A Jerusalem Jew thus tells of its use among a portion of his co-religionists in that city: “Our brethren the Sephardeem [the Spanish Jews], like all the remnant of the sons of the East, consider the semblance of a hand as good against the power of the evil eye in a man. And they draw this shape upon the doors of their houses with a red finger. So, too, they place upon the heads of their children a hand wrought in silver, saying that this hand–or this picture of the five fingers–is noxious to the man who delights to bring the evil upon the child, or upon those dwelling in the house. So, again, when men quarrel, the one sets his five fingers before the other’s evil eye, saying that this sign neutralizes the evil.”[[212]]
This sign of the hand is “found on the houses of Jews, Muslims, and Christians, in various parts of Palestine.” It is generally painted on or above the door, often in blue; but frequently, especially when a Jew or a Muhammadan enters a new house, a lamb is sacrificed at the door, and the stamp of the hand in the fresh blood is affixed to the post or to the walls.[[213]] No one claims to know the origin of this symbol, but all recognize its importance.
In its ruder form the figure of the hand is much like a five-branched candlestick. Indeed, it has sometimes been mistaken for that symbol. This was the case when such a figure was noticed, not long ago, by Dr. Noetling, on Jewish houses in Safed, and reported to a European journal. This symbol is sometimes called the “Hand of Moses.” A similar figure on Muslim houses is said to represent the “Hand of the Prophet;” while in Syria, among Christians, it is called the Kef Miryam, the “Virgin Mary’s Hand.”[[214]] Obviously these terms suggest the idea of power through divinely derived strength.
One of the sights in the Mosk of St. Sophia, in Constantinople, is the stamp of a red hand. It is said that when Sultan Muhammad II. entered this sanctuary as a conqueror, he dipped his right hand in the blood of the slaughtered Christians, and stamped it on the wall, as if to seal his victory, and to pledge his covenant devotion to his God.[[215]] Whether this story be fact or legend, it is a witness to the idea of such a custom in the minds of Oriental peoples.
An open hand is, or was, a common symbol on a banner, as also on a prayer-rug, in both Turkey[[216]] and Persia. At the annual festival in Persia in commemoration of the death of Hossein, son of Alee, two large banners, each surmounted with an open hand, are borne in front of the representation of the tomb of Hossein; and the same symbol appears in various ways during the celebration.[[217]]
“In the East Indies, to this day, the figure of a hand is the emblem of power and governmental sway. When the Nabob of Arcot was the viceroy of five provinces, if he appeared in public there were carried before him certain little banners, each with a hand painted on it, and a larger banner with five hands.”[[218]]
Siva, the destroyer, in the Hindoo triad, is also the re-creator; since death is only the entrance into a new life. One of Siva’s well-known symbols is a hand, which is a token of might and life.
The uplifted open hand was prominent on or above the doors in ancient Carthage.[[219]] And a traveler in Northern Africa, writing of the Jews in Tunis, near the site of Carthage, says: “What struck me most in all the houses was the impression of an open bleeding hand on every wall of each floor. However white the walls, this repulsive sign was to be seen everywhere. A Jewess never goes out here without taking with her a hand carved in coral or ivory–she thinks it a talisman against the ‘evil eye,’ or ‘mal occhio.’... When his children’s pictures or horses are praised, the Tunisian Jew extends his five fingers, or pronounces the number ‘five;’ he tries by this means to prevent the praise doing damage.”[[220]]
This symbol of the open hand is frequently found above the graves in the vicinity of Tunis. It is also seen in old Jewish cemeteries in Europe, as, for instance, in Prague.[[221]]
An open hand, in stone, or metal, or enamel, or bone, used as a talisman or an amulet, to guard the wearer against evil, was in common use in ancient Egypt. Specimens of these can be seen in museums in Europe and America to-day.