The staff of a palaistra also included professional flute-players, for most of the exercises[372] were performed to the sound of a flute, in order that good time might be preserved in the various movements. The player in these cases wore the φορβεία [phorbeia] or mouth-band.[373] As I have pointed out in Chapter II., although the literary authorities make gymnastic training of a sort begin with the seventh year, it is not at all probable that the more recognised exercises, such as boxing and wrestling, began till a good many years later. The vases suggest that these subjects were taught some years after letters and music had begun, for they represent only older boys as learning them. Aristotle seems to vouch for a graduated course of gymnastic exercises during boyhood.[374] [Illustration: PLATE VI. A. IN THE PALAISTRA: WRESTLERS, PAIDOTRIBES, BOY PREPARING GROUND Gerhard’s _Auserlesene Vasenbilder_, cclxxi. Fig. 2.] [Illustration: PLATE VI. B. IN THE PALAISTRA: BOY PUTTING ON BOXING-THONG, A PANKRATION LESSON, AND A PAIDOTRIBES Gerhard’s _Auserlesene Vasenbilder_, cclxxi. Fig. 1.] What did the boys learn at the palaistra in the meantime? Deportment and easy exercises. A passage in Aristophanes informs us that they were taught the most graceful way to sit down and get up.[375] Vases represent boys learning how to stand straight. There were also all sorts of exercises in which the unpointed javelin played the part of a training-rod and the halteres the part of dumb-bells. The paidotribes might also try to strengthen particular muscles in particular boys. In an epigram,[376] a trainer is exercising a boy’s middle by bending him over his knee, and then, while holding his feet fast, swinging him over backwards.