"Where is my temple? Where are my Amazons?
"What is this I feel?--I, the Incorruptible!--a strange faintness comes upon me!"...
(_Her flowers wither, her over-ripe fruits become detached and fall. The lions and the bulls hang their heads; the deer foam at the mouth, with a slimy foam, as though exhausted; the buzzing bees die upon the ground._
_She presses her breasts, one after the other. All are empty! But under a desperate effort her sheath bursts. She seizes it by the bottom, like the skirt of a robe, throws her animals, her fruits, her flowers, into it,--then withdraws into the darkness._
_And afar off there are voices, murmuring, growling, roaring, bellowing, belling. The density of the night is augmented by breaths. Drops of warm rain fall._)
ANTHONY. "How sweet the odour of the palm trees, the trembling of leaves, the transparency of springs! I feel the desire to lie flat upon the Earth that I might feel her against my heart; and my life would be reinvigorated by her eternal youth!"
(_He hears the sound of castanets and of cymbals; and men appear, clad in white tunics with red stripes,--leading through the midst of a rustic crowd an ass, richly harnessed, its tail decorated with knots of ribbons, and its hoofs painted._
_A box, covered with a saddle-cloth[6] of yellow material shakes to and fro upon its back, between two baskets,--one receives the offerings contributed,--eggs, grapes, pears, cheeses, fowls, little coins; and the other basket is full of roses, which the leaders of the ass pluck to pieces as they walk before the animal, shedding the leaves upon the ground._
_They wear earrings and large mantles; their locks are plaited, their cheeks painted, olive-wreaths are fastened upon their foreheads by medallions bearing figurines;--all wear poniards in their belts, and brandish ebony-handled whips, having three thongs to which osselets are attached._[7]
_Those who form the rear of the procession, place upon the soil,--so as to remain upright as a candelabrum,--a tall pine, which burns at its summit, and shades under its lower branches a lamb._
_The ass halts. The saddle-cloth is removed. Underneath appears a second covering of black felt. Then one of the men in white tunics begins to dance, rattling his crotali;--another, kneeling before the box, beats a tambourine and_--)