Unexplained ash

Hello first may i say sorry if this is placed in the wrong category. On monday night 3.5.09 my wife came down stairs with a puzzled look on her face. She waited a few moments then asked my to come and look at something in the bedroom. I was sat talking with my eldest daughter and her husband.
Once in the room she said come and look at this and pointed to my pillow. On it was an inch long roll of ash. Like cigarette ash but slightly thinner and tighter in appearance. No one in the house smokes and we had been in the house all day. The window was shut and apart from the ash the pillow case was white and clean. I picked it up and it held together in my palm. I must say at this point we were not even sure it was ash. I touch one end of it and it crumbled to a powdered ash like substance. It was i feel harder on its surface than cigarette ash. This one has me stumped as we have no idea how it came to be there. Any ideas.
Regards Paul

pics or it didn't happen.

second line.

All i am asking is if any one has an idea as to what this could be.
I do not have to take a pic of ash to prove anything to you.
If i did this the next reply would be, the ash could have come from any where.
Ideas as to what it could be is all i asked, i am not making any claims that something happened or that it is this or that.

Maybe it came from some clothing, somebody could of been near somebody who smoked. If not somebody is telling porkies and smoking hand made cigs

it may be from the volcano in Alaska?

Take it to a lap to get tested.

Most universities and agricultural departments have them and charge a nominal fee.

Please excuse the nature of this reply but it could be a possibility.

Do you have any pets? Sometimes when an animal poops it can dry up and look almost ashy. Is there anyway an animal could have like... oh lord... taken a poop on your pillow or something? I know my dogs like to carry cat poop in their mouth and leave it in different places in the house [god knows why].... and when we find it under couches it's almost ashen.

JUST a possibility!

It sounds like someone has been in your house. Or, a pet has picked up the ash in it's fur and it's dropped cleanly onto your pillow. Or maybe it's caught in yours, or your wife's, hair and then dropped. Maybe it's from one of them tightly rolled cigar type cigarettes? There's so many different types of smoking gear, an ash tip can either disintegrate on dropping or stay pretty tight I'd imagine. Mysterious but not totally bizarre.