Her naked breast shone here and there through the diamonds of her necklace; behind her you perceived as it were the odour of a temple, and her whole being emitted something that was sweeter than wine and more terrible than death.

She walked, however, and then she stopped." He remained gaping with his head cast down and his eyeballs fixed.
"But I want her! I need her! I am dying for her! I am transported with frenzied joy at the thought of clasping her in my arms, and yet I hate her, Spendius! I should like to beat her! What is to be done?
I have a mind to sell myself and become her slave! YOU have been that! You were able to get sight of her; speak to me of her! Every night she ascends to the terrace of her palace, does she not?
Ah! the stones must quiver beneath her sandals, and the stars bend down to see her!" He fell back in a perfect frenzy, with a rattling in his throat like a wounded bull.
Then Matho sang: "He pursued into the forest the female monster, whose tail undulated over the dead leaves like a silver brook." And with lingering tones he imitated Salammbo's voice, while his outspread hands were held like two light hands on the strings of a lyre.
To all the consolations offered by Spendius, he repeated the same words; their nights were spent in these wailings and exhortations.
Matho sought to drown his thoughts in wine.

After his fits of drunkenness he was more melancholy still.

He tried to divert himself at huckle-bones, and lost the gold plates of his necklace one by one.

He had himself taken to the servants of the Goddess; but he came down the hill sobbing, like one returning from a funeral.
Spendius, on the contrary, became more bold and gay.