the length of the
horses as far as the necks, and they mount them upon the wheels; and the
front pieces of wheel support the shoulders of the horses, while those
behind bear up their bellies, going by the side of the thighs; and both
front and hind legs hang in the air. On the horses they put bridles and
bits, and stretch the bridles tight in front of them and then tie them
up to pegs: and of the fifty young men who have been strangled they
mount each one upon his horse, having first 71 run a straight stake
through each body along by the spine up to the neck; and a part of this
stake projects below, which they fasten into a socket made in the other
stake that runs through the horse. Having set horsemen such as I have
described in a circle round the tomb, they then ride away.

73. Thus they bury their kings; but as for the other Scythians, when
they die their nearest relations carry them round laid in waggons to
their friends in succession; and of them each one when he receives the
body entertains those who accompany it, and before the corpse they serve
up of all things about the same quantity as before the others. Thus
private persons are carried about for forty days, and then they are
buried: and after burying them the Scythians cleanse themselves in the
following way:--they soap their heads and wash them well, and then, for
their body, they set up three stakes leaning towards one another and
about them they stretch woollen felt coverings, and when they have
closed them as much as possible they throw stones heated red-hot into a
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 flax
except in thickness and in height, for in these respects the hemp is
much superior. This grows both of itself and with cultivation; and of
it the Thracians even make garments, which are very like those made of
flaxen thread, so that he who was not specially conversant with it would
not be able to decide whether the garments were of flax or of hemp; and
he who had not before seen stuff woven of hemp would suppose that the
garment was made of flax.

75. The Scythians then take the seed of this hemp and creep under the
felt coverings, and then they throw the seed upon the stones which have
been heated red-hot: and it burns like incense and produces a vapour so
think that no vapour-bath in Hellas would surpass it: and the Scythians
being delighted with the vapour