"Our countenances diligently compared both by master and servant."-Page 282. to winnow from the grain: I ground and beat them between two stones, and then took water and made them into a paste or cake, which I toasted at the fire, and ate warm with milk. It was at first a very insipid diet, though common enough in many parts of Europe, but grew tolerable by time; and having been often reduced to hard fare in my life, this was not the first experiment I had made how easily nature is satisfied. And I cannot but observe that I never had one hour's sickness while I stayed in this island. It is true I sometimes made a shift to catch a rabbit, or bird, by springs made of Yahoos' hairs; and I often gathered wholesome herbs, which I boiled, and ate as salads with my bread; and now and then, for a rarity, I made a little butter, and drank the whey. I was at first at a great loss for salt, but custom soon reconciled me to the want of it; and I am confident that the frequent use of salt among us is an effect of luxury, and was first introduced only as a provocative to drink, except where it is necessary for preserving flesh in long voyages, or in places remote from great markets; for we observe no animal to be fond of it but man; * and as to myself, when I left this country, it was a great while before I could endure the taste of it in anything that I ate. This is enough to say upon this subject of my diet, wherewith other travellers fill their books, as if the readers were personally concerned whether we fare well or ill. However, it was necessary to mention this matter, lest the world should think it impossible that I could find sustenance for three years in such a country, and among such inhabitants. When it grew towards evening, the master horse ordered a place for me to lodge in; it was but six yards from the house, and separated from the stable of the Yahoos. Here I got some straw, and covering myself with my own clothes, slept very sound. But I was in a short time better accommodated, as the reader shall know hereafter, when I come to treat more particularly about my way of living. It is surprising that Swift should have fallen into so great an error as to state that no animal but man is fond of salt. The contrary is a fact well known. Horses not only like salt but thrive upon it, and its fattening qualities are very well known. It is a very usual thing to mix salt with the food of horses and other animals, and the former are often put out on salt marshes when ill or out of condition. Animals that refuse to eat hay that is musty will take it readily when salt is sprinkled through it. CHAPTER III. THE AUTHOR STUDIES TO LEARN THE LANGUAGE. THE HOUYHNHNM, HIS MASTER, ASSISTS IN TEACHING HIM.-THE LANGUAGE DESCRIBED.-SEVERAL HOUYHNHNMS OF QUALITY COME OUT OF CURIOSITY TO SEE THE AUTHOR. HE GIVES HIS MASTER A SHORT ACCOUNT OF HIS VOYAGE. =M Y principal endeavour was to learn the language, which my master (for so I shall henceforth call him), and his children, and every servant of his house, were desirous to teach me: for they looked upon it as a prodigy that a brute animal should discover such marks of a rational creature. I pointed to everything, and inquired the name of it, which I wrote down in my journal-book when I was alone, and corrected my bad accent by desiring those of the family to pronounce it often. In this employment a sorrel nag, one of the under-servants, was very ready to assist me. In speaking, they pronounce through the nose and throat, and their language approaches nearest to the High Dutch, or German, of any I know in Europe; but it is much more graceful and significant. The Emperor Charles V. made almost the same observation when he said that if he were to speak to his horse, it should be in High Dutch.* The curiosity and impatience of my master were so great, that he spent many hours of his leisure to instruct me. He was convinced (as he afterwards told me) that I must be a Yahoo; but my teachableness, civility, and cleanliness astonished him, which were qualities altogether opposite to those animals. He was most perplexed about † my clothes, reasoning sometimes with himself whether they were a part of my body; for I never pulled them off till the family were asleep, This observation of Charles V. is well known: that he would address his God in Spanish, his mistress in Italian, and his horse in German. Swift may here have taken occasion to show his distaste for the new order of things under the Hanoverian dynasty and German influences. † Sheridan observes upon this passage that it is a strange mode of expressing the author's meaning, and rightly suggests that it should have been written, "which were qualities altogether opposite to such as belonged to those animals." We have already suggested that Swift probably assumed this appearance of negligent writing designedly, as being consonant to the homely character of a seafaring man like Gulliver. and got them on before they woke in the morning. My master was eager to learn whence I came; how I acquired those appearances of reason which I discovered in all my actions; and to know my story from my own mouth, which he hoped he should soon do by the great proficiency I made in learning and pronouncing their words and sentences. To help my memory, I formed all I learned into the English alphabet, and wrote the words down, with the translations. This last, after some time, I ventured to do in my master's presence. It cost me much trouble to explain to him what I was doing, for the inhabitants have not the least idea of books or literature. In about ten weeks' time I was able to understand most of his questions, and in three months could give some tolerable answers. He was extremely curious to know from what part of the country I came, and how I was taught to imitate rational creatures; because the Yahoos (whom he saw I exactly resembled in my head, hands, and face, which were only visible), with some appearance of cunning and the strongest disposition to mischief, were observed to be the most unteachable of all brutes. I answered that I came over the sea from a far place, with many others of my own kind, in a great hollow vessel, made of the bodies of trees; that my companions forced me to land on this coast, and then left me to shift for myself. It was with some difficulty, and by the help of many signs, that I brought him to understand me. He replied that I must needs be mistaken, or that I said the thing which was not, for they have no word in their language to express lying or falsehood. He knew it was impossible that there could be a country beyond the sea, or that a parcel of brutes could move a wooden vessel whither they pleased upon water. He was * When Swift makes the Houyhnhnm incapable of conceiving the possibility of wilfully stating what is false, and tells us there is no word in their language to express lying, he rebukes man for a sin which strikes at the root of all that is good and noble in his nature, and degrades him indeed below the brute. In a fine sermon of Archbishop Tillotson's-the last which he ever preached-he makes the following excellent observations when showing the folly as well as the sin of lying:-"Whatever convenience may be thought to be in falsehood and dissimulation, it is soon over; but the inconvenience of it is perpetual, because it brings a man under an everlasting jealousy and suspicion, so that he is not believed when he speaks truth, nor trusted when, perhaps, he means honestly. When a man has once forfeited the reputation of his integrity, he is set fast, and nothing will then serve his turn, neither truth nor falsehood." As falsehood degrades and enslaves, so truth elevates and makes us free. St. Bernard, in one of his discourses, pithily observes of truth-" Veritas sola liberat, sola salvat, sola lavat." Plato considered truth as the very essence of God, of whom he sublimely said that "truth is his body, and light his shadow;" and he taught that truth was no less necessary than virtue to qualify a human soul for the enjoyment of a separate state. |