It is around 170 years since 17 minute figures in coffins were first found by schoolboys out rabbiting on Arthur's Seat back in 1836, prompting fears that they were related to witchcraft.
But it wasn't until the 1990s, decades after the dolls were bought and displayed at the Royal Museum of Scotland, that experts suggested that the 17 dolls in fact represented the 17 victims of the infamous Burke and Hare - murders for which Burke was hanged after Hare turned Queen's evidence to save his own life.