PERILOUS POSSESSIONS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10301, 4 November 1911, Page 1

PERILOUS POSSESSIONS.

dummies, Daggers and. Jewels vitk SsiiTdlo Easts. (" Pearson's Weekly.") Among the many curiosities left by the late Lady Meux, is an Egyptian mummy which, is said to have brought ill-luck to everyone who handled it. Now, whether it is possible that a curse pronounced in tho dim past can by any means work harm through tho agari is a matter of opinion. But such stories and the strange facts connected with them arc too luunsirouiJ to he altogether neglected.

Wo may instance the csso of the painted Egyptian co?lin-!id. numbered 22,512, which stand-: in the Eritinh Mus?um, and the remarkable trJo of misfortune and death which has been associated with this pi:rlur<?d lace of tho priestess of the College of Amcn-Ita. The story is fairly well known, for two years ago all tho daily papers were full of it. it is sufficient to Eay that from the time of the discovery of tho coffin in ISS9 tho priestess seemed to bring misfortune <;n everyone who had anything to do with her cofdn. All live of the original finders came to grief, and oven tho carrier who took the caso to the museum, tho photographer who photographed ifcj and the well-known writer who described tho ovents connected with it, all died shortly afterwards. ' Thon there was tho caae of Mr G.eoorgo Alefounder, who. having discovered a mummy too largo to conveniently carry away, deliberately beheaded it, and brought the head back to Europe in a bonnet-box. Then evorything went wrong with him. Misfortune piled upon misfortune. One day ho chanced to meet a medium. Tho latter at once told him that he could race n nguro with high cliffs bohind it, and clouds of dust rising about it. The fiaure." he f-aid, was headlyss. As it happened, Mr .Alefounder had at tho time foraotten all about tho mummy In-ad. Now he remembered it, and, much startled, consulted another medium. From hor he heard 'precisely the same story. Tins was enough. He sent the head back at onco to its original resting-i>lace. The lato Shnh of Persia owned a dagger which is said to make its possessor invincible. But as the superstition is that he who- uses it shall inevitably perish by it, it is kept securely locked in a sandalwood box.

A curious parallel td this Persian dagger is vouched for by Mr (J. W, I/eadbeater. A certain English family own a stiletto winch inspires everyone who holds it with a, horrible and almost irresistible, desiro to kill seme woman. This weapon belonged to an ancestor whose wife deceived him, and drove him mad. Ho nvnre revenue neaiiist the whole sex, arid with tho dagger killed his wife, his wife's sister, and another woman beforo he was disarmed and secured. In the summer of 1906 M. Andreef, a well-known business man of St Petersburg, bought at auction, for £2OOO, a beautiful old necklace, mado about one hundred nud twenty years ago by_ a famous Parisian jeweller for tho illfated Louis XYT. Nearly all the members of the French Roya,l family lost their lives in the. Revolution, but tho necklace was taken by a survivor to Brussels, and there sold. Over and over again it changed hands, and everyone who owned it was unlucky. Finally a Russian Prince bought it for £4OOO, and gave it to the dancer Tzukki. Tznkki's health failed, she was reduced to abject poverty, and died. Tho necklace was sold trr M. Linevitch. tho collector. Ho died, suddenly at Monte Carlo, and it 'passed to a relative who lost all his money, and was only saved from beggary by soiling the piece of jewellery. Andrccf bought it, and almost the first timo that his wife wore it he fell into' a fit of senseless jealousy, and cut her down with a sword.

Snch instances may be multiplied. Count Zbrrowski. v.-hen killed in a fearful motor accident at Nice, in 1903. was wearing the fatal ring which had helonged to his family for four generations, every bead of which had met with a violent death.

Still more .irufiiiinfr is o story told by tho late head of the Paris Morgue. Five timer; within his experience dead bodies brought to tiie Morgue wore found to ho wearing a certain ring easily distinguishable by its strange design. It bore in Eastern characters this legend : " May whomever wears this, ring die a miserable death." M. Mace, lato chief of the Parisian Police, vouchor; for tho truth of this.