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'Mummified baby breaks no laws'
10/05/2006 14:27 - (SA)
Phnom Penh - A Cambodian couple who mummified their dead premature baby - to keep at home as a lucky charm - broke no laws and were merely adhering to ancient superstitions, said the country's police said Wednesday.
Yem Polil, 39, and his wife Lour Lin, 38, featured on the front page of a local Khmer-language newspaper, the Kampuchea Thmey, on Wednesday.
They were photographed with the mummified corpse of their unnamed son.
The infant had died within a few minutes of being born and the couple had smoked the body to preserve it.
"This is their choice. It is their body," said police chief of the Santouk district, Math Maly.
He said Polil, a former soldier, had dreamed of a mummified baby monkey he had been given as a magic charm to protect him in battle. He had lost the charm, but in the dream it wanted to return to him.
Within months of the dream, Maly said Polil's wife was pregnant.
When Lin miscarried seven months into the pregnancy, the couple took it as an omen and preserved the child's body.
Cambodians believe the mummified bodies of children, and some primates, born prematurely have powerful magical powers and can predict everything from impending disaster to the best time to sow and harvest crops.
"I believe this is a lucky sign and this being has been sent to help us," said Lour Lin.
The couple have two daughters.
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