taken from Birth and Baptismal Customs of Roumeli  By Xenofontas Anagnostopoulos  at  http://www.igfs.net/igfs2/articles/BirthandBatptism.htm)

  In many towns, and especially villages, there exists the superstition that when a man sees his fellow man having more wordly possessions than he does, he wishes for that person to be deprived of those possessions.  This superstion is known as vaskania or matiasma and is so strongly imbedded in people's soul that even the church has created blessings to ward off vaskania.  People believe that vaskania is accomplished through the eyes because man sees all with his eyes.   If they suspect someone, either out of hate or great desire, wants to achieve possessions like his fellow man then it is believed that he "possesses the evil eye."  People believe that the "evil eye" can be catastrophic--never more so  when illness, harm or death comes to an infant.  Those believed to possess the evil eye are called vaskaniste and the distinction of the vaskanisti is attributed to the simathiaki (the marked ones); it can be a person with unusual features such as a few white or red hairs in his hair; a person with close knit eyebrows; a person with large black eyes; a person with an ugly face, etc.

Whenever a child became ill, or yawned repeatedly, the mother's first thoughts were that the child had been possessed by the evil eye.  To verify this, she would place three pieces of lit coal in a glass of water and repeat three times: O Isous Christos nikaee ke ola ta kaka skorpai (o Ihsous Cristos nikaei kai ola ta kaka skorpaei:  Jesus Christ conquers and disperses all evil.)  If the pieces of coal floated on top of the water, then the child was not possessed, but if the coal sunk to the bottom of the glass, it meant that the child was possessed and she would wash the child's face with the water from the glass.  She would make the sign of the cross with her hand and wish him perastika (perastika: rapid recovery).

   Other symbolic rituals to overcome vaskania are: 

• The person believed to possess the evil eye would be invited to the bewitched's home.   Upon entering he/she would spit three times and say "perstika, skortho sta matia sou" (perastika, skordo sta matia sou:   rapid recover, may garlic cover your eyes). 
• Others would take a small container to the person that they believed cast the evil eye on the child.  They would ask him/her to spit three times into the container.  The container of spit would then be taken back to the house and the sign of the cross was made with the spit on the child's forehead.
• The child would be givenholy water, saved from the celebration of Epiphany, to drink.
• A small black-handled knife would be rotated over the child's head with the saying, "Jesus Christ conquers and disperses all evil," and then the knife was thrust into a piece of wood.
• The mother or some other person, would stare at the child and think about the child's "nine orifices"--two eyes, two ears, etc.  She would then spit on the child and say the "Jesus Christ conquers" phrase.  If the person staring at the child yawned, it meant that the child was possessed.  If the child responded with a yawn, then it meant that the evil eye had passed.
• In cases where the family did not wish to invite the suspected bearer of the evil eye to the home of a bewitched child (in order to undo the hex), then a single hair from a male goat was soaked in water and dragged on the street where the bearer of the evil eye had passed.  The hair was then rinsed in a container of water and the child given the water (dirt and all) to drink.

   In order to ward off the evil eye, mothers would take the following precautions:

• They would either hang from the child's neck or pin to his clothes a talisman called a hamali or filahto.  The talisman was made of cloth and was triangular in shape.  A small crucifix made of Christ's thorn (a species of thorny tree), incense, gun powder, a clove of garlic, nutmeg (whole), and a small piece of church holy bread (antithoro) were placed inside the cloth, and a blue bead sewn on the outside.
• Black smudge (mountzoura) from the bottom of a kettle was placed behind the child's ear.
• The child was dressed in garments worn inside out.
• The gesture of derision (mountza) was secretly made toward the person suspected of possessing an evil eye.
• The person admiring the child was told to spit on it (ftisto na min to matiasis).
• The person admiring the child was told to move from his seat (kounisou ap'ti thesi sou)
• A person who did not wish to cast the evil eye would spit three times on his own chest.
• A steer's head or horseshoe was nailed to the entrance of the house.
  On the first of May, an adder was killed and the skin from its head was made into a talisman for the child.  This talisman was thought to be so special that a priest was called to perform the blessing of the bewitched, which was considered both as a preventative and as a cure.