Birth and the evil eye

Abstract

The ritual impurity of the mother and child makes them most susceptible to the influence of the evil eye. It is not only anger, jealousy and feelings of enmity, but praise, admiration and well-wishing which can injure the child by arousing the malice of envious spirits. It is therefore considered unlucky to express any admiration for a baby without saying the special formula: Ikun imbierek Alia, "God be praised". This custom is to be found among various peoples, depending upon the nationality of the people and with their religious faith . In the Near East for example, for anyone to praise a child's beauty is "most dangerous and worse than an insult". In Greece, where susceptibility to the evil eye was greatly believed in, during childbirth all mirrors were removed from the room, since it was considered possible to cast the evil eye on oneself.