Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 6.djvu/351

Rh had related to him the accidents, which brought me thither; that when he saw me without my covering, I was an exact yahoo in every part, only of a whiter colour, less hairy, and with shorter claws. He added, how I had endeavoured to persuade him, that in my own and other countries, the yahoos acted as the governing, rational animal, and held the Houyhnhnms in servitude: that he observed in me all the qualities of a yahoo, only a little more civilized by some tincture of reason; which however was in a degree as far inferiour to the Houyhnhnm race, as the yahoos of their country were to me: that among other things, I mentioned a custom we had of castrating Houyhnhnms when they were young, in order to render them tame; that the operation was easy and safe; that it was no shame to learn wisdom from brutes, as industry is taught by the ant, and building by the swallow; (for so I translate the word lyhannh, although it be a much larger fowl) that this invention might be practised upon the younger yahoos here, which, beside rendering them tractable and fitter for use, would in an age put an end to the whole species, without destroying life: that in the mean time the Houyhnhnms should be exhorted to cultivate the breed of asses, which as they are in all respects more valuable brutes, so they have this advantage, to be fit for service at five years old, which the others are not till twelve.

This was all my master thought fit to tell me at that time, of what passed in the grand council. But he was pleased to conceal one particular, which related personally to myself, whereof I soon felt the unhappy effect, as the reader will know in its proper Rh