=Couriers.= The means of communication between different parts of the country was by couriers, who were trained for this purpose from childhood. One courier would carry his messages from one post-house to another, where another courier would take them and carry them to the next post-house, and so on. These couriers were so well trained from childhood that they traveled with remarkable speed, so that as much as two hundred miles a day would be covered by the chain of carriers. =Amusements.= Feasts were of common occurrence and were given by people of all ranks of society. Each man vied with the other in giving banquets and it often happened that the host ruined himself financially by his hospitality, as it was the custom to distribute costly presents among the guests, and some went so far as to have sold themselves into slavery to raise funds to give at least one big feast that would make a name for them and thus be kept in the memory of their fellow-men. One form of entertainment at these feasts was the use of jesters, similar to the court-fools of European medieval times, who made jokes at the expense of the guests, imitated people of different nations in dress and manners, mimicked old women and well-known eccentric individuals, and the like. "At the royal feasts given when the great vassals came to the capital to render homage to their sovereign, the people flocked in from the provinces in great numbers to see the sights, which consisted of theatrical representations, gladiatorial combats, fights between wild beasts, athletic sports, musical performances, and poetical recitations in honor of kings, gods, and heroes. The nobles, in addition to this, partook daily of banquets at the palace, and were presented by the monarch with costly gifts."[15] There were people who gave gymnastic performances and who performed acrobatic feats such as of the present day and with equal or even greater skill. There were running races, swimming matches, wrestling matches, contests in shooting with bow and arrow and in throwing the dart, and soldiers fought with wild beasts in enclosed places. Gambling greatly prevailed, property of all kinds was put up as stakes and even a man might jeopardize his own personal liberty on a game of chance. Dice was the most general gambling game.