the door and the young boy standinguprightapplied a reed flute to
his lips. In the distance the roar of the streets was growing feebler,

violet shadows were lengthening before the peristyles of the temples,
and on the other side of the gulf the mountain bases, the fields of

olive-trees, and the vague yellow lands undulated indefinitely, and
were blended together in a bluish haze; not a sound was to be heard,

and an unspeakabledepression weighed in the air.
Salammbo crouched down upon the onyx step on the edge of the basin;

she raised her ample sleeves, fastening them behind her shoulders, and
began her ablutions in methodical fashion, according to the sacred

rites.
Next Taanach brought her something liquid and coagulated in an

alabaster phial; it was the blood of a black dog slaughtered by barren
women on a winter's night amid the rubbish of a sepulchre. She rubbed

it upon her ears, her heels, and the thumb of her right hand, and even
her nail remained somewhat red, as if she had crushed a fruit.

The moon rose; then the cithara and the flute began to play together.
Salammbo unfastened her earrings, her necklace, her bracelets, and her

long white simar; she unknotted the band in her hair, shaking the
latter for a few minutes softly over her shoulders to cool herself by

thus scattering it. The music went on outside; it consisted of three
notes ever the same, hurried and frenzied; the strings grated, the

flute blew; Taanach kept time by striking her hands; Salammbo, with a
swaying of her whole body, chanted prayers, and her garments fell one

after another around her.
The heavy tapestry trembled, and the python's head appeared above the

cord that supported it. The serpent descended slowly like a drop of
water flowing along a wall, crawled among the scattered stuffs, and

then, gluing its tail to the ground, rose perfectly erect; and his
eyes, more brilliant than carbuncles, darted upon Salammbo.

A horror of cold, or perhaps a feeling of shame, at first made her
hesitate. But she recalled Schahabarim's orders and advanced; the

python turned downwards, and resting the centre of its body upon the
nape of her neck, allowed its head and tail to hang like a broken

necklace with both ends trailing to the ground. Salammbo rolled it
around her sides, under her arms and between her knees; then taking it

by the jaw she brought the little triangular mouth to the edge of her
teeth, and half shutting her eyes, threw herself back beneath the rays

of the moon. The white light seemed to envelop her in a silver mist,
the prints of her humid steps shone upon the flag-stones, stars

quivered in the depth of the water; it tightened upon her its black
rings that were spotted with scales of gold. Salammbo panted beneath

the excessive weight, her loins yielded, she felt herself dying, and
with the tip of its tail the serpentgently beat her thigh; then the

music becoming still it fell off again.
Taanach came back to her; and after arranging two candelabra, the

lights of which burned in crystal balls filled with water, she tinged
the inside of her hands with Lawsonia, spread vermilion upon her

cheeks, and antimony along the edge of her eyelids, and lengthened her
eyebrows with a mixture of gum, musk, ebony, and crushed legs of

flies.
Salammbo seated on a chair with ivory uprights, gave herself up to the

attentions of the slave. But the touchings, the odour of the
aromatics, and the fasts that she had undergone, were enervating her.

She became so pale that Taanach stopped.
"Go on!" said Salammbo, and bearing up against herself, she suddenly

revived. Then she was seized with impatience; she urged Taanach to
make haste, and the old slave grumbled:

"Well! well! Mistress!--Besides, you have no one waiting for you!"
"Yes!" said Salammbo, "some one is waiting for me."

Taanach drew back in surprise, and in order to learn more about it,
said:

"What orders to you give me, Mistress? for if you are to remain
away--"

But Salammbo was sobbing; the slave exclaimed:
"You are suffering! what is the matter? Do not go away! take me! When

you were quite little and used to cry, I took you to my heart and made
you laugh with the points of my breasts; you have drained them,

Mistress!" She struck herself upon her dried-up bosom. "Now I am old!
I can do nothing for you! you no longer love me! you hide your griefs

from me, you despise the nurse!" And tears of tenderness and vexation
flowed down her cheeks in the gashes of her tattooing.

"No!" said Salammbo, "no, I love you! be comforted!"
With a smile like the grimace of an old ape, Taanach resumed her task.

In accordance with Schahabarim's recommendations, Salammbo had ordered
the slave to make her magnificent; and she was obeying her mistress

with barbaric taste full at once of refinement and ingenuity.
Over a first delicate and vinous-coloured tunic she passed a second

embroidered with birds' feathers. Golden scales clung to her hips, and
from this broad girdle descended her blue flowing silver-starred

trousers. Next Taanach put upon her a long robe made of the cloth of
the country of Seres, white and streaked with green lines. On the edge

of her shoulder she fastened a square of purple weighted at the hem
with grains of sandastrum; and above all these garments she placed a

black mantle with a flowing train; then she gazed at her, and proud of
her work could not help saying:

"You will not be more beautiful on the day of your bridal!"
"My bridal!" repeated Salammbo; she was musing with her elbow resting

upon the ivory chair.
But Taanach set up before her a copper mirror, which was so broad and

high that she could see herself completely in it. Then she rose, and
with a light touch of her finger raised a lock of her hair which was

falling too low.
Her hair was covered with gold dust, was crisped in front, and hung

down behind over her back in long twists ending in pearls. The
brightness of the candelabra heightened the paint on her cheeks, the

gold on her garments, and the whiteness of her skin; around her waist,
and on her arms, hands and toes, she had such a wealth of gems that

the mirror sent back rays upon her like a sun;--and Salammbo, standing
by the side of Taanach, who leaned over to see her, smiled amid this

dazzling display.
Then she walked to and fro embarrassed by the time that was still

left.
Suddenly the crow of a cock resounded. She quickly pinned a long

yellow veil upon her hair, passed a scarf around her neck, thrust her
feet into blue leather boots, and said to Taanach:

"Go and see whether there is not a man with two horses beneath the
myrtles."

Taanach had scarcely re-entered when she was descending the galley
staircase.

"Mistress!" cried the nurse.
Salammbo turned round with one finger on her mouth as a sign for

discretion and immobility.
Taanach stole softly along the prows to the foot of the terrace, and

from a distance she could distinguish by the light of the moon a
gigantic shadow walking obliquely in the cypress avenue to the left of

Salammbo, a sign which presaged death.
Taanach went up again into the chamber. She threw herself upon the

ground tearing her face with her nails; she plucked out her hair, and
uttered piercing shrieks with all her might.

It occurred to her that they might be heard; then she became silent,
sobbing quite softly with her head in the hands and her face on the

pavement.
CHAPTER XI

IN THE TENT
The man who guided Salammbo made her ascend again beyond the pharos in

the direction of the Catacombs, and then go down the long suburb of
Molouya, which was full of steep lanes. The sky was beginning to grow

grey. Sometimes palm-wood beams jutting out from the walls obliged
them to bend their heads. The two horses which were at the walk would

often slip; and thus they reached the Teveste gate.