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Under the burning sun where the highway bends through Lacovia, St Elizabeth, two battered tombs sit stubbornly in the middle of life and legend.

Some say they belong to long-dead duellists; others simply speed past, barely noticing. But across the road, beneath a fruit stand, laden with sugar cane and jackfruit, one man relates a warning passed down through generations: "Let it go, or it might kill yuh, same like Mary Lee."

"Mi born come hear it," he said, "From mi eye deh a mi knee mi hear say ya so it go."

It's a philosophy he lives by. "Mi nuh wul up mi fart, mi make it gwaan," he told THE WEEKEND STAR. "Look wah it do to Mary Lee. Fly up inna her head an' kill her dead, so mi nah chance it."

'Fruits Man' has been selling fruits across the road from the tombs for more than 20 years, long enough to watch the area become not just a busy corner of Lacovia, but a popular tourist stop.

People from near and far pause at the weathered tombs, snapping photos, buying fruits and asking about the strange old stones on the side of the road.

"Dem seh Mary Lee did stush an' she wul in her fart too long. Nuff people use to siding pon dem verandah and chat 'bout it. If yuh hear fart bust, nuh shame, memba Mary Lee. Dem time deh, a real lesson dem a gi yuh."

The Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) tells a slighly different story about the tombs on its website. It repeats a tale that a party was in progress at a nearby tavern when a disagreement began between two persons, and this developed into a fight.

As a result, both persons were killed, and they were buried side by side.

The JNHT said the tombstones, known as the Lacovia Tombstones, were erected in memory of these deceased persons.

One tombstone has lost its inscription, but the other commemorates Thomas Jordan Spencer, who died on September 17, 1738. His tombstone bears a crest, indicating he was a descendant of the Duke of Marlborough and Sir Winston Spencer Churchill.

Fruits Man said he was told that one of the tombs belongs to Mary Lee, and the tomb beside it holds the remains of a horse.

"The tomb beside her is her husband horse. Mi nuh know if a man horse or a woman horse, but is her husband horse," he said.

"Some say a pride kill har," he continued. "Some seh she did a walk and a squeeze up, and then drop down. Mi even hear one man seh a church she did deh when it happen and she never waan disgrace herself, so God tek har same place."

For Fruits Man, the message behind the legend goes much deeper than just flatulence. It is about pride, stress, and the danger of bottling up what needs to come out.

"Whole heap a people wul up stress, wul up bad mind, wul up secret," he said. "Dat mash up yuh heart and yuh brain, same way how gas mash up Mary Lee. When yuh haffi cry, cry. When yuh haffi talk, talk. Nuh mek tings bun yuh up inside."