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

V GORGONS AT PERUGIA i6i
down as an amulet to much later times. We know
that both on seals and on coins objects prophylactic
against fascination were common even in the late
Middle Ages, and were used down to a period long
since the Reformation. Our own Anglo-Saxon kings
adopted such devices on their coins.^*^^ Not only were
the Greek and Etruscan Gorgons common in Europe,
representing a widely-received myth, but in the East,
Bhavani, the Destructive Female Principle, is still
represented with a head exactly agreeing with the
most ancient type of the Medusa :
with
huge tusks,
tongue thrust out, and with snakes twining about the
throat, just as may still be seen in the Etruscan tomb
of the Volumni at Perugia, and such as was described
by Hesiod of old. "In the centre of that tomb^*^^ is an
enormous Gorgon's head, hewn from the dark rock,
with eyes upturned in horror, gleaming from the
gloom, teeth bristling whitely in the open mouth,
wings on the temples, and snakes knotted over the
brow. You confess the terror of the image, and
almost expect to hear
" Some whisper from that horrid mouth
Of strange unearthly tone ;
A wild infernal laugh to thrill
One's marrow to the bone.
But, no ! it grins like horrid Death,
And silent as a stone."
A lamp of earthenware was suspended over the
doorway of this same chamber, having another
Medusa's head on the bottom. A similar lamp
was suspended from the ceiling of the central
chamber.
^''^ A large number of these may be seen in A)-chiCologia, vol. xix. ; and in
'Cs\s. Proceedings of the Somerset Arch, and Nat. Hist. Society, vol. i. 1849.
-^ Dennis, Cities of Etrttria, vol. ii. p. 441.
M