The St. Louis Republic., 1904-06-26
FROM RUINS OF THEBES.
Everyone Connected With Its
Removal From Ancient Rest.
ing Place Meets Death or
Misfortune.

Egypt or pyramids on the Nile, stands d
woman nodded from some ancient form
of cardboard. She is merely shell, the
cover Of a mummy case. Her hands are
crossed above her breast and her dark
| eyes stare forward into vacancy
According to the catalogue she is No.
225f2, 4 probIematical royal parsonage
and priestess Of the College of Amer
/ Ra. She lived in the mighty city Of
! Thebcs some /, ,600 years before Christ.
| And about this same coffin cover, says
a writer in the London Daily Express,
! there hangs as terrible story as ever an
| Edgar Allan Poe or a Balzac or a Kipling
/ produced from a gloomy imagination. He
continues:
; If you question the attendants in the
/ First Egyptian Room they will shake
/ their heads and say nothing But there
/ is famous professor In the museum who
/ knows that the facts are true. though
| whether they be 4 coincidence or a man
| Hesitation Of supernatural power who can
| say There Is a second professor OF the
| more exact sciences and q traveller or
Distinction who are equally well in
For three months I have been gather
| ing the tangled threads OF evidence.
have nov IN my possession proofs of the
( the anger OF the priestess OF Amen Pa
! But Tor the sake OF friends ana relatives
| have been requested to suppress the
| nameS
IN ANCIENT THEBES.
About the middle Of the sixties a party
| OF five friends took ship in a daha bean
/ for a trip up the Nile. They Travelled to
Luxor on their way to the Second Cata-
/ ract, and stayed there 20 explore the
1 ruins Of the great and wonderful city OF
/ LEeocs, with its avenues Of spAInXes ant
I rams, its vast hall of columns and H.
/ temple to Amen IA. which IS uaeuIIa q.
1 on earth in the sublimity OF its ruu-d
/ magnIrcence-
Lady Dun Gordon entertained the
! party at dinner, while the Consul Mus
| tapha Aga, held a strange dance of the
! GaiFaZi ladies' Of Luxor. There were
sailtes and ilLuminations TO mark the ar
FISai OF the guests.
one night an Arab sent by Mustapha
Aga came to one Of their number. mfr. J..
! as We may call him, saying that he had
Just found a mummy case of unusual
| beauty. What became of the mummy th5
man did not explain. The next morning
Mr. D bought the case Both ne and his
marka6!e beauty and Uv the curious face
CT the woman portrayed. face that was
! ii.!e- with cold maASHancy o. expression
unpleasant to witness.
They had agreed that. all teing inter
eSted IN Egyptelosy, they should appCrtion
! their ind BY lot. and so. though MIR. D.
y.
| the mummy cover. which passed to a
friend. whom we will call Mr. W
II was on their return journey that the
series Of misfortunes commenced Mr. D s
servant was handing him a gun. wueu
without visible cause II exploded the
charge lodging in his arm. which had 10
be amputated; a second died in pcverty
within the year: third was shot: while
I Mr. w. the owner OF the mummy case
discovered on his arriva! in Cairo that he
had lost a large part OF his fortune He
TNrf.l
Amen Ra had siEuiied her dispieasure in
q very convincing manner
the steamer Mr. D. lost sight Of the
mummy case for several years. He did
not at the time in any way associate the
with it's discovery. but chen he net
heard of it and had fr:ll information of -he
disasters which had been subsequently, as
soc!ated With It's possession. BE began to
suspect that 1t was not merely chance.
not merely a coincidence, that had brought
so sinister a fate on all who had deal
ings with the priestess OF Amen Ra.
OBJECT OF DANGER
"On the arrival of the case in England
it was given by its owner. Mr. w, 10 a
married sister living near London. From
the day the case entered the house mis-
fortune followed misfortune The family
with painful troubles which need not be
specified.
The lady. while in possession of the
case, enc day received a visit from Nine
Biavatsky. The great theosophist became
very disturbed on entering the room, ard
after few minutes conversation told her
house possessed OF a most malignant in
fuence. She asked to be allowed to search
the house. and on discovering the coffin
lid appealed to her hostess TO send away
an object which she described as of the
utmost danger. Her hostess, however, re-
fused, laughing at what she Imagined to
be an example OF foolish superstition.
Some time afterwards the lady sent the
case to well-known photographer in Ba-
ker street. Within a week the chief OF
the firm came down to the lady,s house
in state of great excitement. He had,
he said, photographed the face with the
greatest care. and he could guarantee that
the photograph in any way Yet it was
not the cardboard features that looked
out Of the photograph. but the living
Egyptian woman staring straight before
her with an expression of singular malev-
oIence Shortly afterwards the photog-
rapher died suddenly and mysteriously.
happened to meet the owner OF the coffin
lid, and begged her, upon hearing her
story, to get rid OF II at once. She agreed.
and carrier was found to convey 1t TO
the British Museum. This carrier died
within a week.
LAS far back as 1850 a lowIand was dis
covered by the bark Du Mont de Vile on
a voyage from San Francisco to Tahiti.
but / do not think 1t has ever been seen
since. Captain Rennie Of the Oceanic
steamship Mariposa, on one OF his San
Franclsco-Tahitf voyages, sighted shoal
which is not on the charts. From the
presence OF birds about the vessel his
discovery indicated that an island must
have been somewhere in the vicinity.
ONCE MARKED ON CHART.
When I was a sea captain my chart
had a notation to the effect that 'clus-
ter Of five islands hereabouts' was to be
watched for. The chart gave them some
where between Is and Il south latitude
and from 100 to 135 west longitude. The
queer thing about these Islands. or this
island Is that some one apparently gets
a glimpse of 1t. and then aftsrward no
one can locate it
There is a group of Sunkeu Islands be-
tween Honolulu and San Francisco. how
ever, which It would be well worth the
Governments time and money TO locate
The incafinn should be put on the charts.