Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/836

812 cases interfere with the disposal of the children, and then only when its interests were impaired. A strong state with mighty warriors was a more effective argument than a sickly family. Then, too, the lack of commercial pursuits among the upper-class Greeks made their seeming cruelty only prudence or at the most selfishness. Socrates, comparing the feelings of his pupils, when reasoned out of their darling errors, to the anger of the young mother when her firstborn is torn from her, furnishes almost the only adverse mention of this practice.

The time at which children shall begin school was as perplexing a question to the ancients as to us. Some educators argued that the child's introduction to books should not begin before the seventh year; the really vital point that some are too young at seven while others are too old was, as now, skillfully lost sight of. Hence the carelessness and indulgence of parents often left an unoccupied period between infancy and school days, which the boy or girl employed in sports—those unconscious educators of the young. There is hardly any modern sport that was not in vogue in ancient Greece. Hopping on one foot, top-splitting, ball playing (both with football and some systematic game with small ball), playing at king, taking prisoners, and catching the knuckle bones of animals on the back of the hand—our jackstones—busied the younger boys and girls. A game is described exactly like the modern Canadian game of "lacrosse." The real, wide-awake boy, however, indulged in beetle-flying, by means of a long thread tied to its tail, sometimes varying the sport by attaching a lighted wax taper—a game still practiced in the country and frequently the cause of extensive fires. This last game might be compared to young America's harmless amusement of tying lighted firecrackers to a kitten's tail. Throwing dice was a favorite pastime with the young as well as with the old. The best throw—three sixes—was called the "Venus" throw; the lowest—three ones—the "dog" or "wine" throw; this last throw evidently meant liquid refreshment for the company. Among the false dice in the Royal Museum at Berlin there are a number "loaded," and some on which the four occurs twice. The Italian game of morra was known to the ancients. The two players, opening their clinched hands with lightning speed, cried out the number of fingers instantaneously. From vase painting and written evidence we have conclusive proof that cock-fighting was indulged in by old and young. Themistocles, after the victory over the Persians, made provision for annual festivities of this sort. The birds were fed on garlic, before their fights, to increase their fierceness. Metal spurs were used, and wagers made on the result, the same as in our refined nineteenth century.