Salammbo and her guide did not stop.
Deserted plains succeeded one another.

Charcoal dust which was raised by their feet behind them, stretched in unequal trails over large spaces of perfectly white soil.

Sometimes they came upon little peaceful spots, where a brook flowed amid the long grass; and as they ascended the other bank Salammbo would pluck damp leaves to cool her hands.

At the corner of a wood of rose-bays her horse shied violently at the corpse of a man which lay extended on the ground.
The slave immediately settled her again on the cushions.

He was one of the servants of the Temple, a man whom Schahabarim used to employ on perilous missions.
With extreme precaution he now went on foot beside her and between the horses; he would whip the animals with the end of a leathern lace wound round his arm, or would perhaps take balls made of wheat, dates, and yolks of eggs wrapped in lotus leaves from a scrip hanging against his breast, and offer them to Salammbo without speaking, and running all the time.
In the middle of the day three Barbarians clad in animals' skins crossed their path.