. You
will soon become accustomed to it. We have long ceased even to hear it,
and indeed on great festivals, when it is not sounded, we awake from the
unaccustomed stillness. From the hanging-gardens you will be able to see
how the boys are taken to bathe every morning, whatever the weather may
be. The poor little ones are taken from their mothers when they are six
years old, to be brought up with the other boys of their own rank under
the king's eye."

"Are they to begin learning the luxurious manners of the court so early?"

"Oh no! the poor boys lead a terrible life. They are obliged to sleep on
the hard ground, to rise before the sun. Their food is bread and water,
with very little meat, and they are never allowed to taste wine or
vegetables. Indeed at times they are deprived of food and drink for some
days, simply to accustom them to privations. When the court is at
Ecbatana or Pasargadae, and the weather is bitterly cold, they are sure
to be taken out to bathe, and here in Susa, the hotter the sun, the
longer and more difficult the marches they are compelled to take."

[The summer residences of the kings cf Persia, where it is sometimes
very cold. Ecbatana lies at the foot of the high Elburs (Orontes)
range of mountains in the neighborhood of the modern Hamadan;
Pasargadae not far from Rachmet in the highlands of Iran]

"And these boys, so simply and severely brought up, become in after life
such luxurious men?"

"Yes, that is always the case. A meal that has been waited for is all the
more relished when it comes. These boys see splendor and magnificence
around them daily; they know how rich they are in reality, and yet have
to suffer from hunger and privation. Who can wonder, if, when at last
they gain their liberty, they plunge into the pleasures of life with a
tenfold eagerness? But on the other hand, in time of war, or when going
to the chase, they never murmur at hunger or thirst, spring with a laugh
into the mud regardless of their thin boots and purple trousers, and
sleep as soundly on a rock as on their beds of delicate Arabian wool. You
must see the feats these boys perform, especially when the king is
watching them! Cambyses will certainly take you if you ask him."

"I know those exercises already. In Egypt the girls as well as the boys
are kept to such gymnastic exercises. My limbs were trained to
flexibility by running, postures, and games with hoops and balls.

"How strange! Here, w