Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 6.djvu/298

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272
A VOYAGE

diet, wherewith other travellers fill their books, as if the readers were personally concerned, whether we fare well or ill. However it was necessary to mention this matter, lest the world should think it impossible, that I could find sustenance for three years, in such a country, and among such inhabitants.

When it grew towards evening, the master horse ordered a place for me to lodge in; it was but six yards from the house, and separated from the stable of the yahoos. Here I got some straw, and covering myself with my own clothes, slept very sound. But I was in a short time better accommodated, as the reader shall know hereafter, when I come to treat more particularly about my way of living.





CHAP. III.


The author studies to learn the language; the Houyhnhnm, his master, assists in teaching him. The language described. Several Houyhnhnms of quality came out of curiosity to see the author. He gives his master a short account of his voyage.


MY principal endeavour was to learn the language, which my master (for so I shall henceforth call him) and his children, and every servant of his house were desirous to teach me. For they looked upon it as a prodigy, that a brute animal should discover such marks of a rational creature.

I pointed