
confessed he could find little or no Resemblance between the Yahoos of that
Country and those in ours. For, he only meant to observe what Parity there was
in our Natures. He had heard indeed some curious Houyhnhnms observe, that in
most Herds there was a Sort of ruling Yahoo, (as among us there is generally
some leading or principal Stag in a Park) who was always more deformed in Body,
and mischievous in Disposition, than any of the rest. That, this Leader had
usually a Favourite as like himself as he could get, whose Employment was to
lick his Master's Feet and Posteriors, and drive the Female Yahoos to his
Kennel; for which he was now and then rewarded with a Piece of Ass's Flesh. This
Favourite is hated by the whole Herd; and therefore to protect himself, keeps
always near the Person of his Leader. He usually continues in Office till a
worse can be found; but the very Moment he is discarded, his Successor, at the
Head of all the Yahoos in that District, Young and Old, Male and Female, come in
a Body, and discharge their Excrements upon him from Head to Foot. But how far
this might be applicable to our Courts and Favourites, and Ministers of State,
my Master said I could best determine.
    I durst make no Return to this malicious Insinuation, which debased human
Understanding below the Sagacity of a common Hound, who hath Judgment enough to
distinguish and follow the Cry of the ablest Dog in the Pack, without being ever
mistaken.
    My Master told me, there were some Qualities remarkable in the Yahoos, which
he had not observed me to mention, or at least very slightly, in the Accounts I
had given him of human Kind. He said, those Animals, like other Brutes, had
their Females in common; but in this they differed, that the She-Yahoo would
admit the Male, while she was pregnant; and that the Hees would quarrel and
fight with the Females as fiercely as with each other. Both which Practices were
such Degrees of infamous Brutality, that no other sensitive Creature ever
arrived at.
    Another Thing he wondered at in the Yahoos, was their strange Disposition to
Nastiness and Dirt; whereas there appears to be a natural Love of Cleanliness in
all other Animals. As to the two former Accusations, I was glad to let them pass
without any Reply, because I had not a Word to offer upon them in Defence of my
Species, which otherwise I certainly had done from my own Inclinations. But I
could have easily vindicated human Kind from the
