ile as monkeys, the skins of some
of whom they stuffed with straw and carried to the temples of Egypt to
offer to the gods. The older Roman soldiers, paying no attention, in
their insolence as conquerors, to the humiliated Carthaginians who were
listening, told of their great victory on the AEgates islands which drove
the Carthaginians out of Sicily, ending the first Punic War. The Iberian
shepherds mixed in among the navigators wished to off-set the effect of
these maritime adventures, and they bragged of the horses belonging to
their tribe, and of their marvelous swiftness, while a little Greek,
lively and keen, in order to overwhelm the barbarians and to demonstrate
the superiority of his race, began to declaim fragments of some ode
learned in the port of Piraeus, or he intoned a lyric poem, slow and
sweet, which was lost amid the noise of conversation, of crunching jaws,
and of clattering plates.

They called for more light. The smoky atmosphere of the inn was
constantly growing denser, and the frames of the lamps were scarcely
more distinctly visible than drops of blood on the soot-blackened walls.
From the kitchen floated an odor of piquant sauces and smoky wood which
made many of the customers cough and weep. Some were drunk soon after
beginning dinner, and they asked the slaves for crowns of flowers to
adorn themselves as in the banquets of the rich. Others growled applause
as they saw the den illuminated by the lurid flame of the candlewood
which the proprietor lighted. The slaves passed behind the stone counter
overturning great amphorae, and ran into the kitchen only to rush back
again immediately, red with suffocation, bearing great platters. Wine
ran across the floor as a crater was overturned. When there appeared at
the window the painted faces of some of the prostitutes--she-wolves of
the port--who were awaiting the moment for making an irruption into the
inn, the mariners greeted them with hoarse laughter, imitating the howl
of the beast after whom they were nicknamed, and throwing them a portion
of their food, over which the women fought, scratching and shrieking.

The food was all thirst-giving, so that each mouthful should be
accompanied by a sip. The Greeks ate snails floating in a sauce of
saffron; fresh sardines from the gulf appeared arranged in circles
around the dishes, festooned with laurel leaves; birds' heads were
served covered with green sauce; the Iberian shepherds were satisfied
with dri