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Salammbo-Part41_Gustave Flaubert(1821-1880)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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dead man into their mouths to learn the future. The priests of Ceres,



who were dressed in blue robes, had prudently stopped in the street of

Satheb, and in low tones were chanting a thesmophorion in the Megarian



dialect.

From time to time files of men arrived, completely naked, their arms



outstretched, and all holding one another by the shoulders. From the

depths of their breasts they drew forth a hoarse and cavernous



intonation; their eyes, which were fastened upon the colossus, shone

through the dust, and they swayed their bodies simultaneously, and at



equal distances, as though they were all affected by a single

movement. They were so frenzied that to restore order the hierodules



compelled them, with blows of the stick, to lie flat upon the ground,

with their faces resting against the brass trellis-work.



Then it was that a man in a white robe advanced from the back of the

square. He penetrated the crowd slowly, and people recognised a priest



of Tanith--the high-priest Schahabarim. Hootings were raised, for the

tyranny of the male principle prevailed that day in all consciences,



and the goddess was actually so completely forgotten that the absence

of her pontiffs had not been noticed. But the amazement was increased



when he was seen to open one of the doors of the trellis-work intended

for those who intended to offer up victims. It was an outrage to their



god, thought the priests of Moloch, that he had just committed, and

they sought with eager gestures to repel him. Fed on the meat of the



holocausts, clad in purple like kings, and wearing triple-storied

crowns, they despised the pale eunuch, weakened with his macerations,



and angry laughter shook their black beards, which were displayed on

their breasts in the sun.



Schahabarim walked on, giving no reply, and, traversing the whole

enclosure with deliberation, reached the legs of the colossus; then,



spreading out both arms, he touched it on both sides, which was a

solemn form of adoration. For a long time Rabbet had been torturing



him, and in despair, or perhaps for lack of a god that completely

satisfied his ideas, he had at last decided for this one.



The crowd, terrified by this act of apostasy, uttered a lengthened

murmur. It was felt that the last tie which bound their souls to a



merciful divinity was breaking.

But owing to his mutilation, Schahabarim could take no part in the



cult of the Baal. The men in the red cloaks shut him out from the

enclosure; then, when he was outside, he went round all the colleges



in succession, and the priest, henceforth without a god, disappeared

into the crowd. It scattered at his approach.



Meanwhile a fire of aloes, cedar, and laurel was burning between the

legs of the colossus. The tips of its long wings dipped into the



flame; the unguents with which it had been rubbed flowed like sweat

over its brazen limbs. Around the circular flagstone on which its feet



rested, the children, wrapped in black veils, formed a motionless

circle; and its extravagantly long arms reached down their palms to



them as though to seize the crown that they formed and carry it to the

sky.



The rich, the Ancients, the women, the whole multitude, thronged

behind the priests and on the terraces of the houses. The large



painted stars revolved no longer; the tabernacles were set upon the

ground; and the fumes from the censers ascended perpendicularly,



spreading their bluish branches through the azure like gigantic trees.

Many fainted; others became inert and petrified in their ecstasy.



Infinite anguish weighed upon the breasts of the beholders. The last

shouts died out one by one,--and the people of Carthage stood



breathless, and absorbed in the longing of their terror.

At last the high priest of Moloch passed his left hand beneath the



children's veils, plucked a lock of hair from their foreheads, and

threw it upon the flames. Then the men in the red cloaks chanted the



sacred hymn:

"Homage to thee, Sun! king of the two zones, self-generating Creator,



Father and Mother, Father and Son, God and Goddess, Goddess and God!"

And their voices were lost in the outburst of instruments sounding



simultaneously to drown the cries of the victims. The eight-stringed

scheminiths, the kinnors which had ten strings, and the nebals which



had twelve, grated, whistled, and thundered. Enormous leathern bags,

bristling with pipes, made a shrill clashing noise; the tabourines,



beaten with all the players' might, resounded with heavy, rapid blows;

and, in spite of the fury of the clarions, the salsalim snapped like






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