Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1893-03-21
FOLKLORE AND :.
Strange Superstitlons That Influ-
ence Criminals-
GhaStly Implements Employed by Thieves
In Thor NeIarious Business-Tho
Dead b2Rn's Hand and tho
Corpso-Candlo.

One OF the most curious and strange
phases of superstition is that which re-
lates to the criminal classes. The
mystic code which regulates the lives
OF these enemies of society is in many
cases a survival of fetichism of the old
est kind. Believing tenaciously in the
dread efficacy of certain CHASTITY charms
and lamentations, the malefactor bold
ly enters on his enterprise occasionally
carrying with him ga dead mans
hand"-salsen from one who had died
n violent death. Such q charm being
supposed to overpower with sleep those
who come under it's influence, it is nat
uraliy an invaluable adjunct to the i'm
plements employed by thieves, says the
Pail Nell Budget.
Some years ago an attempted robbery
was made by burglars on an estate in
the county Meath, and, to quote q con-
temporary account of the affair, ''they
entered the house armed with q dead
mans hand, with lighted candle in it.,
believing that a candle so placed will
not be seen by any but those by whom
it is used, and also that if candle in q
dead mans hand be introduced IN a
house it will prevent those who may be
asleep from awakening. The inmates
however, were alarmed; the robbers
fled, leaving the dead mans hand be-
hind them"
Many similar stories are told Of the
use of the dead hand by thieves, one
communicated by Rev. 8. Barring Gould
being worthy of notice. Two men, hav-
ing come to lodge in a public house
with view to rohbing it, asked per
mission to pass the night by the fire,
and obtained it. When the house was
quiet, the servant girl, suspecting mis-
chief, crept downstairs and looked
through the keyhole, when she saw the
men open q sack and take out n dry,
withered hand. They anointed the
fingers with some unguent, and lighted
them. Each finger famed except the
thumb, which indicated that one of the
household was not asleep.
Grose gives q full account of this
charm as used by French housebreakers,
and variation of tho same belief pre-
vailed in Belgium. Not far from Bail
lcui, in West Flanders, thief was cap
tured on whom was found the foot of a
man who had been hanged, which he
used, when engaged in his robberics, for
putting persons to sleep. Similar in
stances arc quoted from Spain and Ger
many. and it is noteworthy that Mex
lean thieves have been known to carry
with them the left hand and arm of q
woman who died at the birth of her
first child.
Then there is the corpse-candlc, a
weird implement of the robbers trade,
which, although common throughout
Europe, seems to have been moro gen.
eral In Germany than any other coun-
try. Not so long ago, it may be remem-
bered, four peasants in the south Rus
sian government Of Kursk murdered q
girl in order to make candles of her
body, the notion being that such n
hideous light not only renders the per-
| petrators of robberies invisible, but
| actually tlG:ows the victim or victims
| into u state of somnolcncc. In the Ger
| man criminal codes of the seventeenth
| end eighteenth centuries we find OK.
| press mention made of penalties against
crime the motive of which was the
| making of thieves" or "slcep-produc.
ing candles" This superstition has fig.
ured in many n trial, and seems to be,
even to the present duy, implicitly
believed in by tho criminal classes. In
decd, it was suggested that the White
chapel murders were instigated by this
idca--a theory which the celebrated Dr.
Bloch, member of the Austrian rcichs.
rath, was induced to support. An in,
stance of this piece of criminal lore
occurred during the trial Of the German
thief, Theodore Ungcr, who was exc.
cuted at Magde6urg in 1910, when II
was brought ont in evidence that q
regular traffic existed for the supply Of
these grewsozne implements of the bur
glars trade. But, instead of making
the criminal invisible, this grim light
has more than once done the reverse
and caused him to be brought to justice
| THERE nnuy be men who take every