Evil eye in the western HighlandsMaclagan, Robert Craig
Religion
Evil eye in the western Highlands
Maclagan, Robert Craig
Evil eye; Folklore; Superstition
We have pointed out that even the Church has been brought in contact
with the Evil Eye scientist, and the following information from a
well-informed, clever, middle-aged lady, the sister of a clergyman
whose father took an interest in traditional Gaelic matters, as she
does herself, was heard from a Sutherlandshire minister who recited
it to her mother. The milk of their cows being unsatisfactory, the
housekeeper asked leave to consult an _eolas_ man. The minister was
very angry, but the housekeeper stuck to her text and carried out her
purpose, telling the minister, “_Na gabhadh sibhse gnothuch sam bith
leis, agus chi mise de ni mi_.” (“Take you nothing to do with it, and
I’ll see what I’ll do.”) She got the _eolas_ man, and he asked for a
basin of the sort of watery stuff they were getting instead of milk.
When he got it he closed up every hole and crevice, even stuffing up
the key-hole. Then he put the milky water on the fire, and when it was
hot he took a knife and began to cut with it through the pot of milk.
While at this work a woman came to the door, screamed, and wanted to
get in; but he cried to her that he would give her plenty of it, and
he continued cutting away through the milk. Still she screamed and
begged him to let her come in, but he said he would not until she would
promise to give up her wicked work and give the _toradh_ back to the
minister’s cow, all the time continuing cutting with the knife. She
answered she would promise everything he wanted, for every cut of the
knife was going through her heart. The man then opened the door and
took the pot off the fire, and from that time the supply of milk, both
for quantity and quality, was satisfactory. In this case also, though
the authority is thoroughly respectable, it is impossible to say what
actually took place. In fact it may be that our informant may have
mistaken a traditional recitation as the experience of the reciter
himself. Though told àpropos of the Evil Eye, looking at the story in
all its bearings, it looks as if it had been, if it happened at all,
a case of pull devil pull baker between two witches, one of whom was
supposed to be taking the minister’s milk.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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