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Has this weeping stone brought misery and misfortune to the owners of this Scottish castle?

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And this American baseball team blamed 50 years of defeats on the malevolent influence of the goat they banned from the ballpark.

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When archaeologists descended to the sacred tomb of Tutankhamun, did they unleash the curse of the pharaohs?

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Mysteries from the files of Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001 and inventor of the communications satellite.

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Now in retreat in Sri Lanka, he ponders the riddles of this and other worlds.

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Elephants are now protected here in Sri Lanka, but that wasn't always the case.

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In the 19th century, they were hunted almost to extinction.

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The greatest bag of all was claimed by colonial surveyor Major Thomas Rogers.

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He boasted that he shot more than 1300 before losing count.

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One day in 1845, an old Buddhist priest, sickened by the slaughter, pronounced this curse,

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White Sahib, thine hour is drawing near.

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Thou shalt be consumed by the lightning of heaven before thou canst raise thine accursed weapon again.

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Terrified, the Major gave up hunting, but he couldn't contain his bloodlust for long.

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On the way to shoot one more elephant, he was struck by lightning and killed instantly.

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The priest's curse was even said to have blighted the Major's tomb.

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Over the years, it was the only one in the cemetery repeatedly struck by lightning.

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But new curses placed on buildings and things rarely work.

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Do they have the power to harm and even to kill?

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Generations of owners of Fivy Castle in Scotland believe that they do.

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In the 13th century, they lived in fear of a prophet of doom called Thomas the Rimer.

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He travelled the country casting curses on houses and families.

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For a year before his arrival, Fivy's gates were left open in a misplaced gesture of welcome.

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He arrived on the lawns outside the castle and as soon as he got there, a tremendous storm blew up.

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The trees began to bend, the boughs creak, twigs snapped,

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but Thomas was in the very centre of the storm and not one breath of wind caught his hair

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or a whisker of his beard was moved.

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And then as the wind was howling around the turrets of Fivy, the great gate went slam in his face.

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And so angry was he by this ill reception that he placed the curse on the house.

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To lift his curse, Thomas decreed that three stones must be collected together and thrown off the property.

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One lay under water and the other two in the castle itself.

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The stones were said to weep, but only one has ever been found and is carefully preserved in a bowl.

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The curse is in a sense unbreakable and Thomas himself said of the three stones,

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one is in the oldest tower unidentified, one is in my lady's bow,

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which used to be in the 18th century and the 17th century, the room above here.

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And then for the last hundred years or more, the stone has actually been resided in this room,

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the charter room, and here it is next to me.

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And the third stone is in the bottom of the river Eithem, which is a boulder-strewn riverbed.

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And as Thomas says, it is impossible to get, we can't find it.

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So they can never be brought together and thrown off the property.

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And the interpretation is difficult and the popular belief is that the elder son

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of the family will not inherit.

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The Forbes Leith family who owned this house, it's curious that within their ownership of the house,

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every single generation has been affected by this.

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Lord Leith, he had two children, a son and a daughter, and the son died of enteric fever

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in the Boer War in 1900, so that the daughter inherited.

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And she had two sons and the eldest one, Arthur Forbes Leith, was claimed in 1914 in the First War,

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so that the second son inherited.

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And that second son, Sir Ian, had two sons of which the eldest died in Malayan campaign in 1949.

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The owner of FIVE is the one who is supposed to be under this curse,

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but the house is no longer owned by a single life.

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It's in fact owned by a National Trust of Scotland.

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And therefore there is no elder son or any such thing.

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So I wonder whether this has finally in fact turned the tables on Tamas himself.

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At Wrigley Field Baseball Ground, the home team, the Chicago Cubs, has no such luck.

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In fact, they've no luck at all.

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For 50 years, they've suffered the effects of a curse imposed by a disgruntled fan.

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The Cubs have consistently failed to get to the final of the World Series.

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In Major League Baseball, there's no worse fate.

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The curse began in 1945 during the World Series between the Cubs and the Detroit Tigers.

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William Billy Goatsianus, a tavern owner in Chicago, had a mascot goat.

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And he bought tickets for both himself and the goat to attend the World Series.

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Once he got to the ballpark, the ushers would not let in this so-called smelly goat

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and offend the sensibilities of the well-heeled fans.

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So William Billy Goatsianus put a curse on the Cubs that they would not win until they let his goat in.

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The Cubs then ended up losing the World Series to the Detroit Tigers

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and have not been back to the World Series ever since.

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Every time the Cubs get close, something goes wrong.

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A pitcher gives up a home run for the wrong batter.

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A fielder makes an error.

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Once the entire pitching staff got injured at the same time.

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Well, every time a player come on the field, he want to give his best.

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He want to give 100 percent.

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But I think deep down within their mind,

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they know that not winning a World Series, not playing good baseball here at times,

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it's because of the goat.

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Well, the odds on a team like the Cubs somehow avoiding a World Series

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and for the better part of 50 years are just astronomical.

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No Las Vegas odds maker would post them.

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I did talk to one of the top odds makers in Las Vegas two years ago,

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and he said the odds are a million to one.

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One million to one.

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Unbelievable.

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Something should have happened during that period of time

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to have allowed the Cubs to get a lucky break and get into a World Series.

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Whenever things get desperate, the Cubs invite a goat to Wrigley Field.

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The first year they tried it, they won the division.

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When they lost 13 home games in a row, the goat was persuaded back.

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The team won that day, but it didn't last.

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If we're about 10 games from winning the division,

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we're going to bring the goat out because we don't like to think about

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if the goat's not here, we won't win the World Series.

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So if we're that close, we're going to make sure because everybody knows

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that we can't win a World Series unless we let the goat in the ballpark.

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We're going to have that goat right here eating the grass out here in Wrigley Field.

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The Cubs' loyal fans like to drown their sorrows whenever they lose a game.

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It was from this bar that William Billy Goatsianis set out for Wrigley Field

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on that fateful day in 1945. The rejected goat's baleful eye keeps a watch on proceedings.

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I feel like Chicago Cubs couldn't buy worse luck. Ever since the curse in 1945,

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they haven't had a decent team. In fact, I could pitch better than some of the people

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they put on the team right now. They're never going to lose the curse because

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the goat is dead. There's only one goat and they blew it.

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I'll support them forever, but it's kind of like cheering for a horse with a bad leg right now.

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There is no more glorious landscape in Northern England than these rolling acres.

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Yet the Bagot family of Leavens Hall live for generations under a shadow cast by an

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unthinking act of cruelty against a needy visitor.

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A lady who was destitute came to the front door of the house and she begged for food

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and she was told that people at the first station should go around to the back door

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where she would be fed. She went and did as instructed and she went down the back drive

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around towards the back door and expired on the back drive of hunger.

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And she said in her dying breath presumably that the house would never have a male heir

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not until a white form is born in the park and we have black fallow deer, so that's unusual.

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And also that the river Kent at the bottom of the garden would freeze.

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And neither of those things happened for 200 years.

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The house and lands passed down the female line. The ladies of Leavens were not empowered to

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improve the estate so it languished in limbo. Amazing coincidences finally broke the curse.

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The family have always kept scrapbooks from a long way back. The cuttings are here,

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which go on about the great frost which happened in 1895 and there are photographs of the

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gardens under snow. Records confirm this was the coldest year for half a century.

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Locals were able to skate on Lake Windermere. For the baggots the great freeze brought a miracle.

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The river Kent froze over. That same year the herd of black fallow deer in the park produced a

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single white form. The proof is glued firmly into the pages of the baggots scrapbook.

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They were so excited that in fact they shot it. It says the woods of Leavens hail the white

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form's birth herald and symbol of the gift of God. The gift of God duly appeared in the shape of the

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longed-for son and heir. Alan Desmond Baggot was born in that year and his picture eventually

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features in this scrapbook with his mother and a little dog and there it is.

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Ancient Egyptians used curses to protect their departed loved ones. As a matter of course,

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tombs were inscribed with dire warnings. The oldest curse of all is being cleaned.

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We can see the first curse inscription ever occurred. It occurred by someone who was a draftsman.

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Someone who did the technical work. And if we look here now we can see the whole inscription.

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The man is saying here listen all of you. I never did anything wrong in my life. Everything I do

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is perfect. That's why the gods likes me. If anyone will disturb my tomb what's going to happen to him.

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The crocodile, the hippopotamus and the lion will eat you. But in the other side his wife

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left the same inscription exactly but she added her more and she said the snake and the scorpion

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will eat you. The curse of Tutankhrauman is the most famous of all. It was said to have caused

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the whole spate of sudden and inexplicable deaths after the young king's tomb was discovered in the 1920s.

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At this theme park near Cairo tourists can do ancient Egypt in one day.

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The high spot is a visit to a replica of King Tutankhamun's tomb. It's laid out just like the

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real one on the day it was opened. And here we have the great sarcophagus of Tutankhamun, the splendor

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that was 3,500 years ago. One of the things that is a legend about the tomb of Tutankhamun

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is the fact that it was said that whoever went into the tomb or touched this tomb would die.

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And there was nothing that was found in the tomb that would say that but that was the legend.

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King Tutankhamun's tomb was found in 1922 by archaeologist Howard Carter. He told his sponsor

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in England, Lord Knaven, of his wonderful discovery. Knaven rushed to Egypt at once to examine the

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treasure. But warning voices sounded. After Weigel, who was covering the story for the daily mail,

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told Knaven he would be dead within six weeks. Just over six weeks later Knaven was indeed dead.

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He had long suffered from ill health but the cursed story took a firm hold. The family

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seat of Highclare is now lived in by his grandson.

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My grandfather died in Cairo as a result of cutting himself with the razor.

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The wound became infected. He got septicemia and alas died about three o'clock in the morning.

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All the lights in Cairo went out which was a strange phenomenon because when my

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father went next morning to see Lord Allenby, Lord Allenby apologized

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for all the lights going out in Cairo and he'd asked the chief royal engineer

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to investigate it but they never got to the bottom of that problem. So that was one of the things.

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And then at the same time as my grandfather died in Cairo, lying for the time difference,

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his Jack Russell Terrier gave a short growl and died in the housekeeper's room in this house.

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Lord Knaven was not the only one said to have been killed by the curse.

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American railroad tycoon Jay Gould died of pneumonia shortly after visiting the tomb

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and only months after seeing the find this Egyptian prince was shot dead by his wife.

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But the most likely candidates were unscathed. Howard Carter was first into the tomb and lived to

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64. Of the other experts who even ate lunch in Pharaoh's tombs, only one died young of natural causes.

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So much for King Tut. In fact a recent study suggests that the people who visited the tomb

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actually had a greater life expectancy than normal. I hope that's true because I've been there myself.

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However, scientists have discovered that some tombs do indeed harbor a threat to life,

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which has nothing to do with paranormal powers.

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Dr. Nazri Iskander is curator of mummies at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

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Studying methods to preserve them has given him unique insights into the legendary curses.

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Yes.

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I myself, when I enter any tomb, I prefer to wait for some time outside the tomb

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after just opening the door slowly. And then I prefer to check with small instruments.

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The percentage of oxygen inside the tomb before I enter and work in it. And to monitor all the time

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during our working in it and to be all the time on the safe readings. This is very important.

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This mummy is 4,500 years old. And this is the oldest mummy in our Egyptian history now.

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And it's well preserved. You can see here the features of the face in a very good condition

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and also all of his organs. During the years of closing, there is always a reduction of the

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percentage of oxygen in it and is also responsible for stopping or reducing the activation of these

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microbes and bacteria and viruses. And when you just open it for the first time,

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then who is will enter first. They are going to breathe all of the air without oxygen, but

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with the microbes and bacteria and viruses. These viruses will start to activate directly and

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immediately in the lungs of the first one entering the tombs.

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The picture postcard English village of Titchbourne kept a curse at bay for 600 years.

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But one slip up cost the lords of the manor their original mansion and also their family name.

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The curse has blighted the Titchbourne family because one of their ancestors was cruel to his dying wife.

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This is the field around which Mabella Titchbourne, my ancestor,

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crawled just before she died in about 1188 when her husband refused her dying request

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to give out bread to the poor of the parish. It was a long time ago, so they were quite poor in

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those days. And he said that he would give the produce off as much land as she could crawl

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around while a burning torch still glowed in her hand. So she got up off her deathbed and crawled

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around this, I think, 23 acres. And then I suppose the torch went out and she died. She said that she

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wished the bread off the land to be given to the people every year in her memory on Lady Day,

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the 25th of March, the day she died. And that this must go on if there was ever a break and the

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Titchbourne's stopped giving out this bread. She laid a curse on the family. She said that there would

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be a generation of seven sons followed by seven daughters, the house would fall down and the name

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would die out. In 1794 one reckless Titchbourne stopped the doll for a year. Since then his

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descendants have done their best to repair the damage by faithfully performing the ceremony.

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During the Second World War, anonymous friends kept the doll going by donating their flower

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coupons. The head of the family was so relieved that he wrote to the Times to thank them, but it

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was all to no avail. I think you do have to believe in the curse, in the face of the evidence

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that's been presented even over all these years. The house did fall down, there were seven sons,

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there were seven daughters and there are now no ours.

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In New England the dark deeds ascribed to the witches of Salem are now history.

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But behind the town's cheerful facade an ancient evil may still weave a sinister spell.

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This man believes it nearly cost him his life.

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He allies the remains of George Corwin Esquire, born in England, AD 1610, died in Salem, AD 1665.

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Other descendants of the Corwin family are buried here including George Corwin Jr.

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who was the old sheriff of Essex County during witch times, the fellow that caused me all my

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problems here in Salem as well many years later. Rob Cahill was proud to be elected sheriff of Essex

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County. He had a team of dedicated lawmen until he was forced from office by a mysterious disease.

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While I was in the hospital I had a long time to think and I of course thought about where on

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earth could this terrible disease have come from, why me, even the doctors didn't know what it was.

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And so I did think of certainly a curse and a curse that could very well have gone back to

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to the original curse of Sheriff George Corwin. During the trials in 1692 many innocent people

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were done to death. One victim was Giles Corrie. For defending his wife from the witch hunt he

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himself was accused. Sheriff Corwin personally imposed the cruelest punishment. Corrie was

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pressed to death beneath enormous rocks. At one point his tongue came out of his mouth and the

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cruel sheriff of Essex County, George Corwin, took his cane and poked the tongue back in again.

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And these are from eyewitnesses who are at the scene. Finally as he was dying under the pressure

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of the rocks Giles Corrie spit out a curse and he cursed the sheriff himself and he said I curse

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Salem and I curse you Sheriff Corwin and he died. Sheriff Corwin got his just desserts.

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Shortly after the curse was laid he died an early death. The disease that killed him has plagued

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his successors ever since. The sheriff before me really died of a blood disease. The sheriff before

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him his father died of a heart attack in office. The sheriff before him died of a heart attack not

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in office but shortly thereafter. There's something to the curse and nobody knows that any better than

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I do. I survived which I think is terrific but I went through a lot of hell and still do. Oh and I

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was at death's door. One of the valves in my heart is replaced every 10 years with a pigs valve.

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The present sheriff he looks kind of a scant at me. We joke about the curse sometimes but it was very real to me.

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Rob's wife Sandy is glad that his time as sheriff of Essex County is now over.

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I strongly believe in the curse. I've seen it happen. I don't want it to happen again.

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If one of my family were to even think about running for the office of sheriff of Essex County

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I would do everything in my power to convince them not to run. Even a friend of mine especially

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family members. I believe that strongly in the curse. I'm usually not very superstitious but I've

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gone through a lot of hell and a lot of sickness and there's no explanation to this sickness.

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I would not want to see any member of my family or any good friend of mine go through what I went

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through and I would just say no don't run stay away from it.

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Much as I enjoy these spooky tales they don't really bear serious investigation.

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Proclaiming that there's a curse on a tomb to keep robbers away might seem a good idea

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though it certainly didn't work for most of the pharaohs. I suspect that coincidence and

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imaginative revision of the facts by later storytellers accounts for the other cases

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but if you ever do find yourself in a place with a curse on it don't hang around.

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So