in Asia, he is said to have seen and talked to Homer, and heard his
songs. He also went to Egypt, and after that to India, where he may have
learnt much from the old Brahmin philosophy; and then, having made his
plan, he repaired to Delphi, and prayed until he received answer from
Apollo that his laws should be the best, and the state that obeyed them
the most famous in Greece. He then went home, where he had been much
missed, for his young nephew Charilaus, though grown to man's estate, was
too weak and good-natured to be much obeyed, and there was a great deal
of idleness, and gluttony, and evil of all sorts prevailing.

Thirty Spartans bound themselves to help Lycurgus in his reform, and
Charilaus, fancying it a league against himself, fled into the temple of
Pallas, but his uncle fetched him out, and told him that he only wanted
to make laws for making the Spartans great and noble. The rule was only
for the real Dorian Spartans, the masters of the country, and was to make
them perfect warriors. First, then, he caused all the landmarks to be
taken up, and the lands thrown into one, which he divided again into
lots, each of which was large enough to yield 82 bushels of corn in a
year, with wine and oil in proportion. Then, to hinder hoarding, he
allowed no money to be used in the country but great iron weights, so
that a small sum took up a great deal of room, and could hardly be
carried about, and thus there was no purchasing Phoenician luxuries; nor
was anyone to use gold or ivory, soft cushions, carpets, or the like, as
being unworthy of the race of Hercules. The whole Spartan nation became,
in fact, a regiment of highly-disciplined warriors. They were to live
together in public barracks, only now and then visiting their homes, and
even when they slept there, being forbidden to touch food till they came
to the general meal, which was provided for by contributions of meal,
cheese, figs, and wine from each man's farm, and a little money to buy
fish and meat; also a sort of soup called black broth, which was so
unsavoury that nobody but a Spartan could eat it, because it was said
they brought the best sauce, namely, hunger. A boy was admitted as soon
as he was old enough, and was warned against repeating the talk of his
elders, by being told on his first entrance, by the eldest man in the
company, "Look you, sir; nothing said here goes out there." Indeed no
one used more words than needful, so that short, pit