Harkous!!!

I went to a lovely wedding this past weekend in NE Tunisia, in the town of Kélibia, which is rumored to have the best, calmest, clearest beaches in the country. I didn't swim though - I partied.

And I got harkous on my ankle, with a small eye - to ward off the "evil eye," which is based on the idea that: you may have something (success, beauty, money, nice clothes, etc.) that someone else desires, and if they look at you with the "evil eye," the eye of jealousy & envy, they may wish something bad upon you, even w.o. necessarily knowing it.

My favorite example of this is a friend who used to play soccer and had nice, muscular legs. He came home one day from practice and his neighbor was sitting in the kitchen chatting w. his mom. The neighbor said to him, "Oh my, you have such nice legs!" Then my friend went upstairs, climbed into the shower, slipped and broke his leg! His mother later told him that when the neighbor said that, she knew it wasn't good - that the neighbor was thinking to herself, "I wish my husband, or my son had legs like his!" So though it doesn't necessarily suggest a voluntary act of evil on the part of the evil eye giver (the neighbor, in this case!), it does mean that it behooves people to not ostentatiously display their good fortune, and to always remind people that God gives good & takes it. All is from God.

So, a young woman getting married may have good reason to have an eye on her ankle for protection, which is probably why the older woman who did the harkous offered it as a design. [Or, on second thought, considering that these days it is considered by some a little "backwards" to believe in the evil eye, it could also be a transformation (commodification!) of a formerly powerful symbol into a fashion & culture statement (look at this nice design that our grandparents used to use!).]

Here's a picture.

Unfortunately, I've had an allergic reaction to the harkous (whatever is in it - a website tells me cloves and incense & orpiment...hmmm, not sure!), and I have raised itchy bumps underneath every spot of the design. The pharmacist sold me a small tube of calming cream today - hopefully it works. An esthetician I had met earlier in the afternoon at the DVD store told me that if I'm not careful, I can have a small scar (not permanent, but lasts for a while), and that I can never do harkous again. So thank God I took a picture.