For the gymnastic instruction which occupied the greater part of their time the boys were arranged in squads or “packs” according to age, and these in turn were combined into companies. Each division had its young leader, chosen on the score of ability and longer experience, but all were subject to the direction of special state officers. The course of training included practice in wrestling, running, jumping, throwing the javelin and the discus, marching in time to music, together with other military exercises, swimming in the Eurotas, riding on horseback, hunting, and certain rough games. There was also practice in choral dances, for use on religious occasions, and in the war dance, representing the movements of attack and defense. This latter, the so-called Pyrrhic dance, was sometimes executed in armor, and by whole companies moving together in rhythm to the accompaniment of music. Occasional public exhibitions and contests acted as incentives to improvement and furnished opportunity to test it, satisfying at the same time the general fondness for such displays. With the advent of his eighteenth year the youth left the common training quarters of the boys and entered upon a second stage of discipline. During the next two years his preparation took more and more the form of scouting in outlying districts of the state, and might involve actual warfare. His understanding had been matured meanwhile by constant intercourse with grown men in the affairs of daily public life. Not much is known of the training imposed upon the Spartan girls; but it included both gymnastics and music, and among the exercises practised were running, jumping, throwing the spear and the discus, dancing, swimming, and even wrestling.