“Strange Discovery”
About three weeks ago, while a number of boys were amusing themselves in searching for rabbit burrows on the north-east range of Arthur’s Seat, they noticed, in a very rugged and secluded spot, a small opening in one of the rocks, the peculiar appearance of which attracted their attention. The mouth of this little cave was closed by three thin pieces of slate-stone, rudely cut at the upper ends into a conical form, and so placed as to protect the interior from the effects of the weather. The boys having removed these tiny slates, discovered an aperture about twelve inches square, in which were lodged seventeen Lilliputian coffins, forming two tiers of eight each, and one on a third just begun! Each of the coffins contained a miniature figure of the human form cut out in wood, the faces in particular being pretty well executed. They were dressed from head to foot in cotton clothes, and decently ‘laid out’ with mimic representation of all the funeral trappings which usually form the last habiliments of the dead. … [M]any years must have elapsed since the first interment took place in this mysterious sepulchre; and it is also evident that the depositions must have been made singly, and at considerable intervals — facts indicated by the rotten and decayed state of the first tier of coffins and their wooden mummies, the wrapping-clothes being, in some instances entirely mouldered away, while other show various degrees of decomposition; and the coffin last placed, with its shrouded tenant, are as clean and fresh as if only a few days had elapsed since their entombment. … None of the learned with whom we have conversed on the subject can account in any way for this singular fantasy of the human mind. The idea seems rather above insanity, and yet much beneath rationality; nor is any such freak recorded in The Natural History of Enthusiasm.
– Scotsman, July 16, 1836, quoted in Notes and Queries, May 23, 1863
