Norman Douglas:
"The shit-pits, as they are locally called, used to be very common in England. Fabyan's Chronicles (1516) relate that in 1252 a Jew of Tewkesbury fell into one of them on a Saturday, but refused to be taken out on his Sabbath; whereupon the Earl of Gloucester, who was not to be outdone in religious zeal, refused to take him out on Sunday. On Monday he was found to be dead. They were introduced into Scotland about 150 years ago by one James Macpherson, a tea-merchant and shrewd pioneer, who has observed them in China, where they are known as pupu-holes. To disappear into an unfenced pupu-hole – if fenced round, how are you going to use it? – is an ordinary form of death out there, and even in Scotland fatal accidents have lately become so frequent that the custom, despite its obvious conveniences, is beginning to lose ground.
"As to the victim being now in Heaven – we must take our poet's word for that. I think, unless they have fished him out, he will be found where he was."
Or Take Your Pick:
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