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

XII HIDING THE FACE 427
by no means confined to savages. Turks of all
classes object to be looked at while eating, and,
stranger still, the Pope himself always takes his
meals alone.
Hiding the face too, by way of protection, is a
recognised mark of sovereignty in certain parts of
Central Africa, where the king's face must be veiled.
In Wadai the Sultan always speaks from behind a
curtain ; no one sees his face except his intimates
and a few favoured persons. "^^^ Here we see of
course the dread of a stranger's eye. Among the
Touaregs of the Sahara all the men keep the lower
part of the face, especially the mouth, veiled con-
stantly. In West Timor a speaker holds his right
hand before his mouth in speaking, lest a demon
should enter his body, and lest the person with
whom he is conversing should harm his soul by
magic.''"*'
A young New South Wales man must always cover
his mouth with a rug in the presence of a woman,
after his initiation into the mysteries of his tribe.
So strongly is the danger felt, that many kings are
not suffered to leave their houses, lest evil should
befall them through being seen. The King of
Loango is confined to his palace, and may not leave
it after his coronation.''''^ The King of I bo also may
not leave his house even to go into his town unless
a human sacrifice is made to propitiate the gods.
Consequently he never goes beyond his own pre-
mises.*''^ In Mandalay a strong paling, six feet high,
fi"" Mohammed Ibn-Omar el Tounsy, Voyage an Darfonr, 1845, p. 203.
Travels of an Arab Rlerchant, abridged by Bayle St. John, p. 91.
"'''' Riedel, "Die Landschaft Dawan oder West-Timor," in Deutsche Geog.
Blat. X. 230, quoted by Frazer.
^'''' Bastian, Die Loango-Kiiste, i. 263.
^''^ Crowther and Taylor, Gospel on the Banks of the Niger, p. 433.