It was not long till they came upon the
old blanket--I think, they said not much more than a foot from the
surface. They tore that open, and there was the hay-rope lying
stretched down alongst his breast, so fresh that they saw at first
sight that it was made of risp, a sort of long sword-grass that
grows about marshes and the sides of lakes. One of the young
men seized the rope and pulled by it, but the old enchantment of
the Devil remained--it would not break; and so he pulled and
pulled at it, till behold the body came up into a sitting posture,
with a broad blue bonnet on its head, and its plaid around it, all as
fresh as that day it was laid in! I never heard of a preservation so
wonderful, if it be true as was related to me, for still I have not
had the curiosity to go and view the body myself. The features
were all so plain that an acquaintance might easily have known
him. One of the lads gripped the face of the corpse with his finger
and thumb, and the cheeks felt quite soft and fleshy, but the
dimples remained and did not spring out again. He had fine
yellow hair, about nine inches long; but not a hair of it could they
pull out till they cut part of it off with a knife.
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