PREVENTING EVIL BY BLESSING
A young man who could read and write, the son of a decidedly superstitious father, said if any one were praising another person’s beast, and danger was suspected, because praising by one that has an Evil Eye is dangerous, if the owners say “God bless it” that would prevent any mischief happening.
A native of Bernera (Harris) mentioned as among the ordinary precautions effective against the Evil Eye a person blessing himself. While another mentioned the keeping of ripe rowans (caorain dearg) beside him, or regularly blessing himself and his belongings, as sufficient to prevent any injury coming to him from the Evil Eye or Witchcraft. This blessing seems to have been done in quite a formal way. An old believer who can read Gaelic remembers having seen cattle blessed for the purpose of keeping away evil, and when she was young it was common in the district where she was brought up, when neighbours visited one another, for the visitor on entering the house to bless both the house and the people living in it. In this connection she told the following story: “There was at one time living in the Harris district of Islay a gentleman trained in the knowledge of the ‘Black Art’ (Sgoil Dhubh). He visited the Laird of Balinaby and took from every cow on his estate its due produce (toradh). He and the Laird passed this cow, and the visitor remarked: ‘You have a witch on the estate.’ ‘No,’ said the Laird. ‘Oh yes, there is no doubt of it.’ ‘Well, if there is, it is without my knowledge.’ ‘To whom does that cow belong?’ ‘To a widow that lives in the house over there.’ ‘Well, she must be a witch, for I can take the produce from every cow on the place except that one, but I am beat with her.’”
Balinaby called at the woman’s house and asked her what she did to protect her cow. “I do nothing,” said the woman. “You must do something, for I find that the toradh can be taken from every cow on the farm but yours.” “Well,” said she, “I am a God-fearing woman, and am thankful to have the cow. Every morning I pray that she may be preserved, and when I go to milk her I bless myself and the cow. That is all I do.” This is evidently traditional, and is quoted merely as an evidence of belief in the protection granted to those who audibly place themselves under the protection of the Deity.
It is a curious fact that Balinaby (the Abbot’s Town), bulks very largely in the supernatural folklore of Islay.
A native of Tarbat, Ross-shire, already quoted as telling of a child taken ill because the visitor had not blessed it, details that visitor’s action for the cure of the child, when taxed with the dereliction, as follows. “She asked a bowl from my mother and a silver coin, which she got. She put the coin in the bowl, and going to the bedside where the child was lying, sprinkled the water on the child’s face, and wet her lips and the palms of both her hands. While doing this she blessed the child, repeated some words over it, and in a little while the bairn was quite well and as brisk as ever.”
The materials used in this cure will be considered in more detail, but the blessing was evidently an important part of it to repair a neglect in the first instance.
An old lady in Arran remembers being told of an older generation who, desiring not to injure their own or another’s beast lest there should be evil in their eye unknown to themselves, always took the precaution of blessing the animal before looking at it. The words they used were “Gum beannaicheadh Dia am beathach” (“That God may bless the beast”), or “Gum beannaicheadh Dia an ni air am bheil mo shuil ag amhairc.” (“May God bless the thing my eye is regarding.”)