It is imagined that this blight is most easily inflicted when a
person is enjoying himself with little or no care for the future,
when he is reclining in the sun before the door, or when he is full
of health and spirits: it may be cast designedly or not; and the
same effect may be produced by an inadvertent word. It is deemed
partially unlucky to say to any person, 'How well you look'; as the
probabilities are that such an individual will receive a sudden
blight and pine away. We have however no occasion to go to
Hindoos, Turks, and Jews for this idea; we shall find it nearer
home, or something akin to it. Is there one of ourselves, however
enlightened and free from prejudice, who would not shrink, even in
the midst of his highest glee and enjoyment, from saying, 'How
happy I am!' or if the words inadvertently escaped him, would he
not consider them as ominous of approaching evil, and would he not
endeavour to qualify them by saying, 'God preserve me!' - Ay, God
preserve you, brother! Who knows what the morrow will bring forth?
The common remedy for the evil eye, in the East, is the spittle of
the person who has cast it, provided it can be obtained.
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