Witch Bottle
The witch bottle is a stoneware or glass bottle packed with pins, needles, nails, broken glass, hair and often urine, sealed tightly and hidden in a wall, chimney, hearth or floor of a home to protect it from witchcraft. The practice, brought from England and Europe to colonial America, worked by drawing the witch's curse into the bottle and then returning the harm to its sender; the pins and sharp contents were meant to wound the witch who sent the spell. Scores of such bottles have been excavated from colonial American buildings and English houses, often dating from the 17th to the 19th cent