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

XII CLAY MADE WITH SPITTLE 421
ment upon the means which our Lord Himself took
to open the eyes of the man born blind, is seen in
the fact that He did not despise as " mere supersti-
tion " the acts v/hich in His day were held to be
effectual, but that " He spat on the ground, and
made clay of the spittle, and He anointed the eyes
of the blind man with the clay." He knew the
medicinal value which was set upon saliva by the
people, but instead of spurning such means. He
thought right to make them the conductors of His
miraculous power. ^*^^ We find the same course
followed in the case of the deaf and dumb man
(St. Mark vii. t,t,).
A modern traveller '^'^^
relates that in Corfu he
unwittingly expressed his admiration for two children
of his host. The grandmother on his repeating the
praise became agonized, and nothing would suffice
to appease the parents and others present but that
he should spit in their faces. This he did, and the
children submitted as if well accustomed to have
their beauty first lauded and then protected. This,
however, was not enough : the mother then made a
paste of dust and oil from the lamp burning before
the Virgin and anointed their foreheads. We are
not told which finger the Corfiote woman used to
apply her paste, but it was probably the middle
finger—the same as was undoubtedly used for the
purpose at the time of our Lord's miracles ; for
Petronius, who was an actual contemporary (died
A.D. 66), mentions the putting of dust combined with
saliva upon the forehead with the middle finger. 666
^''* See Trench, A^oUs on the Miracles, p. 294.
665 Dodwell, vol. ii. p. 36.
666