Note 87 — Chapter I · THE EVIL EYE AND THE SCARING OF GHOSTS.

Glass in the form of beads, which seem to derive some of their efficacy from being perforated, is also very useful in this way. Mirrors from time immemorial have been held to possess the same quality. “Fascinators, like basilisks, had their own terrible glance turned against them if they saw themselves reflected,” “Si on luy presente un miror, par endardement reciproque, ces rayons retournent sur l’autheur d’iceux.” Philostratus declares that if a mirror be held before a sleeping man during a hail or thunder-storm, the storm will cease.87 Hence women in India wear mirrors in their thumb rings, and the Jâtnî covers her sheet with little pieces of shining glass.