Correspondence. 499
Candles Burnt on Christmas Night for Luck.
I shall be very much obliged, and so also will an enquiring American friend, if any member can inform me whether the New England custom of burning "bayberry candles," green tapers made from bayberries, — the fruit of the wax-myrtle or candleberry, myrtca cerifera, — on Christmas night is of English origin. It is a saying that "a bayberry candle burned to the socket on Christmas night brings luck to the house, food to the larder, and gold to the pocket."
Carey Drake.
[A bayberry candle from Baltimore was laid on the table with this query at the Annual Meeting on Jan. 19th, 1910, but no information was obtained.]
Upper Congo Charm against Leopards.
In the recent journey of my colleague at Bolobo, Rev. J. A. Clark, to Lake Leopold, he passed through several villages which had been deserted owing to the ravages of a leopard which had taken off several people. On his return he found in one village several people who had returned, and were fixing things up a bit again. On his enquiring after the leopard, he was told that they were no longer in any fear of the animal, because they had a most effectual charm against it. He was taken to see it. It proved to be a plantain tree, round which had been placed some earth on which the leopard had walked. They had scraped up, following the instructions of a witch-doctor, the soil which had been trodden on by the animal, — just the paw marks, — and seemed quite happy in the assurance of safety the fetish gave them. The charm may have appeared successful, as the absence of the villagers may have led the beast to seek other hunting grounds.
A. E. Scrivener.
Bolobo, Haut Congo, Congo Beige.
