Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations
in hyphenation and accents have been standardised except in the Gaelic
passages, but all other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.
Italics are represented thus _italic_, bold thus =bold= and
superscripts thus y^{en}.
EVIL EYE
IN THE
WESTERN HIGHLANDS
_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_
THE GAMES AND DIVERSIONS OF
ARGYLESHIRE. Demy 8vo, viii.-270 pp.,
cloth, uncut, 10s. 6d. net.
_This volume forms No. 47 of the Publications
of the Folk-Lore Society._
EVIL EYE
IN THE
WESTERN HIGHLANDS
BY
R. C. MACLAGAN, M.D.
AUTHOR OF
“THE GAMES AND DIVERSIONS OF ARGYLESHIRE”
LONDON
DAVID NUTT, 57-59 LONG ACRE
1902
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
At the Ballantyne Press
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION 1
EVIL EYE 10
LOCALITY OF BELIEF 20
SOCIAL POSITION OF BELIEVERS 22
DESCRIPTION OF POSSESSORS OF EVIL EYE 24
OBJECTION TO MEETING AN EVIL EYE 28
AVOIDING SUSPICION OF EVIL EYE 32
ACTION OF EVIL EYE INDEPENDENT OF POSSESSOR 35
EVIL EYE TAKES EFFECT EVEN ON THINGS NOT SEEN 37
MORAL SOURCE OF THE EVIL EYE 40
THINGS THAT SPECIALLY ATTRACT 43
STRANGERS SPECIALLY LIABLE TO BE ACCUSED OF THE POSSESSION OF THE
EVIL EYE 46
PEOPLE SHOULD GIVE WHEN ASKED 48
SYMPTOMS IN ANIMALS ASCRIBED TO EFFECT OF EVIL EYE 51
BENEFIT TO THE OWNER OF AN EVIL EYE 68
DISADVANTAGE TO THE OWNER OF AN EVIL
EYE 70
CONSEQUENCE OF DIRECT PRAISE 76
A LOOK DOES IT 80
AVOIDING THE LOOK 84
CONVERSION TO BELIEF IN EVIL EYE 88
GIVING AWAY MILK DANGEROUS 89
SCIENCE VERSUS EOLAS 91
HURTER AND HEALER 98
TRANSMISSION OF EOLAS 101
FORMS OF INCANTATION 104
FORM OF PAYMENT 108
THE NECESSITY OF FAITH 112
PREVENTING EVIL BY BLESSING 114
PREVENTING BY DISPRAISING 117
PREVENTING BY ROWAN AND JUNIPER 119
PREVENTING BY HORSE NAILS AND SHOES 121
PREVENTING BY A SMALL GIFT 122
A PREVENTATIVE BY BURNING CLOTHING 125
PREVENTION BY SPITTING 126
PREVENTING BY CHURNING 129
PREVENTION BY PECULIARITY IN CLOTHES 131
TAR AS PREVENTATIVE 132
NICKING THE EAR 134
URINE AS PREVENTATIVE 135
A BURNT OFFERING 140
CHARMS. (STRING) 141
UISGE A’ CHRONACHAIDH (WATER OF INJURY) 151
STONES AND WATER 167
IRON AND WATER 172
WOOD AND WATER 175
SALT AS CURE AND PREVENTATIVE 176
MOST SUITABLE WATER 181
TABOO WHEN IN POSSESSION OF WATER 184
WATER, WHERE APPLIED 192
ODD CURES 195
HONEYSUCKLE CURE 195
CAT CURE 196
RUBBING HAIR THE WRONG WAY 196
CHANGING THE FIREPLACE 197
THE POWER OF A CHILD’S MUTCH 197
WHISKY CURE 198
LEAD DROPPING 198
AN EYE FOR AN EYE 200
SHOWING WHO IS THE MISCHIEF MAKER 205
PUTTING ELSEWHERE 214
APPENDIX 219
INDEX 225
EVIL EYE
INTRODUCTION
The Evil Eye is a superstition arising not from local circumstances,
or peculiarity of a great or small division of the human family, but
is a result of an original tendency of the human mind. The natural
irritation felt at the hostile look of a neighbour, still more of an
enemy, is implanted in the breast of all, however much they may be
influenced by moral teaching. When we add to this the feeling that some
valued possession has attracted the coveteous desire of another, the
fear of loss is added to the irritation of mere anger. To some such
natural feeling we must ascribe the belief in an Evil Eye.
Theories of an origin more restricted, founded on the fear of loss or
damage to particular possessions of individuals guaranteed them by the
custom of law, developed in the community of which they form part,
scarcely satisfy after inquiry. Where a subsistence can be easily
procured the Evil Eye would be little regarded in connection with food,
but might naturally develop itself in connection with the relations of
the sexes. No doubt the latter, the most interesting to individuals of
all passions, causes feelings of hostility between rivals universally,
but where the food supply is difficult to procure one would naturally
expect that damage from the covetous desires of others, where they
seemed to affect the life-preserving store, would become equally
important.
In the following study of the belief of an Evil Eye among the
Gaelic-speaking peoples of Scotland at the present day, an attempt is
made neither to disguise nor to improve upon what those in contact with
believers have learned from their mouths. The writer is a believer
in the Evil Eye only in so far as it may be a term for the natural
selfishness of the human being, as a “tender heart” is a recognised way
of speaking of a nature apt to sympathy. Selfishness, natural to all
of us, is apt to find expression in our habits, however much we may
disguise it by religious or charitable profession. Were it a part of
our nature to have for our neighbour the same affection that we have
for ourselves, no such superstition as that of the Evil Eye could have
arisen. But we are not made that way, and so reformers, in endeavouring
to cure this sin, as they consider it, have preached and tried to
practise such ordinances as “Thou shalt not covet,” and “Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself.” Truly hard sayings, and in nine hundred
and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand with difficulty getting beyond
the status of a pious opinion.
Not that that teaching has been without effect; and we may hope that
with the extension of communications and the progress gradually being
made to that condition of things where
“Man to man the world o’er
Shall brithers be for a’ that,”
the _bad e’e_ may some day in these isles be merely a study for
folklorists as Totemism is, and as difficult to find as an auk’s egg.
Right or wrong, the theory here advanced accounts, satisfactorily, as
far as the writer can judge, for the present-day widespread belief in
Scotland of the power for evil of the glance of the human eye.
As will be seen afterwards, there are those who theorise on the bad
heart influencing the eye, the ill effect of the Evil Eye only arising
from the glance of the covetous; but this is probably the result of
preconceived religious ideas, and of the moral teaching to which its
believers have been accustomed. It is not to be wondered at; it would
be impossible indeed, but that the teaching of Christianity should have
affected and given a direction to this ancient superstition. Thus we
find it Christianised to a marked degree, its origin is conceived of
as a breaking of the commandment “Thou shalt not covet,” and its cures
are mostly connected with a reference to the Deity, and to the Trinity
of the Christian. The magic thread with the three knots on it, though
heathen in its origin, has surely some connection with the rosary, the
aspersion with water, with baptism, and the holy water of the Roman
Church. But it is not a superstition introduced with Christianity, it
is as native as the heather of our hills, or the sandstone rock of the
Coronation Stone.
This statement might be safely enough advanced upon general principles,
but we are not without satisfactory literary evidence of what we
advance. In the Ossianic “_Acallam na Senorach_” (The Colloquy with
the Ancient Men), the second longest prose composition of the mediæval
Irish, a collection (probably made in the late twelfth or thirteenth
century) of separate stories united together in one framework, we find
the following as related in MSS. of the fifteenth century and later.
The Fiann are on a visit to the King of Munster. The son of the King of
Ulster marries the daughter of the King of Munster.
“The damsel bore him a famous and beautiful son named Fer Oc (‘young
man’), and in all Ireland there were scarcely one whose shape and
vigour and spear-casting were as good as his.”
On a subsequent visit, the three battalions of the Fiann are lost in
admiration of the activity and skill of a young man who turns out to be
this Fer Oc. “Then was a hunt and a battue held by the three battalions
of the Fiann. Howbeit, on that day, owing to Fer Oc (and his superior
skill) to none of the Fiann it fell to get first blood of pig or deer.
Now when they came home, after finishing the hunt, a sore lung-disease
attacked Fer Oc, through the (evil) eyes of the multitude and the envy
of the great host, and it killed him, soulless, at the end of nine
days.” “He was buried on yonder green-grassed hill,” says Cailte, “and
the shining stone that he held when he was at games and diversion is
that yonder rising out of his head.”[1] The Gaelic here simply says
“_tre tsuilib na sochaide_” (through the eyes of the multitude), and
it will be seen that modern reciters sometimes speak in exactly the
same way of the “eye” unqualified, but meaning the Evil Eye. But there
is more than this in the story; it is a young man who suffers, and
the young are most easily affected. It is a remarkable and handsome
youth that suffers, and what attracts the eye, especially beauty, is
peculiarly liable to injury, and the statement is made that it was the
envious glance which affected the victim. _Cormac’s Glossary_ (an Irish
compilation begun in the tenth century, and added to throughout the
Middle Ages), preserved in MSS. of the commencement of the fifteenth
century, mentions the Evil Eye:—
_Milled_ (spoiling, hurting, (_b_) _i.e._ _mi shilledh_, a mislook,
_i.e._ an evil eye).
_Millead i mi shillead i silled olc._ [Or as in another MS.]
_Milliud quasi mishilliud i drochshilliud._
To this O’Clery adds “_no droch amharc_,” while O’Donovan’s note at
(_b_) is “the evil eye,” “the injury done by the evil eye.”[2]
[1] _Irische Texte._ Stokes and Windisch, fourth series, vol i. pp.
232, 234, 161.
[2] _Cormac’s Glossary_, translated by O’Donovan, edited by Whitley
Stokes, p. 107; and _Three Irish Glossaries_, by W. S., p. 28.
Our business is with the so-called facts of the Evil Eye, and whether
or not in this case the philology of the compiler of the _Glossary_
is right, there can be no sort of doubt of the allusion being to the
present living belief in the Evil Eye.
Apart from the doing of evil, and causing sickness and death without
immediate increase to the possessions of the witch, the effect of the
Evil Eye centres round the natural covetousness of the greedy person.
Where the owner of an evil eye gets no benefit himself, the effect
ascribed is always to diminish what he might envy in the possession
of another. It is always the young and _toradh_ of cattle (milk and
butter), or the fruits of the labour of the owner that is lessened
or destroyed. Whatever the philological root of this word _toradh_,
it must surely be allied with the irregular verb _thoir_ (give);
and though there seems at first sight no close relationship between
personal beauty and a good churning, yet both of them are highly
prized gifts. _Toradh_ means fruit produce; thus Cain’s offering was
the _toradh_ of the earth.
The expression used in Kintyre for the power of taking away produce
is _pisreag_. In Arran the word applied to the curative measures
is _pisearachd_. _Piseach_ means increase; thus in Proverbs xviii.
20, where it is said that a man shall be filled with the “increase
of his lips,” the Gaelic word used is _piseach_, and so it comes
to mean progeny and good fortune. _Piseach ort_ (Good fortune be
yours). Irish Gaelic gives _piseog_ (witchcraft). Surely this is a
secondary meaning from the idea of increase and good fortune being in
certain cases brought about by charms and witchery. And thus we have
found _pisearachd_ explained as the Arran and Kintyre equivalent for
_geasarachd_, of which all the evidence seems to favour its primary
signification being connected with spells and charms.
Another word which has been used to collectors for _eolas_ (science
of its own magical sort) is _fiosachd_, which the dictionaries give
as meaning “foretelling,” “augury.” This seems to be a secondary and
limited application of a term meaning possession of _fios_ (knowledge,
information).
The popular mixing up of legitimate curative measures, such as come
from the administration of drugs, with what undoubtedly is considered
illegitimate, namely, the use of charms and sorcery in general, is
of course as common as can be in the experience of those in contact
with genuine savagery, but it occurs also nearer home. A native of
Arran tells how she remembers an old woman, of whom the people were
afraid because she was supposed to be a witch. The groundwork of this
accusation was that she was to be often seen gathering herbs, and the
reciter remembers when she herself was a girl, that, to use her own
words, it was “the fright of her life” to meet her in a lonely place,
or in the dark.
* * * * *
An inquiry such as this has to be conducted with care. The believer
is sensitive to ridicule, and would take as a mortal offence being
publicly gibbeted, so as to cause animadversion from others, even
when he himself is convinced of the truth of his beliefs and sayings.
For this reason we must be excused giving the name and residence of
the various reciters. The information has to be drawn in general
conversation and incidentally, but every care has been taken to avoid
recounting anything in which _mala fides_ is suspected. We consider in
many cases things told by a daughter of her mother, or a son of his
father, as equally reliable as if detailed by himself when we know
they have been recited originally for information of the juniors.
Undoubtedly the younger generation are in many cases more critical than
their forefathers; but we have no hesitation in maintaining that what
will hereafter be set down allows of a fairly perfect appreciation of
the belief of the great majority of the less educated class, and of
many much above that in the West Highlands, up to the introduction of
the School Board as a universal institution. Of course there always
were doubters, and the tricks played to take a rise out of a believer
by an unbeliever may sometimes figure as accepted evidence of the bad
effects of the Evil Eye, when it was a trick played off merely for
fun, though in other cases deliberately intended to mislead. Tricks,
however, will not carry us back to an original cause, however much
they may have helped the maintenance of the belief in superstitious
minds. These fail entirely in power of appreciation of the jocular,
when what is done is dangerous according to their ideas. A strong
believer in the Evil Eye, and of course much afraid of it, in the
island of Skye, was one day out among the cows. Two of his neighbours
passing, one of them, a bit of a wag, said to his companion: “_Bheir
mi da sgillinn duit ma theid thu agus do cheann a chuir fodh’n mhart
sin agus glaodh ’nach mor an t-uth tha aig a bho_” (“I will give you
twopence if you will go and put your head under that cow and cry,
Hasn’t the cow the big udder?”)
The fellow agreed, and went and bent his head under the cow and
shouted out at the top of his voice, calling Rory’s attention to his
supposititious admiration of the remarkable development of the cow in
question. The man tempted to make the remark was “a little soft.” Rory
at once thinking of the Evil Eye, seized his stick and rushed at him,
threatening to break his head if he would not at once bless the cow.
The suborned perpetrator of the joke, it need scarcely be said, at once
took the method demanded to counteract his injudicious praise. How many
of us are, not in the belief of the Evil Eye, but in other beliefs,
just as touchy as our friend Rory.
The stick may be good enough for a defence of superstition, but
ridicule is the proper method of attack.
A young intelligent lady was lately in a house in the village of
Golspie, the occupant of which, mourning over the dying of her
fowls, said she suspected it was the result of the Evil Eye of Mrs.
X., a neighbour. The next day, being in the same house, another
neighbour came in carrying a growing plant, which she presented to the
complainer, saying: “Mrs. X. told me that you had your eye on this,
and ever since it has done no good; the leaves have been withering and
falling off. Now!—there it is to you! keep it.”
The person superstitious enough to believe in the force of the Evil Eye
may well be expected to have his superstitious faculty developed in
other directions. A child took ill, and its parents believed it was the
Evil Eye of a certain woman which had done the harm. With the view of
bringing her to confess her doings, or in any case to punish her, they
procured a square of turf, and having stuck a lot of pins in it, they
placed it on the fire. This action, one of the forms of the so-called
_corp creadha_, was intended to do personal injury to the suspected
party. There was no evidence of it having had any effect whatever.
EVIL EYE
After the long existence in this country of Christianity, while we talk
composedly of the superstitions of the heathen and of other Christian
nations, we are apt to forget our own, or if we speak of them, we look
on them pityingly as peculiar to some individuals of whose opinion
we reckon little. In towns, and among those who read many books,
the constant friction of man against man hinders the survival of a
belief in such a thing as the Evil Eye, now that a certain quantity
of education is common property. Where the incidents of life are less
crowded, and individual experiences are rarer and at longer intervals,
that is, in country districts and especially in the more mountainous
and less closely populated, the Evil Eye has yet in Scotland many
believers, and consequently considerable influence. Such a remark as
the following, made to a minister, is not so rare as one might suppose:
“Nae doot whatever Mac had the Evil Eye, that’s certain. I have known
many cases when a calf, or even a cow, died the day after he looked at
her.” Another said of the same: “I was once in the dairy when he came
in. ‘You should not have let that bad man in,’ said Nancy MacIntyre to
me. ‘Why?’ said I. ‘Because he has an Evil Eye,’ said she. Now, I will
not say that this was true, but this I know, that on that very day one
of the cows bursted, and died from eating clover. What do ye say to
that?”
Another sample is the following: A farmer’s son, whose father had lost
a horse, was thus addressed by a neighbour, “You had a horse that was
ill, is it better?” “Oh no, it is dead.” “You are unfortunate this
year. Isn’t that four that have died on you?” “Yes, but we know now
what was wrong with them.” “Weel, that’s well; ye’ll know what to
do should any more take ill. What was wrong with them?” “They were
_air-an-cronachadh_” (harmed). “Such nonsense! there is nothing of
that now.” The lad did not agree with this, said they knew who did it,
and the lad’s interrogator’s mother-in-law joined in the conversation,
agreeing as to the correctness of the diagnosis; and the doubter
rejoined, “Well, if you are all against me, I may stop.”
An Argyllshire islander says:—
“_Tha buideachas uile air falbh anis agus is math gu bheil, oir be
ni olc a bha ann. Ach, ma dh’fhalbh sin, tha rud eile nach d’fhalbh
fathast, agus ‘se sin cronachadh. Chunnaic m’i ann mo thigh fein
mucuircean, agus thainig ban-choimhearsnach a steach latha, agus
thubhairt i gum bu mhuc ciatach a bha’n sin. ‘Tha i gle mhath,’
fhreagair mi fhein. Well, chaidh am boireannach a mach, agus cha robh
i tiota air falbh, nur a thug a mhuc an aon sgreach aisde agus air
dol mun cuairt dith, thuit i air an urlar. Le so, thainig D. ‘ac A. a
stigh, agus fheoraich e ‘Co an t-aon mu dheireadh a chunnaic a mhuc?’
Dh’ innis mi fhein dha, gum be a leithid so ‘a bhean. ‘Mata’ ars esan,
‘s ise rinn an t-olc. Ach ma tha uillidh sam bi lar ruit, cha chreid
mi gum bi mise fada ga cuir ceirt. Fhuair mi dha uillidh nam piocach,
agus ghabh e a mhuc eadar a dha chois, agus thaom e lan copa dheth na
beul. Thug a mhuc reibhig, agus shaoil mi fhein gu robh i air chuthach
ach ann a’ mionaid a dh’uine, bha i ceirt gu leoir; Nis, nach be sud an
droch bhean?_”
(“Witchcraft is all gone now, and it is well it is, for it was a bad
thing. But if that is gone, there is another thing that has not gone
yet, and that is _Cronachadh_. I saw a breeding sow in my own house,
and one day a neighbour came in, and she said that that was a splendid
sow. I answered that she was very good. Well, the woman went out, and
she was no time away when the sow gave such a scream, and going round
about she fell on the floor. With this D. Mac A. came in, and he asked
who was the last person that had seen the sow. I told him it was such
and such a woman. ‘Well,’ said he, ‘it was she that did the harm, but
if you have any oil beside you, I believe I shall not be long putting
her right.’ I got saithe oil for him, and he took the sow between his
two legs, and poured a cupful into her mouth. She screamed, and I
thought she was mad, but in a minute’s time she was all right. Now,
wasn’t that the bad woman?”)
A young fellow who had received a liberal education, in fact, a
probationer of the Church, the son of a self-made man, fairly
well-to-do, avowed his own belief in the Evil Eye. He said in effect:
“As sure as you and I are sitting here there is an Evil Eye in it.
I know that when I was in Harris, and our M. an infant, there was a
certain woman who used to come in pretty often, the sister-in-law of
H., you know, and my wife, who you know is not one to tell a lie or
speak about these things, told me that every time that woman came in
she would be praising the child, and the child was always unwell after
it.”
We thus see, though we know that ministers of the Church are by their
profession kept in the dark on matters of which they would express
unbelief, yet that where a superstition is ingrained in a parishioner
it is not concealed from the minister. Ministers may be misled by
putting their own interpretation on the form in which the information
comes to them. A clergyman in one of the Western Islands said: “I
have observed that there is still a strong belief in blighting from
the Evil Eye among the people in the parish of K. A respectable and
intelligent man whom I visited often during a season of sickness,
once and again, when talking about his illness, made the remark
‘_fhuair mi cronachadh_.’ I always misunderstood what the man meant by
_cronachadh_, taking it in the sense of reproof, and therefore thinking
that what was meant was that the sufferer was placed under chastisement
by a dispensation of Providence. At last, however, I learned from a
third person that the sick man was strongly impressed with the belief
that his illness was caused by some evil-intentioned person who had
wished him ill.” This suggests witchcraft as much as or even more than
the Evil Eye; but the two things run into each other more or less.
We have already seen one Gaelic reciter maintaining that witchcraft,
_buidseachas_, did not now exist, but the Evil Eye did. Compare that
with this from a native of Uist:—
“_Ma ta bha buidseashas ann. Chaidh mi fhein aon latha gu tigh
coimhearsnaich airson coileach oig, agus bha laogh aca ceangailte aig
cul an doruis. Cha robh mi fada san tigh gus an d’thainig nighean a
steach. ’Nuair a fhuair mise an t-eun, dh’fhalbh mi, agus cha robh
mi ach beagan uine air falbh ’nuair a dh’fhas an laogh tinn. Chuir
muinntir an tighe fios thun boireannach a bha ’n sin, aig an robh sgil
mu bhuidseachas, mar bhiodh daoine ’g radh, ga h-iarruidh a thighinn
a dh’-amhairc an laogh. Thainig am boireannach, ach ma thainig, bha an
laogh marbh mus d’thainig i. Co luath ’s a dh’amhairc i air thubhairt
i riutha air an spot gum b’e ’n “suill” a dh’aobhraich am bas. Agus
air bharrachd air sin, dh’innis i dhoibh co rinn an gonadh. So mar
thubhairt i. “Nach robh dithist bhoireannaich agaibh an so am eigin
an diugh?” Agus ’nuair a fhreagair iad gun robh, thubhairt ise. “Bha
h-aon diubh soilleir, agus an te eile dorcha. Bha shawl glas air an te
shoilleir, agus b’bise a dh’oibrich am buidseachas._”
“_Nis bha sin gle fhior, oir bha an nighean a thainig a steach nur bha
mise san tigh soilleir, agus bha shawl glas oirre cuideachd._”
“Indeed, witchery was in it. I myself went one day to a neighbour’s
house for a young cock, and they had a calf tied behind the door. I was
not long in the house till a girl came in. When I got the bird I went
away, and I was only a short time away when the calf became unwell.
The people of the house sent word to a woman that was there, who had
skill of witchery, as people would be saying, asking her to come to
look at the calf. The woman came, but if (she) came, the calf was dead
before she came. As soon as she looked on it, she said to them on the
spot, that it was the ‘Eye’ that caused the death. And more than that,
she told them who had done the mischief (wounding). Here is how she
said: ‘Have you not had two women here sometime to-day?’ and when they
answered that there had been, she said: ‘One of them was fair and the
other dark. There was a grey shawl on the fair one, and it was she that
wrought the witchery.’ Now that was quite true, for the girl that came
in when I was in the house was fair, and there was a grey shawl on
her.”
A woman of about sixty-five, a reader of history and Gaelic
publications, remembers when the belief in the Evil Eye was so common
in Islay, that when any disease came among a person’s cattle, it
gave rise at once to a strong suspicion that they had been _air an
cronachadh_. The disease was called “_dosgach_.” When one would come
with the news of disease or death among a neighbour’s cattle, the
person to whom it was told would say, “_Mach an dosgach a so_”; or,
“_Mach a so an droch sgeul_” (“Away the plague from here;” or, “Away
the evil news from here.”) At the same time, suiting the action to the
words, he would tear some piece off the clothes he had on at the time
and throw it into the fire. This was supposed to prevent the evil from
coming his way.
Indeed there are very many who still act on the belief expressed in
the following, by an old distillery workman, uneducated, but naturally
shrewd, though we would say credulous: “They will be saying to me that
we have no mention of _cronachadh_ in the Bible, and they will be
putting it down my throat, but I tell them that it is there. Both the
Evil Eye and Witchcraft were in it from the beginning, and they will be
in it till the end.”
We may mention here that there is a very strong belief among many of
the influence of the “wish” for good or evil. “B. McL. affirms that
if she wishes ill to any person ill is sure to follow, and if she
wishes well good will come of it. She maintained that a person, lately
dangerously ill, owed her recovery to her good wishes.” A person
has only to maintain this view, and the superstitious will probably
find reasons for believing that it is true. This, however, opens the
question of the _guidhe_ (imprecation or intercession, as the case may
be), and there are not a few who are applied to to make _guidhes_ of
both sorts.
We must consider the meaning of the terms used.
In South Argyllshire the common expression regarding a person or thing
affected is that it is _air a chronachadh_, or, as another in Northern
Argyll expressed it, _air a chronachen_. _Cron_ means a fault or
defect, and the verb used seems to be an expression of the opinion that
something is wrong with the object, the usual meaning of the word being
best translated “reproved,” or “rebuked”; the speaker, as it were,
finding some fault in the person or thing spoken to, he _sees_ that
it is faulty, and says so. In the case of a person with an Evil Eye,
he actually causes defect to the object. Now the same would be true
of black magic; thus, _air a chronachadh_ is as apposite to a person
affected by witchcraft as by the Evil Eye. It is necessary therefore
to distinguish, when one hears of a case of _cronachadh_, whether it
is by mischievous intention or not; and this is done sometimes by the
reciter. Thus, a person consulted to cure an animal affected, when
telling who it was that was to blame for the evil, said: “_Well, ’se
duine le ceann dubh a chronaich do bho leis an droch shuil_” (“Well,
it is a man with a black head that has injured your cow, with the Evil
Eye”).
In many districts this expression would merely convey the idea
of rebuke (Tyree, Lewis, Dornoch, Kiltearn). In these places the
expression usually is _Luidh droch shuil air_ (An evil eye rested on
him). In Easter Ross, a person desirous of avoiding reflections would
say: “_Cha’n eil mi cuir mo shuil ann_” (“I am not putting my eye
in it”). Even in Arisaig in Southern Inverness-shire, marching with
Argyllshire, they use this expression only.
We have already given above, from Uist, an instance in which the
speaker simply called it “the Eye,” neither qualifying it as good or
bad.
The rapidity of the action is sometimes expressed thus:—A healer called
in, said in one case: “_Teum do bho, a bhean_,” equivalent to saying,
“Your cow is bitten or stung,” the word _teum_ being also applied to
something snatched. The operation of the Evil Eye in Uist is described
by a parallel phrase, _air a ghonadh_ (stabbed), an expression which
has been used in Kintyre as synonymous with _cronachadh_, though there
it generally expresses pain felt either bodily or mentally.
An elderly woman, a native of Duthill, Inverness-shire, while stating
that there were “plenty of people round about us here who have got the
Evil Eye and hurt both cattle and people with it,” gave the following
as the expressions used when mentioning it:—
_Thuit droch shuil air_ (An evil eye fell on him).
_Ghabh an droch shuil e_ (The evil eye took him).
_Laidh droch shuil air_ (An evil eye settled on him).
_Bhuail droch shuil e_ (An evil eye struck him).
In the part of Ireland nearest to Scotland at any rate, and so far as
the writer knows also in other places, the expression used in English
is “blinked.” The readiest conclusion come to as to what is wrong with
a sick cow is that “she has been blinked.” Blinked milk, therefore, is
milk which yields no butter. Blinked beer, beer which has become sour.
All these expressions, then, of the action of _an suil dona_, the
common expression in part of Inverness-shire, which, seeing “Donas”
is the Devil, we might translate the “diabolical eye,” evidently point
to the fact that a mere look will do the damage; so the remark of
the Islay man, “_Ni an fheadhainn aig am bheil an t-suil so cron air
beathach neo duine ged nach dean iad ach amhairc orra_” (“Those who
have this eye will do injury to beast or person, though they do nothing
but look on them”), expresses clearly what seems to have been the
original notion conveyed in the expressions used.
A strange charm for the closure of the eye was expressed in Arran by
the following saying: “_Cronachadh air do shuil, cac eun air muin sin_”
(“Ill on your eye, birds’ excrement on the back of that”). This was an
old practice, according to the reciter, who is a woman of about eighty.
The account she gave was as follows:—Her father had bought some cattle
at the market. “They were fine beasts, and the servantman and I, then a
young girl, were driving them home. When we were passing King’s Cross a
man stood and looked keenly at them. The servantman did not like this,
and turning towards him said the words recited.” They were avowedly
used to save the cattle from being hurt by the man’s eye, and as the
old lady said, “Whether that saved them or no I could not tell, but in
any case we reached home safely and no harm came to the cows.”
The Islay expression already quoted, _Mach an dosgach_, contains
within it the suggestion of evil coming to the unprotected, _Dosgadh_
(calamity, misfortune), etymologically having the signification,
_without protection_.[3] Subsequently we will find that no grown
person need be unprotected if he will take a very small amount of
trouble.
[3] Macbain, “Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language.“
Another Arran formula used in connection with the Evil Eye, and said
to be protective, was mentioned in an account of a shepherd who lived
in the island, said to have an Evil Eye. He could hurt cattle, and
also cure the effect of the Evil Eye of another. The reciter said he
was a queer fellow, and remembers him at the first Cattle Show ever he
(reciter) attended, and being frightened by being addressed, with other
boys, for being in his road: “_Mach a sin leibh. Cha’n ann airson an
itheadh a tha iad_” (“Out of that with you. They are not for eating”),
said the shepherd, as he drove his cattle. His mentioning eating
recalled to the boys’ minds his Evil Eye, and the following formula
to be repeated in cases of _cronachadh_. “_Ma dh’itheas iad thu, gun
sgeith iad thu, agus gun garbh sgeith iad thu_” (“If they eat you, may
they vomit you, and roughly vomit you”). This seems to be chaff from
non-believers to believers, possibly also the case with the formula
above, more than a thing really said with a belief in its curative
power.
LOCALITY OF BELIEF
There is a considerable difference between some wandering folklorist
happening on a superstitious survival in some ancient crone or secluded
corner, and in the general acceptation by many, if not by a majority,
of some belief regarded by the more instructed as to be so classed.
The belief in the Evil Eye in the West of Scotland comes decidedly
under the latter category. Interrogatories show that it exists in
Caithness, Sutherland, Ross-shire, Inverness-shire, Elgin, Argyll,
Perthshire, in the Lewis, Harris, both Uists, Barra, Skye, Tiree,
Islay, the Isle of Man, Arran, and Antrim in Ireland. A wide enough
field this. Of course there are many unbelievers, of all classes
nearly, though the less the education, the more frequent the evidences
of belief. An attempt to state a proportion of believers as against
unbelievers is quite out of the question. One witness will tell you it
was common enough in his youth, or _very common_, but in speaking of
the present day, reliable witnesses will say, perhaps, most usually
“pretty common,” or “quite common,” not unfrequently, however, “very
common,” or, as one unbeliever said, “you hear of them often enough.” A
cautious man, when you try to get exact information as to the potency
of the belief, will answer that it is “strongly” held by some, and of
this there can be no sort of doubt; and it is much more common than
most people think.
Though we are treating of the Highlands and Islands, it must not be
supposed that the “ill e’e” is a Highland speciality, speaking of
Scotland alone, of course. It may with perfect sincerity be said, with
all due caution, that it is “pretty common” among Lowlanders also.
SOCIAL POSITION OF BELIEVERS
The persons among whom this belief is most usual are undoubtedly to
be found principally among the agricultural and fishing population,
though it is not unknown, by any means, even in such a town as Oban,
where a reciter of Evil Eye incidents says “it is pretty common.” When
one speaks of a farmer in many parts of the Low Country, one naturally
thinks of well-educated men with comparatively large holdings, and such
men, of course, are to be met with in the Highlands in appreciable
numbers. There is no evidence that these have faith in the Evil Eye;
but the smaller farmers, doing their own work with assistance, are
often deeply imbued. A native of Kintyre says, “I know a respectable
farmer who, when anything goes wrong with his horses, is quite in the
habit of suspecting that it is injury by the Evil Eye, and will send at
once for a certain woman in the neighbourhood, who is supposed to be
able to cure in cases of _cronachadh_.”
So lately as July 1898, in one of the islands a child was unwell. The
doctor was there and the minister was there, but still the child was
getting worse. At length the parents concluded that it was a case
of _cronachadh_, and a man who practises as a professional in cases
of that kind was sent for. On arriving he confirmed them in their
suspicion, and told them that it was a woman with brown hair that had
done the harm. The reciter (a minister’s wife) did not know what
means he took to cure the child, but whatever they were they were not
successful. The child died.
Most of our beliefs are inherited, and so it is, perhaps, no wonder
if one comes upon a young man, a probationer of the Church who has
gone through his curriculum of study, and yet believes in the Evil
Eye. No evidence, however, is forthcoming of a licensed medical man
having any belief in it. It must be admitted that the greater part of
the information is got from women, and if believers were polled, the
majority would be found of the less stern sex.
From the small farmer downwards, among all owners of stock, and this
includes chickens and the pig, believers are frequent.
In some places there is but little secrecy as to those who have
the Evil Eye, or at least are supposed to have it. We refrain from
publishing the full names, so that if by any chance those spoken of
see this they may not be offended; but this is a sample of a common
style of remark: “_Tha, tha, tha droch shuil aig Anna nic E. Nach robh
Mrs. MacT. ag innseadh dhomh fhein nach bu mhor nach robh aon da clann
marbh le droch shuil a’ bhoirionnach sin uair. Bha e air a chronachadh
leatha, agus bhitheadh e marbh ach airson Anna T._” (“Yes, yes, Ann
McE. has an Evil Eye. Was not Mrs. MacT. telling myself that one of her
children was once nearly dead through the Evil Eye of that woman. He
was injured by her, and would have been dead had it not been for Ann
T.”) Ann T. was a practitioner of _eolas_.
DESCRIPTION OF POSSESSORS OF EVIL EYE
Anybody may have the Evil Eye, but that certain people suggest the
Evil Eye to others from their appearance must be admitted. A minister,
himself a son of the manse, who has had Highland surroundings all his
early life, bears witness, “The possession was more frequently ascribed
to females than to males, and for the most part to elderly women.”
Another minister, an older man than the former, says of the Evil Eye:
“They were chiefly women that were suspected, and were generally much
disliked in the communities.” These two reciters were as far apart as
Arran and Ross-shire.
Was the Evil Eye ascribed to them because they were disliked, or were
they disliked because they had the Evil Eye? Women do not improve in
appearance with age, nor men either, for the matter of that, and one
of our reciters, in describing a case of _cronachadh_, said that the
operator was “a bad-looking woman at any rate, and had a queer look.”
In Knapdale we hear of one who was “a decent enough looking woman, but
there was this about her, people always suspected her of having some
evil power, and nobody liked to refuse her if she asked anything.”
Another of the accused was “strange in her dress, and spoke in an
imperious manner.”
It is curious to note that, having quoted all the descriptions of
individuals we have, the criticisms should all be levelled at women;
but it must not be supposed that men are at all exempt. The writer was
amused, and not a little astonished, to hear that an old gentleman, a
connection of his own, a large farmer and not unknown beyond his own
district, certainly not a greedy man, and a pleasant companion, was
among some as notorious for his Evil Eye as for his knowledge of his
business. He was a Low Country man by descent, ignorant of Gaelic,
and surrounded by Gaelic-speaking Highlanders, some of whom however,
proprietors and taxmen, were said to be as bad as himself.
The only diagnostic mark that has been mentioned, physically
demonstrating a possessor, was got from an Islay woman, who said that
she had always heard that a person whose eyes are of a different colour
has the Evil Eye. This seems explicable enough; if one were a nice
bright blue eye or a deep and gentle brown one, and the other paler
and less expressive, their best friends might say that they had a “bad
eye.” All the parti-coloured eyes in Scotland would not account for a
tenth part of the results accredited to evil eyes.
Small are the changes in the ideas of men in some respects, even after
long intervals.
In the old Irish saga, entitled the _Sack of Da Derga’s Hostel_,
describing events which occurred, according to the Irish analysts,
either B.C. 31, or A.D. 43:[4] “When they were there they saw a lone
woman coming to the door of the hostel, after sunset, and seeking to be
let in. As long as a weaver’s beam was each of her two shins, and they
were as dark as the back of a stag-beetle. A greyish, woolly mantle
she wore. Her lower hair used to reach as far as her knee. Her lips
were on one side of her head. She came and put one of her shoulders
against the door-post of the house, casting the Evil Eye on the King
and the youths who surrounded him in the hostel.”[5]
[4] Translated by Whitley Stokes, _Revue Celtique_, vol. xxii. p. 12.
[5] Whitley Stokes, _Revue Celtique_, xxii. pp. 57-59. The existing
redaction of within saga is certainly as old as the tenth century.
The Gaelic word translated by Stokes here “casting the Evil Eye” is in
the original Gaelic “_oc admilliud ind rig_,” literally to this day
“hurting or spoiling the king,” _cronachadh_, in fact. It says nothing
of incantations or magical observances, and the translation given seems
thoroughly justified. The description of Cailb, Samon, Sinand (she was
the possessor of many names), of course imaginatively exaggerates her
ugliness, but her evil looks, with her black fire-burned shins, is just
what one would expect to hear of an old woman credited with the Evil
Eye nowadays, though it is not now common to expose so much leg as to
show the effect of toasting it at the fire.
One can easily fancy that the warriors of Ireland would have no
pleasure in encountering Cailb. A like objection is common in the
present day in regard to persons with an Evil Eye.
A Western Islander says: “People would be blaming J. B., but there was
one worse than her. Nobody who ever met M. McA. when on his way to
fish, would go on, for it was believed that no fish would be got after
meeting her.” The reciter himself and another man were on their way to
fish when they met this woman. The other suggested that there was no
use going now, for they would not get anything, that was sure. The
reciter said that he grudged turning back, although he believed his
companion was right; but not to waste time, and to avoid the chance of
other mischief, they both returned home.
“J. McE. was said to have the Evil Eye, and no one liked to meet her if
they were going on important business, especially to fish; some would
even turn back if they met her.”
OBJECTION TO MEETING AN EVIL EYE
Another informant, speaking of a woman with an Evil Eye and who
consequently was unlucky to meet, said: “Three fishermen met her, and
one of them proposed that they should turn back; it was no use going
on, they would get nothing. The others persisted and overruled him.
They were for a while unsuccessful, and he who had proposed returning
was very impatient, and kept grumbling and saying they should have
returned home. They did catch a few at last.”
Speaking of those who were supposed to take the milk and butter from
other people’s cows, an educated Arran man said: “This class were
looked upon as being unlucky to meet on the road, and people tried to
avoid them, especially if they were going on any particular business.”
One would suppose that it would be exceedingly unpleasant to have the
reputation of an Evil Eye, consequently it is resented, but precautions
are taken sometimes, even before the accusation is made, to hinder the
report arising about individuals. In one village, where twice a week
a number of fishermen pass, the women and girls of the village try
to keep out of sight of the men on their way to the fishing-ground,
lest, if by chance a fisher should see one of them and he was unlucky
immediately thereafter, he would report to the rest his want of luck
and whom he had met, and she would be marked as one of the unlucky.
The reciter of this was an intelligent domestic servant, twenty-four
years old, a reliable girl, brought up by respectable grandparents.
A Kintyre reciter, an educated woman of about thirty, informs us of
a woman, a believer in the Evil Eye, living beside her father, and
who does not conceal the fact that she looks with some suspicion upon
certain of her acquaintances should they come her way, particularly
should she be engaged in churning. Her neighbours, knowing this, are
careful to avoid going to her house if she has a churning on hand.
Suspected persons do not learn their own infirmity merely by being
looked at askance.
A clergyman in one of the southern islands informs us: “It is said
that in cases where injury has been done by the Evil Eye, a remedy is
to charge the suspected party firmly and distinctly to his (or her)
face with having done it. When a little boy, a cow belonging to his
grandmother had lately calved, and a neighbour woman came one day and
went to see the cow. She was considered to be a respectable person,
even a good woman, but was believed to possess the Evil Eye. She was
no time away when the cow became very unwell, although there had been
nothing wrong with her up till then. There was considerable excitement,
and they were sure that the cow would die, and just as sure it was
the woman’s Evil Eye that had injured her. Another woman was sent
for, supposed to be knowing in these matters, and the case submitted
to her. She confirmed them in their suspicions, and advised, as the
best remedy, that she who had done the mischief should be confronted
and plainly told to her face that they believed her to be to blame.
This was agreed to and carried out at once, with the result, as it was
believed, that whatever power she had obtained over the cow to hurt her
was broken, and in a very short time the cow was as well as she had
ever been.”
An Arran woman tells us the same thing in some detail, but she says the
injury can only be repaired by the doer of the mischief taking upon
himself the evil done to the other, and illustrates it by the following
story:—A tramp who was supposed to have a bad eye, and even suspected
of witchcraft, made a request to Mrs. Mac—— which she refused. The
woman being angered, left in a rage. She was no time away when they
noticed that there was something wrong with the child, and when the
husband came from his work his wife told him of the woman having been
there, and her belief that she had injured their child. The man said
the woman was still in the neighbourhood, and he would bring her back.
He did so. They then charged her to her face with having hurt the
child, and said she must now heal her. The woman did not try to deny
this, but said: “_Tha e gle chruaidh gum feumainnsa an cron a rinn mi
air an leanabh agaibh a ghabhail orm fein, ach na’n d’thug sibhse bonn
airgeid dhomhsa an ait’ an olann a thug sibh dhomh, cha do thachair so
do’n leanabh_” (“It’s very hard that I should require to take on myself
the injury I have done your child, but if you had given me a silver
coin instead of the wool you gave me, this had not happened to the
child”).
She had to cure the child, however. What had happened to it was that
its mouth kept always open, and it could not catch the breast. The
reciter did not say that the malady of the open mouth stuck to the
woman, but being somewhat notorious, and a different incident being
told of her by another reciter, the latter remarked that “she had an
ungainly face, and that if ever there was a witch in Arran, he thought
that woman would pass for one.”
AVOIDING SUSPICION OF EVIL EYE
People have not always the candour to accuse the suspected.
A lady engaged in teaching gives the following information: “You would
hear of Mrs. McG.? She is making a great noise because, as she says,
the milk is being taken from her cow, and not long ago her horse and
some other beast of hers died, and she thinks it is because they were
_air an cronachadh_ by some person. She blamed a girl that was keeping
house with a neighbour, and she went to the girl’s sister and said to
her to say to her sister not to be taking away the milk from her cow.”
This was not supposed to be a case of witchcraft.
So far we have been dealing with women, but it must not be supposed
that such accusations are rarely made against men.
A small farmer, Alexander ——, having got into difficulties, lost his
farm. A neighbour, better able to stock it, entered into possession.
Soon, however, a cow died, and it was concluded that it was a case
of _cronachadh_, an opinion in which its owner agreed, declaring:
“_Well, cho fad’s bhios bo bheo agam, cha dean mise rithist namhaid de
Alasdair_” (“Well, as long as I have a living cow I will not again make
an enemy of Alexander”).