The people deliberated all night in groups at the corners of the
streets. Some said that they ought to send away the women, the sick, and
the old men; others proposed to abandon the town, and found a colony far
away. But vessels were lacking, and when the sun appeared no decision
had been made.
There was no fighting that day, all being too much exhausted. The
sleepers looked like corpses.
Then the Carthaginians, reflecting upon the cause of their disasters,
remembered that they had not dispatched to Phoenicia the annual offering
due to Tyrian Melkarth, and a great terror came upon them. The gods
were indignant with the Republic, and were, no doubt, about to prosecute
their vengeance.
They were considered as cruel masters, who were appeased with
supplications and allowed themselves to be bribed with presents. All
were feeble in comparison with Moloch the Devourer. The existence, the
very flesh of men, belonged to him; and hence in order to preserve it,
the Carthaginians used to offer up a portion of it to him, which calmed
his fury. Children were burned on the forehead, or on the nape of the
neck, with woollen wicks; and as this mode of satisfying Baal brought
in much money to the priests, they failed not to recommend it as being
easier and more pleasant.
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