Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 6.djvu/294

268 countenance are distorted, by the natives suffering their infants to lie grovelling on the earth, or by carrying them on their backs, nuzzling with their face against the mother's shoulders. The forefeet of the yahoo differed from my hands in nothing else, but the length of the nails, the coarseness and brownness of the palms, and the hairiness on the backs. There was the same resemblance between our feet, with the same differences; which I knew very well, though the horses did not, because of my shoes and stockings; the same in every part of our bodies, except as to hairiness and colour, which I have already described.

The great difficulty, that seemed to stick with the two horses, was, to see the rest of my body so very different from that of a yahoo, for which I was obliged to my clothes, whereof they had no conception. The sorrel nag offered me a root, which he held (after their manner, as we shall describe in its proper place) between his hoof and pastern; I took it in my hand, and having smelt it, returned it to him again as civilly as I could. He brought out of the yahoo's kennel a piece of ass's flesh, but it smelt so offensively, that I turned from it with loathing; he then threw it to the yahoo, by whom it was greedily devoured. He afterwards showed me a whisp of hay, and a fetlock full of oats; but I shook my head, to signify that neither of these were food for me. And indeed I now apprehended, that I must absolutely starve, if I did not get to some of my own species; for as to those filthy yahoos, although there were few greater lovers of mankind at that time, than myself; yet I confess, I never saw any sensitive being so detestable on all accounts; and the