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

vr ROME TO ASHANTEE 215
to the crescents and horns we have been describing,
when we find them in use among the negro savages
of Ashantee ? Fiof. 88 shows three iron standards of
native make, now to be seen in
the Museum at Taunton. They
are from 20 to 23 inches in length,
and by no means badly forged.
They were brought from the west
coast of Africa, where they are
used to stick into the ground " to
protect the crop sown from evil
spirits," or, in other words, from
the witchcraft of possessors of
the evil eye.
In these objects the crescent
surmounts the disc instead of enclosing
it, just as it does in many
examples of the insignia ofRoman
legions ; and we cannot fail to
be struck with the remarkable coincidence. One of
the crescents has a prolongation of the stem ending
in a flat surface, which we suggest may represent
the head of the moon-goddess ; and allowing for
difference of treatment, and the separation of unknown
ages in time,^^^ very remarkably preserves
the same old notion, typified by the neck and head
starting out of the crescent, of the terra-cotta figures
from Mycenae, now in the Athens Museum (see
Fig. 68).
^^ Schliemann says {Mycena, p. 69) : " There is also a human head painted
on a fragment of pottery; it has a very large eye, and a head-dress in the form
of a Phrygian cap. " Also (p. 71) : " I have been able to gather here more than
200 terra-cotta idols of Hera, more or less broken." "The head of those
idols is of a very compressed shape . . . the lower part is in the form of a
gradually widening tube. " To this may be added that one of those sketched
by the writer is widened out so as to form a distinct stand, and perhaps to in-
dicate female drapery.
Fig.
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