elissa , the half-phoenician , had a tale that was both scabrous and oddly touching about a one-legged phoenician sailor and a seventy-year-old egyptian temple dancer ; tanaquil , once she had stopped nearly snorting her mouthful of wine over the tablecloth at the dirty but apposite conclusion , put on a straight face and told a mournful story of human sacrifice she 'd learned from an augur in velzna .