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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter nine, a grand debate at the General Assembly of
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  Speaker 1: the Whinnams, and how it was determined the learning of
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  Speaker 1: the Whinnams, their buildings, their manner of burials, the defectiveness
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  Speaker 1: of their language. One of these grand assemblies was held
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  Speaker 1: in my time, about three months before my departure, whither
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  Speaker 1: my Master went as the representative of our district. In
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  Speaker 1: this council was resumed their old debate, and indeed the
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  Speaker 1: only debate that ever happened in their country. Whereof my
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  Speaker 1: master after his return gave me a very particular account.
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  Speaker 1: The question to be debated was whether the Yahoo should
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  Speaker 1: be exterminated from the face of the earth. One of
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  Speaker 1: the members for the affirmative offered several arguments of great
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  Speaker 1: strength and weight, alleging that as the Yahoos were the
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  Speaker 1: most filthy, noisome, and deformed animals which nature ever produced,
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  Speaker 1: so they were the most restive and indosable, mischief and malicious.
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  Speaker 1: They would privately suck the teats of the Whinnam's cows
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  Speaker 1: kill and avow their cats, trample down their oats and
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  Speaker 1: grass if they were not continually watched, and commit a
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  Speaker 1: thousand other extravagances. He took notice of a general tradition
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  Speaker 1: that yahoos had not always been in their country, but
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  Speaker 1: that many ages ago two of these brutes appeared together
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  Speaker 1: upon a mountain, whether produced by the heat of the sun,
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  Speaker 1: upon corrupted mud and slime, or from the ooze and
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  Speaker 1: froth of the sea, was never known. That these yahoos
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  Speaker 1: engendered and their brood in a short time grew so
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  Speaker 1: numerous as to overrun and infest the whole nation, that
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  Speaker 1: the Whinnams, to get rid of this evil, made a
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  Speaker 1: general hunting, and at last enclosed the whole herd, and
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  Speaker 1: destroying the elder. Every Whynam kept two young ones in
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  Speaker 1: a kennel and brought them to such a degree of
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  Speaker 1: tameness as an animal so savage by nature can be
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  Speaker 1: capable of acquiring, using them for draft and carriage, that
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  Speaker 1: this seemed to be much truth in this tradition, and
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  Speaker 1: that those creatures could not be yin Yiamshi or aborigines
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  Speaker 1: of the land, because of the violent hatred of the Whidhams,
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  Speaker 1: as well as all other animals bore them, which, although
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  Speaker 1: their evil disposition sufficiently deserved, could never have arrived at
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  Speaker 1: so high a degree if they had been aborigines, or
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  Speaker 1: else they would have long since been rooted out, that
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  Speaker 1: the inhabitants, taken a fancy to use the service of
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  Speaker 1: the yahoos, had very imprudently neglected to cultivate the breed
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  Speaker 1: of asses, which are a comely animal, easily kept more
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  Speaker 1: tame and orderly, without any offensive smell, strong enough for labour,
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  Speaker 1: although they yield to the other in agility of body,
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  Speaker 1: and if their brain be no agreeable sound, it is
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  Speaker 1: far preferable to the horrible howlings of the yahoos. Several
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  Speaker 1: others declared their sentiments to the same purpose. When my
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  Speaker 1: master proposed an expedient to the assembly, whereof he had
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  Speaker 1: borrowed the hint from me, he approved of the tradition
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  Speaker 1: mentioned by the honorable member who spoke before, and affirmed
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  Speaker 1: that the two yahoos said to be seen first among them,
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  Speaker 1: had been driven thither over the sea, that coming to land,
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  Speaker 1: and being forsaken by their companions, they retired to the mountains, and,
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  Speaker 1: degenerating by degrees, became in process of time, much more
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  Speaker 1: savage than those of their own species in the country.
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  Speaker 1: Whence these two originals came. The reason of this assertion
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  Speaker 1: was that he had now in his possession a certain
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  Speaker 1: wonderful Yahoo, meaning myself, which most of them had heard of,
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  Speaker 1: and many of them had seen. He then related to
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  Speaker 1: them how he first found me that my body was
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  Speaker 1: all covered with an artificial composure of the skins and
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  Speaker 1: hairs of other animals. That I spoke in a language
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  Speaker 1: of my own, and had thoroughly learned theirs, that I
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  Speaker 1: had related to him the accidents which brought me thither.
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  Speaker 1: That when he saw me without my covering, I was
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  Speaker 1: an exact Yahoo, in every part, only of a whiter,
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  Speaker 1: color less, hairy, and with shorter claws. He added, how
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  Speaker 1: I had endeavored to persuade him that in my own
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  Speaker 1: and other countries, the Yahoos acted as the governing rational animal,
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  Speaker 1: and held the hoynums in servitude. That he observed in
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  Speaker 1: me all the qualities of a Yahoo, only a little
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  Speaker 1: more civilized by some tincature of reason, which however, was
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  Speaker 1: in a degree as far inferior to the Whinnham race
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  Speaker 1: as the Yahoos of their country were. To me, that,
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  Speaker 1: among other things, I mentioned a custom we had of
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  Speaker 1: castrating Winnhems when they were young, in order to render
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  Speaker 1: them tame, That the operation was easy and safe, that
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  Speaker 1: it was no shame to learn wisdom from brutes, as
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  Speaker 1: industry is taught by the end, and building by the swallow.
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  Speaker 1: For so I translate the word to lahana, although it
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  Speaker 1: be a much larger fowl, that this invention might be
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  Speaker 1: practiced upon the younger yahoos here, which, besides rendering them
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  Speaker 1: tractable and fitter for use, would in an age, put
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  Speaker 1: an end to the whole species without destroying life. That
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  Speaker 1: in the meantime the Wynhams should be exhorted to cultivate
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  Speaker 1: the breed of asses, which, as they are in all
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  Speaker 1: respects more valuable brutes. So they have this advantage to
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  Speaker 1: be fit for service at five years old, which the
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  Speaker 1: others are not till twelve. This was all my master
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  Speaker 1: thought fit to tell me at that time of what
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  Speaker 1: passed in the Grand Council, that he was pleased to
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  Speaker 1: conceal one particular which related personally to myself, whereof I
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  Speaker 1: soon felt the unhappy effect, as the reader will know
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  Speaker 1: in its proper place, and whence I date all the
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  Speaker 1: succeeding misfortunes of my life. The Whinnams have no letters,
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  Speaker 1: and consequently their knowledge is all traditional. But there happening
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  Speaker 1: few events of any moment among a people so well united,
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  Speaker 1: naturally disposed to every virtue, wholly governed by reason, and
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  Speaker 1: cut off from all commerce with other nations. The historical
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  Speaker 1: part is easily preserved without burdening their memories. I have
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  Speaker 1: already observed that they are subject to no diseases, and
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  Speaker 1: therefore can have no need of physicians. However, they have
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  Speaker 1: excellent medicines composed of herbs, to cure accidental bruises and
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  Speaker 1: cuts in the pastern or frog of the foot by
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  Speaker 1: sharp stones, well as other mames and hurts in the
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  Speaker 1: several parts of the body. They calculate the year by
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  Speaker 1: the revolution of the Sun and moon, but use no
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  Speaker 1: subdivisions into weeks. They are well enough acquainted with the
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  Speaker 1: motions of those two luminaries and understand the nature of eclipses,
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  Speaker 1: and this is the utmost progress of their astronomy. In poetry,
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  Speaker 1: they must be allowed to excel all other mortals, and
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  Speaker 1: the minuteness, as well as exactness, of their descriptions are
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  Speaker 1: indeed inimitable. Their verses abound very much in both of these,
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  Speaker 1: and usually containing the sum exalted notions of friendship and benevolence,
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  Speaker 1: or the praises of those who are victors, and races,
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  Speaker 1: and other bodily exercises. Their buildings, although very rude and simple,
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  Speaker 1: are not inconvenient, but well contrived to defend them from
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  Speaker 1: all injuries of cold and heat. They have a kind
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  Speaker 1: of tree which, at forty years old loosens in the
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  Speaker 1: root and falls with the first storm. It grows very straight,
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  Speaker 1: and being pointed like stakes with the sharp stone. For
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  Speaker 1: the Winnams know not the use of iron, they stick
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  Speaker 1: them erect in the ground about ten inches asunder, and
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  Speaker 1: then weave in oat, straw, or sometimes wattles between them.
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  Speaker 1: The roof is made after the same manner, and so
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  Speaker 1: are the doors. The Winhums use the hollow part between
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  Speaker 1: the pastern and the hoof of their forefoot, as we
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  Speaker 1: do our hands, and this with greater dexterity than I
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  Speaker 1: could at first imagine. I have seen a white mare
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  Speaker 1: of our family thread a needle which I lenter on
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  Speaker 1: purpose with that joint. They milk their cows, reap their oats,
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  Speaker 1: and do all the work which requires hands in the
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  Speaker 1: same manner. They have a kind of hard flints, which,
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  Speaker 1: by grinding against other stones, they form into instruments that
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  Speaker 1: serve instead of wedges, axes, and hammers, with tools made
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  Speaker 1: of these flints. They likewise cut their hay and reap
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  Speaker 1: their oats, which they grow naturally in several fields. The
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  Speaker 1: yahoos draw home the sheaves and carriages, and the servants
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  Speaker 1: tread them in certain covered huts. To get out the
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  Speaker 1: grain which is kept in stores, they make a rude
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  Speaker 1: kind of earthen and wooden vessels, and bake the former
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  Speaker 1: in the sun. If they can avoid casualties. They die
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  Speaker 1: only of old age, and are buried in the obscurest
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  Speaker 1: places that can be found, their friends and relations expressing
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  Speaker 1: neither joy nor grief at their departure. Nor does the
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  Speaker 1: dying person discover the least regret that he is leaving
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  Speaker 1: the world, any more than if he were returning home
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  Speaker 1: from a visit to one of his neighbors. I remember
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  Speaker 1: my master having once made an appointment with a friend
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  Speaker 1: and his family to come to his house upon some
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  Speaker 1: affair of importance. On the day fixed the mistress in
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  Speaker 1: her the two children came very late. She made two excuses,
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  Speaker 1: first for a husband, who, as she said, happened that
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  Speaker 1: very morning to s new one. The word is strongly
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  Speaker 1: expressive in their language, but not easily rendered into English.
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  Speaker 1: It signifies to retire to his first mother. Her excuse
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  Speaker 1: for not coming sooner was that her husband dying late
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  Speaker 1: in the morning. She was a good while consulting her
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  Speaker 1: servants about a convenient place where his body should be laid,
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  Speaker 1: and I observed she behaved herself at our house as
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  Speaker 1: cheerfully as the rest. She died about three months after.
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  Speaker 1: They live generally to seventy or seventy five years, very
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  Speaker 1: seldom to fourscore. Some weeks before their death they feel
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  Speaker 1: a gradual decay, but without pain. During this time they
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  Speaker 1: are much visited by their friends, because they cannot go
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  Speaker 1: abroad with their usual ease and satisfaction. However, about ten
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  Speaker 1: days before their death, which they seldom fail in computing,
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  Speaker 1: they return the visits that have been made and by
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  Speaker 1: those who are nearest in the neighborhood, being carried in
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  Speaker 1: a convenient sledge drawn by Yahoos, which vehicle they use
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  Speaker 1: not only upon this occasion, but when they grow old,
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  Speaker 1: upon long journeys, or when they are lamed by any accident.
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  Speaker 1: And therefore, when the dying Winnems return those visits, they
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  Speaker 1: take a solemn leave of their friends as if they
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  Speaker 1: were going to some remote part of the country where
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  Speaker 1: they designed to pass the rest of their lives. I
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  Speaker 1: know not whether it may be worth observing that the
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  Speaker 1: Winnams have no word in their language to express anything
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  Speaker 1: that is evil, except what they borrow from the deformities
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  Speaker 1: or ill qualities of the Yahoos. Thus they denote the
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  Speaker 1: folly of a servant and omission of a child, a
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  Speaker 1: stone that cuts their feet, a countenance of foul or
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  Speaker 1: unseasonable weather, and the like, by adding to each the
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  Speaker 1: epithet of Yahoo. For instance, Hum Yahoo one al hum Yahoo,
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  Speaker 1: yin Yaoham dawolma Yahoo, and an ill contrived house yinholm
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  Speaker 1: han roe homnah Yahoo. I could, with great pleasure enlarge
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  Speaker 1: further upon the manners and virtues of this excellent people.
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  Speaker 1: But intending in a short time to publish a volume
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  Speaker 1: by itself expressly upon that subject, I refer the reader thither,
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  Speaker 1: and in the meantime proceed to relate my own sad catastrophe.
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  Speaker 1: End Apart four, Chapter nine