Gulliver's Travels (Swift)/Part 4/Chapter 8
from the Collection âGulliver's Travels. Part 4â
The division of this summary into sections is editorial.
In the country of the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver wanted to study the neighbouring herds of Yahoos, whose behaviour reminded him of his fellow human beings.
His master, a Houyhnhnm, allowed the visits because he trusted Gulliverâs hatred of the Yahoos to prevent him from adopting their ways.
The master assigned a strong sorrel servant to guard him, since the Yahoos had threatened Gulliver before.
Among the Yahoos
With his guard present, Gulliver sometimes showed the Yahoos his bare arms and chest. They approached cautiously and imitated him, though they also showed hatred. He believed they recognised a resemblance between themselves and him.
Once he caught a three-year-old male Yahoo and tried to soothe him. The child screamed, scratched and bit until Gulliver released him; older Yahoos gathered at the noise but held back because the sorrel was there. The child had soiled Gulliverâs clothes, and Gulliver washed in a brook before returning to his master.
Gulliver judged the Yahoos difficult to teach but cunning and vindictive. The Houyhnhnms kept some near their houses to carry loads, while others foraged in fields. They dug holes for shelter, ate roots, plants and animals, and caught fish underwater. Females carried fish home to their young.
A disturbing encounter at the river
On a hot day Gulliver bathed naked in a river while his guard grazed nearby. A young female Yahoo who had watched him ran into the water and embraced him. Gulliver shouted, and the sorrel galloped over; she released Gulliver reluctantly and watched him dress from the opposite bank.
The encounter amused his masterâs family but mortified Gulliver. He and the sorrel supposed that the female had desired him, and he took her behaviour as proof that he belonged to the Yahoo species. He estimated that she was no more than eleven years old.
Reason and universal friendship
After three years in the country, Gulliver described the customs he had made it his chief business to learn. He believed the Houyhnhnms were naturally virtuous and governed entirely by reason. His master had struggled to understand opinion or disagreement: to him, one should affirm or deny only what one knew with certainty. He also laughed at people who prided themselves on knowing othersâ conjectures.
Gulliver explained how the Houyhnhnms extended their concern beyond their own families:
Friendship and benevolence are the two principal virtues among the Houyhnhnms; and these not confined to particular objects, but universal to the whole race.
Strangers were treated like neighbours, and parents cared for their offspring from reason rather than special fondness. Gulliver observed that his master showed the same affection to a neighbourâs children as to his own.
Marriage and the size of families
Houyhnhnm couples ordinarily stopped breeding after producing one male and one female, so that the country would not become overpopulated. If a child died, they might have another; a couple could also give a colt to someone whose wife could no longer bear young. Families of the servant class were permitted three offspring of each sex.
Parents and friends arranged marriages with regard to colour, strength and appearance, seeking to preserve the quality of the breed rather than satisfy romantic attachment. Gulliver reported that couples lived together without jealousy or quarrelling, sharing the same friendship they showed other Houyhnhnms.
Education and contests
Young Houyhnhnms of both sexes received much the same education. They learned temperance, industry, exercise and cleanliness; their diet was restricted, and they trained by racing over steep or stony ground and plunging into water. Gulliverâs master thought it absurd that humans educated girls differently and then entrusted children to them.
Four times a year, young people of a district met to compete in running, leaping and other feats. A victor received a song of praise. Servants brought food and milk on the backs of Yahoos, then drove the Yahoos away from the gathering.
The national council
Every fourth spring equinox, representatives from across the country met for five or six days on a plain near Gulliverâs home. They examined each districtâs supplies of hay, oats, cows and Yahoos, and unanimously provided for any shortages.
The council also regulated the distribution of children. Families with two males or two females exchanged offspring, and when a child had died and the mother could no longer breed, the council decided which family should produce a replacement.