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

XII TUNISIAN JEWISH CUSTOMS 425
nations, such as the AustraHan aborigines, even
those without picture writing, call the stars by names
of men and animals, and have all sorts of legends to
match.
Reference has been made to the practices anciently-
how songs of a lewd
employed at weddings :
character called Fescennina were commonly a part of
the performance ; but even in the present day ela-
borate acts are common whose object is still the
same—that of averting the evil eye from the newly
married pair. At a marriage among the Jews of
Tunis, after the religious ceremony, the bride is taken
into an upper room, accompanied by all her friends,
who remain with her. The bridegroom having retired
with his friends, without taking the slightest notice
of the bride or any one else, she is seated on a chair
placed upon the usual divan. Her mother-in-law
now comes forward, unveils her, and with a pair of
scissors cuts off the tips of her hair. This last
ceremony is supposed to be of great importance in
driving away all evil influences that might do harm
to or enter between the newly married pair.*'^^ We
are not told what is done to the hair cut off, nor of
any ceremony in the cutting to countervail the touch
of iron. Both matters are doubtless carefully looked
to, though unnoted by a stranger. The birth of a
daughter is a cause of grief, etc., while a son is
so greatly prized that they not unfrequently compass
his death by the very means taken to secure his life.
Their one great anxiety is to keep him from the
influence of the evil eye, and with this object in
view they keep him carefully concealed within thick
curtains for some time after his birth, while a
67^ Mrs. Reichardt, Good Words, Jan. 1893, p. 47.