Huck Finn Keep a Eye on Me

Catina Smith

Keep a Eye on Me

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When I was a little girl my YiaYia gave me two Mati, one to put over my bed and one to wear as a necklace, she told me that they would always protect me against evil. She brought this particular eye with her from Greece when she immigrated here. Before she gave it to me she showed me a old picture of her in Greece where she was wearing a necklace that had different size eyes, jewels and pearls all over it. The eye she gave me was the only part of that necklace she still had, she sold all the diamonds and pearls for money to immigrate to America. There would be shiny glass eyes of all shades and sizes placed all around my Greek families homes; over doorways, hanging on the car mirror, over the stove, on jewelry, over the beds, everywhere! Along with hanging the eye Greeks will hang garlic as another way to guard themselves against the evil eye. People from many different cultures place eyes around them to shield themselves from bad fortune or injury.

The glare is thought to be a curse given to a person through a evil stare from someone who harbors feelings of envy or jealousy. The evil eye is given to a person when they are not aware of it and possesses destructive powers and can bring misfortune upon the person receiving the eye.  There is a popular Greek saying to ward off the eye that I would hear my Papou say sometimes "I spit so that I won't give you the evil eye." They say this because the evil eye is not cast upon someone or casted by someone wishing you ill will but by someone who is envious and jealous of you.  The symbol and the superstition of the evil eye is one of the most well known symbolic images throughout the history of world. The idea of the evil eye spread out of Greece into other Mediterranean countries, its mentioned ancient texts including Talmudic literature, the Old Testament and the Koran. As the idea of this curse grew people started to create apotropaic eyes like the one given to me by my YiaYia to counteract or divert evil if they were to be given the evil eye. It is normal for children and women to be given these protective eyes because they are the most common targets of the evil eye.

One memory I will never forget is the day I swore up and down that this other girl at summer camp gave me the eye and I thought I was going to be cursed forever. I came home freaking out in a panic because on the playground I fell off the monkey bars and believed it was another little girls fault because she was staring at me with a scowl while I was up there. My YiaYia and Mother laughed a little but comforted me and told me not to worry that we can do a test to see if I was in fact given the eye. My YiaYia got out a glass of water and a bottle of olive oil, she then said a prayer over the water and put one drop of olive oil in it. She told me if the drop floats then there is no evil eye involved but if the drop sinks, then the evil eye is cast. Of course the drop floated and my 7 year old brain was filled with relief as I thought I was going to be cursed for the entirety of my life.  The Greek people use olive oil to check the presence and strength of the evil eye; Olive oil is less dense than water and normally floats in water.  People may perform tests like putting one drop of olive oil in a glass of  holy water, or three to nine drops of oil on a plate full of water. On the plate, if the drops dissolve in the water there is evil eye but if they stay separated from water in a form of a small circle there isn't. The strength of the eye is indicated by the number of drops that dissolve in water. If the test results come back that they are afflicted with the evil eye they may engage in different customs and recite prayers to relieve them of the curse. Xematiasma is a secret prayer that the healer silently recites to find out if the person is cursed with the evil eye. If  the healer and person both start yawning uncontrollably the person has been afflicted by the eye. To remove the curse the healer signals the sign of the cross three times and makes spitting-like sounds in the air three times and they are relieved from the curse.