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The Zincali-Part15_George Borrow(1803-1881)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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the silversmiths' shops at Seville.

The Gitanos have nothing more to say on this species of sorcery



than the Spaniards, which can cause but little surprise, when we

consider that they have no traditions, and can give no rational



account of themselves, nor of the country from which they come.

Some of the women, however, pretend to have the power of casting



it, though if questioned how they accomplish it, they can return no

answer. They will likewise sell remedies for the evil eye, which



need not be particularised, as they consist of any drugs which they

happen to possess or be acquainted with; the prescribers being



perfectly reckless as to the effect produced on the patient,

provided they receive their paltry reward.



I have known these beings offer to cure the glanders in a horse (an

incurable disorder) with the very same powders which they offer as



a specific for the evil eye.

Leaving, therefore, for a time, the Spaniards and Gitanos, whose



ideas on this subject are very scanty and indistinct, let us turn

to other nations amongst whom this superstition exists, and



endeavour to ascertain on what it is founded, and in what it

consists. The fear of the evil eye is common amongst all oriental



people, whether Turks, Arabs, or Hindoos. It is dangerous in some

parts to survey a person with a fixed glance, as he instantly



concludes that you are casting the evil eye upon him. Children,

particularly, are afraid of the evil eye from the superstitious



fear inculcated in their minds in the nursery. Parents in the East

feel no delight when strangers look at their children in admiration



of their loveliness; they consider that you merely look at them in

order to blight them. The attendants on the children of the great



are enjoined never to permit strangers to fix their glance upon

them. I was once in the shop of an Armenian at Constantinople,



waiting to see a procession which was expected to pass by; there

was a Janisary there, holding by the hand a little boy about six



years of age, the son of some Bey; they also had come to see the

procession. I was struck with the remarkableloveliness of the



child, and fixed my glance upon it: presently it became uneasy,

and turning to the Janisary, said: 'There are evil eyes upon me;



drive them away.' 'Take your eyes off the child, Frank,' said the

Janisary, who had a long white beard, and wore a hanjar. 'What



harm can they do to the child, efendijem?' said I. 'Are they not

the eyes of a Frank?' replied the Janisary; 'but were they the eyes



of Omar, they should not rest on the child.' 'Omar,' said I, 'and

why not Ali? Don't you love Ali?' 'What matters it to you whom I



love,' said the Turk in a rage; 'look at the child again with your

chesm fanar and I will smite you.' 'Bad as my eyes are,' said I,



'they can see that you do not love Ali.' 'Ya Ali, ya Mahoma,

Alahhu!' (30) said the Turk, drawing his hanjar. All Franks, by



which are meant Christians, are considered as casters of the evil

eye. I was lately at Janina in Albania, where a friend of mine, a



Greek gentleman, is established as physician. 'I have been

visiting the child of a Jew that is sick,' said he to me one day;



'scarcely, however, had I left the house, when the father came

running after me. "You have cast the evil eye on my child," said



he; "come back and spit in its face." And I assure you,' continued

my friend, 'that notwithstanding all I could say, he compelled me



to go back and spit in the face of his child.'

Perhaps there is no nation in the world amongst whom this belief is



so firmly rooted and from so ancient a period as the Jews; it being

a subject treated of, and in the gravest manner, by the old



Rabbinical writers themselves, which induces the conclusion that

the superstition of the evil eye is of an antiquity almost as



remote as the origin of the Hebrew race; (and can we go farther

back?) as the oral traditions of the Jews, contained and commented



upon in what is called the Talmud, are certainly not less ancient

than the inspired writings of the Old Testament, and have unhappily






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