After that, if a cattle owner hears that a man who has this power (or one ought, perhaps, to term it “this infliction”) has been admiring one of his cows, he will send for him and insist on his removing the evil; this is done by the man wetting his finger with saliva, and touching the beast on the mouth and on various parts of the body with his wetted finger; this is believed to neutralise the enchantment.
Members of the Chera and Anjiru clans are notably [[178]]possessed of this power with considerable frequency; the Ambui and Aithiageni again very rarely possess it. Even a medicine man cannot remove a curse imposed by a person with the evil eye; only the individual who imposed it can remove it, and he can do it only in the morning before he touches food.
Human beings and also inanimate objects are equally affected by the power, for it is said that if a person who possesses the evil eye admires a woman who is enceinte she will abort, and if she is not, her breasts will become highly inflamed, and he has to come and ceremonially rub a little saliva on them to remove the danger.
If an individual object is admired, say a spear, it will soon afterwards be broken, or if, for instance, the leather-covered sheath of a sword is admired it will probably be gnawed by rats and spoilt.
No one who is not born with the power can acquire it, and it appears to be looked upon as an unavoidable misfortune. It is said to be the gift of God (Engai), and if a death or loss occurs the person to whom it is attributable cannot be sued for compensation before the kiama, or council of elders.
In time the people get to know who possesses the power, and if such a person enters a village he is asked in a friendly way to spit ceremonially on all the children to prevent anything untoward occurring to them owing to his visit. If a father possesses this power he can render his children proof against its action either from himself or any other person by shutting his eyes and then ceremonially spitting into each of their mouths.
The power is said to be hereditary, but all the children are not born with the gift. This belief exists among the Masai, and is called ’Ng-onyek oo’-l-tunganak, and will probably be found to account for the ceremonial spitting which was so common among them when they wished to show their friendliness. Refer to Hollis’s “Masai,” page 315, the spitting on children is [[179]]undoubtedly done to show the parents that the stranger is anxious to do the right thing and not afflict the child by the power of the evil eye. Also vide Hollis’s “Nandi,” page 90, spitting is again believed to remove the spell of the evil eye (sakutik).
In Ukamba, Mr Dundas states that it is called kyeni; there is said to be a whole clan in Kitui called Mwanziu which possess the power, and it often happens that when a person has received a slight injury he will go to a member of this clan and ask him to spit on the injured spot, which forthwith becomes whole. Possibly he attributes his hurt to someone with the power of the “evil eye.” It is also said that possessors of this gift have such power that if they admire a stone it will split into fragments.
The evil eye is a belief of great antiquity, for it was even recognised as far back as Mosaic times, cf. [Deut. xxviii. 54]: “His eye shall be evil towards his brother and towards the wife of his bosom,” etc.
The Magic of the Eithaga.—It has occasionally been incorrectly alleged that the power of the “evil eye” in Kikuyu is the monopoly of one clan called the Eithaga or Aithaga, but such does not appear to be the case. The members of the Eithaga clan are credited with supernatural powers, but they are of quite a different character, as will be seen below. The name of the clan is Eithaga or Kiuru, a single member is called Mweithaga. The name Kiuru is an opprobrious nickname, which means “those who bewitch people.”