“OUTRAGEOUS LIES.”

Shannon News, 5 December 1924, Page 3

“OUTRAGEOUS LIES.”

stories of Egyptian" curses. “The belief, fostered by romancers and popular novelists, that most Egyptian tombs and archives were inscribed with curses, destined to fall on the head of anyone disturbing them, is quite untrue,” an official in the Department of Egyptian Antiquities at the British Museum told the ‘Westminster Gazette.’ He was commenting on the statement left by Mr. Evelyn-White, the Egyptologist who shot himself in a taxi-cab at Leeds. Mr Evelyn-White believed that he was under a curse for having disturbed some ancient Egyptian manuscripts at Wadi Natrun. “As a matter of fact, curses are the exception rather than the rule in Egyptian tombs,” the official said.

“What is true is that there-is always a tradition among natives that a curse will fall on anyone rifling tombs, and the fact that th&t belief is credited by civilised people only shows bow near they are mentally to Those uneducated natives.” “It is typical of how much truth there is in these rumours that, despite the widespread tales about a mummy in the British Museum which carries with it a curse, there is not and never has been one here. Indeed, I cannot call to mind 1 a single thing among our huge collection with which a curse is connected.

“It is astounding how, on this subject, honest people will lose their whole sense of truth and tell the most outrageous lies about curses coming home to roost.”

A Reuter message from Cairo states that Mr. Whyte stayed in the ancient Coptic Monastry of Wadi Natrun for two months about two years ago in order to study MSS. He had nothing to do with their transfer. The monks may not have looked favourably on the transfer,’as they gained a revenue from visitors anxious to see the MSS., and may possibly have impressed upon Mr. White the bad luck awaiting anyone removing them.