"Some Words with a Mummy" is a satirical

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

by American writer

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...

. It was first published in '' The American Review: A Whig Journal of Politics, Literature, Art and Science'' in April 1845. It is an important early portrayal of a revived Egyptian mummy.

Plot

The narrator eats a very large amount of

Welsh rabbit Welsh rarebit or Welsh rabbit ( or ) is a dish of hot cheese sauce, often including ale, mustard, or Worcestershire sauce, served on toasted bread. The origins of the name are unknown, though the earliest recorded use is 1725 as "Welsh rabbit ...

, accompanied by "brown

stout Stout is a type of dark beer that is generally warm fermented, such as dry stout, oatmeal stout, milk stout and imperial stout. Stout is a type of ale. The first known use of the word "stout" for beer is in a document dated 1677 in the E ...

", and then goes to bed for a night's sleep. However, he is soon awakened and taken to Doctor Ponnonner's home to witness the unwrapping of a mummy. They cut into the first sarcophagus, remove it and discover the mummy's name, Allamistakeo. The second and third sarcophagi are removed to reveal the body, placed in a papyrus sheath, covered in plaster and decorated with painting and gold gilt. After removing this, they examine the body. They find it to be in exceptionally good condition, although it does not seem to have been embalmed in the normal way as the skin is red and there are no incisions. The doctor lays out instruments for the dissection, but the men suggest using electricity on the mummy and they begin preparations for this at once. The amount of electricity causes the mummy to awaken and condemn the men for their abuse. The men make their apologies to Allamistakeo, explain to him why they dissect mummies and the scientific importance of it. Satisfied with the explanation and their apologies Allamistakeo shakes hands with the men, who then proceed to patch up the damage caused by their incisions. They gather up proper clothes for Allamistakeo and sit down for cigars and wine. Allamistakeo explains how he came to be a mummy – ancient Egyptians had a significantly longer life span than modern men, about one thousand years. They were also able to be embalmed – this process arrested the bodily functions allowing them to sleep through hundreds of years only to rise and go on with their lives centuries later. Allamistakeo again chastises the men for their ignorance of Egyptian history. He then explains that throughout time man has always been monotheistic – the pagan gods were symbols of the various aspects of the one true god. The men ask him, as he is over five thousand years old, if he knows anything about how the universe was created ten thousand years ago. Allamistakeo responds that no one during his time entertained the fantasy that the universe was ever created, but that it always existed, although, some believed that humans were created by spontaneous generation in a

polygenic A polygene is a member of a group of non- epistatic genes that interact additively to influence a phenotypic trait, thus contributing to multiple-gene inheritance (polygenic inheritance, multigenic inheritance, quantitative inheritance), a type ...

manner in different places. The modern men get into an argument with Allamistakeo about whose civilization is superior, theirs or the ancient Egyptians'. He convincingly upholds the vast superiority of his own culture in all aspects, ending with gesturing at the clothes they have dressed him in and grinning when they mention costume. Finally, one of the men asks if the mummy was familiar with "the manufacture of either Ponnonner's lozenges or Brandreth's pills". To this Allamistakeo has to accept defeat and, in triumph, the men disperse. The narrator, having gone home and gone back to bed (or dreamt that he has done so), awakes the following morning, decides that he is unhappy with his own time and circumstances, and resolves to go to Ponnoner's to get embalmed for a couple hundred years.

Publication history

In January 1845, ''Columbian Magazine'' listed "Some Words with a Mummy" as scheduled for publication; Poe likely pulled the article when he was offered more money for it elsewhere. It was ultimately published in the April 1845 edition of ''The American Review'',Sova, Dawn B. ''Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z''. New York: Checkmark Books, 2001: 224. which also included Poe's revised poems "The Valley of Unrest" and " The City in the Sea". The story was republished without changes shortly after in the November 1, 1845, issue of the ''

Broadway Journal The ''Broadway Journal'' was a short-lived New York City-based newspaper founded by Charles Frederick Briggs and John Bisco in 1844 and was published from January 1845 to January 1846. In its first year, the publication was bought by Edgar Allan ...

''. The story is significant for featuring the earliest known image of a revived Egyptian mummy. In an 1852 anthology of Poe's works published in the UK, an illustration depicted a revived mummy. Poe and the illustrator challenged accepted racial stereotypes and European imperialism.

Analysis

The story is a

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

of two contemporary themes. First, the popular interest in

Egyptology Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Ancient Greek, Greek , ''wiktionary:-logia, -logia''; ) is the scientific study of ancient Egypt. The topics studied include ancient Egyptian History of Egypt, history, Egyptian language, language, Ancient Egypt ...

and mummies during the time that this story was written in the early 1840s. Second, the prevailing thought that in the West humanity had reached the height of civilization and knowledge due to the scientific and industrial revolutions, the belief in Progress.

Adaptations

The story was adapted as a one-act opera, ''Allamistakeo'', by

Giulio Viozzi Giulio Viozzi (born Trieste, 5 July 1912 – died Verona, 29 November 1984) was an Italian composer, conductor, pianist, and music critic. He was a pupil of , and took his diploma in piano playing in 1931. Among his compositions are numerous ope ...

in 1954. In 2004, the story was featured in ''Graphic Classics #10: Horror Classics'' published by Eureka in an adaptation by Rod Lott with illustrations by Kevin Atkinson. In 2019, a theater organ-based Electro Swing comic opera based on the story was debuted with music by Richard deCosta. The book and the lyrics were written by Thomas Cleveland Lane.

References

External links

*
Publication history of "Some Words with a Mummy"
at The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore
"Some Words with a Mummy" reprinted
in the November 1, 1845, issue of ''The Broadway Journal'', Vol 2. No. 17.
Original publication
in ''The American Review'', April 1845, Vol. I, no. IV, p. 363. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Some Words With A Mummy Short stories by Edgar Allan Poe Works adapted into operas Fiction about mummies 1845 short stories Works originally published in The American Review: A Whig Journal