The black hair of this woman was adorned with a coronet of scarlet
flowers and hung loose about her; her feet and arms were naked, and in
each hand she held a knife of bronze. Very slowly she began to dance,
her painted lips parted as though to speak, and her eyes, brightened
with pigments, turned up to heaven. By degrees her movements grew more
rapid, till at length, as she whirled round, her long locks streamed
out straight upon the air and the crown of flowers looked like a scarlet
ring. Suddenly the bronze knife in her right hand flashed, and a spot
of red appeared above her left breast; then the knife in the left hand
flashed, and another spot appeared over the right breast. At each stroke
the multitude cried, "_Ah!_" as with one voice, and then were silent.
Now the maddened dancer, ceasing her whirlings, leapt high into the
air, clashing the knives above her head and crying, "Hear me, hear me,
Baaltis!"
Again she leapt, and this time the answer that came from her lips was
spoken in another voice, which said, "I am present. What seek you?"
A third time the priestess leapt, replying in her own voice, "Health for
thy servant who is sick." Then came the answer in the second voice--"I
hear you, but I see no sacrifice."
"What sacrifice would'st thou, O Queen? A dove?"
"Nay."
"What then, Queen?"
"One only, the first-born child of a woman."
As this command, which they supposed to be divine and from above, issued
out of the lips of the gashed and bleeding Pythoness, the multitude that
hitherto had listened in perfect silence, shouted aloud, while the girl
herself, utterly exhausted, fell to the earth swooning.
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