CHAPTER SIX

The Great Meeting

Every four years, the leaders of the different parts of the island would hold a meeting. This meeting lasted five or six days. During this time, the Houyhnhnm leaders discussed how their areas of the country were doing. Much of the conversation was about oats and cows, which the Houyhnhnms used for milk. If the Houyhnhnms in any part of the country needed more oats or cows, then the others always shared generously.

By this time I had lived with the Houyhnhnms for a year, and one day my master told me that it was time for the Great Meeting. He wanted the leaders to meet me, so he asked me to come with him to the meeting. I was very happy to go with him, because I was curious to listen to the Houyhnhnms talk together.

When my master and I arrived at the meeting spot, I saw that the other leaders were surprised that the grey horse had brought along a "Yahoo" with him. But when they heard how well I spoke their language, they decided to let me stay and listen to them.

After the leaders had discussed how their parts of the country were doing, the grey horse stood up and began to talk.

"We have one more thing to speak about," he said. "This is a question which has been troubling all the Houyhnhnms for some time. Now, I think the time has come for us to discuss it. The question is, what should we do about the Yahoos? They have caused our people many problems for years. They have stolen our milk and killed our cows, and eaten our oats and grass. We watch them carefully, but they often escape and cause trouble. We must think of some way to control them."

One of the other horses stood up and began to speak. "Grey Houyhnhnm, I agree with you. Truly, the Yahoos are a very serious problem," he said, "I think that the answer to our problem is to kill them all, for the good and safety of our people. They are miserable animals, and I am sure they will be happier dead than alive."

This horse continued to talk about how terrible the Yahoos were. "These Yahoos are eating up all the fruits, berries, and plants on our island. If a Yahoo escapes his cage, he will eat the first thing he sees, whether he is hungry or not. Then he continues to eat until he is sick. I have noticed that the Yahoos like to eat things they have stolen or killed, more than the food we give them. They like to steal our good fruits and plants. The worst thing is, the Yahoos' favorite thing to eat is rotten meat, from dead animals. I think they would even eat a Houyhnhnm if they could. This is horrible and cannot be allowed. If we do not do something about these animals, they will destroy all the plants, eat up all the fruit, and kill all the animals."

Then the horse began to discuss the history of the Yahoos. "The Yahoos were not always in this country. They came to this land a long time ago. I do not know where they came from—perhaps the sea made them, or the earth. Two of them appeared on our island, and in time they had many children. Soon, there were so many Yahoos that our people, the Houyhnhnms, were in danger. The Houyhnhnms decided to hunt for all the Yahoos and tie them up. The oldest Yahoos were killed, and today, each Houyhnhnm keeps two Yahoos in a cage in his house. These Yahoos are used for pulling and carrying things and, as we all know, are much lower than even the lowest servant. I believe that our people should begin to keep donkeys, instead of these Yahoos. They are tamer, and are easy to care for. The donkeys will not steal from us, or kill our cows. I will say to all of you again, we should kill the Yahoos."

The other Houyhnhnms agreed with this horse, and they began to discuss how the Yahoos should best be killed. Suddenly, my master waved his head and began to speak. "I understand all your feelings of anger towards the Yahoos. It is true that they do many terrible things to our land. However, I have another idea that may work." Everyone stopped speaking and listened to my master.

"I believe that the first two Yahoos in our land became so savage and terrible because they had no education and no one to talk to. So, after many years, they and their children became the terrible animals they are today. I think that the Yahoos have their own countries far away. Although they are very below us Houyhnhnms, these other Yahoos are not as bad as the ones on our island. They have their own language and their own cities."

"How do you know all this?" asked one of the other Houyhnhnms.

"As you all know, I have lived with a Yahoo for a year now," my master said and pointed to me with his head. "This Yahoo comes from a country called England, which is full of Yahoos like him. They do not have as much hair as the Yahoos in our country, and they wear an outer skin called 'clothing'. This Yahoo's people are very wild and stupid, like our Yahoos. They do not educate their children properly, and they have things called 'wars' where they kill one another for no reason. This Yahoo has told me that in his land, the Yahoos use the Houyhnhnms as slaves, but I do not believe him. However, I do believe that this Yahoo is special. He can speak our language, and he enjoys our way of life. Although he is very inferior to the Houyhnhnms, I believe that if we train the Yahoos from birth to speak our language, we may be able to live with them. They will be better servants."

My master continued his speech. "There is another reason why the Yahoos may make good servants, if we train them to act like this Yahoo," he said, and pointed to me again. "I have noticed something interesting about the Yahoos that we Houyhnhnms keep in our homes. Sometimes, one of these Yahoos will act very strangely. He will leave the other Yahoos and go and lie down in a corner of the room. Then he will begin to howl loudly, and cry out, as if he was sad or in pain. None of the other Yahoos can touch him, or go near him. He will continue this behavior for days. At first, I did not understand why the Yahoos would act this way. They have enough to eat and are almost never sick. Also, they are too stupid to be sad about anything that is serious. However, I have found that there is one thing that stops the Yahoo from acting this way. If he is forced to do very hard work all day, like carrying rocks or pieces of wood, then he will act normally again! So, you see, if we train the Yahoos from birth to do hard work for us, then they may be good servants!"

No one said anything for a moment. I knew that if the Houyhnhnms believed that killing the Yahoos was the reasonable thing to do, then they would not hesitate. However, the Houyhnhnms did not believe in killing anything without a very good reason.

I thought about all the things my master had said. His description of the Yahoos in his house reminded me of many people I knew in England. Although they had enough food to eat, and a place to live, they were still unhappy and complained often. They might even be rich, but all the money in the world could not make them happy! "Perhaps these rich, lazy people should be forced to do hard work also," I thought. "Then they would not complain so much, and live healthier, better lives. Perhaps the people of Europe were more like the Yahoos than I had thought!"

Finally, the other Houyhnhnms agreed to think about my master's ideas for a while. For the next few nights, my master went alone to discuss the problem of the Yahoos with the other leaders of the country. I wanted to go with him, but he did not allow it. On the last day of the meeting, my master said, "Well, Yahoo, the Houyhnhnms have decided to try my idea for awhile. We will train the Yahoos to be more like you, instead of killing them. We will also make them work harder for us, lifting and carrying things."

I was happy that the Houyhnhnms had decided not to kill the Yahoos. It would be very sad to see these peaceful horses use violence to get what they wanted.

(end of section)