Hand of Glory

[christi0469]

No: HPFGUIDX 32682

I looked up the lore on the Hand of Glory. Supposedly it had to be 
cut from the body of a hanged criminal, drained of blood, and 
treated with certain materials and incantations. It was used by 
thieves to give light while the household in question slept. First 
the thief would say an incantation. Then he would either treat the 
fingers with some sort of ointment and light them, or use the hand 
to hold a candle that was made to include the dead man's fat. The 
hand would provide light, as well as assure that the household would 
not wake up no matter how noisy the thief was. As an added bonus not 
all of the fingers would light if someone in the household was still 
awake. Supposedly people actually believed in this, as there are 
several versions of the story and someone supposedly found one of 
these hands in their attic (Yech!) and donated it to a museum. I'm 
not sure if this is at all important to the HP universe or CoS, but 
it is at least an interesting, if somewhat disgusting, little piece 
of background information. 

Christi