1731 – Skull fragments
- Physical description:
- Fragments of a human skull.
- Museum classification:
- Spells and Charms
- Size:
- 80 x 60 x 40 (largest)
- Information:
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."
The Scottish witch Agnes Sampson made a powder from human bone which she placed under the beds of women in childbirth, to give them a quick and easy birth, according to her trial record in Robert Pitcairn's 'Ancient Criminal Trials in Scotland'.
- Resource:
- Object
- Materials:
- Bone
- Copyright ownership:
- Treetrunk Ltd
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."
The Scottish witch Agnes Sampson made a powder from human bone which she placed under the beds of women in childbirth, to give them a quick and easy birth, according to her trial record in Robert Pitcairn's 'Ancient Criminal Trials in Scotland'.