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

CHAPTER III
TOTEMS, PORTENTS, TREE-WORSHIP
/A BELIEF SO Strong, SO universal, so founded on fear,
'as that connected with fascination, would naturally
in the earliest days of humanity have led to the study
and search for means to baffle or to counteract its
dreaded effects. The causes of most kinds of evil,
"indeed of all that could not be easily accounted for
by the senses, were set down to the supernatural
action of invisible but malignant spirits which in one
form or other were worshipped as divinities. With-
out going far into the field of primitive religion or
of pagan mythology, it becomes abundantly evident
that more thought was bestowed upon propitiating the
angry or the destructive deities, than in the worship
of those whose attributes were beneficent ; we find
that fear and dread have in all human history been
more potent factors in man's conduct than hope and
gratitude or love. Even the earliest records of
worship in our ancient Scriptures point in the same
direction. The sacrifices of Abel and of Cain were,
we imagine, more propitiatory of an offended power,
than as thank-offerings in grateful remembrance of
blessings received. It is true we hear later of acts
of devotion by way of acknowledgment and in
gratitude for mercies bestowed, but they were the