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

X THE SILVER MOON 351
We turn our silver in our pockets when we first
and in fact the silver
see the new moon or Diana ;
moon is something more than a mere figure of
speech. ^'^'^
In all complete specimens two of the attributes
are never wanting. These are the crescent and the
hand^ with which the tip of every spray is made to
finish, reminding one
of the sun's rays on
the sculpture in the
tomb of Khuenaten
(Fig. 103), except
that here the hand,
when alone, is bent
into the gesture already described as a potent
amulet ^^° in itself—the j7mno fica, and in the other
cases is made to grasp some other object. The halfmoon
on Fig. 162 in itself combines two other
symbols, namely horns, already dealt with, and a
serpent enclosing the crescent. 581
(ver. 35) "image which fell down from Jupiter," is in Wiclifs and the
Rheims versions "child of Jupiter."
^'^ Upon Diana in her Aloon character, see Lobeck, Aglaopharmis, pp.
72, 1062.
*8" The amulet (Fig. 164) here produced is a late example of the
classic fasciimm. It is from Pignorius ( Vetustissimcz Tabula ^nece, Venetiis,
1605, p. 16 in dorso).
" Hinc Neurospasta apud Lucianum, et remedium, prsebiave in coUo
pueris res turpicula, Fascinus videlicet, quern infantium custodem appellas
Plinius, hujus amuletl speciem ex a;re, lapide lazuli, corallo, et chrystallo ; hie
damus in gratiam eruditi lectoris."
=*i Besides being associated with Diana, the serpent was an attribute of
another goddess. Minerva or Athena is represented as accompanied by a
serpent. " The Tower of Athens, which was guarded by a serpent . . .
this serpent which guarded the house stood by the door " (Montfaucon, vol. i.
p. 85). This completely accords with what we have remarked as to the
serpent being placed at the entrances of tombs and temples ; but on the
Cimaruta as an infant's amulet the serpent has more probably to do with
health than with the guardianship of doors, although, as we shall see immediately,
even in that respect it typified Diana. Hygeia, the goddess of
health, is represented as sitting on a rock with a serpent coiled in her lap,