Evil Eye Jewelry
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Evil Eye
Some History of the Evil Eye
Taken from Encyclopedia Brittanica

Evil eye
A glance believed to have the ability to cause injury or death to those on whom it falls; children and animals are thought to be particularly susceptible. Belief in the evil eye is ancient and ubiquitous: it occurred in ancient Greece and Rome; is found in Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, and Hindu traditions and in folk cultures and preliterate societies; and has persisted throughout the world into modern times. In many traditions strangers, malformed individuals, and old women are most often accused of casting the evil eye.

The power of the evil eye is sometimes held to be involuntary; a Slavic folktale, for example, relates the story of a father afflicted with the evil eye who blinded himself in order to avoid injuring his own children. More frequently, however, malice toward and envy of prosperity and beauty are thought to be the cause. Thus, in medieval Europe--and in popular superstition today--it was considered unlucky to be praised or to have one's possessions praised, so that some qualifying phrase such as "as God will" or "God bless it" was commonly used.