provinces, and all the rich. A great tumult prevailed below. Adjacent

streets were discharging the crowd, hierodules were driving it back
with blows of sticks; and then Salammbo appeared in a litter

surmounted by a purplecanopy, and surrounded by the Ancients crowned
with their golden tiaras.

Thereupon an immense shout arose; the cymbals and crotala sounded more
loudly, the tabourines thundered, and the great purplecanopy sank

between the two pylons.
It appeared again on the first landing. Salammbo was walking slowly

beneath it; then she crossed the terrace to take her seat behind on a
kind of throne cut out of the carapace of a tortoise. An ivory stool

with three steps was pushed beneath her feet; two Negro children knelt
on the edge of the first step, and sometimes she would rest both arms,

which were laden with rings of excessive weight, upon their heads.
From ankle to hip she was covered with a network of narrow meshes

which were in imitation of fish scales, and shone like mother-of-
pearl; her waist was clasped by a blue zone, which allowed her breasts

to be seen through two crescent-shaped slashings; the nipples were
hidden by carbuncle pendants. She had a headdress made of peacock's

feathers studded with gems; an ample cloak, as white as snow, fell
behind her,--and with her elbows at her sides, her knees pressed

together, and circles of diamonds on the upper part of her arms, she
remained perfectlyupright in a hieratic attitude.

Her father and her husband were on two lower seats, Narr' Havas
dressed in a light simar and wearing his crown of rock-salt, from

which there strayed two tresses of hair as twisted as the horns of
Ammon; and Hamilcar in a violet tunic figured with gold vine branches,

and with a battle-sword at his side.
The python of the temple of Eschmoun lay on the ground amid pools of

pink oil in the space enclosed by the tables, and, biting its tail,
described a large black circle. In the middle of the circle there was

a copperpillarbearing a crystal egg; and, as the sun shone upon it,
rays were emitted on every side.

Behind Salammbo stretched the priests of Tanith in linen robes; on her
right the Ancients, in their tiaras, formed a great gold line, and on

the other side the rich with their emerald sceptres a great green
line,--while quite in the background, where the priests of Moloch were

ranged, the cloaks looked like a wall of purple. The other colleges
occupied the lower terraces. The multitude obstructed the streets. It

reached to the house-tops, and extended in long files to the summit of
the Acropolis. Having thus the people at her feet, the firmament above

her head, and around her the immensity of the sea, the gulf, the
mountains, and the distant provinces, Salammbo in her splendour was

blended with Tanith, and seemed the very genius of Carthage, and its
embodied soul.

The feast was to last all night, and lamps with several branches were
planted like trees on the painted woollen cloths which covered the low

tables. Large electrum flagons, blue glass amphoras, tortoise-shell
spoons, and small round loaves were crowded between the double row of

pearl-bordered plates; bunches of grapes with their leaves had been
rolled round ivory vine-stocks after the fashion of the thyrsus;

blocks of snow were melting on ebony trays, and lemons, pomegranates,
gourds, and watermelons formed hillocks beneath the lofty silver

plate; boars with open jaws were wallowing in the dust of spices;
hares, covered with their fur, appeared to be bounding amid the

flowers; there were shells filled with forcemeat; the pastry had
symbolic shapes; when the covers of the dishes were removed doves flew

out.
The slaves, meanwhile, with tunics tucked up, were going about on

tiptoe; from time to time a hymn sounded on the lyres, or a choir of
voices rose. The clamour of the people, continuous as the noise of the

sea, floated vaguely around the feast, and seemed to lull it in a
broader harmony; some recalled the banquet of the Mercenaries; they

gave themselves up to dreams of happiness; the sun was beginning to go
down, and the crescent of the moon was already rising in another part

of the sky.
But Salammbo turned her head as though some one had called her; the

people, who were watching her, followed the direction of her eyes.
The door of the dungeon, hewn in the rock at the foot of the temple,

on the summit of the Acropolis, had just opened; and a man was
standing on the threshold of this black hole.

He came forth bent double, with the scared look of fallow deer when
suddenly enlarged.

The light dazzled him; he stood motionlessawhile. All had recognised
him, and they held their breath.

In their eyes the body of this victim was something peculiarly theirs,
and was adorned with almost religious splendour. They bent forward to

see him, especially the women. They burned to gaze upon him who had
caused the deaths of their children and husbands; and from the bottom

of their souls there sprang up in spite of themselves an infamous
curiosity, a desire to know him completely, a wish mingled with

remorse which turned to increased execration.
At last he advanced; then the stupefaction of surprise disappeared.

Numbers of arms were raised, and he was lost to sight.
The staircase of the Acropolis had sixty steps. He descended them as

though he were rolled down in a torrent from the top of a mountain;
three times he was seen to leap, and then he alighted below on his

feet.
His shoulders were bleeding, his breast was panting with great shocks;

and he made such efforts to burst his bonds that his arms, which were
crossed on his naked loins, swelled like pieces of a serpent.

Several streets began in front of him, leading from the spot at which
he found himself. In each of them a triple row of bronze chains

fastened to the navels of the Pataec gods extended in parallel lines
from one end to the other; the crowd was massed against the houses,

and servants, belonging to the Ancients, walked in the middle
brandishing thongs.

One of them drove him forward with a great blow; Matho began to move.
They thrust their arms over the chains shouting out that the road had

been left too wide for him; and he passed along, felt, pricked, and
slashed by all those fingers; when he reached the end of one street

another appeared; several times he flung himself to one side to bite
them; they speedily dispersed, the chains held him back, and the crowd

burst out laughing.
A child rent his ear; a young girl, hiding the point of a spindle in

her sleeve, split his cheek; they tore handfuls of hair from him and
strips of flesh; others smeared his face with sponges steeped in filth

and fastened upon sticks. A stream of blood started from the right
side of his neck, frenzy immediately set in. This last Barbarian was

to them a representative of all the Barbarians, and all the army; they
were takingvengeance on him for their disasters, their terrors, and

their shame. The rage of the mob developed with its gratification; the
curving chains were over-strained, and were on the point of breaking;

the people did not feel the blows of the slaves who struck at them to
drive them back; some clung to the projections of the houses; all the

openings in the walls were stopped up with heads; and they howled at
him the mischief that they could not inflict upon him.

It was atrocious, filthy abuse mingled with ironical encouragements
and imprecations; and, his present tortures not being enough for them,

they foretold to him others that should be still more terrible in
eternity.

This vast baying filled Carthage with stupid continuity. Frequently a
single syllable--a hoarse, deep, and frantic intonation--would be

repeated for several minutes by the entire people. The walls would
vibrate with it from top to bottom, and both sides of the street would

seem to Matho to be coming against him, and carrying him off the
ground, like two immense arms stifling him in the air.

Nevertheless he remembered that he had experienced something like it
before. The same crowd was on the terraces, there were the same looks

and the same wrath; but then he had walked free, all had then
dispersed, for a god covered him;--and the recollection of this,

gaining precision by degrees, brought a crushing sadness upon him.
Shadows passed before his eyes; the town whirled round in his head,