Note 10 — Chapter I

Ælian: the second book, chapter vii.

“This is a Theban law most just and humane: that no Theban might expose his child or leave it in a wilderness, upon pain of death. But if the father were extremely poor, whether it were male or female, the law requires that as soon as it is born it be brought in the swaddling clouts to the magistrate, who, receiving it, delivers it to some other for some small reward, conditioning with him that he shall bring up the child, and when it is grown up take it into his service, man or maid, and have the benefit of its labour in requital for its education.”