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

3IO THE EVIL EYE CHAP.
lus, snail, and two monkeys' heads {cynocephalus) ;
the spout is formed of a horned mask. The frog is
shown on the Kertch necklace (p. 135) as one of
the special amulets. There is also an ancient
bronze frog amulet/"^ prepared for suspension, in
the Ashmolean Museum.
"^^^
Pliny says " : To this the Magi add some other
particulars, which, if there is any truth in them,
would lead us to believe that frogs ought to be con-
sidered much more useful to society than laws."
He gives directions for a particular manipulation
Fig. 151.
of the frog, by which a
wife conceives an aversion
to all paramours. One
kind {ph'ini), known to
the Greeks, have protuber-
ances like horns. He also
says, there is a small bone
on each side of a frog.
That on the right side
has many wonderful pro-
perties ; one is, that if thrown into boiling water it
will immediately cool, and that it will not boil again
till the bone be removed. The little bone from the
left side, on the other hand, has the property of
making it boil. It will also assuage the fury of dogs,
and if put into drink it will conciliate love and end
discord or strife. It is also worn for a talisman as
an aphrodisiac. 497
patient in convalescence to walk about (Pretorius, Dc Pollicc, Lipsia:, 1677,
p. 211).
^'•''^ The frog was evidently an amulet among the Incas of Peru. Fig. 151
is a bracelet from Wiener's Pcrou ef Bolivic, p. 669.
"IM Pliny, Nat. Hist, xxxii. vol. vi. p. 22 (Eohn). All this is dwelt on by
Delrio, Disq. ^"^lai^. iii. p. 32. lie shows the connection of frogs with Diana.
'•"'' Looking at the frog from this point of view, it is indeed in strange