"Hostile spells made by a koldun may in fact be simple poisoning (and indeed malefic magic and poisoning are so often linked both in Russia and elsewhere that it is clear that for many people they could hardly be distinguished as suspected causes of illnesses) usually include a spoken or whispered spell, and may also include magical ingredients such as herbs or roots, or, as in the case quoted above, graveyard earth, or parts of human bodies, or "dead soap" which has been used to wash a corpse, or water which has been used to wash a corpse (a specific employed by women for reducing breasts thought to be of excessive proportions) or a "dead candle" made from human fat from graves which will send to sleep or kill.
A similar belief would seem to lie behind an English newspaper report in 1889 of trial in Kursk in which four peasants were convicted of chopping up a girl of eleven to make tallow candles which would enable them to carry out burglaries unseen; the court was told this belief was very widespread in Russia.
"Dead candles" were not the only ones with magical power; in fact any church candle, like other Christian ritual objects could be used for magical purposes, as is evident elsewhere in this book. For malefic magic they could be placed upside down and a memorial prayer offered for the victim (a variety of cursing by inversion of a Christian practice)."
From The Bathhouse At Midnight by W.F. Ryan
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