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Among the human peculiarities Gulliver's master finds puzzling in the extreme is that of lying. "To say the thing which is not" is his semantic approximation of a concept that does not exist in Houyhnhnmlan, and when Gulliver tries to explain lying and false representation, the sensible horse's objection is enlightened: The Use of Speech was to make us understand one another, and to receive Information of Facts; now if any one said the Thing which was not, the Ends were defeated; because I cannot properly be said to understand him; and I am so far from receiving Information, that he leaves me worse than Ignorance; for I am led to believe a Thing Black when it is White, and Short when it is Long.