to learn. Here he was soiling his
purple boots as he crushed the filth under-foot; and he had not all
these men before him at the end of a catapult to make them fly into
fragments! He felt humiliated at having defended them; it was a delusion
and a piece of treachery; and as he could not revenge himself upon
the soldiers, or the Ancients, or Salammbo, or anybody, and his wrath
required some victim, he condemned all the slaves of the gardens to the
mines at a single stroke.

Abdalonim shuddered each time that he saw him approaching the parks. But
Hamilcar took the path towards the mill, from which there might be heard
issuing a mournful melopoeia.

The heavy mill-stones were turning amid the dust. They consisted of two
cones of porphyry laid the one upon the other--the upper one of the two,
which carried a funnel, being made to revolve upon the second by means
of strong bars. Some men were pushing these with their breasts and arms,
while others were yoked to them and were pulling them. The friction of
the straps had formed purulent scabs round about their armpits such as
are seen on asses' withers, and the end of the limp black rag, which
scarcely covered their loins, hung down and flapped against their hams
like a long tail. Their eyes were red, the irons on their feet clanked,
and all their breasts panted rhythmically. On their mouths they had
muzzles fastened by two little bronze chains to render it impossible
for them to eat the flour, and their hands were enclosed in gauntlets
without fingers, so as to prevent them from taking any.

At the master's entrance the wooden bars creaked still more loudly. The
grain grated as it was being crushed. Several fell upon their knees; the
others, continuing their work, stepped across them.

He asked for Giddenem, the governor of the slaved, and that personage
appeared, his rank being displayed in the richness of his dress. His
tunic, which was slit up the sides, was of fine purple; his ears were
weighted with heavy rings; and the strips of cloth enfolding his legs
were joined together with a lacing of gold which extended from his
ankles to his hips, like a serpent winding about a tree. In his fingers,
which were laden with rings, he held a necklace of jet beads, so as to
recognise the men who were subject to the sacred disease.

Hamilcar signed to him to unfasten the muzzles. Then with the cries of
famished animals they all rushed upon the flour, burying their faces in
the