Then they saw a long scar upon the whiteness of his brow; it moved like
a serpent between his eyebrows; all his limbs trembled. He ascended one
of the lateral staircases which led on to the altar, and walked upon
the latter! This was to devote himself to the god, to offer himself as
a holocaust. The motion of his mantle agitated the lights of the
candelabrum, which was lower than his sandals, and the fine dust raised
by his footsteps surrounded him like a cloud as high as the waist. He
stopped between the legs of the brass colossus. He took up two handfuls
of the dust, the mere sight of which made every Carthaginian shudder
with horror, and said:
"By the hundred torches of your Intelligences! by the eight fires of the
Kabiri! by the stars, the meteors, and the volcanoes! by everything that
burns! by the thirst of the desert and the saltness of the ocean! by
the cave of Hadrumetum and the empire of Souls! by extermination! by the
ashes of your sons and the ashes of the brothers of your ancestors with
which I now mingle my own!--you, the Hundred of the Council of Carthage,
have lied in your accusation of my daughter! And I, Hamilcar Barca,
marine Suffet, chief of the rich and ruler of the people, in the
presence of bull-headed Moloch, I swear"--they expected something
frightful, but he resumed in a loftier and calmer tone--"that I will not
even speak to her about it!"
The sacred servants entered wearing their golden combs, some with purple
sponges and others with branches of palm.
Pages:
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182