Plutarch dwells on various other matters connected with education better fitted for his times than ours, but he refers to the importance of example in words that are deserving of careful consideration. He says: "The chiefest thing that fathers are to look to is, that they themselves become effectual examples to their children, by doing all those things which belong to them, and avoiding all vicious practices, that in their lives, as in a glass, their children may see enough to give them an aversion to all ill words and actions. For those that chide children for such faults as they themselves fall into unconsciously accuse themselves, under their children's names. And if they are altogether vicious in their own lives, they lose the right of reprehending their very servants, and much more do they forfeit it to their sons. . . . . Wherefore we are to apply our minds to all such practices as may conduce to the good breeding of our children." It is not improbable that the marriage regulations ascribed to Lycurgus were based on institutions already in existence among the Spartans. From the statement of Polybius, that the brothers of a house often had one wife between them, it has been inferred that in Sparta the Tibetan form of polyandry was practiced. According to Plutarch, another curious marriage custom prevailed, showing that the Spartans, who differed in various respects from other Greeks, had retained primitive habits. Thus, the bridegroom carried off the bride by violence, and for some time after this "marriage by capture" he visited her "with great caution and apprehension" of being discovered by the rest of the family; the bride at the same time exerted all her art to contrive convenient opportunities for their private meetings. And this they did, not for a short time only, but some of them even had children before they had an interview with their wives in the daytime! This custom had much in common with the _sadica_ marriages of the early Arabs, who, as we are told by Professor Robertson Smith, allowed a woman, while she remained with her own tribe, to receive the clandestine visits of a lover. Her offspring were recognized as legitimate and became members of the tribe. The incident of "capture" could not occur, as it was a general custom in ancient Arabia for a husband to live among his wife's kinsfolk.