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An oubliette (from the French oubliettes, literally "forgotten places") was a form of dungeon which was accessible only from a hatch in a high ceiling. To exit an oubliette was nearly impossible without outside help. The word comes from the same root as the French oublier, "to forget," as it was used for those prisoners the captors wished to forget. Most prisoners were left to die of starvation. Another form of oubliette was a shelf in a long steeply sloping tunnel leading down to the moat or to the sea. Once cast down the tunnel, a victim would either slowly starve or cast themselves further down to drown. The Bostaunieux Oubliette contains both the ceiling hatch a long tunnel that leads down to a short cliff in West Ronfaure.