Jinxes & Curses

By Sam Sloan

When I first saw the story of the curse of the Egyptian Princess of Amen-Ra and why the Titanic really sunk, I thought that it was just a funny story and an obvious hoax.I have since put considerable time and research into this and have discovered that, far from a hoax, this is a story which describes actual historical events, which really happened. In the first place, this story is not the concoction of some Internet crazed cyber-freak. The story has existed since the day the first survivors of the Titanic arrived ashore. It was told by Frederic Kimber Seward and other surviving passengers. They vividly described how a passenger named William T. Stead had told them the story of the curse of the Egyptian mummy, on the night before the Titanic sank.

They also told how William T. Stead had gone down with the ship. He had just sat quietly reading a book in the First Class Smoking Room as the ocean liner sank. In my research, I have found several errors in the most popular version of this story, which I have now corrected.The popular version states that the coffin of the Egyptian Princess was first purchased in the late 1890s. However, this cannot be, because Madame Helena Blavatsky, who is said to have personally encountered the mummy, died in 1891.

In reality, the coffin arrived in the British Museum in 1889. Thus, it is clear that the story of the coffin dates from the 1880s, not from the late 1890s.Another error is that the story says that the princess lived in 1500 BC. The British Museum, however, gives the date of her death as 1050 BC, which is 450 years later.

When you think about curses sooner or later Egypt will probably pop into your mind, and possibly the tombs of the pharaoh's. Perhaps the most famous of these curses involved the discovery of Tutankhamen in 1923.

The expedition was headed by Egyptologist Lord Canarvon and archaeologist Howard Carter. As they entered the tomb both knew about the curse which had protected the treasures within from those who would have robbed the grave since 1352 B.C when the boy Pharaoh was entombed. Canarvon had even consulted a mystic and some mediums before beginning the expedition and every single one of them told him not to open the tomb, advice he ignored at his peril. Within two months 57 year old Canarvon was dead, the victim of an infected mosquito bite. The date of his death was the 5th of April 1923. This date is remembered by the Continental Hotel of Cairo since simultaneously their electricity failed for no apparent reason and back in England Carnarvon's faithful dog was heard to bark once before dropping dead. Two days after his death when examining the face of Tutankhamen it was noted he bore a mark on his left cheek, identical to that of the mosquito bite upon Carnarvon's corpse. Perhaps this was nothing more than coincidence they concluded. That was until the other deaths began. An archaeologist by the name of Arthur Mace who had participated in opening the tomb dropped into a coma at the same hotel which had experienced the power failure and died. Doctors were unable to identity the illness which had resulted in his death. George Gould, a close friend of Canarvon went to Egypt to look at the tomb and was mysteriously found dead two days afterwards.

Radiologist Archibald Reid who examined the corpse of the Pharaoh died soon after this, as did Carnarvon's secretary Richard Bethell. By 1936, 33 people present during the opening of the tomb had met with unexpected deaths. Mohammed Ibraham, the man who agreed to send the tomb's treasures to Paris for an exhibition was run over and killed in 1966. Howard Carter died of supposed natural causes in 1939. So, by 1969, Richard Adamson was the sole surviving member of the 1923 expedition. He was quoted on saying that the curse was nothing but "mumbo, jumbo," but he changed his view after his wife died within a day of his public denouncement of his curse. He spoke out again at a later date and within days he had broken his back in a freak accident. Ken Parkinson the flight engineer suffered a heart attack every year on the anniversary of the flight from Egypt until the final one on 1978 which killed him. The flight lieutenant Rick Laurie died of heart failure two years before that, though he had been healthy before this. Anorher member of the flight crew suffered two heart attacks, another left the RAF due to unixplicable illness and the last lost his house in a fire.

Stories of "the mummy's curse" or "King Tut's curse" excited the world after the discovery in 1922 of the ancient pharaoh's tomb in Egypt.Lord Carnarvon, a British sponsor of archaeology in Egypt, died shortly after attending the tomb's opening, inspiring speculation that supernatural forces were at work.In recent years a scientific mummy's-curse theory was offered for Carnarvon's death. Was he killed by exposure to ancient, toxic pathogens from the sealed tomb? Did they prove too much for his immune system, which was weakened by a chronic illness he had experienced before he went to Egypt? "When you think of Egyptiantombs, you have not only dead bodies but foodstuffs—meats, vegetables, and fruits" interred for the trip to the hereafter, said Jennifer Wegner, an Egyptologist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia.

"It certainly may have attracted insects, molds, [bacteria], and those kinds of things. The raw material would have been there thousands of years ago."Recent laboratory studies have revealed that some ancient mummies do indeed carry mold, including at least two potentially dangerous species—Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus. These molds can cause allergic reactions ranging from congestion to bleeding in the lungs.The toxins can be particularly harmful for people with weakened immune systems.Some tomb walls may also be covered with respiratory-assaulting bacteria like Pseudomonasand Staphylococcus.Scientists have also detected ammonia gas, formaldehyde, and hydrogen sulfide inside sealed sarcophagi. In strong concentrations they could cause burning in the eyes and nose, pneumonia-like symptoms, and in very extreme cases, death.Bats inhabit many excavated tombs, and their droppings carry a fungus that can cause the influenza-like respiratory disease histoplasmosis.Under the right conditions such hazards could prove deadly."Safer in the Tomb Than Outside"But experts who have examined the case of Lord Carnarvon believe that tomb toxins played no role in his not-so-untimely demise.The elderly Carnarvon was chronically ill before he set foot in Tut's tomb. Plus, his death occurred months after his initial exposure to the tomb. If......

Stories of "the mummy's curse" or "King Tut's curse" excited the world after the discovery in 1922 of the ancient pharaoh's tomb in Egypt. Lord Carnarvon, a British sponsor of archaeology in Egypt, died shortly after attending the tomb's opening, inspiring speculation that supernatural forces were at work. In recent years a scientific mummy's-curse theory was offered for Carnarvon's death. Was he killed by exposure to ancient, toxic pathogens from the sealed tomb? Did they prove too much for his immune system, which was weakened by a chronic illness he had experiencedbefore he went to Egypt? "When you think of Egyptian tombs, you have not only dead bodies but foodstuffs—meats, vegetables, and fruits" interred for the trip to the hereafter, said Jennifer Wegner, an Egyptologist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia.

"It certainly may have attracted insects, molds, [bacteria], and those kinds of things. The raw material would have been there thousands of years ago." Recent laboratory studies have revealed that some ancient mummies do indeed carry mold, including at least two potentially dangerous species—Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus. These molds can cause allergic reactions ranging from congestion to bleeding in the lungs. The toxinscan be particularly harmful for people with weakened immune systems. Some tomb walls may also be covered with respiratory-assaulting bacteria like Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus. Scientists have also detected ammonia gas, formaldehyde, and hydrogen sulfide inside sealed sarcophagi. In strong concentrations they could cause burning in the eyes and nose, pneumonia-like symptoms, and in very extreme cases, death.

View: Full Article | Source: National Geographic