Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1904-09-15
ACARDBOARD WOMAN
THE MALieN INFLUENCE OF A NUM-
MY CASE FROM EGYPT.

HARD Lnck Experiences That APP
penred to Be Unhappy Legacies to
Those Interested In Its Custody
In corner of the first Egyptian
room at the British museum, behind
the crouching body of the prehistoric
chief who lived before there were
pharaohs in Egypt or pyramids on the
Nile, stands a 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 catalogues she is
No. 22542, a problematical royal per-
| sonage and priestess of the College
of Amen Ra. She lived in the mighty
city of Thebes some 1.600 years before
Christ
And about this same coffin cover
there hangs as terrible story as ever
an Edgar Allan Poe or a Balzac or a
Kipling produced from gloomy mag
ination.
If you question the attendants in the
first Egyptian room they will shake
their heads and say nothing. But
there is a famous professor in the
museum who knows that the facts are
true though whether they be coinci-
dence or a manifestation of supernat-
ural power who can say? He says:
''For three months l have been gath
ering the tangled threads of evidence.
have now in my possession proofs of
the identity of all those who suffered
from the anger of the priestess of
Amen Ra. But for the sake of friends
and relatives | have been requested to
suppress the names.
"About the middle of the sixties of
the last century party Of five friends
took ship in a dahabeah for trip up
the Nile. They travelled to Luxor on
their way to the second cataract, and
stayed there to explore the ruins of
the great and wonderful city of Thebes,
with its avenues of sphinxes and rams,
it's vast hall of columns and its temple
to Amen Ra, which is unequaled on
earth in the sublimity of its ruined
magnifcence.
zone night an Arab sent by Musta-
pha Aga came to one Of their number,
Mr.. D.. as we may call him, saying
that he had just found a mummy case
of unusual beauty. What became of
the mummy tie man did not explain
The next morning Mr.. d. bought the
case Both he and his companions
were impressed by its remarkable
beauty and by the curious face of the
woman portrayed, face that was
filed with cold malignancy of ex-
preston unpleasant to witness.
''They had agreed that, being all
interested in Egyptology. they should
apportion their finds by lot, and so,
though Mr.. D. had been the cause of
It's discovery, he lost the mummy cover,
which passed to friend, whom we
will call Mr.. ".
1T was on their return journey that
the series of misfortunes commenced.
Mr. DIS servant was handing him
gun, when without visible cause it ex-
ploded, the charge lodging in his arm,
which had to be amputated; second
died in poverty within the year; a
third was shot, while Mr.. w. the own
er of the mummy case, discovered on
his arrival in Cairo that he had lost
large part of his fortune. He died soon
afterward. The priestess of Amen Ra
had signified her displeasure in very
convincing manner.
From the date it was shipped on
hoo %ha e,4O In T clio Of
the mummy case for several years.
He did not at the time in any way
associate the misfortunes that had oc-
Cured to the party with its discovery,
but wnen he next heard of it and had
full information of the disasters which
had been subsequently associated with
it's possession he began to suspect that
it was not merely chance, not merely
a coincidence, that had brought SO sin
lister fate on all who had dealings
with the priestess Of Amen Ra.
"On the arrival of the case in Eng
land it was given by it's owner, Mr.. W.,
to married sister living near London.
house misfortune followed misfortune
The family suffered large losses. and
the end came with painful troubles
which need not be specified.
1.-THE lady while in possession of the
case received one day visit from
Nine. Blavatsky. The great theoso-
phist became very disturbed on enter
ing the room, and after a few minutes
conversation told her hostess that there
was something in her house possessed
of most malignant influence. She
asked to be allowed to search the house
and on discovering the coffin lid APP
pealed to her hostess to send away an
object which she described as of the
utmost danger. Her hostess, however,
refused, laughing at what she imagined
to be an example of foolish supersti-
ton
''Some time afterward the lady sent
+E,. ,ocf ~ q xx-afI l-r,oxx-Y, Abe.r