“UNLUCKY MUMMY.”

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 17 November 1924, Page 2

“UNLUCKY MUMMY.”

EVIL GENIUS. FAMOUS EGYPTIAN RELIC. Tile evil snirit winch haunted the famous “Uulucky Mummy” of the British Museum has now 'been “killed.” ' Eot sdiue ; three years its baleful influence. Which it once cast upon anyone whom it thought, antagonistic, has been _ destroyed. As far as can be termined—and many Egyptologists and spiritualists have made’ the relic a special study—not a single case of injury or bad luck has attended people who have approached it. “The Unlucky mummy” is tenllv only the mummy case lid of “ah unnamed priestess of the college of Amend? a”—Exhibit No. 22,542. It stands in the long glass case on the left-hand side of the First Egyptian Gallery. The lid is yellow, with dark green wings, and is noted for being the finest and freshest example in existence of the art of the period. Its record in London was until recently as disastrous as its record in ®Sypt. Instance after instance has been vouched for by people who have blade disparaging remarks about e ‘ superstition ’ ’ before the mummy lid. and have afterwards met with serious trouble. Photographers who tried to take a picture of the lid failed to obtain any result, or found on the plate a malignantly evil female face. One photographer slipped and broke his nose after such an attempt, and on arriving home found that his child had met with a serious, accident. The Oeciiit Review and daily newspapers have reported many such cases. A visitor to the Museum who said “What an ugly old hag!” fell from his bicycle and broke his arm as he left. A woman who had made a disparaging remark about the lid set herself on fire by accident the same evening, and was so badly disfigured that she cannot yet leave her home. The iid Whs bought iii by an Englishman from a. wandering band of Arabs, who* had destroyed the mummy it contained because such disasters fell on their tribe while it was in their possession. This Englishman’s fight afm was blown off by his own gun when he had been in possession of t.he°lid only a few hours. This “unknown priestess” was named Amen-6tu, and lived, in the temple of Amen-Ra, three-quarters of a mile outside the gates of Alexandria. An extraordinary amount of interest is being aroused by a story, published in a London newspaper, to the effect that two outwardly commonplace Englishmen—Mr. Wyeth, and Mr. Neal—have destroyed the malignant spirit which haunted the “Unlucky Mummy.” Mr. Wyeth has studied spiritualism and theosophy for some years. ' Mr. Neal claims to possess the uncanny power of a seer—he can, he saysi, 'perceive when people are troubled by “elementals” (or disembodied spirits), and can actually see the “elemental” whenever lie Wishes. Mr. Wyeth declares that he lias the power to destroy such ‘ ‘ spirits, ’ ’ although he himself never sees them. The two men, who are being asked to lecture everywhere* visited the British Museum together; “I saw the elemental almost at once,” says Mr. Neal. “It appeared ,on the breast of the lid of the mummy ease, above the hands. It was like a mop, with a flat face in itj flat as a jelly-fish. “I called to Wyeth, ‘Look out—there it is!’ Wyeth didn’t see it* but I felt, rather than saw, a flame-like sub 7 stance passing from Wyeth towards the mummy, and a minute afterwards everything was clear and natural. ’ ’ Since that day it is stated* nothing strange has occurred about the mummy case lid. It is indeed an amazing story.