hands without a knife; if it were winter, they mingled some
thistledown with their rushes, which it was thought had the
property of giving warmth.

Besides all this, there was always one of the best and most honest
men in the city appointed to undertake the charge and governance
of them; he again arranged them into their several bands, and set
over each of them for their captain the most temperate and bold of
those they called Irens, who were usually twenty years old, two
years out of boyhood; and the eldest of the boys, again, were
Mell-Irens, as much as to say, "who would shortly be men." This
young man, therefore, was their captain when they fought, and
their master at home, using them for the offices of his house;
sending the oldest of them to fetch wood, and the weaker and less
able, to gather salads and herbs, and these they must either go
without or steal; which they did by creeping into the gardens, or
conveying themselves cunningly and closely into the eating-houses;
if they were taken in the act, they were whipped without mercy,
for thieving so ill and awkwardly. They stole, too, all other meat
they could lay their hands on, looking out and watching all
opportunities, when people were asleep or more careless than
usual. If they were caught, they were not only punished with
whipping, but hunger, too, being reduced to their ordinary
allowance, which was but very slender, and so contrived on
purpose, that they might set about to help themselves, and be
forced to exercise their energy and address.

So seriously did the Lacedaemonian children go about their
stealing, that a youth, having stolen a young fox and hid it under
his coat, suffered it to tear out his very bowels with its teeth