The gesture with the two middle fingers touching the palm, with index finger and pinkie sticking out, used to be a warding sign against the "evil eye." Think about how you might hold your hand to poke someone's eyes out and you'll get it. It has wandered into our general depictions of magic users from now-obscure historical origins.
For those not familiar with Euro culture, there was a widespread belief that people could do harm - cause bad luck or ill health, etc - just by gazing maliciously at someone else. In some cases the "ability" was limited to witches or similar, but the most widespread form of the belief was that anybody might do it, even unintentionally, when they looked at people against whom they felt genuine hatred or malice. This was called the "evil eye," and a number of signs, gestures, amulets, and habits are considered to be protections from it.