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Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history

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Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right

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Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Walt Disney once said, all

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Speaker 1: our dreams can come true if we have the courage

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Speaker 1: to pursue them. Throughout history, artists, scientists, and scholars have

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Speaker 1: worked tirelessly to solve life's greatest mysteries and provide a

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Speaker 1: greater understanding of the world. This sort of work takes dedication,

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Speaker 1: though it takes time and effort, late nights and long hours.

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Speaker 1: But keep it up for long and you can wear

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Speaker 1: a person down. That's what happened to a seriologist, Hermann Helpricht,

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Speaker 1: although it was his pursuit of a dream that shed

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Speaker 1: new light on Assyria, the ancient Mesopotamian kingdom. In eighteen

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Speaker 1: eighty three, Herman was studying some sketches sent to him

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Speaker 1: by the University of Pennsylvania. Their excavation team had been

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Speaker 1: digging at the Temple of Bell at Nippur when they

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Speaker 1: unearthed pieces of agate. Agate is a type of rock

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Speaker 1: teaming with miniature crystals, and while most of the agate

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Speaker 1: found at the site was fairly standard in look and composition.

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Speaker 1: Two fragments stood apart as different from the others. Archaeologists

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Speaker 1: theorized they were parts of an ancient finger ring, but

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Speaker 1: Herman wasn't so sure. Unfortunately, there was only so much

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Speaker 1: he could learn from the drawings. Still, he poured over

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Speaker 1: them for hours, looking for possible connections or translations in

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Speaker 1: the characters inscribed along the edges. On one were the

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Speaker 1: letters K and you, but without more that wasn't helpful.

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Speaker 1: Whatever was written on the other ring was unclear. The

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Speaker 1: mystery bothered Herman until late one night. That night, as

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Speaker 1: he drifted to sleep, he slipped into a dream. And

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Speaker 1: in this dream, a man approached him, an old and

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Speaker 1: slender priest. He wore ancient ceremonial garb, and he led

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Speaker 1: Herman to a chamber within the temple that was filled

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Speaker 1: with treasure. Within the chamber was a small room with

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Speaker 1: no windows. Herman had to crawl to get inside, But

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Speaker 1: once he was in there he found a wooden chest

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Speaker 1: surrounded by pieces of agate. And that's when the priest

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Speaker 1: told him of a command issued by a king called

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Speaker 1: Curry gal Zoo to the Assyrian people. The king had

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Speaker 1: sent them a vote of cylinder made of agates and

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Speaker 1: told them to fashion agates ear rings for a statue

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Speaker 1: of the god Ninib. However, the Assyrians had no raw

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Speaker 1: agate except for the cylinder that they had been given

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Speaker 1: by the king. With no other choice, they cut it

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Speaker 1: into three rings. The first two rings possessed part of

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Speaker 1: the king's inscription and were used as the statue's ear rings.

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Speaker 1: The priest told Herman that the third ring was lost

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Speaker 1: and would never be founding in and after that, Herman

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Speaker 1: awoke from his dream and ran back to his desk.

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Speaker 1: He pulled out the drawings, searching them again for some

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Speaker 1: kind of sign, and then he saw what the priest

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Speaker 1: had been talking about. The pieces in theory could be

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Speaker 1: fitted together to form one ring. However, he wouldn't know

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Speaker 1: until he got his hands on the real things. When

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Speaker 1: he told the story of how he came to his

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Speaker 1: conclusion to his American colleagues at the university, they laughed

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Speaker 1: at him. Dreams were not an academic solution to a

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Speaker 1: historical problem like this. Nevertheless, he took his findings and

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Speaker 1: his story to the Imperial Museum in Constantinople, where the

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Speaker 1: actual fragments were being kept. The director of the museum

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Speaker 1: there listened to Herman talk about his dream, and did

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Speaker 1: so with respect and understanding. He wasn't so sure about

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Speaker 1: the meaning that Herman had interpreted from it, since the

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Speaker 1: fragments were of different colors and didn't appear to be

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Speaker 1: connected in any way, but he indulged the archaeologist any

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Speaker 1: and had the agate fragments brought out from storage. Herman

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Speaker 1: picked them up and examined them in the light. The

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Speaker 1: drawings hadn't done them justice. He placed them together just

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Speaker 1: as the priest had described in his dream, and to

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Speaker 1: his surprise, they fit perfectly, creating a larger slice of

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Speaker 1: a vote of cylinder. And just like that, part one

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Speaker 1: of the puzzle had been solved. But there was more.

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Speaker 1: With the pieces assembled, Herman was able to see the

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Speaker 1: full inscription, and that allowed him to translate it. It

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Speaker 1: dedicated the cylinder to the same god named in his dream,

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Speaker 1: the god Ninib, and declared that it had been a

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Speaker 1: gift from a very familiar king, King Kurigalzu, again first

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Speaker 1: mentioned in his dream. In the end, doctor Hermann Helpricht

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Speaker 1: was just like any of us. He had an impossible

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Speaker 1: dream and was surrounded by people who had a difficult

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Speaker 1: time believing in his potential, But like any true hero,

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Speaker 1: he pursued it despite their protests, and in the process

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Speaker 1: he taught a valuable lesson. It seems that with a

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Speaker 1: lot of hard work and a little bit of faith,

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Speaker 1: we really can make a dream come true. Ramen Drona

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Speaker 1: Ryan Roy was the second son of the Rajah bah Wal.

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Speaker 1: At the turn of the twentieth century, Roy, along with

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Speaker 1: his two brothers, were set to inherit half of East

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Speaker 1: Bengal in India. Roy's father, the Rajah, died in nineteen

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Speaker 1: o one, and his sons were next in line to

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Speaker 1: take over, but Roy had other priorities. He was wealthy,

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Speaker 1: of course, and he spent much of his time hunting

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Speaker 1: and partying, But he also had a weakness for women

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Speaker 1: and was involved in several extramarital affairs. But his desire

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Speaker 1: for fun had come at a price. He reportedly had

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Speaker 1: contracted syphilis. Over the span of four years, the disease

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Speaker 1: spread throughout his body. By then he couldn't ignore it

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Speaker 1: any longer. Roy, along with his wife and his brother

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Speaker 1: in law, all traveled to Darjeeling for treatment, a journey

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Speaker 1: of almost four hundred miles. Not long after he arrived, though,

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Speaker 1: Roy passed away from what they say were gallstones. His

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Speaker 1: wife had his body cremated. The following day, a funeral

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Speaker 1: was held. And if that seems like a pretty quick

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Speaker 1: timeline to you, you're not the only one. Back home

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Speaker 1: in Bawal, others felt the same, and they asked Roy's

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Speaker 1: wife what had happened in Darjeeling at what time was

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Speaker 1: he cremated? Was she sure it was him? But without

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Speaker 1: a body or other witnesses, the questions faded and the

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Speaker 1: family moved on. Roy's widow moved in with her brother,

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Speaker 1: and over the next decade, Roy's other brothers also passed away,

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Speaker 1: without an heir to inherit their fortune. Instead, the court

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Speaker 1: took over as wards and administered the estate on behalf

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Speaker 1: of their widows. And that's where Roy's story should have ended.

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Speaker 1: But something changed, you see, exactly eleven years after Roy

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Speaker 1: had been cremated, a religious ascetic known as a sun

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Speaker 1: Yasi came to town. When he first was spotted near

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Speaker 1: the home of Roy's wife, his hair was matted down

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Speaker 1: and his skin was covered in ash, but there was

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Speaker 1: still something else about him. For one, he was in

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Speaker 1: great shape for a man who had lived on the

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Speaker 1: streets for so long. And Secondly, something familiar about him

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Speaker 1: caught the attention of many who saw him. Specifically, they

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Speaker 1: noted his uncanny resemblance to the Prince of bah Wall,

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Speaker 1: the one who had died in Darjeeling. Eventually, one of

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Speaker 1: Roy's nephews visited the man, but the ascetic was quick

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Speaker 1: to tell him that he wasn't his uncle. Regardless, the

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Speaker 1: local population was convinced that this man was the late

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Speaker 1: prince back from the dead, and his words spread far

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Speaker 1: and wide. The ascetic finally gave up pretending and admitted

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Speaker 1: the truth. Yes, he was, in fact the lost Prince.

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Speaker 1: Roy's wife was furious and refused to see him, calling

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Speaker 1: him an impostor. Without hesitation, She claimed he was just

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Speaker 1: a stranger after the family's money, but some think her

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Speaker 1: avoidance might have been for another reason. She didn't want

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Speaker 1: to ruin all her hard work and trying to get

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Speaker 1: rid of him. Once the man's identity was made public,

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Speaker 1: he explained what had happened in his trip, how his wife,

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Speaker 1: with the help of her brother, had poisoned him and

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Speaker 1: tried to incinerate the body to hide the evidence amazingly, though,

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Speaker 1: when he was about to be cremated, a violent hail

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Speaker 1: storm sent everyone fleeing for shelter. During that time, a

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Speaker 1: group of ascetics had found him and took him in.

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Speaker 1: They helped his body to heal, but the ordeal had

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Speaker 1: caused severe memory loss in his mind. As a result,

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Speaker 1: he spent the next decade roaming around India until his

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Speaker 1: memories eventually came back. After consulting with his guru, he

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Speaker 1: decided to return home. His would be sisters questioned him

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Speaker 1: and checked him for signs of his real identity. While

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Speaker 1: his memory was hit or miss, he did remember the

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Speaker 1: names of servants who had worked for the family over

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Speaker 1: the years. He also possessed the birth marks that they

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Speaker 1: had hoped to find. They believed his story, although many

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Speaker 1: did not. Roy's widow refused to accept him as her

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Speaker 1: deceased husband, especially when he filed a motion to be

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Speaker 1: reinstated as heir to the Bawhal inheritance. For months, he

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Speaker 1: argued his case against the corrupt owners of the estate.

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Speaker 1: They submitted forged documents, which the courts quickly dismissed, and

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Speaker 1: in the end, it was the physical evidence that proved

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Speaker 1: the truth the man who had been discovered meditating in

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Speaker 1: the streets was in fact the lost Prince of bah Wall.

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Speaker 1: The wards of his estates continued to put up a

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Speaker 1: fight for years, but they ultimately failed to disprove the

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Speaker 1: man's identity. Twenty five years after he'd shown up in

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Speaker 1: Dhaka Rahman, Dranna Ryan Roy had finally come home, but

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Speaker 1: he didn't get to celebrate for long. On the night

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Speaker 1: of the final verdict, Roy traveled to the Kali Temple

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Speaker 1: to pray. On his way home home, he suffered a

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Speaker 1: stroke and collapsed on the road. Two days later, he

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Speaker 1: passed away, this time for real, and just like that,

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Speaker 1: the unbelievable family reunion tragically came to an end. I

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Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.

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Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about

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Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show

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Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,

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Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and

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Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World

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Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious,