Besides the elephant, we saw a hippopotamus, or river horse, and a couple of rhinoceroses, with their big horns. The whole of these were a portion of the tribute (consisting of ivory, tame elephants, and other animals), which had been imposed by the sacred suffect upon the subjugated Libyans on the Bagradas, and which happened now to be on its transit to the Bozrah.
A well-known voice, harsh and sonorous, at this instant caught my ear, and turning round, I saw Jonah towering head and shoulders above the crowd, and encircled by a group of my sailors, all in roars of laughter.
"Now, at last," the trumpeter was saying, "I am where I wanted to be! Now I am in the land of strange beasts! This is the first animal I ever saw in my life with two tails, one behind and one at the end of his nose! I wonder how many onions it would take to season the carcase of such a brute as that! I wonder, too, how long it would take a fellow to eat it!"
Leaving the sailors to their diversions, we bent our steps towards the market, where red-skinned Libyans, with aquiline noses and long plaited hair, were being offered for sale. Entering a tent where provisions of all kinds were sold, I ordered some refreshments for myself and my party, and a Syrian slave, who was serving instead of the owner, brought us two guinea-fowls, some stewed beans and onions, some olives, bread, and very fair Helbon wine. Hannibal seated himself near the stove to feast his eyes upon the wheat-and-honey cakes that were being fried upon the top.
We had not long been in the refreshment-booth before Himilco and Gisgo made their appearance; they were followed by a dancing-girl and three other girls, one playing the flute, and two the tambourine. The dancing-girl was one of the western Moors; she had a copper-coloured complexion, and her hair twisted in coils like so many serpents; her nails and eyebrows were dyed red; her face was tattooed with three parallel stripes in regular Mahouârin fashion; and on her wrists and ankles she wore rattles that clanked again as she moved. The flute-player was a native of Barbary, with a fair skin and light hair, parted over a high, narrow forehead. Both girls were dressed alike in gay skirts, open as high as the knees; in their hair they had bodkins, of which the heads were grotesque figures; their necklaces and girdles were of glass and enamel; and their earrings were great crosses. The tambourine-players were inconceivably ugly; one of them appeared to belong to the Rasennæ, and the other had her face so daubed with red and blue paint, and made such hideous grimaces, that it was idle to speculate upon her nationality.
Himilco was in high spirits; he came up to me and said that he and Gisgo had been spending the morning in going from tavern to tavern, and that they had engaged the orchestra, which we now saw, to accompany them for the day wherever they went, and to entertain them while they regaled themselves.
"Poor girls!" said Abigail; "are they obliged to perform for all the sailors alike?"
"No, indeed," I replied; "they take good care never to perform unless they are well paid, and I suppose there is not much hardship in that."
The Libyan had now commenced her performance. We stayed for a few minutes watching her contortions, and then left the tent.
The first person we met in the square was Hamilcar, carrying a monkey.