After such revelations of Hellenic educational methods, it is natural to suppose that the ingenious devices by which the “Egyptians,”[281] according to Plato, “make simple arithmetic into a game” for their children, were really used in Attica. One of these devices[282] was as follows. The master took, say, sixty apples. First he divided them among two boys, who were made to count their share, thirty each; then among three boys, twenty each; then among four, fifteen each; then among five, twelve each; and then among six, ten each. This would teach the system of factors. Then, again, a real or imaginary competition in boxing or wrestling[283] was arranged, say in a class of nine. The boys would work out, by actual experiment, how many fights would be necessary, if each boy had to fight all the others one by one, and how many if a system of rounds and byes was introduced. This might even teach Permutations and Combinations. In another case a number of bowls, some containing mixed coins, gold, silver, and bronze, some all of one sort, would be handed round the class. The boys would have to count them, add and subtract them, and so on. Thus they would learn addition and subtraction of money, and would also gain a clear knowledge of the national coinage. Plato was immensely impressed with the educational value of Arithmetic. “Those who are born with a talent for it,” he says, “are quick at all learning; while even those who are slow at it, have their general intelligence much increased by studying it.”[284] “No branch of education is so valuable a preparation for household management and politics, and all arts and crafts, sciences and professions, as arithmetic; best of all, by some divine art, it arouses the dull and sleepy brain, and makes it studious, mindful, and sharp.”[285] The question of the more advanced stages of Mathematics, which were taught to older boys, may be left for the chapter on Secondary Education. * * * * * The chief and often the sole instrument taught in the music school was the seven-stringed lyre,[286] with a large sounding-board originally made of a tortoise’s shell.[287] It might be played either with the hand or else with the “plektron” or striker; the boy Lusis had learnt to do either.[288] The boys were also taught how to tighten and relax the strings by turning the pegs till the proper degree of tension was obtained. They brought their own lyre with them from home, the paidagogos carrying it behind his charge. This was a wise regulation from the master’s point of view; for the boys seem to have usually ruined these instruments by their early efforts.[289] Like the piano, the lyre required great delicacy of touch and very agile fingers, and these qualities could only be obtained by continual practice.[290]