entered, followed by about twenty men.
They wore white woollen cloaks, long daggers, copper necklaces, wooden

earrings, and boots of hyena skin; and standing on the threshold they
leaned upon their lances like herdsmen resting themselves. Narr' Havas

was the handsomest of all; his slender arms were bound with straps
ornamented with pearls. The golden circlet which fastened his ample

garment about his head held an ostrichfeather which hung down behind
his shoulder; his teeth were displayed in a continual smile; his eyes

seemed sharpened like arrows, and there was something observant and
airy about his whole demeanour.

He declared that he had come to join the Mercenaries, for the Republic
had long been threatening his kingdom. Accordingly he was interested

in assisting the Barbarians, and he might also be of service to them.
"I will provide you with elephants (my forests are full of them),

wine, oil, barley, dates, pitch and sulphur for sieges, twenty
thousand foot-soldiers and ten thousand horses. If I address myself to

you, Matho, it is because the possession of the zaimph has made you
chief man in the army. Moreover," he added, "we are old friends."

Matho, however, was looking at Spendius, who, seated on the sheep-
skins, was listening, and giving little nods of assent the while.

Narr' Havas continued speaking. He called the gods to witness he
cursed Carthage. In his imprecations he broke a javelin. All his men

uttered simultaneously a loud howl, and Matho, carried away by so much
passion, exclaimed that he accepted the alliance.

A white bull and a black sheep, the symbols of day and night, were
then brought, and their throats were cut on the edge of a ditch. When

the latter was full of blood they dipped their arms into it. Then
Narr' Havas spread out his hand upon Matho's breast, and Matho did the

same to Narr' Havas. They repeated the stain upon the canvas of their
tents. Afterwards they passed the night in eating, and the remaining

portions of the meat were burnt together with the skin, bones, horns,
and hoofs.

Matho had been greeted with great shouting when he had come back
bearing the veil of the goddess; even those who were not of the

Chanaanitish religion were made by their vague enthusiasm to feel the
arrival of a genius. As to seizing the zaimph, no one thought of it,

for the mysterious manner in which he had acquired it was sufficient
in the minds of the Barbarians to justify its possession; such were

the thoughts of the soldiers of the African race. The others, whose
hatred was not of such long standing, did not know how to make up

their minds. If they had had ships they would immediately have
departed.

Spendius, Narr' Havas, and Matho despatched men to all the tribes on
Punic soil.

Carthage was sapping the strength of these nations. She wrung
exorbitant taxes from them, and arrears or even murmurings were

punished with fetters, the axe, or the cross. It was necessary to
cultivate whatever suited the Republic, and to furnish what she

demanded; no one had the right of possessing a weapon; when villages
rebelled the inhabitants were sold; governors were esteemed like wine-

presses, according to the quantity which they succeeded in extracting.
Then beyond the regions immediately subject to Carthage extended the

allies roamed the Nomads, who might be let loose upon them. By this
system the crops were always abundant, the studs skilfully managed,

and the plantations superb.
The elder Cato, a master in the matters of tillage and slaves, was

amazed at it ninety-two years later, and the death-cry which he
repeatedcontinually at Rome was but the exclamation of jealous greed.

During the last war the exactions had been increased, so that nearly
all the towns of Libya had surrendered to Regulus. To punish them, a

thousand talents, twenty thousand oxen, three hundred bags of gold
dust, and considerable advances of grain had been exacted from them,

and the chiefs of the tribes had been crucified or thrown to the
lions.

Tunis especially execrated Carthage! Older than the metropolis, it
could not forgive her her greatness, and it fronted her walls

crouching in the mire on the water's edge like a venomous beast
watching her. Transportation, massacres, and epidemics did not weaken

it. It had assisted Archagathas, the son of Agathocles, and the Eaters
of Uncleanness found arms there at once.

The couriers had not yet set out when universalrejoicing broke out in
the provinces. Without waiting for anything they strangled the

comptrollers of the houses and the functionaries of the Republic in
the baths; they took the old weapons that had been concealed out of

the caves; they forged swords with the iron of the ploughs; the
children sharpened javelins at the doors, and the women gave their

necklaces, rings, earrings, and everything that could be employed for
the destruction of Carthage. Piles of lances were heaped up in the

country towns like sheaves of maize. Cattle and money were sent off.
Matho speedily paid the Mercenaries their arrears, and owing to this,

which was Spendius's idea, he was appointed commander-in-chief--the
schalishim of the Barbarians.

Reinforcements of men poured in at the same time. The aborigines
appeared first, and were followed by the slaves from the country;

caravans of Negroes were seized and armed, and merchants on their way
to Carthage, despairing of any more certain profit, mingled with the

Barbarians. Numerous bands were continually arriving. From the heights
of the Acropolis the growing army might be seen.

But the guards of the Legion were posted as sentries on the platform
of the aqueduct, and near them rose at intervals brazen vats, in which

floods of asphalt were boiling. Below in the plain the great crowd
stirred tumultuously. They were in a state of uncertainty, feeling the

embarrassment with which Barbarians are always inspired when they meet
with walls.

Utica and Hippo-Zarytus refused their alliance. Phoenician colonies
like Carthage, they were self-governing, and always had clauses

inserted in the treaties concluded by the Republic to distinguish them
from the latter. Nevertheless they respected this strong sister of

theirs who protected them, and they did not think that she could be
vanquished by a mass of Barbarians; these would on the contrary be

themselves exterminated. They desired to remain neutral and to live at
peace.

But their position rendered them indispensable. Utica, at the foot of
the gulf, was convenient for bringing assistance to Carthage from

without. If Utica alone were taken, Hippo-Zarytus, six hours further
distant along the coast, would take its place, and the metropolis,

being revictualled in this way, would be impregnable.
Spendius wished the siege to be undertaken immediately. Narr' Havas

was opposed to this: an advance should first be made upon the
frontier. This was the opinion of the veterans, and of Matho himself,

and it was decided that Spendius should go to attack Utica, and Matho
Hippo-Zarytus, while in the third place the main body should rest on

Tunis and occupy the plain of Carthage, Autaritus being in command. As
to Narr' Havas, he was to return to his own kingdom to procure

elephants and to scour the roads with his cavalry.
The women cried out loudly against this decision; they coveted the

jewels of the Punic ladies. The Libyans also protested. They had been
summoned against Carthage, and now they were going away from it! The

soldiers departed almost alone. Matho commanded his own companions,
together with the Iberians, Lusitanians, and the men of the West, and

of the islands; all those who spoke Greek had asked for Spendius on
account of his cleverness.

Great was the stupefaction when the army was seen suddenly in motion;
it stretched along beneath the mountain of Ariana on the road to Utica

beside the sea. A fragment remained before Tunis, the rest disappeared
to re-appear on the other shore of the gulf on the outskirts of the

woods in which they were lost.
They were perhaps eighty thousand men. The two Tyrian cities would

offer no resistance, and they would return against Carthage. Already
there was a considerable army attacking it from the base of the

isthmus, and it would soon perish from famine, for it was impossible
to live without the aid of the provinces, the citizens not paying

contributions as they did at Rome. Carthage was wanting in political
genius. Her eternalanxiety for gain prevented her from having the

prudence which results from loftier ambitions. A galley anchored on
the Libyan sands, it was with toil that she maintained her position.