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.