Alkibiades mounted his wet horse, and rode to greet Amadokos. Loud blasts from the trumpets sounded as they met. The king was serious and polite, with a high-bred, stately courtesy, mingled with an easy cordiality,—a natural politeness which more civilized people have somewhat managed to forget. He was evidently struck with the commanding appearance of his guest. As the one took the right hand of the other, something told each of them that he could trust the other. For a king who boasted Athenian descent, or, at least, Athenian relationship, the Odrysian’s Greek was peculiar—certainly not Attik or Sophoklean. There was a strange jumble of Thrakian words mixed up with it; what few Greek verbs were used by him were sometimes declined in a way unheard before by the Athenian. Alkibiades could, however, from what of the Thrakian speech he knew, understand his host, as they rode off together talking of many things. If the music at the meeting of the two distinguished men was loud, it was nothing compared with that which welcomed them as they were assisted to dismount from their horses, and entered the royal tent, where the banquet was awaiting them. And a strange banquet it was. At the end of the pavilion, on a raised platform, were set two small three-legged tables, as the place of honour for the king and his chief guest. All down the tent on either side were other smaller tripod tables. There were no couches to recline upon during the feast, but seats in which each guest sat upright at his table, in a manner altogether strange to one accustomed to the Grecian banquets. On every table were piles of baked meats of various kinds—venison, kid, and mutton—and large flat loaves of unleavened bread. When the blowing of trumpets was over, Amadokos, sitting down, invited his guest to be seated. Then, taking a large hunch of bread, and the choicest bits of meat from his table, he handed them to Alkibiades, who, seeing the other Thrakians do the same to their neighbours, handed some bread and the best pieces of meat to the king. The Thrakians then set to work vigorously, and ate their food voraciously, the monarch sending to his more honourable guests pieces from his own table so frequently that he had nothing for himself, except what Alkibiades presented to him.