The
old slave was amazed at these preparations, without daring, however,
to ask any questions; and the day, which had been fixed by Schahabarim,
arrived when Salammbo was to set out.
About the twelfth hour she perceived, in the depths of the sycamore
trees, a blind old man with one hand resting on the shoulder of a child
who walked before him, while with the other he carried a kind of cithara
of black wood against his hip. The eunuchs, slaves, and women had
been scrupulously sent away; no one might know the mystery that was
preparing.
Taanach kindled four tripods filled with strobus and cadamomum in the
corners of the apartment; then she unfolded large Babylonian hangings,
and stretched them on cords all around the room, for Salammbo did not
wish to be seen even by the walls. The kinnor-player squatted behind
the door and the young boy standing upright applied a reed flute to
his lips. In the distance the roar of the streets was growing feebler,
violet shadows were lengthening before the peristyles of the temples,
and on the other side of the gulf the mountain bases, the fields of
olive-trees, and the vague yellow lands undulated indefinitely, and were
blended together in a bluish haze; not a sound was to be heard, and an
unspeakable depression weighed in the air.
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