Subj : Interesting...item To : Heavy Metal From : Warren Olson Date : Sat Feb 03 2001 06:10 pm hi i'm just wondering if that bottle you were talking about was found in surry b.c. Here in canada or some other surry hope to hear from you soon. -> Here's something...interesting I found in one of the mailing lists -> I'm linked to. -> -> -> Message in a magic bottle -> -> BY NORMAN HAMMOND, ARCHAEOLOGY CORRESPONDENT -> -> -> AFTER THE Blair Witch Project, the Reigate Witch Bottle: a -> 17th-century container found in Surrey has proved to be an -> elaborate piece of "white magic", intended to counter the -> maleficence of a sorceress. It appears to have been buried -> around 1720 below a cottage floor. Discovered seven years ago, -> the former wine bottle was unusual in still holding liquid. -> This has been subjected to a battery of chemical and biological -> assays at Loughborough University, which have proved the -> presence of ancient urine, among other substances. -> -> Witch bottles were used against the bewitcher by the victim, -> some of whose urine was collected and put into the bottle along -> with sharp objects such as nails, pins or thorns. The charm -> would then cause "grievous harm" to the witch when she tried to -> pass water, Alan Massey and Tony Edmonds report in Current -> Archaeology. -> -> The green glass bottle was made around 1685, and had "a long, -> hard life before burial", they say. When it was opened, there -> was a hiss of gas, almost certainly carbon dioxide and residual -> air. -> -> The liquid contained sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, -> chloride, sulphate and phosphate, together with an unexpectedly -> high proportion of nitrate. "It was only after reading -> historical accounts describing the use of urine to make -> saltpetre - potassium nitrate - for gunpowder that we realised -> it was the conclusive indicator of ancient urine," the -> investigators say. -> -> The bottle also contained nine tiny brass pins, all bent at more -> or less the same angle into an L-shape. Such pins, ranging in -> number from half a dozen to several hundred, have been found in -> other witch bottles. These were the sharp objects used to -> induce discomfort in the witch. -> -> Tiny fragments of cotton, wool, linen, animal and human hair -> were found, along with an insect's leg and bits of grass. An -> entire grass shoot with its stem and roots was stuffed into the -> bottle. -> -> While the textile could have settled accidentally from the air, -> some kinds of grass have spiny leaf-edges, and would be thought -> to cause considerable pain when the witch passed water. Other -> witch bottles have contained nail-clippings, and in one case a -> piece of cloth in the shape of a heart. -> -> The Reigate cottage was demolished 250 years ago, so who hid the -> bottle, and why, will remain unknown: but black and white magic -> both seem to have been alive in Surrey in the reign of George I, -> even if the ingredients were not as exotic as those of the Weird -> Sisters in Macbeth. -> -> -> -> 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴커 -> � E-Mail: hmetal@thurston.com � -> 旼컴좔컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컨컴커 -> � via TransX: lmdmetalbbs@thurston.com � -> 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸 -> -> -> ... Call 1-800-Astarte for all your in-home Goddess needs. -> ___ Blue Wave/DO--- -> * LAKOTA v1.5 -> -> --- Alexi/Mail 2.02b (#10000) -> * Origin: Le Maison De Metal * Olympia, WA. * (360) 493-0798 -> (1:138/5666) --- ViaMAIL!/WC v1.60d * Origin: The Door Factory * Winnipeg, Canada (1:348/956) .