ur, but took good care to remove them to a better
hiding place, and has ever since been a very serviceable brute."

My master further assured me, which I also observed myself, "that in the
fields where the shining stones abound, the fiercest and most frequent
battles are fought, occasioned by perpetual inroads of the neighbouring
_Yahoos_."

He said, "it was common, when two _Yahoos_ discovered such a stone in a
field, and were contending which of them should be the proprietor, a
third would take the advantage, and carry it away from them both;" which
my master would needs contend to have some kind of resemblance with our
suits at law; wherein I thought it for our credit not to undeceive him;
since the decision he mentioned was much more equitable than many decrees
among us; because the plaintiff and defendant there lost nothing beside
the stone they contended for: whereas our courts of equity would never
have dismissed the cause, while either of them had any thing left.

My master, continuing his discourse, said, "there was nothing that
rendered the _Yahoos_ more odious, than their undistinguishing appetite
to devour every thing that came in their way, whether herbs, roots,
berries, the corrupted flesh of animals, or all mingled together: and it
was peculiar in their temper, that they were fonder of what they could
get by rapine or stealth, at a greater distance, than much better food
provided for them at home. If their prey held out, they would eat till
they were ready to burst; after which, nature had pointed out to them a
certain root that gave them a general evacuation.

"There was also another kind of root, very juicy, but somewhat rare and
difficult to be found, which the _Yahoos_ sought for with much eagerness,
and would suck it with great delight; it produced in them the same
effects that wine has upon us. It would make them sometimes hug, and
sometimes tear one another; they would howl, and grin, and chatter, and
reel, and tumble, and then fall asleep in the mud."

I did indeed observe that the _Yahoos_ were the only animals in this
country subject to any diseases; which, however, were much fewer than
horses have among us, and contracted, not by any ill-treatment they meet
with, but by the nastiness and greediness of that sordid brute. Neither
has their language any more than a general appellation for those
maladies, which is borrowed from the name of the beast, and called
_hnea-yahoo_, or _Yahoo's evil