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30 - Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift · Classic Adventure Books Collection

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  Chapter three, the author studies to learn the language the Whynum. His master
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  assists in teaching him the language described. Several whinnams of quality come out of
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  curiosity to see the author. He gives his master a short account of his
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  voyage. My principal endeavor was to learn the language which my master, for
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  so I shall henceforth call him. And his children and every servant of his
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  house were desirous to teach me, for they looked upon it as a prodigy,
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  that a brute animal should discover such marks of a rational creature. I
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  pointed to everything and acquired the name of it, which I wrote down in
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  my journal book when I was alone, and corrected my bad accent by desiring
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  those of the family to pronounce it. Often in this employment, a sorrel
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  nag, one of the under servants, was very ready to assist me in
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  speaking. They anounced through the nose and throat, and their language approaches nearest
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  to the high Dutch or German of any I know in Europe, but is
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  much more graceful and significant. The Emperor Charles the fifth made almost the same
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  observation when he said that if he were to speak to his horse, it
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  should be in high Dutch. The curiosity and impatience of my master were so
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  great that he spent many hours of his leisure to instruct me. He was
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  convinced, as he afterwards told me, that I must be a yahoo.
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  But my teachableness, civility, and cleanliness astonished him, which are qualities altogether
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  opposite to those animals. He was most perplexed about my clothes, reasoning sometimes
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  with himself whether they were a part of my body, for I never pulled
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  them off till the family were asleep, and got them on before they waked
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  in the morning. My master was eager to learn whence I came, how
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  I acquired those appearances of reason which I discovered in all my actions, and
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  to know my story from my own mouth, which he hoped he should soon
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  do by the great proficiency I made in learning and pronouncing their words and sentences.
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  To help my memory, I formed all I learned into the English alphabet,
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  and rich the words down with the translations. This last, after some
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  time I ventured to do my master's presence. It cost me much trouble to
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  explain to him what I was doing for the inhabitants of not the least idea
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  of books or literature. In about ten weeks time, I was able to
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  understand most of his questions, and in three months could give him some tolerable
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  answers. He was extremely curious to know from what part of the country I
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  came and how I was taught to imitate rational creature, because the yahoos whom
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  he saw I exactly resembled in my head, hands and face that were only
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  visible with some appearance of cunning, and the strongest disposition to mischief, were
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  observed to be the most unteachable of all brutes. I answered that I came
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  over the sea from a far place with many others of my own kind,
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  in a great hollow vessel made of the bodies of trees, that my companions
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  forced me to land on this coast, and then left me to shift from
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  myself. It was with some difficulty, and by the help of many signs,
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  that I brought him to understand me. He replied that I must needs
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  be mistaken, or that I said the thing which was not, for they
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  have no word in their language to express lying or falsehood. He knew it
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  was impossible that there could be a country beyond the sea, or that a
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  parcel of brutes could move a wooden vessel whither they pleased upon water. He
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  was sure no whinnam alive could make such a vessel, nor would trust yahoos
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  to manage it. The word huinnam in their tongue signifies a horse, and
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  in its etymology, the perfection of nature. I told my master that I
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  was at a loss for expression, but would improve as fast as I could,
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  and hoped in a short time I would be able to tell him wonders.
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  He was pleased to direct his own mare, his cult and foal,
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  and the servants of the family to take all opportunities of instructing me, and
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  every day for two or three hours he was at the same pains himself.
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  Several horses and mares of quality in the neighborhood came often to our house upon
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  the report spread of a wonderful Yahoo that could speak like a whinn them,
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  and seemed in his words and actions to discover some glimmerings of reason. These
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  delighted to converse with me. They put many questions and received such answers as
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  I was able to return. By all these advantages, I made so great
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  a progress that in five months from my arrival I understood whatever was spoken,
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  and could express myself tolerably well. The Whuynhams, who came to visit my
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  Master, out of a design of seeing and talking with me, could hardly
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  believe me to be a right yahoo, because my body had a different covering
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  from others of my kind. They were astonished to observe me without the usual
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  hair or skin except on my head, face and hands. But I discovered
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  that secret to my master upon an accident, which happened about a fortnight before.
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  I have already told the reader that every night, when the family were
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  gone to bed, it was my custom to strip and cover myself with my
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  clothes. It happened one morning early that my Master sent for me by the
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  sorrel Nag, who was his valet. When he came, I was fast
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  asleep, my clothes fallen off on one side, and my shirt above my
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  waist. I awaked at the noise he made, and observed him to deliver
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  his message in some disorder, after which he went to my Master, and
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  in a great fright, gave him a very confused account of what he had
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  seen. This I presently discovered for going as soon as I was dressed to
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  pay my attendance upon his honor, he asked me the meaning of what his
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  servant had reported. That I was not the same thing when I slept as
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  I appeared to be at other times, that his valet assured him, some
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  part of me was white, some yellow, at least not so white,
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  and some brown. I had hithero concealed the secret of my dress in order
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  to distinguish myself as much as possible from that cursed race of Yahoos. But
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  now I found it in vain to do so any longer. Besides, I
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  considered that my clothes and shoes would soon wear out, which already were in
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  a declining condition, and must be supplied by some contrivance from the hides of
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  Yahoos or other brutes, whereby the whole secret would be known. I therefore
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  told my master that in the country, whence I came, those of my
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  kind always covered their bodies with the hairs of certain animals prepared by art,
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  as well as for decency, as to avoid the inclemencies of air, both
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  hot and cold, of which as to my own person, I would give
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  him immediate conviction if you pleased to command me, only desiring his excuse,
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  if I did not expose those parts that nature taught us to conceal. He
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  said, my discourse was all very strange, but especially the last part,
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  for he could not understand why nature should teach us to conceal what nature had
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  given. That neither himself nor family were ashamed of any parts of their bodies.
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  But however, I might do as I pleased. Whereupon I first unbuttoned
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  my coat and pulled it off. I did the same with my waistcoat.
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  I drew off my shoes, stockings, and breeches. I let my shirt
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  down to my waist and drew up the bottom, fastening it like a girdle
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  about my middle to hide my nakedness. My master observed the whole performance with
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  great signs of curiosity and admiration. He took up all my clothes in his
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  pastern one piece after another, and examined them diligently. He then stroked my
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  body very gently and looked round me several times, after which he said,
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  it was plain I must be a perfect yahoo, but that I differed very
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  much from the rest of my species in the softness, whiteness, and smoothness
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  of my skin, my want of hair, in several parts of my body,
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  the shape and shortness of my claws behind and before, and my affectation
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  of walking continually on my two hinder feet. He desired to see no more,
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  and gave me leave to put on my clothes again, for I was
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  shuddering with cold. I expressed my uneasiness at his given me so often the
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  appellation of yahoo, an odious animal for which I had so utter a hatred
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  and contempt. I begged he would forbear applying that word to me, and
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  make the same order in his family and among his friends, whom he suffered
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  to see me. I requested likewise that the secret of my having a false
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  covering to my body might be known to none but himself, at least as
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  long as my present clothing should last, For as to what the sorrel nag
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  his valet had observed, his honor might command him to conceal it. All
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  this my master very graciously consented to, and thus the secret was kept till
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  my clothes began to wear out, which I was forced to supply by several
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  contrivances that shall hereafter be mentioned. In the meantime, he desired I would
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  go on with my utmost diligence to learn their language, because he was more
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  astonished at my captivity for speech and reason than at the figure of my body,
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  whether it were covered or not, adding that he waited with some impatience
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  to hear the wonders which I promised to tell him. Thenceforward he doubled the
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  pains he had been at to instruct me. He brought me into all company
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  and made them treat me with civility, because, as he told them privately,
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  this would put me into good humor and make me more diverting. Every
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  day when I waited on him beside the trouble he was at in teaching,
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  he would ask me several questions concerning myself, which I answered as well as
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  I could, And by these means he had already received some general ideas,
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  though very imperfect. It would be tedious to relate the several steps by which
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  I advanced to a more regular conversation. But the first account I gave for
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  myself in any order in length was to this purpose, that I came from
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  a very far country, as I already had attempted to tell him, with
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  about fifty more of my own species, that we traveled upon the seas in
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  a great hollow vessel made of wood and larger than his honor's house. I
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  described the ship to him in the best terms I could, and explained by
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  the health of my handkerchief, displayed how it was driven forward by the wind,
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  and that upon a quarrel among us, I was set on shore on
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  this coast, where I walked forward without knowing whither till he had delivered me
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  from the persecution of those excricable yahoos. He asked me who made the ship,
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  and how it was possible that the Hunams of my country would leave it
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  to the management of brutes. My answer was that I durst proceed no further
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  in my relation unless he would give me his word and honor that he would
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  not be offended, and then I would tell in the wonders I had so
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  often promised. He agreed, and I went on by assuring him that the
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  ship was made by creatures like myself, who, in all the countries I
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  had traveled, as well as in my own, were the only governing rational
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  animals, and that upon my arrival hither I was as much astonished to see
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  the Whinnhams act like rational beings as he or his friends could be. In
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  finding some marks of reason and a creature he was pleased to call a Yahoo,
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  to which I owned my resemblance in every part, but could not account
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  for their degenerate and brutal nature. I said, father, that if good
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  fortune ever restored me to my native country to relate my travels hither as I
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  resolved to do, everybody would believe that I said the thing that was not
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  that I invented the story out of my own head, and with all possible
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  respect to himself, his family, and his friends, and under his promise
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  of not being offended, our countrymen would hardly think it probable that a Wynham
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  should be the presiding creature of a nation and a Yahoo the brute and a
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  Part four, Chapter three