The Evil Eye: A Casebook

The evil eye - the power to inflict illness, damage to property, or even death simply by gazing at or praising someone - is among the most pervasive and powerful folk beliefs in the Indo-European and Semitic world. It is also one of the most ancient, judging from its appearance in the Bible and in Sumerian texts five thousand years old. Remnants of the superstition persist today when we drink toasts, tip waiters, and bless sneezers. To avert the evil eye, Muslim women wear veils, baseball players avoid mentioning a no-hitter in progress, and traditional Jews say their business or health is not bad (rather than good).