EVIL EYE. The belief that certain persons can injure and even kill with a glance, has been and is still very widely spread. The power was often supposed to be involuntary (cf. Deuteron omy xxviii. 54) ; and a story is told of a Slav who, afflicted with the evil eye, at last blinded himself in order that he might not be the means of injuring his children (Woyciki, Polish Folklore, trans. by Lewenstein, p. 25). In Rome the "evil eye" was well recognized and special laws were enacted against injury to crops by incantation, excantation or fascination. The power was styled 3avKavia by the Greeks and fascinatio by the Latins. Children and young animals of all kinds were thought to be specially sus ceptible. Charms were worn against the evil eye both by man and beast, and were of three classes : (I) those the intention of which was to attract the malignant glance on to themselves; ) charms hidden in the bosom of the dress; (3) written words from sacred writings. Of these three types the first was most numerous. They were often of a grossly obscene nature. They were also made in the form of frogs, beetles and so on. Spitting was among the Greeks and Romans a most common antidote to the poison of the evil eye. Gestures, too, often intentionally obscene, were regarded as prophylactics on meeting the dreaded individual. The evil eye was believed to have its impulse in envy, and thus it was unlucky to have any of your possessions praised. It was, therefore, necessary to use some protective or prophylactic phrase such as Unberufen, absit omen, As God will or God bless it.
The powers of the evil eye seem indeed to have been most feared by the prosperous. Its powers are of ten quoted as almost limitless. The modern Turks and Arabs think that their horses and camels are subject to the evil eye. Among the Neapolitans the jettatore, as the owner of the evil eye is called, is so f eared that at his approach a street will clear : everybody will rush into door ways or up alleys to avoid the dreaded glance. The evil eye is still much feared for horses in India, China, Turkey, Greece and al most everywhere where horses are found. In India the belief is universal. Modern Egyptian mothers thus account for the sickly appearance of their babies. In Turkey passages from the Koran are painted on the outside of houses to save the inmates, and texts as amulets are worn upon the person, or hung upon camels and horses by Arabs, Abyssinians and other peoples. One of the most striking facts about superstitions in the New World is that the evil eye seems to be foreign to the whole hemisphere. Its absence is often cited as a good example of the occurrence of unexpected human divergences.
See Johannes Christian Frommann, Tractatus de fascinatione novus et singularis, etc., etc. (Nuremberg, 1675) ; F. T. Elworthy, Evil Eye (1895) ; R. C. Maclagan, Evil Eye in the Western Highlands (1902) ; E. Thurston, Omens and Superstitions of S. India (1912) ; Herklotz, Islam in India (ed. W. Crooke) (1921) ; R. E. Enthoven, Folklore of Bombay (1924) ; W. Crooke, Religion and Folklore of Northern India (1926).