CURSE OF PHAROAH’S TOMB

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12453, 22 May 1926, Page 11

CURSE OF PHAROAH’S TOMB

(Continued.) the Valley of Kings. In several instances the deaths resulted from blood poisoning. It will lie remembered that the late Lord Carnarvon died three years ago as a result of a mosquito bite on his cheek while engaged in the excavation of Tutankhamen’s tomb. Many Egyptians at the time declared Ins death to have been an act of vengeance by the “Ka” of Tutankhamen. It was a common belief among the ancient Egyptians that a “ka” or “double” was born with every person, and that its physical entity bore the same appearance. It was the “ka” for whom the food and drink were' placed in the tomb with the mummified body of the dead man. After death the “ka” escorted the soul through the thousands of years it spent in purgatory in expiation of its sins. POISONED UNAWARES When the soul’s redemption was accomplished it was believed that it returned to the body. Their belief in tlie reunion of soul find body was G'O reason why the Egyptians embalmed and mummified their dead. A book written in_ Arabic entitled “The Egyptian History of the Pyramids,” gives long and elaborate lists of the “treasurcfc.” buried with several of the kings, and among these are named several secret poisons enclosed in boxes. The poisons, it says, are of such a