From an hitherto undiscovered letter written by Mr Lemuel Gulliver to his cousin Sympson

"Whilst I dwelled among the Houyhnhnms that country was for a time plagued with a pestilence of stinking minstrel Yahoos who did sing, or rather they did caterwaul, a manner of most miserable noises. My ears were assailed by the interminable ballads of eldritch crones and by the melancholic mutterings of milksop boys. The offence to my senses was compounded by the noises of tinkling and droning from stringed boxes of many different shapes that they carried about with them. My very skin did itch and break out in such horrible rashes that I cried out to them to desist. My appeals were in vain for these hardened beasts only increased their efforts. It is lamentable to relate that among the filthy herd of the Yahoos these minstrels were greatly favoured, and their screechings and warblings were applauded and much imitated.
My hosts at first regarded the pestilence as no more of an irritation than the buzzing of insects, but at last the nuisance grew so intolerable that my master was obliged to go among the noxious brood. He scattered these troublesome troubadours and trampled their musical boxes into splinters. He lifted his own noble head and began to sing - from out of his fundament. He did fart such a musical note that all the Yahoos were shamed into silence.
So you may see by this, my dearest cousin, that the men of that country have no songs of their own since they have heard a horse sing."

Matthew