A magical device used supposedly used by Witches. It consisted of a severed hand from a dead person, usually that of an executed criminal. It would rest on the wrist with the fingers pointed up. Candles were placed between the fingers and lit. This would supposedly freeze someone and prevent him or her from moving.
Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Alice Markham-Cantor, author of the new Once & Future Witch Hunt.
My 9x-great-grandmother, Martha Carrier, was hanged in the Salem witch trials. She wasn't a witch. She wasn't an herbalist or a...