章节正文
iron instrument caught fast, and they began to climb up the wall, the
one after the other.
But when they had ascended to the first story the cramp fell back
every time that they threw it, and in order to discover some fissure
they had to walk along the edge of the cornice. At every row of arches
they found that it became narrower. Then the cord relaxed. Several
times it nearly broke.
At last they reached the upper platform. Spendius stooped down from
time to time to feel the stones with his hand.
"Here it is," he said; "let us begin!" And leaning on the pick which
Matho had brought they succeeded in dislodging one of the flagstones.
In the distance they perceived a troop of horse-men galloping on
horses without bridles. Their golden bracelets leaped in the vague
drapings of their cloaks. A man could be seen in front crowned with
ostrich feathers, and galloping with a lance in each hand.
"Narr' Havas!" exclaimed Matho.
"What matter?" returned Spendius, and he leaped into the hole which
they had just made by removing the flagstone.
Matho at his command tried to thrust out one of the blocks. But he
could not move his elbows for want of room.
"We shall return," said Spendius; "go in front." Then they ventured
into the channel of water.
It reached to their waists. Soon they staggered, and were obliged to
swim. Their limbs knocked against the walls of the narrow duct. The
water flowed almost immediately beneath the stones above, and their
faces were torn by them. Then the current carried them away. Their
breasts were crushed with air heavier than that of a sepulchre, and
stretching themselves out as much as possible with their heads between
their arms and their legs close together, they passed like arrows into
the darkness, choking, gurgling, and almost dead. Suddenly all became
black before them, and the speed of the waters redoubled. They fell.
When they came to the surface again, they remained for a few minutes
extended on their backs, inhaling the air delightfully. Arcades, one
behind another, opened up amid large walls separating the various
basins. All were filled, and the water stretched in a single sheet
throughout the length of the cisterns. Through the air-holes in the
cupolas on the ceiling there fell a pale brightness which spread upon
the waves discs, as it were, of light, while the darkness round about
thickened towards the walls and threw them back to an indefinite
distance. The slightest sound made a great echo.
Spendius and Matho commenced to swim again, and passing through the
opening of the arches, traversed several chambers in succession. Two
other rows of smaller basins extended in a parallel direction on each
side. They lost themselves; they turned, and came back again. At last
something offered a resistance to their heels. It was the pavement of
the gallery that ran along the cisterns.
Then, advancing with great precautions, they felt along the wall to
find an outlet. But their feet slipped, and they fell into the great
centre-basins. They had to climb up again, and there they fell again.
They experienced terrible fatigue, which made them feel as if all
their limbs had been dissolved in the water while swimming. Their eyes
closed; they were in the agonies of death.
Spendius struck his hand against the bars of a grating. They shook it,
it gave way, and they found themselves on the steps of a staircase. A
door of bronze closed it above. With the point of a dagger they moved
the bar, which was opened from without, and suddenly the pure open air
surrounded them.
The night was filled with silence, and the sky seemed at an
extraordinary height. Clusters of trees projected over the long lines
of walls. The whole town was asleep. The fires of the outposts shone
like lost stars.
Spendius, who had spent three years in the ergastulum, was but
imperfectly acquainted with the different quarters. Matho conjectured
that to reach Hamilcar's palace they ought to strike to the left and
cross the Mappalian district.
"No," said Spendius, "take me to the temple of Tanith."
Matho wished to speak.
"Remember!" said the former slave, and raising his arm he showed him
the glittering planet of Chabar.
Then Matho turned in silence towards the Acropolis.
They crept along the nopal hedges which bordered the paths. The water
trickled from their limbs upon the dust. Their damp sandals made no
noise; Spendius, with eyes that flamed more than torches, searched the
bushes at every step;--and he walked behind Matho with his hands
resting on the two daggers which he carried on his arms, and which
hung from below the armpit by a leathern band.
CHAPTER V
TANITH
After leaving the gardens Matho and Spendius found themselves checked
by the rampart of Megara. But they discovered a breach in the great
wall and passed through.
The ground sloped downwards, forming a kind of very broad valley. It
was an exposed place.
"Listen," said Spendius, "and first of all fear nothing! I shall
fulfil my promise--"
He stopped abruptly, and seemed to reflect as though searching for
words,--"Do you remember that time at sunrise when I showed Carthage
to you on Salammbo's terrace? We were strong that day, but you would
listen to nothing!" Then in a grave voice: "Master, in the sanctuary
of Tanith there is a mysterious veil, which fell from heaven and which
covers the goddess."
"I know," said Matho.
Spendius resumed: "It is itself divine, for it forms part of her. The
gods reside where their images are. It is because Carthage possesses
it that Carthage is powerful." Then leaning over to his ear: "I have
brought you with me to carry it off!"
Matho recoiled in horror. "Begone! look for some one else! I will not
help you in this execrable crime!"
"But Tanith is your enemy," retorted Spendius; "she is persecuting you
and you are dying through her wrath. You will be revenged upon her.
She will obey you, and you will become almost immortal and
invincible."
Matho bent his head. Spendius continued:
"We should succumb; the army would be annihilated of itself. We have
neither flight, nor succour, nor pardon to hope for! What chastisement
from the gods can you be afraid of since you will have their power in
your own hands? Would you rather die on the evening of a defeat, in
misery beneath the shelter of a bush, or amid the outrages of the
populace and the flames of funeral piles? Master, one day you will
enter Carthage among the colleges of the pontiffs, who will kiss your
sandals; and if the veil of Tanith weighs upon you still, you will
reinstate it in its temple. Follow me! come and take it."
Matho was consumed by a terrible longing. He would have liked to
possess the veil while refraining from the sacrilege. He said to
himself that perhaps it would not be necessary to take it in order to
monopolise its virtue. He did not go to the bottom of his thought but
stopped at the boundary, where it terrified him.
"Come on!" he said; and they went off with rapid strides, side by
side, and without speaking.
The ground rose again, and the dwellings were near. They turned again
into the narrow streets amid the darkness. The strips of esparto-grass
with which the doors were closed, beat against the walls. Some camels
were ruminating in a square before heaps of cut grass. Then they
passed beneath a gallery covered with foliage. A pack of dogs were
barking. But suddenly the space grew wider and they recognised the
western face of the Acropolis. At the foot of Byrsa there stretched a
long black mass: it was the temple of Tanith, a whole made up of
monuments and galleries, courts and fore-courts, and bounded by a low
wall of dry stones. Spendius and Matho leaped over it.
This first barrier enclosed a wood of plane-trees as a precaution
against plague and infection in the air. Tents were scattered here and
there, in which, during the daytime, depilatory pastes, perfumes,
garments, moon-shaped cakes, and images of the goddess with
representations of the temple hollowed out in blocks of alabaster,
were on sale.
They had nothing to fear, for on nights when the planet did not
appear, all rites were suspended; nevertheless Matho slackened his
speed, and stopped before the three ebony steps leading to the second
enclosure.
"Forward!" said Spendius.
Pomegranate, almond trees, cypresses and myrtles alternated in regular
succession; the path, which was paved with blue pebbles, creaked
beneath their footsteps, and full-blown roses formed a hanging bower
over the whole length of the avenue. They arrived before an oval hole
protected by a grating. Then Matho, who was frightened by the silence,
said to Spendius:
"It is here that they mix the fresh water and the bitter."
"I have seen all that," returned the former slave, "in Syria, in the
town of Maphug"; and they ascended into the third enclosure by a
staircase of six silver steps.
A huge cedar occupied the centre. Its lowest branches were hidden
beneath scraps of material and necklaces hung upon them by the
faithful. They walked a few steps further on, and the front of the
temple was displayed before them.
Two long porticoes, with their architraves resting on dumpy pillars,
flanked a quadrangular tower, the platform of which was adorned with
the crescent of a moon. On the angles of the porticoes and at the four
corners of the tower stood vases filled with kindled aromatics. The
capitals were laden with pomegranates and coloquintidas. Twining
knots, lozenges, and rows of pearls alternated on the walls, and a
hedge of silver filigree formed a wide semicircle in front of the
brass staircase which led down from the vestibule.
There was a cone of stone at the entrance between a stela of gold and
one of emerald, and Matho kissed his right hand as he passed beside
it.
The first room was very lofty; its vaulted roof was pierced by
numberless apertures, and if the head were raised the stars might be
seen. All round the wall rush baskets were heaped up with the first
fruits of adolescence in the shape of beards and curls of hair; and in
the centre of the circularapartment the body of a woman issued from a
sheath which was covered with breasts. Fat, bearded, and with eyelids
downcast, she looked as though she were smiling, while her hands were
crossed upon the lower part of her big body, which was polished by the
kisses of the crowd.
Then they found themselves again in the open air in a transverse
corridor, wherein there was an altar of small dimensions leaning
against an ivory door. There was no further passage; the priests alone
could open it; for the temple was not a place of meeting for the
multitude, but the private abode of a divinity.
"The enterprise is impossible," said Matho. "You had not thought of
this! Let us go back!" Spendius was examining the walls.
He wanted the veil, not because he had confidence in its virtue
(Spendius believed only in the Oracle), but because he was persuaded
that the Carthaginians would be greatly dismayed on seeing themselves
deprived of it. They walked all round behind in order to find some
outlet.
Aedicules of different shapes were visible beneath clusters of
turpentine trees. Here and there rose a stone phallus, and large stags
roamed peacefully about, spurning the fallen fir-cones with their
cloven hoofs.
But they retraced their steps between two long galleries which ran
parallel to each other. There were small open cells along their sides,
and tabourines and cymbals hung against their cedar columns from top
to bottom. Women were sleeping stretched on mats outside the cells.
Their bodies were greasy with unguents, and exhaled an odour of spices
and extinguished perfuming-pans; while they were so covered with
tattooings, necklaces, rings, vermilion, and antimony that, but for
the motion of their breasts, they might have been taken for idols as
they lay thus on the ground. There were lotus-trees encircling a
fountain in which fish like Salammbo's were swimming; and then in the
background, against the wall of the temple, spread a vine, the
one after the other.
But when they had ascended to the first story the cramp fell back
every time that they threw it, and in order to discover some fissure
they had to walk along the edge of the cornice. At every row of arches
they found that it became narrower. Then the cord relaxed. Several
times it nearly broke.
At last they reached the upper platform. Spendius stooped down from
time to time to feel the stones with his hand.
"Here it is," he said; "let us begin!" And leaning on the pick which
Matho had brought they succeeded in dislodging one of the flagstones.
In the distance they perceived a troop of horse-men galloping on
horses without bridles. Their golden bracelets leaped in the vague
drapings of their cloaks. A man could be seen in front crowned with
ostrich feathers, and galloping with a lance in each hand.
"Narr' Havas!" exclaimed Matho.
"What matter?" returned Spendius, and he leaped into the hole which
they had just made by removing the flagstone.
Matho at his command tried to thrust out one of the blocks. But he
could not move his elbows for want of room.
"We shall return," said Spendius; "go in front." Then they ventured
into the channel of water.
It reached to their waists. Soon they staggered, and were obliged to
swim. Their limbs knocked against the walls of the narrow duct. The
water flowed almost immediately beneath the stones above, and their
faces were torn by them. Then the current carried them away. Their
breasts were crushed with air heavier than that of a sepulchre, and
stretching themselves out as much as possible with their heads between
their arms and their legs close together, they passed like arrows into
the darkness, choking, gurgling, and almost dead. Suddenly all became
black before them, and the speed of the waters redoubled. They fell.
When they came to the surface again, they remained for a few minutes
extended on their backs, inhaling the air delightfully. Arcades, one
behind another, opened up amid large walls separating the various
basins. All were filled, and the water stretched in a single sheet
throughout the length of the cisterns. Through the air-holes in the
cupolas on the ceiling there fell a pale brightness which spread upon
the waves discs, as it were, of light, while the darkness round about
thickened towards the walls and threw them back to an indefinite
distance. The slightest sound made a great echo.
Spendius and Matho commenced to swim again, and passing through the
opening of the arches, traversed several chambers in succession. Two
other rows of smaller basins extended in a parallel direction on each
side. They lost themselves; they turned, and came back again. At last
something offered a resistance to their heels. It was the pavement of
the gallery that ran along the cisterns.
Then, advancing with great precautions, they felt along the wall to
find an outlet. But their feet slipped, and they fell into the great
centre-basins. They had to climb up again, and there they fell again.
They experienced terrible fatigue, which made them feel as if all
their limbs had been dissolved in the water while swimming. Their eyes
closed; they were in the agonies of death.
Spendius struck his hand against the bars of a grating. They shook it,
it gave way, and they found themselves on the steps of a staircase. A
door of bronze closed it above. With the point of a dagger they moved
the bar, which was opened from without, and suddenly the pure open air
surrounded them.
The night was filled with silence, and the sky seemed at an
extraordinary height. Clusters of trees projected over the long lines
of walls. The whole town was asleep. The fires of the outposts shone
like lost stars.
Spendius, who had spent three years in the ergastulum, was but
imperfectly acquainted with the different quarters. Matho conjectured
that to reach Hamilcar's palace they ought to strike to the left and
cross the Mappalian district.
"No," said Spendius, "take me to the temple of Tanith."
Matho wished to speak.
"Remember!" said the former slave, and raising his arm he showed him
the glittering planet of Chabar.
Then Matho turned in silence towards the Acropolis.
They crept along the nopal hedges which bordered the paths. The water
trickled from their limbs upon the dust. Their damp sandals made no
noise; Spendius, with eyes that flamed more than torches, searched the
bushes at every step;--and he walked behind Matho with his hands
resting on the two daggers which he carried on his arms, and which
hung from below the armpit by a leathern band.
CHAPTER V
TANITH
After leaving the gardens Matho and Spendius found themselves checked
by the rampart of Megara. But they discovered a breach in the great
wall and passed through.
The ground sloped downwards, forming a kind of very broad valley. It
was an exposed place.
"Listen," said Spendius, "and first of all fear nothing! I shall
fulfil my promise--"
He stopped abruptly, and seemed to reflect as though searching for
words,--"Do you remember that time at sunrise when I showed Carthage
to you on Salammbo's terrace? We were strong that day, but you would
listen to nothing!" Then in a grave voice: "Master, in the sanctuary
of Tanith there is a mysterious veil, which fell from heaven and which
covers the goddess."
"I know," said Matho.
Spendius resumed: "It is itself divine, for it forms part of her. The
gods reside where their images are. It is because Carthage possesses
it that Carthage is powerful." Then leaning over to his ear: "I have
brought you with me to carry it off!"
Matho recoiled in horror. "Begone! look for some one else! I will not
help you in this execrable crime!"
"But Tanith is your enemy," retorted Spendius; "she is persecuting you
and you are dying through her wrath. You will be revenged upon her.
She will obey you, and you will become almost immortal and
invincible."
Matho bent his head. Spendius continued:
"We should succumb; the army would be annihilated of itself. We have
neither flight, nor succour, nor pardon to hope for! What chastisement
from the gods can you be afraid of since you will have their power in
your own hands? Would you rather die on the evening of a defeat, in
misery beneath the shelter of a bush, or amid the outrages of the
populace and the flames of funeral piles? Master, one day you will
enter Carthage among the colleges of the pontiffs, who will kiss your
sandals; and if the veil of Tanith weighs upon you still, you will
reinstate it in its temple. Follow me! come and take it."
Matho was consumed by a terrible longing. He would have liked to
possess the veil while refraining from the sacrilege. He said to
himself that perhaps it would not be necessary to take it in order to
monopolise its virtue. He did not go to the bottom of his thought but
stopped at the boundary, where it terrified him.
"Come on!" he said; and they went off with rapid strides, side by
side, and without speaking.
The ground rose again, and the dwellings were near. They turned again
into the narrow streets amid the darkness. The strips of esparto-grass
with which the doors were closed, beat against the walls. Some camels
were ruminating in a square before heaps of cut grass. Then they
passed beneath a gallery covered with foliage. A pack of dogs were
barking. But suddenly the space grew wider and they recognised the
western face of the Acropolis. At the foot of Byrsa there stretched a
long black mass: it was the temple of Tanith, a whole made up of
monuments and galleries, courts and fore-courts, and bounded by a low
wall of dry stones. Spendius and Matho leaped over it.
This first barrier enclosed a wood of plane-trees as a precaution
against plague and infection in the air. Tents were scattered here and
there, in which, during the daytime, depilatory pastes, perfumes,
garments, moon-shaped cakes, and images of the goddess with
representations of the temple hollowed out in blocks of alabaster,
were on sale.
They had nothing to fear, for on nights when the planet did not
appear, all rites were suspended; nevertheless Matho slackened his
speed, and stopped before the three ebony steps leading to the second
enclosure.
"Forward!" said Spendius.
Pomegranate, almond trees, cypresses and myrtles alternated in regular
succession; the path, which was paved with blue pebbles, creaked
beneath their footsteps, and full-blown roses formed a hanging bower
over the whole length of the avenue. They arrived before an oval hole
protected by a grating. Then Matho, who was frightened by the silence,
said to Spendius:
"It is here that they mix the fresh water and the bitter."
"I have seen all that," returned the former slave, "in Syria, in the
town of Maphug"; and they ascended into the third enclosure by a
staircase of six silver steps.
A huge cedar occupied the centre. Its lowest branches were hidden
beneath scraps of material and necklaces hung upon them by the
faithful. They walked a few steps further on, and the front of the
temple was displayed before them.
Two long porticoes, with their architraves resting on dumpy pillars,
flanked a quadrangular tower, the platform of which was adorned with
the crescent of a moon. On the angles of the porticoes and at the four
corners of the tower stood vases filled with kindled aromatics. The
capitals were laden with pomegranates and coloquintidas. Twining
knots, lozenges, and rows of pearls alternated on the walls, and a
hedge of silver filigree formed a wide semicircle in front of the
brass staircase which led down from the vestibule.
There was a cone of stone at the entrance between a stela of gold and
one of emerald, and Matho kissed his right hand as he passed beside
it.
The first room was very lofty; its vaulted roof was pierced by
numberless apertures, and if the head were raised the stars might be
seen. All round the wall rush baskets were heaped up with the first
fruits of adolescence in the shape of beards and curls of hair; and in
the centre of the circularapartment the body of a woman issued from a
sheath which was covered with breasts. Fat, bearded, and with eyelids
downcast, she looked as though she were smiling, while her hands were
crossed upon the lower part of her big body, which was polished by the
kisses of the crowd.
Then they found themselves again in the open air in a transverse
corridor, wherein there was an altar of small dimensions leaning
against an ivory door. There was no further passage; the priests alone
could open it; for the temple was not a place of meeting for the
multitude, but the private abode of a divinity.
"The enterprise is impossible," said Matho. "You had not thought of
this! Let us go back!" Spendius was examining the walls.
He wanted the veil, not because he had confidence in its virtue
(Spendius believed only in the Oracle), but because he was persuaded
that the Carthaginians would be greatly dismayed on seeing themselves
deprived of it. They walked all round behind in order to find some
outlet.
Aedicules of different shapes were visible beneath clusters of
turpentine trees. Here and there rose a stone phallus, and large stags
roamed peacefully about, spurning the fallen fir-cones with their
cloven hoofs.
But they retraced their steps between two long galleries which ran
parallel to each other. There were small open cells along their sides,
and tabourines and cymbals hung against their cedar columns from top
to bottom. Women were sleeping stretched on mats outside the cells.
Their bodies were greasy with unguents, and exhaled an odour of spices
and extinguished perfuming-pans; while they were so covered with
tattooings, necklaces, rings, vermilion, and antimony that, but for
the motion of their breasts, they might have been taken for idols as
they lay thus on the ground. There were lotus-trees encircling a
fountain in which fish like Salammbo's were swimming; and then in the
background, against the wall of the temple, spread a vine, the
- instrument [´instrumənt]
n.仪器；手段；乐器 (初中英语单词) - platform [´plætfɔ:m] n.(平)台；讲台；站台 (初中英语单词)
- thrust [θrʌst] v.&n.猛推；冲；刺；挤进 (初中英语单词)
- channel [´tʃænəl] n.海峡；航道；途径 (初中英语单词)
- succession [sək´seʃən] n.继任；继承(权) (初中英语单词)
- parallel [´pærəlel] a.平行的 n.平行线 (初中英语单词)
- resistance [ri´zistəns] n.抵抗；抵制；耐力 (初中英语单词)
- gallery [´gæləri] n.画廊；美术馆；长廊 (初中英语单词)
- height [hait] n.高度；顶点；卓越 (初中英语单词)
- temple [´tempəl] n.庙宇；寺院；太阳穴 (初中英语单词)
- planet [´plænit] n.行星 (初中英语单词)
- valley [´væli] n.谷；河谷；流域 (初中英语单词)
- abruptly [ə´brʌptli] ad.突然地；粗鲁地 (初中英语单词)
- reflect [ri´flekt] v.反射；反响；表达 (初中英语单词)
- mysterious [mi´stiəriəs] a.神秘的；难以理解的 (初中英语单词)
- divine [di´vain] a.神圣的 v.预言 (初中英语单词)
- horror [´hɔrə] n.恐怖；战栗 (初中英语单词)
- immortal [i´mɔ:təl] a.不死的n.不朽的人物 (初中英语单词)
- flight [flait] n.逃走；飞行；班机 (初中英语单词)
- pardon [´pɑ:dən] n.&vt.原谅；饶恕；赦免 (初中英语单词)
- funeral [´fju:nərəl] n.葬礼，丧葬；困难 (初中英语单词)
- virtue [´və:tʃu:] n.美德；贞操；长处 (初中英语单词)
- boundary [´baundəri] n.界线，边界 (初中英语单词)
- goddess [´gɔdis] n.女神 (初中英语单词)
- nevertheless [,nevəðə´les] conj.&ad.然而；不过 (初中英语单词)
- circular [´sə:kjulə] a.圆形的 n.通知 (初中英语单词)
- apartment [ə´pɑ:tmənt] n.一套房间 (初中英语单词)
- enterprise [´entəpraiz] n.企业；雄心；胆识 (初中英语单词)
- visible [´vizəbəl] a.可见的；明显的 (初中英语单词)
- sleeping [´sli:piŋ] n.&a.睡着(的) (初中英语单词)
- brightness [´braitnis] n.光明；快乐 (高中英语单词)
- pavement [´peivmənt] n.路面；铺筑材料 (高中英语单词)
- outlet [´autlet] n.出口；出路；通风口 (高中英语单词)
- fatigue [fə´ti:g] n.&vt.(使)疲劳(劳累) (高中英语单词)
- bronze [brɔnz] n.青铜(器) (高中英语单词)
- breach [bri:tʃ] n.&v.破坏；违犯 (高中英语单词)
- sunrise [´sʌnraiz] n.日出，黎明 (高中英语单词)
- terrace [´terəs] n.梯田 vt.使成梯田 (高中英语单词)
- reside [ri´zaid] vi.居住；(权利等)属于 (高中英语单词)
- longing [´lɔŋiŋ] n.&a.渴望(的) (高中英语单词)
- foliage [´fəuli-idʒ] n.叶子，簇叶 (高中英语单词)
- barrier [´bæriə] n.栅栏；屏障；障碍 (高中英语单词)
- plague [pleig] n.瘟疫 vt.使...染疫 (高中英语单词)
- infection [in´fekʃən] n.感染，影响 (高中英语单词)
- daytime [´deitaim] n.白天 (高中英语单词)
- hanging [´hæŋiŋ] n.绞刑 a.悬挂着的 (高中英语单词)
- wherein [weər´in] ad.那里面 (高中英语单词)
- seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
- motion [´məuʃən] n.手势 vt.打手势 (高中英语单词)
- experienced [ik´spiəriənst] a.有经验的；熟练的 (英语四级单词)
- grating [´greitiŋ] n.格栅 a.刺耳的 (英语四级单词)
- staircase [´steəkeis] n.楼梯 =stairway (英语四级单词)
- dagger [´dægə] n.短剑，匕首 (英语四级单词)
- downwards [´daunwədz] ad.向下，以下 (英语四级单词)
- almond [´ɑ:mənd] n.杏核，杏仁；扁桃 (英语四级单词)
- crescent [´kresənt] n.月牙 a.新月形的 (英语四级单词)
- emerald [´emərəld] n.纯绿宝石；翠绿色 (英语四级单词)
- delightfully [di´laitfuli] ad.大喜，欣然 (英语六级单词)
- extended [iks´tendid] a.伸长的；广大的 (英语六级单词)
- rampart [´ræmpɑ:t] n.壁垒 vt.防护 (英语六级单词)
- enclosure [in´kləuʒə] n.包围；围墙；封入物 (英语六级单词)
- peacefully [´pisfuli] ad.平静地；安宁地 (英语六级单词)
- greasy [´gri:si] a.油腻的；润滑的 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:翻译 译文 翻译文
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