Sonora and Ihark's My Cultura Podcast Network, present

Princess of South Beach, Season 2.

Did you miss me?

The new season of lies, scandals and skeletons in the closet.

I am proud to take office as your first openly gay mayor.

This season it's all out in the open.

Listen to Princess of South Beach and on the Ihark Radio app,

Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of Ihark Radio.

Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the Artifact,

a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on particular objects, ideas and moments in time.

I'd like to take a break from all the recent monster fact episodes to discuss an Artifact.

Though a monstrous one to be sure, the hand of glory.

It is, in short, a grizzly candle holder made from the mummified, pickled or otherwise preserved hand of an executed criminal,

such as one left hanging at a crossroads.

In Brewer's dictionary of phrase and fable,

Evor Evans also describes it as a dead man's hand, quote, soaked in oil and used as a magic torch.

When candled, depictions vary.

Sometimes the hand's very fingers taper into flaming wicks.

This version was more or less brought to the screen in 1973's The Wicker Man.

While other times, a candle is simply inserted into the knuckles of the hand's closed fist.

The 18th century frinched remore Petit Albeir provides a detailed recipe of the hand's construction,

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