by R. L. Stine
I realized I was still holding the mummy hand over my head. I lowered it slowly and gazed at Sari and Uncle Ben. They were standing beside me, their faces filled with confusion. And relief.
“The mummies —” I managed to utter.
“Look,” Sari said, pointing.
I followed the direction of her gaze. The mummies were all back in place. Some were leaning, some propped at odd angles, some lying down.
They were exactly as they had been when I entered the chamber.
“Huh?” My eyes darted rapidly around the room.
Had they all moved? Had they raised themselves, stood up, and staggered toward us? Or had we imagined it all?
No.
We couldn’t have imagined it.
Ahmed was gone. We were safe.
“We’re okay,” Uncle Ben said gratefully, throwing his arms around Sari and me. “We’re okay. We’re okay.”
“We can go now!” Sari cried happily, hugging her dad. Then she turned to me. “You saved our lives,” she said. She had to choke out the words. But she said them.
Then Uncle Ben turned his gaze on me and the object I still gripped tightly in front of me. “Thanks for the helping hand,” Uncle Ben said.
We had an enormous dinner at a restaurant back in Cairo. It’s a miracle any of us got any food down since we were all talking at once, chattering excitedly, reliving our adventure, trying to make sense of it all.
I was spinning The Summoner around on the table.
Uncle Ben grinned at me. “I had no idea how special that mummy hand was!”
He took it from me and examined it closely. “Better not play with it,” he said seriously. “We must treat it carefully. He shook his head. “Some great scientist I am!” he exclaimed scornfully.
“When I saw it, I thought it was just a toy, some kind of reproduction. But this hand may be my biggest discovery of all!”
“It’s my good-luck charm,” I said, handling it gently as I took it back.
“You can say that again!” Sari said appreciatively. The nicest thing she’d ever said to me.
Back at the hotel, I surprised myself by falling asleep instantly. I thought I’d be up for hours, thinking about all that had happened. But I guess all the excitement had exhausted me.
The next morning, Sari, Uncle Ben, and I had a big breakfast in the room. I had a plate of scrambled eggs and a bowl of Frosted Flakes. As I ate, I fiddled with the little mummy hand.
All three of us were feeling good, happy that our frightening adventure was over. We were kidding around, teasing each other, laughing a lot.
After I finished my cereal, I raised the little mummy hand high. “O Summoner,” I chanted in a deep voice, “I summon the ancient spirits. Come alive. Come alive again!”
“Stop it, Gabe,” Sari snapped. She grabbed for the hand, but I swung it out of her reach.
“That isn’t funny,” she said. “You shouldn’t fool around like that.”
“Are you chicken?” I asked, laughing at her. I could see that she was really frightened, which made me enjoy my little joke even more.
Keeping it away from her, I raised the hand high. “I summon thee, ancient spirits of the dead,” I chanted. “Come to me. Come to me now!”
And there was a loud knock on the door.
All three of us gasped.
Uncle Ben knocked over his juice glass. It clattered onto the table and spilled.
I froze with the little hand in the air.
Another loud knock.
We heard scrabbling at the door. The sound of ancient bandaged fingers struggling with the lock.
Sari and I exchanged horrified glances.
I slowly lowered the hand as the door swung open.
Two shadowy figures lumbered into the room.
“Mom and Dad!” I cried.
I’ll bet they were surprised at how glad I was to see them.
BEHIND THE SCREAMS
THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY’S TOMB
CONTENTS
About the Author
Q & A with R.L. Stine
Fright Gallery: The Mummy
Top 10 Weirdest Items Found in a Mummy’s Tomb
A History of Hieroglyphs
Preserving the Dead
Bonus material
written and compiled by
Matthew D. Payne
About the Author
R.L. Stine’s books are read all over the world. So far, his books have sold more than 300 million copies, making him one of the most popular children’s authors in history. Besides Goosebumps, R.L. Stine has written the teen series Fear Street, the funny series Rotten School, as well as the Mostly Ghostly series, The Nightmare Room series, and the two-book thriller Dangerous Girls. R.L. Stine lives in New York with his wife, Jane, and Minnie, his King Charles spaniel. You can learn more about him at www.RLStine.com.
Q & A with R.L. Stine
Archaeologists have discovered a lot of surprising objects inside mummies’ tombs. What would you want inside your tomb?
R.L. Stine (RLS): A door so I could get out!
Do you believe in curses? Have you ever worried about being cursed?
RLS: No, I’m not superstitious at all. And so far, I’ve been very lucky. (Knock wood.)
Do you remember the first mummy movie you watched as a kid? Do you have an all-time favorite?
RLS: The first mummy movie I saw is probably still my favorite. It’s called Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy. My brother and I used to love to watch old movies on TV starring Abbott and Costello. They made lots of funny movies, and we liked them all. But the ones I liked best combined crazy comedy with horror. They could be creepy, but mostly they made you laugh.
The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb contains lots of fun and frightful facts, and so does the all-new Goosebumps HorrorLand #6: Who’s Your Mummy? What’s your favorite fact about mummies?
RLS: It’s about the way they took the brain out of a mummy’s skull. It’s too gross to talk about. Trust me (and look it up if you want …).
Do you ever get fan mail from Egypt? Do you get letters from other faraway—or unexpected— places?
RLS: I get mail from all over the world. I always love looking at the book covers in foreign alphabets—usually the only word I can read is my name.
Many different types of readers seem to get all “wrapped up” in mummy stories. Why do you think people like them so much?
RLS: I think mummies are scary because we know they are real. Many of us have seen a real mummy in a museum or on TV. When you see them all wrapped up or when you see the painted faces on the mummy cases, it isn’t hard to imagine them coming to life and reaching out and grabbing you! Wait a minute! Now I’m scaring myself!
If R.L. Stine were granted three wishes, what would they be? Pick up the new collector’s edition of BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR and look in the back of the book to find out.
Fright Gallery: The Mummy
FIRST APPEARANCE
The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb
OTHER APPEARANCES
Return of the Mummy
ORIGINS
In real life, mummies are the well-preserved—but slightly dusty and stinky— bodies of ancient Egyptians. Some are over 5,000 years old!
SPECIAL POWERS
In The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb, mummies come to life if shown The Summoner, a small mummified hand of mysterious origin. Mummies are surprisingly strong and hard to stop once in motion. In large groups, they can overpower even the strongest adventurer.
WEAKNESSES
Being so old, mummies are a bit on the slow side. (Picture an old lady shuffling out of bed in the morning.) Mummies are also extremely flammable.
LIVING OR DEAD?
Dead. Very Dead.
FAVORITE PHRASE
“Let me … rest in peace!”
HOBBIES & INTERESTS
Hanging around pyramids and staring blankly at their many treasures.
LAST SEEN
Go
osebumps HorrorLand #6: Who’s Your Mummy?
TOP 10
Weirdest Items Found in a Mummy’s Tomb
Mummies were buried with all sorts of objects that ancient Egyptians believed they could use in the afterlife. Here are a few of the craziest.
10 FOOD AND DRINK, including preserved meats, grain, and fruits, so the mummy would have something to eat on the journey into the afterlife.
9 Many mummies had GAME BOARDS AND PIECES to entertain themselves.
8 FALSE FINGERS AND TOES protected—you guessed it—a mummy’s real fingers and toes!
7 The BOOK OF THE DEAD was required reading for any mummy! Usually written on a papyrus scroll, it acted as a guide to the afterlife.
6 THE FIRST DOLLHOUSE: False doors, simulated windows, and other decorations from the royal palace were installed into Pharaoh Zoser’s tomb so he’d feel right at home.
5 ROYAL CATS were often buried with their owners and even had their own minicoffins!
4 SHABTI FIGURES were small statues of people that were thought to work or fight for mummies in the afterlife.
3 Pharaoh Cheops was buried in Giza’s Great Pyramid along with a LARGE BOAT for a smooth ride into the afterlife.
2 A MUMMIFIED LION was buried in the tomb of King Tut’s childhood nurse, most likely for protection.
1 ORGAN-FILLED JARS (See the “Preserving the Dead” section to find out why.)
A History of Hieroglyphs
The written language of ancient Egypt comes in the form of images called hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphs were used from roughly 3300 BC – 400AD in Egypt. Soon after the last were etched into stone, nobody was left in Egypt who could translate them.
They may have remained a mystery were it not for the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, a 45 x 28-inch slab of rock discovered in 1799. On this rock were matching inscriptions in hieroglyphs, demotic script (the written form of Egyptian, which came after hieroglyphs), and Greek.
Even with these three translations side by side, the code was still not cracked until 1822, when the extraordinary French linguist Jean-François Champollion realized that the images sometimes represented letters in the alphabet, specific sounds, or even concepts.
For example, doesn’t mean “two feathers,” but is actually the equivalent of the English letter “y.”
actually represents the sound “ankh.”
indicates “motion.”
Translation!
But let’s keep things simple and focus on letters. On the next page is a box containing some English-language letters and their matching hieroglyphs.
Take a look at this:
It contains the name of Khala, the ancient princess featured in The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb. It’s translated like this:
Now match these three series of hieroglyphs to the names of more characters from The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb. The answer key is upside down below. No cheating!
A. Sari B. Gabe C. Ben
Can you write out your own name in hieroglyphs? Give it a try!
Answers: 1 = C; 2 = A; 3 = B
Preserving the Dead
The ancient Egyptians perfected the art of mummification. How does one make a mummy? Here is a quick look at the steps involved.
The body is carefully washed.
All of the organs, except for the heart, are removed. The brain is actually removed through the nose with the use of a metallic hook.
Not all organs are discarded. Some are put in specially made jars, each guarded by an Egyptian god. The stomach goes into the jackal-headed Duamutef jar. The liver goes into the human-headed Imsety jar. The lungs go into the baboon-headed Hapi jar, and the intestines go into the falcon-headed Qebehsenuef jar. These jars are eventually placed in the tomb with the mummy, as it was thought that these organs were needed in the afterlife.
The body is covered in a type of salt called natron, which removes all of the moisture from the body. The body dries in the salt for 40 days.
The body is wrapped in linen, which is glued to the skin with tar or resin.
Finally, the body is wrapped in a sheet and placed in a coffin—forever.
Mummies can be created naturally if a body ends up in the right place. There have been numerous preserved bodies found in bogs and a few instances of mummies being found on high, dry, cold mountaintops.
Don’t Miss More Mummy Madness in
Goosebumps
HorrorLand
#6 WHO’S YOUR MUMMY?
Read on for a peek at the all-new, all-terrifying thrill ride from R.L. Stine.
3
A cold shiver ran down my back. Peter stepped close to me. He shoved his hands into his jeans pockets. He always does that when he’s tense.
“Why?” I asked. “Why are you saying that?”
“What’s wrong with Uncle Jonathan’s house?” Peter demanded.
The woman gazed up at the big house on the hill. Then she slowly lowered her blue eyes to Peter and me. “I live up there, too,” she said softly. “Very close by. Do you think I don’t hear the strange moans at night?”
“Excuse me?” I said. “Moans?”
She frowned. “Think I don’t know that something horrible goes on in that man’s house?” Was she serious?
No. She had to be mistaken. She had to be wrong. Granny Vee would never send us here if she thought it was dangerous.
I heard a pounding sound from down the road. It took me a few seconds to realize it was hoofbeats.
I turned and saw a carriage — an old-fashioned carriage pulled by two tall black horses. The carriage came roaring toward the train station. Bouncing hard on the dirt parking lot, it raised clouds of dust behind it.
“Is that Uncle Jonathan?” Peter asked.
I watched the horses bobbing their heads as they thundered toward us. Then I turned back to the woman. “You were joking — right?” I asked.
“Sorry,” she said. “I’m not sticking around. I don’t ever want to see that man again.”
She leaped off the platform. Her bread fell to the ground, but she didn’t stop to pick it up. She just took off, running through the village. She didn’t look back.
4
Peter and I huddled close together as the carriage squealed to a stop in front of us. The horses snorted and tossed their heads, breathing hard. Their backs were shiny with sweat.
As I gazed up at the old gray-haired driver, the carriage door swung open and a man lowered himself quickly to the ground. He was tall and handsome, with long, straight black hair parted in the middle and a black mustache.
A smile spread over his face as he came closer. His skin was pale, almost yellow, and tight against his cheekbones. His green eyes flashed. He gave us a quick wave with one hand.
He wore a loose-fitting gray suit over a white shirt, open at the neck. A black pipe poked out of his jacket pocket. His shiny black boots came up almost to his knees.
“Are you Abby and Peter?”
We nodded. “Uncle Jonathan?” I said.
The horses snorted behind him. They both pawed the gravel beside the platform.
“I thought I’d bring you to the house in style,” Jonathan said. “Don’t you love this wonderful antique carriage? It belonged to my great-grandfather.”
“Awesome,” Peter said. “It looks like it’s from an old movie.”
Jonathan smiled. When he smiled, his face crinkled into a thousand little lines. “I’ll get your bags. Climb in.”
A few minutes later, Peter and I sat side by side across from our uncle as the carriage bounced up the hill. The village disappeared beneath us as the horses pulled us toward the house.
“So sorry I was late,” Jonathan said. “I wanted to make the house just right for you. I think you’ll find it very exciting.”
The carriage had a wonderful aroma of leather and wood. I gazed out the window at the passing trees. Then I raised my eyes to the roof of the house.
Those were bats circling the towers!
I could see them
clearly now. But how could that be?
Bats aren’t supposed to come out during the day.
The bats gave me another shiver. Like I said, bats have always freaked me out.
I suddenly remembered the woman with the bird tattoo. How horrified she looked when I told her we were going to this house.
Uncle Jonathan rolled his pipe between his fingers. He studied me. “How was your train ride?” he asked.
“Good,” I said. “But there was a woman at the train station. When we were waiting for you …”
His dark eyebrows shot up. “A woman?”
“Yes. She got a little weird. She said she heard moans coming from your house at night.”
Jonathan laughed. He had a dry, almost silent laugh. “Did she have a tattoo of a bird on her neck?”
“Yes,” I said.
“That’s Crazy Annie,” he said. “She’s always complaining about my dogs.” He shook his head. “I hope she didn’t scare you.”
“No way,” Peter said. He always acts like nothing scares him.
“She scared me a little,” I said. “She told us not to go into your house. She told us to go back where we came from.”
“Too late,” Uncle Jonathan said. “We’re here. You’re my prisoners now.”
5
Jonathan laughed. “Hey, I was joking. You’ll get used to my weird sense of humor.”
As I stepped inside the house, all thoughts of Crazy Annie vanished from my mind. My mouth dropped open as we made our way into the enormous front room.