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

X OBJECTS UPON THE TABLETS 375
in the other. To the right of the lyre is a leaf, the
meaning of which, Jahn says, is not clear, but it
is surely the phallic fig-leaf. The pincers are distinct
on all, as they are upon the nail. Fig. 159. One
other object, common to all the tablets, which
neither Jahn nor Mr. Evans attempts to explain,
is the oblong slab with twelve square holes in
regular lines. Three flat discs, on all the plates,
Mr. Evans thinks may be coins, but three similar
discs are upon the table on the hand, Fig. 156,
apparently as an offering to Serapis. There are,
besides these, several objects upon the Oxford tablet
not to be found upon those of the British Museum
or Naples. First, the upright column above the
crescent, which Mr. Evans calls the club of Herakles,
we submit is much too important an object upon
this combination of attributes to be the symbol of
either of the lesser gods. It is suggested that this
may be one of the pillars of Hermes on which
that god engraved all knowledge. ^°^ The objection
to this is that the caduceus has already typified
him. Still there may be two symbols like the sun
and thunderbolt for the same god. Again, there is
a bird, but hardly a dove ;
^°^"
it would rather be
intended for a cock or an eagle. The object near
the bird, called a lover's knot by Mr. Evans, is, we
suggest, much more probably a scorpion. The
"curved object" is manifestly the same as Jahn
calls a Filllhorn, but it rather represents a scythe
or sickle ; which
of them is the tunny or the grapes
which Mr, Evans sees we cannot explain.
Jahn finishes his description of Fig. 181 with the
*"' King, Gnostics, p. 208.
60oa A. J. Evans, op. cit. p. 46.