branches of which were of glass and the grape-bunches of emerald, the
rays from the precious stones making a play of light through the

painted columns upon the sleeping faces.
Matho felt suffocated in the warm atmosphere pressed down upon him by

the cedar partitions. All these symbols of fecundation, these
perfumes, radiations, and breathings overwhelmed him. Through all the

mystic dazzling he kept thinking of Salammbo. She became confused with
the goddess herself, and his loved unfolded itself all the more, like

the great lotus-plants blooming upon the depths of the waters.
Spendius was calculating how much money he would have made in former

days by the sale of these women; and with a rapid glance he estimated
the weight of the golden necklaces as he passed by.

The temple was impenetrable on this side as on the other, and they
returned behind the first chamber. While Spendius was searching and

ferreting, Matho was prostrate before the door supplicating Tanith. He
besought her not to permit the sacrilege, and strove to soften her

with caressing words, such as are used to an angry person.
Spendius noticed a narrow aperture above the door.

"Rise!" he said to Matho, and he made him stand erect with his back
against the wall. Placing one foot in his hands, and then the other

upon his head, he reached up to the air-hole, made his way into it and
disappeared. Then Matho felt a knotted cord--that one which Spendius

had rolled around his body before entering the cisterns--fall upon his
shoulders, and bearing upon it with both hands he soon found himself

by the side of the other in a large hall filled with shadow.
Such an attempt was something extraordinary. The inadequacy of the

means for preventing it was a sufficient proof that it was considered
impossible. The sanctuaries were protected by terror more than by

their walls. Matho expected to die at every step.
However a light was flickering far back in the darkness, and they went

up to it. It was a lamp burning in a shell on the pedestal of a statue
which wore the cap of the Kabiri. Its long blue robe was strewn with

diamond discs, and its heels were fastened to the ground by chains
which sank beneath the pavement. Matho suppressed a cry. "Ah! there

she is! there she is!" he stammered out. Spendius took up the lamp in
order to light himself.

"What an impious man you are!" murmured Matho, following him
nevertheless.

The apartment which they entered had nothing in it but a black
painting representing another woman. Her legs reached to the top of

the wall, and her body filled the entire ceiling; a huge egg hung by a
thread from her navel, and she fell head downwards upon the other

wall, reaching as far as the level of the pavement, which was touched
by her pointed fingers.

They drew a hanging aside, in order to go on further; but the wind
blew and the light went out.

Then they wandered about, lost in the complications of the
architecture. Suddenly they felt something strangely soft beneath

their feet. Sparks crackled and leaped; they were walking in fire.
Spendius touched the ground and perceived that it was carefully

carpeted with lynx skins; then it seemed to them that a big cord, wet,
cold, and viscous, was gliding between their legs. Through some

fissures cut in the wall there fell thin white rays, and they advanced
by this uncertain light. At last they distinguished a large black

serpent. It darted quickly away and disappeared.
"Let us fly!" exclaimed Matho. "It is she! I feel her; she is coming."

"No, no," replied Spendius, "the temple is empty."
Then a dazzling light made them lower their eyes. Next they perceived

all around them an infinite number of beasts, lean, panting, with
bristling claws, and mingled together one above another in a

mysterious and terrifying confusion. There were serpents with feet,
and bulls with wings, fishes with human heads were devouring fruit,

flowers were blooming in the jaws of crocodiles, and elephants with
uplifted trunks were sailing proudly through the azure like eagles.

Their incomplete or multiplied limbs were distended with terrible
exertion. As they thrust out their tongues they looked as though they

would fain give forth their souls; and every shape was to be found
among them as if the germ-receptacle had been suddenly hatched and had

burst, emptying itself upon the walls of the hall.
Round the latter were twelve globes of blue crystal, supported by

monsters resembling tigers. Their eyeballs were starting out of their
heads like those of snails, with their dumpy loins bent they were

turning round towards the background where the supreme Rabbet, the
Omnifecund, the last invented, shone splendid in a chariot of ivory.

She was covered with scales, feathers, flowers, and birds as high as
the waist. For earrings she had silver cymbals, which flapped against

her cheeks. Her large fixed eyes gazed upon you, and a luminous stone,
set in an obscene symbol on her brow, lighted the whole hall by its

reflection in red copper mirrors above the door.
Matho stood a step forward; but a flag stone yielded beneath his heels

and immediately the spheres began to revolve and the monsters to roar;
music rose melodious and pealing, like the harmony of the planets; the

tumultuous soul of Tanith was poured streaming forth. She was about to
arise, as lofty as the hall and with open arms. Suddenly the monsters

closed their jaws and the crystal globes revolved no more.
Then a mournful modulation lingered for a time through the air and at

last died away.
"And the veil?" said Spendius.

Nowhere could it be seen. Where was it to be found? How could it be
discovered? What if the priests had hidden it? Matho experienced

anguish of heart and felt as though he had been deceived in his
belief.

"This way!" whispered Spendius. An inspiration guided him. He drew
Matho behind Tanith's chariot, where a cleft a cubit wide ran down the

wall from top to bottom.
Then they penetrated into a small and completely circular room, so

lofty that it was like the interior of a pillar. In the centre there
was a big black stone, of semispherical shape like a tabourine; flames

were burning upon it; an ebony cone, bearing a head and two arms, rose
behind.

But beyond it seemed as though there were a cloud wherein were
twinkling stars; faces appeared in the depths of its folds--Eschmoun

with the Kabiri, some of the monsters that had already been seen, the
sacred beasts of the Babylonians, and others with which they were not

acquainted. It passed beneath the idol's face like a mantle, and
spread fully out was drawn up on the wall to which it was fastened by

the corners, appearing at once bluish as the night, yellow as the
dawn, purple as the sun, multitudinous, diaphanous, sparkling light.

It was the mantle of the goddess, the holy zaimph which might not be
seen.

Both turned pale.
"Take it!" said Matho at last.

Spendius did not hesitate, and leaning upon the idol he unfastened the
veil, which sank to the ground. Matho laid his hand upon it; then he

put his head through the opening, then he wrapped it about his body,
and he spread out his arms the better to view it.

"Let us go!" said Spendius.
Matho stood panting with his eyes fixed upon the pavement. Suddenly he

exclaimed:
"But what if I went to her? I fear her beauty no longer! What could

she do to me? I am now more than a man. I could pass through flames or
walk upon the sea! I am transported! Salammbo! Salammbo! I am your

master!"
His voice was like thunder. He seemed to Spendius to have grown taller

and transformed.
A sound of footsteps drew near, a door opened, and a man appeared, a

priest with lofty cap and staring eyes. Before he could make a gesture
Spendius had rushed upon him, and clasping him in his arms had buried