How to Diagnose the Evil Eye (Italian Style)

With all the available amulets of protection against the evil eye (malocchio), the gentle reader might assume that actually being afflicted by the evil eye is a rare occurrence. Alas, the House of Good Fortune must inform that this is not the case. There is a complicated ritual to determine whether one has fallen victim to malocchio.

Let us first identify the symptoms. According to Italian-American Folklore by Frances M. Malpezzi and William M. Clements:

“Typically one who has been ‘overlooked’ or received a compliment from a person with evil eye will suddenly and unexplainedly become ill. Afflicted people may experience a ‘special kind of headache’ with ‘pain so acute as to prevent them from continuing normal activity.’ The pain may be ‘centered around the forehead and the eyes,’ producing a sense of having ‘heavy eyes.’ The general effect may be a ‘groggy’ feeling: ‘It’s like you’re on dope and you’ve taken an overdose of sleeping pills and you get up, and you keep yawning and yawning. It’s a tired, tired feeling.’ Other symptoms may include stomachache, nausea, nervousness, and fever.”

Let us now move on to the diagnostic procedure - again, from Malpezzi & Clements:

“Since these symptoms may also arise from purely natural causes, traditional diagnostic procedures may be called upon to confirm that evil eye is indeed a factor in a person’s illness. Sometimes called “making” malocchio, the most widely reported of these procedures requires someone, usually a matriarch who is regarded as comare to the community, to let three drops of olive oil fall into a bowl of water. If the drops remain intact, the victim’s symptoms have resulted from natural forces; but if the drops coalesce and produce an amorphous slick on the water surface, evil eye is present….”

“Anoher diagnostic procedure requires that a saucer be half filled with water. Then a piece of olive leaf blessed on Palm Sunday is dropped in, and the saucer is briefly placed on the victim’s head. While the victim holds the right index finger in the water, the diagnostician begins to add the olive oil. If the first drop disperses, then a man has overlooked the victim. If the second drop spreads, a woman is responsible. The diffusion of the third drop suggests that the source of the malocchio comes from beyond the grave. One may be able to determine the gender of the person causing the evil eye by how the drops of oil hold together in the water. According to one theory, if they break apart, a woman is the source, but a man is indicated as the perpetrator of malocchio if the drop coheres. A variant method of diagnosis has one drop grains of wheat into a saucer of water. If they float, the presence of the evil eye is indicated. The pattern they form can determine the remedy. “

Rhode Island Folklife Project collection (AFC 1991/022), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress