Evil eye in the western HighlandsMaclagan, Robert Craig
Religion
Evil eye in the western Highlands
Maclagan, Robert Craig
Evil eye; Folklore; Superstition
One other instance of the use of salt we give on the authority of an
Arran man of about sixty-five years of age, a shrewd business man, but
of whom the collector says that to judge from appearances he thinks his
knowledge of the island and his family connection with it extends about
as far back as the origin of the island itself.
He said his father was a great believer in the Evil Eye. One day a
neighbour, walking with him while ploughing, had spoken in praise of a
brown horse that was in the plough. His acquaintance had hardly left
when the horse turned ill, and lay down and kicked and groaned. It was
unyoked and taken home, and the Evil Eye being suspected N. R.’s wife
was sent for. She came and got a mixture of salt, soot, and a lot of
other things which she rubbed on the horse. She felt it all over with
her hand to find out the particular spot where the eye had struck.
Whatever did it, the horse recovered and was quite well afterwards.
The passing the hand over the animal to feel for material damage is
peculiar. This is a usual proceeding in cases of elf-shot, but not of
the Evil Eye; however, of course the woman was thoroughly entitled to
make her own diagnosis in her own way.
MOST SUITABLE WATER
In the course of the preceding, various sources for water used to cure
Evil Eye have been mentioned. “A certain well.” This may have been a
holy well of some sort, consecrated by traditional connection with some
saint, though after all it may have been chosen merely to fulfil the
condition mentioned elsewhere that a spring is preferable. A narrowing
of the choice of springs from which water could be taken was shown in
the case where one of our reciters told us that, believing the water
_a bhiodh air a thoirt a tobar o’n taobh deas_ (should be taken from
a south well), he proceeded to take it from a well south of his own
house, while another mentioned that the water required to be taken from
a spring facing the south.
While roughly one-half of our reciters have expressed a preference for
well or spring water, the other half prefer running water. One said
“it should come from a march burn,” and two mentioned “that it should
be from a running stream,” not mentioning any advantage to be derived
from its dividing two properties. One pointed out that a piece of bread
must be in the possession of the taker. In two other instances the
information was given that it must be taken where the living and the
dead pass. The condition further annexed that it must be from under a
bridge is probably merely an expression of the reciter’s own for this
same idea. He would probably have considered stepping-stones, or a
commonly used ford which led to a burial-place, as equally effective.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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