Then he began to tell her about the whole campaign.
The doves on the palm trees around them cooed softly, and other birds
fluttered amid the grass: ring-necked glareolas, Tartessus quails and
Punic guinea-fowl. The garden, long uncultivated, had multiplied
its verdure; coloquintidas mounted into the branches of cassias, the
asclepias was scattered over fields of roses, all kinds of vegetation
formed entwinings and bowers; and here and there, as in the woods,
sun-rays, descending obliquely, marked the shadow of a leaf upon the
ground. Domestic animals, grown wild again, fled at the slightest noise.
Sometimes a gazelle might be seen trailing scattered peacocks' feathers
after its little black hoofs. The clamours of the distant town were lost
in the murmuring of the waves. The sky was quite blue, and not a sail
was visible on the sea.
Narr' Havas had ceased speaking; Salammbo was looking at him without
replying. He wore a linen robe with flowers painted on it, and with gold
fringes at the hem; two silver arrows fastened his plaited hair at the
tips of his ears; his right hand rested on a pike-staff adorned with
circles of electrum and tufts of hair.
As she watched him a crowd of dim thoughts absorbed her. This young man,
with his gentle voice and feminine figure, captivated her eyes by the
grace of his person, and seemed to her like an elder sister sent by the
Baals to protect her.
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