Use of ear candles are of a folk cure nature.  They are a hollow tube,  made
of cotton strips, soaked with beeswax, about 10" long, have a diameter on one
end small enough to fit into the ear and about the diameter of a nickel on
the other end.  For people with hard ear wax, ringing ears or several minor
ear problems, they are inserted in the ear and lit.  The hear and smoke
creates a fireplace chimney effect pulling the earwax out of the ear.
 
Mike