and he resumed:
"How is he to be restrained? Already I am obliged to make him

promises, and I have come to Carthage only to buy him a dagger with a
silver handle and pearls all around it." Then he told how, having

perceived the Suffet on the terrace, he had passed himself off on the
warders of the harbour as one of Salammbo's women, so as to make his

way in to him.
Hamilcar remained for a long time apparently lost in deliberation; at

last he said:
"To-morrow you will present yourself at sunset behind the purple

factories in Megara, and imitate a jackal's cry three times. If you do
not see me, you will return to Carthage on the first day of every

moon. Forget nothing! Love him! You may speak to him now about
Hamilcar."

The slave resumed his costume, and they left the house and the harbour
together.

Hamilcar went on his way alone on foot and without an escort, for the
meetings of the Ancients were, under extraordinary circumstances,

always secret, and were resorted to mysteriously.
At first he went along the western front of the Acropolis, and then

passed through the Green Market, the galleries of Kinisdo, and the
Perfumers' suburb. The scattered lights were being extinguished, the

broader streets grew still, then shadows glided through the darkness.
They followed him, others appeared, and like him they all directed

their course towards the Mappalian district.
The temple of Moloch was built at the foot of a steep defile in a

sinister spot. From below nothing could be seen but lofty walls rising
indefinitely like those of a monstrous tomb. The night was gloomy, a

greyish fog seemed to weigh upon the sea, which beat against the cliff
with a noise as of death-rattles and sobs; and the shadows gradually

vanished as if they had passed through the walls.
But as soon as the doorway was crossed one found oneself in a vast

quadrangular court bordered by arcades. In the centre rose a mass of
architecture with eight equal faces. It was surmounted by cupolas

which thronged around a second story supporting a kind of rotunda,
from which sprang a cone with a re-entrant curve and terminating in a

ball on the summit.
Fires were burning in cylinders of filigree-work fitted upon poles,

which men were carrying to and fro. These lights flickered in the
gusts of wind and reddened the golden combs which fastened their

plaited hair on the nape of the neck. They ran about calling to one
another to receive the Ancients.

Here and there on the flag-stones huge lions were couched like
sphinxes, living symbols of the devouring sun. They were slumbering

with half-closed eyelids. But roused by the footsteps and voices they
rose slowly, came towards the Ancients, whom they recognised by their

dress, and rubbed themselves against their thighs, arching their backs
with sonorous yawns; the vapour of their breath passed across the

light of the torches. The stir increased, doors closed, all the
priests fled, and the Ancients disappeared beneath the columns which

formed a deep vestibule round the temple.
These columns were arranged in such a way that their circular ranks,

which were contained one within another, showed the Saturnian period
with its years, the years with their months, and the months with their

days, and finally reached to the walls of the sanctuary.
Here it was that the Ancients laid aside their sticks of narwhal's-

horn,--for a law which was always observed inflicted the punishment of
death upon any one entering the meeting with any kind of weapon.

Several wore a rent repaired with a strip of purple at the bottom of
their garment, to show that they had not been economical in their

dress when mourning for their relatives, and this testimony to their
affliction prevented the slit from growing larger. Others had their

beards inclosed in little bags of violet skin, and fastened to their
ears by two cords. They all accosted one another by embracing breast

to breast. They surrounded Hamilcar with congratulations; they might
have been taken for brothers meeting their brother again.

These men were generally thick-set, with curved noses like those of
the Assyrian colossi. In a few, however, the more prominent cheek-

bone, the taller figure, and the narrower foot, betrayed an African
origin and nomad ancestors. Those who lived continually shut up in

their counting-houses had pale faces; others showed in theirs the
severity of the desert, and strange jewels sparkled on all the fingers

of their hands, which were burnt by unknown suns. The navigators might
be distinguished by their rolling gait, while the men of agriculture

smelt of the wine-press, dried herbs, and the sweat of mules. These
old pirates had lands under tillage, these money-grubbers would fit

out ships, these proprietors of cultivated lands supported slaves who
followed trades. All were skilled in religious discipline, expert in

strategy, pitiless and rich. They looked wearied of prolonged cares.
Their flaming eyes expressed distrust, and their habits of travelling

and lying, trafficking and commanding, gave an appearance of cunning
and violence, a sort of discreet and convulsive brutality to their

whole demeanour. Further, the influence of the god cast a gloom upon
them.

They first passed through a vaulted hall which was shaped like an egg.
Seven doors, corresponding to the seven planets, displayed seven

squares of different colours against the wall. After traversing a long
room they entered another similar hall.

A candelabrum completely covered with chiselled flowers was burning at
the far end, and each of its eight golden branches bore a wick of

byssus in a diamond chalice. It was placed upon the last of the long
steps leading to a great altar, the corners of which terminated in

horns of brass. Two lateral staircases led to its flattened summit;
the stones of it could not be seen; it was like a mountain of heaped

cinders, and something indistinct was slowly smoking at the top of it.
Then further back, higher than the candelabrum, and much higher than

the altar, rose the Moloch, all of iron, and with gaping apertures in
his human breast. His outspread wings were stretched upon the wall,

his tapering hands reached down to the ground; three black stones
bordered by yellow circles represented three eyeballs on his brow, and

his bull's head was raised with a terrible effort as if in order to
bellow.

Ebony stools were ranged round the apartment. Behind each of them was
a bronze shaft resting on three claws and supporting a torch. All

these lights were reflected in the mother-of-pearl lozenges which
formed the pavement of the hall. So lofty was the latter that the red

colour of the walls grew black as it rose towards the vaulted roof,
and the three eyes of the idol appeared far above like stars half lost

in the night.
The Ancients sat down on the ebony stools after putting the trains of

their robes over their heads. They remained motionless with their
hands crossed inside their broad sleeves, and the mother-of-pearl

pavement seemed like a luminous river streaming from the altar to the
door and flowing beneath their naked feet.

The four pontiffs had their places in the centre, sitting back to back
on four ivory seats which formed a cross, the high-priest of Eschmoun

in a hyacinth robe, the high-priest of Tanith in a white linen robe,
the high-priest of Khamon in a tawny woollen robe, and the high-priest

of Moloch in a purple robe.
Hamilcar advanced towards the candelabrum. He walked all round it,

looking at the burning wicks; then he threw a scented powder upon
them, and violet flames appeared at the extremities of the branches.

Then a shrill voice rose; another replied to it, and the hundred
Ancients, the four pontiffs, and Hamilcar, who remained standing,

simultaneously intoned a hymn, and their voices--ever repeating the
same syllables and strengthening the sounds--rose, grew loud, became

terrible, and then suddenly were still.
There was a pause for some time. At last Hamilcar drew from his breast