rampart were crammed with sand in order to strengthen it and increase
its thickness.

The Barbarians grew angry at the sight of these preparations. They
wished to fight at once. The weights which they put into the catapults
were so extravagantly heavy that the beams broke, and the attack was
delayed.

At last on the thirteenth day of the month of Schabar,--at sunrise,--a
great blow was heard at the gate of Khamon.

Seventy-five soldiers were pulling at ropes arranged at the base of a
gigantic beam which was suspended horizontally by chains hanging from
a framework, and which terminated in a ram's head of pure brass. It had
been swathed in ox-hides; it was bound at intervals with iron bracelets;
it was thrice as thick as a man's body, one hundred and twenty cubits
long, and under the crowd of naked arms pushing it forward and drawing
it back, it moved to and fro with a regular oscillation.

The other rams before the other gates began to be in motion. Men
might be seen mounting from step to step in the hollow wheels of the
tympanums. The pulleys and caps grated, the rope curtains were lowered,
and showers of stones and showers of arrows poured forth simultaneously;
all the scattered slingers ran up. Some approached the rampart hiding
pots of resin under their shields; then they would hurl these with all
their might. This hail of bullets, darts, and flames passed above the
first ranks in the form of a curve which fell behind the walls. But
long cranes, used for masting vessels, were reared on the summit of the
ramparts; and from them there descended some of those enormous pincers
which terminated in two semicircles toothed on the inside. They bit the
rams. The soldiers clung to the beam and drew it back. The Carthaginians
hauled in order to pull it up; and the action was prolonged until the
evening.

When the Mercenaries resumed their task on the following day, the tops
of the walls were completely carpeted with bales of cotton, sails, and
cushions; the battlements were stopped up with mats; and a line of forks
and blades, fixed upon sticks, might be distinguished among the cranes
on the rampart. A furious resistance immediately began.

Trunks of trees fastened to cables fell and rose alternately and
battered the rams; cramps hurled by the ballistas tore away the roofs of
the huts; and streams of flints and pebbles poured from the platforms of
the towers.

At last the rams broke the gates of Khamon and Tagaste. B