nd
our relations wished to bury her this morning. According to an old
usage of our family, however, all are to repose in the sepulchre of
our fathers; many who have died in foreign lands, nevertheless sleep
there embalmed. To my relations now I grant the body, but to my father
must I bring at least the head of his daughter, that he may see it
once again."

In this custom of severing the head from near relatives there was to
me, indeed, something awful; nevertheless, I ventured to say nothing
against it, through fear of offending the Unknown. I told him,
therefore, that I was well acquainted with the art of embalming the
dead, and asked him to lead me to the body. Notwithstanding, I could
not keep myself from inquiring why all this must be done so secretly
in the night. He answered me that his relations, who considered his
purpose inhuman, would prevent him from accomplishing it by day; but
only let the head once be cut off, and they could say little more
about it: he could, indeed, have brought the head to me, but a natural
feeling prevented him from cutting it off himself.

These words brought us to a large splendid house; my companion pointed
it out to me as the termination of our nocturnal walk. We passed the
principal door, and entering a small gate, which the stranger
carefully closed after him, ascended, in the dark, a narrow, winding
staircase. This brought us to a dimly-lighted corridor, from which we
entered an apartment; a lamp, suspended from the ceiling, shed its
brilliant rays around.

In this chamber stood a bed, on which lay the corpse; the Unknown
turned away his face, as if wishing to conceal his tears. He beckoned
me to the bed, and bidding me set about my business speedily yet
carefully, went out by the door.

I seized my knives, which, as a physician, I constantly carried with
me, and approached the bed. Only the head of the corpse was visible,
but that was so beautiful that the deepest compassion involuntarily
came over me. In long braids the dark hair hung down; the face was
pale, the eyes closed. At first, I made an incision in the skin,
according to the practice of surgeons when they remove a limb. Then I
took my sharpest knife and cut entirely through the throat. But,
horror! the dead opened her eyes--shut them again--and in a deep sigh
seemed now, for the first time, to breathe forth her life! Straightway
a stream of hot blood sprang forth from the wound. I was convinced
that I had killed