tala sounded more
loudly, the tabourines thundered, and the great purple canopy sank
between the two pylons.

It appeared again on the first landing. Salammbo was walking slowly
beneath it; then she crossed the terrace to take her seat behind on a
kind of throne cut out of the carapace of a tortoise. An ivory stool
with three steps was pushed beneath her feet; two Negro children knelt
on the edge of the first step, and sometimes she would rest both arms,
which were laden with rings of excessive weight, upon their heads.

From ankle to hip she was covered with a network of narrow meshes which
were in imitation of fish scales, and shone like mother-of-pearl; her
waist was clasped by a blue zone, which allowed her breasts to be
seen through two crescent-shaped slashings; the nipples were hidden
by carbuncle pendants. She had a headdress made of peacock's feathers
studded with gems; an ample cloak, as white as snow, fell behind
her,--and with her elbows at her sides, her knees pressed together,
and circles of diamonds on the upper part of her arms, she remained
perfectly upright in a hieratic attitude.

Her father and her husband were on two lower seats, Narr' Havas dressed
in a light simar and wearing his crown of rock-salt, from which there
strayed two tresses of hair as twisted as the horns of Ammon; and
Hamilcar in a violet tunic figured with gold vine branches, and with a
battle-sword at his side.

The python of the temple of Eschmoun lay on the ground amid pools of
pink oil in the space enclosed by the tables, and, biting its tail,
described a large black circle. In the middle of the circle there was a
copper pillar bearing a crystal egg; and, as the sun shone upon it, rays
were emitted on every side.

Behind Salammbo stretched the priests of Tanith in linen robes; on her
right the Ancients, in their tiaras, formed a great gold line, and
on the other side the rich with their emerald sceptres a great green
line,--while quite in the background, where the priests of Moloch were
ranged, the cloaks looked like a wall of purple. The other colleges
occupied the lower terraces. The multitude obstructed the streets. It
reached to the house-tops, and extended in long files to the summit of
the Acropolis. Having thus the people at her feet, the firmament
above her head, and around her the immensity of the sea, the gulf, the
mountains, and the distant provinces, Salammbo in her splendour was
blended with Tanith, and seemed