hem to rouse them and oblige them to
proceed. 22. At this juncture Cheirisophus sent some of his people from
the villages to see how the rear were faring. The young men were
rejoiced to see them, and gave them the sick to conduct to the camp,
while they themselves went forward, and, before they had gone twenty
stadia, found themselves at the village in which Cheirisophus was
quartered. 23. When they came together, it was thought safe enough to
lodge the troops up and down in the villages. Cheirisophus accordingly
remained where he was, and the other officers, appropriating by lot the
several villages that they had in sight, went to their respective
quarters with their men.

24. Here Polycrates, an Athenian captain, requested leave of absence,
and, taking with him the most active of his men, and hastening to the
village which Xenophon had been allotted, surprised all the villagers,
and their head man, in their houses, together with seventeen[217] colts
that were bred as a tribute for the king, and the head man's daughter,
who had been but nine days married; her husband was gone out to hunt
hares, and was not found in any of the villages. 25. Their houses were
under ground, the entrance like the mouth of a well, but spacious below;
there were passages dug into them for the cattle, but the people
descended by ladders. In the houses were goats, sheep, cows, and fowls,
with their young; all the cattle were kept on fodder within the
walls.[218] 26. There was also wheat, barley, leguminous vegetables,
and barley-wine,[219] in large bowls; the grains of barley floated in
it even with the brims of the vessels, and reeds also lay in it, some
larger and some smaller, without joints; 27. and these, when any one was
thirsty, he was to take in his mouth, and suck.[220] The liquor was very
strong, unless one mixed water with it, and a very pleasant drink to
those accustomed to it.

28. Xenophon made the chief man of his village sup with him, and told
him to be of good courage, assuring him that he should not be deprived
of his children, and that they would not go away without filling his
house with provisions in return for what they took, if he would but
prove himself the author of some service to the army till they should
reach another tribe. 29. This he promised, and, to show his good-will,
pointed out where some wine[221] was buried. This night, therefore, the
soldiers rested in their several quarters in the midst of great
abunda