138 



FLORA OF THE 



always present in the minds of the people, and more 

 especially in the minds of decorative artists ; and this 

 would tend to support my view regarding the pre- 

 valent use of horns in those days. 



Even at the present day in Oriental countries, and 

 even in Sicily and the South of Italy, ox horns are 

 used, fixed on the walls of farm houses, avowedly for 

 the purpose of warding off the evil eye. 



Fig. 64 shows a 

 house in Kurdistan 

 with goat, or ibex, 

 horns fixed on its 

 front wall. One pair 

 is fixed on the en- 

 trance door. 



Indeed, the halls 



Fig. 64. — Three skulls and horns on Nestorian 

 house, Tiyari, Kurdistan. Layard's ' Narrative 

 of Expedition to Assyria,' p. 131. 



of the rich and others are often decorated in our times 

 with trophies of the hunt. The horned skulls, no doubt, 

 are now used only for purposes of triumph and de- 

 coration, but the custom may also be a survival of 

 a superstition, by which the evil eye was supposed to 

 be neutralized by the horns at the entrance of the 

 house. 



In Southern Italy people believe in the 'jettatura,' 

 or evil eye, as thoroughly as they believe in the 

 efficacy of holy water to scare away the devil. To 

 ward off its evil effects in Naples and Sicily small 



