Evil eye in the western HighlandsMaclagan, Robert Craig
Religion
Evil eye in the western Highlands
Maclagan, Robert Craig
Evil eye; Folklore; Superstition
The following information from Skye shows the belief that _eolas_ is
imparted in the same way and under like circumstances there. This
Skye woman was believed to have the Evil Eye, and to have the power
of taking away the produce (_an toradh_) from other’s cows. When she
was on her deathbed, and when she came very near her end, she said to
those about her that she was anxious to see her husband. He happened at
that particular time to be out looking after something, and they sent
for him, but all the time till he came in she kept crying for him, and
urging that she wished to see him. When he came in she requested that
all the others should withdraw, and when they had done so she said
to her husband to shut the door that there might be nobody there but
themselves alone. What took place between them there nobody ever knew,
but one thing people firmly believed, that was that she gave the skill
that she had to her husband, for after that he could take away the
_toradh_ from other people’s cows, and did take it away too.
However, authorities do not always agree as to changing the sex in the
transmission of this magic.
A native of Harris, a woman of about forty, has no English, and can
neither read nor write. When asked as to her experiences, and if she
had ever seen a thread tied round a child’s neck to preserve it from
the effects of the Evil Eye, she said: “I did see it; wasn’t there one
on my own child? and that was for A. McE.‘s Evil Eye. She has an Evil
Eye (_Droch shuil_), and one day she came into the house and began to
praise the child greatly. She was only a short time gone when the child
began to vomit. ‘O Kate,’ said I to my sister, ‘my child is _air a
cronachadh_ with the Evil Eye of that woman.’ ‘If that is all that is
wrong, we won’t be long putting it right,’ said Kate, and she took a
red thread, and when she had said the word, she tied the string on the
child’s neck, and there was no time till it was quite well.” She was
asked whether Kate had the words, and she replied, “Oh yes, my mother
had them and she taught them to Kate.”
The general trend of belief is that the hereditary transmission of
_eolas_ is from father to daughter, and from mother to son. A reciter
said: “A woman still lives in the neighbourhood, said to have obtained
her _eolas_ secret from her father. She is often requisitioned, and her
skill to cure fully believed in.”
Another said: “You know A. McE. His mother had _eolas a chronachaidh_,
and he said that she left the secret with him before she died.” These
were “unprovoked” statements of the reciters, and in the latter case
the interest of the story was in pointing out the method taken to
determine whose Evil Eye had affected a sick horse. The owner was told
to watch the colour of the hair of the first woman that passed the
house, which would be the same as that of the person wanted. The result
was given in the following terms, “Now she is blaming Mrs. MacD.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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