It is bad luck to speak about the exact number of your camels because evil eyes are everywhere and they are hungry.
-Mohamedou Ould Slahi, The Actual True Story of Ahmed and Zarga
It was by good luck that KhairAllah had only an inexact idea of the number of camels in his Dabouka, but he knew each one by color and gait and breeding brand, and if someone had counted them off on his fingers as he remembered each one, his tally would have been exactly on the nose.