When those who had been forced to leave the island reached Sparta, they procured an audience with the magistrates and made a long speech to emphasize the urgency of their request. The Spartans, however, at this first sitting, answered the speech by saying that they had forgotten the beginning of it, and could not understand the end; so the Samians had to try again. At the second sitting they brought a bag, and merely remarked that bag needed flour -- to which the Spartans replied that the word 'bag' was superfluous.'The Penguin edition explains in a note:
'H. seems here to be having a little fun with the laconic Spartans, who were notorious for their parsimony with words.'
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