FASCINATION

The fact of being charmed, operated upon, or influenced by the look of certain individuals, generally taken in an evil sense. The word is originally derived from the Greek ^a.(r3ca.intv {Theocr. Idyl VI.), whence the Latin fascinare. Fascination is the power supposed to be po e ed by certain persons of working mischief to others by means of a glance of the eye. We find it mentioned in Theocritus; and it was so prevalent among the Romans that it was personified as the god Fascinus, the patron of the evil eye. Virgil alludes to it thus: — Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos. Bclog. 3. It is to this.day a common belief among the vulgar in almost all countries; but probably it is nowhere more generally retained than in Turkey and the kingdom of Naples and Sicily. In the former country, the Mu ulmans deem it nece ary to have recourse to a variety of amulets and charms, in order to preserve themselves from the evil eye of an enemy, or of an infidel. In Naples, the evil eye and its fascination (known to them by the name of gettatura) are subjects of dread and superstitious precaution among all cla es of the people. There is a treatise on fascination by Vairus, prior of a convent at Ben even to in that country (1589); another by Frommann (1675). FASCINES (Lat. fascina, fagot), in Fortification, are bundles of fagots, twigs, or branches of trees, which, being mixed with earth, are made use of for filling up ditches, forming parapets, . [s. 453]