St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-04-22
STORY OF THE EVIL EYE.
Personal Experience With a Jettat-
ura.
AN ITALIAN SUPERSTITION.
How Harmless Young Nobleman Was
Saddled With Fatal
Gift.

mutual friends as our future neighbor
his parents having taken for the sum.
mer the villa next to ours situated in
the gardens of the Hotel Vittora. Oui
NeaD0lltan friends had given us mum.
erous accounts of this wonderful power
i'll which they believe most firmly: and,
While their stories amused us, we ridi-
culed their superstition, and for one /
felt Il great curiosity to meet this womb
erful individual who could bring the
direSt misfortune upon one by mere
glance.
lie arrived at Sorrento the very even
ing OF the ball at the Princess BIS, and
her sons soon brought him up to be pre-
sented. | was more than ever i'm
pressed with the abSurdity of the super
sutton OH seeing this hannsame. eIe-
giant, courteous stranger, and decided
at once 10 accept him as friend, if for
nothing else but to prove to his coun-
trymen that there were some people
whom they considered intelligent and
we'll educated far above their sus-
picion. We saw a 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 considera-
ton and courtesy. The evening was
charming, with a little excitement
added by one OF the young ladies
slightly spraining her ankle toward the
close of the last repetition of the ''Taran-
tella." 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 introduced the Marquis
d.. the jettatula, and immediately [
commenced rallying them on their alb
surd superstition, and they said that,
considering the light in which they re-
garded him, L noticed that they all
treated him most respectfully.
That is just it," one exclaimed; ;
''Deople have to treat the fascini po-
lltely, so that they may do them no
harm.'
"And now, madam said another.
the most impulsiye of the two, you can
not deny the power of the iettatura
after last night"
And what happened last night??'
inquired.
"Why, didn't you see the petite
Montebello was dancing beautifully,
when ID. looked at her and she fell and
sprained her anllle2 Then there was
the Prince B., vino came from Naples
to attend his wife's ball; he had never
been better in his life: ID. speaks to
him, tells him how glad lie is to see him
looking so well, and i'll half an hour aft
erward the poor man falls suddenly i'll
and can hardly reach his bed, where he
will probably have to remain. the physi-
clan says, for several weeks.'
''Well, in all that replied, Il see
tpnn IL
have happened as well. without the
presence of the marquis. DO you not
see that it is a simple coincidence, and
that it is only because you are looking
for such things 20 happen when your
poor friend is near that you notice
them? Just as it happens when some
one we care for is seriously ill, every
sign seems to point to death. Ii we 90
out we meet funeral, or pass streets
in which we can read undertakers'
Sign-boards. If we take up book or
paper, something concerning death
is sure to meet the eye. AT another
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 some.
"Well, whatever people say, there is
ever go out without something about us
to keep off the evil eye.'
Il have never met more intelligent,
more highly cultivated men than the
upper class of Italians. Yet 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 greatest number of ornaments as
charms against this wonderful power,
and L do not believe there was one
among the highly educated peoDle we
met in Naples and its environS who did
not carry. concealed generally, little
coral or she'll ornament In the form of a
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 also made
with the hand when one meets the per-
son endowed with the fatal gift. An
other powerful charm against it is
little bell. rather square than round
with part Of phrase in Greek letters
meaning May the goddesses of Olym-
puS protect us against the power of
eyes"
1t is wonderful to see such an en-
lightened ration perSiSting in such an
absurd belief, but the most curious
thing about the superstition is its an
tiQuity. 1t goes back to the most re-
mote antiquity. legends and ornaments
proving its existence i'll Italy, Greece
and India.
But to return to our Jettatura. He
soon became an intimate friend, and
many 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 supersti-
ton 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 together at the San
Carlos one evening. listening to the
latest opera and critlcising the grand
ballet, of which Italians are so fond,
when the then Marquis ID. remarked
that the large chandelier in the middle
of the theater looked very insecure,
and 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 laughingIy; "Oh, that D.;
he must have the evil eye to prophesy
so exactly" That was enough, and at
once by the courtiers, jealous of his
popularity, he was called jettatura. 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 stop
ping at the hotel in whose grounds he
has villa, every morning at daybreak
they had a COW prOmenaded up and
down the walks to counterfeit his
nnWer Rut the nrespnt Ma1nulS Ii ic