And now for the explanation I would venture to offer of what is to us the strangest part of the matter, that such a belief as this of the Evil Eye should have had any existence at all, because it involves the immoral idea that all the suffering falls on the innocent victim, and that there is no retribution for the guilty cause of the mischief. This I am disposed to think has been brought about by the facts and experience of life in the East. There the Evil Eye has always had a very real, and fearful significance; and people have done very wisely in endeavouring to guard against it. It never would have done in that part of the world, nor would it do at this day in Cairo, or anywhere else, even down to the most secluded village, for one to flaunt before the world what others might covet, or envy him the possession of. The simple plan there has ever been, that those should take who have the power, and that those only should keep who are not known to possess. A man who had a beautiful wife, or child, or costly jewel, or a showy horse, or camel, or anything good, if it were observed, and known, would at any time, in the East, have been pretty sure to lose it, and perhaps with it his own life into the bargain. This of course has been a master-fact in forming the manners and customs of the people. Hence their ideas about the Evil Eye. What befel Uriah and Naboth, has befallen many everywhere. Hence the wisdom of keeping good things out of sight, and of diverting attention from them. Hence the belief that the evil is for the innocent possessor, and not for the wicked envier, or coveter. The methods adopted for obviating its effects are, of course, merely the offspring of fear acting on ignorance. I need not give any further illustrations of this condition of the Arab mind. A general statement will now be sufficient. Every evil that flesh is heir to, every ailment, every as yet unsatisfied yearning, every loss, every suffering, has its appropriate treatment, all being of the same character as that which prescribes, for some moral obliquity in A’s mind, that B should burn a piece of alum, or of storax, purchased on a particular day. Some of these practices are laughable, some disgusting. Some that are of the latter class recall Herodotus’s story of the means to which King Phero, in the days of old Egypt, had recourse for the recovery of his sight.