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

58 THE EVIL EYE chap.
morte (deathmaker), and that it is constantly em-
ployed in the same manner, and for the same purpose,
as the pig's heart or onion is with us. Fig. 6~is
from a drawing of this remarkable object now in the
Pitt Rivers Museum.®'' The string or yarn twisted
Fig. 6.
about the nails, though now blackened by dirt and
age, seems to have been originally coloured.
Who can deny that along with the onion as an
eatable tuber, which almost certainly came to us
from Italy, we may also have received the practice
of \\\t. fatttira della morte ?
The winding of the thread or yarn amongst the
nails has doubtless its especial meaning, and is
certainly a relic of ancient days, for Petronius, writ-
ing of certain incantations performed for the purpose
of freeing a certain Encolpius from a spell, says :
" She then took from her bosom a web of twisted
threads of various colours, and bound it on my neck." 87
^^ In the same case are to be seen one or two other hearts of the same
character as Figs. 4 and 5, though less perfect as specimens.
^"^ Petronius, Sat. 131. Story, Castle of S. Angela, p. 211. Jahn,
Aberglaiiheii, etc., p. 42, says :
" Bunte Faden spieUen bei alien Zauberwesen
eine grosse Rolle," and gives numerous references to classics and scholiasts-.