Evil eye in the western HighlandsMaclagan, Robert Craig
Religion
Evil eye in the western Highlands
Maclagan, Robert Craig
Evil eye; Folklore; Superstition
One other horse case. The reciter says: “One Sunday I was standing
there on the little hill at C., and I saw a man coming towards me from
Gartachara. I knew the man and waited till he passed. He went down to
C. I never thought of anything being wrong, but when I turned down the
way the man had come up, what did I find but a beautiful brown horse I
had at the time, lying on his belly in the water where the horses used
to take their drink. He could not stand on his feet, but I got help,
and we managed to get him into the kailyard, where he lay groaning.”
The horse recovered.
* * * * *
Fowls are said to be affected. A certain woman had been suspected of
hindering the butter from coming at a churning. The case was being
reported to a collector, when a bystander expressed doubts as to the
existence of an Evil Eye. The reciter then said that her own experience
had proved the truth of the accusation in the case of this individual.
“She was living for a year beside me, and all that year, although I had
most beautiful hens, they laid nothing but soft eggs. They would be
found in the mornings all scattered here and there on the floor. Indeed
I thought they dropped more eggs than was natural. It was only when
talking about the hens to another neighbour that it was suggested to me
that her Evil Eye was the cause. Then I knew that there would be no use
keeping hens while that woman was beside me, so I sold them all. I got
clear of her at the end of the year. I never said anything to her about
it, for I was afraid.”
The reciter of the following said that he was positively certain that
the facts were as stated, though it had not occurred to himself. “A
certain man once called at a house, and a beautiful brood of chickens
were going about on the kitchen floor. He was not right out when a
stool fell on them and smothered every one of them. From the kitchen he
went to the byre, and saw there a beautiful quey, which he professed
to admire very much. He was not long gone when the quey became unwell.”
The belief was firmly established that the chickens and the quey had
been _air an cronachadh_.
A firm believer gives the following:—“One time her mother had a brood
of ducks, and every time Mrs. Mac. came in she praised the ducks, but
meanwhile one after another was dying, until at last only one remained.
One day this one was in the kitchen when Mrs. Mac. came in, and she
praised it as usual, but when she was going away she tramped on it and
killed it. They were quite sure it was her Evil Eye that had been doing
the mischief.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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