CURSE : GAME OF DEATH

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 in 1050 B.C. 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 1880s, four rich young Englishmen visiting the excavations at Luxor were invited to buy an exquisitely fashioned mummy case containing the remains of the 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 three men was shot
by an Egyptian servant accidentally. His arm was so severely wounded it
had to be amputated. The third man in the foursome found on his return
home that the bank holding his entire savings had failed. The fourth man
suffered a severe illness, lost his job and was reduced to selling
matches in the street. Nevertheless, the coffin reached England (causing of the misfortunes along the way), where it was bought by a London businessman.

After three 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 wagon in the museum courtyard, the
wagon suddenly went into reverse and trapped a passer-by. Then as the
casket was being lifted up the stairs by two workmen, one fell and broke
his leg. The other, apparently 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 dust cloth 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, while leaving the lid of the coffin on
display. (The lid of the coffin (Exhibit No. 22542) is still 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 [Author of
"The Secret Doctrines" & "Isis Unveiled"], visited the premises. Upon entry,
she was sized 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 years, was now well known.
Eventually, a hardheaded 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 April of 1912, the new
owner escorted its treasure aboard a sparkling, new White Star liner about
to make its maiden voyage to New York. Because the reputation of the
mummy was well known, the owner, who was a chess player named William T. Stead,
was afraid that his cargo would not be loaded. Therefore, he secretly arranged for the mummy to be hidden under the body of a new Renault automobile, which was being transported to America on the ship.

Stead did not reveal the truth about his cargo to the other passengers until the night before the next disaster. On the night of April 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.