Haunted Object: The Cursed Egyptian Bone

After British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun tomb in 1922, Egypt became “the” place to visit by the world’s elite. 

Sir Alexander Hay Seton or “Sandy” as he was known, 10^th Baronet of Abercorn, and his wife Zeyla traveled from Edinburgh to Cairo in 1936. This trip started a series of events that made Sir Alexander believe that his family was forever accursed. *

In his memoirs Sir Alexander recounts that his and Zeyla’s trip to Egypt was uneventful until they took a tour of a newly opened tomb that lay in the shadow of the pyramids. He stated that a bad feeling overtook him at the time:

“I had a feeling in my bones that something was going to happen over this and it was only with the greatest of difficulty that Zeyla cajoled me into going with her. I wish earnestly to God that we had not gone!”

He recounts how they were led down 30 roughly hewn rock steps where their guide, Abdul led them to a stone slab were the remains of a female skeleton lay uncovered. Seton noted that her skull and leg bones were clearly visible, few ribs were left but her spine was intact. 

As the group moved to leave Seton offered a brief whispered prayer, his wife fascinated hung back to take one more look at the skeletal remains. 

Unbeknownst to Sir Alexander his wife removed a bone and placed it in her pocket. At dinner that evening with her husband she confessed what she had done. The two examined the smallish heart-shaped bone at which point Seton announced it looked like a grotesque digestive biscuit.

Sir Alexander forgot about the bone until he and his wife returned to Edinburgh. Zeyla brought the bone out and the two decided to display it within a former glass clock case in their drawing room. 

The events that followed this challenged his families’ innocence and ultimately tore them apart. Within moments of the bone being set upon the table in the Seton’s drawing room, panels from the ceiling crashed down almost hitting them. 

During the next weeks the families sleep was disturbed by sounds of bumps, bangs and thuds.

During this time a young cousin who visited the Seton household saw a “ghostly woman dressed in strange clothes” float by. Other guests in the following weeks also spotted this strange apparition in the home's halls. 

Chairs began to be thrown about and the glass case that the bone rested in mysteriously broke. The legs of the table that the bone sat upon shattered and broke several times. By this time the household was in a major uproar. Sir Alexander locked the drawing room door and determined to keep watch.

Nothing happened so he went to bed. But several hours later his wife woke him up stating that someone must have broken into the house. He grabbed his revolver and headed downstairs, he met his daughter’s nanny on the stairs—she was in hysterics. 

She stated that something was moving around in the drawing room. He went back upstairs to retrieve his keys and when he and Zeyla unlocked the drawing room door a chaotic scene greeted them. 

Chairs were upset, books were flung about but the bone was undisturbed upon the table. Sir Alexander was surprised to find the windows in the room where all locked and secure.

Believing they must have a poltergeist Sir Alexander told his wife he intended to destroy the bone. She forbade him to do this, which caused a prolonged fight between the two. 

A reporter from the Express getting wind of what was occurring in the Seton residence started to hound Sir Alexander for answers—he refused to comment. But later when this same reporter requested to borrow the bone he allowed it. The Express reporter returned the bone without incident but was later involved in a serious car accident.

The activity calmed down for a while but one night as the Seton’s returned from their various engagements the nanny approached them once more in a panic. She had been hearing loud noises in the drawing room all night and then glass shattering. 

She admitted she was too afraid to enter the room. When the Seton’s did they found that everything was undisturbed except for the bone and table it sat upon. The table rested on its side the bone lay in several pieces on the floor.

A reporter from the Scottish Daily Mail was called in to take pictures of it. He like the first reporter borrowed the bone but the next day he returned it because he had become seriously ill. 

The family prayed and peace returned to house briefly then on Boxing Day they invited over one hundred guests for dinner. Zeyla’s friend had pieced and glued the bone back together and placed it back in the drawing room. 

As the guests were served cocktails in an adjourning room the conversation inevitably turned to the bone. At this point the table the bone sat upon hurled itself violently across the room hitting the opposite wall. 

A maid and Zeyla’s cousin Gert both fainted. Even though no one had been in the room where the table had moved people panicked and and the party broke up quickly.

The American papers picked up on the story after this incident. Again, Sir Alexander was hounded. Meetings were held with hundreds of attendees to determine what might be going on. 

The family received thousands of letters from concerned citizens. Howard Carter who had made the initial Tutankhamun find penned one of these letters. He stated,

“…that inexplicable things could happen and would continue to happen.”

Sir Alexander determined, now requested his uncle a Roman Catholic monk ** to come out and “exorcise” the bone—he did this while Zeyla was not at home. 

Once the bone was blessed Seton destroyed the bone by burning it. Years later, he stated this returned peace to his house but Zeyla never forgave him and their marriage disintegrated soon afterwards. ***

* At the time many stories where being published about the supposed “Curse of the Pharaohs”. This curse refers to a wide held belief that if anyone disturbed the remains of an ancient Egyptian, especially a pharaoh that person would then be cursed.

** Sir Alexander Hay Seton was not a catholic but his uncle was. His daughter, Egidia was six at the time. She recalled seventy years later the day her Uncle Charles arrived at the house, causing a scandal, from the Benedictine Abbey at Fort Augustus.

“He was in charge of the wine and spirits up at the Abbey and I rather think he was their best customer. He came down and waved his hands over the bone a bit and incanted something.”

*** Even though the activity in the house settled down, Sir Alexander stated that the curse continued to make his and his families lives difficult. At the end he stated he believed in the curse.