Saw this in a LOUISIANA MAGAZINE...

There was a time when autumn breezes blowing mournfully through Cajun country bayous would carry with them the sound of tinkling bottles gleaming like rainbows from trees in the sunlight. T he cobalt of empty Milk of Magnesia bottles or the lime green of old 7UP bottles with squares of red were generally hung on trees near people's houses as protection.The roots of the "bottle trees" are deep in the soil of Congo culture. Legend holds that wandering spirits of ill intent can not

resist the beauty of colored glass and that any evil spirits mesmerized enough to enter glass would be unable to escape and ultimately would be destroyed by morning sunlight.Slaves who were brought to the new world continued this tradition hanging blue bottles from huts and trees as talismans against evil.The tradition spread throughout the American South, in Europe, it took the form of single spheres known as "witch balls".If you want to revive this old folk ritual and make a bottle tree to ward off those color loving gremlins, one of the simplest and most beautiful ways is to take traditional cobalt-blue bottles(blue being the color of water, something spirits cannot cross), tie two by the neck at opposite ends of a shoe lace, and dangle them over tree branches. Repeat as many times as you desire....Mary