CHAPTER XV
MATHO
There were rejoicings at Carthage,--rejoicings deep, universal,
extravagant, frantic; the holes of the ruins had been stopped up, the
statues of the gods had been repainted, the streets were strewn with
myrtle branches, incense smoked at the corners of the crossways, and the
throng on the terraces looked, in their variegated garments, like heaps
of flowers blooming in the air.
The shouts of the water-carriers watering the pavement rose above the
continual screaming of voices; slaves belonging to Hamilcar offered
in his name roasted barley and pieces of raw meat; people accosted one
another, and embraced one another with tears; the Tyrian towns were
taken, the nomads dispersed, and all the Barbarians annihilated.
The Acropolis was hidden beneath coloured velaria; the beaks of the
triremes, drawn up in line outside the mole, shone like a dyke of
diamonds; everywhere there was a sense of the restoration of order, the
beginning of a new existence, and the diffusion of vast happiness: it
was the day of Salammbo's marriage with the King of the Numidians.
On the terrace of the temple of Khamon there were three long tables
laden with gigantic plate, at which the priests, Ancients, and the rich
were to sit, and there was a fourth and higher one for Hamilcar, Narr'
Havas, and Salammbo; for as she had saved her country by the restoration
of the zaimph, the people turned her wedding day into a national
rejoicing, and were waiting in the square below till she should appear.
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