Among Egyptians—it is so with all Orientals, there is an universal belief in the potency of the Evil Eye. If any one has looked upon an object with envious and covetous feelings, evil will ensue; not, however—and this is the heart and the peculiarity of the superstition—to the covetous or envious man, but to the coveted or envied object. I will attempt presently to explain this inversion of moral ideas. A mother in easy circumstances will keep her child in shabby clothes, and begrimed with dirt, in order that those who see it may not think it beautiful, and so cast an envious or covetous eye upon it. Some kenspeckle object is placed among the caparisons of a handsome horse or camel, that the eye of the passer-by may be attracted to it, and so withdrawn from the animal itself. The entire dress of a Nubian young lady consists of a fringe of shredded leather, two or three inches deep, worn round the loins. On the upper edge of this fringe two or three bunches of small white cowrie shells are fastened. The traveller might, at first,—and, probably, generally does,—suppose that this is merely a piece of coquetry, inspired by the desire to attract attention. The truth is the reverse. The white shells against the ebon skin are, it is true, intended to attract attention—not at all, however, in the way of coquetry, but from the opposite wish that the eye of the passer-by may be attracted to the shells, and thus that the wearer may herself escape the effects of the coveting, Evil Eye. There is the same motive in the adoption by women of gold coins as ornaments for the head. Let the eye be attracted to that coveted and precious object, and diverted from the face. So, also, with the use of the veil; and so with many other preventive devices.