EVIL EYE.
1 . . . Auto. Mal occhio, Jattatura, IT.
Baskanos ophthaimos, Gli. Drashti dosham, SANSK. Kalco mati, . . . „ Kan pada, . . . . TAM. Chashm-i-bad, . HIND. Kannu tan, . . . TEL.
The evil eye alluded to in Proverbs xxviii. 22 and Mark vii. 22, is still a subject of dread in all Eastern countries, as well as in rnany of those of Europe. The Irish and Scotch as much believe that their cattle are subject to an injury from the blight of the evil eye, as did Virgil's shepherd when he exclaims, Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos. The Greeks of the present day entertain the same horror of their Kako mati as did their ancestors in their Baskanos ophthahnos, and the Mal occhio of modern Italy is the traditional fascinatio of the Romans. Mr. Buckingham relates that, when in Persia, being ill, his companions attributed his sickness to the ill-wishes of a malignant enemy ; to remove which, a fakir took some rags from his body and deposited them in the new-made graves of some holy personages, believing that they thus acquired a virtue potent enough to dispel the supposed evil influence. The Arabians and Turks believe in it, and apologise for the profusion of jewels with which they decorate their children, on the plea that they are intended to draw aside the evil eye. The Mahomedans suspend objects from the ceilings of their apartments for the same purpose ; and the Singhalese and Hindus place whitened chatties on the gable ends of their houses and in fields, t,o divert the mysterious influence from their iwellings and crops. The Mahomedans hang round their children's necks, and suspend in their houses, or place over the lintels of their doors charms consisting of verses of the Koran, which' are inscribed by holy men, or incantations by pretended exorcists, written on paper or engraved on potstone, silver or gold, to guard against the evil eye. And Hindus resort to their temples to make offerings to their deities for the same object. Hindus and Maho medans alike think that jewels on children tend to attract on the jewels the evil eye. Hindu mothers, when they suspect that the evil eye has fallen on their child from home, on returning to their house, take some chillies and salt in their hands, and describe a circle round the infant's head, and thereafter place the chillies and salt in a well or in the fire, to de,stroy the evil eye and its charm together. Pretending exorcists, both
men and women, also exorcise those blighted with the evil eye, by reciting a charm over cow-dung ashes, and rubbing it on the forehead and body of the child. In Italy, Pope Pius ix. is supposed to have had the evil eye. Popular superstition has generally divided them into two classes,— those who involuntarily and innocently possess the fatal power, and are unconscious of its exer cise, and those who knowingly acquire it, and take a delight in exercising it against all who offend them. The maleficent power has been known by several English words. It is to eye bite,' to overlook,' and to take.' The French and Italians simply call it fascination in the evil sense of the word ; the Germans, the Scheelauge, or squint-eye, ascribing the power to a squint ; and the Zauberblick, or enchanted glance. To take,' in Shakespeare, means to blast or blight by witch craft. In King Lear, act fi. scene 4, occurs the imprecation Strike her young bone, you taking airs, with 'lameness.' He says of Herne the Hunter, in The MeiTy Wives of Windsor, that he blasts the tree and takes the cattle, and makes milch kine yield blood.' In Hamlet, speaking of Christmas time, he says,— • The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike, No fairy takes, no witch hath power to charm, So hallowed and so gracious is the time.' And this meaning, somewhat modified, still holds good amongst English women.
Pliny speaks of ' those among the Triballiana and Illyrians who with their very eyesight can kill those whom they look wistfully upon for any long time ; ' and Plutarch states, on the authority of Philaretus, that ' the Thybiens who inhabited Pontus were deadly not only to babes but to men grown, and that whomsoever their eye, speech, or breath would reach, were sure to fall sick and pine away:—Buckingharn's Travels, p. 172; Milner's Seven Churches, p. 120 ; Burton's City of the Saints, p. 129 ; Sonnerat's Voyage, p. 89 ; Sir J. E. Tennant's Ceylon. See Somal.