MYSTERY OF A MUMMY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22022, 3 August 1933, Page 4

MYSTERY OF A MUMMY

CURIOUS FIND IN ENGLAND PAIR OF GREEN GLASS EYES. ’ While Miss Marie Louise Ross, of West Hartlepool, England, was exploring the caves at Marsden, Durham, recently, slw found a small mummified figure .about 12 inches long, with a black and wrinkled skin and two green glass eyes. Miss Ross took the strange figure home and placed it on a shelf in her bedroom Although the shelf was wide, and there was no other object near it, the figure was constantly falling to the ground. It appeared to be solid but Miss Ross s mother, anxious to find out whether there were anything in the figure, one day plunged a red-hot knitting needle into The next day Mrs Ross was smitten bv an obscure disease of the eyes—a disease that is rarely encountered outside the tropics. From this time misfortune befell the family. Illness, accidents, and financial reverses pursued them, until at last thev were compelled to give up their home at West Hartlepool and go to London, . „ ... , Mi.ss Ross took the figure with her, and later sent it to the British Museum,, where it was examined by Professor Joyce. He was unable to tell what it was, or hazard any guess regarding its origin. It was then taken to the -N atural History Museum, the authorities of which confessed themselves baffled. They took charge of it, however, and sent it to Professor Elliott-Smith, the anatomical specialist at London University College. After a detailed examination and X-ray photographs the professor was able to state that it was the mummihed body of a female coloured child which had been embalmed. The mystery of how it came to be in a niche of an inland cave m the north of England, and who attached the green glass eyes'to its face, remains to be elucidated.