'Spit in
the face of my child,' said the Jew of Janina to the Greek
physician: recourse is had to the same means in Barbary, where the
superstition is universal. In that country both Jews and Moors
carry papers about with them scrawled with hieroglyphics, which are
prepared by their respective priests, and sold. These papers,
placed in a little bag, and hung about the person, are deemed
infallible preservatives from the 'evil eye.'
Let us now see what the TALMUD itself says about the evil eye. The
passage which we are about to quote is curious, not so much from
the subject which it treats of, as in affording an example of the
manner in which the Rabbins are wont to interpret the Scripture,
and the strange and wonderful deductions which they draw from words
and phrases apparently of the greatest simplicity.
'Whosoever when about to enter into a city is afraid of evil eyes,
let him grasp the thumb of his right hand with his left hand, and
his left-hand thumb with his right hand, and let him cry in this
manner: "I am such a one, son of such a one, sprung from the seed
of Joseph"; and the evil eyes shall not prevail against him.
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