As would naturally be expected, individual tuition was usual in the lyre-school; instrumental music cannot be learnt in class. The vases make this point quite clear. The master has a single boy seated in front of him; both hold lyres in their hands, to which they are singing, the words of the song being sometimes represented by a string of little dots. In Plate IV., on the left of this group, a boy is coming up to take his turn, lyre in hand, while behind him stands his paidagogos, leaning on a reading-desk and following his charge with his eyes. On the right is a boy just taking up his flute-case and preparing to depart, while another sits in the corner, wrapped in his cloak, waiting for his turn to take a lesson. In Plate III.,[291] the master is playing a barbitos and apparently singing, while the pupil plays the flute. On the left is a flute-master playing, and a pupil just leaving him, flute in hand. Another pupil, with a lyre, is waiting to take a lesson from the master in the centre, and is amusing himself meanwhile by playing with an animal that is probably a leopard,[291] like that which figures in Plate IV. Another pet, a dog, is howling in disgust at the music. On the right, a pupil with a flute is advancing to take a lesson from the flute-master in front of him. Behind him follows a young man, who may be an elder brother replacing the customary paidagogos for the nonce, or an admirer. In the background sits a small child, sucking his thumb, probably the younger brother of one of the pupils, who has come, in accordance with Aristotle’s advice, to look on, although still too young to learn. [Illustration: PLATE IV. IN A LYRE-SCHOOL From a Hudria in the British Museum (E 172).]