haps
unconsciously and involuntarily. It follows from the notion of the evil
eye that men should never admire, praise, congratulate, or encourage
those who are rich, successful, prosperous, and lucky. The right thing
to do is to vituperate and scoff at them in their prosperity. That may
offset their good luck, check their pride, and humble them a little.
Then the envy of the superior powers may not be excited against them to
the point of harming them. It is the most probable explanation of the
cloistering and veiling of women that it was intended to protect them,
especially if they were beautiful, from the evil eye. The admiration
which they would attract would be fatal to them. The notion of the evil
eye led to covering some parts of the body and so led to notions of
decency (sec. 459). It is assumed that demons envy human success and
prosperity and so inflict loss and harm on the successful. Hence
admiration and applause excite their malignity.

+567. Ethnographical illustrations.+ Of the following cases many
are cases of jettatura. In the Malagasy language many proper
names of persons are coarse and insulting because a
pleasant-sounding name might cause envy.[1798] In Bornu when a
horse is sold, if it is a fine one, it is delivered by night, for
fear of the evil eye (covetous and envious eyes) of
bystanders.[1799] Schweinfurth[1800] tells an incident of a man
who, going through a Nubian village, noticed that the limb of a
tree was rotten and ready to fall. He warned some people who were
standing under it. Immediately afterwards it did fall, but the
fall was attributed to the evil eye of the person who first
noticed the danger. The Dinka are mentioned as free from this
superstition.[1801] In the Sudan food is usually covered by a
conical straw cover to prevent the evil eye [viz. of the hungry
people who might admire and long for it].[1802] Customs of eating
and drinking in private, and of covering the mouth when eating or
drinking, belong here. All along the north coast of Africa the
belief in the evil eye prevails. A hen's-egg shell upon which
three small leaden horseshoes have been riveted is an amulet
against it.[1803] At Katanga, Central Africa, only the initiated
may watch the smelting of copper, for fear of the evil eye, which
would spoil the process.[1804] In the Caroline Islands a canoe,
while being built, is enclosed in a building for fear