Learning to read must have been a difficult business in Hellas, for books were written in capitals at this time. There were no spaces between the words, and no stops were inserted. Thus, the reader had to exercise much ingenuity before he could arrive at the meaning of a sentence. Still more difficult for the boys to grasp was the Attic accent, upon which the masters set a great importance. So difficult was it, that few foreigners ever acquired it, and a born Athenian, if he went abroad for a few years, often lost the power of speaking with the Attic intonation. The first step in learning to read is to acquire the alphabet. The Hellenes, wishing, as usual, to make learning as easy as possible, seem to have put the alphabet into verse. A metrical alphabet, ascribed to Kallias, a contemporary of Perikles, is still extant, but in a mutilated form, which has been restored in several not very convincing ways. Probably it has been adapted to suit different alphabets, for there were several current in different parts of Hellas. The following is a conjectural restoration:―― ἔστ’ ἄλφα, βῆτα, γάμμα, δέλτα τ’, εἶ τε, καί [est’ alpha, bêta, gamma, delta t’, ei te, kai] ζῆτ’, ἦτα, θῆτ’, ἴωτα, κάππα, λάβδα, μῦ, [zêt’, êta, thêt’, iôta, kappa, labda, mu,] νῦ, ξεῖ, τὸ οὖ, πεῖ, ῥῶ, τὸ σίγμα, ταῦ, τὸ ὖ, [nu, xei, to ou, pei, rhô, to sigma, tau, to u,] πάροντα φεῖ τε χεῖ τε τῷ ψεῖ εἰς τὸ ὦ. [paronta phei te chei te tô psei eis to ô.] This complete alphabet of twenty-four letters, which appears in modern Greek Grammars, was not adopted for official purposes at Athens till 403 B.C., “but it is clear that it was in ordinary use at Athens considerably earlier.”[237] This metrical alphabet formed the prologue to what may be called a spelling-drama, in which the whole process of learning to spell was expressed either in iambic lines or in choral songs. Since its author, Kallias, is coupled with Strattis, the comic poet,[238] it may be inferred that the play was a comedy, not a tragedy; the chorus would then be twenty-four in number. Each member of the chorus represented one of the twenty-four letters. In the first choric song the letters were put together in pairs, in the fashion of a spelling class. The first strophé runs as follows:―― Beta Alpha BA Beta Ei BĔ Beta Eta BĒ Beta Iota BI Beta Ou BŎ Beta U BU Beta O BŌ[239]