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

IX THE FROG 309
amulet against the evil eye. In Naples the simple
froe amulet is called a Sirena, like the more
elaborate one of which a description follows later.
It is not only now worn (see Fig. 112) by Italians,
Greeks, and even Turks, but it appears on many
ancient gems and medals (see Fig. 17). It is commonly
of metal, but when cut out of amber or
coral is of greater power. The frog also was among
Egyptians " a symbol of Ptah," because, as Hor-
apollo says, "it was the representation of man in
embryo, that is, of the being who, like the world, was
the work of the Creative Power, and the noblest pro-
duction of his hands." *^^
" The importance attached to the frog in some
parts of Egypt is shown by its having been embalmed,
and honoured with sculpture in the tombs
of Thebes. The frog was the symbol of kefnu,
100,000, or an immense number. *^^
It sat on a ring
or seal, a sign occasionally used in lieu of the Tau
or 'life.'" Again we are told, "la
grenouille rappelait I'idee de la renais-
sance.""*^* Fig. 150 is from Maspero's
Arcktfologie, p. 235. Jahn gives a plate
(Taf. IV.) of a terra-cotta lamp, now
. . . Fig. 150.
in the Berlin Museum, having an eye
for centre, round which are the frog, scorpion, phal-
objects, but they seem to be largely composed of stones, meteoric and other.
One only (No. 25, Tab. XI. p. 66), " Sirene en os, contre le mauvais ceil et
la fascination," may be a frog.
492 Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt, vol. iii. pp. 15, 340. Pignorius (MenscE
Isiaca Expositio, p. 23) says the frog and the cynocephalus are symbols of
Isis ; but the cynocephalus standing, with its hands raised towards heaven,
Horapollo considers to have been the symbol of the rising moon.
493 Wilkinson, iii. 353. Budge, Nile, p. 57.
494 Tjjig i(jga arose from its being born without feet, and in an altogether
different form from that it grows into. Moreover, it was said to typify the
decline of disease, and by the growth of its feet the gradual power of the