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Updated: June 12, 2025
"To take it!" she replied, pointing to the zaimph, and with the other hand she tore the veils from her head. He drew back with his elbows behind him, gaping, almost terrified. She felt as if she were leaning on the might of the gods; and looking at him face to face she asked him for the zaimph; she demanded it in words abundant and superb.
He ground his teeth and raised his broad hand above Spendius. The Greek did not reply. An earthen lamp was burning gently against the tent-pole, where the zaimph shone amid the hanging panoply. Suddenly Matho put on his cothurni, buckled on his brazen jacket of mail, and took his helmet. "Where are you going?" asked Spendius. "I am returning! Let me alone! I will bring her back!
She did not speak. The lamp caused great luminous moires to flicker on the wainscots. "What is it?" she said. He replied: "'Tis the veil of the goddess!" "The veil of the goddess!" cried Salammbo, and supporting herself on both clenched hands she leaned shuddering out. He resumed: "I have been in the depths of the sanctuary to seek it for you! Look!" The Zaimph shone a mass of rays.
But the priest, with a smile of disdain said: "You will never consent!" She entreated him. At last Schahabarim said to her: "You must go to the Barbarians and recover the zaimph!" She sank down upon the ebony stool, and remained with her arms stretched out between her knees and shivering in all her limbs, like a victim at the altar's foot awaiting the blow of the club.
"Hide the zaimph!" said Spendius. Other people passed them, but without perceiving them. At last they recognised the houses of Megara. The pharos, which was built behind them on the summit of the cliff, lit up the heavens with a great red brightness, and the shadow of the palace, with its rising terraces, projected a monstrous pyramid, as it were, upon the gardens.
But who, said they, could have expected the treachery of Narr' Havas, the burning of the camp of the Libyans, the loss of the zaimph, the sudden attack by Hamilcar, and, above all, his manoeuvres which forced them to return to the bottom of the mountain beneath the instant blows of the Carthaginians?
This man, with his giant stature, who was master of the zaimph, ruled Rabbetna as much as did Baal, and seemed to her to be surrounded by the same fulgurations; and then the souls of the gods sometimes visited the bodies of men. Did not Schahabarim in speaking of him say that she was to vanquish Moloch? They were mingled with each other; she confused them together; both of them were pursuing her.
Matho fancied that the veil affected people of Chanaanitish race exclusively, and, in his Barbarian-like subtlety, he said to himself: "The zaimph will accordingly do nothing for me, but since they have lost it, it will do nothing for them." Afterwards a scruple troubled him.
"Drive away these trifles from your soul, which is degraded by them! Formerly you were used to obey; now you command an army, and if Carthage is not conquered we shall at least be granted provinces. We shall become kings!" But how was it that the possession of the zaimph did not give them the victory? According to Spendius they must wait.
There were calls of "Matho! Matho!" Some people at the door tried to get in. "Come along! Hamilcar is burning the camp of Autaritus!" He made a spring. She found herself quite alone. Then she examined the zaimph; and when she had viewed it well she was surprised that she had not the happiness which she had once imagined to herself. She stood with melancholy before her accomplished dream.
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