THE EVIL EYE
The Evil Eye is abroad in the Holy Land, and a glance from it will bring
you misfortune. It will lame your horse, cow, or camel, and it may cause
your child to sicken or die. It can ruin your health or your business,
and it may even send your soul to eternal damnation. Those who possess
the evil eye are devils incarnate, but you cannot tell who they are.
They go about in the shape of innocent-looking men, women, and children,
so you will not realize that their spells have been cast upon you until
misfortune comes.
The belief exists throughout Palestine and is common all over this
part of the world. Every house in Jerusalem, whether Jew, Moslem, or
Christian, contains charms to ward off such spells. Every man, woman, and
child carries a talisman to keep off the witches. Some of these charms
are in the shape of a hand, because of an old Jewish saying that the hand
of God will arrest all disasters, and a Mohammedan habit of calling upon
the hand of Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet, to guard the Faithful
from evil. Silver hands are sold as charms, and the wealthier classes
wear hands of gold inside the necks of their gowns. Every Jerusalem
house has a painting or carving of a hand on its front door to keep off
the evil eye; and even in the new houses which are now going up they
are putting hands over the windows as well as at the front doors. Over
their doors hang bags of charms containing an egg, a piece of alum, some
garlic, and a large blue bead.
Blue is believed to be a colour which frightens the devil. These people
think that anything blue will ward off the evil eye, and for this reason
horses, donkeys, and camels have strings of blue beads round their
necks. Every horse and donkey that I have ridden since I set foot in the
Holy Land has been decorated with beads, and in a carriage trip that I
recently took across country, changing my teams three times, every horse
we drove had a blue necklace. One was a three-year-old colt, which was
lively and skittish. He wore several strands of blue beads, each as big
as the nail of my thumb. As he jumped about he broke the string and the
beads fell off and were lost. The driver went back to look for them, but
hunted in vain, and was troubled during the rest of the day. When toward
evening the colt got a stone in his foot and went lame, he said it was
the evil eye, which might have been kept off had the beads not been lost.
I see many children here wearing blue beads, some of which are the shape
of an eye. There is one special kind made in Hebron which is considered
most effective. It is a bead of blue glass of the shape of a hand with
five fingers. It is worn as a charm. Some of the children are clad in
blue gowns with white circles stamped on them. Every store has some blue
inside it, and in some a silver hand is hung up on the walls. Every bride
wears blue beads at her wedding, and in wedding processions salt, rice,
and sugar plums are thrown at the bride and bridegroom to keep off the
evil eye and bring luck.
I have been warned that I should always have some alum in my pocket,
for this is a charm which will keep away witches. It is usually carried
along with the beads. Some beads are made with a small piece of alum
inside them, and people who are ashamed to show their belief in the beads
often carry alum in their pockets. If a child goes out without charms the
mother is greatly alarmed, and if she thinks that someone has cast an
evil eye on it she burns a bit of the child’s clothes with incense and a
small piece of alum. She first prays over the child, waving the bit of
stuff and the alum about as she does so. She then throws the charm into
an open fire and holds the child over it. As the alum burns it gives
off a smoke which takes certain shapes, and the mother believes that by
looking at them she can learn who has cast the evil eye on her child. The
same rite is gone through with by pretty girls who feel ill on coming
home from a call. They work this charm to find out who has cast a spell
on them.
One of the commonest safeguards against the evil eye is a text from the
Bible or the Koran such as: “Break down the spell of the Eye”; or “By the
blessings of God.” These phrases written in Arabic characters are framed
and hung up in many of the houses. They are also carved upon furniture.
The Jews carry about texts of the Scriptures. The Christians have relics
of saints, and some of the natives here think they have pieces of the
true cross.
It is customary to use the name of God at the beginning of every sentence
which contains the name of one’s friend.
[Illustration: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the centre of
superstition in Jerusalem, where imagination sets the only limit to
stories told to the tourists—and implicitly believed by many of them]
[Illustration: The women of the Holy Land are great believers in the
power of the Evil Eye and wear blue beads and other charms to keep the
spirits away. Bits of alum, which is supposed to be especially effective,
are often worn in little bags around the neck]
The people of Palestine do not like to hear themselves complimented
unless at the same time you use the name of God. Otherwise they believe
such expressions are bound to bring misfortunes and possibly troubles and
death. If you call a boy or a girl pretty its mother’s heart is filled
with terror, and she straightway throws out her hand, extending the index
and little finger in a way supposed to ward off the devil and to prevent
the evil consequences of your remark. If you wish to praise the beauty of
a child you must begin the sentence with, “May God surround thee.” After
that you may go on as you please. If you pat the child on the head and
fail to use this sentence, the mother upon returning home will take the
child into a room and put it in the middle of the floor. She will then
take a shovel and gather some dust from each of the four corners, and
throw it into the fire, crying: “Fie on thee, evil eye.”
Similar precautions should be taken in admiring a horse or a donkey, and
there are ways of keeping the evil eye away from them. If a man has a
spirited horse which he fears the people may admire, he carries with him
some salt. As he rides through the crowds he will now and then sprinkle a
little salt under the feet of the horse, especially if he sees the crowd
looking at it. If any one asks whether he will sell the animal he must
answer yes, but if asked what he will take he makes the price so high
that the man cannot buy. At such times he usually requests the would-be
purchaser to stop thinking of his horse for fear it may bring misfortune.
Another superstition regarding salt relates to babies at birth. It is
sprinkled over their bodies to keep off the devil, and is used at all
other ceremonies connected with children.
The power of the evil eye is also possessed by spirits who inhabit
human beings. The people here believe in one class of spirits who live
underground but who are fed by those on earth. They are said to come
up and take the wheat from the threshing-floors and the bread from the
ovens, and the only way to keep them from doing so is to utter a sentence
from the Koran or Bible as you put the bread in to bake, or spread out
the grain. These same spirits hover about the fire, and if you quench it
without asking Mohammed to protect you the spirits are liable to beat you
or perhaps lame you for life.
These underground spirits are known as the jinn. Their favourite place of
residence is below the front doorsteps, for which reason women are not
allowed to sit there. The jinn, or genii, are supposed to be an organized
body, having a sultan, a court, and regular officials. They keep guard on
the food stores and are on the whole fairly good fellows. They are said
to be fond of human company. It is even whispered that they sometimes
assume human shape and marry mortals. They are believed to be most common
in Egypt. One may attract a jinn by whistling, and it is said that the
girls here frequently whistle. Some of the men of Palestine are jealous
of the jinn, thinking they have association with their wives, and some
will not look at a real woman for fear the jinn girls, who they imagine
are in love with them, will object.
One of the queer superstitions here in Jerusalem is the idea that a
marriage in a cemetery will propitiate the Lord and cause Him to favour
His people. This is believed by the native Jews, and several cemetery
weddings have recently occurred on account of the drought. Palestine
has had no rain for weeks and the crops are drying up. The people are
wildly excited over the prospect. There is also an epidemic of infantile
paralysis, which has been carrying off the children. The people think
that God is angry with them, and perhaps wroth because the graveyard
marriages have been too few. To pacify Him they have had weddings in the
cemeteries, though a graveyard is considered a most unlucky place for
starting upon the life matrimonial. Indeed, it so unlucky that brides
and grooms have to be hired to get married there. At a marriage which
took place this week the couple received two hundred dollars in gold,
besides food for two years, as a present for having the ceremony in the
cemetery. In this case the groom was a Jew from Yemen, Arabia, and the
bride a Jewess from Aleppo, in Syria. The bride was late coming, and the
three thousand worshippers who had assembled to see the ceremony had to
wait for two hours. She was finally carried in under a canopy, and took
her stand on one side of an open grave while the bridegroom stood on the
other. Standing thus they exchanged marriage vows. Two more cemetery
weddings are planned, but it is difficult to get willing couples, as such
marriages are supposed to be disastrous. Nevertheless, the charm seems to
be working. The wind has changed since the first ceremony took place, and
it may rain by and by.