Browse:Name Under and Around Candle (Volume 1, entries 2817)
Name Under and Around Candle
Volume 1, entries 2817. 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 2817
[They] say that you take a black can'le. And you write the name down on a piece of paper and you wrap it around that [candle]. You put it [a second paper with the name] in a tin plate. And take this party's pitchure and turn it upside down, and burn it [see later] to this black can'le for nine days and grad'lly this person will mold [or molt] away.
(You write the name on that paper once?)
Yeah. You put it [candle] on top of the name and around the name [name around candle]. No [correcting answer to my question], you write the name on there nine times. You write it nine times on one piece and three times on the other piece.
(You use two pieces of paper?)
One wrapped around the candle and one under the candle.
(Which has the nine times?)
The paper under the plate should have the name on it nine times. [The paper with three names, wrapped about candle, burns while candle burns; the paper with nine names lies beneath the plate on which the candle stands; the- photograph in your path of vision rests behind the candle, though not in the plate, and can be either face-down on the surface of what is being used for an altar, or leaning head-down against some object. Informant's burn it to this black can'le could be a slip of the tongue, but more likely the photograph is burning to the black candle - the spirit of the photograph and the spirit in the names under the plate symbolically or sympathetically burning with the spirit name about the candle. Naturally, if the word may be used, the triple-divided spirit (see pp.20-24) of the victim does not burn or die, it gradually deserts the body of the dying person.]