The power exerted by the human eye over man and animals is well
known, and the evil use of such influence is widely recognized.
This maleficent power is called the “evil eye,” and the belief
in its operation seems never to have been absent in any land.
This does not mean the undoubted influence exerted by the eye,
as in mesmerism, but a sort of noxious influence proceeding
from the eye, with or without the connivance of the owner of
the organ. Intelligence of a belief in this strange power comes
to us from the cradle lands of the East, at an unknown period
of history. Chaldean cylinders of clay dug up on the banks of
the Euphrates contain magical formula against it. In Assyria,
eight centuries before Christ, men appealed to their gods in
long formulated prayers against possessors of the evil eye, who
are declared the worst of men. Egyptian incantations against
the sorcerer, of an early date, have come down to us. In one
of these the sun is addrest thus: “O, thou whose soul is in
the pupil of the eye.” An ancient Vedaic hymn to Agni invokes
Indra against the evil eye. The eye of the Brahman was thought
so powerful that he was forbidden, when satisfying the wants
of nature, to look at the sun, the moon, the stars, water,
or trees, lest he should bewitch them. The Persian Vendidad
contains prayers and rites to ward off the effects of the
evil eye. Ahriman subdued evil spirits by the power of his
glance.--St. Louis _Globe-Democrat_.
(1009)
=Eye, The Human=--See DESIGN IN NATURE.