Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 244, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 October 1910 — What a Queer Mummy Lid [ARTICLE]

What a Queer Mummy Lid

A GOOD deal has been written lately about the ‘malignant mummy at the British museum —or, rather, the lid of the coffin that contained the mummy; for, of course, there is no mummy in this particular case. It is merely a lid that is reported to have brought so many personal disasters in its train. A well-known physician, who is interested in Egyptology, was asked his opinion concerning the strange case of the mummy of the priestess that has aroused so much curious interest. “I think,” he said, “that the mummy having been torn to pieces, the spirit of the priestess strives to remalb in contact with the only material thing that is left in touch with her, namely, the lid of the coffin. This is the opinion of most occultists. The spirit of the priestess has attached itself to the case, which is a sort of physical basis.” “But why so malignant,” this authority was asked, “as to bring about, according to reports, all sorts of disasters and accidents to persons at the present day?” “if,” he> explained, “it is true that the mummy was torn to pieces it was a fearful desecration, and quite enough to make the priestess furious. Some persons who try to get into communication with her by occult means say, also, she was very badly treated and put to death cruelly. Of this, however, I have no proof. “It has been said that the curse of Egypt never leaves a man after he has taken part in the violation of the chambers of the dead. It follows him to the’sacred spaces and comes forth upon him in the occult world. “I recall the case of a real mummy which was brought to England, in which a papyrus was,found, the substance of which was that the person who desecrated the mummy would be torn to pieces by a ferocious animal in a foreign land and would be deprived of burial. Some time afterward

one of the persons connected with it went to Africa to shoot elephants. He wounded a gigantic animal, that charged at him and literally tore him to pieces with its trunk and feet. The attendants fled in terror, and when they returned, only fragments of his body remained.” “And what would yo do,” he was asked, “with the coffin lid at the British museum that is supposed to have caused so much mischief?” “I would leave it,” he replied, “where it is. Beyond *a recent case of a young lady who made great fun of it, and thereafter met with a serious accident, the disasters that were reported to be so numerous on its first arrival at the museum have apparently ceased. If it is true that the spirit is earth-bound, and is attached to the case, it would only cause fur-

ther trouble if the lid were now destroyed. It would be different, of course, if the mummy could be restored; but, as it is, I don’t think anything can be done. “I rather wonder, however, that the authorities at the museum have not removed it, for they do not like a number of persons who are inquiring into the occult going and staring at it. There was a very fine and rather curious scarabaeus which they y■emoved on the ground that they were not certain that it was genuine. It was in a glass case, and whenever I placed my lingers upon it I perceived a heating and tingling of the hands. Others found the same curious effect. I tried it several times with the same result, but I did not find the same effect with the other scarabael. Why it was I do not know.”