their turn, and once more the
staff triumphed over the clod. [19] Cyrus was full of admiration, partly
at the inventiveness of the commander, partly at the discipline of the
men; it was good to see the active exercise, and the gaiety of heart,
and good to know that the upshot of the battle favoured those who fought
in the Persian style. In every way he was pleased, and then and there
he bade them all to dinner. But at the feast many of the guests wore
bandages, some on their hands, others on their legs, and Cyrus saw it
and asked what had befallen them. They told him they had been bruised
by the clods. [20] "At close quarters?" said he, "or at long range?" "At
long range," they answered, and all the club-bearers agreed that when
it came to close quarters, they had the finest sport. But here those who
had been carbonaded by that weapon broke in and protested loudly that
it was anything but sport to be clubbed at short range, and in proof
thereof they showed the weals on hand and neck and face. Thus they
laughed at one another as soldiers will; and on the next day the whole
plain was studded with combats of this type, and whenever the army had
nothing more serious in hand, this sport was their delight.

[21] Another day Cyrus noticed a brigadier who was marching his regiment
up from the river back to their quarters. They were advancing in single
file on his left, and at the proper moment he ordered the second company
to wheel round and draw up to the front alongside the first, and then
the third, and then the fourth; and when the company-captains were
all abreast, he passed the word along, "Companies in twos," and the
captains-of-ten came into line; and then at the right moment he gave the
order, "Companies in fours," and the captains of five wheeled round and
came abreast, and when they reached the tent doors he called a halt,
made them fall into single file once more, and marched the first company
in first, and then the second at its heels, and the third and fourth
behind them, and as he introduced them, he seated them at the table,
keeping the order of their entry. What Cyrus commended was the quiet
method of instruction and the care the officer showed, and it was for
that he invited him and all his regiment to dinner in the royal tent.

[22] Now it chanced that another brigadier was among the guests, and
he spoke up and said to Cyrus: "But will you never ask my men to dinner
too? Day after day, morning and evening, w