The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-25

was held. At 1t was revived the only debate that had ever happened in the land. The question was whether the Ya- hoos should be exterminated or not. One of the members who spoke in the affirma- tive advanced several arguments of great weight and strength, alleging that the
 Yahoos as they were the most filthy, noisome and deformed animals which na- ture had ever produced so they were the most restive and indocie, mischievous and malicious. If they were not contin-
 ually watched they would trample down the grass and oats. milk the Houyhnhnms'
 cows and kill and devour their cats.
 He took notice of the tradition that
 the Yahoos had not always been in the- ago two of these animals appeared to- gether upon a mountain. Where they came from was never known. But | these Yahoos engendered and their progeny became so numerous as to in- fest the whole nation
 The Houyhnhnms to get rid of this evil, had made a general hunting and
 at last inclosed the whole herd, and, destroying the leader. every Houyhn-
 hmm had kept two young ones in
 kennel and brought them to such a | degree of tameness as an animal so | savage by nature can be capable of ac quiring, using them for draught and | carriage and other work. And the in- habitants, taking fancy to the serv ices of the Yahoos, had, very impru
 dently, neglected to cultivate the breed of asses, which were comedy animals, l easily kept, more tame and orderly, and strong enough for all sorts of 1 labor.
 Gullivers master next spoke and said that he had no doubt of the truth of
 the tradition regarding the origin of
 the Yahoo in that country. The two
 which were first seen upon a moun- tain were evidently two men who had | been driven to these shores from over the sea- and, being forsaken by their companions who had left them on the beach, had retired to the mountains
 and degenerating by degrees, became in process of time more savage even than the Yahoos of the country from which these two originals had come. He was, he said, convinced that the tradition was true and his theory cor rect, as he had now in his possession
 a wonderful Yahoo, of whom all had heard and whom many had seen, who had like the two first progenitors of the loathsome race come from a far
 country ruled by Yahoos and had been
 abandoned upon the shores of Houy-
 hnhnmland by his companions.
 This was all that his master saw fit to
 tell Gulliver at the time of the adjourn
 ment of the Great Council of what had transpred there One thing. intensely im- portant to Gulliver, his master concealed from him. For short time longer, how ever, Gullver went on studying the char acter and customs of the noble Houyhn- hnms, believing that he would be fortu- nate enough to live the remainder of his life among them.
 After the meeting of the Great Council few events of note happened among them. Tn fact people so united so naturally disposed to virtue, who governed by req son and cut off from alf commerce with other nations, have little history. That
 was the reason that though the Houyhn-
 hnms had no letters and ,..,,1 ,ca seouently all
 their knowledge was raditlonal, the his.
 torical part was easl preserved .yitiout
 burdenng their mem ,
 It is worth preservi..a, ,lat the Houy-
 hnhnms have in their language no words to express anything evil except those
 which they borrow from the deformities, | or i'll qualities, of the Yahoos. Thus they denote the folly of a servant, an omission | of a child, stone that cuts their feet, a continuance of foul or unreasonable
 weather by some characteristic of the
 Yahoo. In poetry they must be allowed to
 excel all other mortals. The business of | their similies and the minuteness, as we'll
 as the exactness of their descriptions, are. indeed, nimitabe
 Among these people Gulliver was really
 happy, even though the frequent sight of the vile Yahoos disturbed him. ITO