What is the story about the dead hand?

Question

In the book scary stories there was a legend about the dead hand. can anyone tell me about it?

Answer 1

The above might be write but I think there is an western tale of a gunslinger getting shot at the poker table. May have been Wyatt Earp. He had a full house aces and eights which is now know as the dead man's hand!

Answer 2

I think you might be talking about the hand of glory, The hand of glory was the right hand that was cut off a recently hanged man. And then it was preserved by other criminals who believed that it would help them. The hand of glory would be left some where, and then the person controling the hand would chant something, and then in the night, it would spring to action, and help the person get in from the inside.

Here is a story:

One dark night, when all was shut up, there came a tap at the door of a lone inn in the middle of a barren moor. The door was opened, and there stood without, shivering and shaking, a poor beggar, his rags soaked with rain, and his hand white with cold. He asked piteously for a lodging, and it was cheerfully granted him; there was not a spare bed in the house, but he could lie on the mat before the kitchen fire, and welcome.

So this was settled, and everyone in the house went to bed except the cook, who from the back kitchen could see into the large room through a pane of glass let into the door. She watched the beggar, and saw him, as soon as he was left alone, draw himself up from the floor, seat himself at the table, extract from his pocket a brown withered human hand, and set it upright in the candlestick. He then anointed the fingers, and applying a match to them, they began to flame. Filled with horror, the cook rushed up the back stairs, and endeavored to arouse her master and the men of the house. But all was in vain--they slept a charmed sleep; so in despair she hastened down again, and placed herself at her post of observation.

She saw the fingers of the hand flaming, but the thumb remained unlighted, because one inmate of the house was awake. The beggar was busy collecting the valuables around him into a large sack, and having taken all he cared for in the large room, he entered another.

On this the woman ran in, and, seizing the light, tried to extinguish the flames. But this was not so easy. She blew at them, but they burnt on as before. She poured the dregs of a beer jug over them, but they blazed up the brighter. As a last resource, she caught up a jug of milk, and dashed it over the four lambent flames, and they died out at once. Uttering a loud cry, she rushed to the door of the apartment the beggar had entered, and locked it. The whole family was aroused, and the thief easily secured and hanged.

Answer 3

That is a story of the hand of Glory, well there are to many stories out there about that subject. And it will also take to long to type it out for you, so please do yourself a favor and look it up for yourself................................. I know that you will enjoy reading all about it..............................................................