CRY LIKE AN EAGLE
When I read “The Mighty Marvel of the Skies” in the
March issue, it called to mind a rather unexpected sort of
“fun fact” about bald eagles. I’ve had the opportunity to
observe them in the wild, and it turns out the sound they
make is nothing like what most of us have come to think of
it as. That distinct cry as the majestic bird swoops down
from the sky is not real! Of course the fi erce raptors are
still impressive nonetheless, and hopefully knowing this
doesn’t diminish anyone’s enjoyment of them.
Sam Pellerton, Fairbanks, AKIt’s true, and it may be disappointing when people hear what
a bald eagle actually sounds like: Rather than the well-known
screeching call we associate with them, they utter more of
a peeping chirp. It’s actually kind of an adorable sound for
such a formidable bird to make, though sometimes they do
also make a call that has a haunting quality. Whenever eagles
are heard on TV and in movies, the mighty characteristic cry
is actually the overdubbed call of another bird of prey such as
a red-tailed hawk instead.CURSE OF TUT’S TOMB
I’ve always been fascinated by all things ancient
Egypt. It had a very advanced culture that existed
such a long time ago, with so much knowledge—
and drama, as evinced by the stories of both
the gods and the mortals. While reading “The
Discovery of the World’s Greatest Treasure” in
the last issue and thinking about the moment
Howard Carter fi rst opened King Tut’s tomb, Ireaderfeedback
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per/Getty.had to wonder: What about the curse of the mummy that’s
supposed to affl ict anyone who opens a tomb? Is it real?
Alice Burns, Crescent Springs, KY“The curse of the pharaohs” is thought to befall anyone who
disturbs mummifi ed remains, in particular those of a pharaoh.
In the culture of ancient Egypt, the condition of the corpse was
thought to be fi rmly tied to the deceased person’s chances of
successfully navigating the afterlife. The Egyptians regarded
a properly preserved body as a home for part of the soul
while another part journeyed to the entrance to the afterlife.
When it comes to Tutankhamun, arguably the most famous
of Egypt’s rulers even though the boy king was meant to be
confi ned to obscurity by the priests of his day, there was
no actual curse inscribed in the tomb. But in the 10 years
after the tomb’s discovery there were 11 notable deaths,
beginning with the death of Howard Carter’s patron, Lord
Carnarvon, about four months after the tomb was opened.
He had been bitten by a mosquito and then accidentally
slashed the bite while shaving, which lead to an infection
that soon did him in. Some of the deaths, such as that of the
radiologist Sir Archibald Douglas-Reid, who had performed
an X-ray of Tutankhamun’s mummy, seemed to result from
a mysterious illness. Carter himself passed away in 1939
(well over 10 years after the discovery of the tomb in 1923) of
Hodgkin’s disease, though some still suspect his death was
the work of a curse.RECOMMENDED VIEWING
In honor of the March issue’s article on “The Immutable Laws
of Time,” we’re recommending a fl ick we found fun: Time Trap
(2017), available on Netfl ix, a sci-fi adventure that takes place
in a very strange cave where time
is much more relative than any
of the people who venture into
it could have possibly imagined.
After a group of young people go
in search of a missing professor,
who had set out on a search of
his own, the adventure begins in
earnest as things quickly start to
get increasingly bizarre. All in all,
an entertaining romp through the
concept of chronology.ideasanddiscoveries.com 3 May 2020