They say that if the knife strikes the image fair in the eye, the person whose likeness it is will suffer a corresponding injury in his or her eye. This procedure, we are informed, has been successful in restoring milk to the udders of a cow when even holy water had been tried in vain.(317) The Zulus will not look into a dark pool because they think there is a beast in it which will take away their reflections, so that they die.(318) The Basutos say that crocodiles have the power of thus killing a man by dragging his reflection under water. When one of them dies suddenly and from no apparent cause, his relatives will allege that a crocodile must have taken his shadow some time when he crossed a stream.(319) In Saddle Island, Melanesia, there is a pool “into which if any one looks he dies; the malignant spirit takes hold upon his life by means of his reflection on the water.”(320) (M63) We can now understand why it was a maxim both in ancient India and ancient Greece not to look at one’s reflection in water, and why the Greeks regarded it as an omen of death if a man dreamed of seeing himself so reflected.(321) They feared that the water-spirits would drag the person’s reflection or soul under water, leaving him soulless to perish. This was probably the origin of the classical story of the beautiful Narcissus, who languished and died through seeing his reflection in the water. The explanation that he died for love of his own fair image was probably devised later, after the old meaning of the story was forgotten. The same ancient belief lingers, in a faded form, in the English superstition that whoever sees a water fairy must pine and die. “_Alas, the moon should ever beam_ _To show what man should never see!—_ _I saw a maiden on a stream,_ _And fair was she!_ _I staid to watch, a little space,_ _Her parted lips if she would sing;_ _The waters closed above her face_ _With many a ring._ _I know my life will fade away,_ _I know that I must vainly pine,_ _For I am made of mortal clay,_ _But she’s divine!_”