PHARAOH’S CURSE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 299, 4 December 1935, Page 9

PHARAOH’S CURSE

Death of Egyptologist DISCOVERER OF TOMB By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright NEW YORK, Dee. 2. The death to-day of Professor James Henry Breasted, tho noted cgyptologist, lias revived the myth of Tutankhamen’s curse. Professor Breasted, who was on** of the discoverers of.the Pharaoh’s tomb, was taken ill at sea aboard an Italian liner a week ago. The malady was then diagnosed as tropical malaria, and he was rushed to hospital upon arrival. He was put under the care of six noted specialists, who declared themselves unable to determine the nature of his illness at first, but later they agreed that death was the result of a hemolytic streptococcic infection that start**-*! as

a sore throat arid fever. Throughout bis life the savant’s

throat was never strong, and the infection settled there. He himself always scoffed at the superstition, to which is ascribed the death of a score of members nf Ibe Tutankhamen expedition. As a result of his last trip to the Near East, Professor Breasted obtained the permission of the Iran Government to take 30,000 cuneiform tablets dis-

covered two years ago in Persepolis to Chicago for deciphering.

According to a belief held in Egypt a curse lulls on all who disturb the tombs of its ancient kings.

Since the treasures of Tutankhamen’s tomb were removed, several people have died under unusual circumstances, and at least two by suicide, folio-wing tear of the “curse.”

The first was Lord Carnarvon, who died in .1923 in Cairo from an illness which originated in a mosquito bite un the lace.

In September of the same year, Lord Carnarvon's half-brother, Colonel Aubrey Herbert, died in London. He bad entered the tomb of Tutankhamen, and is reported to have remarked at the time: “Something dreadful is going to happen to our family.” Others concerned in the excavations who have died are: —

Sir Archibald Douglas Reid, a famous radiologist, who had agreed to Xray the mummy, died in Switzerland on January 10, 1924. Professor Lafflcur, of McGill University, who went to Luxor to see the tomb, died there on February 9, 1924. M r H. G. Evelyn-White, the scholar and egyptologist, committed suicide in September, 1924, and left a note in which were these words: “I knew there was a curse on me.” AL Benedite, tho French archaeologist, who was attached to the Department of Antiquities at Cairo, and M. Pasanova, both of whom had taken part in the research work in the Valley of the Kings, died suddenly in 1926. Mr Richard Bethell was another archaeologist to die while the work was in progress. The suggestion that Air Bothell had come under the “curse” was raised when there was a senes of mysterious fires at his home, where some of the treasures of Tutankhamen’s tomb were stored. A charge of arson was made against a footman, but this was reduced to a charge of wilful damage, and he was bound over. Subsequently, Lord Westbury, clad in pyjamas, fell 70 feet from a seventhfloor flat in St. James’s Court, London. He had been worried about the death of his heir, the late Mr Bethell,, who was associated with Air Howard Carter in the excavation of Tutankhamen’s tomb, from which a discussion arose regarding the curse of the tomb of the Pharaohs. At the inquest the coroner returned a verdict that Lord Westbury committed suicide while of unsound mind. He read letters stating: “I really cannot stand any more horrors.” Air Arthur Weigall, who died a year or so ago from an unidentifiable disease, commenced his studies in Egyptology in 1900, and had published a large number of works dealing with his investigations, including his well-known “Histor of the Pharaohs” and “Tutankhamen. ’ ’