The Hand of Glory.
It is a common belief in Europe that the Hand of Glory, or the dried-up hand of a criminal who has been executed, is a powerful charm for thieves. In Ireland, “if a candle is placed in a dead hand, neither wind nor water can extinguish it, and if carried into a house, the inmates will sleep the sleep of the dead as long as it remains under the roof, and no power on earth can wake them as long as the dead hand holds the candle.” The hand of a dead man is also used to stir the milk when butter will not form.124 So, in Northern India, thieves have a superstition that the ashes of a corpse will, if sprinkled by the door of a house, prevent the inmates from awaking during the commission of a burglary. The Hand of Glory, according to Sir G. Cox, is “the light flashing from the dim and dusky storm-cloud,”125 but this can hardly, with the utmost ingenuity, be invoked to explain the similar usage of Indian burglars, who carry about with them the stick out of a crow’s nest, the Gad kî Lakrî, which opens locks and holds the household spell-bound. The Indian thief, like his English brother, by the way, often carries about a piece of charcoal as a charm in his operations.