Note 1007 — Chapter V · INDUSTRY: HOUSE-BUILDERS, CARPENTERS, CABINET-MAKERS, TURNERS, MUSICAL INSTRUMENT-MAKERS, POTTERS, GLASS-WORKERS, ETC.
Reading edition
On one occasion, moreover, when they happened to be in lack of hods, they gave proof of no less ingenuity in their mode of carrying mortar. In the hasty construction of the fortress of Pylos, by Demosthenes and his companions, the soldiers took the mud, which was to serve as cement, on their bare backs, stooping forward that it might not fall off, and knotting their hands on their loins beneath their burden: καὶ τὸν πηλὸν, εἴπου δέοι χρῆσθαι, ἀγγείων ἀπορίᾳ, ἐπὶ τοῦ νώτου ἔφερον, ἐγκεκυφότες τε, ὡς μάλιστα μέλλοι ἐπιμένειν, καὶ τὼ χεῖρε ἐς τοὐπίσω ξυμπλέκοντες, ὅπως μὴ ἀποπίπτοι. Thucyd. iv. 4. The reader will, doubtless, be struck by the picturesque energy with which the great historian relates this humble fact.