ascended towards the Suffet's gardens, were irregularly separated from
one another by little pebble walls, trenches of spring water, ropes of

esparto-grass, and nopal hedges. But Hamilcar's eyes were fastened on
a great tower, the three storys of which formed three monster

cylinders--the first being built of stone, the second of brick, and
the third all of cedar--supporting a copper cupola upon twenty-four

pillars of juniper, from which slender interlacing chains of brass
hung down after the manner of garlands. This lofty edifice overlooked

the buildings--the emporiums and mercantile houses--which stretched to
the right, while the women's palace rose at the end of the cypress

trees, which were ranged in line like two walls of bronze.
When the echoing chariot had entered through the narrow gateway it

stopped beneath a broad shed in which there were shackled horses
eating from heaps of chopped grass.

All the servants hastened up. They formed quite a multitude, those who
worked on the country estates having been brought to Carthage through

fear of the soldiers. The labourers, who were clad in animals' skins,
had chains riveted to their ankles and trailing after them; the

workers in the purple factories had arms as red as those of
executioners; the sailors wore green caps; the fishermen coral

necklaces; the huntsmen carried nets on their shoulders; and the
people belonging to Megara wore black or white tunics, leathern

drawers, and caps of straw, felt or linen, according to their service
or their different occupations.

Behind pressed a tatteredpopulace. They lived without employment
remote from the apartments, slept at night in the gardens, ate the

refuse from the kitchens,--a human mouldiness vegetating in the shadow
of the palace. Hamilcar tolerated them from foresight even more than

from scorn. They had all put a flower in the ear in token of their
joy, and many of them had never seen him.

But men with head-dresses like the Sphinx's, and furnished with great
sticks, dashed into the crowd, striking right and left. This was to

drive back the slaves, who were curious to see their master, so that
he might not be assailed by their numbers or inconvenienced by their

smell.
Then they all threw themselves flat on the ground, crying:

"Eye of Baal, may your house flourish!" And through these people as
they lay thus on the ground in the avenue of cypress trees, Abdalonim,

the Steward of the stewards, waving a white miter, advanced towards
Hamilcar with a censer in his hand.

Salammbo was then coming down the galleystaircases. All her slave
women followed her; and, at each of her steps, they also descended.

The heads of the Negresses formed big black spots on the line of the
bands of the golden plates clasping the foreheads of the Roman women.

Others had silver arrows, emerald butterflies, or long bodkins set
like suns in their hair. Rings, clasps, necklaces, fringes, and

bracelets shone amid the confusion of white, yellow, and blue
garments; a rustling of light material became audible; the pattering

of sandals might be heard together with the dull sound of naked feet
as they were set down on the wood;--and here and there a tall eunuch,

head and shoulders above them, smiled with his face in air. When the
shouting of the men had subsided they hid their faces in their

sleeves, and together uttered a strange cry like the howling of a she-
wolf, and so frenzied and strident was it that it seemed to make the

great ebony staircase, with its thronging women, vibrate from top to
bottom like a lyre.

The wind lifted their veils, and the slender stems of the papyrus
plant rocked gently. It was the month of Schebaz and the depth of

winter. The flowering pomegranates swelled against the azure of the
sky, and the sea disappeared through the branches with an island in

the distance half lost in the mist.
Hamilcar stopped on perceiving Salammbo. She had come to him after the

death of several male children. Moreover, the birth of daughters was
considered a calamity in the religions of the Sun. The gods had

afterwards sent him a son; but he still felt something of the betrayal
of his hope, and the shock, as it were, of the curse which he had

uttered against her. Salammbo, however, continued to advance.
Long bunches of various-coloured pearls fell from her ears to her

shoulders, and as far as her elbows. Her hair was crisped so as to
simulate a cloud. Round her neck she wore little quadrangular plates

of gold, representing a woman between two rampant lions; and her
costume was a complete reproduction of the equipment of the goddess.

Her broad-sleeved hyacinth robe fitted close to her figure, widening
out below. The vermilion on her lips gave additional whiteness to her

teeth, and the antimony on her eyelids greater length to her eyes. Her
sandals, which were cut out in bird's plumage, had very high heels,

and she was extraordinarily pale, doubtless on account of the cold.
At last she came close to Hamilcar, and without looking at him,

without raising her head to him:
"Greeting, eye of Baalim, eternal glory! triumph! leisure!

satisfaction! riches! Long has my heart been sad and the house
drooping. But the returning master is like reviving Tammouz; and

beneath your gaze, O father, joyfulness and a new existence will
everywhere prevail!"

And taking from Taanach's hands a little oblong vase wherein smoked a
mixture of meal, butter, cardamom, and wine: "Drink freely," said she,

"of the returning cup, which your servant has prepared!"
He replied: "A blessing upon you!" and he mechanically grasped the

golden vase which she held out to him.
He scanned her, however, with such harsh attention, that Salammbo was

troubled and stammered out:
"They have told you, O Master!"

"Yes! I know!" said Hamilcar in a low voice.
Was this a confession, or was she speaking of the Barbarians? And he

added a few vague words upon the public embarrassments which he hoped
by his sole efforts to clear away.

"O father!" exclaimed Salammbo, "you will not obliterate what is
irreparable!"

Then he drew back and Salammbo was astonished at his amazement; for
she was not thinking of Carthage but of the sacrilege in which she

found herself implicated. This man, who made legions tremble and whom
she hardly knew, terrified her like a god; he had guessed, he knew

all, something awful was about to happen. "Pardon!" she cried.
Hamilcar slowly bowed his head.

Although she wished to accuse herself she dared not open her lips; and
yet she felt stifled with the need of complaining and being comforted.

Hamilcar was struggling against a longing to break his oath. He kept
it out of pride or from the dread of putting an end to his

uncertainty; and he looked into her face with all his might so as to
lay hold on what she kept concealed at the bottom of her heart.

By degrees the panting Salammbo, crushed by such heavy looks, let her
head sink below her shoulders. He was now sure that she had erred in

the embrace of a Barbarian; he shuddered and raised both his fists.
She uttered a shriek and fell down among her women, who crowded around

her.
Hamilcar turned on his heel. All the stewards followed him.

The door of the emporiums was opened, and he entered a vast round hall
form which long passages leading to other halls branched off like the

spokes from the nave of a wheel. A stone disc stood in the centre with
balustrades to support the cushions that were heaped up upon carpets.

The Suffet walked at first with rapid strides; he breathed noisily, he
struck the ground with his heel, and drew his hand across his forehead

like a man annoyed by flies. But he shook his head, and as he
perceived the accumulation of his riches he became calm; his thoughts,

which were attracted by the vistas in the passages, wandered to the
other halls that were full of still rarer treasures. Bronze plates,