the foot of the hills on the banks of the river Orcus.
Here he was handed over to the care of the women. The wounds and bruises
caused by falls on the rocks and ice were bathed and bandaged, then he
was placed in a small chamber and water was poured on to heated stones
until it was filled with hot steam, and Malchus began to think that
he was going to be boiled alive. After being kept for an hour in this
vapour bath, he was annointed with oil, and was rubbed until every limb
was supple, he was then placed on a couch and covered with soft skins,
and in a few more minutes was sound asleep.
It was late next day before he woke, and on rising he found himself a
new man. A breakfast of meat, fresh cheese formed from goats' milk, and
flat cakes was set before him, and, had it not been that his feet were
still completely disabled from the effects of the frostbites, he felt
that he was fit again to take his place in the ranks. The chief's wife
and daughters waited upon him. The former was a tall, majestic looking
woman. She did not belong to the Insubres, but was the daughter of a
chief who had, with a portion of his tribe, wandered down from their
native home far north of the Alps and settled in Italy.
Two of the daughters were young women of over twenty, tall and robust in
figure like their mother, the third was a girl of some fifteen years of
age. The girls took after their German mother, and Malchus wondered at
the fairness of their skins, the clearness of their complexion, and the
soft light brown of their hair, for they were as much fairer than the
Gauls as these were fairer than the Carthaginians. Malchus was able to
hold little converse with his hosts, whose language differed much from
that of the Transalpine Gauls.
His stay here was destined to be much longer than he had anticipated,
for his feet had been seriously frostbitten, and for some time it
was doubtful whether he would not lose them. Gradually, however, the
inflammation decreased, but it was six weeks after his arrival before he
was able to walk. From time to time messengers had arrived from Hannibal
and his father to inquire after him, and from them he learned that the
Carthaginians had captured the towns of Vercella, Valentinum, and
Asta, and the less important towns of Ivrea, Chivasso, Bodenkmag, and
Carbantia.
By the time he was cured he was able to talk freely with his hosts, for
he soon mastered the points of difference between their language an
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