50 CENTURIES OLD

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXV, Issue 12304, 19 April 1937, Page 3

50 CENTURIES OLD

TWO LITTLE MICE FROM EGYPT We have long heard of the three blind mice and the mouse than ran up the clock, but it is news that two mice have been brought from darkness to light by the X-rays. Never have two mice had a queerer hiding-place, and few can have stayed in it so long, for they have been tucked away for over 50 centuries. They were found in a mummy. Experts examining ,au Egyptian mummy in a New York museum came upon their skeletons deep among the wrappings. The X-rays showed that the body had been richly ornamented with costly jewels. Then, under three inches of bandages, and in company with jewels worth a fortune, the experts found two little mice, companions for Wall, thought to be a relative of a highcourt dignitary. How did they get there? No one knows. It is thought they may have been wrapped up with the body for some ceremonial reason; but it seems much more likely that the embalraers left the mummy halfbandaged one day, and that while they were away the mice began to play. When the embalmers came back the mice ran for the nearest hiding-place, burrowing among the wrappings where they were imprisoned. At any rate, no opening for them to have got in since can be seen; and there they lie to this day, two mice which ran about the Old World over 5000 years before they went to the New.