“As we lifted the casket from the sarcophagus, we noticed on its sides the strange protuberances which you have already seen; but we were unable at the time to account for them.  There were a few amulets in the sarcophagus, but none of any special worth or significance.  We took it that if there were such, they were within the wrappings; or more probably in the strange casket underneath the mummy’s feet.  This, however, we could not open.  There were signs of there being a cover; certainly the upper portion and the lower were each in one piece.  The fine line, a little way from the top, appeared to be where the cover was fixed; but it was made with such exquisite fineness and finish that the joining could hardly be seen.  Certainly the top could not be moved.  We took it, that it was in some way fastened from within.  I tell you all this in order that you may understand things with which you may be in contact later.  You must suspend your judgment entirely.  Such strange things have happened regarding this mummy and all around it, that there is a necessity for new belief somewhere.  It is absolutely impossible to reconcile certain things which have happened with the ordinary currents of life or knowledge.

“We stayed around the Valley of the Sorcerer, till we had copied roughly all the drawings and writings on the walls, ceiling and floor.  We took with us the Stele of lapis lazuli, whose graven record was coloured with vermilion pigment.  We took the sarcophagus and the mummy; the stone chest with the alabaster jars; the tables of bloodstone and alabaster and onyx and carnelian; and the ivory pillow whose arch rested on ‘buckles’, round each of which was twisted an uraeus wrought in gold.  We took all the articles which lay in the Chapel, and the Mummy Pit; the wooden boats with crews and the ushaptiu figures, and the symbolic amulets.

“When coming away we took down the ladders, and at a distance buried them in the sand under a cliff, which we noted so that if necessary we might find them again.  Then with our heavy baggage, we set out on our laborious journey back to the Nile.  It was no easy task, I tell you, to bring the case with that great sarcophagus over the desert.  We had a rough cart and sufficient men to draw it; but the progress seemed terribly slow, for we were anxious to get our treasures into a place of safety.  The night was an anxious time with us, for we feared attack from some marauding band.  But more still we feared some of those with us.  They were, after all, but predatory, unscrupulous men; and we had with us a considerable bulk of precious things.  They, or at least the dangerous ones amongst them, did not know why it was so precious; they took it for granted that it was material treasure of some kind that we carried.  We had taken the mummy from the sarcophagus, and packed it for safety of travel in a separate case.  During the first night two attempts were made to steal things from the cart; and two men were found dead in the morning.