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

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