BEASTLY TALES

MUMMIFICATION

Edmond Rathbag was an archaeologist in Egypts Valley of the Kings.
He had worked there for years finding what archaeology brings.
Most of all, he’d discovered many a mummy,
He’d become quite familiar with them, even chummy.
He wasn’t a daddy, but he wanted to be a mummy,
He certainly didn’t want to be a “me too” dummy.
Thinking, “being buried or cremated is so yesterday.
I want to be noble, kingly, where I lay.”
He wanted something special for when he died,
His most earnest desire was to be mummified!
He wanted his cadaver to be preserved by embalming.
Such a concept he felt entrancing, even charming.
The ancient Egyptians had done it for kings,
And other notaries that their Royal Court brings.

He’d, one night, under myriads of stars,
Spoken of this to a fellow Swedish scientist, Lars.
“What I want is to be preserved when dead,”
“Just like the ancient Egyptians, from toe to head.”
“Not since the Pharaohs, thousands of years ago,”
“Have people been mummified head to toe.”
“As an Egyptologist of some renown.”
“I feel it to be my right, in old Cairo town.”
“As a chum, make me a promise that you’ll see it through,”
“Mummification, when my time is due.”
“My Mummy should then be, in a sarcophagus placed.”
“In a suitable stone edifice, Egypt based.”
“I won’t ask you, a pyramid to build,”
“Reasonableness, as my request core is filled.”

Lars, confused, didn’t know if he could make the grade,
But a promise made, stands as a debt unpaid.
And so he began, of the logistics to think.
It was really sufficient to drive him to drink!
Edmond Rathbag wasn’t all that old,
But he’d been steadily working, the secrets of his dig, to unfold.
One day, he discovered an underground tomb.
Entering alone, it was like a catacomb.
He saw many chambers, recessed to the side.
And thought to himself, “Perfect, for when I have died.”
Just then, the stone roof noisily subsided.
Large building stones fell, the chamber divided.
One stone hit Rathbag squarely on the head!
No-one to notice, but surely he must be dead!
No, Rathbag wasn’t mummified in a true sense,
But soon he’d be desiccated by the dry heat intense.
Arguably, he’d become a mummy in a tomb,
Of historical significance, even though not a lot of room.
Naturally he was missed at the dig next day,
And for many days thereafter, the police suspected foul play!
No-one found the entrance to the collapsed tomb.
So they didn’t locate Rathbag’s body in it’s room.
The Swedish archaeologist, Lars, had a mixed feeling.
This conundrum sent all his senses reeling.
He’d made a promise to his chum, that he should become a mummy.
But, if he wasn’t around, he couldn’t mummify a dummy.
That part, clearly, was an immense relief.
But he wasn’t accountable for a body thief.