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29 - Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift · Classic Adventure Books Library

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  Chapter two, the author conducted by a Whinnam to his house. The house
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  described the author's reception the food of the Whinnham's. The author, in distress
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  for want of meat, is at last relieved his manner of feeding in this
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  country. Having traveled about three miles, we came to a long kind of
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  building made of timber, stuck in the ground and wattled across. The roof
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  was low and covered with straw. I now began to be a little comforted,
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  and took out some toys, which travelers usually carry for presents to the
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  savage Indians of America and other parts, in hopes the people of the house
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  would be thereby encouraged to receive me kindly. The horse made me a sign
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  to go in first. It was a large room with a smooth clay floor
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  and a rack and manger extending the whole length. On one side. There
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  were three nags and two mares, not eating, but some of them sitting
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  down upon their hands, which I very much wondered at, but wondered more
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  to see the rest employed in domestic business. These seemed but ordinary cattle.
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  However, this confirmed my first opinion that a people who could so far civilize
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  brute animals must needs excel in wisdom all the nations of the world. The
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  Gray came in just after, and thereby prevented any ill treatment which the others
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  might have given me. He neighed to them several times in a style of
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  authority, and received answers. Beyond this room there were three others, reaching
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  the length of the house, to which you passed through three open doors opposite
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  to each other, in the manner of a vista. We went through the
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  second room towards the third. The gray walked in first, beckoning me to
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  attend. I waited in the second room and got ready my presence for the
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  master and mistress of the house. There were two knives, three bracelets of
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  false pearls, a small looking glass, and a bead necklace. The horse
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  in aged three or four times, and I waited to hear some answers in
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  a human voice. But I heard no other returns than in the same dialect,
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  only one or two a little shriller than his. I began to think
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  that this house must belong to some person of great note among them, because
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  there appeared so much ceremony before I could gain admittance, but that a man
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  of quality should be served all by horses was beyond my comprehension. I feared
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  my brain was disturbed by my sufferings and misfortunes. I roused myself and looked
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  about me in the room where I was left alone. This was furnish like
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  the first, only after a more elegant manner. I rubbed my eyes often,
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  but the same object still occurred. I pinched my arms and sides to
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  awake myself, hoping I might be in a dream. I then absolutely concluded
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  that all these appearances could be nothing else but necromancy and magic. But I
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  had no time to pursue these reflections, for the gray horse came to the
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  door and made me a sign to follow him into the third room, where
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  I saw a very comely mare, together with a colt and foal, sitting
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  on their haunches upon mats of straw, not unartfully made and perfectly neat and
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  clean. The mare, soon after my entrance, rose from her mat,
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  and, coming up close, after having nicely observed my hands and face,
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  gave me a most contemptuous look, and turning to the horse, I heard
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  the word yahoo often repeated betwixt them, the meaning of which word I could
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  not then comprehend, although it was the first I had learned to pronounce.
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  But I was soon better informed to my everlasting mortification. For the horse,
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  beckoning to me with his head and repeated the whin whin as he did upon
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  the road, which I understood was to attend him, led me out into
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  a kind of court, where was another building at some distance from the house.
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  Here we entered, and I saw three of those detestable creatures which I
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  first met after my landing, feeding upon roots and the flesh of some animals,
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  which I afterwards found to be that of asses and dogs, and now
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  and then a cow dead by accident or disease. They were all tied by
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  the neck with strong wis fastened to a beam. They held their food between
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  the claws of their fore feet and tore it with their teeth. The master
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  horse ordered a sorrel nag, one of his servants, to untie the largest
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  of these animals and take him into the yard. The beast and I were
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  brought close together, and by our countenances diligently compared both by master and servant,
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  who thereupon repeated several times the word yahoo. My horror and astonishment are
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  not to be described when I observed in these abominable animals a perfect human figure.
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  The face of it, indeed, was flat and broad, the nose
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  depressed, the lips large, and the mouth wide. But these differences are
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  common to all savage nations, where the lineaments of the countenance are distorted by
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  the natives suffering their infants to lie groveling on the earth, or by carrying
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  them on their back, nuzzling with their face against the mother's shoulders. The
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  fore feet of the Yahoo differed from my hands in nothing else but the length
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  of the nails, the coarseness and brownness of the palms, and the hairiness
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  on the backs. There was the same resemblance between our feet, with the
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  same differences, which I knew very well, though the horses did not because
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  of my shoes and stockings, the same in every part of our bodies,
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  except as to hairiness and color, which I have already described. The great
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  difficulty that seemed to stick with the two horses was to see the rest of
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  my body so very different from that of a yahoo, for which I was
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  obliged to my clothes, whereof they had no conception. The sorrel nag offered
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  me a root, which he held, after their manner, as we shall
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  describe, in its proper place between his hoof and pastern. I took it
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  in my hand, and, having smelt it, returned it to him again
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  as civilly as I could. He brought out of the yahoose kennel a piece
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  of asses flesh, but it smelt so offensively that I turned from it with
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  loathing. He then threw it to the Yahoo, by whom it was greedily
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  devoured. He afterwards showed me a wisp of hay and a fetchlock full of
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  oats, but I shook my head to signify that neither of these were food
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  for me. And indeed I now apprehended that I must absolutely starve if I
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  did not get to some one my own species. For as to those filthy
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  yahoos, although there were few great lovers of mankind at that time than myself,
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  yet I confess I never saw any sensitive being so detestable on all accounts.
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  And the more I came near them, the more hateful they grew.
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  While I stayed in that country. This the master horse observed by my behavior,
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  and therefore sent the Yahoo back to his kennel. He then put his
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  fore hoof to his mouth, at which I was much surprised, although he
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  did it with ease and with a motion that appeared perfectly natural, and made
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  other signs to know what I would eat. But I could not return him
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  such an answer as he was able to apprehend, and if he had understood
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  me, I did not see how it was possible to contrive any way for
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  finding myself nourishment. While we were thus engaged, I observed a cow passing
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  by, whereupon I pointed to her and expressed a desire to go and milk
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  her. This had its effect, for he led me back into the house
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  and ordered a mare servant to open a room where a good store of milk
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  lay in earthen and wooden vessels. After a very orderly and cleanly manner,
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  she gave me a large bowlful of which I drank very heartily, and found
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  myself well refreshed. Noon, I saw come in towards the house a kind
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  of vehicle drawn like a sledge by four yahoos. There was in it an
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  old steed who seemed to be of quality. He alighted with his hind feet
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  forward, having by accident got hurt in his left fore foot he came to
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  dine with our horse, who received him with great civility. They dined in
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  the best room and had oats boiled in milk for the second course, which
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  the old horse ate warm, but the rest cold. Their mangers were placed
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  circular in the middle of the room and divided into several petitions, round which
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  they sat on their haunches upon bosses of straw. In the middle was a
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  large rack with angles answering to every partition of the manger, so that each
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  horse and mare ate their own hay and their own mash of oats and milk
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  with much decency and regularity. The behavior of the young colt and foal appeared
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  very modest, and that of the master and mistress extremely cheerful and complaisant to
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  their guest. The gray ordered me to stand by him, and much discourse
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  passed between him and his friend concerning me, as I found by the strangers
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  often looking on me, and the frequent repetition of the word yahoo. I
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  happened to wear my gloves, which the master grew observing, seemed perplexed,
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  discovering signs of wonder what I had done to my forefeet. He put his
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  hoo three or four times to them, as if he would signify that I
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  should reduce them to their former shape, which I presently did, pulling off
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  both my gloves and putting them into my pocket. This occasioned father talk,
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  and I saw the company was pleased with my behavior, whereof I soon found
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  the good effects. I was ordered to speak the few words I understood,
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  and while they were at dinner, the master taught me the names for oats,
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  milk, fire water, and some others, which I could readily pronounce
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  after him, having from my youth a great facility in learning languages. When
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  dinner was done, the master Horse took me aside, and by signs and
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  words, made me understand the concern he was in in that I had nothing
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  to eat. Oats and their tongue are called humna, the word I pronounced
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  two or three times, for although I had refused them at first, yet
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  upon second thoughts, I considered that I could contrive to make of them a
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  kind of bread which might be sufficient with milk to keep me alive till I
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  could make my escape to some other country and a creatures of my own species.
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  The horse immediately ordered a white mare servant of his family to bring me
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  a good quantity of oats and a sort of wooden tray. These I hed
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  before the fire as well as I could, and rubbed them till the husks
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  came off, which I made a sift to winnow from the grain. I
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  ground and beat them between two stones, then took water and made them into
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  a paste or cake, which I toasted at the fire net warm with milk.
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  It was at first a very insipid diet, though common enough in many
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  parts of Europe, but grew tolerable by time, and having often been reduced
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  to hard fare in my life, this was not the first experiment I had
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  made. How easily nature is satisfied, and I cannot but observe that I
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  never had one hour's sickness while I stayed in this island. It is true
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  I sometimes made a shift to catch a rabbit or bird by springs made of
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  yahoo's hairs, and I often gathered wholesome herbs, which I boiled and ate
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  as salads with my bread. And now and then, for a rare I
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  made a little butter and drank the way. I was at first a great
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  loss for salt, but custom soon reconciled me to the want of it,
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  and I am confident that the frequent use of salt among us is an effect
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  of luxury, and was first introduced only as a provocative to drink, except
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  where it is necessary for preserving flesh in long voyages or in places remote from
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  great markets. For we observe no animal to be fond of it, but
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  man. And as to myself, when I left this country, it was
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  a great while before I could endure the taste of it in anything that I
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  ate. This is enough to say upon the subject of my diet, wherewith
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  other travelers filled their books as if the reader were personally concerned whether we fare
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  well or ill. However, it was necessary to mention this matter lest the
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  world should think it impossible that I could find sustenance for three years in such
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  a country and among such inhabitants. When it grew towards evening, the master
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  horse ordered a place for me to lodge in. It was but six yards
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  from the house and separated from the stable of the yahoos. Here I got
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  some straw, and, covering myself with my own clothes, slept very sound.
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  But I was in a short time better accommodated, as the reader shall
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  know. Hereafter when I come to treat more particularly about my way of living.
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  End Apart four, Chapter two,