In my astonishment I uttered an
ejaculation, and the echoes of my voice, ringing in the vaulted space,
disturbed a skull that had been accurately balanced for many thousands
of years near the apex of the pile. Down it came with a run, bounding
along merrily towards us, and of course bringing an avalanche of other
bones after it, till at last the whole pit rattled with their movement,
even as though the skeletons were getting up to greet us.
"Come," I said, "I have seen enough. These are the bodies of those who
died of the great sickness, is it not so?" I added, as we turned away.
"Yea. The people of Kor ever embalmed their dead, as did the Egyptians,
but their art was greater than the art of the Egyptians, for, whereas
the Egyptians disembowelled and drew the brain, the people of Kor
injected fluid into the veins, and thus reached every part. But stay,
thou shalt see," and she halted at haphazard at one of the little
doorways opening out of the passage along which we were walking, and
motioned to the mutes to light us in.
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