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

242
- THE EVIL EYE chap.
Collegio Romano, of Cortona, of Bologna, and prob-
ably elsewhere. They are described as belonging
"to the first age of iron," a period of extreme anti-
quity. The eyelets for suspension show that these
objects were intended to be worn. They are mere
pieces of bronze plate cut into the shapes, and about
the sizes here drawn— perhaps a little larger. It is
not easy to measure an article in a glass case. Fig.
loo has two hands remaining out of four which
originally hung upon the same triangle. Whether
or not the triangle represented anything more than
a convenient shape for the suspender we can-
not now decide — probably it did ; but the fact
of finding four hands combined shows that already
in those days, 500 to 1000 B.C., there was a tend-
ency to pile up amulets by way of adding to their
power.
Among all these very early hand amulets, in onlyone
is any particular gesture de-
picted. All the rest have the
mere open palm and extended
fingers ; but as skill improved, we
100
find attempts more or less successful
to represent the hand in definite
positions or gestures. Fie^. 102 is
Fig. 102.
decidedly of much later work than
the others, though exhibited at Bologna in the same
case with the others.
In the Ashmolean Museum are many examples
of the open hand, in blue pottery, showing piercings
or handle attachments for suspension as amulets. 384
354 Jahn, Aberghmben, etc., frequently uses this argument as a proof that
the objects he is speaking of were used as amulets, e.g. p. 47, of a female
figure with the hand on the mouth he says :
Henkel als Amulete ausweisen.''
" Die sich zum Theil durch den