Evil eye in the western HighlandsMaclagan, Robert Craig
Religion
Evil eye in the western Highlands
Maclagan, Robert Craig
Evil eye; Folklore; Superstition
In some places there is but little secrecy as to those who have
the Evil Eye, or at least are supposed to have it. We refrain from
publishing the full names, so that if by any chance those spoken of
see this they may not be offended; but this is a sample of a common
style of remark: “_Tha, tha, tha droch shuil aig Anna nic E. Nach robh
Mrs. MacT. ag innseadh dhomh fhein nach bu mhor nach robh aon da clann
marbh le droch shuil a’ bhoirionnach sin uair. Bha e air a chronachadh
leatha, agus bhitheadh e marbh ach airson Anna T._” (“Yes, yes, Ann
McE. has an Evil Eye. Was not Mrs. MacT. telling myself that one of her
children was once nearly dead through the Evil Eye of that woman. He
was injured by her, and would have been dead had it not been for Ann
T.”) Ann T. was a practitioner of _eolas_.
DESCRIPTION OF POSSESSORS OF EVIL EYE
Anybody may have the Evil Eye, but that certain people suggest the
Evil Eye to others from their appearance must be admitted. A minister,
himself a son of the manse, who has had Highland surroundings all his
early life, bears witness, “The possession was more frequently ascribed
to females than to males, and for the most part to elderly women.”
Another minister, an older man than the former, says of the Evil Eye:
“They were chiefly women that were suspected, and were generally much
disliked in the communities.” These two reciters were as far apart as
Arran and Ross-shire.
Was the Evil Eye ascribed to them because they were disliked, or were
they disliked because they had the Evil Eye? Women do not improve in
appearance with age, nor men either, for the matter of that, and one
of our reciters, in describing a case of _cronachadh_, said that the
operator was “a bad-looking woman at any rate, and had a queer look.”
In Knapdale we hear of one who was “a decent enough looking woman, but
there was this about her, people always suspected her of having some
evil power, and nobody liked to refuse her if she asked anything.”
Another of the accused was “strange in her dress, and spoke in an
imperious manner.”
It is curious to note that, having quoted all the descriptions of
individuals we have, the criticisms should all be levelled at women;
but it must not be supposed that men are at all exempt. The writer was
amused, and not a little astonished, to hear that an old gentleman, a
connection of his own, a large farmer and not unknown beyond his own
district, certainly not a greedy man, and a pleasant companion, was
among some as notorious for his Evil Eye as for his knowledge of his
business. He was a Low Country man by descent, ignorant of Gaelic,
and surrounded by Gaelic-speaking Highlanders, some of whom however,
proprietors and taxmen, were said to be as bad as himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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