Spanish child’s amulets (dijes & chupadores)

Mediterranean & Iberian Folk: the tradition

Southern Italy and Spain kept the Roman fight against the evil eye going without a break. In Naples the belief in jettatura, the unlucky glance, was taken seriously enough that 19th-century gentlemen made the horns sign in their pockets; Nicola Valletta's Cicalata sul fascino volgarmente detto jettatura (1787) is its classic text. Spanish children wore belts hung with jet higas, crystal, coral and chestnuts. Walter Leo Hildburgh collected thousands of these amulets in the early 20th century and gave them to the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Pitt Rivers and the Wellcome, which is why so many are in British museums today.