In the Dwellings of the Wilderness - Charlotte Bryson Taylor

A group of American archaeologists decide to open an Ancient Egyptian tomb despite various obvious warning. What follows is a discovery of a well-preserved mummy and sinister disappearances of the workers nearby. Is the mummy alive? Who is it? What does it want? Find out in this fast-paced mummy thriller that shaped the entire genre of mummy supernatural fiction!

Excerpt:

The sun sank below the horizon and swiftly the world grew dark. From the men's camp came a mournful chant, subdued, and heard as from far away, and the measured thump of a drum. At intervals a donkey raised his voice, after the manner of a saw-shrieking its way through wood. With the darkness came the stars, leaping into the black arch of heaven, great and of a number beyond all counting; the night-wind turned the heat of the day to sudden coolness, sweeping softly among the ruins. The mounds of earth, softened in outline by the darkness, loomed vast and shadowlike, melting into the sombre mystery of the night. Mingled with the chant of the natives and the occasional hee-haw of the donkeys was the fretful bleating of goats, destined for the masters' food. Around the jutting earthwork a faint gleam of light shone from the overseer's fire. Over all the night brooded, swallowing sound and motion in its immensity.