Evil eye in the western Highlands

by Robert Craig Maclagan

APPENDIX

An attempt has been made to give an honest account without literary varnish of the present-day influence of the belief in an Evil Eye in the Gaelic-speaking districts of Scotland. It is difficult to be certain that nothing of moment has escaped observation. The influence of Bible texts, no doubt used divorced from their contexts generally, as well as the protective power of the Divinity, have been pointed out as influencing the superstitious. One other instance we would give from the island of Luing, which has been handed in since the rest has been in type.

The reciter said: “I knew a real good woman who always, when the first meal of the season was got from the mill, sent a pitcherful of it here and there to the poor people round about. But there were some to whom she would give none, because she suspected them of having evil in their hearts, and that if they got a pitcherful they could take all the strength out of what she kept for her house use. You see, Hezekiah should not have shown the King of Babylon all his treasures.” Compare 2 Kings xx. 12-19, and Isaiah xxxix. Evidently the idea was that the King of Babylon was envious of Hezekiah’s possessions, as the others might have been of the good lady’s meal.

Mention has been made of the belief that the Evil Eye could split the rocks themselves. A traditional account of such an incident comes from the island of Coll. “One time a man was carrying a quern (hand corn-mill) on his back in a poke, and was met by a servant of St. Columba. Thinking the quern was a cheese, he coveted it, and when the man came to take it out of the bag he found it in two. Columba said of it, ‘B’e farmad na suil a bhris a’ chlach.’(‘It was the envy of the eye that broke the stone.’)” The same story reached us at the same time from a Breadalbane source. A local laird who hurt his own cattle, and whose dairymaid had to slam the byre door in his face, met a girl on her way home from the shieling. The girl had a quern (muileann brath) in a bag on her back. When she passed the laird looked after her, and supposing what she was carrying was a ceapag caise (a small cheese), he put his eye in it. When the girl reached home the mill-stone was in halves, his Evil Eye had broken it.

Some verses describing the powers of a certain Macandeoir, give us a lesson in popular comparative philology:—

“A Mhurach biorach lom na suil olc.

Gonadh thu maigheach’s a fhiadh.

Gonadh thu ’t-iasg a bhiodh ’san loch

Nuair a shealladh thu orra gu dlu.

Latha caogda thu d shuil a bha olc,

Cha bhiodh luathas ’nan cleith

’S bhiodh gach creutair dhiudh na’n corp.

A Mhurach Macandeoir

Gonadh thu Para Caimbeal

Gonadh thu’ shleisdean ‘sa chnamhan.

’S d’ fhag thu e bioradh fann.”

(“Oh Murdoch, piercing, bare, of the bad eye,

You would wound hare and the deer.

You would wound the fish that would be in the loch

When you looked closely at them.

The day you cocked (winked) your wicked eye

There would be no motion (quick movement) in their bosom

And each creature of them a corpse.

Murdoch Macandeoir

You would pierce Para Campbell,

You would pierce his thighs and his bones

And you left him wounded, weak.”)

The respected correspondent who sends this and the writer differed as to the word here translated “wound.” The original spelling suggested that gonadh was the word, and it corresponds with the other information received in like cases, but the reciter explained, and sticks to it, that it means “to covet.” Now the word gionach means “greedy” “gluttonous,” and gonadh means “wounding” “bewitching,” thus, gonadh ort is a form of imprecation. The philologist will tell us they have nothing to do with each other, and this may be admitted from his point of view, but not from the popular one.

Murdoch here immortalised was credited with the power of destroying the winter supply of beef, even after the slaughter of the animal. “When I was a little lad, my father and my uncle William bought a cow from him in winter. It was customary to buy a fat cow, kill it, and divide it so as to have a cheap and good supply. The beast was killed and hung in the barn. The same day Murdoch passed, and they knew that on returning he would call to see how the animal bought from himself turned out after killing. They were in a fix to prevent his seeing her without offending him, and the plan they took was to close the barn, locking the door and giving the key to some one who, if inquiries were made, would not tell where it was. Murdoch called, asked if the cow was killed, and said he wanted to see her. They then proceeded to the barn, but of course could not get in. An apparent search was then made for the missing key, which naturally they could not find. Murdoch was disappointed, but asked if she had killed well. They said she had, and expressed regret that they could not let him see her. So they prevented him laying his eye upon her after killing; before that, while she was his own, of course his eye would not harm her.” The latter remark is not in accordance with the belief in other places.

A native of Bute enables us to give another illustration of care taken to keep an Evil Eye from dead meat. A woman of whom, as our reciter said, there could be no doubt she had a “bad eye,” asked some fishers to take her along the coast in their boat. Not liking to refuse, they agreed. They had a fine catch of salmon with them at the time, which she praised loudly as they lay in the net at her feet. “Well, for many a day after that we got no good from that net. We might every bit as well look to the hills for fish as to it, and were quite sure it was that woman that had taken its luck from it with her ‘bad eye.’ Many a time after that we had to try to keep things out of her sight, and it was not easy; she would be up and out as early as ourselves, no matter how early we would be. I have seen us up at four in the morning, and even at two, trying to get the salmon boxed before she would get her eyes on them.”

We must add one other protective formula from the neighbourhood of Ardrishaig. “This,” said the reciter, “is a good protection against injury by an Evil Eye. I used it always with reference to the young chickens, and found it kept them from being hurt by any greedy person.” The words are: “Beannachd Dhia air do shuil; sop muin mu do chridhe.” (“The blessing of God on your eye; a splash of urine about your heart.”)

The translation is given as received, but a “sop ” is a “wisp,” “a loose bundle,” “a cowardly fellow.” Attention has been called on pages 119 and 136 to the iubhar, and on 171 to the Fachan. Compare the darning needle’s use and its one eye to the following found among the Wallons of Belgium. “Li bwegne, le borgne. Cette singulière appellation s’explique par la ressemblance vague que le gland et ses levres presentent avec un œil et ses paupières. Expression populaire: sain-ni s’bwegne, saigner son borgne, c’est-a-dire [Greek: pisser].”[14]

The same significance is applied to the same thing in the same way in Arabic, El aaouar (The one-eyed).[15]

[14] “Kruptadia,” viii. p. 24.

[15] “The Garden,” p. 138. Sheikh Nefzaoui. Paris 1886.

This is “a word to the wise” which cannot here be considered further in detail, but undoubtedly has much to do with the preventative of the Evil Eye mentioned, and further explanation of much before alluded to will be evident to the one who can read between the lines when we mention that maistir is in ordinary Gaelic urine, and maistrich is a verb, to churn, to shake together.

One other hint. A native of Garmouth on Spey said, “I have often heard people saying that one peacock feather given away to a person is unlucky to the one that gets it, but that more than one is all right. One time Sandy took one to his landlady’s little boy. He noticed that the landlady looked displeased, and it soon disappeared. When he was telling me about it, I said, ‘Why did you not take two to her?’ He replied he would have done so, but he did not want to yield to her freits (superstitious fancies).”

Compare this with what immediately precedes it, and notice that the offering of a single eye—a single feather—of the bird in question carried with it an evil influence.

A CHRIOCH

Le durachd do
E. M. K.
mo leth-shuil’s mo dha chluais!