import mailbox
mailboxname = "/tmp/mymailbox"
mbox = mailbox.UnixMailbox(open(mailboxname))
msgcounter = 0
while 1:
mailmsg = mbox.next()
if not mailmsg:
break
msgcounter = msgcounter + 1
messagebody = mailmsg.fp.read()
print messagebody
print
print "The message counter is %d" % (msgcounter)