Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/127

GOOD VILLAGE QUARTERS. 105 men fetching water from a fountain outside the wall, and the head- man of the village in his house within. This division here ob tained rest and refreshment, and at daybreak some of their soldiers were sent to look after the rear. It was with delight that Xeno- phon saw them approach, and sent them back to bring up in their arms, into the neighboring village, those exhausted soldiers who had been left behind. 1 Repose was now indispensable after the recent sufferings. There were several villages near at hand, and the generals, thinking it no longer dangerous to divide the army, quartered the different divisions among them according to lot. Polykrates, an Athenian, one of the captains in the division of Xenophon, requested his permission to go at once and take possession of the village assigned to him, before any of the inhabitants could escape. Accordingly, running at speed with a few of the swiftest soldiers, he came upon the village so suddenly as to seize the headman, with his newly- married daughter, and several young horses intended as a tribute for the king. This village, as well as the rest, was found to con- sist of houses excavated in the ground (as the Armenian villages are at the present day), spacious within, but with a narrow mouth like a well, entered by a descending ladder. A separate entrance was dug for conveniently admitting the cattle. All of them were found amply stocked with live cattle of every kind, wintered upon hay ; as well as with wheat, barley, vegetables, and a sort of bar- ley-wine or beer, in tubs, with the grains of barley on the surface. Reeds or straws, without any joint in them, were lying near, through which they sucked the liquid. 2 Xenophon did his utmost to con- ciliate the headman (who spoke Persian, and with whom he com- municated through the Perso- Grecian interpreter of the army), 1 Xen. Anab. iv, 5, 8-22. 8 Xen. Anab. iv, 5, 26. Ka/lo/zoi yovara. OVK e^ovref. This Armenian practice of sucking the beer through a reed, to whiclj the observation of modern travellers supplies analogies (see Kriiger's note), illustrates the Fragment of Archilochus (No. 28, ed. Schneidewin, Poeta Grace. Minor). uawep avAai /3pvrov 77 QCTJI% uvrjp ij 4>pi)f e(3pv&, etc. The similarity of Armenian customs to those of the Thracians and Phrygians, is not surprising. 5