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EVIL EYE

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 22 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EVIL See also:

EYE . The terror of the arts of " See also:fascination," i.e. that certain persons can bewitch, injure and even kill with a glance, has been and is still very widely spread. The See also:power was not thought to be always maliciously cultivated. It was as often supposed to be involuntary (cf. See also:Deuteronomy See also:xxviii. X54); and a See also:story is told of a Slav who, afflicted with the evil eye, at last blinded himself in See also:order that he might not be the means of injuring his See also:children (Woyciki, See also:Polish See also:Folklore, trans. by Lewenstein, p. 25). Few of the old classic writers fail to refer to the dread power. In See also:Rome the " evil eye " was so well recognized that See also:Pliny states that See also:special See also:laws were enacted against injury to crops by See also:incantation, excantation or fascination. The power was styled (3avuavia by the Greeks and fascinatio by the Latins. Children and See also:young animals of all kinds were thought to be specially susceptible. Charms were worn against the evil eye both by See also:man and beast, and in See also:Judges viii.

21 it is thought there is a reference to this See also:

custom in the allusion to the " ornaments " on the necks of camels. In classic times the wearing of amulets was universal. They were of three classes: (1) those the intention of which was to attract on to themselves, as the See also:lightning-See also:rod the lightning, the See also:malignant glance; (2) charms hidden in the bosom of the See also:dress; (3) written words from sacred writings. Of these three types the first was most numerous. They were oftenest of a See also:grotesque and generally grossly obscene nature. They were also made in the See also:form of frogs, beetles and so on. But the ancients did not wholly rely on amulets. Spitting was among the Greeks and See also:Romans a most See also:common antidote to the See also:poison of the evil eye. According to See also:Theocritus it is necessary to See also:spit three times into the See also:breast of the See also:person who fears fascination. Gestures, too, often intentionally obscene, were regarded as prophylactics on See also:meeting the dreaded individual. The evil eye was believed to have its impulse in envy, and thus it came to be regarded as unlucky to have any of your possessions praised. Among the Romans, therefore, it was customary when praising anything to add Praefiscini dixerim (See also:Fain Evil!

I should say). This custom survives in See also:

modern See also:Italy, where in like circumstances is said Si See also:mat occhio non ci See also:fosse (May the evil eye not strike it). The See also:object of these conventional phrases was to prove that the See also:speaker was sincere and had no evil designs in his praise. Though there is no set See also:formula, traces of the custom are found in See also:English rural sayings, e.g. the See also:Somersetshire " I See also:don't wish ee no harm, so I on't zay no more." This is what the Scots See also:call " fore - speaking," when praise beyond measure is likely to be followed by disease or See also:accident. A Manxman will never say he is very well: he usually admits that he is " middling," or qualifies his ad-See also:mission of See also:good See also:health by adding " now " or " just now." The belief led in many countries to the saying, when one heard any-See also:body or anything praised superabundantly, " See also:God preserve him or it." So in See also:Ireland, to avoid being suspected of having the evil eye, it is advisable when looking at a See also:child to say " God bless it"; and when passing a See also:farm-yard where cows are collected at milking See also:time it is usual for the See also:peasant to say, " The blessing of God be on you and all your labour." See also:Bacon writes: " It seems some have been so curious as to See also:note that the times when the stroke ... of an envious eye does most hurt are particularly when the party envied is beheld in See also:glory and See also:triumph." The See also:powers of the evil eye seem indeed to have been most feared by the prosperous. Its powers are often quoted as almost limitless. Thus one See also:record solemnly declares that in a See also:town of See also:Africa a fascinator called Elzanar killed by his evil See also:art no less than 8o See also:people in two years (W. W. Story, See also:Castle St Angelo, 1877, p. 149). The belief as affecting See also:cattle was universal in the Scottish See also:Highlands as See also:late as the 18th See also:century and still lingers. Thus if a stranger looks admiringly on a cow the peasants still think she will See also:waste away, and they offer the visitor some of her See also:milk to drink in the belief that in this manner the spell is broken.

The modern See also:

Turks and See also:Arabs also think that their horses and camels are subject to the evil eye. But the people of Italy, especially the Neapolitans, are the best modern instances of implicit believers. The jettatore, as the owner of the evil eye is called, is so feared that at his approach it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that a See also:street will clear: everybody will See also:rush into doorways or up alleys to avoid the dreaded glance. The jettatore di bambini (fascinator of children) is the most dreaded of all. The evil eye is still much feared for horses in See also:India, See also:China, See also:Turkey, See also:Greece and almost everywhere where horses are found. In rural See also:England the See also:pig is of all animals oftenest " overlooked." While the Italians are perhaps the greatest believers in the evil eye as affecting persons, the superstition is rife in the See also:East. In India the belief is universal. In Bombay the blast of the evil eye is supposed to be a form of spirit-See also:possession. In western India all witches and wizards are said to be evil-eyed. Modern See also:Egyptian mothers thus See also:account for the sickly See also:appearance of their babies. In Turkey passages from the See also:Koran are painted on the outside of houses to See also:save the in-mates, and texts as amulets are worn upon the person, or hung upon camels and horses by Arabs, Abyssinians and other peoples. The superstition is universal among See also:savage races.

For a full discussion see Evil Eye by F. T. Elworthy (See also:

London, 1895); also W. W. Story, Castle St Angelo and the Evil Eye (1877); E. N. Rolfe and H. See also:Ingleby, See also:Naples in 1888 (1888); Johannes See also:Christian Frommann, Tractatus defascinatione novus et singularis, &c., &c. (Nuremburg, 1675) ; R. C. Maclagan, Evil Eye in the Western Highlands (1902).

End of Article: EVIL EYE

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