Well noted Bob! The mercury channel myth in blades, which seems to have been perpetuated for centuries, with the notion of adding impetus to the cut of the blade. Im not much on physics, but I think this notion looked better on paper.
It even carried into the 17th century with the legendary 'Hollow Sword Blades' in England . This actually referred to the ground 'hollow' faces of the blade, not a channel for mercury etc.
The myth even made in into the tales of Bowie knife lore etc.
The channeled blades that were known in Persia, China and India holding 'pearls' (mostly bearing type orbs) that moved in accord with movement of the blade.
Strictly decorative and likely compromising the integrity of the blade for battle.
With the note on the viability of these funerary embellishments as protective, naturally apocryphal. The so called 'curse of the pharoahs' in Egyptian tombs was created by a creative journalist, and grew into a full scale legend. There was no curse in these tombs, at least certainly not in the manner that gained popular belief.
"..blessed be the man that spares these stones. And cursed be he that moves my bones".
- William Shakespeare epitaph
This may have inspired the journalist creating 'a tantalizing story' . Literary license is the bane of the historian and scholar studying historic matters.
Beliefs and Faith are things that cannot be proven or disproven empirically but their study indeed is very much on a different plane.
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