tence by an effort of the will
that prolonged it.

The most stoical kept close to one another, seated in a circle here and
there, among the dead in the middle of the plain; and wrapped in their
cloaks they gave themselves up silently to their sadness.

Those who had been born in towns recalled the resounding streets, the
taverns, theatres, baths, and the barbers' shops where there are tales
to be heard. Others could once more see country districts at sunset,
when the yellow corn waves, and the great oxen ascend the hills again
with the ploughshares on their necks. Travellers dreamed of cisterns,
hunters of their forests, veterans of battles; and in the somnolence
that benumbed them their thoughts jostled one another with the
precipitancy and clearness of dreams. Hallucinations came suddenly upon
them; they sought for a door in the mountain in order to flee, and tried
to pass through it. Others thought that they were sailing in a storm
and gave orders for the handling of a ship, or else fell back in terror,
perceiving Punic battalions in the clouds. There were some who imagined
themselves at a feast, and sang.

Many through a strange mania would repeat the same word or continually
make the same gesture. Then when they happened to raise their heads
and look at one another they were choked with sobs on discovering the
horrible ravages made in their faces. Some had ceased to suffer, and to
while away the hours told of the perils which they had escaped.

Death was certain and imminent to all. How many times had they not tried
to open up a passage! As to implore terms from the conqueror, by what
means could they do so? They did not even know where Hamilcar was.

The wind was blowing from the direction of the ravine. It made the sand
flow perpetually in cascades over the portcullis; and the cloaks and
hair of the Barbarians were being covered with it as though the earth
were rising upon them and desirous of burying them. Nothing stirred; the
eternal mountain seemed still higher to them every morning.

Sometimes flights of birds darted past beneath the blue sky in the
freedom of the air. The men closed their eyes that they might not see
them.

At first they felt a buzzing in their ears, their nails grew black, the
cold reached to their breasts; they lay upon their sides and expired
without a cry.

On the nineteenth day two thousand Asiatics were dead, with fifteen
hundred from the Archipelago, eight thousand from Libya