主题：【原创】几个著名的神奇诅咒 (上) -- 巴山夜雨

英美作家炮制恐怖闹剧 学者揭出“法老诅咒”内幕

一文

　　三千多年前埃及“法老图坦卡蒙(埃及第十八王朝国王)的诅咒”，神秘而恐怖，已流传

了大半个世纪，说木乃伊会向闯进陵墓的人索命。最近，一个英国学者发现了文献，证明“

图坦卡蒙诅咒”其实并非源自埃及，而是由近代英美小说家接力炮制而成的。

　　宣称揭开“法老图坦卡蒙诅咒”之谜的是英国公开大学埃及学家蒙特塞拉特。他顺藤摸

瓜，追溯到一百七十多年前英国一个名不见经传的小说家，以及一出“木乃伊脱衣”的表演。

　　该表演于1828年在伦敦皮卡迪利剧场公演，25岁的女作者韦布疑因此得到灵感，创作了

小说《木乃伊》。故事发生于二十二世纪，描述满腔怒火的木乃伊还阳复仇，威胁说要勒死

书中的英雄--青年学者埃德里克。1828年，一部由无名氏所写的童话《事业成果》，描述有

探险家把木乃伊燃烧，照亮神秘的金字塔内部，木乃伊因此被描绘为报复心重的恐怖魂灵。

三十多年后，木乃伊复仇的设想发展成为咒诅，并“移民”美国。1869年，《小妇人》的作

者奥尔科特写了短篇故事《金字塔迷途记》，又名为《木乃伊的诅咒》。该小说本已失踪，

最近才由蒙特塞拉特在美国国会图书馆寻回。此书可能部分取材于上述英国童话。书中的探

险家燃烧木乃伊后，在陵墓内发现了藏有种子的金盒，偷回了美国，其未婚妻把种子植下，

长出奇花，她在婚礼上戴上花和吸入花香，就变成木乃伊干尸。

　　1923年，法老王图坦卡蒙的陵墓被开启。著名女小说家科雷利把两者联系起来，耸人听

闻地说：“任何乱闯封闭陵墓的人都会遭受最悲惨的惩罚。”带头闯入法老王图坦卡蒙陵墓

的卡那封勋爵，在两周后暴毙，“法老诅咒”由此登上世界大报的头版，“谁敢碰法老王陵

墓，死神马上降临”之说不胫而走，引发穿凿附会。其实，该陵墓开启时在场的二十六人中

，只有六人在十年内相继死亡。

（2001/01/09 精品购物指南）

下面这篇来自James Randi Educational Foundation，是一篇评论的节选：

Now we find that Dr. Dominic Montserrat, an Egyptologist at London's Open University, says he has traced the origins of the curse story, not back to ancient Egypt but to 19th-century England! The tomb of the pharaoh who was to become known as King Tut was discovered by British archeologist Howard Carter in November, 1922, working under the patronage of the fifth Earl of Carnarvon, a devoted collector of antiquities. It yielded thousands of objects, from gold-covered chariots and masks to beautiful jewelry, furnishings and statues, as well as Tut's mummy itself, nested in three golden coffins. The discovery, reported to the press in early 1923, stunned the world and spurred popular belief in the "mummy's curse."

Dr. Montserrat, author of a book about pharaonic civilization titled, "History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt," says, "My research has not only confirmed that there is no ancient Egyptian origin of the mummy's-curse concept, but more importantly, it also reveals that it didn't originate in the 1923 press publicity about the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb, either. My work shows quite clearly that the mummy's-curse concept predates Lord Carnarvon's Tutankhamen discovery ― and his death ― by 100 years." He traces the origins of the curse story to a stage show that took place near London's Piccadilly Circus in 1821, in which Egyptian mummies were unwrapped for the paying public, and to an 1822 science-fiction novel called "The Mummy" that tells of a nasty cadaver that comes back to life and threatens the young hero, and to an 1828 anonymous English children's book, "The Fruits of Enterprize," in which mummies were set alight and used by explorers as torches to illuminate the interior of an Egyptian pyramid. Forty years later, Louisa May Alcott, author of "Little Women," wrote a short story called "Lost in a Pyramid; or, The Mummy's Curse." Dr. Montserrat rediscovered this long-lost work in the periodicals collection of the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

The curse idea was copied and expanded upon by other British and U.S. novelists for the next half-century. By the time Carter and Carnarvon entered Tutankhamen's burial chamber, the idea of a mummy's "curse" was well-established. Scottish author Minnie MacKay promptly published a dramatic warning that "the most dire punishment follows any rash intruder into a sealed tomb." When Lord Carnarvon died suddenly of pneumonia just two weeks after entering the tomb, the Curse of King Tut was propelled onto the front pages of the world's newspapers. An "ancient Egyptian" inscription ― "Death shall come on swift wings to him that toucheth the tomb of Pharaoh" ― was invented, and any death or misfortune associated with the expedition, however remote, was attributed to the curse.

Montserrat says that six of the 26 people present at the opening of Tutankhamen's tomb died in the decade following its discovery. However, I can only find three. Carter, the one person who should have been struck down by any curse, uncovered and handled the mummy itself, but he did not die until 1939, aged 64.

Lists of those persons apparently felled in mysterious ways by the Curse have been developed, and are still being expanded upon to prove the truth of the claim. Not only those who actually were involved in the discovery and excavation of the mummy, but almost anyone even remotely connected with the event, have been dragged into consideration. The child of a secretary who was once employed by a scientist who "had an opinion" on Tut, died suddenly and she was trumpeted as the "latest victim" of the Curse. A workman at the Cairo Museum who had expressed doubt about the Curse, was involved in a fatal auto accident and was said to have died muttering in ancient Egyptian, a language totally unknown today. The press had a field day with these items, and the party still goes on.

There simply are no known genuine ancient curses relating to opening tombs or removing objects from them, but there is a stark reality rather than a myth that had to be faced by invaders. Tomb-robbers faced the wrath of the local Egyptian courts rather than that of the mummy's eternal spirit, and when caught, most were executed. However, according to ancient Egyptian beliefs, one’s eternal soul would be kept alive only if his name were periodically repeated, so the mythical mummy's curse may have ensured that Tutankhamen's name will live on for many generations to come.