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Salammbo-Part43_Gustave Flaubert(1821-1880)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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examination of the provisions. The Mercenaries, whose baggage was

lost, possessed scarcely enough for two days; and all the rest found



themselves destitute,--for they had been awaiting a convoy promised by

the villages of the South.



However, some bulls were roaming about, those which the Carthaginians

had loosed in the gorge to attract the Barbarians. They killed them



with lance thrusts and ate them, and when their stomachs were filled

their thoughts were less mournful.



The next day they slaughtered all the mules to the number of about

forty; then they scraped the skins, boiled the entrails, pounded the



bones, and did not yet despair; the army from Tunis had no doubt been

warned, and was coming.



But on the evening of the fifth day their hunger increased; they

gnawed their sword-belts, and the little sponges which bordered the



bottom of their helmets.

These forty thousand men were massed into the species of hippodrome



formed by the mountain about them. Some remained in front of the

portcullis, or at the foot of the rocks; the rest covered the plain



confusedly. The strong shunned one another, and the timid sought out

the brave, who, nevertheless, were unable to save them.



To avoid infection, the corpses of the velites had been speedily

buried; and the position of the graves was no longer visible.



All the Barbarians lay drooping on the ground. A veteran would pass

between their lines here and there; and they would howl curses against



the Carthaginians, against Hamilcar, and against Matho, although he

was innocent of their disaster; but it seemed to them that their pains



would have been less if he had shared them. Then they groaned, and

some wept softly like little children.



They came to the captains and besought them to grant them something

that would alleviate their sufferings. The others made no reply; or,



seized with fury, would pick up a stone and fling it in their faces.

Several, in fact, carefully kept a reserve of food in a hole in the



ground--a few handfuls of dates, or a little meal; and they ate this

during the night, with their heads bent beneath their cloaks. Those



who had swords kept them naked in their hands, and the most suspicious

remained standing with their backs against the mountain.



They accused their chiefs and threatened them. Autaritus was not

afraid of showing himself. With the Barbaric obstinacy which nothing



could discourage, he would advance twenty times a day to the rocks at

the bottom, hoping every time to find them perchance displaced; and



swaying his heavy fur-covered shoulders, he reminded his companions of

a bear coming forth from its cave in springtime to see whether the



snows are melted.

Spendius, surrounded by the Greeks, hid himself in one of the gaps; as



he was afraid, he caused a rumour of his death to be spread.

They were now hideously lean; their skin was overlaid with bluish



marblings. On the evening of the ninth day three Iberians died.

Their frightened companions left the spot. They were stripped, and the



white, naked bodies lay in the sunshine on the sand.

Then the Garamantians began to prowl slowly round about them. They



were men accustomed to existence in solitude, and they reverenced no

god. At last the oldest of the band made a sign, and bending over the



corpses they cut strips from them with their knives, then squatted

upon their heels and ate. The rest looked on from a distance; they



uttered cries of horror;--many, nevertheless, being, at the bottom of

their souls, jealous of such courage.



In the middle of the night some of these approached, and, dissembling

their eagerness, asked for a small mouthful, merely to try, they said.



Bolder ones came up; their number increased; there was soon a crowd.

But almost all of them let their hands fall on feeling the cold flesh



on the edge of their lips; others, on the contrary, devoured it with

delight.



That they might be led away by example, they urged one another on

mutually. Such as had at first refused went to see the Garamantians,



and returned no more. They cooked the pieces on coals at the point of

the sword; they salted them with dust, and contended for the best



morsels. When nothing was left of the three corpses, their eyes ranged

over the whole plain to find others.



But were they not in possession of Carthaginians--twenty captives

taken in the last encounter, whom no one had noticed up to the



present? These disappeared; moreover, it was an act of vengeance.

Then, as they must live, as the taste for this food had become



developed, and as they were dying, they cut the throats of the water-

carriers, grooms, and all the serving-men belonging to the



Mercenaries. They killed some of them every day. Some ate much,

recovered strength, and were sad no more.






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