seen by any but by those by
whom it is used, and also that if a candle in a dead hand be
introduced into a house, it will prevent those who may be asleep from
awaking. The inmates, however, were alarmed, and the robbers fled,
leaving the hand behind them." Another story communicated by the Rev.
S. Baring-Gould, tells how two thieves, having come to lodge in a
public-house, with a view to robbing it, asked permission to pass the
night by the fire, and obtained it. But when the house was quiet the
servant girl, suspecting mischief, crept downstairs, and looked
through the keyhole. She saw the men open a sack, and take out a dry
withered hand. They anointed the fingers with some unguents, and
lighted them. Each finger flamed, but the thumb they could not
light--that was because one of the household was not asleep.

The girl hastened to her master, but found it impossible to arouse
him--she tried every other sleeper, but could not break the charmed
sleep. At last stealing down into the kitchen, while the thieves were
busy over her master's strong-box, she secured the hand, blew out the
flames, and at once the whole house was aroused.

Among other qualities which have been supposed to belong to a dead
man's hand, are its medicinal virtues, in connection with which may be
mentioned the famous "dead hand," which was, in years past, kept at
Bryn Hall, Lancashire. There are several stories relating to this
gruesome relic, one being that it was the hand of Father Arrowsmith, a
priest, who, according to some accounts, is said to have been put to
death for his religion in the time of William III. It is recorded that
when about to suffer he desired his spiritual attendant to cut off his
right hand, which should ever after have power to work miraculous
cures on those who had faith to believe in its efficacy. This relic,
which forms the subject of one of Roby's "Traditions of Lancashire,"
was preserved with great care in a white silk bag, and was resorted to
by many diseased persons, who are reported to have derived wonderful
cures from its application. Thus the case is related of a woman who,
attacked with the smallpox, had this dead hand in bed with her every
night for six weeks, and of a poor lad living near Manchester who was
touched with it for the cure of scrofulous sores.

It has been denied, however, that Father Arrowsmith was hanged for
"witnessing a good confession," and Mr. Roby, in his "Traditions of
Lancashire," says