Gulliver's Travels Part 4, Chapters 1-6
Part 4, Chapters 1-6
Gulliver doesn't remain at home for a long time, as he is soon offered a position as a captain of a vessel. Gulliver readily accepts and sets sail, but a large portion of his crew is overcome by tropical fevers so that he is forced to recruit some more people. These men soon mutiny and take Gulliver as their prisoner. They don't let him remain with them for long, and Gulliver is soon set on a longboat near an unknown island. Gulliver decides to search for the natives of the land and begins following a trodden path lined naturally by trees.
He sees that horse hooves are by far the most common footprints on the road and notices many fields of verdant grass and oats. He comes across a field filled with animals, but two of these creatures give him pause. They appear like beasts to him, as they have a lot of fur around their heads and chest, but have no other hair around. The creatures also possess sharp claws on both their hind legs and forelegs, although they walk around mostly like bipedals. Gulliver leaves them in short order but finds one of them in his path, the creature observes Gulliver very curiously and makes to touch him with his hand, but Gulliver strikes the creature with the blunt side of his sword. The creature roars and some 40 other beasts shaped like that one appear and begin to chase Gulliver who climbs up a tree to escape their claws. The animals suddenly run off in terror and when Gulliver climbs down the tree he notices that a horse walking quietly in the field seems to have aroused their fear.
The horse approaches Gulliver, and eyed him curiously, Gulliver attempts to stroke the beast but the horse extends a hoof to prevent the action. Another horse joins him, and the two go off to a distance to converse, at which point Gulliver tries to leave but he halts as one of the horses calls to him as if to stop him. Gulliver begins to believe that the creatures are magicians that have been so metamorphosed and he appeals to them for help. The two listen to him quietly but continue their seeming conversation, and Gulliver picks up the word Yahoo in their neighing. He repeats the word and the horses are much surprised by his ability to speak. The Horse teaches him another word called Hoyunhmnhmn, and Gulliver does his best to imitate him and the horse who then motions him to follow, and Gulliver does his best to keep up with the Hoyunhmnhmn.
Gulliver is led to a low and long building with a straw roof, he expects to find the human masters of this well-behaved horse but only sees other horses. Some of them are going about domestic duties while others are sitting on their hams. The home is clean and has objects that are made artfully. Gulliver is then introduced to a beautiful mare with a young colt and foal. Gulliver waits patiently as the grey talks to the white mare, who eyes Gulliver contemptuously, and he hears them often say the word Yahoo. The master Hoyunhmnhmn, the grey, leads Gulliver to a neighboring building where he sees several of those men-like creatures tied and eating the meat of dead animals as well as roots. The master Hoyunhmnhmn orders one of his servants to untie one of the creatures and then he asks Gulliver to stand by his side, and he compares the two of them side by side. Gulliver is surprised to learn that there is little difference between him and the yahoo and that they are the same in all but hair, size of the nails, and clothing. The servant Hoyunhmnhmn offers Gulliver the roots and the meat that the yahoos were eating but Gulliver refuses them both.
Eventually, Gulliver signals to milk a cow, and his master leads him inside and gives him a good quantity of milk to drink. Later, Gulliver watches as an old Hoyunhmnhmn arrives on a sled pulled by yahoos to dine with Gulliver's master. The family sits down to eat with the old horse, and they all behave very civilly. His master tells him to stand by the side of the old Hoyunhmnhmn and begins to teach him their language. During his duration of stay Gulliver grows used to their fare, and sometimes even attempts to catch small animals by snares. He is never quite able to access salt and grows used to not having that luxury. Gulliver's master is eager for Gulliver to learn the language for he is extremely curious as to how a Yahoo could be civil and reasonable enough to learn the language. And so, all members of the household are made to contribute to teaching Gulliver the language of the Hoyunhmnhmn, a name that translates to mean the perfect expression of nature. A lot of the neighborhood Hoyunhmnhmn began to hear of Gulliver and they began to visit him to speak to him. Gulliver begins diligently learning the language, and within a very short time he can form a rudimentary understanding, and soon afterward he begins to be able to answer the questions that are posed to him.
At this point, his master begins to ask him about his origins, for he had never before beheld so civil a yahoo. Gulliver attempts to explain that he came to the island by sea in a large vessel from a land that had several other creatures that were just as civil and reasonable as he is. His master fails to understand this and asks Gulliver to continue to learn the language for the Hoyunhmnhmn so that he may be able to better express himself. Gulliver is worried that the Hoyunhmnhmn would treat him differently if they were to find that he wore clothes, for that is a novel concept in that country where no creatures don clothes. However, this secret is not long kept, for Gulliver has to take off his clothes at night, and one morning one of the servants happens to see Gulliver without his outer clothes and rushes to tell the master. Gulliver goes to the master, who asks him to explain himself. And Gulliver explains that in his country, people wore clothes to protect themselves from the elements as well as for public decency.
Gulliver takes off his clothes at his master's instruction, and he examines them all very carefully. He appreciates Gulliver's truthfulness and tells him that it is not his resemblance to the yahoos that causes him interest but rather his ability to reason and be civil. Once Gulliver has become more proficient at the language, he asks his master to give him a promise of honor that he would listen to his account without offense. He explains that in his part of the world, his master's ability to be reasonable and civil would be just as amazing as Gulliver's ability to do the same in this world. He explains that Yahoos were the only governing animals in his part of the world.
Gulliver's master is unable to conceive of a world in which the horses are made servants, castrated, and worked to drudgery by creatures as naturally weak as the yahoos. He then begins to go through the various problems that abound in Yahoo physiology and states that even though Yahoos of that region were gifted with reason, they still could not hope to subdue an animal as powerful as the horse. Gulliver has a very difficult time explaining himself due to the limited nature of the horse language which doesn't even have a word for falsehood due to the straightforward nature of their communication. His master is more concerned about Gulliver's origins and upbringing rather than the concepts of power. He wonders how Gulliver was able to secure the service of the yahoos from the other nations, and Gulliver has to explain concepts like lust, admiration, power, and crime, all of which have an amazing effect on his master.
Over the next several discourses, Gulliver tells his master of the wars of men, and he seeks to understand what motivated the yahoos to go to war. Gulliver explains the many reasons why the princes of Europe had gone to war in the past. His master is much displeased but believes that Gulliver may be exaggerating the destruction brought on by the wars for the Yahoo's physiology prevented them from harming others on such a grand scale. Gulliver then tells his master about the inventions of war and the destructive engines that are constructed to deal death to thousands of yahoos within minutes. The master becomes agitated and abhors the conversation, he asks Gulliver to explain to him the concept of law.
Gulliver in detail paints a picture of the complicated legal system operated by lawyers and judges, the overly confusing language and jargon that is applied in the practice of law. Gulliver concludes that lawyers tended to be the most ill-informed and intentioned people among their kind.
Gulliver's master questions him about the reasons for such uncivil works among lawyers, and Gulliver explains the value of metals and the use of money. He explains that money secured luxuries such as fine drinks like wines and meats imported from around the world. His master doesn't understand why the people would need to import a drink for nature provides freshwater in plenty, and so Gulliver explains the use of liquor. Gulliver also talks about the trade of medicine and the sometimes repulsive measures they employ to cure supposed diseases. The Hoyunhmnhmn also explains to Gulliver that the bay and dapple-colored horses were by nature not made equal to the other kinds of horses. Gulliver then tells him about the nobility, and his master mistakes Gulliver to be a noble due to his civility and reason. Gulliver corrects him and informs that the nobility is an institution plagued with debauchery and illness. He also gives a scathing description of the positions of the chief minister and minister of state.
Analysis
This section of the book can be seen as its climax as we begin to see a change come over the protagonist. After facing mutiny among his crew, Gulliver is left to die on an island where he meets Hoyunhmnhmn, the only rational beings of that world. Gulliver's attitude towards humanity is significantly changed, and this could either be because of the betrayal he had to contend with or due to the reduced position of the yahoos in Hoyunhmnhmnland. This last voyage of the book is rather different from the first three in several ways. Firstly, in this voyage, Gulliver is exposed to forms of non-human intelligence, an aspect that is ingeniously written as the reader reaches this conclusion at the same time Gulliver does, for he first supposes the horses to be either metamorphosed wizards and later to be trained by a man of significant wisdom. This is also the first time that Gulliver is resolved to stay in a foreign land, which he was never tempted to do even in Lilliput where he was the most powerful being. Yet, he wishes to stay among the Hoyunhmnhmn even though they believe him to be little better than a beast of burden that had somehow gained reason. Lastly, Gulliver had almost always functioned as a spectator in all his previous voyages, rarely had he taken part in the action. In this section, this trait changes, as we begin to perceive Gulliver to be a character embroiled in the action of the book.
In other ways, this voyage is similar to the previous sections, as Gulliver arrives in a foreign land, is taken prisoner by the natives, and begins to learn their language and culture. The nature of the yahoos as being humans is not immediately clear to the reader or Gulliver. Swift heightens the confusion about their nature by using unfamiliar terms to describe what ought to be familiar. The reader is just as surprised as the reader to discover the reduced condition of mankind in that region of the world.
