Little cave.
In the coffins were miniature wooden figures. They were dressed differently both in style and material. There were two tiers of eight coffins each, and a third tier begun, with one coffin.
The extraordinary datum, which has especially made mystery here:
That the coffins had been deposited singly, in the little cave, and at intervals of many years. In the first tier, the coffins were quite decayed, and the wrappings had moldered away. In the second tier, the effects of age had not advanced so far. And the top coffin was quite recent-looking. (Pgs 198-199, Ace Edition)
We discovered, says the Baltimore American Democrat, two colored women yesterday, near the Grand Jury room, in the Court House, of whom we inquired their business-the following novel story was elicited: That they came there for the purpose of presenting to the Grand Jury Harriet Holliday and Mary Jane Brooks, on the charge (to use their own language) of laying a spell upon them, saying that these parties had buried them in miniature, in the Catholic burying ground, since which they had suffered all the pangs of death, and did now really feel as if dead. Since the burial the witches came to them and offered to relieve them of their sufferings, provided they would give them a dollar each. Accordingly one paid the required ransom, the corpse was disinterred and the sufferer restored to life. The remaining two not being so credulous, refused to pay for their lives, and are now suffering all the penalties of the departed. We understand that great excitement exists in Biddle alley, among the colored population, and that they are leaving that locality in numbers, in consequence of the arts practiced by Misses Brooks and Holliday.
In this enlightened age of the nineteenth century
Tiny Coffins
Like my hero, Charles Fort, I enjoy reading through back issues of old newspapers. Occasionally, one turns up a Fortean gem; and when what one finds might illuminate a mystery pointed out by Fort himself, why it's all the better! In The Book of The Damned, Charles Fort mentions the finding of a series of tiny coffins below Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. He says:
By Jesse Glass
London Times, July 20, 1836:
Here's my find from the American Sentinel, a newspaper published in Westminster, Carroll County, Maryland. The date is November 7, 1856:
That, early in July, 1836, some boys were searching for rabbit's burrows in the rocky formation, near Edinburgh, known as Arthur's Seat. In the side of a cliff, they came upon some thin sheets of slate, which they pulled out.
Seventeen tiny coffins.
Three or four inches long.Buried but Still Alive.
Though the locales of these accounts are separated by an ocean, the similarity of the tiny coffins struck me as noteworthy. Perhaps the Edinburgh coffins were the results of just such an attempt at magical extortion carried on for many years by an Edinburgh practitioner of the arts of the left hand path. I also wonder if the Miss Holliday mentioned in the account, was an ancestor of Billie Holliday, also from Baltimore, and a singer whose bewitching voice continues to haunt blues lovers world wide.
"Can such things be,
And overcome us like a summer's cloud
Without our special wonder."
Ghosts and Legends of Carroll County, Maryland
