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

396 THE EVIL EYE CHAP.
to confess ;
but the chief Interest of the papyrus lies
In the following translation :
Take a sheet of hieratic paper, or a leaden plate, and an
iron ring, and place the ring upon the paper, and mark both
inside and out with a pen the form of a ring. Then having
described the circular outline of the ring, write upon the said
outline, inscribing upon the paper the name, and the characters
on the outside, and inside the thing which you wish not to
happen, or that such a man's mind may be bound so as not to
do such and such a thing. Then placing the ring upon its out-
line which you have made, and taking up the parts outside the
outline, sew up the ring with thread, so as to completely conceal
it, piercing through the characters with the pen, and when you
wish to bind, say : " I bind such an one not to speak to such
an one ; let him not resist, let him not contradict, let him not
be able to look me in the face, or to answer me, but let him be
subject to me as long as this ring is buried. And again I bind
his mind, and his senses, his desires, his actions, that he may be
. . and let not such a woman marry
sluggish towards all men .
such a man. Common words."
Then taking it to the grave of one untimely dead, dig four
fingers deep and put it in and say : " O ! departed spirit whosoever
thou art ... I deliver to thee such an one, that he may
not do such a thing." Then having covered it up depart.—And
you will do it best in the waning of the moon.—The words
written within the circle are these (several lines of Greek) : let
such a thing not be done, as long as this ring is buried. Bind
it with knots, making strings for that purpose, and thus deposit it.
The ring may also be cast into a disused well, or into the grave
of one untimely dead. And after the characters write also these
words below the ring as a base (five lines of Greek) and the . . .
spell which you also place within.
We give a facsimile (Fig. 187) of the figure to
which the above refers, taken from Mr, Goodwin's
paper ;
—
to this for further particulars the reader Is
referred. So valuable a relic of the doings of past
ages ought to be well known.''^^
Written charms of this kind, Intended to cast a
spell as well as to be protectlves, have been found
023 See also R. Stuart Poole in Smith's Did. Bible, s.v. " Magic," p. 197.