Note 1 — PROLOGUE
Moreby Acklom translation
Captain Jacques Bressond fell on the French front, July 28, 1917, in the attack on the Chemin des Dames. At the bottom of his dispatch case among the personal souvenirs which he had asked me to send to his family if he was killed, there lay a large yellow, commercial-looking envelope with the inscription "For Jean." In the envelope there were the pages that follow, accompanied by a roll of parchment covered with unknown characters, probably in the Banhar language. My sole care has been to see to the publication of Bressond's text with a mixed feeling of respect and tenderness for his heroic death and friendship for the man himself. Although the names given by Bressond are real ones I have not changed a single word of his story, for the correctness of which I take full responsibility.
J. d'E.