Geoff Elliot sent me this, and I thought at least a
few of you might find it interesting.
Of all tales of the supernatural, this one is perhaps
the best
documented, the most disturbing and the most
difficult to explain ... ...
The Princess of Amen-Ra lived some 1,500 yrs before
Christ .
When she died, she was laid in an ornate wooden
coffin and buried deepin
a vault at Luxor, on the banks of the Nile.
In the late 1890s, 4 rich young Englishmen visiting
the excavations at
Luxor were invited to buy an exquisitely fashioned
mummy case
containing the remains of Princess of Amen-Ra. They
drew lots .
The man who won paid several thousand pounds and had
the coffin takento
his hotel . A few hours later, he was seen walking
out towards the
desert. He never returned. The next day, one of
the remaining 3 men was shot by an Egyptian servant
accidentally. His
arm was so severely wounded it had to be amputated .
The 3rd man in the
foursome found on his return home that the bank
holding his entire
savings had failed. The 4th guy suffered a severe
illness, lost hisjob
and was reduced to selling matches in the street.
Nevertheless, the coffin reached England (causing
other misfortunes
along the way), where it was bought by a London
businessman.
After 3 of his family members had been injured in a
road accident andhis
house damaged by fire, the businessman donated it to
the British Museum.
As the coffin was being unloaded from a truck in the
museum courtyard,
the truck suddenly went in to reverse and trapped a
passer-by.
Then as the casket was being lifted up the stairs by
2 workmen, 1 fell
and broke his leg. The other, apperently in perfect
health,
died unaccountably two days later. Once the Princess
was
installed in the Egyptian Room, trouble really
started. Museum's night
watchmen frequently heard frantic hammering and
sobbing from the coffin.
Other exhibits in the room were also often hurled
about at night.
One watchman died on duty; causing the other
watchmen wanting to quit .
Cleaners refused to go near the Princess too . When
a visitorderisively
flicked a dustcloth at the face painted on the
coffin, his child
died of measles soon afterwards . Finally, the
authorities had themummy
carried down to the basement . Figuring it could
not do any harm down there.
Within a week, one of the helpers was seriously ill,
and thesupervisor
of the move was found dead on his desk .
By now, the papers had heard of it . A journalist
photographer took a
picture of the mummy case and when he developed it,
the painting on
the coffin was of a horrifying, human face . The
photographer wassaid
to have gone home then, locked his bedroom door and
shot himself .
Soon afterwards, the museum sold the mummy to a
private collector.
After continual misfortune (and deaths), the owner
banished it to the
attic . A well known authority on the occult, Madame
Helena Blavatsky,
visited the premises . Upon entry, she was sized
with a shivering fit
and searched the house for the source of "an evil
influence ofincredible
intensity" . She finally came to the attic and found
the mummy case .
"Can you exorcise this evil spirit ?" asked the
owner. "There is no
such thing as exorcism . Evil remains evil forever
. Nothing can be
done about it . I implore you to get rid of this
evil as soon as
possible ." But no British museum would take the
mummy; the fact that
almost 20 people had met with misfortune, disaster
or death fromhandling
the casket, in barely 10 yrs, was now well known .
Eventually, a hard-headed American archaeologist
(who dismissed the
happenings as quirks of circumstance), paid a
handsome price for the
mummy and arranged for its removal to New York.
In Apr 1912, the new owner escorted its treasure
aboard a sparkling,
new White Star liner about to make its maiden voyage
to New York .
On the night of Apr 14, amid scenes of unprecedented
horror, the
Princess of Amen-Ra accompanied 1,500 passengers to
their deaths
at the bottom of the Atlantic .
The name of the ship was Titanic .