nvoke all the
Baals. It was not his fault! he could not help it! He had watched the
temperature, the soil, the stars, had planted at the winter solstice and
pruned at the waning of the moon, had inspected the slaves and had been
careful of their clothes.

But Hamilcar grew angry at this loquacity. He clacked his tongue, and
the man with the cutlasses went on in rapid tones:

"Ah, Master! they have pillaged everything! sacked everything! destroyed
everything! Three thousand trees have been cut down at Maschala, and
at Ubada the granaries have been looted and the cisterns filled up! At
Tedes they have carried off fifteen hundred gomors of meal; at Marrazana
they have killed the shepherds, eaten the flocks, burnt your house--your
beautiful house with its cedar beams, which you used to visit in the
summer! The slaves at Tuburbo who were reaping barley fled to the
mountains; and the asses, the mules both great and small, the oxen from
Taormina, and the antelopes,--not a single one left! all carried away!
It is a curse! I shall not survive it!" He went on again in tears: "Ah!
if you knew how full the cellars were, and how the ploughshares shone!
Ah! the fine rams! ah! the fine bulls!--"

Hamilcar's wrath was choking him. It burst forth:

"Be silent! Am I a pauper then? No lies! speak the truth! I wish to know
all that I have lost to the last shekel, to the last cab! Abdalonim,
bring me the accounts of the ships, of the caravans, of the farms, of
the house! And if your consciences are not clear, woe be on your heads!
Go out!"

All the stewards went out walking backwards, with their fists touching
the ground.

Abdalonim went up to a set of pigeon-holes in the wall, and from the
midst of them took out knotted cords, strips of linen or papyrus, and
sheeps' shoulder-blades inscribed with delicate writing. He laid them
at Hamilcar's feet, placed in his hands a wooden frame furnished on the
inside with three threads on which balls of gold, silver, and horn were
strung, and began:

"One hundred and ninety-two houses in the Mappalian district let to the
New Carthaginians at the rate of one bekah a moon."

"No! it is too much! be lenient towards the poor people! and you will
try to learn whether they are attached to the Republic, and write down
the names of those who appear to you to be the most daring! What next?"

Abdalonim hesitated in surprise at such generosity.

Hamilcar snatched the strips of linen from his hands.