"Curse of Amen-Ra" joke

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 some 1, 500 years 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 1890's, 4 rich young Englishmen visiting the excavations at Luxor were invited to buy and
exquisitely fashioned mummy case containing the remains of Princess Amen-Ra. They drew lots.
The man who paid several thousand pounds 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 in the foursome 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, 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 often
hurled about at night. One watchman died on duty, causing the other watchmen 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 mumy 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 years 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. On the
night of April 14, amid scenes of unprecedented horror, the Princess Amen-Ra accompanied 1, 500
passengers to their deaths at the bottom of the Atlantic. The ship was the Titanic.