o so."

"Let him punish me," said Cyrus, "if he wishes, after I have shown him
the stag and the boar, and you may punish me too, if you think best;
but do let me show them to him."

Cyaxares consented, and Cyrus made arrangements to have the bodies of
the beasts and the bloody javelins carried home. Cyrus then presented
the carcasses to his grandfather, saying that it was some game which
he had taken for him. The javelins he did not exhibit directly, but
he laid them down in a place where his grandfather would see them.
Astyages thanked him for his presents, but he said he had no such need
of presents of game as to wish his grandson to expose himself to such
imminent dangers to take it.

"Well, grandfather," said Cyrus, "if you do not want the meat, give it
to me, and I will divide it among my friends." Astyages agreed to
this, and Cyrus divided his booty among his companions, the boys, who
had before hunted with him in the park. They, of course, took their
several portions home, each one carrying with his share of the gift a
glowing account of the valor and prowess of the giver. It was not
generosity which led Cyrus thus to give away the fruits of his toil,
but a desire to widen and extend his fame.

When Cyrus was about fifteen or sixteen years old, his uncle Cyaxares
was married, and in celebrating his nuptials, he formed a great
hunting party, to go to the frontiers between Media and Assyria to
hunt there, where it was said that game of all kinds was very
plentiful, as it usually was, in fact, in those days, in the
neighborhood of disturbed and unsettled frontiers. The very causes
which made such a region as this a safe and frequented haunt for wild
beasts, made it unsafe for men, and Cyaxares did not consider it
prudent to venture on his excursion without a considerable force to
attend him. His hunting party formed, therefore, quite a little army.
They set out from home with great pomp and ceremony, and proceeded to
the frontiers in regular organization and order, like a body of troops
on a march. There was a squadron of horsemen, who were to hunt the
beasts in the open parts of the forest, and a considerable detachment
of light-armed footmen also, who were to rouse the game, and drive
them out of their lurking places in the glens and thickets. Cyrus
accompanied this expedition.

When Cyaxares reached the frontiers, he concluded, instead of
contenting himself and his party with hunting wild beasts, to make an