Browse:Name Face Down (Volume 1, entries 2815)
Name Face Down
Volume 1, entries 2815. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → SHRINES: ALTARS - CANDLES - SAINTS; NEW ORLEANS AREA → (2) CANDLES. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 2815
Well, if you know the person that stole, that stole from you, all you have to do is take their name, you understand. And write it down nine times - write their name down nine times and turn it face down, you understand. And light you four white candles on it there and get you some of this - get you some incense and a piece of that coal. (Coal - black coal?) This little black coal they gives you with that when you buys that - with that incense. And light that incense. You light that coal [charcoal] and that in- cense will burn, you understand. And that incense will burn over this name, you understand, underneath the candles. [Since the incense burns "over this name...underneath the candles," it is evi- dent that the incense container rests on whatever the candles stand. I suggest that four candles with incense pot or lid in the center form the magic Quincunx, I have mentioned several times. See also p.710 and Index.] And in nine days that person'll come right back there and acknowledge to you that they took whatsomever they had taken from you.
(That coal must be burned, though?)
That coal burns, yes sir. That coal burns and burns that incense, see.
The informant prescribes four white candles. The editor separately suggests an arrangement; the predicted return and confession remain source claims.