Haitian superstition: Two sisters tied down and burned a 5-year-old girl, permanently disfiguring her, in a voodoo ritual meant to rid her of a demon causing her to misbehave, police said.

The women also threatened to cut off the head of the girl’s 8-year-old brother with a machete, authorities said. Peggy LaBossiere, 51, and Rachel Hilaire, 40, denied injuring the girl and threatening the boy. Police say that the girl’s mother is a hair stylist of Haitian descent who has LaBossiere as a client and requested the ritual. Voodoo refers to religious practises developed centuries ago by enslaved Africans in the Caribbean, primarily in Haiti, where the practises are sometimes spelled “vodou.”