According to John Welch, Alma's curse on Korihor, "In the name of God, ye shall be struck dumb, that ye shall no more have utterance" (Alma 30:49), resembles an ancient Greek practice of cursing a litigant with speechlessness. When the curse materialized, divine disapproval was so clear that Korihor was compelled to yield the case.
Such curses were common in the ancient Mediterranean world (the earliest findings to date go back to the fifth century B.C.). These spells were known as defixiones because their words and powers were intended to "defix" (restrain or hinder) an opponent. The largest body of Greek binding spells deals with litigation, with sixty-seven different defixiones invoking curses on legal opponents. Eleven of them ask the gods to bind the tongue of a legal opponent. [John W. Welch, "Cursing a Litigant with Speechlessness," in Pressing Forward with the Book of Mormon, pp. 154-155]
Note* One can thus postulate that with a little cultural extension back in time, Lehi's group (or Mulek's group) might have been culturally exposed to this practice and carried it with them to the Americas. [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]