Evil eye in the western HighlandsMaclagan, Robert Craig
Religion
Evil eye in the western Highlands
Maclagan, Robert Craig
Evil eye; Folklore; Superstition
Another account of the use of the darning needle comes from Ardrishaig.
Our informant’s grandmother had a cow grazing at the roadside, and
a woman, suspected of having an Evil Eye, passing, said, “_S mart
bhriagh thu, ge bi leis thu_” (“You are a bonnie cow, to whomsoever you
belong”). Shortly after the cow was found “lying rolled up in a lump.”
“My grandmother went with a luggie for water and put a darning needle,
silver, and copper into the water. She then poured some of the water
down the cow’s throat, rubbed her horns with the water, and sprinkled
the rest all over her. In a little the cow was all right.”
The same reciter mentioned another case, in which the operator was
her mother. A calf became ill, and the owners were in doubts what to
do with it. “My mother, remembering my grandfather’s cow, put spring
water in a luggie (it must be spring water) and a silver and a copper
coin and a darning needle. She forced some of the water down the calf’s
throat, and sprinkled the rest over it. The calf recovered, and the
farmer’s wife was so pleased and said to my mother, ‘Well, well, Mrs.
S., I never saw the like of you, you can do anything.’”
No detailed description was given of the stones used, but as
_clach-na-sùil_, the stone (apple) of the eye, is common Gaelic, they
were doubtless of a sort more or less representative of eyes.
From Kintyre, the following information in the words of the reciter
gives us some indication. “They used tae hae a bunch o’ sea-shore
stanes wi’ holes in them hanging up at the door tae keep awa‘ witches.”
The collector had seen such stones in a house in Kintyre, but at the
time did not know their purpose. They were of the honeycombed sort that
may be found on shores where there are quantities of shingle. There
were six or seven tied on a string hung above the inside of the inner
door; they were of different sizes, guessed at from fourteen to sixteen
ounces in weight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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