Mini Coffins of Edinburgh

 Have you ever wondered if you discover coffins on a quest to find rabbits?

And that also not of humans but of small dolls?

Well, this is what happened in Edinburg in 1836,

While playing in Arthur's seat, a group of boys stumbled upon a small cave in the rocks. They found seventeen mini coffins inside the cave, each containing a mini-doll.

Yes, dolls, and if you don't believe me check out the National Museum Of Scotland.

Eight of the seventeen coffins that survived are displayed there.

Unique collection to be kept safely in a museum right!

Now coming, to the question why are these coffins are so famous? Could they be a foul joke? or something a child did while playing?

Nah!

Things are never so simple!

Let's start with the dolls, each of the dolls is dressed differently and could be differentiated from one another. They are assumed to be originally small wooden soldier toys. The coffins are so tiny that some of the toys have their limbs removed to fit in. 

Coming to the coffin, each one is approximately 95mm in length and has carvings on their surface that also seem to be different from one another. They were arranged in three tiers, two tiers of eight and one solitary coffin on top.

Though most researchers think that all the coffins are made by the same person the question still remains!

 Why? why would someone make coffins of dolls and why hide them in Arthur's seat of all places?

Let's dive into the different theories behind these Lilliputian coffins.

Since these were discovered in the 1800s of course one of the first theories published in newspapers would be witchcraft and demonology!

How intuitive!

They must have thought something like "These look similar to voodoo dolls so blame the satanic cults!"

This was one of the theories published in The Scotsman on 16th July 1836.

Almost a month later, the Edinburgh Evening Post suggested a new theory. It mentioned an ancient custom of Saxony, where friends who were lost in distant lands were buried in effigy.

Caledonian Mercury, Talked about the existence of a superstition, where sailors lost in the sea were buried in effigies by their wives to give them a Christian Burial.

But these two theories still raise questions why seventeen coffins? or why bury them at a Volcanic hill?

Obviously, no answer was found.

The coffins disappeared for some time after being auctioned off. They reappeared in 1901 when they were donated to the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Society somehow concluded that the coffins could be honorific burials.

But the case didn't stop there!

Of course, if it stopped there with such a simple theory, we Mystery seekers wouldn't have anything to discuss.

Besides, if they were honorific burials why make these dolls so creepy, that the children almost destroyed them.

Five years later in 1906, The Scotsman published another interesting but absurd story. 

The story was relayed by a woman who lived in Edinburgh, her father, was visited by a daft man. who had once drawn on a piece of paper three coffins with dates 1837, 1838, and 1840. following that incident in the autumn of 1837 a relative of her father died, in 1838 his cousin demised, and in 1840 his own brother. After the funeral, the daft man again appeared glaring at him, and then disappeared forever. Even if the article hinted that the daft man could be the original creator of these Arthur seat coffins. But they could also be a mere series of coincidences.

In 1976 Walter Havernick, director of the Museum of Hamburg History, came up with a new theory. according to a German superstition of keeping mandrake roots or dolls in tiny coffins as talismans, he postulated that these coffins could be lucky charms for sailors. Even though charms were still used in 19th-century Scotland, no evidence of such seafaring tradition was found.

I guess you are tired after reading so many theories,

So, now let's discuss the most interesting theory!

The Mystery of Murder Dolls.

Edinburgh became renowned for medical science by the early 1800s. The field of medical science is based on understanding the body's mechanisms, so of course, anatomy plays a vital role in this honorable study. We all know anatomy requires a human body to be dissected. With a rise in medical schools and students, fewer criminals punished with the death penalty, and diseases being treated better, there soon became a shortage of cadavers for anatomical studies.

The news of this soon spread like wildfire among criminals, who saw it as an opportunity, and body snatching from churchyards became a common thing. Thus, most of the criminals shifted to suppliers of dead bodies for medical schools. Among these suppliers, two soon attracted the attention of people, as the bodies they supplied seemed not to come from the graveyards.

The two Irish immigrants William Burke and William Hare ran a boarding house in Edinburgh. One day one of their elderly lodgers accidentally died still owing them money. To make up for their losses they sold the body to Dr. Robert Knox. This is how their murderous business started. 

Why murderous?

Because the rest of the bodies they sold none of them were accidental death anymore.

At first, Burke and Hare started abducting travelers then they became sloppy and started murdering townspeople who were easily recognized by others. The small mistake became their doom and William Burke was hanged after Hare confessed to his crimes. In the 10 months of their murder journey, they killed 16 people. After Burke died his body was also dissected and used for anatomical studies. 

How ironic!

Interestingly, a lot of people were admitted to the hospital that day just to observe his body.

So 16 victims and one of their murderers: could this be the answer we are looking for?

Could someone have felt pity and buried the people, murdered in cold blood who never got a proper funeral in this way?

The only logic against this theory is that their victims were predominantly women but toys were male.  Then again premade soldier toys.

Or is there some other story behind the miniature coffins? feel free to comment below.

If you don't know Arthur's seat is associated with the legendary King Arthur, not only that it was the home to the Celtic Voltadini Tribe in 400AD. 

Obivously, a story like this will attract a lot of creative attention. Ian Ranking, wrote  in his thriller book 'Fall', "Plenty of people over the years have come up to me with their excited notions of plots for my next book. I’ve found precious few of them to be helpful, or viable, but I was intrigued by these ‘little dolls’… which is how I made the acquaintance of the Arthur’s Seat coffins… As soon as I saw them, I knew they would make a great story, especially as no one had come up with an incontrovertible interpretation of their meaning. In other words, there was a story to tell about them…"

In 2006 the novel was adapted for television, and replicas of the coffins were produced. These replicas often replaces the originals when they were required to be presented somewhere else.

The mystery continues...

In December 2014, the museum received a beautiful replica of the coffin cryptically named XVIII, attached to it was a note which quoted the climax from a chilling short story 'The Body Snatcher' by Robert Louis Stevenson.

These tiny coffins will continue to attract more attention in the future. We can just hope for this mystery to be solved one day.

Blue rose belles

( Archie) 

UNRAVELING THE TITANIC MYSTERY

 

THEY SAID THE SHIP WAS UNSINKABLE, YET IT SANK!

2 AM on the morning of 15 April 1912, the RMS Titanic sank, drowning 1,500 people with it.

The question that the majority of us ask is, " HOW THE SHIP SANK?". 

The answer to that question is simple, " The ship hit an iceberg causing irreparable damage to it, which led to its drowning."

But what if the question I ask is, "Why did the ship drown?"

Confused right!

Well, you see, we all know the basic story that the media wants us to know and ignore the small details hidden within and what best place to hide than in plain sight.

The three adjectives that I want to use for the story of Titanic are creepy, tragic, and suspicious.

THE SUSPICION

Did you know the stack of binoculars onboard was never used?

The key to that room was not even on the ship!.

 The key never reached the ship due to some last-minute changes.

So, the lookers had to completely rely on their eyesight, not to mention the thick fog of the Atlantic would make it almost impossible to see. the lookers Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee didn't see the iceberg until 37 seconds before hitting it.

It's funny to see that the key that could have saved so many lives, was sold at an auction in 2010 for  $130,000.

Was it a mistake or a well-planned mistake?

According to one of the survivors, a lifeboat drill was to be held on Sundays, but it was canceled on the first Sunday, which also happens to be the last Sunday, 14th April 1912.

The answer to, "Why the drill never happened?" drowned with the captain.

The very next question is about the scarcity of lifeboats,

 "Why were only 20 lifeboats on the ship carrying over 3,330 people?"

Even if the crew was overconfident, at least they could have kept enough boats to accommodate seventy percent of the people. There were supposed to be 60 lifeboats, but the number decreased before the voyage. According to the crew, the lifeboats would hinder passengers from enjoying the ocean view.

Stupid right! 

When you see people putting luxury and aesthetics over safety.

A telegram reached the ship, informing it about the icebergs ahead, but the message was ignored as spam?

The SS. California, although nearby, never came to aid the Titanic.

A missing key, An ignored warning, a Scarcity of lifeboats, and the help that never came, can all of them be ignored as mere coincidences.

You may ask me why would drowning a ship be planned?

 

Well, Titanic had some really influential men abroad, one of them was the richest man of that time, who went down with the ship. It could be a plot to wipe out some dangerous competitors.

THE PREDICTION

Now comes another twist to the story. The prediction.

Do you know that the fall of Titanic was predicted?

Almost 14 years before the ship went on a maiden voyage, a book was published called 'Futility' by Morgan Robertson, it was based on a fictional ship called Titan, that drowned on her first maiden voyage in the North Atlantic after it hit an iceberg. Not only the name and tragedy are similar but the Titan was imagined to be the largest ship, the most magnificent and unsinkable, and it also had a scarcity of lifeboats as the crew was overconfident. The book was renamed in 1912 as 'The Wreck of the Titan or Futility'.

I mean a lot of catastrophes have been predicted before like Corona but was the sinking of Titanic really predicted or the story of Titan was taken as a framework for the Titanic tragedy.

Confused!

Let's put it this way. If you are planning mass murder and want to show it as an accident, lure your victims with a promising offer, then make the accident. In this case, Titanic was made hype, the influential men wanted to be on the ship to show off they were capable enough to be on the most prestigious ship of that time. The couples wanted to make their honeymoon memorable to be on a famous ship and the last, passengers in third class just wanted the experience to tell stories to their grandchildren.

Now comes another rumor, the ship was already damaged before it hit the iceberg, it was damaged before even it started the voyage. The damage happened due to burning coal and not hitting an iceberg. Once the captain knew of the damage he started speeding the ship, so they could reach the land before a disaster.

Another theory claims that it wasn't even Titanic that went on sail, It was her twin sister the Olympic, a notorious accident-prone vessel. It was a desperate attempt to defraud the company insuring the ships.

It seems far-fetched, but the ship was really speeding up before it hit the iceberg. So could the sinking be pre-planned?

But the story of the sinking ship is not unique.

Another fictional story also had a similar storyline, written by journalist  W.T. Stead, who tragically died when the Titanic sank. 

It's scary right! how you write a tragic story and it becomes your own tragedy. 

A creepy coincidence occurred with  Revered Charles Morgan. He fell asleep and dreamed of turbulent waves in the sea and a dark sky with a long-forgotten hymn playing in the background. he woke up but when he fell asleep again the dream returned. He was so moved by the dream, that in the service that evening he played the hymn. It seemed so inappropriate at that time. As it was an inland church and the hymn was 'For those in peril on the Sea' and the date was 14 April 1912.

THE CURSE

Could the Titanic be cursed? Did you know that eight people died during the construction of the ship? A plaque memorizing them was discovered in Belfast.

A nurse Violet Jessop was called the luckiest or unluckiest woman on board she survived the fall of Titanic and also the fall of Britannic.

Did you know the 'Heart of the Ocean' that was portrayed in the film, is very similar to the Diamond of Doom?

THE CONCLUSION

So, how to conclude this mystery?

The story is obviously tragically surrounded by some eerie stories

But what about the suspicions that pose a red flag to ruling it out as mere coincidence or accident?

What do you think should be the conclusion? 

Comment below.

Blue Rose Belles

(Archie)

(Video from National Geographic.)

The Mysterious Mothman

 Mothman: Though the name sounds like superman. Most people will assume it as a fictional character, but that is where they go wrong.

 Mothman is not a fictional character, it has shown his face more than once in public. So what is it actually? 

Well, those who have seen it claim it to be "a man with wings".

I am serious!

On the fateful night of 16 November 1966, two couples encountered a human-sized bird-like creature in the TNT area of West Virginia at around midnight. The incident was published in the newspaper on the following day. The four people claimed that "the man had red eyes and large wings". When asked if the couples were drunk, they denied the accusation and told that if one person saw it, it could be overruled, but all four of them saw it, hovering over the car.

The incident should have been forgotten, but Mothman continued its appearance another two or three times. The most prominent among them is the silver bridge incidence.

The silver bridge connected Point Pleasant to Gallipolis and collapsed on December 15 of 1967. It had been visited by Mothman just a day before the incident. The records say that tragedy happened due to a faulty eyebar suspension chain and poor maintenance, but suspiciously the Mothman disappeared for a long time after that incident.

Dr John Keel in his book  The Mothman Prophecies linked the appearance of Mothman and the bridge collapse.

Keel believed it to be no coincidence and in his book, he concluded the Mothman sightings by the residents of Point Pleasant was a premonition about the silver bridge accident. He even went as far as assuming Mothman to be an alien. keel's book stirred the community and the local legend of Mothman became a figure of interest, the book was adapted into a movie in 2002. both the movie and the book made the little town famous and tourism skyrocketed. the people of West Virginia started an annual Mothman Festival. The legendary Mothman had impacted the town so much that a 12-foot metallic statue of Mothman and Mothman museum and research centre was also established.

Some people claim that Mothman also made his appearance at Chernobyl before the disaster while some claim he visited the twin towers before 9/11.

Over the years Mothman has become a figure of catastrophe, his story has grown and turned into a legend but the question remains.

 Is he real?

The shadowy legend of Mothman seems too absurd to be real, some researchers claim the Mothman is nothing but a large Sandhill crane, a large bird with a 10-foot wingspan and red markings around its eye.

The theory of it being a bird is one of the most accepted ones. Though the bird is not native to the lands, it had been spotted many times in and around the lands, thus, solidifying the belief. But its mysterious appearances at the spot of destructions still can't be solved, and the photographs captured doesn't quite really help!

According to the reports the residents claimed it to be a human-like figure and some even went further to say it lived at the nuclear plant. Since it was first seen in the TNT area so the fact is not completely throwable. 

Could it be a result of radioactive mutation or some crazy experiment that went wrong or it is actually some extraterrestrial being? Whatever it is the creature has surely made a prominent place in modern myths and pop culture. 

What do you think the creature really is? feel free to leave your views in the comment section. ( you can also comment anonymously) .

                                                                                               - blue rose belles

                                                                                                (Archie)

Murder Mystery : "Who put Bella in the Witch Elm"

 Crimes.It reminds us of how dark the world really is.Some people find true crime stories to be disturbing(no hate). I, on the other hand like those stories. 

So, today I would like to share a true crime story that I know. It is popularly known as "Who put Bella in the Wych Elm"

This incident took place at the background of England during 1943, During World War II.

On one fateful evening, in the month of April, right when the sun was setting, Four teenage boys were roaming in the Hagley woods, near Wychbury hills.

They were looking for rabbits or something like that which would feed their families and also take their mind of the German bombing raids.

They spotted at weird looking tree named "The witch elm" due to it's weird shape. One of the boys named Bob Farmer, decided to climb that tree.

As he sat up on the tree and looked down in the hollow of the tree he noticed something being inside it. As he grew curiouser and curiouser, he plunged his arm inside the hollow. To his utter Disbelieve he found a skull. Like a real skull.

At first, he and his friends thought it was of an animal or something, but apparently they saw something stuck to the skull which resembled human hair. (I wonder how they knew it was human hair! I must be really dumb)

So, they dropped the skull, like any normal human would , and ran back home. At first they decided that they will not tell about this to anyone ever. 

But later they confessed it to it their parents.Keeping the skull a secret was getting hard for them, understandably.

Their parents informed the local police, like any normal parents would.

The police went to the tree and investigated the area and the tree properly.

The police found a woman's skeleton inside that hollow. A entire freaking skeleton!

A cheap gold imitation ring was found on her left hand, indicating that she was married. The police also found cheap clothes and a crepe soled shoe of size five and a half.

Disturbingly, the right hand of the dead women was completely sawed of and a few other bones of the skeleton were scattered.

The body or the whatever remained of the body of the poor woman was taken under for medical examination.

The medical examiner, Professor James Webster said that, the found woman was around 35 years old, with irregular teeth on the upper jaw, lightbrown hair and around 5 feet tall. She gave birth once in her life. She had been dead for about 18 months or more at the time of discovery.

He also said, it was impossible for the woman to have slipped in the hollow of the tree or to have crawled in the hollow of the tree. Someone put her there. Professor Webster also mentioned that the body was put there before rigor mortis set in.Rigor mortis is the phenomena when the body starts becoming stiff after death. He concluded that she must have been killed near the tree, for the killer set the body there "warm".

There was a piece of taffeta fabric found stuffed inside the mouth of the skull.

The police tried to identify the body. They tried to trace the shoe to it's manufacturer but the trail died cold with them tracing it to a small shop in Dudley.

There was practically no information to be found so the case was deemed a cold case.

Then in the year 1943, a weird message was seen chalked on a house near Old Mill. The message read "Who put Lubella in the Wych Elm?"

For the first time, the police had a name to work with. Lubella. Who was Lubella?

The police did not find huge leads on this but over the months more graffiti es started showing up.

Those read "WHO PUT BELLA IN THE WITCH ELM?" 

The change in name was something the police couldn't understand. 

The police came to the decision that the artist behind the graffitis knew something about "Bella".

They tried to trace down the artist but failed.

New messages started popping up around in the late 1940s again.

Each message reading the same "Who put Bella in witch elm?"

No one could figure out who "Bella" was.

The theories regarding the death of murder of "Bella" range from crazy to ballistic.

The 'fan' favorite theory is "Bella" as an victim of black magic.

According to anthropologist Professor Margaret Murray, the death of "Bella" might be an activity of Black Magic.

The severed hand suggested an occult practice called "Hand of Glory".

The scattered bones, the stuffed taffeta also suggested an involvement of occult practices.

The fact that she was "entombed" in a tree also suggested a type of "ritualistic" slaying. 

A herb commonly known as 'Witch's hazel" which is commonly used in the practice of witchcraft was found in Hagley woods.

The theory states that, "Bella" probably pissed over a coven of witches and the witches killed her in a "witchy" manner as a punishment. Ironically, the tree she was entombed in was also called "Witch elm". 

The next popular theory is that "Bella" was a spy.

I know. The jump between the two theories is a bit much......to say the least.

This theory starts with the discovery of an woman named "Anna". She allegedly wrote an letter to a few newspaper houses claiming that she had information about "Bella". 

She was later interviewed and she revealed that "Bella" was a part of a German spy circle and she was supposed to find the location of the local munition factories.

"Anna" later was identified by as Unna Mossop. Her husband was allegedly an RAF pilot and he witnessed the murder of "Bella". 

She stated that her husband and another spy named Van Rault went drinking to a pub and "Bella" got drunk and passed out. The two men then put her inside the tree, just to teach her lesson. When she woke up in the tree, she was unable to get out and died there. But this theory has a plot-holes according to me, I mean who cut her hand? who stuffed taffeta in her mouth? Who scattered her bones?

Then in later years, in some classified MI5 files, a spy named Josef Jacob, who was caught, had a picture of a German actress named Clara Baurele. She looked a lot like "Bella" and she was allegedly also a German spy.  It could be possible that Clara was actually "Bella".

But this theory was later debunked since Clara was taller than "Bella".

This case remains unsolved till date and many facts and information have been perished by time. 

This intriguing case might probably never get solved. Maybe the fact that this case is unsolved makes it more intriguing.

Thank you all for reading!

ALCHEMISTS AND HOMUNCULI

Chemistry it is one of the basic sciences but have you ever wondered how it came into existence? What was the reason for distinguishing so many elements?

 

Well some of us don’t know the story (I guess) BUT CHEMISTY CAME FROM ALCHEMY.

In the years when anything in which god was not concerned was a considered a taboo, a group of men got curious about the most precious metal of that age: GOLD.

 

These people were adamant on creating gold using the cheap and known metals (like tin, lead and bronze) available during that age. In the rigorous experimentation they started discovering a lot of new elements but failed in creating gold. If the gold craze could have been confined in that generation only then may be, we wouldn’t have to study so many elements in periodic table. But it didn’t happen this group of men shared their knowledge with their disciplines, thus increasing gold fandom. So the alchemists started prospering and growing over the eras until it came to a breaking point. It was then that some alchemists realized that gold is a noble metal and cannot be created. This section of alchemists moved away from the aim to create gold and started experimenting with the discovered elements to create new compounds .Thus began our very well known branch of chemistry.

It’s shocking to believe that the modern alchemists i.e. chemists are successful in creating gold in laboratory; it is a radioactive isotope of gold which can only last for few seconds. (but give them some credit, they succeeded right at last).

 

It is not known if the earlier alchemists were successful in creating gold but most of their journals claim that they created a living humanoid creature in a bottle: HOMUNCULI.

 

Unbelievable but true, if the fact was just written in journals then it wouldn’t be so hard to eliminate as rubbish but unfortunately ten of these humanoid creatures were exhibited at the court of King Louis XIV of France (the case is documented in Dr Emil Besetzny’s book “Sphinx”). The humanoids were created by Count Johann Ferdinand von Kufstein and Abbe Geloni.

Like all homunculi these ten were also grown in sealed jars with manure and water but due to some special solution they were taller than average homunculi. They were about a foot tall.

According to alchemists the culture medium of an homunculi consisted of albumin, sputum, semen, human blood( that in the primitive society was related with vital essence of life) and of course the mysterious element whose formula only alchemists knew ‘arcanum of blood’. Another element that some journals claim is ‘animal tincture’.

Out of the ten recorded homunculus eight were physical manikins while the remaining two were non corporal and all of them looked different from one another. The eight homunculi were given identities like king , queen , knight , monk, nun, seraph, miner and architect.( funny right)

It is so said that homunculi could not live outside their jars , once the king homunculus got out of his own jar and was desperately trying to open the jar of the queen but he soon fainted due to the exposure to air , luckily Count Kufstein noticed him and put him back in his own jar.

Now the question lies isn’t there any scientific explanations about this absurd humanoid creature?

Well there is one an amphibian the African clawed toad that looked vaguely humanoid, could have been brought by travelers and represented as homunculi.

But according to the documentation all the ten homunculi could answer questions concerning the future that came out to be true later. Now toad can’t speak right!

       So what are homunculi actually , are they just myths, caged animals in bottles or actually something more . You see semen contains sperms , what if alchemists with their vast knowledge and uncanny ways were able to create something very similar to a miniature version of test tube babies in a bottle .

 

                                                - blue rose belles

                                                      (Archie )