Evil eye in the western HighlandsMaclagan, Robert Craig
Religion
Evil eye in the western Highlands
Maclagan, Robert Craig
Evil eye; Folklore; Superstition
In tracing the accounts we have received of this Evil Eye water we
started with those which seemed to deal with plain water, then with
water in which one coin, and that necessarily of silver, had been
placed, and now we will consider those cases where more than one coin
has been used. The number seems always to be, in this case, limited
to three. A native of Sutherlandshire, now resident in the mainland
of Argyle, remembers as a boy accompanying an old woman to a certain
well near his native place for water to be used to cure a sick child,
believed to have been _air a chronachadh_. The woman had a tin can with
her into which she put a sixpence, a threepenny bit, and other coins,
said our informant, all silver. Before setting out he was warned that
he must not speak a word, but forgetting himself he began to talk. The
woman instantly stopped him, insisting that he must return home at once
if he uttered another word. He kept silence after that, and when they
returned with the water the woman whom he had accompanied sprinkled it
on the sick child.
A native of Lochaber gives the following as the result of his own
observation there. He saw different coins used, but understood that,
at any rate, there should be silver. The description was given in
connection with the use of the water as a diagnostic of _cronachadh_,
and was as follows: The coins were put into an empty dish—a wooden
one—and the water poured upon them was well water, preferably from a
spring. The operator then tilted the dish over and observed whether
the coin adhered to the bottom or fell away. The reciter disclaimed
accurate knowledge, but said he believed if the coins adhered it was an
indication of _cronachadh_, but if they fell away the illness was from
some “natural” cause.
A diagnostic point with this coin water, over which however an
incantation had been repeated, the words of which had not been
understood by the bystanders, was made by a male practitioner of
_eolas_ who, sprinkling the water on some sick cows they immediately
began to bellow, said that beyond doubt they had been afflicted by
“witchcraft.” He inquired if any milk from the cows had been supplied
to others not on the farm, and when told the name of a woman so
supplied, at once said that it was she who had done the mischief. Again
repeating a word formula, whether the same or not, the reciter did not
know, he sprinkled the rest of the water on the cows, and thereafter
their milk was believed to have been quite normal.
A native of Morven giving her account of the practice there, and being
a firm believer in the Evil Eye, said that the water had to be taken
from a well facing the south, and the silver coin being in it, the
water had to be poured into a bottle from the original dish, and the
sticking of the coin to the bottom was a sign of the probable recovery
of the animal for whom the water was intended.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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