第45章
The road crossed a field planted with slabs of stone, which were painted on the top like pyramids, and had open hands carved out in the centre as if all the dead men lying beneath had stretched them out towards heaven to demand something.Next there came scattered cabins built of earth, branches, and bulrush-hurdles, and all of a conical shape.These dwellings, which became constantly denser as the road ascended towards the Suffet's gardens, were irregularly separated from one another by little pebble walls, trenches of spring water, ropes of esparto-grass, and nopal hedges.But Hamilcar's eyes were fastened on a great tower, the three storys of which formed three monster cylinders--the first being built of stone, the second of brick, and the third all of cedar--supporting a copper cupola upon twenty-four pillars of juniper, from which slender interlacing chains of brass hung down after the manner of garlands.This lofty edifice overlooked the buildings--the emporiums and mercantile houses--which stretched to the right, while the women's palace rose at the end of the cypress trees, which were ranged in line like two walls of bronze.
When the echoing chariot had entered through the narrow gateway it stopped beneath a broad shed in which there were shackled horses eating from heaps of chopped grass.
All the servants hastened up.They formed quite a multitude, those who worked on the country estates having been brought to Carthage through fear of the soldiers.The labourers, who were clad in animals' skins, had chains riveted to their ankles and trailing after them; the workers in the purple factories had arms as red as those of executioners; the sailors wore green caps; the fishermen coral necklaces; the huntsmen carried nets on their shoulders; and the people belonging to Megara wore black or white tunics, leathern drawers, and caps of straw, felt or linen, according to their service or their different occupations.
Behind pressed a tattered populace.They lived without employment remote from the apartments, slept at night in the gardens, ate the refuse from the kitchens,--a human mouldiness vegetating in the shadow of the palace.Hamilcar tolerated them from foresight even more than from scorn.They had all put a flower in the ear in token of their joy, and many of them had never seen him.
But men with head-dresses like the Sphinx's, and furnished with great sticks, dashed into the crowd, striking right and left.This was to drive back the slaves, who were curious to see their master, so that he might not be assailed by their numbers or inconvenienced by their smell.
Then they all threw themselves flat on the ground, crying:
"Eye of Baal, may your house flourish!" And through these people as they lay thus on the ground in the avenue of cypress trees, Abdalonim, the Steward of the stewards, waving a white miter, advanced towards Hamilcar with a censer in his hand.
Salammbo was then coming down the galley staircases.All her slave women followed her; and, at each of her steps, they also descended.
The heads of the Negresses formed big black spots on the line of the bands of the golden plates clasping the foreheads of the Roman women.
Others had silver arrows, emerald butterflies, or long bodkins set like suns in their hair.Rings, clasps, necklaces, fringes, and bracelets shone amid the confusion of white, yellow, and blue garments; a rustling of light material became audible; the pattering of sandals might be heard together with the dull sound of naked feet as they were set down on the wood;--and here and there a tall eunuch, head and shoulders above them, smiled with his face in air.When the shouting of the men had subsided they hid their faces in their sleeves, and together uttered a strange cry like the howling of a she-wolf, and so frenzied and strident was it that it seemed to make the great ebony staircase, with its thronging women, vibrate from top to bottom like a lyre.
The wind lifted their veils, and the slender stems of the papyrus plant rocked gently.It was the month of Schebaz and the depth of winter.The flowering pomegranates swelled against the azure of the sky, and the sea disappeared through the branches with an island in the distance half lost in the mist.
Hamilcar stopped on perceiving Salammbo.She had come to him after the death of several male children.Moreover, the birth of daughters was considered a calamity in the religions of the Sun.The gods had afterwards sent him a son; but he still felt something of the betrayal of his hope, and the shock, as it were, of the curse which he had uttered against her.Salammbo, however, continued to advance.
Long bunches of various-coloured pearls fell from her ears to her shoulders, and as far as her elbows.Her hair was crisped so as to simulate a cloud.Round her neck she wore little quadrangular plates of gold, representing a woman between two rampant lions; and her costume was a complete reproduction of the equipment of the goddess.
Her broad-sleeved hyacinth robe fitted close to her figure, widening out below.The vermilion on her lips gave additional whiteness to her teeth, and the antimony on her eyelids greater length to her eyes.Her sandals, which were cut out in bird's plumage, had very high heels, and she was extraordinarily pale, doubtless on account of the cold.
At last she came close to Hamilcar, and without looking at him, without raising her head to him:
"Greeting, eye of Baalim, eternal glory! triumph! leisure!
satisfaction! riches! Long has my heart been sad and the house drooping.But the returning master is like reviving Tammouz; and beneath your gaze, O father, joyfulness and a new existence will everywhere prevail!"And taking from Taanach's hands a little oblong vase wherein smoked a mixture of meal, butter, cardamom, and wine: "Drink freely," said she, "of the returning cup, which your servant has prepared!"He replied: "A blessing upon you!" and he mechanically grasped the golden vase which she held out to him.