According to the ancient traveller just mentioned, the civilisation of Arcadia dates from the time of Arcas, who introduced cereal crops and taught his subjects to spin wool and weave cloth. Here, as elsewhere in Greece, it is no uncommon thing to see women spinning thread and herding sheep or goats at the same time, while indoors you may find them busy at the loom weaving cloth for family use, following the good example set of old both by Helen and Penelope. Unfortunately, women are also much in evidence in the fields and on the country roads, doing work which in this country would be left to men--even such heavy work as breaking stones. The men seem to be much fonder of taking their ease than the other sex, and show more vanity in their dress. The Albanian costume, which is the uniform worn by the eight battalions of Riflemen, called Evzoni, who guard the frontier, is much affected by those who can afford it in the country towns. Its most conspicuous features are the fustanella kilt, made of a white linen of incredible length when stretched out to its full extent, the embroidered vest, and the red shoes with turned-up toes. The shepherds wear a sheepskin cloak without any pretensions to elegance, but they trim their hair with great care, ringlets frequently hanging over their brow. They wear a broad leathern belt with innumerable receptacles, and one of the first things they will show to a stranger who is curious to know what they carry about with them is a small hand-mirror. They often amuse themselves and their flocks by playing on the pipe, which they can make in a few minutes from a bamboo cut in the field or plucked out of the roofing of their hut. [Illustration: THE CASTLE OF KARYTÆNA, IN ARCADIA This is one of the most romantic scenes in the Peloponnesus, and is aptly quoted by Curtius as no less characteristic of mediæval Greece than Tiryns and Mycenæ are of the prehistoric age. The Castle covers the summit of a free-standing mass of rock, rising up into the air (almost like the central tower of a great English Cathedral) above a gorge with precipitous red cliffs. To the right of the Castle lies the modern town.] CHAPTER V SPARTA AND ITS DISCIPLINE For centuries Sparta was the first military power in Greece. This position it owed partly to the Dorian vigour of its inhabitants, and partly to the strict discipline introduced by Lycurgus at a time when the other Greek states had not yet awakened to the importance of that military drill which was to contribute so largely to their influence. Of these two sources of Spartan greatness we seem to have a recognition in the fact mentioned by Pausanias that at the two bridges, on either side of the place where the youths were in the habit of engaging in their athletic contests, there was an image of Heracles and a statue of Lycurgus, the one being the emblem of bodily strength, the other of authority and rule.