f every man, in song and story everywhere, and Astyages,
who had always loved him, was astonished beyond all measure at the lad.
Meanwhile his father, Cambyses, rejoiced to hear such tidings of his
son; but, when he heard that he was already acting like a man of years,
he thought it full time to call him home again that he might complete
his training in the discipline of his fatherland. The story tells how
Cyrus answered the summons, saying he would rather return home at once
so that his father might not be vexed or his country blame him. And
Astyages, too, thought it his plain duty to send the boy back, but he
must needs give him horses to take with him, as many as he would care
to choose, and other gifts beside, not only for the love he bore him
but for the high hopes he had that the boy would one day prove a man of
mark, a blessing to his friends, and a terror to his foes. And when the
time came for Cyrus to go, the whole world poured out to speed him on
his journey--little children and lads of his own age, and grown men
and greybeards on their steeds, and Astyages the king. And, so says the
chronicle, the eyes of none were dry when they turned home again. [26]
Cyrus himself, they tell us, rode away in tears. He heaped gifts on all
his comrades, sharing with them what Astyages had given to himself; and
at last he took off the splendid Median cloak he wore and gave it to one
of them, to tell him, plainer than words could say, how his heart clung
to him above the rest. And his friends, they say, took the gifts he gave
them, but they brought them all back to Astyages, who sent them to Cyrus
again. But once more Cyrus sent them back to Media with this prayer to
his grandfather:--"If you would have me hold my head up when I come back
to you again, let my friends keep the gifts I gave them." And Astyages
did as the boy asked.

[27] And here, if a tale of boyish love is not out of place, we might
tell how, when Cyrus was just about to depart and the last good-byes
were being said, each of his kinsmen in the Persian fashion--and to this
day the custom holds in Persia--kissed him on the lips as they bade him
god-speed. Now there was a certain Mede, as beautiful and brave a man
as ever lived, who had been enamoured of Cyrus for many a long day,
and, when he saw the kiss, he stayed behind, and after the others had
withdrawn he went up to Cyrus and said, "Me, and me alone, of all your
kindred, Cyrus, you refuse to recognize?" And