for example, i would hear stories how beautiful babies would get sick out of nowhere... and often these illnesses were attributed to someone staring at the beautiful baby, admiring the baby... longing to hold the baby, but never voicing it or making any contact with the baby... so whenever i saw a beautiful baby who had chubby cheeks i wanted to touch or pinch, i would make sure i could somehow touch the baby to break the spell, often without the mother knowing... i could do it easily as a child... as an adult, it's a little trickier... i do think it is silly, but i still do it )
I read an interesting book years ago, THE EVIL EYE. it was a history of the belief and it told how the first look from a person with the evil eye was the worst, so very colorful amulets, some even pornographic, were designed to attract the eye, so the first evil glance would be absorbed by the amulet, then the second look would wold be less harmful.
It was believed that coats of arms on shields were really designed to absorb the evil eyes.
One of the hispanic ladies cleaning the kitchen area one night supposedly threw a fit because an employee had put the evil eye on her.
The way I heard it explained was that one of the coffee pots was marked with a wide open eyeball to indicate that it was caffeinated (possibly extra strong) coffee and that the drawing was misinterpreted...