CHAPTER XV MATHO
There were rejoicings at Carthage,—rejoicings deep, universal,extravagant, frantic; the holes of the ruins had been stopped up, thestatues of the gods had been repainted, the streets were strewn withmyrtle branches, incense smoked at the corners of the crossways, and thethrong on the terraces looked, in their variegated garments, like heapsof flowers blooming in the air.
The shouts of the water-carriers watering the pavement rose above thecontinual screaming of voices; slaves belonging to Hamilcar offeredin his name roasted barley and pieces of raw meat; people accosted oneanother, and embraced one another with tears; the Tyrian towns weretaken, the nomads dispersed, and all the Barbarians annihilated.The Acropolis was hidden beneath coloured velaria; the beaks of thetriremes, drawn up in line outside the mole, shone like a dyke ofdiamonds; everywhere there was a sense of the restoration of order, thebeginning of a new existence, and the diffusion of vast happiness: itwas the day of Salammbô’s marriage with the King of the Numidians.
On the terrace of the temple of Khamon there were three long tablesladen with gigantic plate, at which the priests, Ancients, and the richwere to sit, and there was a fourth and higher one for Hamilcar,Narr’ Havas, and Salammbô; for as she had saved her country by therestoration of the zaïmph, the people turned her wedding day into anational rejoicing, and were waiting in the square below till she shouldappear.
But their impatience was excited by another and more acrid longing:Matho’s death has been promised for the ceremony.
It had been proposed at first to flay him alive, to pour lead into hisentrails, to kill him with hunger; he should be tied to a tree, andan ape behind him should strike him on the head with a stone; he hadoffended Tanith, and the cynocephaluses of Tanith should avenge her.Others were of opinion that he should be led about on a dromedary afterlinen wicks, dipped in oil, had been inserted in his body in severalplaces;—and they took pleasure in the thought of the large animalwandering through the streets with this man writhing beneath the fireslike a candelabrum blown about by the wind.
But what citizens should be charged with his torture, and why disappointthe rest? They would have liked a kind of death in which the wholetown might take part, in which every hand, every weapon, everythingCarthaginian, to the very paving-stones in the streets and the waves inthe gulf, could rend him, and crush him, and annihilate him. Accordinglythe Ancients decided that he should go from his prison to the square ofKhamon without any escort, and with his arms fastened to his back; itwas forbidden to strike him to the heart, in order that he might livethe longer; to put out his eyes, so that he might see the torturethrough; to hurl anything against his person, or to lay more than threefingers upon him at a time.
Although he was not to appear until the end of the day, the peoplesometimes fancied that he could be seen, and the crowd would rushtowards the Acropolis, and empty the streets, to return with lengthenedmurmurings. Some people had remained standing in the same place sincethe day before, and they would call on one another from a distance andshow their nails which they had allowed to grow, the better to bury theminto his flesh. Others walked restlessly up and down; some were as paleas though they were awaiting their own execution.
Suddenly lofty feather fans rose above the heads, behind the Mappaliandistrict. It was Salammbô leaving her palace; a sigh of relief foundvent.
But the procession was long in coming; it marched with deliberation.
First there filed past the priests of the Patæc Gods, then those ofEschmoun, of Melkarth, and all the other colleges in succession, withthe same insignia, and in the same order as had been observed at thetime of the sacrifice. The pontiffs of Moloch passed with heads bent,and the multitude stood aside from them in a kind of remorse. But thepriests of Rabbetna advanced with a proud step, and with lyres in theirhands; the priestesses followed them in transparent robes of yellowor black, uttering cries like birds and writhing like vipers, or elsewhirling round to the sound of flutes to imitate the dance of the stars,while their light garments wafted puffs of delicate scents through thestreets.
The Kedeschim, with painted eyelids, who symbolised the hermaphrodism ofthe Divinity, received applause among these women, and, being perfumedand dressed like them, they resembled them in spite of their flatbreasts and narrower hips. Moreover, on this day the female principledominated and confused all things; a mystic voluptuousness moved in theheavy air; the torches were already lighted in the depths of the sacredwoods; there was to be a great celebration there during the night; threevessels had brought courtesans from Sicily, and others had come from thedesert.
As the colleges arrived they ranged themselves in the courts of thetemples, on the outer galleries, and along double staircases which roseagainst the walls, and drew together at the top. Files of white robesappeared between the colonnades, and the architecture was peopled withhuman statues, motionless as statues of stone.
Then came the masters of the exchequer, the governors of the provinces,and all the rich. A great tumult prevailed below. Adjacent streets weredischarging the crowd, hierodules were driving it back with blows ofsticks; and then Salammbô appeared in a litter surmounted by a purplecanopy, and surrounded by the Ancients crowned with their golden tiaras.
Thereupon an immense shout arose; the cymbals and crotala sounded moreloudly, the tabourines thundered, and the great purple canopy sankbetween the two pylons.
It appeared again on the first landing. Salammbô was walking slowlybeneath it; then she crossed the terrace to take her seat behind on akind of throne cut out of the carapace of a tortoise. An ivory stoolwith three steps was pushed beneath her feet; two Negro children knelton 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 whichwere in imitation of fish scales, and shone like mother-of-pearl; herwaist was clasped by a blue zone, which allowed her breasts to beseen through two crescent-shaped slashings; the nipples were hidden bycarbuncle pendants. She had a headdress made of peacock’s feathersstudded with gems; an ample cloak, as white as snow, fell behindher,—and with her elbows at her sides, her knees pressed together,and circles of diamonds on the upper part of her arms, she remainedperfectly upright in a hieratic attitude.
Her father and her husband were on two lower seats, Narr’ Havasdressed in a light simar and wearing his crown of rock-salt, from whichthere strayed two tresses of hair as twisted as the horns of Ammon; andHamilcar in a violet tunic figured with gold vine branches, and with abattle-sword at his side.
The python of the temple of Eschmoun lay on the ground amid pools ofpink 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 acopper pillar bearing a crystal egg; and, as the sun shone upon it, rayswere emitted on every side.
Behind Salammbô stretched the priests of Tanith in linen robes; on herright the Ancients, in their tiaras, formed a great gold line, andon the other side the rich with their emerald sceptres a great greenline,—while quite in the background, where the priests of Moloch wereranged, the cloaks looked like a wall of purple. The other collegesoccupied the lower terraces. The multitude obstructed the streets. Itreached to the house-tops, and extended in long files to the summit ofthe Acropolis. Having thus the people at her feet, the firmamentabove her head, and around her the immensity of the sea, the gulf, themountains, and the distant provinces, Salammbô in her splendour wasblended with Tanith, and seemed the very genius of Carthage, and itsembodied soul.
The feast was to last all night, and lamps with several branches wereplanted like trees on the painted woollen cloths which covered the lowtables. Large electrum flagons, blue glass amphoras, tortoise-shellspoons, and small round loaves were crowded between the double row ofpearl-bordered plates; bunches of grapes with their leaves had beenrolled round ivory vine-stocks after the fashion of the thyrsus; blocksof snow were melting on ebony trays
, and lemons, pomegranates, gourds,and watermelons formed hillocks beneath the lofty silver plate; boarswith open jaws were wallowing in the dust of spices; hares, covered withtheir fur, appeared to be bounding amid the flowers; there were shellsfilled with forcemeat; the pastry had symbolic shapes; when the coversof the dishes were removed doves flew out.
The slaves, meanwhile, with tunics tucked up, were going about ontiptoe; from time to time a hymn sounded on the lyres, or a choir ofvoices rose. The clamour of the people, continuous as the noise ofthe sea, floated vaguely around the feast, and seemed to lull it in abroader harmony; some recalled the banquet of the Mercenaries; they gavethemselves up to dreams of happiness; the sun was beginning to go down,and the crescent of the moon was already rising in another part of thesky.
But Salammbô turned her head as though some one had called her; thepeople, who were watching her, followed the direction of her eyes.
The door of the dungeon, hewn in the rock at the foot of the temple, onthe summit of the Acropolis, had just opened; and a man was standing onthe threshold of this black hole.
He came forth bent double, with the scared look of fallow deer whensuddenly enlarged.
The light dazzled him; he stood motionless awhile. All had recognisedhim, and they held their breath.
In their eyes the body of this victim was something peculiarly theirs,and was adorned with almost religious splendour. They bent forward tosee him, especially the women. They burned to gaze upon him who hadcaused the deaths of their children and husbands; and from the bottomof their souls there sprang up in spite of themselves an infamouscuriosity, a desire to know him completely, a wish mingled with remorsewhich turned to increased execration.
At last he advanced; then the stupefaction of surprise disappeared.Numbers of arms were raised, and he was lost to sight.
The staircase of the Acropolis had sixty steps. He descended them asthough he were rolled down in a torrent from the top of a mountain;three times he was seen to leap, and then he alighted below on his feet.
His shoulders were bleeding, his breast was panting with great shocks;and he made such efforts to burst his bonds that his arms, which werecrossed on his naked loins, swelled like pieces of a serpent.
Several streets began in front of him, leading from the spot at which hefound himself. In each of them a triple row of bronze chains fastened tothe navels of the Patæc gods extended in parallel lines from one endto the other; the crowd was massed against the houses, and servants,belonging to the Ancients, walked in the middle brandishing thongs.
One of them drove him forward with a great blow; Matho began to move.
They thrust their arms over the chains shouting out that the road hadbeen left too wide for him; and he passed along, felt, pricked, andslashed by all those fingers; when he reached the end of one streetanother appeared; several times he flung himself to one side to bitethem; they speedily dispersed, the chains held him back, and the crowdburst out laughing.
A child rent his ear; a young girl, hiding the point of a spindle in hersleeve, split his cheek; they tore handfuls of hair from him and stripsof flesh; others smeared his face with sponges steeped in filth andfastened upon sticks. A stream of blood started from the right side ofhis neck, frenzy immediately set in. This last Barbarian was to them arepresentative of all the Barbarians, and all the army; they were takingvengeance on him for their disasters, their terrors, and their shame.The rage of the mob developed with its gratification; the curving chainswere over-strained, and were on the point of breaking; the people didnot feel the blows of the slaves who struck at them to drive them back;some clung to the projections of the houses; all the openings in thewalls were stopped up with heads; and they howled at him the mischiefthat they could not inflict upon him.
It was atrocious, filthy abuse mingled with ironical encouragements andimprecations; and, his present tortures not being enough for them, theyforetold to him others that should be still more terrible in eternity.
This vast baying filled Carthage with stupid continuity. Frequentlya single syllable—a hoarse, deep, and frantic intonation—wouldbe repeated for several minutes by the entire people. The walls wouldvibrate with it from top to bottom, and both sides of the street wouldseem to Matho to be coming against him, and carrying him off the ground,like two immense arms stifling him in the air.
Nevertheless he remembered that he had experienced something like itbefore. The same crowd was on the terraces, there were the same looksand the same wrath; but then he had walked free, all had then dispersed,for a god covered him;—and the recollection of this, gaining precisionby degrees, brought a crushing sadness upon him. Shadows passed beforehis eyes; the town whirled round in his head, his blood streamed from awound in his hip, he felt that he was dying; his hams bent, and he sankquite gently upon the pavement.
Some one went to the peristyle of the temple of Melkarth, took thencethe bar of a tripod, heated red hot in the coals, and, slipping itbeneath the first chain, pressed it against his wound. The flesh wasseen to smoke; the hootings of the people drowned his voice; he wasstanding again.
Six paces further on, and he fell a third and again a fourth time; butsome new torture always made him rise. They discharged little drops ofboiling oil through tubes at him; they strewed pieces of broken glassbeneath his feet; still he walked on. At the corner of the street ofSatheb he leaned his back against the wall beneath the pent-house of ashop, and advanced no further.
The slaves of the Council struck him with their whips of hippopotamusleather, so furiously and long that the fringes of their tunics weredrenched with sweat. Matho appeared insensible; suddenly he startedoff and began to run at random, making a noise with his lips like oneshivering with severe cold. He threaded the street of Boudes, and thestreet of Soepo, crossed the Green Market, and reached the square ofKhamon.
He now belonged to the priests; the slaves had just dispersed the crowd,and there was more room. Matho gazed round him and his eyes encounteredSalammbô.
At the first step that he had taken she had risen; then, as heapproached, she had involuntarily advanced by degrees to the edge of theterrace; and soon all external things were blotted out, and she sawonly Matho. Silence fell in her soul,—one of those abysses whereinthe whole world disappears beneath the pressure of a single thought, amemory, a look. This man who was walking towards her attracted her.
Excepting his eyes he had no appearance of humanity left; he was a long,perfectly red shape; his broken bonds hung down his thighs, but theycould not be distinguished from the tendons of his wrists, which werelaid quite bare; his mouth remained wide open; from his eye-socketsthere darted flames which seemed to rise up to his hair;—and thewretch still walked on!
He reached the foot of the terrace. Salammbô was leaning over thebalustrade; those frightful eyeballs were scanning her, and there rosewithin her a consciousness of all that he had suffered for her. Althoughhe was in his death agony she could see him once more kneeling in histent, encircling her waist with his arms, and stammering out gentlewords; she thirsted to feel them and hear them again; she did not wanthim to die! At this moment Matho gave a great start; she was on thepoint of shrieking aloud. He fell backwards and did not stir again.
Salammbô was borne back, nearly swooning, to her throne by the priestswho flocked about her. They congratulated her; it was her work. Allclapped their hands and stamped their feet, howling her name.
A man darted upon the corpse. Although he had no beard he had the cloakof a priest of Moloch on his shoulder, and in his belt that speciesof knife which they employed for cutting up the sacred meat, and whichterminated, at the end of the handle, in a golden spatula. He cleftMatho’s breast with a single blow, then snatched out the heart andlaid it upon the spoon; and Schahabarim, uplifting his arm, offered itto the sun.
The sun sank behind the waves; his rays fell like long arrows upon thered heart. As the beatings diminished the planet sank into the sea; andat the last palpitation it disappeared.
Then from th
e gulf to the lagoon, and from the isthmus to the pharos, inall the streets, on all the houses, and on all the temples, there wasa single shout; sometimes it paused, to be again renewed; the buildingsshook with it; Carthage was convulsed, as it were, in the spasm ofTitanic joy and boundless hope.
Narr’ Havas, drunk with pride, passed his left arm beneathSalammbô’s waist in token of possession; and taking a gold patera inhis right hand, he drank to the Genius of Carthage.
Salammbô rose like her husband, with a cup in her hand, to drinkalso. She fell down again with her head lying over the back of thethrone,—pale, stiff, with parted lips,—and her loosened hair hung tothe ground.
Thus died Hamilcar’s daughter for having touched the mantle of Tanith.
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