Tensas gazette., 1894-08-03
FOLKLORE AND CRIME.
Strange Superstitions That Inhu-
ence Criminals.
CHASTITY Implements Employed by Thieves
In Their Nefarious Business
Dead Mans Hand and tho
Corpss-Candle.

One Of the most curious and strange
phases of superstition is that when re-
lates TO the criminal classes Inc
mystic code which regulates the liyes
of these enemies of society is in many
cases a survival Of fetichism of the old
est kind. Believing tenaciousiy IN the
dread efficacy of certain ghastly charms
and ihcantations. the malefactor ooiu'
" enters on his enterprise occasionally
CARRYING with him "a dead man
hand"-tairen from one who had dieo
a violent death. Such n charm oeln9
supposed To ovcrpower with sleep those
who come under its influence, II Is na1
urally an invaluable adjunct to the I'M
plemcnts employed by thieves, says tne
Pail Mall Budget.
Some years acOan attempted ropoery
was made by burglars on an estate I'D
the county Meath, and, to quote CON
temporary account of the affair, tney
entered the house armed with a deau
mans hand. with lighted candle IN II,
believing that u candle so placed VIII
not be seen by any but those by whom
il is used. and also that If "a candle IN
dead mans hand be introduced IN
house it will prevent those who may Dc
asleep from awakening. The inmates
however, were alarmed: the robbers
fed. leaving the dead mans hand Do
hind them
Many similar stories ere told OF the
use of the dead hand by thieves, one
communicated by Rev. S. Barring Gouid
being worthy OF notice Two men, hav-
ing come to lodge in a public house
with view to robbing 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 kcyhole, when she saw the
men open q sack and take out 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 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, q thief was cap
tured on whom was found the foot of
man who had been hanged, which he
Hsed. when engaged in his robberies. for
putting persons to sleep. Similar in.
stances are quoted from Spain and Ger
many. and it is noteworthy that Mex
ican thieves have been known to carry
with them the left hand and arm of
woman who died at the birth of her
Grst 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.
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 a
hideous light not only renders the per-
petrators of robberies invisible but
actually throws the victim or victims
into state of somnolence. la the Ger
man criminal codes of the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries we find ex-
press mention made of penalties against
a crime the motive of which was the
making Of thieves" or ''sleep-produc-
ing candles" This superstition has fig
ured in many trial, and seems to be,
even to the present day, implicitly
believed in by the criminal classes. In
deed, it was suggested that the White
chapel murders were instigated by this
ldea-a theory which the celebrated DIR.
Bloch, member of the Austrian reichs-
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 Magdeburg in 1910, when it
was brought out in evidence that a
regular traffic existed for the supply of
these grewsome 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.