They were all seated about a stone table at the
end of which were the remains of a man. My father saw the bodies near
the ruins of some forest city, in the tomb over which was heaped a great
mound of earth. That of the lady, which had a kind of shroud made of the
skins of long-wooled sheep wrapped about it as though to preserve the
dress beneath, had been embalmed in some way, which the natives of the
place, wherever it was, told him showed that she was royal. The others
were mere skeletons, held together by the skin, but the man had a long
fair beard and hair still hanging to his skull, and by his side was a
great cross-hilted sword that crumbled to fragments when it was touched,
except the hilt and the knob of amber upon it which had turned almost
black with age. I think my father said that the packet of skins or
parchment of which the underside is badly rotted with damp was set under
the feet of the man. He told me that he gave those who found the tomb a
great deal of money for the dress, gold ornaments, and emerald necklace,
as nothing so perfect had been found before, and the cloth is all worked
with gold thread.
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