Evil eye in the western HighlandsMaclagan, Robert Craig
Religion
Evil eye in the western Highlands
Maclagan, Robert Craig
Evil eye; Folklore; Superstition
_Thuirt an gille: “Well, tha mi fein ‘s an t-each a’ creidsinn ann.”_
(“I am not going to give credence to the like of that at all.” The lad
replied: “Well, both I and the horse believe in it.”)
A like case. “You remember A. B. He had a braw mare; everybody was
praising her, and there wasn’t the likes of her to be seen about the
place. A man who was passing waited to look at her, and praised her for
being a splendid beast. But if he did, when she reached home she fell
down and would neither rise nor eat.”
Mrs. G. said: “One of our horses, a fine beast, was going past the barn
when all at once it fell on the ground. They got it into the stable. In
a little time it could not move its body, but was tossing its head from
side to side and seemed to be in great pain. It was striking its head
on the ground so much that we thought it would kill itself.”
A case in which the illness had lasted for some time before skilled
advice was got, is the following: “D. D.’s father-in-law had a horse
unwell and not expected to recover. It was lying in the stable quite
stiff, and had neither eaten nor drunk anything for some days.”
A farmer who had two fine horses told the reciter to put the saddle on
one of them and meet him on his way home from a visit he had to pay. D.
McT., as instructed, saddled the better of the two horses and started
to meet his father. He was very careful, leading the horse instead of
riding it. He met his father within three miles of home driving in a
cart with a neighbour. When they met, his father said, “You have killed
that beast. Why did you ride it so hard?” D. told his father, what was
the fact, that he had not ridden at all, but walked all the way from
home. “Look at the horse,” said his father, and the horse was pouring
of sweat and trembling. He turned home, but could not keep up with the
cart, and only managed to make it crawl back with difficulty. As soon
as it was got into the stall, it lay down and commenced kicking as if
in great pain. The horse was cured.
A man of whom we have already spoken as injuring animals with his Evil
Eye unintentionally, as a reciter tells us, “was at this time threshing
with my father. They had no threshing-mill, and did it all with flails.
One day my father had been out ploughing, and had the best mare ever
they had in the plough. Coming home, he had to pass the barn to go to
the stable, and McA., of the Evil Eye, came to the door and looked
after the mare. That was enough; before the mare reached the stable
door she began to shake and tremble, and it was with great difficulty
they managed to get her into the stall. They knew quite well what was
the matter.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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