legs, open wide their eyelids, and bleat out, like dumb animals:
"Ba! ba! ba!"

In proportion as they approach the human type, they irritate Antony the
more. He strikes them with his fist, kicks them, rushes madly upon them.
They begin to present a horrible aspect, with high tufts, eyes like
bulls, arms terminated with claws, and the jaws of a shark. And, before
these gods, men are slaughtered on altars of stone, while others are
pounded in vats, crushed under chariot-wheels, or nailed to trees. There
is one of them, all in red-hot iron, with the horns of a bull, who
devours children.

_Antony_--"Horror!"

_Hilarion_--"But the gods always demand sufferings. Your own, even, has
wished--"

_Antony_, weeping--"Say no more--hold your tongue!"

The enclosure of rocks changes into a valley. A herd of oxen pastures
there on the shorn grass. The shepherd who has charge of them perceives
a cloud; and in a sharp voice pierces the air with words of urgent
entreaty.

_Hilarion_--"As he wants rain, he tries, by his strains, to coerce the
King of Heaven to open the fruitful cloud."

_Antony_, laughing--"This is too silly a form of presumption!"

_Hilarion_--"Why, then, do you perform exorcisms?"

The valley becomes a sea of milk, motionless and illimitable.

In the midst of it floats a long cradle, formed by the coils of a
serpent, all whose heads, bending forward at the same time, overshadow
a god who lies there asleep. He is young, beardless, more beautiful than
a girl, and covered with diaphanous veils. The pearls of his tiara shine
softly, like moons; a chaplet of stars winds itself many times above his
breast, and, with one hand under his head and the other arm extended, he
reposes with a dreamy and intoxicated air. A woman squatted before his
feet awaits his awakening.

_Hilarion_--"This is the primordial duality of the Brahmans--the
absolute not expressing itself by any form."

Upon the navel of the god a stalk of lotus has grown; and in its calyx
appears another god with three faces.

_Antony_--"Hold! what an invention!"

_Hilarion_--"Father, Son and Holy Ghost, in the same way make only one
person!"

The three heads are turned aside, and three immense gods appear. The
first, who is of a rosy hue, bites the end of his toe. The second, who
is blue, tosses four arms about. The third, who is green, weaves a
necklace of human skulls. Immediately in front of them rise three
goddesses, one wrapped in a net, anot