I think this is one of the most common beliefs in the world. In India a folk superstition is the 'evil eye'. If a baby is born and especially if it's very beautiful, they usually put a small black dot on its forehead to ward off the 'evil eye' of malicious strangers. We call this 'nazar', and when I met people from Turkey we realized they have the same tradition. Must be arabic in origin, and that's how it came to both India and Turkey. But I'm also sure other countries have the same concept, right?