A horror of cold, or perhaps a feeling of shame, at first made her
hesitate. But she recalled Schahabarim's orders and advanced; the python
turned downwards, and resting the centre of its body upon the nape of
her neck, allowed its head and tail to hang like a broken necklace with
both ends trailing to the ground. Salammbo rolled it around her sides,
under her arms and between her knees; then taking it by the jaw she
brought the little triangular mouth to the edge of her teeth, and half
shutting her eyes, threw herself back beneath the rays of the moon. The
white light seemed to envelop her in a silver mist, the prints of her
humid steps shone upon the flag-stones, stars quivered in the depth of
the water; it tightened upon her its black rings that were spotted with
scales of gold. Salammbo panted beneath the excessive weight, her
loins yielded, she felt herself dying, and with the tip of its tail the
serpent gently beat her thigh; then the music becoming still it fell off
again.
Taanach came back to her; and after arranging two candelabra, the lights
of which burned in crystal balls filled with water, she tinged the
inside of her hands with Lawsonia, spread vermilion upon her cheeks, and
antimony along the edge of her eyelids, and lengthened her eyebrows with
a mixture of gum, musk, ebony, and crushed legs of flies.
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