Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 6.djvu/293

Rh The mare soon after my entrance rose from her mat, and coming up close, after having nicely observed my hands and face, gave me a most contemptuous look; and turning to the horse, I heard the word yahoo often repeated betwixt them; the meaning of which word I could not then comprehend, although it was the first I had learned to pronounce; but I was soon better informed, to my everlasting mortification: for the horse, beckoning to me with his head, and repeating the hhuun, hhuun, as he did upon the road, which I understood was to attend him, led me out into a kind of court, where was another building, at some distance from the house. Here we entered, and I saw three of those detestable creatures, which I first met after my landing, feeding upon roots, and the flesh of some animals, which I afterwards found to be that of asses and dogs, and now and then a cow, dead by accident or disease. They were all tied by the neck with strong wyths fastened to a beam; they held their food between the claws of their forefeet, and tore it with their teeth.

The master horse ordered a sorrel nag, one of his servants, to untie the largest of these animals, and take him into the yard. The beast and I were brought close together; and our countenances diligently compared both by master and servant, who thereupon repeated several times the word yahoo. My horrour and astonishment are not to be described, when I observed, in this abominable animal, a perfect human figure: the face of it indeed was flat and broad, the nose depressed, the lips large, and the mouth wide: but these differences are common to all savage nations, where the lineaments of the countenance