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

VI HORSESHOES 217
infidels, and heretics all the world over, that of fixing
old horseshoes^**'" over, under, upon, or behind our
doors. The English horseshoe is now somewhat
of a conventional article— it is in itself an example
of evolution ; but an Oriental one can scarcely be
called anything but the crescent, whether as repre-
sented on the Turkish ensign, on the gems of
ancient Rome, or on the iron amulets of Ashantee.
We may without discussion assume that the horseshoe
wherever used is the handy conventional repre-
sentative of the crescent. The Buddhist crescent
emblem is a horseshoe, with the toe pointed like
a Gothic arch.^*"
" The arch or bend of the mystical
instrument borne by I sis—the sistrum—represented
the lunar orbit." ^^'^ May we not then safely say
the same of the horseshoe ? At the Ashmolean
Museum is a small sistrum in blue enamel, from
Thebes, evidently an amulet.
Here in Somerset horseshoes are nailed on
stable doors, hung up to the ceilings above the
horses, or fastened to the walls of the cowhouse,
"to keep off the pixies," those malicious sprites who
are said to come and ride the horses at night, so
that "very often in the mornin', there they be, all
a-brokt out into a sweat, the very same's 'off they'd
a-bin hard to work." This does not occur where
the stable is properly protected by the powerful
crescent horseshoe.^*^ Dwelling-houses are equally
346« ggg Jorio's remarks upon this, post, p. 260.
3*'' Inman, Ajicieitt Faiths, vol. ii. p. 262.
^*' Payne Knight, Symbolical Language, p. lOi.
3*9 The same thing is done by hanging up scythes or sharp instruments to
the stable rafters, by which the pixies will be cut if they ride the horses.
Hang up hooks and sheers to scare
Hence the hag, that rides the mare,
Till they be all over wet
With the mire and the sweat.