Italians and the 'evil eye'

In India, we call it 'nazar'. In the west, it's the 'evil eye', envy at one's success or good fortune in life. The superstition is rife in India and, it appears, in Italy as well, going by this story.

In India, people make offerings in the temple to mitigate the effects of the 'evil eye'. In Italy, it appears they hire witches to do the job: 

While many modern Italians shrug off the idea as superstition, a number of people in both rural and suburban areas — including the town where I grew up — still call on witches to perform removals (a service also available by phone). Victims of an evil eye are supposed to feel heavy-headed and restless, as though they’ve been beset by ill fortune. They have migraines and can’t sleep. They may forget a pot on the stove or have a car accident. Babies who cry inconsolably are believed to have caught the evil eye. The most beautiful infants and their mothers are thought to be especially vulnerable. 

Nor are Indians or Italians the only ones susceptible to the belief:

Eleni, from Greece, says she had the evil eye removed “multiple times a day” by her grandmother when she was growing up. Now an astrophysicist, she admits to having maintained a belief about the ritual into her mid-twenties — long after she knew that the behaviour of oil in water depends far more on the temperature and metallicity of fluids than spells. Sina, from Tehran, tells me his mother hides money around the house if a visitor gives her family a compliment — a superstition designed to ward off the evil eye. Rasha, from Beirut, has adorned her baby’s pram with evil eye talismans. Megha tells me that her father still paints a mole on her neck or cheek if she looks nice before leaving the house — a version of the ritual in which Indian babies’ faces are smudged with henna to protect them from “nazar” or the evil eye.