The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-11-30
ABOUT THE EVIL EYE.
An Interesting Experience with a
Jettatura.

markable 'jettaturan or "evil-eyed" in
Italy. We had heard of him through mu-
tual friends as our future neighbor, his
parents having taken for the summer the
villa next to ours, situated in the gardens
of the Hotel Victoria Our Neapolitan
friends had given us numerous accounts of
tllS wonderful power, in which they be-
lleved most firmly, and. while their stories
amused Us, we ridicued their superstition.
and for one felt great curiosity to meet
this wonderful individual who could bring
the dtrest misfortune upon one by mere
glance.
be arrived in Sorrento the very evening
of the ball at the Princess B. IS and her sors
! soon brought him up to be presented. |
was more than ever impressed with the
| absurdlty of the superstition on seeing
this handsome, elegant, courteous stranger,
and decided at once to accept him as
| friend if for nothing else but to prove to his
countrymen that there were some people
whom they considered intelligent and we'll
educated far above their superstition. We
saw great deal of him that evening, and
were all greatly pleased with him, and
what STRUCK me as particularly strange was
that every one treated him with marked
consideration and courtesy The evening
was charming, with little excitement
added by one of the young ladies slightly
spraining her ankle toward the close of the
last repetition of the Tarrantella-not very
seriously, as she was able to walk to her
carriage; indeed, so slight an accident that
we forgot all about it before reaching
home.
The next day we were visited by the
friends who had PRODUCED the Marquis D.,
the jettatura, and Immediately / conf
menced rallying them on their absurd su-
perstition, and said that considering the
light III which they regarded him, | noticed
that they all treated him most respectfully
That is just it," one exclaimed, people
have to treat the fascinni POLITELY, so that
they may do them no harm"
And now, madame" said another, the
most impulslve of the two, you cannot
deny the power of the jettatura after last
night"
And what happened last nightg" in
quired.
"Why, didn't you see the petite Monte
bello was dancing beautifully when D.
looked a. her, and she fell and sprained her
ankle! Then there was the Prince B., who
came from Naples TO attend his wife's ball
he had never been better in his life; D.
speaks to him, tells him how glad he is to
see him looking so well, and in half an hour
afterward the poor man falls suddenly ill
and can hardly reach mis- bed, where he will
probably have to remain, the physician
says, for several weeks"
well in all that, | reply, 81 see nothing
strange. Both things could have happened
as we'll without the presence of the Mar
quis. Do you not see that it is simple
coincidence, and that it is only because you
are looking for such things to happen
when your poor friend is near that you no.
tice him? just as it happens when some
one we care for is seriously i'll, every sign
seems to point TO death. If we go out, we
meet a funeral or pass streets in which we
| .fDI-n o..5c
take up book or paper something concern
| ing death Is sure to meet the eye. At an
other time it would all pass unnOticed; but
the mind being full Of one subject, of
one fear, it has room for nothing else"
But all my arguments were useless,
their answers were always the same. ''Well
whatever people say, there is something in
it, and none of us would ever go out with.
out something about us to keep off the evil
eve"
I have never met more intelligent, more
| highly cultivated men than the upper class
Italians. Ye5 it is just in this upper class
| the nobility. that one finds this superstition
strongest. The middle classes, the trades
| people, are almost exempt from it; but the
peasantry, like the mobiles, believe it with
an undoubting faith. They have the great.
est number of ornaments as charms against
this wonderful power, and | do not believe
there was one among the highly educated
people we met in Naples and its environs
who did not carry, concealed generally, a
| little coral or she'll ornament in the form of
hand with the thumb and two middle
fingers turned under, leaving the index and
little finger to stick out like two horns.
This same motion is made with the hand
when one meets the person endowed with
the fatal gift. Another powerful charm
against it is little bell, rather square than
round, with partIof a phrase in Greek letters
meaning, MAY the Goddess of Olympus
protect US against the power of the eyes"
1t is wonderful to see such an enlightened
nation persisting in such an absurd belief,
but the most curious thing about thesup IT
stition is its antiquity. 1t goes back to the
most remote antiquity, legends and orna-
ments proving its existence in Italy, Greece
and India.
Bat to return to our jettatura he soon
became an intimate friend, and many a
time we laughed together over the absurd
superstition of our mutual friends, and at
other times the poor fellow was almost on
the verge of tears as he looked upon the
serious side of the sad joke
You will ask how this fatal superstition
was fastened upon him. Well, in the most
idiotic way imaginable. His grandfather
was minister of state and particular friend
of the ex-King of Naples. They were to-
gether at San Carlos one evening, listening
to the latest opera and critlclslng the grand
ballet of which Italians are so fond, when
the Marquis d. remarked that the large
chandelier in the middle of the theater
| looked very insecure, a d if not ATTENDED to,
would soon be the cause, perhaps, of some
dreadful accident. 1t happened that he
was a true prophet. for almost Immediately
after the performance the chandelier fell,
fortunately on empty seats, or the accident
would also have followed. The next day
when the king was informed of it, he said,
laughingly: "Oh, that D., he must have the
evil eye to prophesy so exactly" That was
enough, and at once by the courtiers, jeal-
Gus OF his popularity, he was called jetta-
tura. At his death the mantle of his fatal
gift fell upon his son, now most inoffen-
sive, delicate old man, yet whose power is
so feared by some that while stopping at
the hotel in whose grounds he has villa.
every morning at daybreak they had COW
promenaded up aud down the walks to
counterfeit his power. But the present
Marquis d. is the most powerful of the
three, as his mother was also supposed TO
have the gift, and for the childish supersti-
ton here is young man of rs, handsome,
elegant, wealthy, heir to two marquisaes
and with one of the proudest names of Italy,
whose whole life has been Swallowed with
| it-one of the most asniable klnd-Iearted
men Imaginable, whose aim In life would
| only be to do god. From the time he was
old enough to realize his sad inheritance he
determined to live down the SUI Derstito1 ,
| and tho batfar do fhiC afatrnipad IN