THE EVIL EYE AN ACCOUNT OF THIS ANCIENT AND WIDESPREAD SUPERSTITION BY FREDERICK THOMAS ELWORTHY J. MURRAY; LONDON ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 1895 The Evil Eye By Frederick Thomas Elworthy. This web edition created and published by Global Grey 2013. GLOBAL GREY NOTHING BUT E-BOOKS TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION CHAPTER II. SYMPATHETIC MAGIC CHAPTER III. TOTEMS, PORTENTS, TREE-WORSHIP CHAPTER IV. SYMBOLS AND AMULETS CHAPTER V. THE GORGONEION CHAPTER VI. CRESCENTS, HORNS, HORSESHOES APPENDIX I APPENDIX II CHAPTER VII. TOUCH, HANDS, GESTURES CHAPTER VIII. THE CROSS CHAPTER IX. THE MANO PANTEA CHAPTER X. THE CIMARUTA, SIRENE, TABLETS CHAPTER XI. CABALISTIC WRITING--MAGICAL FORMULÆ CHAPTER XII. SPITTING, INCANTATION, AND OTHER PROTECTIVE ACTS. PIXIES APPENDIX III 1 The Evil Eye By Frederick Thomas Elworthy CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION THERE be none of the affections which have been noted to fascinate or to bewitch, but love and envy; they both have vehement wishes, they frame themselves readily into imaginations and suggestions, and they come easily into the eye, especially upon the presence of the objects which are the points that conduce to fascination, if any such there be. 1 We see likewise the Scripture calleth envy an evil eye." So wrote one of our greatest philosophers, and on the same subject he says: "Of all other affections, it is the most importunate and continual; . . . therefore it is well said: 'Invidia festos dies non agit,' for it is ever working upon some or other. It is also the vilest affection and the most depraved; for which cause it is the proper attribute of the Devil, who is called 'The envious man that soweth tares amongst the wheat by night.'" fascination As to the word , even in Bacon's time it had acquired its modern sense, implying the influence or effect we now associate with animal magnetism. Notwithstanding this, the word was used by various writers down to the end of the seventeenth century in its original, technical meaning, as an alternative for "evil eye." Nowadays it has practically lost its older sinister sense, and except among scholars has retained only the pleasant one in which Bacon used it. A fascinating person now, is one wbhewo icthcharms delightfully, who excites feelings of pleasure, who is in every way attractive. Similarly in our everyday talk the alternate word has retained only in polite society its pleasant side. A bewitching woman is one who excites the passion of love alone, and the simple use of either synonym conveys now no implication of malevolence to the conventionally educated. The quotation from Bacon with which we started well marks the progress always going on in the development of word-meanings. In the Elizabethan age, to fascinate or bewitch had in literature even then arrived at a double position, applicable to either love or hate; whereas in earlier days these words were wholly confifnaesdci ntoa tmioanleficence in signification. This of course only applies to literary language and polite society; among the peasantry the Latin form, , is unknown, 1 Bacon, Essay IX. "Of Envy." www.globalgrey.co.uk 2 The Evil Eye By Frederick Thomas Elworthy witch witching while everything relating to or still bears an evil sense only. In proof of all this we have only to compare the modern colloquial significance of the terms fascinating or bewitching, as used in speaking of a person by the educated, with witch, witching, or the west country dialectal "wisht," as used by the peasantry. The belief that there is a power of evil working, which is ejaculated (as Bacon says) upon any object it beholds, has existed in all times and in all countries. It was adopted and sanctioned alike by the Fathers of the Church, by mediæval physicians, and all writers on occult science; while in our own day it still exists among all savage nations, and even 2 here in England in our very midst. Heliodorus makes Charicles say of his host: "I fancy an envious eye has looked upon this man also; he seems to be affected much in the same manner as Chariclea. Indeed I think so too, I replied; and it is probable enough, for he went directly 3 after her in the procession." The origin of the belief is lost in the obscurity of prehistoric ages. The enlightened call it superstition; but it holds its sway over the people of many countries, savage as well as civilised, and must be set down as one of the hereditary and instinctive convictions of mankind. The stories that might be adduced of the constancy of the belief in a blighting power of influencing other persons, and of controlling events injuriously to others, even. in these days of board-school enlightenment are almost infinite. Here, in Somerset, the pig is taken ill and dies--"he was overlooked." A murrain afflicts a farmer's cattle; he goes off secretly to the "white witch," that is the old witch-finder, to ascertain who has "overlooked his things" and to learn the best antidote, "’cause they there farriers can't do no good." A child is ill and pining away; the mother loses all heart; she is sure the child is overlooked and "is safe to die." Often she gives up not only hope but all effort to save the child; the consequent neglect of course hastens the expected result, and then it is: "Oh! I know'd very well he 2 Theagenes and Chariclea (Trans. 1789), vol. i. p. 145. Heliodorus, Bishop of Tricca in Thessaly, about A.D. 380, was a very firm believer in the evil eye, and frequently refers to it in his works, no doubt faithfully reflecting the opinions of his day. 3 See an article on the "Evil Eye" in Chambers's Encyclopædia. For numerous quotations on the subject see New Eng. Dict. s. v. "Evil Eye." www.globalgrey.co.uk 3 The Evil Eye By Frederick Thomas Elworthy would'n never get no better. "’Tidn no good vor to strive vor to go agin it." This is no fancy, or isolated case, but here in the last decade of the nineteenth century one of the commonest of everyday facts. in situ The author of the pious graffito (still ):-- Things seen is Intempural, Things not seen is Inturnel, West Somerset Word-Book referred to in the , p. ix, is a man far above the average in intelligence. He lodged where the daughter of the family had some obscure malady. She became a patient at the County Hospital, but only grew worse. In this case the mother does not at first seem to have believed in occult influence, but went about and spread a report that "they'd a-starved her maid, into thick there hospital"! At the same time the writer ascertained that the girl had been all the while receiving extra nourishment. She was removed, and of course grew worse. On speaking to the lodger about the starvation theory, he said: "Oh! I knows 'twaddn that." "What do you think it was?" "Oh! I knows." After many times declaring "I knows," he at last said: "Her was overlooked--her was; and I knows very well who don'd it." After much persuasion he mentioned the name of a poor ignorant old woman, who certainly did not bear the best of characters. The whole family devoutly believed that the girl's death, which happened very soon, was brought about by this old woman. No doubt a century or two ago she 4 would have been burnt as a witch. Several cases of precisely the same kind are well known to the writer and his family--especially relating to children. Visits have been often paid to the sick children of persons whose names might be given, where "’tis very wisht vor to zee the poor chiel a-pinin away like that there." Not much is said to strangers, but those who know are perfectly aware of what the mother means. Beshrew your eyes, They haveM oe'ercrhloaonkt' do fm Vee nainced divided me; One half of me is yours, the other half yours. 4 A l o n g a c c o u n t o f a prosecution of a white w,i tAchc, tw ihioi .p Srecte. n2d.e d that a woman was ill of a "bad wish" in a case much like the foregoing, is given in Pulman's Weekly News, June 14, 1892. Similar reports are frequently appearing in the local press. At this moment (October 1894) two persons are dying in Wellington parish (one of phthisis!) who firmly believe, and are believed, to be suffering solely from having been "overlooked." www.globalgrey.co.uk 4 The Evil Eye By Frederick Thomas Elworthy 5 The imputation by St. Paul, that the foolish Galatians had been spellbound, meant that some evil eye had "overlooked" them and worked in them a blighting influence. It was an apt allusion to the then, and still, universally prevalent belief in that power of "dread 6 fascination" which the writer of the Epistle so well knew they would comprehend, and he therefore used it as a striking metaphor. Abundant testimony exists in the oldest monuments in the world that among the ancient Egyptians belief in and dread of the evil eye were ever present; their efforts to avert or to baffle it, both as regarded the living and the dead, who they knew would live again, were perhaps the most constant and elaborate of any, of which we can now decipher the traces. We see evidence of this in the very beginning of Egyptian mythology. 7 Ptah, the Opener, is said to be the father of the gods and of men. He brought forth all the other gods from his eye, and men from his mouth- -a piece of implied evidence of the ancient belief that of all emanations those from the eye were the most potent. How strong the feeling was among contemporary Orientals, the many 8 passages in Scripture referring to it distinctly prove. Indeed it is found in the literature of every people, in every land since history began to be written. No science, no religion, no laws have been able to root out this fixed belief; and no power has ever been able to eradicate it from the human mind; so that even amongst the cultivated and the enlightened it still exists as an unacknowledged, mysterious half- belief, half-superstition, which nevertheless exercises, though secretly, a powerful influence on the actions of mankind. We in these latter days of Science, when scoffing at superstition is both a fashion and a passion, nevertheless show by actions and words that in our innermost soul there lurks a something, a feeling, a superstition if you will, which all our culture, all our boasted superiority to vulgar 5 See Lightfoot, Epistle to the Galatians, iii. 1, p. 133. 6 The expression of St. Paul, though translated "bewitched" in our A. V., is in the Vulgate fascinavit, precisely the same as that used by Virgil (post, p. 10). In the Septuagint also the sense of the passage is identical, referring to the influence, so well understood, of the evil eye, On this see Frommannd, Tract. de Fasc. p. 11. 7 E. Wallis Budge, The Nile-Notes for Travellers in Egypt, p. 77. 8 e.g. Deut. xxviii. 54, 56; Job vii. 8; Psa. xxxv. 21; Prov. vi. 13; Isa. xiii. 18; Lam. ii. 4; Ezek. ix, 5. Especially also Prov. xxiii. 6, xxviii. 22; Matt. vi. 22, 23, xx. 15; Luke xi. 34; Mark vii. 22; Psa. liv. 7, lix. 10, xcii. 11, with many others. www.globalgrey.co.uk 5 The Evil Eye By Frederick Thomas Elworthy beliefs, cannot stifle, and which may well be held to be a kind of 9 hereditary instinct. Popular Antiquities Magic Everyday Book Not only do the pages of Brand's , Brewster's , and Hone's , as well as the local press, provide endless stories and examples, which we need not here repeat, but the more modern publications of the Psychical Research Society also record plenty of them; at the same time the latter throw over them a glamour of quasi-scientific investigation. Among the Greeks, who got their art and many of their customs from Egypt, the belief was so univefarssacli ntahtaito they had a special word to 10 express this mysterious power, βασκανία, whence, all authorities 11 say, comes the Latin word . invidere invidia This latter word Cicero himself discusses, and explains as , to look too closely at: hence , envy, or evil eye, the instigator of most deadly sins--the vice which is even now most frequently named in connection with its sequences, "hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness." fascinatio 12 Delrio and Frommannd trace the Greek word to Chaldean, and discourse upon the etymology as well as the meanings of at great length, in language and allusions unfit for reproduction, which are, moreover, beside our present purpose. It may, however, be remarked that Frommannd throws much light upon the ancient ideas connected with the evil eye, and with the means taken to baffle it, backed up by an array of authorities such as no other writer on the subject has brought together, but of such a nature that we can only 13 here direct the student to the book itself. Many objects to be seen in Egypt, Greece, and Italy, especially at Pompeii, are by this 9 "In spite of the schoolmaster we are still as firm believers in witchcraft and the evil eye as were the shepherd swains of Theocritus and Virgil, and many who, if directly questioned on the subject, would indignantly deny the impeachment, are none the less devout believers in such occult powers."--W. F. Rose, Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries, vol. iv. June 1894, p. 76. 10 In Modern Greek this is κακὸ ματί. 11 Tractatus de Fascinatione, Christian Frommannd, Nuremberg, 1674, p. 4; Nicolo Valletta, Cicalata sul Fascino, Napoli, 1787, p. 12; Potter, Archæologia Græca, 1824, i. 414; Lightfoot, Ep. to Gal. 1890, p. 133, who all give long lists of authors and quotations in support of this etymology. 12 Disquisitionum Magicarum libri sex, Auctore Martino Delrio, Societatis Jesu presbytero. Moguntiæ, apud Johannem Albinum, 1603. 13 Potter's Archæologia Græca will be found a mine of information; indeed it would be easy to load our pages with references to authors classical and mediæval, but sufficient indication is here given for the student to find all that has been written on the subject. www.globalgrey.co.uk 6 The Evil Eye By Frederick Thomas Elworthy ciceroni extraordinary treatise made to assume an entirely different shape and signification from those given them by the guidebooks or the . It was firmly believed by all ancients, that some malignant influence darted from the eyes of envious or angry persons, and so infected the air as to penetrate and corrupt the bodies of both living creatures and inanimate objects. "When any one looks at what is excellent with an envious eye he fills the surrounding atmosphere with a pernicious quality, and transmits his own envenomed exhalations into whatever 14 is nearest to him." It has also been fully believed, both in ancient and modern times, that many persons by the glance of their eye have caused injurious effects, without their consent and even against their will, so that in some cases 15 mothers would not venture to expose their infants to the look of their own fathers. 16 A story is related of an unhappy Slav, who with the most loving heart was afflicted with the evil eye, and at last blinded himself in order that he might not be the means of injury to his children. Frommannd (p. 10) draws attention to the very remarkable passage in Deut. xxviii. 54, in confirmation of the possession of this terrible power acting against the will of the possessor. 17 Jahn remarks upon this, that as smell, speech, bodily presence and breath work their influence upon those with whom they come in contact, so in a yet higher degree does the glance from the eye, which, 18 as all know, affects so much in love. Domestic animals, such as horses, camels, cows, have always been thought in special danger. In the Scotch Highlands if a stranger looks admiringly on a cow the people still believe she will waste away from 14 Heliodorus, Thea. and Char. i. 140. There can be no doubt that Saul was believed to have the evil eye when we read: "And Saul eyed David from that day and forward" (1 Sam. xviii. 9). In the context we see all the circumstances we have been describing--envy and its consequences. 15 Jahn, "Ueber den Aberglauben des bösen Blicks bei den Alten": Berichte der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, 1855, p. 35. 16 Woyciki, Polish Folk Lore (Trs. by Lewestein), p. 25. 17 Ut supra, p. 33. 18 In Ireland the belief has always existed, and in old legends we are told of King Miada of the silver hand, who possessed a magic sword, but who nevertheless fell before "Balor of the Evil Eye" (Elton, Origins of Eng. Hist. 2nd ed. p. 279). www.globalgrey.co.uk