Did very early Egyptian mummy
embalmers deliberately dislocate one ankle of the dead so they couldn’t come
after, and catch, the living? (At least not without a telltale
warning sound of their approach, like the dry swish of a grass broom.)
I believe the source of this
macabre twist was the now notorious Egyptologist Wallace Budge of the early British
Museum, and I used it in a story.
“It’s a little known fact, you
see, but in very ancient times, the embalmers deliberately dislocated one of
the ankles of the mummy so that if it decided to get up it couldn’t catch the
living. So if there were a mummy stalking us in the darkness, you’d probably
hear it shuffling as it dragged one foot behind itself. Like the swish of a
grass broom on stone. Stop – and we’ll listen.”
How would a mummy sound?
It must have stuck with me.
In my more recent novel “THE
EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY MURDERS”, I refer again to the swishing sound of a mummy's progress (though
no broken ankle).
‘Osiris. I will begin a
new journey for you,’ she vowed, lying flat on the CT machine tray.
‘I, Isis, Great of
Magic, will rise and search for you – for your remains, your pieces, even the
atoms of your dust - and through the power of my magic I will restore you.’
Isis renewed the vow of
a new cycle, a cycle that the Egyptians believed took place every 5,000 years
and that had now been re-activated by a blast of twenty-first century
radiation.
But first, she must
revive herself and that meant seeking the life force.
She gave a dusty croak
and writhed like a serpent sloughing its skin, snapping the rotting bonds that
held her limbs against her body and her legs together. She sat up, as slowly as
the ancient ceremony of the raising of the Djed pillar.
She rocked and swung
stiff legs over the side of the CT tray. The knees would not bend, so she slid
the rest of the way stiffly to the floor.
The feet of Isis touched
earth again.
Now walk.
The thin bones in her
feet cracked like breaking tubes of glass. Gingerly she took one step and then
another, shuffling out of the CT suite into the big city hospital, in darkness.
Isis walked the earth
again.
The dry flesh of her
long, slender feet made a soft swoosh like a grass brush sweeping an earthen
floor, but this was a smooth hospital corridor...(excerpt)
Fascinatingly, in early mummy movies, Kharis
the risen mummy, walks with a sinister dragging of one foot.
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| (The influence of Budge again on early screenwriters?) |
Yes, and in my mind, I hear a dry, swishing sound of his dragged, bandaged foot, like the sound of a grass broom on
stone.
A (dislocated) Footnote: If the bandaged nemesis in the first Mummy movies did have a deliberately dislocated ankle, it certainly didn't stop him catching up with the unfortunate victims of his revenge.
If you want to hear - and feel - the presence of a risen mummy, take a look at The Egyptian Mythology Murders
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| Trilogy |
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| NEW. Now a Quartet |  |
