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.
Record, Folk and Modern are kept apart, and each one carries its source.
The 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.
To verify: Where the jet fist of about 1620–30 is held, and its museum number; Irving’s exact words in Tales of the Alhambra
In Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, parents have used the jet fist against mal de ojo, the evil eye of an envious look. It was pinned on babies, or strung with a red bead on a small bracelet.
In 2018 the US FDA warned parents against teething bracelets and bead jewellery for babies, citing choking and strangulation. We make no baby bracelets or pins. An azabache from us is an adult pendant in real jet, never plastic passed off as jet.
