“What was that dreadful sound I heard so early?” she asked of her principal waiting-woman, who was arranging her hair.

“Do you mean the sounding brass, lady?”

“Scarcely two hours ago I was awakened by a strange and frightful sound.”

“That was the sounding brass, lady.  It is used to awaken the young sons of the Persian nobles, who are brought up at the gate of the king.  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, we women grow up just as we please, and are taught nothing but a little spinning and weaving.  Is it true that most of the Egyptian women can read and write?”