On the walls of the school hang a manuscript rolled up and tied with a string, and an ornamental basket. These baskets were used as bookcases, to hold the manuscript rolls. They may sometimes be seen on vases suspended over the heads of reading figures, as in the British Museum vase,[247] which represents a woman reading a scroll. The paidagogos, we may notice, is revealing his humble origin by crossing his feet, a serious offence against good manners in Hellas. “When the boys knew their letters and were beginning to understand what was written, the masters put beside them on the benches the works of good poets for them to read, and made them learn them by heart. They chose for this purpose poets that contained many moral precepts, and narratives and praises of the heroes of old, in order that the boy might admire them and imitate them and desire to become such a man himself.”[248] It is noteworthy that Hellenic boys began at once with the very best literature to be found in their language: there was no preliminary course of childish tales. Grammar, when invented, was taught at a later stage: the boys plunged straight into literature. The schoolmasters at Athens differed as to which was the best way of introducing boys to their national literature. The great majority held that a properly educated boy ought to be saturated in all poetry, comic and serious, hearing much of it in the reading class, and learning much of it――in fact, whole poets――by heart.[249] A minority would pick out the leading passages,[250] the “purple patches,” and certain whole speeches,[251] and put them together and have them committed to memory. Plato argued in favour of expurgated editions of passages carefully selected according to a very strict standard, since much in literature was good and much bad.[252]