Page:Curious myths of the Middle Ages (1876).djvu/418

 fern. Next make a candle with the fat of a hung man, virgin-wax, and Lapland sesame. Observe the use of this herb: the hand of glory is used to hold this candle when it is lighted. Douster Swivel, in the “Antiquary,” adds, “You do make a candle, and put into de hand of glory at de proper hour and minute, with de proper ceremonisth; and he who seeksh for treasuresh shall find none at all!” Southey places it in the hands of the enchanter Mohareb, when he would lull to sleep Yohak, the giant guardian of the caves of Babylon. He— “From his wallet drew a human hand, Shrivell’d, and dry, and black; And fitting, as he spake, A taper in his hold, Pursued: ‘A murderer on the stake had died; I drove the vulture from his limbs, and lopt The hand that did the murder, and drew up   The tendon strings to close its grasp; And in the sun and wind Parch’d it, nine weeks exposed. The taper … But not here the place to impart, Nor hast thou undergone the rites That fit thee to partake the mystery. Look! it burns clear, but with the air around, Its dead ingredients mingle deathliness .’” Several stories of this terrible hand are related in