s_ among us, and what was their employment?" I told him, "we
had great numbers; that in summer they grazed in the fields, and in
winter were kept in houses with hay and oats, where _Yahoo_ servants were
employed to rub their skins smooth, comb their manes, pick their feet,
serve them with food, and make their beds." "I understand you well,"
said my master: "it is now very plain, from all you have spoken, that
whatever share of reason the _Yahoos_ pretend to, the _Houyhnhnms_ are
your masters; I heartily wish our _Yahoos_ would be so tractable." I
begged "his honour would please to excuse me from proceeding any further,
because I was very certain that the account he expected from me would be
highly displeasing." But he insisted in commanding me to let him know
the best and the worst. I told him "he should be obeyed." I owned "that
the _Houyhnhnms_ among us, whom we called horses, were the most generous
and comely animals we had; that they excelled in strength and swiftness;
and when they belonged to persons of quality, were employed in
travelling, racing, or drawing chariots; they were treated with much
kindness and care, till they fell into diseases, or became foundered in
the feet; but then they were sold, and used to all kind of drudgery till
they died; after which their skins were stripped, and sold for what they
were worth, and their bodies left to be devoured by dogs and birds of
prey. But the common race of horses had not so good fortune, being kept
by farmers and carriers, and other mean people, who put them to greater
labour, and fed them worse." I described, as well as I could, our way of
riding; the shape and use of a bridle, a saddle, a spur, and a whip; of
harness and wheels. I added, "that we fastened plates of a certain hard
substance, called iron, at the bottom of their feet, to preserve their
hoofs from being broken by the stony ways, on which we often travelled."

My master, after some expressions of great indignation, wondered "how we
dared to venture upon a _Houyhnhnm's_ back; for he was sure, that the
weakest servant in his house would be able to shake off the strongest
_Yahoo_; or by lying down and rolling on his back, squeeze the brute to
death." I answered "that our horses were trained up, from three or four
years old, to the several uses we intended them for; that if any of them
proved intolerably vicious, they were employed for carriages; that they
were severely beaten, while they were y