In the middle of the terrace there was a small ivory bed covered
with lynx skins, and cushions made with the feathers of the parrot, a
fatidical animal consecrated to the gods; and at the four corners rose
four long perfuming-pans filled with nard, incense, cinnamomum, and
myrrh. The slave lit the perfumes. Salammbo looked at the polar star;
she slowly saluted the four points of heaven, and knelt down on the
ground in the azure dust which was strewn with golden stars in imitation
of the firmament. Then with both elbows against her sides, her fore-arms
straight and her hands open, she threw back her head beneath the rays of
the moon, and said:
"O Rabetna!--Baalet!--Tanith!" and her voice was lengthened in a
plaintive fashion as if calling to some one. "Anaitis! Astarte! Derceto!
Astoreth! Mylitta! Athara! Elissa! Tiratha!--By the hidden symbols, by
the resounding sistra,--by the furrows of the earth,--by the eternal
silence and by the eternal fruitfulness,--mistress of the gloomy sea and
of the azure shores, O Queen of the watery world, all hail!"
She swayed her whole body twice or thrice, and then cast herself face
downwards in the dust with both arms outstretched.
But the slave nimbly raised her, for according to the rites someone must
catch the suppliant at the moment of his prostration; this told him that
the gods accepted him, and Salammbo's nurse never failed in this pious
duty.
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