PREVENTING BY ROWAN AND JUNIPER
Every one knows of the value of the rowan tree as a preventative of witchcraft. It is equally effective apparently against the Evil Eye. It is scarcely worth while dilating on this, but it would not do to neglect it. A resident in the Chanonry had a near neighbour terribly suspicious of interference with her cow. She would never allow a cow away from her own ground until she had first tied a sprig of rowan to its tail.
A native of Kintyre, the opposite side of the country, connects this observance with May Eve, on which occasion it was common to tie a sprig of rowan to the cattle’s tails. Above we have mentioned rowan berries as equally efficacious with a blessing. The rowan is tied to churns as well as to cows’ tails. Another reciter mentions a case in which, along with a bottle, a professor of eolas “went to the back of his house, taking a thin slice of juniper wood (iubhar beinne), which he instructed was to be put between the wood of the churn and one of its hoops.”
One cannot help speculating as to what may have caused the use of these plants. We have a hint from the Chanonry that the rowan tree was attached when the cow left her own ground. Now cows leave their owners’ ground solely when sent to the bull. In connection with the iubhar, attention is called to the curious, incomprehensible shinty formula in which the word iubhar occurs:—
Ciod an caman? (What shinty-club?)
Caman iubhair (Shinty-club of yew).
Ciod an t-iubhar? (What yew?)
Iubhar athair (Yew of air),
of which another reciter gave the slightly altered pronunciation, iubhar athar (father’s yew).[7]
A native of the Lewis says it was pretty common to protect cows from evil influences by the use of a charmed burrach (cow fetter). The burrach was made of different things, and when a cow calved it was fixed on her hind legs.
The burrachs the writer has seen were made of hair, possibly they may have made them upon occasion of some tough wood.
Note that it was in calving that the charmed burrach was of advantage, and thus the observances for the protection of the cattle are solely connected with their increase.
[7] “Games of Argyle,” pp. 33, 34.