HANNO
"I ought to have carried her off!" Matho said in the evening to Spendius."I should have seized her, and torn her from her house! No one would have dared to touch me!"Spendius was not listening to him.Stretched on his back he was taking delicious rest beside a large jar filled with honey-coloured water, into which he would dip his head from time to time in order to drink more copiously.
Matho resumed:
"What is to be done? How can we re-enter Carthage?""I do not know," said Spendius.
Such impassibility exasperated Matho and he exclaimed:
"Why! the fault is yours! You carry me away, and then you forsake me, coward that you are! Why, pray, should I obey you? Do you think that you are my master? Ah! you prostituter, you slave, you son of a slave!" 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! And if they show themselves I will crush them like vipers! I will put her to death, Spendius! Yes," he repeated, "I will kill her! You shall see, I will kill her!"But Spendius, who was listening eagerly, snatched up the zaimph abruptly and threw it into a corner, heaping up fleeces above it.Amurmuring of voices was heard, torches gleamed, and Narr' Havas entered, followed by about twenty men.
They wore white woollen cloaks, long daggers, copper necklaces, wooden earrings, and boots of hyena skin; and standing on the threshold they leaned upon their lances like herdsmen resting themselves.Narr' Havas was the handsomest of all; his slender arms were bound with straps ornamented with pearls.The golden circlet which fastened his ample garment about his head held an ostrich feather which hung down behind his shoulder; his teeth were displayed in a continual smile; his eyes seemed sharpened like arrows, and there was something observant and airy about his whole demeanour.