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

84 THE EVIL EYE chap.
In Germany, England,^-^ Scotland, and other
places even as far off as India and Madagascar, it is
still believed that, if after death a person see his
image reflected in a mirror in the same room as the
dead, he will shortly die himself; hence in many
places it is customary to cover up looking-glasses in
a death -chamber. Bombay Sunis not only cover
the looking-glasses in the room of a dying person,
but do so habitually in their bedrooms before retiring
to rest.i-^
The Zulus and Basutos of South Africa have
almost precisely similar notions. We have no
need however to go so far afield for instances
of a belief of a similar kind.
The following story is given by a correspondent
of the Spectatoi', of February 17, 1894, as told to
him " last month " by an old woman, in a Somerset
village about ten miles from Bristol.
" Old John, that do Uve out to Knowle Hill, have a-told I, his
vaether George had a sister, an' when her wer' young, a man what
lived next door come a-courten of she. But she wouldn't have
none on him. But she were took bad, an' had a ravennen
appetite, an' did use to eat a whole loaf at once. Zoo her
brother thought she wer' overlooked ; an' he went down to
Somerton, where a man did bide who wer' a real witch, and zo
zoon as George got to un, he did zay :
' I do knaw what thee bist
a-cwome var ; thy zister be overlooked by the neighbour as do
live next door. I'll tell 'ee what to do, an' 'twont cost thee no
mwore than a penny.' Zoo her told un to goo whoam an'
goo to the blacksmith an' get a new nail, an' not to let thick
nail out of her hand till her'd a-zeed un make a track, then
her were to take an' nail down the track. Zoo George did
as her wer' twold, an' when her zeed the man make a track,
her took the nail in one hand an' the hammer in t'other, an'
a-nailed down the track. And the man did goo limping vrom
128 Dyer, English Folk Lore, p. 109. Folk-Lore Jotiriial, vol. iii. p. 281.
129 Piinjatib Notes and Queries, vol. ii. p. 906, quoted by Frazer.