The Tragedy We Don’t Understand | Enigma Files
We only know how this story ended, and it doesn’t seem to have been a happy story.
“In 1836 five boys hunting for rabbits found a set of 17 miniature coffins containing small wooden figures in a cave on the crags of Arthur’s Seat. The purpose has remained a mystery ever since the discovery. A strong contemporary belief was that they were made for witchcraft, though more recently it has been suggested that they might be connected with the murders committed by Burke and Hare in 1828. There were 16 known victims of the serial-killers plus the first person sold “to the doctors”, namely a man who had died of natural causes. However, the murder victims were primarily female, while the eight surviving figures are male. Alternatively, the coffins may have represented the 16 bodies sold to the doctors, plus that of the final victim who remained unburied at the time of the duo’s arrest, but was, as a destitute beggar, very likely dissected in any case. The surviving coffins are now displayed in Edinburgh’s National Museum of Scotland.”
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@Qxir
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
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@Googledeservestodie
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
We wouldn't have a word for neurodivergence or disorders when these dolls were buried but I think we can imagine a "funny kind of boy" being so attached to his toy collection that's as they wore down and broke apart he would insist on giving them proper funerals with honors. I think we just stumbled upon very old Hearts of Iron player autism lol
@muzikjoy09
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
I lowkey thought this said the Epstein files for a moment
@serenitywingss
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
I agree with others that this is almost certainly related to a child in some form. Possibly to mourn the "death" of their dolls, possibly to mourn the child's death, possibly to explain death as a concept to them. Perhaps it was some kind of punishment for misbehaving little boys- make them carve a coffin for one of their toys and send him off to die for his commander's "crimes". Perhaps it really is a person or a community grieving the lives of actual soldiers or young men who they used to know.
@Jean-acc
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
17 toy soldiers buried by 2 people in the 1800's, in my opinion, very well could be for the 17 sons of grieving parents (maybe several couples) that lost their sons in the Napoleonic of french revolutionary wars, in continental europe.
@Idek66
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
Yeah seems like actually soldiers wether buried and made in a rush or made a few years and took time and then buried but it’s important to look at the history of Scotland at the time sure could be the serial killer thing but if their made to be men which it looks like effort was made there then probably soldiers and Scottish soldiers and units were typically elite not all but some but most if not all were integrated with British units and around the 1800s was the war with the French and also regional small scale Scottish conflicts so probably soldiers buried at sea or otherwise assumed dead and so people went in line with religious traditions to give them a “proper burial” even if they didn’t have the bodies. This is the most grim but young improvised children even with makeshift wood dolls and especially young girls typically love there dolls and keep them and want to keep them and treat them like a baby and young boy would keep it and play pretend like they were soldiers and a kid thinking about death and burial for their dolls isn’t likely kids just don’t think like that so probably a burial for several sailors military or not or actual mock burial for infantry and Calvary men and maybe a family member who was a military sailor or someone in the family or families knew of previous mock burial traditions or wanted to follow religious or cultural burial standards and did this.
@Idek66
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
Haven’t watched the whole video but my theory would be like how America Greece Germany and many other countries have their own tombs of the unknown soldier so depending on how old these coffins and wooden dolls date back to it could just be members of tribes or people who lost men women or children in battle or in hunting etc where bodies were horribly damaged or were otherwise not able to be retrieved for whatever reason and nobody likes to talk about it but wether it’s ww2 Vietnam wars in the Middle East or etc it was common for soldiers marines and etc from other countries to die by artillery get shredded by machine guns die by incendiary weapons or gas attacks that when bodies or coffins were sent back via boats transportation ships or etc they would just bury them at see with a coffin and a flag or realistically sometimes just a body and a flag if that or not just a body and why does burial wt sea happen ? When you think about it because bodies are so bloated or horrific looking that navy men or soldiers take the liberty to bury them at sea with their own honors so that way families of those dead won’t have to confirm that it’s their son father or etc or if pre confirmed so that the families don’t get so stubborn that they have and open casket when that would do more harm than good and why wouldn’t there be an ancient version of that ? But yeah old tactics sometimes last into this current year because bodies one way or another remain not retrievable or horrifically damaged and sometimes horrifyingly damaged and unidentifiable. It’s not the answer many would like or want to know but it’s likely the case for these dolls and why burial at sea happens now and it makes sense hunting with clubs knifes and spears wasn’t glamorous even when hunting young mammoths and it definitely wasn’t glamorous when being desperate and hunting packs of wolfs or etc just like war leads to not retrievable bodies and burial at seas and genuinely unidentifiable bodies
@geeknetworkz
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
It might have been a ritual for a child to transition into adulthood by burying their toys, or the dolls represent the child that they were and are saying goodbye to.
@Kujooceanman
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
Toy story prequal
@Poorexampeofhuman
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
13:18 I do agree I believe there is a very high probability of there being human tragedy involved in these characters or figurines or effigies or whatever you want
@Poorexampeofhuman
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
I think it was just a way for somebody to cope may have lost many loved ones and friends to a tragedy and needed a way to put their memory to rest to give their Spirit resting place or a place to go and mourn their loss. I think this is a memorial I loved ones who were lost in a tragedy
@wizardsinew9160
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
My theory is that the dolls were buried by the parent of the child who owned them- possibly because they couldn't bear to see them anymore after their child's death, or they wished to somehow 'give' the toys back to their child in the afterlife. Grief makes you do strange things.
Or- it was just a group of children fucking around. Maybe they wanted to symbolically bury their childhoods once they got too old to play with the dolls. Or maybe they were trying to process a death in the community by mimicking the burial process.
@amreldtheartist
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
My little part joke theory is that this isn’t a tragic or sinister thing but instead just a kid being weird
When in someway their toy was damaged or they couldn’t play with it anymore they pretended it “died” and buried it in a little play coffin
Definitely a little strange but hey when I was little if one of my action figures broke like they lost an arm or hand or something like I’d always pretend they where injured so it may not be that far out there lol
@izzy6455
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
Has no one considered a serial killer? That was my first thought. In those days people could go missing and no one knew. Tramps, for example (almost always men). Serial killers often have trophies or special reminders.
I think harmless superstition is the most likely, but there are a lot of possibilities. Otbisnt long after the Napoleonic wars, many men died. It could be those that were local or relavent to the person.
Or just a child. Not a tiny child but about 11. They coukd use a knife in those days. It could have been two simblings doing it.
Children have quite ritualistic behaviour as the develop. Often burying things. Maybe the toy soldiers 'died in a battle' so they were buried. Very much child behaviour.
@ElAirHawk
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
You look Disturbingly as I imaged you…
@coach5075
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
given the differences in ages of the coffins could it not be 3 separate events not one that killed 17?
@cjorsomething.8031
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
They were playing with their toy soilders but the soilders died in battle so they were buried
@microwave6053
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
2:55 please do not use ai in your videos
@Ironeside75
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
Why is Qxir pronounced “kimshi”
@NoMusiciansInMusicAnymore
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
Hahaha, always great video's but the bloopers are fantastic
@marks6663
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
a qxir vid without the cartoons is not the same. I know it is a lot more work, but the cartoons is what sets you apart and why people watch. It is why I watch. Which is why I didn't watch this one. The cartoons is the secret sauce.
@alexandergalliano1460
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
sounds like a kid to me. and way cooler then ripping the heads off of barbies.
@Firearmsenjoyer
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
As a kid id bury my broken toy soldiers like this. For my GI joes when they broke id make them crutches. I think it was just a kid
@imjustdandy9799
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
Ah, another case of ancient autism. /affectionate
@joebuckhoff
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
Kid finished playing with his toys so he buried them
@jrscustomshop
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
Dude, a group of boyos had a little war wit their toy soljurs…they had a little spare time and a few of them went and made some coffins to have a war memorial service…something they might have seen or heard about. Within a few years those boyos would be off to war, or married, or dead…the little soljurs forgotten about.
@hitavi4965
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
Personally I originally thought them representing soldiers who died in battle makes a lot of sense due to the missing body parts, but if they know what body parts are missing and these were family members, they would have probably just been able to bury the body since how would you know what condition it was in if it wasn't recovered. I'm now leaning towards the dissection murders. Makes more sense for the missing body parts, fits in with an event that happened relatively recently, and the fact that all the soldiers are men I think is dismissible because they were believed to not have been made by the person/people who carved the coffins and buried them, so they probably just used soldiers and altered there bodies to match what may have been known about how they were dissected.
@DemonTimest
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
A special little girl…
Who's mind never grew…
Like the rest of her…
@jinx8624
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
release the unredacted enigma files we demand more mystery
@jinx8624
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
im gonna bury some wierd sht somewhere one day and it will probably never be found 😢
@karapalmer7228
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
I love that it's not "an early banksy like figure"
But instead "a proto-banksy"
Just the implication that this individual somehow evolved into modern banksy
@storiesfrommylife54
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
Came for fairies, but . . . heh.
@nicolejohnson9244
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
Some of the real witches that still practice the old ways of our craft live in Ireland. I’m not sure why people think that the Irish has abandoned witchcraft, they just hide it better now cause you automatically get thrown into devil worship or evil category when most are nothing of the sort. I doubt they would be voodoo type dolls or likeness of people they want harmed but probably more of a memorial type thing for a family of practitioners due to the respect of the burials, the clothing, the shrouds, etc. Someone took a lot of care and time to do this which shows a huge level of respect. Of course we would want to believe it’s some horrific story behind it but the little note and the extra figurine are definitely suspect. If it hadn’t been all over the news and someone sent it, ok but since it was, it’s suspect.
@tacosalad117
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
They must've lost their arms in battle!
Dude. It'd be hilarious if they were just some little girls doll's. And like when they were playing she decided that they "died" and made her family go through making little coffins for them and burrying them all n shit. Funeral and everything. That'd be so funny.
@lawrencehutton55
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
A tontin.
@voiidenn
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
I love living in eighteen turty six
@plantdadddy
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
Maybe it was an entire pirate ship that sunk. No relatives would want to talk about them being pirates.
@s3dchr
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
14:07 fuckin' turns into a valley girl for a second lmao
YAAAAASS
@schwaaard
August 12, 2026 at 4:28 pm
This particular story doesn’t seem to have anything to do with witchcraft, but it is worth noting that whether witchcraft is considered effective or not, it doesn’t stop the practice of it. So it’s not like witchcraft has to be valid for these to exist, or for someone who is practicing witchcraft to have believed they would do something.
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