496 – Bone rings
- Physical description:
- Ten human bone rings - some plain, some decorated with crosses, dots, circles, an animal head etc.
- Museum classification:
- Spells & Charms
- Size:
- 20mm each
- Information:
'To acquire moral strength, develop fearlessness & gain peace of mind - won by accepting & learning to live with the living dead.' (Adapted from text by Cecil Williamson)
Original text by Cecil Williamson: "This display consists of cleverly worked human bone finger rings. Sixteen sections of human bone strung on to a string and used for casting divinations. The hand of a dead man (a long story there), a wooden bowl with human skull fragments used for grating as you do with a nutmeg so as to produce a sprinkling of skull powder, and a corpse candle set in a small bowl of grave dust with an unchurched dead man's tooth. Horrible - you say - fiddlesticks. The witch of gallows hill would soon demonstrate to you how you can from such things learn to acquire a moral strength - develop a state of fearlessness and thereby gain a great peace of mind. All of which can be won simply by accepting and learning to live with the living dead."
According to "Lancashire Folklore" by Harland and Wilkinson, rings made from the hinges of coffins were worn to prevent rheumatism and cramp. The Lovett Collection in the Cuming Museum has an animal (?) knuckle bone that was carried to prevent rheumatism.- Materials:
- bone
- Copyright ownership:
- Copyright to The Museum of Witchcraft Ltd.
'To acquire moral strength, develop fearlessness & gain peace of mind - won by accepting & learning to live with the living dead.' (Adapted from text by Cecil Williamson)
Original text by Cecil Williamson: "This display consists of cleverly worked human bone finger rings. Sixteen sections of human bone strung on to a string and used for casting divinations. The hand of a dead man (a long story there), a wooden bowl with human skull fragments used for grating as you do with a nutmeg so as to produce a sprinkling of skull powder, and a corpse candle set in a small bowl of grave dust with an unchurched dead man's tooth. Horrible - you say - fiddlesticks. The witch of gallows hill would soon demonstrate to you how you can from such things learn to acquire a moral strength - develop a state of fearlessness and thereby gain a great peace of mind. All of which can be won simply by accepting and learning to live with the living dead."
According to "Lancashire Folklore" by Harland and Wilkinson, rings made from the hinges of coffins were worn to prevent rheumatism and cramp. The Lovett Collection in the Cuming Museum has an animal (?) knuckle bone that was carried to prevent rheumatism.