Evil eye in the western HighlandsMaclagan, Robert Craig
Religion
Evil eye in the western Highlands
Maclagan, Robert Craig
Evil eye; Folklore; Superstition
A native of Lewis who professed disbelief in the Evil Eye, though she
knew numbers who did believe, was advised when her cow was ill to send
for a skilled woman. She refused. A woman who was in the habit of
assisting when they were busy, being told she might do as she liked,
went to the _eolas_ woman. When our reciter, Mrs. McN., looked into the
byre shortly afterwards she found the servant girl and the occasional
assistant hiding a bottle. “I asked them what they had in the bottle.
The woman answered that she had just gone to K. McI. for _eolas_, and
that that was what was in the bottle. They had put it in the cow’s ears
and over her back in the name of the Trinity, and the woman remarked
that if it would not do good it would do no harm at any rate. I told
them again that I did not believe in it at all, and as it turned out
I did not need to believe it, for the cow died not long after. But if
I did not believe the woman did, and so did the person who had made
the _eolas_, and they maintained that it was because I did not believe
in it that it failed to cure the cow, for it is believed the success
of _eolas a chronachaidh_ in its attempts to cure depends much upon
whether it is believed in or not.”
Compare this with the statement of another reciter, who on hearing of
a case of cure said, “When I was herding, one of the cows was _air a
cronachadh_, but the people did not believe in _eolas_, and if it had
not been that some of the neighbours went to A. T. the cow was dead.”
In another case in which the owner of the sick cow said that there was
many a thing that might happen to a beast, and that she did not believe
that the cow had been hurt by the Evil Eye. A friend persisted in her
opinion that it was the Evil Eye, and when the reciter’s mother refused
to send for _eolas_, the woman went off herself and came back with a
bottle which she sprinkled on the cow, and in less than an hour the
cow was eating as well as ever, and before the water had been put on
her she was groaning and would neither eat nor move. The probability
is, of course, that if no success had followed the application of the
remedy, want of faith on the part of the owner might have been urged as
a reason for failure.
PREVENTING EVIL BY BLESSING
A young man who could read and write, the son of a decidedly
superstitious father, said if any one were praising another person’s
beast, and danger was suspected, because praising by one that has an
Evil Eye is dangerous, if the owners say “God bless it” that would
prevent any mischief happening.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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