Alum is very generally used, in the following manner, by the people of Egypt, to counteract the effects of the evil eye. A piece of about the size of a walnut is placed upon burning coals, and left until it has ceased to bubble. This should be done a short time before sunset; and the person who performs the operation should repeat three times, while the alum is burning, the first chapter of the Kur-án, and the last three chapters of the same; all of which are very short. On taking the alum off the fire, it will be found (we are told) to have assumed the form of the person whose envy or malice has given occasion for this process: it is then to be pounded, put into some food, and given to a black dog to be eaten. I have once seen this done, by a man who suspected his wife of having looked upon him with an evil eye; and in this case, the alum did assume a form much resembling that of a woman, in what the man declared was a peculiar posture in which his wife was accustomed to sit. But the shape which the alum takes depends almost entirely on the disposition of the coals; and can hardly be such that the imagination may not see in it some resemblance to a human being.—Another supposed mode of obviating the effects of the envious eye is, to prick a paper with a needle, saying, at the same time, “This is the eye of such a one, the envier;” and then to burn the paper.—Alum is esteemed a very efficacious charm against the evil eye: sometimes, a small, flat piece of it, ornamented with tassels, is hung to the top of a child’s cap. A tassel of little shells and beads is also used in the same manner, and for the same purpose. The small shells called cowries are especially considered preservatives against the evil eye; and hence, as well as for the sake of ornament, they are often attached to the trappings of camels, horses and other animals, and sometimes to the caps of children. Such appendages are evidently meant to attract the eye to themselves, and so to prevent observation and envy of the object which they are designed to protect.