the eye is a concrete thing which strikes
the person or object towards which it is directed like a dart. The
theory that the injury is caused through the malice or envy of the
person casting the evil eye seems to be derivative and explanatory. If
a stranger's glance falls on the food of a Ramanuji Brahman while it
is being cooked, the food becomes polluted and must be buried in the
ground. Here it is clear that the glance of the eye is equivalent to
real contact of some part of the stranger's body, which would pollute
the food. In asking for leave in order to nurse his brother who was
seriously ill but could obtain no advantage from medical treatment,
a Hindu clerk explained that the sick man had been pierced by the
evil glance of some woman.

57. Words and names concrete.

Similarly words were considered to have a concrete force, so that
the mere repetition of words produced an effect analogous to their
sense. The purely mechanical repetition of prayers was held to be a
virtuous act, and this idea was carried to the most absurd length in
the Buddhist's praying-wheel, where merit was acquired by causing
the wheel with prayers inscribed on its surface to revolve in a
waterfall. The wearing of strips of paper, containing sacred texts,
as amulets on the body is based on this belief, and some Muhammadans
will wash off the ink from paper containing a verse of the Koran and
drink the mixture under the impression that it will do them good. Here
the belief in the concrete virtue and substance of the written word
is very clear. The Hindus think that the continued repetition of the
Gayatri or sacred prayer to the sun is a means of acquiring virtue,
and the prayer is personified as a goddess. The enunciation of the
sacred syllable Aum or Om is supposed to have the most powerful
results. Homer's phrase 'winged words' perhaps recalls the period
when the words were considered as physical entities which actually
travelled through the air from the speaker to the hearer and were
called winged because they went so fast. A Korku clan has the name
_lobo_ which means a piece of cloth. But the word _lobo_ also signifies
'to leak.' If a person says a sentence containing the word _lobo_ in
either signification before a member of the clan while he is eating,
he will throw away the food before him as if it were contaminated
and prepare a meal afresh. Here it is clear that the Korku pays no
regard to the sense but solely to the word or so