scratch or tear
themselves at funerals. They had to carry baskets of a fixed size when
they went abroad. A dog that bit anybody had to be delivered up with a
log four feet and a half long tied to its neck. Such were some of the
laws which the council swore to maintain, each member vowing that if he
broke any of them he would dedicate a golden statue as large as himself
to Apollo, at Delphi.

Having founded his laws, Solon, fearing that he would be forced to make
changes in them, left Athens, having bound the people by oath to keep
them for ten years, during which time he proposed to be absent.

From Athens he set sail for Egypt, and in that ancient realm talked long
with two learned priests about the old history of the land. Among the
stories they told him was a curious one about a great island named
Atlantis, far in the western ocean, against which Athens had waged war
nine thousand years before, and which had afterwards sunk under the
Atlantic's waves. It was one of those fanciful legends of which the past
had so great a store.

From Egypt he went to Cyprus, where he dwelt long and made useful
changes. He is also said to have visited, at Sardis, Croesus, the king
of Lydia, a monarch famous for his wealth and good fortune. About this
visit a pretty moral story is told. It is probably not true, being a
fiction of the ancient story-tellers, but, fiction or not, it is well
worth the telling.

Croesus had been so fortunate in war that he had made his kingdom
great and prosperous, while he was esteemed the richest monarch of his
times. He lodged Solon in his palace and had his servants show him all
the treasures which he had gained. He then, conversing with his visitor,
praised him for his wisdom, and asked him whom he deemed to be the
happiest of men.

He expected an answer flattering to his vanity, but Solon simply
replied,--

"Tellus, of Athens."

"And why do you deem Tellus the happiest?" demanded Croesus.

Solon gave as his reason that Tellus lived in comfort and had good and
beautiful sons, who also had good children; and that he died in gallant
defence of his country, and was buried by his countrymen with the
highest honors.

"And whom do you give the second place in happiness?" asked Croesus.

"Cleobis and Bito," answered Solon. "These were men of the Argive race,
who had fortune enough for their wants, and were so strong as to gain
prizes at the Games."

"But their special title to happiness was," co