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Salammbo-Part1_Gustave Flaubert(1821-1880)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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prodigious and but ill-rewarded. They showed one another their wounds,

they told of their combats, their travels and the hunting in their



native lands. They imitated the cries and the leaps of wild beasts.

Then came unclean wagers; they buried their heads in the amphoras and



drank on without interruption, like thirsty dromedaries. A Lusitanian

of giganticstature ran over the tables, carrying a man in each hand



at arm's length, and spitting out fire through his nostrils. Some

Lacedaemonians, who had not taken off their cuirasses, were leaping



with a heavy step. Some advanced like women, making obscene gestures;

others stripped naked to fight amid the cups after the fashion of



gladiators, and a company of Greeks danced around a vase whereon

nymphs were to be seen, while a Negro tapped with an ox-bone on a



brazen buckler.

Suddenly they heard a plaintive song, a song loud and soft, rising and



falling in the air like the wing-beating of a wounded bird.

It was the voice of the slaves in the ergastulum. Some soldiers rose



at a bound to release them and disappeared.

They returned, driving through the dust amid shouts, twenty men,



distinguished by their greater paleness of face. Small black felt caps

of conical shape covered their shaven heads; they all wore wooden



shoes, and yet made a noise as of old iron like driving chariots.

They reached the avenue of cypress, where they were lost among the



crowd of those questioning them. One of them remained apart, standing.

Through the rents in his tunic his shoulders could be seen striped



with long scars. Drooping his chin, he looked round him with distrust,

closing his eyelids somewhat against the dazzling light of the



torches, but when he saw that none of the armed men were unfriendly to

him, a great sigh escaped from his breast; he stammered, he sneered



through the bright tears that bathed his face. At last he seized a

brimming cantharus by its rings, raised it straight up into the air



with his outstretched arms, from which his chains hung down, and then

looking to heaven, and still holding the cup he said:



"Hail first to thee, Baal-Eschmoun, the deliverer, whom the people of

my country call Aesculapius! and to you, genii of the fountains,



light, and woods! and to you, ye gods hidden beneath the mountains and

in the caverns of the earth! and to you, strong men in shining armour



who have set me free!"

Then he let fall the cup and related his history. He was called



Spendius. The Carthaginians had taken him in the battle of Aeginusae,

and he thanked the Mercenaries once more in Greek, Ligurian and Punic;



he kissed their hands; finally, he congratulated them on the banquet,

while expressing his surprise at not perceiving the cups of the Sacred



Legion. These cups, which bore an emerald vine on each of their six

golden faces, belonged to a corps composedexclusively of young



patricians of the tallest stature. They were a privilege, almost a

sacerdotal distinction, and accordingly nothing among the treasures of



the Republic was more coveted by the Mercenaries. They detested the

Legion on this account, and some of them had been known to risk their



lives for the inconceivable pleasure of drinking out of these cups.

Accordingly they commanded that the cups should be brought. They were



in the keeping of the Syssitia, companies of traders, who had a common

table. The slaves returned. At that hour all the members of the



Syssitia were asleep.

"Let them be awakened!" responded the Mercenaries.



After a second excursion it was explained to them that the cups were

shut up in a temple.



"Let it be opened!" they replied.

And when the slaves confessed with trembling that they were in the



possession of Gisco, the general, they cried out:

"Let him bring them!"



Gisco soon appeared at the far end of the garden with an escort of the

Sacred Legion. His full, black cloak, which was fastened on his head



to a golden mitre starred with precious stones, and which hung all

about him down to his horse's hoofs, blended in the distance with the



colour of the night. His white beard, the radiancy of his head-dress,

and his triplenecklace of broad blue plates beating against his



breast, were alone visible.

When he entered, the soldiers greeted him with loud shouts, all



crying:

"The cups! The cups!"



He began by declaring that if reference were had to their courage,

they were worthy of them.






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