1 They milk their cows, reap their oats, and do all the work which requires hands, in the same manner.
2 While we were thus engaged, I observed a cow passing by, whereupon I pointed to her, and expressed a desire to go and milk her.
3 They dined in the best room, and had oats boiled in milk for the second course, which the old horse ate warm, but the rest cold.
4 I laid in a stock of boiled flesh, of rabbits and fowls, and took with me two vessels, one filled with milk and the other with water.
5 I ground and beat them between two stones; then took water, and made them into a paste or cake, which I toasted at the fire and eat warm with milk.
6 This had its effect; for he led me back into the house, and ordered a mare-servant to open a room, where a good store of milk lay in earthen and wooden vessels, after a very orderly and cleanly manner.
7 In the middle was a large rack, with angles answering to every partition of the manger; so that each horse and mare ate their own hay, and their own mash of oats and milk, with much decency and regularity.
8 On this festival, the servants drive a herd of Yahoos into the field, laden with hay, and oats, and milk, for a repast to the Houyhnhnms; after which, these brutes are immediately driven back again, for fear of being noisome to the assembly.
9 I was ordered to speak the few words I understood; and while they were at dinner, the master taught me the names for oats, milk, fire, water, and some others, which I could readily pronounce after him, having from my youth a great facility in learning languages.
10 This word I pronounced two or three times; for although I had refused them at first, yet, upon second thoughts, I considered that I could contrive to make of them a kind of bread, which might be sufficient, with milk, to keep me alive, till I could make my escape to some other country, and to creatures of my own species.