Joke: Interesting tale
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 deep in 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 taken to 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 of the four, found on his return home that the bank holding his entire savings had failed . The 4th guy suffered a severe illness, lost his job 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 and his 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 into 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 visitor derisively flicked a dustcloth at the face painted on the coffin, his child died of measles soon afterwards . Finally, the authorities had the mummy 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 the supervisor 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 was said 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 seized with a shivering fit and searched the house for the source of "an evil influence of incredible 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 from handling 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.
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