Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1894-03-09
FOLKLORE AND CRIME.
Strange Superstitlons That Indu.
ence Criminals.
Ghastiy implements Employed by Thieves
In Their Nefarious Busi1ess-The
Dead Mans Hand and the
Corpse-Caadle.

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 "a dead mans
hand"-taken from one who had died
a violent death. Such charm being
supposed to ovcrpower with sleep those
who come under its influence, it is nat
urally an invaluable adjunct to the i'm
plements employed by thieves, says the
Pail Mall Budget
Some years ago an attempted robbery
was made by burglars on an estnte in
the county Meath, and, to quote a con.
temporary account of the affair, ''they
entered the house armed with dead
mans hand, with lighted candle in it,
believing that candle so placed will
not be seen by any but those by whom
1t Is used, and also that II a candle in a
dead mans hand be introduced in q
house it will prevent those who may be
asleep from awakening. The inmates
fed, leaving the dead mans hand be-
hind them"
Many similar stories are told of tie
use of the dead hand by thieves. one
communicated by Rev. s. Barring Gould
being worthy of notice. Two men, hsv-
ing come to lodge in . public house
with view to robbing it, asked per-
mission to pass the night by the fro,
and obtained it When the house was
quiet, the servant girl, suspccting mis-
chief, crept downstairs and looked
through the keyhole, when she saw tho
men open a 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.
Crosse gives full account of this
charm as used by French housebreaksrx.
and a variation of the same belief pre-
vailed in Belgium. Not far from Bail.
leui, in West Flanders, a thief was cap
tured on whom was found the foot of a
man who had been hanged, which no
used, when engaged in his robbcrics. for
putting persons to sleep. Similar in.
stances are quoted from Spain and Ger
many. aud it is noteworthy that Mex
lean thieves have been known to carry
with them the left hand and arm of a
woman who died at the birth of her
first 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 80 long ago, it may be remem-
bored, four peasants In the south Rus
sian government of Kuysk murdered q
girl in order to make candles of her
body, the notion being that such a
hideous light not only renders the per-
pctrators Of robberies invisible, but
actually throws the victim or victims
into = state Of somnolence. In 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 tho
making of "thieves'" or "slecp-prodrc-
ing candles" This superstition has fig
ured in many a trial, and seems to be.
even to tho present day, implicitly
believed in by the criminal classes In
deed, 1t was suggested that the White
chapel murders were instigated by this
idea-a theory which the celebrated DR..
Bloch, member Of the Austrian reichs-
rsth, was induced to support An in
stance of this piece of criminal lore
occurred during the trial Of the German
thief, Theodore Unger, who was exc
cuted at Magdeburg in 1910, when It
was brought out in evidence that q
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.
WHITE WINGS NO MORE.