Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/38

14 Here is a case in point: The daughter of a certain family, who was a fine healthy girl, and a good one to boot, was engaged to be married to a young Syrian. Before the happy union could be accomplished, the Syrian died of consumption. The natives, who believe that certain people live surrounded by an atmosphere of evil powers, apart altogether from the Evil Eye, took it into their heads that, although they did not lay upon her any responsibility for the deed, it was her presence that had cast a spell of death upon her friend. She ultimately married another young man, who, curiously enough, also died early, shortly after the wedding, from fever, or some such disease, which he had contracted. Of course, the neighbours were entirely confirmed that she could not help causing the death of those she was thus closely connected with.

If a child's cap falls on the floor, and it is stepped on or over, the child will sicken. To remove the Evil Eye, or a personal spell cast on a child, by a person stepping over it as it lies on the floor or in a cradle, the child's clothes must be hung on the door-lintel of the same house, and the person of evil influence must pass under them. The passing-under draws back, I presume, the influence imparted by passing over, and as the child cannot be hung on the lintel, the clothes alone suffice.

It is unlucky for a child even in play to pass between an adult's legs; the only way then to avert evil is to pass it back again the contrary way.

If, however, a child so influenced continues to waste away, a Lebanon mother knows no other remedy than the kill-or-cure of a dip in the sea for her babe. Many a weary mile has been, for this end, traversed by sorrowful mothers with their darlings, only to return with still more sorrowful hearts.

Another belief in spells relates to the imparting of personal names. To call a child after a relative is equivalent to saying: "May you soon die, and this child prove