of ducks, and every time Mrs. Mac. came in she praised the ducks, but
meanwhile one after another was dying, until at last only one remained.
One day this one was in the kitchen when Mrs. Mac. came in, and she
praised it as usual, but when she was going away she tramped on it and
killed it. They were quite sure it was her Evil Eye that had been doing
the mischief.”
Not only live fowls but even eggs may be injured. B. S., a respectable
girl, a domestic servant, able to read and write, and quite reliable,
gives this as a sample. She had bought some eggs, and on bringing
them home a neighbour woman was in the house and looked at the eggs.
She went away, and afterwards some of the eggs were put on to boil.
Although left on the fire for the usual time, it was found they were
not boiled enough, and were returned to be further boiled. One of them
then cracked and sent the hot water in sparks in her face, and the
others were so broken that they were of no use. The people in the house
attributed the mishap to the woman who had been there when the eggs
were brought in.
* * * * *
On considering the whole of these symptoms, the principal thing that
strikes one to be urged in excuse of the faith that is in the reciters
is that what was wrong came on apparently suddenly, in some cases after
a visit from a person already suspected, but as often as not it was
the suddenness of the mishap which gave ground to the accusation of
some probably entirely innocent passer-by. Unless faith in the Evil
Eye were already present, there seems hardly ground for any person
with experience of cattle and their ailments to evolve a theory of
the existence of any such latent power in the individuals accused. So
little critical people became, that everything unexpected was referred
to the Evil Eye. As a Kintyre man said, “If anything went wrong with
the beef when the winter supply was cured, it was attributed to the
Evil Eye of some one or other.”
BENEFIT TO THE OWNER OF AN EVIL EYE
Though in many cases involuntary, it has been pointed out that some
believe that individuals knowing or professing to know that they have
an Evil Eye, from sheer devilry, exercise it to the injury of others,
though for no visible benefit to themselves.
A reliable and fairly educated woman, whose father began life as a
crofter and died what in that class of life is to be considered as a
rich man, a native of South Uist, relates:—There was a woman near her
father’s house believed to have a very bad eye, and to be able to do
mischief with it. Her aunt was very careful as much as possible to
keep out of this woman’s sight, and if she happened to come about at
churning time her aunt would put the churn so that the woman would
not see it. She would not sell a pound of butter to her for any
consideration. The curious thing was that although that woman could
take away the produce from other people’s cows, she seemed unable
to make any profit of it for herself. It was just her envious and
malicious nature that made her take it (the produce) from other people,
although it was not going to benefit herself. She was well known by all
the people in the district, and they all suspected her of the practice
of witchcraft. It was on account of this suspicion, selling butter to
her was objected to.
It is not necessary that the desire to possess something should be, as
it were, illegitimate or unreasonable to cause damage. Thus M. MacL.
was relating how a neighbour’s horse had died. “People say that it was
blighted by the Evil Eye. One of his sons had his eye _in_ it, for he
expected to get it for himself, but it took ill. At first they thought
it was going to get better, for it was eating its food in the evening,
but on the following morning this son went out to the stable when he
rose, and found it lying down. When it saw him it got up, gave itself a
shake, and fell down dead.”
There may be, however, indirect advantages from being credited by your
neighbours with having an Evil Eye. Mrs. MacE., a cottar, lived on the
farm of L. in one of the inner isles. She was believed to have had the
Evil Eye very strongly, and people would do almost anything rather
than offend her, so general was the impression that she could injure
any person if she wished to do so. The reciter served for some time on
a farm that marched with hers, and he says that when Mrs. MacE. came
their way she could have almost whatever favour she chose to ask, so
much were they afraid of her Evil Eye. He often heard his master remark
that he would not incur her displeasure for almost any consideration,
in case she might do him injury.
DISADVANTAGE TO THE OWNER OF AN EVIL EYE
If in an indirect way, as above pointed out, some benefits may accrue
to one credited with the Evil Eye, it is also said that they may
personally suffer serious loss. An old Islay woman who can read Gaelic
well, intelligent and full of information, says she knows for certain
there are people who possess the Evil Eye. She believes that it is not
a matter of choice with them, they cannot help it. Some even do harm
to their own cattle. R., who was at one time in Islay, could not go
into his own byre but one or other of the cattle would be ill after
it. This was so well known that a big dairymaid that he had engaged,
a north-country woman, protested against his coming over the byre
doorstep. It was because he had such an envious eye that he did so much
mischief.
Another reciter tells us of the same farmer that they kept him in the
house when his own cattle were being taken in from pasture, in case by
admiring them he might be the means of doing them an injury.
Another man in the same island, having got a first-prize animal, said
to the herd that he would go out to see it. The herd, fearing evil,
tried to dissuade him, but he persisted in going. Shortly afterwards
the animal died. His neighbours used to hurry their cattle out of his
sight when they saw him coming that way. It was said he could not help
it.
D. C. had the Evil Eye very powerfully. On one occasion he went to
examine some cattle he had newly bought, and when he looked at them
some of them fell down as if they would die. The herd ran across the
hill to a hamlet marching with D. C.’s farm and got a bottle of water
from a skilled person. When sprinkled on the cattle they at once
recovered.
A man in Bowmore went into his own byre one night when his cousin, who
lived with him, was milking his cow. He had a nice calf in the byre,
and he put his arms round its neck and began to praise it very much.
His cousin said to him it was not good to do that. The next morning the
calf was found dead, an occurrence credited to his Evil Eye.
A native of Mull avowed her firm belief in the Evil Eye, especially
quoting what her mother had told her of a large farmer where she had
been brought up who owned a number of cattle, and who had the Evil Eye.
“Every time that man went into his own byre the best of his cattle were
sure to be unwell afterwards, and they were often dying with him. He
could not help it. At last he got a dairymaid who, when she had become
acquainted with his peculiarities, would not allow him to go into the
byre at all, or near the cows. She turned him back when she would see
him coming.”
Exactly the same account of another farmer is given by a reciter in
Ross-shire in the parish of U——. She knew him very well by sight,
having often seen him at markets, and many times she had heard that he
had the Evil Eye, could not help it, and often hurt his own cattle
“by thinking too highly of them.” This information was corroborated
by another, D. McL., who also knew the man by name and sight, having
served on a farm in the same district, and he often heard of him
hurting his own cattle.
Of course the Evil Eye is as lively in Ireland as on this side of St.
George’s Channel; but the following experience of a native of county
Cork, an educated, reliable woman, the wife of a member of the lower
ranks of the Civil Service, while staying in Jura, is interesting.
Desiring a drink of water one day she called at a house, the mistress
of which met her at the door and invited her to come in to have a drink
of milk. When she went in she found a girl churning. After sitting for
a minute or two Mrs. M. would have left, but was urged to wait for
a little to taste the new butter off the churn on a scone. She sat
a while, and the girl continued at the churn, evidently working as
hard as she could, perspiring, and yet there were no signs of butter.
Mrs. M. innocently remarked, “Dear me, I never thought churning was
so difficult.” The woman and girl looked at each other, but without
speaking. The girl continued churning, until at last her mistress said,
“You may put the churn past, you will get no butter off it to-day.”
Shortly after Mrs. M. left without having tasted the butter, but
beyond that thinking nothing of the circumstances. About two months
afterwards, while walking in the same direction, she called at the
same house. When going in she noticed the girl again at the churn, but
making a rush with it to the other end of the house. Mrs. M. observed,
“Oh! Mrs. Mac., I hope I am not interfering with your work. I see J.
going out of the way.”
“She is churning, and is going away with the churn, for the last time
you were here she did not get one bit of butter off the churn.”
“I am sorry to hear that; I am sure I did nothing to keep the butter
from coming.”
“I do not know; she got none at any rate, that’s all I can say.”
Of two women living beside each other in Islay, one was credited with
the Evil Eye, and supposed to take away the dairy produce from her
neighbours. One year her neighbour for a whole summer was unable to get
a bit of butter from her churning. Her suspicion rested strongly on the
other. Her account of it was as follows: “I tried everything. They told
me to put a horseshoe in the churn, and I did that. Others told me to
put salt in it, and I did that, but neither did any good. I scrubbed
and scrubbed the churn and the milk dishes, but it was of no use. The
milk would only come up with a hissing sound. I was even afraid to use
the sour milk in baking scones, for I was sure there was something not
right about it. The pig got fat that year, for it was getting the most
of the milk. At last I consulted a neighbour, and she told me just
what I knew already, that it was a bad woman beside me that was taking
away the butter. She advised me not to bother any more, and to keep
churning, for the woman would stop her mischief by-and-by, and then
the butter would come back as it had gone. I did as she told me, and
through time the butter came. I was not speaking about it to any one,
for I did not want people to know I believed that she could do so much
harm.”
A well-educated small farmer’s wife, a woman of five-and-thirty, knew
a husband and wife who both possessed the Evil Eye. They were quite
aware themselves that they did, and could not help it. Passing through
a park where several colts were grazing, one of which took their fancy,
they expressed their admiration of it. That evening the colt took ill
and never recovered.
One would think that a little consideration would have made it clear
that with two in the same house equally unfortunate nothing they had
could have succeeded with them, and yet there was no account of this
couple being in worse circumstances than their neighbours.
It certainly is a curious development, the belief already alluded
to of the injurious action of the Evil Eye of the farmer on his own
stock. “W. C. was on intimate terms with a neighbouring farmer, whom he
visited frequently. It was observed that if at any time he (the farmer)
praised an animal, something for certain happened to it afterwards. On
one occasion he talked admiringly of the poultry, and shortly after all
of them died.”
Another reciter said: “In our own time a farmer required to be kept
from going among his own cattle, lest by looking on them they should be
injured.” These cases respectively were in Islay and Harris.
Judging from personal experience of an old friend addicted to
prophesying on his first appearance in the morning the sort of
weather for the day, the result being, as we of a younger generation
all believed, almost invariably wrong, it seems probable that these
stories have arisen in connection with men who talked freely, giving
opinions based upon hurried observation. Where silence would have
left no ground for animadversion the wordy man had his sayings
remembered against him, especially when he was wrong, and the good
beasts subsequently turned out failures, as the fine days foretold were
generally wet.
CONSEQUENCE OF DIRECT PRAISE
The mere expression of admiration should be avoided by those who wish
to escape the accusation of the Evil Eye. A youngish woman says, “You
have seen my cousin J.’s third boy. He was the finest and nicest
looking of all the children. When six months old he was a very pretty
child. One day a woman came into the house; the baby was on his
mother’s arm, and the visitor began to praise the child, and praised
it very much. She was hardly away when a man came, and he began to
praise the child as the woman had done. After he went away like a shot
the baby took ill. They did not know what was the matter with him, or
what to do, for he was growing worse. He continued in that way for some
days. At last granny said she was sure he had been _air a chronachadh_,
and advised the mother to consult a woman who was supposed to have
knowledge to cure such cases. J. was not willing to go at first, but
granny insisted that it would do no harm at any rate to go and speak
to the woman. She went, but did not tell anybody at the time, for of
course they would be speaking about it. As soon as she told the woman
why she had come, the woman told her that the child had been injured by
the Evil Eye, and she described exactly the man and woman who had done
the harm, although my cousin had not mentioned man or woman to her. Was
it not wonderful how she knew the very ones that had done it?” She
cured the child. The above happened in one of the islands.
The following is from Ross-shire (Tarbat): “One of my sisters was
blighted by a woman who lived beside them. She was well known for her
uncanny ways. The way the thing happened was this: The little girl was
tied on an elder sister’s back, and they were sent out for a walk. They
had not gone far when the woman in question came forward, and putting
the shawl back from the child’s face said, ‘What a pretty little girl!
which of them is this?’ When the children returned their mother found
that the young one was very ill, and on questioning the elder girl,
she said that they had met this woman and repeated what she had said.
Mother at once suspected what was the matter, sent for the woman, and
charged her with having hurt her child. She protested that she had not
done the child any injury, but the elder girl spoke up and said, ‘Yes,
you looked at her and said she was pretty, and did not bless her.’ The
woman admitted this, and that if she had done any harm to the child she
was sorry for it, but it could be sorted if wrong had been done. She
operated a charm, and the child was soon as brisk as ever.”
A domestic servant relates that a woman who lived in Kil C. had a
first-rate cow that was giving a large quantity of milk. One evening
when she was milking another woman came into the byre and began
praising the cow, and expressing her amazement at the quantity of milk
she gave. No more was thought of this, till at next milking the cow did
not give so much, and continued to get worse. It became evident that
she had been injured by the person who had praised her so much.
A Campbeltown man says, “I am sure I do not know about these things,
for I have never seen anything of it myself, but I mind my neighbour
over there, D. M., saying to me one day not long ago, that a woman was
going past some time before that, and she began to praise one of his
cows, saying what a grand udder she had and such fine teats. No doubt
the cow was good, he said, and a fine milker, but after that day her
milk went from her.”
A married woman of about forty-five “believes firmly in the existence
of the Evil Eye,” and relates as a proof: Mrs. McD., a neighbour,
told her lately that she was churning. The butter was actually on the
churn when Mrs. B. came in, and looking into the churn began to praise
the stuff, and said how well off she was to be getting such beautiful
butter. She just stayed a minute or two and then went away. After she
was gone the butter scattered on the churn, and do what she would she
could not get it to gather again. All she could get was froth, and it
continued that way with her for several churnings.
A girl of twenty-four, a domestic servant, a crofter’s daughter with
a good School Board education, said, “_Cronachadh_ is still in it. My
mother was churning not long ago at all, and that woman Mrs. C. came
in, and looking into the churn said, ‘Oh! what a lot of butter!’ Well,
the butter went off, and though my mother churned and churned she did
not get a bit of that churning, nor for a churning or two after that.
We believed that the butter had been taken away.”
A woman who admits that she is a firm believer in the Evil Eye, tells
of the following case within her own knowledge. Two women were living
beside each other, and she knew them both personally. Each had a pig,
and they were striving whose pig should be fattest. One of them had a
cow, the other had not. The one that had the cow was giving her pig
lots of milk. It was growing fast and surpassing the other. One day
the neighbour came in, and while they were looking at it and saying
how well it was thriving, she remarked, “_Cha’n iongantach a mhuc
agadsa bhi cho math on is e sin an seorsa biadh tha thu toirt dith._”
(“No wonder your pig is so good, since that is the kind of food you
are giving to her.”) After a little while the woman left, but was not
long gone when the pig took ill, and when it was apparently getting
no better they sent to Gortan-na-lag for one living there believed to
have knowledge. When he came and saw the pig he said they had been too
late in sending for him, and told them at once that it had been _air a
cronachadh_, and he showed them who had done the mischief.
A _cailleach_, notorious as having the Evil Eye, was calling in the
house of an acquaintance of the reciter, and when she was leaving she
praised a fine hen that was in the yard. It was one of her best hens,
and the woman praised it very much. That very day what happened but
this hen was taken in dead, and the woman declared she could never get
out of her mind that it had been a case of Evil Eye blight.
A LOOK DOES IT
The belief in an Evil Eye having arisen, it is perfectly clear that
a mere look, quite unaccompanied by any other action, would soon be
considered a quite sufficient cause of the mischief such an eye would
occasion. A gamekeeper’s wife, a “canty body,” as she is described,
told how some lads on a Sunday, who had watched a mare and foal grazing
for some time, were credited with damaging the foal, because shortly
after they left it lay kicking on the ground and would not suck.
A horse going up the main street of Bowmore in Islay was looked at by
a man passing. A few minutes after it fell and could not rise, till
a woman, C. McI., came and did “something to it.” The horse got all
right, and the woman consulted maintained that it was a case of Evil
Eye.
A man now resident in Glasgow was visiting some friends on a farm in
one of the inner islands, and a man riding past was observed looking
rather attentively at the cows in a field beside the road. He was
supposed to have paid particular attention to a cow which, shortly
after he had passed, was noticed to be unwell. It was treated as a case
of the Evil Eye, and recovered.
These cases occurred with persons not notorious. The following is one
in which the woman who affected the cattle was generally believed to
have the Evil Eye. The reciter’s father was driving four cows from
the park one evening, and when passing this woman’s house she stood
at the door looking at the cows. In a moment off they went as hard as
they could run. One of them, a handsome beast that had been bought
from a farmer in Gartbreac, when they got them into the byre, was tied
to a heavy kitchen grate which was there, but she ran out of the byre
with the grate hanging to her neck, and climbed up a peat stack nearly
reaching the top of it. From that day they never got any further good
of that cow, and were decidedly of opinion that she had been bewitched
by the woman.
Not the cattle alone but milk also is influenced by a mere look. We
give an instance in the words of the narrator:—
“_Bha ’n toradh air a thoirt uam fein an uiridh. Mhaistir sinn gus
an robh Raonull agus Donull agus mi fein a ruith leis an fhallus ach
ged a leanamaid air fathast cha ’n fhaigheamaid mir ime. ’S an anns
an t-sabhal bhios sinn a cruinneachadh a bhainne agus thainig duine
’n rathad latha aig nach eil bo da chuid fein agus dh’amhairc e air a
bhainne ’san t-sabhal: bha sinn a’ deanadh dhe gum b’esan a rinn an
cron. Bha na cairdean gam’ chomhairleachadh gun a bhi leigeil le daoine
bhi faicinn a’bhainne ach mi bhi cuimhnicheadh nach eil na h-uile duine
cosmhuil rium fein. Well, o’n am sin, tha sinn a toirt fanear nach
fhaigh neach sam bith cothrom air dol far am bheil am bainne agus tha
sinn a faotainn a nis urrad ime’s bu chor air na h-uile maistreadh._”
(“The butter was taken from myself last year. We churned until Ronald
and Donald and myself were running with sweat, but although we had
continued at it till now we could not get a bit of butter. It is in
the barn that we gather the milk, and a man who has not got a cow of
his own came the way one day and he looked on the milk in the barn, and
we were making out that it was he who had done the harm. The friends
were advising me not to be allowing people to see the milk, but that I
should remember that every person is not like myself. Well, from that
time we are taking care that nobody will get an opportunity to go where
the milk is, and now we are getting as much butter as we ought to get
on every churning.”)
The Isle of Man, from a Gaelic point of view, may be considered
as likely to be much the same as the islands of Argyll, and a
lighthouse-keeper, stationed there for some time, tells us he heard a
good deal about the Evil Eye, and that belief in it is pretty common.
“If a person is seen to look closely at a cow when passing her he is at
once suspected, and is likely to be requested by the owner of the beast
to take certain steps to prevent injurious consequences.”
As we have seen above, the very natural consequence of this belief in a
look doing injury leads to the hiding of things liable to harm.
A somewhat amusing story of the effects of a look is from Arran.
“One time M. K. and myself were at a meeting, and there was an old
bachelor there who kept looking at us all the time. We noticed it, but
did not think much about it until after we went home, but when we got
home both of us began to yawn and rift, and could not stop it. We were
quite sure that we had been hurt by the ‘eye’ of the old fellow. M. K.
made a drink of salt and water for us, and we took it and that cured
us.”
Eructation in Arran seems to have a special connection with the Evil
Eye and witchcraft. Another reciter remembers quite well a reputed
witch going into her mother’s house, and not very long after she left
her younger sister, a child at the time, became unwell. Her mother at
once suspected that the fault lay with the woman who had left, so she
sent after her and brought her back. The reputed witch “mixed salt and
water, drank it herself, rifted fearfully, and in a little while the
child got quite well.”
The use of salt as a “preservative” is illustrated in the case of an
Arran woman who was a strong believer in and much afraid of the effects
of the Evil Eye. She had one cow, and it gave her much discomfort when
she saw the cow grazing near the roadside, fearing that some passer-by
might “put his eye in her.” To keep the milk right, if she gave any to
be carried away, or even “to be drunk on the premises,” she invariably
put salt in it, and that sometimes to excess. The reciter said, “For a
while we were getting milk from her for a man staying with us who was
seriously annoyed when the milk was more than ordinarily salt, giving
vent to his discontent saying, ‘Why the deuce does she not let us put
saut in oor ain milk?’”
AVOIDING THE LOOK