"
Her father had not wished her to enter the college of priestesses,
nor even to be made at all acquainted with the popular Tanith. He was
reserving her for some alliance that might serve his political ends;
so that Salammbo lived alone in the midst of the palace. Her mother was
long since dead.
She had grown up with abstinences, fastings and purifications, always
surrounded by grave and exquisite things, her body saturated with
perfumes, and her soul filled with prayers. She had never tasted wine,
nor eaten meat, nor touched an unclean animal, nor set her heels in the
house of death.
She knew nothing of obscene images, for as each god was manifested
in different forms, the same principle often received the witness of
contradictory cults, and Salammbo worshipped the goddess in her sidereal
presentation. An influence had descended upon the maiden from the
moon; when the planet passed diminishing away, Salammbo grew weak. She
languished the whole day long, and revived at evening. During an eclipse
she nearly died.
But Rabetna, in jealousy, revenged herself for the virginity withdrawn
from her sacrifices, and she tormented Salammbo with possessions, all
the stronger for being vague, which were spread through this belief and
excited by it.
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