Latin America & Caribbean · Spain to the Caribbean · Against envy
Azabache fist
A small fist carved in jet, black and polished. One from Spain survives from about 1620–30. The custom crossed to the Caribbean, where the fist is worn against mal de ojo: the “evil eye” of someone’s envious look.A jet fist from SpainSpain, about 1620–30The earliest example in our sources is a Spanish pendant of jet carved as a fist, from about 1620–30. Two centuries later, in 1832, Washington Irving mentions a Moorish hand amulet in his Tales of the Alhambra.Source: Hektoen International (October 2023), a Hispanic amulet against disease in infants ↗
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