The evil eye. An account of this ancient and wide spread superstition

Ill THE "THIRTEEN CLUB" 93
Where is the family in which some member does
not believe in luck, or fatalism, in the dire calamity to
follow the spilling of salt, in "thirteen at dinner" fore-
boding death ? Whose heart has not beat at the sound
of the death-watch ? Where is the house which is
not considered lucky to have a swallow's nest under
the eaves, but especially against a window ? Does
not every household contain some one who dreads to
hear an owl hoot, or a raven croak ? Since this was
written we have read in the papers of the heroic
doings of the " Thirteen Club," who bravely defy
the terrors which their very buffoonery shows they
acknowledge. Their splendid temerity is well
matched by their singular ignorance, to which the
Spectator and other journals did sufficient justice at
the time. Did we not note the names of more
than one acknowledged savant, among the famous
" thirteen " group ?
In all lands there is something more than mere
dreacTof deadly animals. They are looked upon by
human beings with that same sort of physical shrink-
ing, that negative attraction, with which all wild creatures,
familiar with his appearance, regard a man
they fly from him. The stoutest of us, even here in
England, will admit an involuntary shock, at least a
momentary flutter, when he suddenly perceives he
was about to step on a viper. The same instinct
unrestrained, is that which causes some silly women
to shriek at the sight of a mouse in the room,
as though a lion were in the path. We superior
people flout the idea of superstition, or of anything
akin to the belief that there is anything uncanny in
venomous beasts, yet very often the writer has remarked
that a sportsman will call the keeper to kill an
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