It was softly lighted by means of delicate black discs let into the wall and as transparent as glass.Between the rows of these equal discs, holes, like those for the urns in columbaria, were hollowed out.Each of them contained a round dark stone, which appeared to be very heavy.Only people of superior understanding honoured these abaddirs, which had fallen from the moon.By their fall they denoted the stars, the sky, and fire; by their colour dark night, and by their density the cohesion of terrestrial things.A stifling atmosphere filled this mystic place.The round stones lying in the niches were whitened somewhat with sea-sand which the wind had no doubt driven through the door.Hamilcar counted them one after another with the tip of his finger; then he hid his face in a saffron-coloured veil, and, falling on his knees, stretched himself on the ground with both arms extended.
The daylight outside was beginning to strike on the folding shutters of black lattice-work.Arborescences, hillocks, eddies, and ill-defined animals appeared in their diaphanous thickness; and the light came terrifying and yet peaceful as it must be behind the sun in the dull spaces of future creations.He strove to banish from his thoughts all forms, and all symbols and appellations of the gods, that he might the better apprehend the immutable spirit which outward appearances took away.Something of the planetary vitalities penetrated him, and he felt withal a wiser and more intimate scorn of death and of every accident.When he rose he was filled with serene fearlessness and was proof against pity or dread, and as his chest was choking he went to the top of the tower which overlooked Carthage.
The town sank downwards in a long hollow curve, with its cupolas, its temples, its golden roofs, its houses, its clusters of palm trees here and there, and its glass balls with streaming rays, while the ramparts formed, as it were, the gigantic border of this horn of plenty which poured itself out before him.Far below he could see the harbours, the squares, the interiors of the courts, the plan of the streets, and the people, who seemed very small and but little above the level of the pavement.Ah! if Hanno had not arrived too late on the morning of the Aegatian islands! He fastened his eyes on the extreme horizon and stretched forth his quivering arms in the direction of Rome.