ABSTRACT
In a simple home in Iran where I was calling with an American missionary doctor, the mother was in great grief over the death of her son, who had died a few days before, as she believed, from the effect of the evil eye. “ In the morning,” she explained, “he was all right, went out with a servant, a woman met the child and the servant, com mented on his looks and his size, which was unusual for his age, and the next night fever came to the child and also to another. Both were taken away. Undoubtedly it was due to the evil spirit.” Unsanitary living conditions, impure water, contaminated food, none of these things had any meaning for her. There was in her mind only the stark reality of death caused by the evil eye.
