One of the very greatest amusements of the Greeks was that of the theater. These were usually built along a hillside, the seats being cut into the solid rock. The performances were held in connection with two of the leading religious festivals, the one in the midwinter and the other in the spring. The theaters were public and open to all the citizens and free of expense, the expenses being borne by the state or by wealthy citizens. There were no playbills nor similar kind of announcements of the plays, usually the audience not knowing what was to come till the play opened. Dancing and music were among the pleasures of the young people. Of these were mimetic dances, representing mythological scenes. There were also warlike and choral dances performed at the feasts of the gods. There were professional dancers and singers and flute-players. There were a number of kinds of musical instruments. The types of the stringed instruments were represented by the lyre, the kithara, and the harp; the wind-instruments were the pipes, clarionets, and trumpets; and the clanging instruments were the castanets, cymbal, and tambourine. The young men indulged in horse-racing; they frequented gambling places where dice was used; and they placed metal spurs on cocks, pheasants, and quails and fought them thus armed. Hunting was a favorite sport. It was quite fashionable for rich young men to have fine horses and, although they did ride some, yet they preferred to drive their horses to chariots. The jugglers and acrobats were quite skilful and they were of both sexes. Outside the help of present day science, they seemed to have performed as remarkable feats as at the present time. They gave sword dances; they tossed hoops and balls; they did rope-walking and dancing; they extracted things from their eyes and ears and noses and mouths. They would stand on their hands and head and perform feats with their toes, as filling vessels with water and shooting bows and arrows. In one feat a woman acrobat would bend back her head till it met her heels, then she would clasp her feet with her hands and roll off like a hoop. In one exhibit there was a contrivance, known as the potter's wheel, in which a young woman would be whirled round rapidly and yet she managed to read and write while being so twirled.