to his first mother. Her excuse for not coming sooner was that her husband dying late in the morning. She was a good while consulting her servants about a convenient place where his body should be laid, and I observed she behaved herself at our house as cheerfully as the rest. She died about three months after. They live generally to seventy or seventy five years, very seldom to fourscore. Some weeks before their death they feel a gradual decay, but without pain. During this time they are much visited by their friends, because they cannot go abroad with their usual ease and satisfaction. However, about ten days before their death, which they seldom fail in computing, they return the visits that have been made and by those who are nearest in the neighborhood, being carried in a convenient sledge drawn by Yahoos, which vehicle they use not only upon this occasion, but when they grow old, upon long journeys, or when they are lamed by any accident. And therefore, when the dying Winnems return those visits, they take a solemn leave of their friends as if they were going to some remote part of the country where they designed to pass the rest of their lives. I know not whether it may be worth observing that the Winnams have no word in their language to express anything that is evil, except what they borrow from the deformities or ill qualities of the Yahoos. Thus they denote the folly of a servant and omission of a child, a stone that cuts their feet, a countenance of foul or unseasonable weather, and the like, by adding to each the epithet of Yahoo. For instance, Hum Yahoo one al hum Yahoo, yin Yaoham dawolma Yahoo, and an ill contrived house yinholm han roe homnah Yahoo. I could, with great pleasure enlarge further upon the manners and virtues of this excellent people. But intending in a short time to publish a volume by itself expressly upon that subject, I refer the reader thither, and in the meantime proceed to relate my own sad catastrophe. End Apart four, Chapter nine