The Holy Land and SyriaCarpenter, Frank G. (Frank George)
Religion
The Holy Land and Syria
Carpenter, Frank G. (Frank George)
Palestine -- Description and travel; Syria -- Description and travel
The belief exists throughout Palestine and is common all over this
part of the world. Every house in Jerusalem, whether Jew, Moslem, or
Christian, contains charms to ward off such spells. Every man, woman, and
child carries a talisman to keep off the witches. Some of these charms
are in the shape of a hand, because of an old Jewish saying that the hand
of God will arrest all disasters, and a Mohammedan habit of calling upon
the hand of Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet, to guard the Faithful
from evil. Silver hands are sold as charms, and the wealthier classes
wear hands of gold inside the necks of their gowns. Every Jerusalem
house has a painting or carving of a hand on its front door to keep off
the evil eye; and even in the new houses which are now going up they
are putting hands over the windows as well as at the front doors. Over
their doors hang bags of charms containing an egg, a piece of alum, some
garlic, and a large blue bead.
Blue is believed to be a colour which frightens the devil. These people
think that anything blue will ward off the evil eye, and for this reason
horses, donkeys, and camels have strings of blue beads round their
necks. Every horse and donkey that I have ridden since I set foot in the
Holy Land has been decorated with beads, and in a carriage trip that I
recently took across country, changing my teams three times, every horse
we drove had a blue necklace. One was a three-year-old colt, which was
lively and skittish. He wore several strands of blue beads, each as big
as the nail of my thumb. As he jumped about he broke the string and the
beads fell off and were lost. The driver went back to look for them, but
hunted in vain, and was troubled during the rest of the day. When toward
evening the colt got a stone in his foot and went lame, he said it was
the evil eye, which might have been kept off had the beads not been lost.
I see many children here wearing blue beads, some of which are the shape
of an eye. There is one special kind made in Hebron which is considered
most effective. It is a bead of blue glass of the shape of a hand with
five fingers. It is worn as a charm. Some of the children are clad in
blue gowns with white circles stamped on them. Every store has some blue
inside it, and in some a silver hand is hung up on the walls. Every bride
wears blue beads at her wedding, and in wedding processions salt, rice,
and sugar plums are thrown at the bride and bridegroom to keep off the
evil eye and bring luck.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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