And keen it must needs have been before they could have relished their black broth, with a dose of which Dionysios once made an experiment upon his stomach. Having put a spoonful of the compound into his mouth, he instantly spat it out again, declaring that he could not swallow it, for it was the filthiest stuff he had ever tasted; upon which his Spartan cook remarked, “You should have first bathed in the Eurotas.”—Plut. Inst. Lac. § 2. Footnote 859: De Rep. Lac. ii. 2. Lycurg. § 17. Cf. Hesych. v. Παιδονόμος. The privilege of sharing the paternal cares of the Pædonomos was not rigidly confined to the sons of Spartans (πολιτικοὶ παῖδες);[860] the Mothaces also, Spartans of half blood, and even strangers might share it. Who the Mothaces were it is extremely difficult to determine. Some contend that they were slaves brought up in the family.[861] But Athenæus, and Phylarchos whom he quotes, state most distinctly that they were free, ἐλεύθεροι μέν εἰσί. In order to remove the unfavourable impression made on mankind by the accounts transmitted to us of Spartan slavery, it has been pretended that they, as well as the Neodamodes, were Helots. Of the Neodamodes, however, the very author on whom reliance is placed asserts the contrary. They were originally slaves indeed, he says, but different from the Helots, ἑτέρους ὄντας τῶν εἱλώτων. With respect to the Mothaces,[862] notwithstanding the testimony of Hesychius and other grammarians, it seems clear that they were the sons of free though poor Laconians, who, desirous of obtaining for them the rights of Spartans, sent them to be the companions of such youthful citizens as would consent to receive them. It is moreover added that the youth, according to their means, chose one, two, or more of these companions; which shows that although the right of controlling the studies of its children was vested in the state, the expenses, in whole or in part, devolved upon the parents. Footnote 860: Athen. vi. 102. Footnote 861: Müll. ii. 314. Footnote 862: Harpocrat. v. Μόθωνες.