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

IX THE WOMAN AND CHILD 305
watching over his consort the Moon (Isis), who is
nursing their son Horus/^** It may be, however,
that this bird represents the eagle, another symbol
of Jupiter, and often seen with him on gems and
statues. A very remarkable comment upon this
bird (in Jahn's plate it is quite nondescript, and
looks like a goose v/ith eagle's beak), and upon the
attitude here displayed, is in Dr. Phene's descrip-
tion of some Hittite monuments in Asia Minor.
He says i"*^^ " The symbols are a crouching bird on
a level with the face of Sesostris, and close to it a
sceptre. . . . The
bird usually found in Hittite
inscriptions ... is the eagle, and the position is
one of majesty, which he considered implied kingly
power, and hence the crouching and humbled bird
was a king bereft of his power." The bird on the
Mano Pantea cannot be said to be crouching, neither
was it in the illustration which Dr. Phene gave, nor
is either of the birds represented on the Woburn
marble (Fig. 24). ^^"-^
Upon the figure of the woman and child, Jahn
remarks (p. 104) : "It has been rightly considered
that these hands are ex votos for a safe delivery, and
that the others, on which are other objects, are ex
votos for other good fortunes." To this opinion we
take objection, upon the ground that all these hands
are constructed to stand upright, upon a flat surface,
whereas ancient as well as modern ex votos, such as
phalli, hands, legs, etc., were prepared for suspen-
^s** The cock also typifies Mercury (see Montfaucon, i. p. 79), and is also
the attribute of Abraxas, the Gnostic Sun God, the later form of Osiris and
Jupiter.
*8i
"•^^
Brit. Assoc. Report, 1892, Cardiff, p. 814.
It may be that this bird is the crow, which appears on the Woburn
marble, and is figured on several Gnostic gems {Abraxas Joh. Macarii,
AntwerpiK, 1657, Tab. V.) in the same attitude.
X