The Curse by Harold Robbins Read Free Book Online Page B

magical artifacts for less than the price of a tube of lipstick.
    Unlike the small scarabs that could be pinned on clothes or worn as a necklace, a heart scarab was larger, about three inches long to mimic the size of the human heart. It’s significance came into play after death.
    To the Egyptians of the pharaohs’ time, the human heart not only epitomized the power of life, but was the source of both good and evil acts and thoughts, literally the source of a person’s conscience.
    One’s heart was considered a source of potential trouble after death because it would be questioned about the person’s actions during life in a process called “Weighing of the Heart.”
    Osiris, the god of the dead, questioned the heart about the owner’s past and the heart had to disclose the truth.
    If the heart divulged bad acts or thoughts on the part of the person, Osiris ripped out the heart and threw it to a beast that devoured hearts instead of permitting the person to proceed into the paradisiacal afterlife.
    The beast, Ahemait, was part lion, part hippopotamus, and part crocodile. Once Ahemait feasted on the person’s heart, the person went to the dark and dreary Egyptian version of hell instead of paradise.
    To ensure that one’s heart didn’t rat them out to Osiris, the clever Egyptian embalmers removed the deceased’s human heart and replaced it with a sacred heart scarab.
    The substitute scarab was inscribed on the bottom with a magical spell from The Book of the Dead so Osiris wouldn’t realize it wasn’t the real heart.
    Unlike a real heart, the heart scarab would lie about the person’s sins.
    Wouldn’t we all like to have one of those?

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    â€œAs I’m sure you know,” Kaseem said, “King Tutankhamen’s mummification was slightly different than other royal mummies of that era. While the brain was removed through the nose, and the liver, stomach, and other innards also extracted, it was customary for the heart to be left in place with a heart scarab placed over it.”
    â€œYet Tut’s heart was removed,” I said, digging a long way back for that recollection. I was an expert on artifacts, not history, though the two often went hand in hand. “A scarab with a heron carved on it was found on the body.”
    â€œThe heron scarab was not a heart scarab,” Kaseem said.
    â€œI agree. The heron scarab was placed over his abdomen,” I said, trying to get up to speed on the controversy about Tut’s heart scarab. “And you’re right. While some people have called it a heart scarab, the heron scarab was found in the wrong position in the mummy wrappings.”
    â€œThere is no heart scarab in the Tutankhamen treasures in Cairo,” he said, “but there was one found when his tomb was uncovered by Howard Carter and his team of archaeologists.”
    The heart scarab had not been mentioned in the article Kaseem had slipped under my door, but I knew a little about the controversy.
    â€œA dispute raged at the time about whether the heart scarab was stolen,” I said. “Some said there never was one.”
    â€œI think you would agree with me,” he said, “that Tutankhamen’s lack of a heart scarab is troubling, to say the least. He was buried with all the pomp and riches of a pharaoh. He had suffered a crushing chest blow that damaged the heart so severely they may have taken it out when the lungs and other innards were removed. But could it be true that he wasn’t given a heart scarab to keep him from being devoured by Ahemait, the beast? Rubbish.”
    I agreed with him. The lack of a heart scarab was puzzling.
    â€œI know there were rumors of a heart scarab being found,” I said, “but my recollection is that it never appeared on the list of treasures recovered at the site.”
    â€œIt never appeared on the inventory because it was pocketed by one of the key people at the