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

UNWILLING INJURY
in some cases mothers ^^ would not venture to expose
their Infants to the look of their own fathers.
A story is related of an unhappy Slav,^^ who
with the most loving heart was afflicted with the
evil eye, and at last blinded himself in order that
he might not be the means of injury to his
children.
Frommannd (p. lo) draws attention to the very
remarkable passage in Deut. xxviii. 54, in confirma-
tion of the possession of this terrible power acting
against the will of the possessor.
Jahn^^ remarks upon this, that as smell, speech,
bodily presence and breath work their influence f\
upon those with whom they come in contact, so in
a yet higher degree does the glance from the eye,
which, as all know, affects so much in love.^'^
Domestic animals, such as horses, camels, cows,
have always been thought in special danger. In \
the Scotch Highlands if a stranger looks admiringly 1
on a cow the people still believe she will waste /
away from the evil eye, and they offer him some
of her milk to drink, in the belief that by so doing
the spell will be broken and the consequences
averted.^^ The Turk and the Arab think the same
of their horses and camels. Above all the Neapolitan
cabman of to-day believes in the great danger to his
horse from the eye of Xh^jettatore.
1* Jahn, " Ueber den Aberglauben des bosen Blicks bei den Alten " :
Berichte der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zti Leipzig, 1855, p. 35.
15 Woyciki, Polish Folk Lore (Trs. by Lewestein), p. 25.
16 Ut supra, p. 33.
1" In Ireland the belief has always existed, and in old legends we are told
of King Miada of the silver hand, who possessed a magic sword, but who
nevertheless fell before " Balor of the Evil Eye" (Elton, Origins of Eng.
Hist. 2nd ed. p. 279).
IS Notes and Queries, 1st ser. vi. p. 409.
'