VII—LANGBANK
The Curse, (that is, the forger,) unwearied and relentless, next smote Mr. John Bruce, F.S.A.Scot., merely, as it seems, because he and Mr. Donnelly were partners in the perfectly legitimate pastime of archaeological exploration. Mr. Bruce’s share of the trouble began at Dumbuck. The canoe was found, the genuine canoe. “It was at once cleared out by myself,” writes Mr. Bruce. In the bottom of the canoe he found “a spear-shaped slate object,” and “an ornamented oyster shell, which has since mouldered away,” and “a stone pendant object, and an implement of bone.” [34]
Such objects have no business to be found in a canoe just discovered under the mud of Clyde, and cleared out by Mr. Bruce himself, a man or affairs, and of undisputed probity. In this case the precise site of the dubious relics is given, by a
man of honour, at first hand. I confess that my knowledge of human nature does not enable me to contest Mr. Bruce’s written attestation, while I marvel at the astuteness of the forger. As a finder, on this occasion, Mr. Bruce was in precisely the same position as Dr. Munro at Elie when, as he says, “as the second piece of pottery was disinterred by myself, I was able to locate its precise position at six inches below the surface of the relic bed.” [35] Mr. Bruce was able to locate his finds at the bottom of the canoe.
If I understand Mr. Bruce’s narrative, a canoe was found under the mud, and was “cleared out inside,” by Mr. Bruce himself. Had the forger already found the canoe, kept the discovery dark, inserted fraudulent objects, and waited for others to rediscover the canoe? Or was he present at the first discovery, and did he subtly introduce, unnoted by any one, four objects of shell, stone, and bone, which he had up his sleeve, ready for an opportunity? One or other alternative must be correct, and either hypothesis has its difficulties.
Meanwhile Sir Arthur Mitchell, not a credulous savant, says: “The evidence of authenticity in regard to these doubted objects from Dumbuck
is the usual evidence in such circumstances . . . it is precisely the same evidence of authenticity which is furnished in regard to all the classes of objects found in the Dumbuck exploration—that is, in regard to the canoe, the quern, the bones etc.—about the authenticity of which no doubts have been expressed, as in regard to objects about which doubts have been expressed.” [36a]
Of another object found by a workman at Dumbuck Dr. Munro writes “is it not very remarkable that a workman, groping with his hand in the mud, should accidentally stumble on this relic—the only one found in this part of the site? Is it possible that he was an unconscious thought-reader, and was thus guided to make the discovery” of a thing which “could as readily have been inserted there half-an-hour before?” [36b]
This passage is “rote sarcustic.” But surely Dr. Munro will not, he cannot, argue that Mr. Bruce was “an unconscious thought-reader” when he “cleared out” the interior of the canoe, and found three disputed objects “in the bottom.”
If we are to be “psychical,” there seems less evidence for “unconscious thought-reading,” than