Re: [Cz-L] Photo collections and the Bad Eye.

>From my early childhood I remember all kinds of possible transgressions that
had to do with the "bad eye" &/or invoking evil powers (probably because
there were plenty of those lurking about) - yes I remember the "kenein
ehore " said for any good thing that happened to protect from the power of
evil or envy...these thing stay with one...it's a little about the magic
realism of literature - on the one hand the bricks and mortar of practical
life - on the other the world or the spirits, the intangible, unknowable...

Sylvia

On Thu, May 19, 2011 at 9:46 AM, Miriam Taylor <mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu> wrote:

> In Czernowitz the evil eye was definitely active.
> But the way it worked was this: If someone praised you,
> without saying: "kenein Ahore" or spitting three times:
> tfu, tfu, tfu, something bad was sure to happen to you.
> At age three, I myself was the victim of such an occurrence:
> Someone came to visit my mother and said something
> complimentary about me. I was playing outside, but I immediately
> ran into the kitchen, where a large cast iron stove stood right
> opposite the door. I was running too fast and in order to stop myself
> from falling, I put out my hands. The left hand came to rest against
> the door of the stove and was badly burned.
> They put my hand into cold water, then into egg yolks, then into oil,
> all the time saying: that woman gave her the evil eye.
>
> Moral of the story: Do not look at our photographs on Ehpes and praise
> anyone's looks.
>
> Mimi

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Received on 2011-05-19 14:16:16