Possessed of these mystic qualities, such a hand could not fail to find favour with those engaged in any kind of evil and enterprise; and, on account of its lulling to sleep all persons within the circle of its influence, was of course held invaluable by thieves and burglars.  Thus the case is recorded of some thieves, who, a few years ago, attempted to commit a robbery on a certain estate in the county Meath.  To quote a contemporary account of the affair, it appears that “they entered the house armed with a dead man’s hand, with a lighted candle in it, believing in the superstitious notion that a candle placed in a dead man’s hand will not be seen by any but by those by whom it is used, and also that if a candle in a dead hand be introduced into a house, it will prevent those who may be asleep from awaking.  The inmates, however, were alarmed, and the robbers fled, leaving the hand behind them.”  Another story communicated by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould, tells how two thieves, having come to lodge in a public-house, with a view to robbing it, asked permission to pass the night by the fire, and obtained it.  But when the house was quiet the servant girl, suspecting mischief, crept downstairs, and looked through the keyhole.  She saw the men open a sack, and take out a dry withered hand.  They anointed the fingers with some unguents, and lighted them.  Each finger flamed, but the thumb they could not light—­that was because one of the household was not asleep.

The girl hastened to her master, but found it impossible to arouse him—­she tried every other sleeper, but could not break the charmed sleep.  At last stealing down into the kitchen, while the thieves were busy over her master’s strong-box, she secured the hand, blew out the flames, and at once the whole house was aroused.

Among other qualities which have been supposed to belong to a dead man’s hand, are its medicinal virtues, in connection with which may be mentioned the famous “dead hand,” which was, in years past, kept at Bryn Hall, Lancashire.  There are several stories relating to this gruesome relic, one being that it was the hand of Father Arrowsmith, a priest, who, according to some accounts, is said to have been put to death for his religion in the time of William III.  It is recorded that when about to suffer he desired his spiritual attendant to cut off his right hand, which should ever after have power to work miraculous cures on those who had faith to believe in its efficacy.  This relic, which forms the subject of one of Roby’s “Traditions of Lancashire,” was preserved with great care in a white silk bag, and was resorted to by many diseased persons, who are reported to have derived wonderful cures from its application.  Thus the case is related of a woman who, attacked with the smallpox, had this dead hand in bed with her every night for six weeks, and of a poor lad living near Manchester who was touched with it for the cure of scrofulous sores.