IN AN ANCIENT TOMB.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20508, 8 March 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

IN AN ANCIENT TOMB.

A BAD LUCK,

CURSE. OF EGYPTIAN SCARAB.

A scarab, found r in an Egyptian -tomb, is-.believed by. the destitute widow- of Colonel John Bertram Patkesy M.C., a native of Alsager, Cheshire, to be responsible for se.vcn years of bad • luck.; Colonel Parkes, formerly of. the Grenadier Guards, who was known in the district as the " Hermit-philosopher," died almost penniless in a two-roomed _ bungalow that he had built for his wife and family in tho heart of a hilL-top wood not far from Bradley, near Huddersfield. , For seven years Colonel Parkes searched in vain for regular employment, and during his stay in the woods he had been in turn. a coal-dealer, market gardener, toy-maker, and firewood seller. While ho was struggling "to keep, his wife and four children he wrote/a story for the Sunday Chronicle. . ..." « Colonel Parkes. ,'becamo known, as tho " Hermit philosopher" because .ho spent his spare time wriling essfiys on the futulamentals of nature and studying philosophy. When he fell ill, an. ironic .fate sent him half-a-dozen offers pf lucrative employment, but he was' on his death-bed. For tlirco months lie was "nursed day.and night by his wife. Now sho does not know how to irialfo ends ' meet.

" I'd take any sort of -a job that I could find," the wife said. " I have three, of my children at school. My youngest is only eight' months old. > "Before ho died, my husband told mo that ho bqlieved all his bad luck in ' civil' life had been caused by owning the scat-ab which he had found among tho" Egyptian" tombs. He was too superstitious'to throw it a way, but he asked me-to get rid of it fn soino way. He said lie' felt sure'it was hj, curse. .After what he- "said I. am ' thinking of burying it-in- the woods." . "Colonel Parkes was 43. Ho was a timeserving soldier before war, and was a sergeant in tho Grenadier Guards'.. He was promoted on the battlefield.