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When a year is gone by, further ceremonies take place. Fifty of the
best of the late king's attendants are taken, all native Scythians -
for, as bought slaves are unknown in the country, the Scythian kings
choose any of their subjects that they like, to wait on them - fifty
of these are taken and strangled, with fifty of the most beautiful
horses. When they are dead, their bowels are taken out, and the
cavity cleaned, filled full of chaff, and straightway sewn up again.
This done, a number of posts are driven into the ground, in sets of
two pairs each, and on every pair half the felly of a wheel is placed
archwise; then strong stakes are run lengthways through the bodies of
the horses from tail to neck, and they are mounted up upon the
fellies, so that the felly in front supports the shoulders of the
horse, while that behind sustains the belly and quarters, the legs
dangling in mid-air; each horse is furnished with a bit and bridle,
which latter is stretched out in front of the horse, and fastened to a
peg. The fifty strangled youths are then mounted severally on the
fifty horses. To effect this, a second stake is passed through their
bodies along the course of the spine to the neck; the lower end of
which projects from the body, and is fixed into a socket, made in the
stake that runs lengthwise down the horse. The fifty riders are thus
ranged in a circle round the tomb, and so left.
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