"Tenderly she touched their little heads and sang: Sleep, baby boys, a sweet and healthful sleep; Sleep on, my darlings, safely through the night, Sleep, happy in your baby dreams, and wake With joy to greet the morning's dawning light."[167] =Infanticide.= If in Sparta the child survived the bath of water and wine, then it was subjected to an inspection by a council of the state to decide whether it was fit to live or not. The strong and robust children were permitted to live, but the weak and sickly and deformed children were thrown down a precipice or exposed on the mountains. If any of the helots or perioeci should find the child and take it they were permitted to keep it, but the child could never become a citizen of Sparta. This custom of destroying or casting out infants was done in order to insure strong citizens for the state. No parent was allowed to pass judgment on the child, such was retained by the state alone. Infanticide was practiced in Athens, but not by the state. This was wholly in the hands of the fathers. The fathers at Athens were more cruel than the state at Sparta, for not only weak and deformed children were cast aside by the Athenian fathers, but this might be true of other children, as poverty and other causes might be a motive. This was done by placing the infant in a basket or earthenware vessel and leaving it in a temple, or some other public place, so that some one might take it. This was called "potting" the child. The mother usually placed a token as a trinket or an amulet with the child so that possibly afterward the child might be recognized. The party who might take such a child had full power over it and might rear it as a slave or do with it as he might wish. The father was sometimes brutal enough to take the baby to the mountains and leave it to die from exposure or wild beasts. "From this barbarous custom the Thebans formed an honorable exemption. They rendered the murder of infants a capital offense. Those who were born of parents unable to provide for their maintenance were brought up at the public charge, but in return, when grown up, the public had a right to their services until they were adequately compensated for what had been expended in bringing them up."[168] =Duties of Children.= The boy at Greece was expected to walk along the street in a quiet manner with head bent, as a sign of modesty, and to speak to no one. At home he was to be careful of his manners and habits. He was to be respectful to his elders, making way for them on the street, keeping silence in their company, and when seated to arise when they entered the room and to give way to them. It was the duty of children to be obedient and respectful to their parents, and to care for them when there was need. But the parents, too, had their duty to perform and if they neglected the children then the children were excused from maintaining their parents.