Moreover, a man acquainted with
the routes would accompany her.
She felt as if she had been set free. She thought only of the happiness
of seeing the zaimph again, and she now blessed Schahabarim for his
exhortations.
It was the period at which the doves of Carthage migrated to Sicily to
the mountain of Eryx and the temple of Venus. For several days before
their departure they sought out and called to one another so as to
collect together; at last one evening they flew away; the wind blew them
along, and the big white cloud glided across the sky high above the sea.
The horizon was filled with the colour of blood. They seemed to descend
gradually to the waves; then they disappeared as though swallowed
up, and falling of themselves into the jaws of the sun. Salammbo, who
watched them retiring, bent her head, and then Taanach, believing that
she guessed her sorrow, said gently to her:
"But they will come back, Mistress."
"Yes! I know."
"And you will see them again."
"Perhaps!" she said, sighing.
She had not confided her resolve to any one; in order to carry it out
with the greater discretion she sent Taanach to the suburb of Kinisdo to
buy all the things that she required instead of requesting them from the
stewards: vermilion, aromatics, a linen girdle, and new garments.
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