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

368 THE EVIL EYE chap.
veloped a far greater divergence, and that it still
keeps so near to its prototypes on the Greek vases
of two thousand years ago. Such divergences as
there are, doubtless arise from their having had to
pass through the mill of the Gnostic influence,
whereby they adopted new forms without, however,
departing from their own types. The bells upon
these various objects are all much alike, and of one
conventional kind. So indeed are the bells upon
our children's corals, and strangely ours are always
of the same special pattern and size as these Nea-
politan ones ;
but stranger still, on the walls of
Medinet Habou are these same little bells upon the
personified crux aiisata, V\g. 127. Are these mere
coincidences ? Is it also a coincidence that the coral
we use was also an ancient protective amulet for
children, and that we have it always mounted with
silver ? Is it also mere coincidence that two of the
sirens shown on Fig. 166 end in whistles like our
baby's toy? ^^^
We cannot explain the exact likeness in the little
bells between those on our baby's amulet and on
that of the ancient Egyptians or modern Neapolitans ;
still the peculiar shape remains the same from the
time of Ptolemy X. and during all the eighteen
centuries since Pliny wrote. The little bells of
brass seen upon horses are different : in shape
they are mostly globular. " Le son de I'airain " was
598 i^i^g god Fascinus "was identical with Mutinus or Tutinus, and was
worshipped under the form of a phallus. ... As the guardian of infants, his
peculiar form is still unconsciously represented in the shape of the coral
bauble with which infants are aided in cutting their teeth " (Bostock, note to
Pliny, Nat. Hist. v. 290, Bohn).
Pliny says : " Branches of coral hung at the necks of infants are thought
to act as a preservative against danger" (A^at. Hist, xxxii. 11. vol. vi. p.
12, Bohn).