 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 Place, and from whence I date all the succeeding
Misfortunes of my Life.
    The Houyhnhnms have no Letters, and consequently, their Knowledge is all
traditional. But there happening few Events of any Moment among a People so well
united, naturally disposed to every Virtue, wholly governed by Reason, and cut
off from all Commerce with other Nations; the historical Part is easily
preserved without burthening their Memories. I have already observed, that they
are subject to no Diseases, and therefore can have no Need of Physicians.
However, they have excellent Medicines composed of Herbs, to cure accidental
Bruises and Cuts in the Pastern or Frog of the Foot by sharp Stones, as well as
other Maims and Hurts in the several Parts of the Body.
    They calculate the Year by the Revolution of the Sun and the Moon, but use
no Subdivisions into Weeks. They are well enough acquainted with the Motions of
those two Luminaries, and understand the Nature of Eclipses; and tills is the
utmost Progress of their Astronomy.
    In Poetry they must be allowed to excel all other Mortals; wherein the
Justness of their Similes, and the Minuteness, as well as Exactness of their
Descriptions, are indeed inimitable. Their Verses abound very much in both of
these; and usually contain either some exalted Notions of Friendship and
Benevolence, or the Praises of those who were Victors in Races, and other bodily
Exercises. Their Buildings, although very rude and simple, are not inconvenient,
but well contrived to defend them from all Injuries of Cold and Heat. They have
a Kind of Tree, which at Forty Years old loosens in the Root, and falls with the
first Storm; it grows very strait, and being pointed like Stakes with a sharp
Stone, (for the Houyhnhnms know not the Use of Iron) they stick them erect in
the Ground about ten Inches asunder, and then weave in Oat-straw, or sometimes
Wattles betwixt them. The Roof is made after the same Manner, and so are the
Doors.
    The Houyhnhnms use the hollow Part between the Pastern and the Hoof of their
Fore-feet, as we do our Hands, and this with greater Dexterity, than I could at
first imagine
