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Salammbo-Part48_Gustave Flaubert(1821-1880)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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it was the day of Salammbo's marriage with the King of the Numidians.

On the terrace of the temple of Khamon there were three long tables



laden with gigantic plate, at which the priests, Ancients, and the

rich were to sit, and there was a fourth and higher one for Hamilcar,



Narr' Havas, and Salammbo; for as she had saved her country by the

restoration of the zaimph, the people turned her wedding day into a



national rejoicing, and were waiting in the square below till she

should appear.



But their impatience was excited by another and more acrid longing:

Matho's death has been promised for the ceremony.



It had been proposed at first to flay him alive, to pour lead into his

entrails, to kill him with hunger; he should be tied to a tree, and an



ape behind him should strike him on the head with a stone; he had

offended Tanith, and the cynocephaluses of Tanith should avenge her.



Others were of opinion that he should be led about on a dromedary

after linen wicks, dipped in oil, had been inserted in his body in



several places;--and they took pleasure in the thought of the large

animal wandering through the streets with this man writhing beneath



the fires like a candelabrum blown about by the wind.

But what citizens should be charged with his torture, and why



disappoint the rest? They would have liked a kind of death in which

the whole town might take part, in which every hand, every weapon,



everything Carthaginian, to the very paving-stones in the streets and

the waves in the gulf, could rend him, and crush him, and annihilate



him. Accordingly the Ancients decided that he should go from his

prison to the square of Khamon without any escort, and with his arms



fastened to his back; it was forbidden to strike him to the heart, in

order that he might live the longer; to put out his eyes, so that he



might see the torture through; to hurl anything against his person, or

to lay more than three fingers upon him at a time.



Although he was not to appear until the end of the day, the people

sometimes fancied that he could be seen, and the crowd would rush



towards the Acropolis, and empty the streets, to return with

lengthened murmurings. Some people had remained standing in the same



place since the day before, and they would call on one another from a

distance and show their nails which they had allowed to grow, the



better to bury them into his flesh. Others walked restlessly up and

down; some were as pale as though they were awaiting their own



execution.

Suddenly lofty feather fans rose above the heads, behind the Mappalian



district. It was Salammbo leaving her palace; a sigh of relief found

vent.



But the procession was long in coming; it marched with deliberation.

First there filed past the priests of the Pataec Gods, then those of



Eschmoun, of Melkarth, and all the other colleges in succession, with

the same insignia, and in the same order as had been observed at the



time of the sacrifice. The pontiffs of Moloch passed with heads bent,

and the multitude stood aside from them in a kind of remorse. But the



priests of Rabbetna advanced with a proud step, and with lyres in

their hands; the priestesses followed them in transparent robes of



yellow or black, uttering cries like birds and writhing like vipers,

or else whirling round to the sound of flutes to imitate the dance of



the stars, while their light garments wafted puffs of delicate scents

through the streets.



The Kedeschim, with painted eyelids, who symbolised the hermaphrodism

of the Divinity, received applause among these women, and, being



perfumed and dressed like them, they resembled them in spite of their

flat breasts and narrower hips. Moreover, on this day the female



principle dominated and confused all things; a mystic voluptuousness

moved in the heavy air; the torches were already lighted in the depths



of the sacred woods; there was to be a great celebration there during

the night; three vessels had brought courtesans from Sicily, and



others had come from the desert.

As the colleges arrived they ranged themselves in the courts of the



temples, on the outer galleries, and along double staircases which

rose against the walls, and drew together at the top. Files of white



robes appeared between the colonnades, and the architecture was

peopled with human statues, motionless as statues of stone.



Then came the masters of the exchequer, the governors of the




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