Browse:Prayer and Magic of the Opposite (Volume 1, entries 2952–2953)
Prayer and Magic of the Opposite
Volume 1, entries 2952–2953. 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 2952
Yo' take a pure white candle, co'se white is purity an' yo' light dat white candle an' yo' turn it bottom upwards. Yo' take an' light dat fore end of it an' yo' say yore prayer ovah it, an' yo' take yo' two needles or two pins an' stick it in dere on dat candle, an' dat candle will go out. (That candle that someone is burning against you will go out. How do you stick those - either needles or pins?) Cross 'em crossways - needles or - no pins - needles or matches. [This is a white candle burned against a black candle.]
Entry 2953
If someone is burning a black candle on you - that's that worryin' candle - you pray and burn a white candle and whosoever you think dislikes you enough to burn the black candle against you, write their name on the white candle
[and burn it and] they'll soon put out their black one.