How beautiful is the Princess Salome to-night!

   Look at the moon. How strange the moon seems! She is like a woman rising from a tomb. She is like a dead woman. One might fancy she was looking for dead things.

   She has a strange look. She is like a little princess who wears a yellow veil, and whose feet are of silver. She is like a princess who has little white doves for feet. One might fancy she was dancing.

   She is like a woman who is dead. She moves very slowly.

   What an uproar! Who are those wild beasts howling?

   The Jews. They are always like that. They are disputing about their religion.

   Why do they dispute about their religion?

   I cannot tell. They are always doing it. The Pharisees, for instance, say that there are angels, and the Sadducees declare that angels do not exist.

   I think it is ridiculous to dispute about such things.

   How beautiful is the Princess Salome to-night!

   You are always looking at her. You look at

   She is very beautiful to-night.

   The Tetrarch has a sombre aspect.

   Yes; he has a sombre aspect.

   He is looking at something.

   He is looking at some one.

   At whom is he looking?

   I cannot tell.

   How pale the Princess is! Never have I seen her so pale. She is like the shadow of a white rose in a mirror of silver.

   You must not look at her. You look too much at her.

   Herodias has filled the cup of the Tetrarch.

   Is that the Queen Herodias, she who wears a black mitre sewed with pearls, and whose hair is powdered with blue dust?

   Yes; that is Herodias, the Tetrarch's wife.

   The Tetrarch is very fond of wine. He has wine of three sorts. One which is brought from the Island of Samothrace, and is purple like the cloak of Cæsar.

   I have never seen Cæsar.

   Another that comes from a town called Cyprus, and is as yellow as gold.

   I love gold.

   And the third is a wine of Sicily. That wine is as red as blood.

   The gods of my country are very fond of blood. Twice in the year we sacrifice to them young men and maidens: fifty young men and a hundred maidens. But I am afraid that we never give them quite enough, for they are very harsh to us.

   In my country there are no gods left. The Romans have driven them out. There are some who say that they have hidden themselves in the mountains, but I do not believe it. Three nights I have been on the mountains seeking them everywhere. I did not find them, and at last I called them by their names, and they did not come. I think they are dead.

   The Jews worship a God that one cannot see.

   I cannot understand that.

   In fact, they only believe in things that one cannot see.