I was reading about what is called a "Hand of Glory" - The severed and preserved hand of a gibbeted felon, clutching a candle made out of the felons blubber. This amulet was said be able to render anyone who viewed it motionless.
In a text describing the process of making it (From 1792) two ingredients unknown to me are listed - zimat, and 'ponie'
I have searched high-and-low but to no avail. Anyone have any ideas? Here is the original text
"Take the right or left hand of a felon who is hanging from a gibbet beside a highway; wrap it in part of a funeral pall and so wrapped squeeze it well. Then put it into an earthenware vessel with zimat*, nitre, salt and long peppers, the whole well powdered. Leave it in this vessel for a fortnight, then take it out and expose it to full sunlight during the dog-days until it becomes quite dry. If the sun is not strong enough put it in an oven with fern and vervain. Next make a kind of candle from the fat of a gibbeted felon, virgin wax, sesame, and ponie, and use the Hand of Glory as a candlestick to hold this candle when lighted, and then those in every place into which you go with this baneful instrument shall remain motionless"
You've got a quote from some text, you say from 1792. Could you give a reference as to where it came from, where it lives? It makes a lot of difference if it is, say, from an anonymous MS dated to the 18th c. in Suffolk, now at the British Library, , or it's a translated source from another country...anything to rule out that it's a sci-fi & fantasy writer in 1956 passing off his own ideas as an old charm. All clues would be helpful.