eneath had stretched them out towards heaven
to demand something. Next there came scattered cabins built of earth,
branches, and bulrush-hurdles, and all of a conical shape. These
dwellings, which became constantly denser as the road ascended towards
the Suffet's gardens, were irregularly separated from one another by
little pebble walls, trenches of spring water, ropes of esparto-grass,
and nopal hedges. But Hamilcar's eyes were fastened on a great tower,
the three storys of which formed three monster cylinders--the first
being built of stone, the second of brick, and the third all of
cedar--supporting a copper cupola upon twenty-four pillars of juniper,
from which slender interlacing chains of brass hung down after the
manner of garlands. This lofty edifice overlooked the buildings--the
emporiums and mercantile houses--which stretched to the right, while the
women's palace rose at the end of the cypress trees, which were ranged
in line like two walls of bronze.

When the echoing chariot had entered through the narrow gateway it
stopped beneath a broad shed in which there were shackled horses eating
from heaps of chopped grass.

All the servants hastened up. They formed quite a multitude, those who
worked on the country estates having been brought to Carthage through
fear of the soldiers. The labourers, who were clad in animals' skins,
had chains riveted to their ankles and trailing after them; the workers
in the purple factories had arms as red as those of executioners; the
sailors wore green caps; the fishermen coral necklaces; the huntsmen
carried nets on their shoulders; and the people belonging to Megara
wore black or white tunics, leathern drawers, and caps of straw, felt or
linen, according to their service or their different occupations.

Behind pressed a tattered populace. They lived without employment remote
from the apartments, slept at night in the gardens, ate the refuse
from the kitchens,--a human mouldiness vegetating in the shadow of
the palace. Hamilcar tolerated them from foresight even more than from
scorn. They had all put a flower in the ear in token of their joy, and
many of them had never seen him.

But men with head-dresses like the Sphinx's, and furnished with great
sticks, dashed into the crowd, striking right and left. This was to
drive back the slaves, who were curious to see their master, so that he
might not be assailed by their numbers or inconvenienced by their smell.

Then they all