Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1894-08-31
FOLKLORE AND CRIME.
Strange Superstitions That rnar.
ence Criminals.
'ha:fiy implements Employed BY rh,s,..
In Their Sefarious Businessrh.
Dead Mans Hand and the
Corpss-Candle.

One OF the most curious and ..rar.
phases OF superstition Is that which :,
iates 70 the criminal classes tn
mystic code which regulates the live
OF these enemies Of society is in man,
cases survival Of fetichism of the Old
est kind. Believing tenaciouslv IN ~
dread efficacy Of certain Rhastlv charm
and lamentations, the malef.ctn- ~
~ enters on his enterprise occasionsiI,
carrying with him - dead man;
hand"-taken from one who had die,
violent death. Such a charm bein,
supposed to overpower with sleep thos.
VINO como under Its influence, It Il nat
uraily an invaluable adjunct TO the Inn
PIGMENTS employed by thieves, saw, th,
Pail Mall Budget
Some years ago an attempted rohh>-.
was made by burglars on an estate II
the county Meath, and. to quote q con.
temporary account Of the affair, "they
entered tho house armed with a dead
mans hand, with lighted candle In H.
oenevlng that candle 30 placed will
not be seen by any but those by WHOM,
1t Is used, and also that II candle ia =
dead mans hand be introduced IN /.
mousse 1t will prevent those who NAV be
asleep from awakening. The inmates
however, were alarmed; the robbers
NED, 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 q public house
Win view to robbing 1t, asked per
mission to pass the night by the Are.
and obtained it. When the house WA
quiet, the servant girl, suspecting mis-
chief, crept downstairs and looked
through the keyhole. when she saw the
men open a sack and take out n drv.
withered hand. They anointed the
fingers with some unguent, and lighted
them Each finger famed except tho
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 the same belief pre. |
vailed IN Belgium Not far from Bail. |
leui. In West Flanders, thief was can
tured on whom was found the foot Of a |
man who had been hanged, which hs ,
used, when engaged in his robberies. for
putting persons to sleep. Similar In.
stances are quoted from Spain and Ger
many. and 1t Is noteworthy that Mex.
can thieves have been known to carry
With them the left hand and arm of q
woman who died at the birth of her
lrst child.
Then there Is the corpse-candle. q
weird implement Of the robbers trade.
which, although common throughout
EUROPE, seems to have been more gen.
raj in Germany than any other coun.
~. Not so long ago, 1t may be remem.
'ered, four peasants in the south Rus,
ian government of Kursk murdered n
1rl In order to make candles of her
ody, the notion being that such \
ideous light not only renders the per-
etrators OF robberies invisible, but
ctually throws the victim or victims
ito state Of somnolence. In the Ger
ian criminal codes of the seventeenth
nd eighteenth centuries We find az
ress mention made of penalties against
crime the motive of which was the
akng OF thieves" or "sleep-produc-
g candles" This superstition has fir-
red In many trial. and seems to be, ,
ZEN to the present day. implicitly ,
,lieved in by the criminal classes. In
'ed, 1t was suggested that the White .
lapcl murders were instigated by this
ea-a theory which the celebrated DR..
och, member of the Austrian reichs-
tn, was induced to support An in j
ance Of this piece of criminal loro {
CURED during the trial of the German O
LET. Theodore Unger, who was exc .
ted at Magdeburg in 1910, when It q
% brought out in evidence that a b
sular traffic existed for the supply Of q
csc grewsome implements of the bur- +
ar's trade. But. instead of making u
criminal invisible, this grim light e,
more than once done the reverse. b
caused him to be brought to Justice. d