herodotus

place is. After that, having placed the corpse in the tomb upon a bedof leaves, they stick spears along on this side and that of the corpseand stretch pieces of wood over them, and then they cover the place inwith matting. Then they strangle and bury in the remaining space ofthe tomb one of the king's mistresses, his cup-bearer, his cook, hishorse-keeper, his attendant, and his bearer of messages, and alsohorses, and a first portion of all things else, and cups of gold; forsilver they do not use at all, nor yet bronze.[70] Having thus donethey all join together to pile up a great mound, vying with oneanother and zealously endeavouring to make it as large as possible.72. Afterwards, when the year comes round again, they do as follows:--they take the most capable of the remaining servants,--and these arenative Scythians, for those serve him whom the king himself commandsto do so, and his servants are not bought for money,--of theseattendants then they strangle fifty and also fifty of the finesthorses; and when they have taken out their bowels and cleansed thebelly, they fill it with chaff and sew it together again. Then theyset the half of a wheel upon two stakes with the hollow side upwards,and the other half of the wheel upon other two stakes, and in thismanner they fix a number of these; and after this they run thickstakes through the length of the horses as far as the necks, and theymount them upon the wheels; and the front pieces of wheel support theshoulders of the horses, while those behind bear up their bellies,going by the side of the thighs; and both front and hind legs hang inthe air. On the horses they put bridles and bits, and stretch thebridles tight in front of them and then tie them up to pegs: and ofthe fifty young men who have been strangled they mount each one uponhis horse, having first[71] run a straight stake through each bodyalong by the spine up to the neck; and a part of this stake projectsbelow, which they fasten into a socket made in the other stake thatruns through the horse. Having set horsemen such as I have describedin a circle round the tomb, they then ride away. 73. Thus they burytheir kings; but as for the other Scythians, when they die theirnearest relations carry them round laid in waggons to their friends insuccession; and of them each one when he receives the body entertainsthose who accompany it, and before the corpse they serve up of allthings about the same quantity as before the others. Thus privatepersons are carried about for forty days, and then they are buried:and after burying them the Scythians cleanse themselves in thefollowing way:--they soap their heads and wash them well, and then,for their body, they set up three stakes leaning towards one anotherand about them they stretch woollen felt coverings, and when they haveclosed them as much as possible they throw stones heated red-hot intoa basin placed in the middle of the stakes and the felt coverings. 74.Now they have hemp growing in their land, which is very like flaxexcept in thickness and in height, for in these respects the hemp is