vases, pots of bronze and of silver, little caskets of ivory
and gold, all engraved, brilliant, covered with delicate figures,
ornamented with precious stones, containing Egyptian and Hebraic
essences, balsams from Arabia, perfumes and intoxicating cosmetics
brought by caravans from the heart of Asia to Phoenician ports, and
thence to Greece or Carthage, bought for Sonnica by the pilots of her
vessels in their venturesome trading voyages.

Odacis painted her face white, and then, moistening a small wooden style
with attar of roses, she thrust it into a bronze pot decorated with
garlands of lotus and filled with a dark powder. It was the kohol, sold
by Egyptian merchants at a fabulous price. The slave applied the point
of the style to the Greek's eyelids, dyeing them an intense black, and
tracing a fine line about the corners, which made them appear larger and
softer.

The toilet was almost complete. The slaves were opening the innumerable
bottles and vases arranged in rows upon the marble table, and the
atmosphere of the room was laden with costly perfumes--spikenard from
Sicily, incense and myrrh from Judea, aloes from India, and cumin from
Greece. Odacis took a small glass amphora inlaid with gold, with a
conical stopper, terminating in a fine point which served to deposit
antimony above the eyes to brighten them, and, after finishing this
operation, she presented to her mistress the three ointments for
imparting color to the skin in different shades--vermilion, carmine, and
the Egyptian red extracted from the body of the crocodile.

The slave began delicately coloring her mistress' body with a fine
brush. She produced a pink flush on her cheeks and dainty ears; she
marked rose petals on her bosom, and she colored her elbows and the
harmoniously curving relievo of her dimpled sides. Then, with Egyptian
red, she colored one by one the nails of her fingers and toes, while
another slave put on her white sandals with papyrus soles and buckles of
gold. Perfumes were showered upon her, each on a different part of the
body, so that it might resemble a bouquet of flowers in which various
aromas were mingled. Odacis presented the jewel-casket, within which
precious stones lay shimmering like restless and glistening fish. The
Greek woman's pointed fingers lifted with indifference the heap of
collars, rings, and pendants, which, like all Grecian jewelry, were more
valuable on account of the workmanship of the artists than for