bending the knees, suddenly swayed her lithe body downward, so that her
chin touched the floor; and her whole audience,--the nomads, accustomed
to a life of privation and abstinence, the Roman soldiers, expert in
debaucheries, the avaricious publicans, and even the crabbed, elderly
priests--gazed upon her with dilated nostrils.

Next she began to whirl frantically around the table where Antipas the
tetrarch was seated. He leaned towards the flying figure, and in a voice
half choked with the voluptuous sighs of a mad desire, he sighed: "Come
to me! Come!" But she whirled on, while the music of dulcimers swelled
louder and the excited spectators roared their applause.

The tetrarch called again, louder than before: "Come to me! Come! Thou
shalt have Capernaum, the plains of Tiberias! my citadels! yea, the half
of my kingdom!"

Again the dancer paused; then, like a flash, she threw herself upon the
palms of her hands, while her feet rose straight up into the air. In
this bizarre pose she moved about upon the floor like a gigantic beetle;
then stood motionless.

The nape of her neck formed a right angle with her vertebrae. The full
silken skirts of pale hues that enveloped her limbs when she stood
erect, now fell to her shoulders and surrounded her face like a rainbow.
Her lips were tinted a deep crimson, her arched eyebrows were black
as jet, her glowing eyes had an almost terrible radiance; and the tiny
drops of perspiration on her forehead looked like dew upon white marble.

She made no sound; and the burning gaze of that multitude of men was
concentrated upon her.