The Evil Eye: The Classic Account of an Ancient Superstition

by Frederick Thomas Elworthy

In Italian, it's referred to as "malocchio." In Spanish, it's "el ojo." And in Farsi, it's "bla band." In many cultures, primitive or sophisticated, the "evil eye" is considered to be a gaze that can harm or bewitch. This classic text on the subject, first published more than a century ago, recounts the many afflictions said to result from that stare, from the days of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, up to the late nineteenth century.
A classic in its field, Frederick Elworthy's thorough study of an age-old notion focuses on superstition and folklore surrounding the use of gestures, amulets, incantations, and other protective behavior used to ward off the power of the "evil eye." Enhanced with nearly 200 illustrations of evil-preventing charms from the author's personal collection, this in-depth study will appeal to students and scholars of folklore and to anyone enticed by tales of the supernatural.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion, History, Witchcraft, Folklore, Occult, Social Science

471 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Elworthy, F.T. 1830-1907
Elworthy, Frederic T. 1830-1907
Elworthy, Frederic Thomas 1830-1907
Elworthy, Frederick T. 1830-1907

Reviews

[Steve Cran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never encountered a book about the evil eye before this one. I bought this treasure several years ago when Borders Books were still in business. Yeah it took me this long to get around to reading it. I am glad i got around to reading this book, although dated it had great information on the evil eye and several remedies to help combat the evil eye. It is a survey that covers remedies from all the major religious traditions and even some remedies going back to Euro-Pagan times. The book covers a lot for 429 pages and sometimes the details were just painful to slog through . Now some may say the book is dated but where else will you find such information of the evil eye.

I myself do not believe in the evil, but my wife does. THe concept behind the evil eye is that if you are driving around a nice car and someone gives you a look of envy it will cause you to have some bad luck. THe evil eye can be passed by a look, touching and even bodily fluids . Belief in this is widespread going all the way from Europe on through to India.

To combat the evil eye the ancient ones from times gone past have devised several means to protect themselves. Most important of these strategies was the use of amulets, which were designed to drive things away. Often times these amulets were worn or displayed out in the open and in other cases the amulet was concealed on the person. The third option is a scripturaL PHRASES written out and placed on the person.

Belief in magic is one of those tradition that will never ever die out because there is someone who believed in it. Sympathetic magic was the magic where in if an action imitated another action then it was more likely the desired outcome would occur. The Egyptians did this with their burial magic by arming their pharoah with food and servant or representation there of. THE Chinese give the deceased paper funeral money in hope that they can spend it on the other sides.Voodoo makes use of this by taking someones hair, belonging or body part and using it in a spell. Taking a cow heart and puncture it saying a charm that indicates it represent the heart of another person.

One of the most important defences against the evil eye was the hands. There were several gestures that someone could do to dewfend themselves against the evil eye. Most widely known is mano Cornuta, the devil horns. Flash them upwards to deflect the gaze of the evil eye. THere is also the mano fica where in you puit your thumb against the index and middle finger.It is a phallic symbol and phallic symbols represent the sun king and ward off evil. Last is the mano pantea where in you hold up your two longest fingers and thumb. I one time reinvented this wheel before I even knew it existed. Remember that touching is a great way to pass along the evil eye.
These hand signs can be done with the hand or made into amulet.

Spoken prayers were another form of protection against the evil eye. Included are various kabbalistic formula for protection and driving away disease. THE cimaruta is another defense against the evil eyes.It consists of rue and other suymbols. Many of the symbols have their origins in pagan times and are linked with pagan gods. If you are pagan you will enjoy this book because it discussed lot of pagan origins for certain charms. If yuou interested in the evil eyes this book has tons of information. This review cannot encapsulate all the information contain in this book. Get it and read it.

[Lukerik · Rating 4 out of 5]

An antiquarian-type book by a real Victorian antiquary. Elworthy has basically written down everything he knows about the evil eye and having a habit of getting sidetracked, has also written everything he knows about magic and folk religion. The results are fascinating. Unlike the modern approach, he leaps across time and space, seeing patterns and making connections. A lot of these connections are quite obviously correct. The book really is an eduction in itself.

However, it does need to be read with a critical eye. He doesn’t know how the Americas were settled and suggests the Peruvians came directly from classical Europe on the basis of a perceived similarity in the art. He’s basically suffering from pareidolia. There are other times were he jumps to a place/time and without context I just don’t know enough to know if his conclusions are correct.

He can speak openly about Catholic countries and about the English ‘peasantry’. He can’t speak openly about English ‘polite society’ because of the legal and social troubles it would have brought him. He strikes me as one of those Christians can look at his own religion with both eyes open. His gradual leading of his readers towards opening their own is quite entertaining, as are the somersaults he jumps when talking about penises without being prosecuted for obscenity.

[Scheherazade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Offers a historical account of superstitions & an interesting study of symbolism.

[Micaela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I randomly picked this up at the San Francisco Art Museum, and it is quite a book! Elworthy collects and examines a whole hodgepodge of superstitions in the classic style of all turn-of-the-century anthropologists, meandering from topic to topic with the boundless enthusiasm of an intellectual in his element. What I found truly fascinating as, you know, a twenty-first century reader were some of the author's first-hand accounts of curses and superstitions still in practice at the time in nineteenth century England. There is really an over abundance of material here, lots of tangents hinting at great research topics. This is definitely a good intro to the history of the occult and superstitions, and an excellent anthropological work.

[Rusty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be interesting. The information and history about the evil eye was interesting to me. I didn't find many ways to help protect yourself against the evil eye; but there were some ways given.

If you want a good historical background on the evil eye, then this is definitely the book for you.

[Jillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A limited, useful background text for my exploration of embroidered amulets to ward off the Evil Eye, largely because of the breadth of its drawings and coverage. A lot has been learned since its original publication in the 1890s, and I don’t have the inclination to explore that in depth. I’m happy to have glimpsed a significant point in that knowledge trail.

[Sco · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was some of the most fun I've had with a book. The author brings up all kinds of religious/occult/pagan facts and observations in a loosely connected way. That makes this book great for launching conversations. Some of the info is unverifiable (the sample of the written language of the Incas seems to be a hoax), and the author being a rich Englishman in the 1890s, the book's got some colonial attitudes in it (referring to certain ethnic groups as savages, etc). If you can get past that, this is an amusing specimen.

[Andressa Da Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative

[Christopher Roth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I knew very little about the evil eye, so this was educational for me, but this book has all of the drawbacks one can expect from a work of comparative ethnology from this era (ca. 1890). In Tylorian fashion, aspects of "fascination"--as the practice of ocular ensorcelment is known--are discussed by ranging across time and space for each discussion, never settling for very long in looking at a particular culture or period in depth. And many of the speculations and assertions about the spread of culture traits are ethnocentric to say the least and not only are superceded in many cases by facts but are undermined by a tendency to view images and concepts as though they were innate, or transmissible through some occult process. Most grievously, in discussing superstition in general, and certain ideas in particular, Elworthy draws a distinction between "superstition" on the one hand and, on the other "science" and (Christian) "Revelation," which latter two he sees as equal paths to the Truth. Now, I won't criticize anyone for being Christian or anything else, but, really now, if you spend your life studying "superstitions" and refuse to notice that they are not qualitatively and epistemologically distinct from the tenets of your own faith, you're not really paying attention. If he's not going to accept the thorough-going agnosticism of his contemporaries E.B. Tylor and J.G. Frazer (Tylor was a neighbor of his in Somersetshire)--and far be it from me to demand he do so--Elworthy should at least have dodged the issue and not made himself look ridiculous.

But Elworthy's training was not as a scientist, let alone social scientist (in fact, Tylor et al. were in the very process of inventing the social sciences in that era), but as a folklorist and linguist (who in those days were squarely in the humanities). It turns out he was a prolific contributor to James Murray's Oxford English Dictionary and that his monograph on the English of Somersetshire is considered a pioneering work of dialectology, the first full, proper holistic treatment of a living folk dialect as a system. In fact, some of the best parts of The Evil Eye are his frequent allusions to folk beliefs in Somersetshire, including but hardly limited to the Evil Eye as strictly defined. In some cases, he cites informants' statements on supernatural topics overheard that very week in or near his home, and he renders them in dialect.

Lastly, Elworthy drops a few nuggets of speculation and rumination early on in the book to the effect that there is something about the Gaze that is a core feature of all witchcraft and even much social friction in all societies in general. He never develops this, but it so clearly anticipates work by theorists as far-ranging as Foucault and David Graeber that I wonder if there have been attempts to recuperate Elworthy as somehow theoretically prescient in this regard ... although, really, mostly he was just lucky.