| PAGE | |
| Introduction | [1] |
| Evil Eye | [10] |
| Locality of Belief | [20] |
| Social Position of Believers | [22] |
| Description of Possessors of Evil Eye | [24] |
| Objection to Meeting an Evil Eye | [28] |
| Avoiding Suspicion of Evil Eye | [32] |
| Action of Evil Eye independent of Possessor | [35] |
| Evil Eye takes Effect even on Things not Seen | [37] |
| Moral Source of the Evil Eye | [40] |
| Things that specially Attract | [43] |
| Strangers specially liable to be Accused of the Possession of the Evil Eye | [46] |
| People should Give when Asked | [48] |
| Symptoms in Animals ascribed to Effect of Evil Eye | [51] |
| Benefit to the Owner of an Evil Eye | [68] |
| Disadvantage to the Owner of an Evil Eye | [70] |
| Consequence of Direct Praise | [76] |
| A Look does it | [80] |
| Avoiding the Look | [84] |
| Conversion to Belief in Evil Eye | [88] |
| Giving away Milk Dangerous | [89] |
| Science versus Eolas | [91] |
| Hurter and Healer | [98] |
| Transmission of Eolas | [101] |
| Forms of Incantation | [104] |
| Form of Payment | [108] |
| The Necessity of Faith | [112] |
| Preventing Evil by Blessing | [114] |
| Preventing by Dispraising | [117] |
| Preventing by Rowan and Juniper | [119] |
| Preventing by Horse Nails and Shoes | [121] |
| Preventing by a Small Gift | [122] |
| A Preventative by Burning Clothing | [125] |
| Prevention by Spitting | [126] |
| Preventing by Churning | [129] |
| Prevention by Peculiarity in Clothes | [131] |
| Tar as Preventative | [132] |
| Nicking the Ear | [134] |
| Urine as Preventative | [135] |
| A Burnt Offering | [140] |
| Charms. (String) | [141] |
| Uisge a’ Chronachaidh (Water of Injury) | [151] |
| Stones and Water | [167] |
| Iron and Water | [172] |
| Wood and Water | [175] |
| Salt as Cure and Preventative | [176] |
| Most Suitable Water | [181] |
| Taboo when in Possession of Water | [184] |
| Water, where Applied | [192] |
| Odd Cures | [195] |
| Honeysuckle Cure | [195] |
| Cat Cure | [196] |
| Rubbing Hair the Wrong Way | [196] |
| Changing the Fireplace | [197] |
| The Power of a Child’s Mutch | [197] |
| Whisky Cure | [198] |
| Lead Dropping | [198] |
| An Eye for an Eye | [200] |
| Showing who is the Mischief Maker | [205] |
| Putting Elsewhere | [214] |
| APPENDIX | [219] |
| INDEX | [225] |
EVIL EYE
INTRODUCTION
The Evil Eye is a superstition arising not from local circumstances, or peculiarity of a great or small division of the human family, but is a result of an original tendency of the human mind. The natural irritation felt at the hostile look of a neighbour, still more of an enemy, is implanted in the breast of all, however much they may be influenced by moral teaching. When we add to this the feeling that some valued possession has attracted the coveteous desire of another, the fear of loss is added to the irritation of mere anger. To some such natural feeling we must ascribe the belief in an Evil Eye.
Theories of an origin more restricted, founded on the fear of loss or damage to particular possessions of individuals guaranteed them by the custom of law, developed in the community of which they form part, scarcely satisfy after inquiry. Where a subsistence can be easily procured the Evil Eye would be little regarded in connection with food, but might naturally develop itself in connection with the relations of the sexes. No doubt the latter, the most interesting to individuals of all passions, causes feelings of hostility between rivals universally, but where the food supply is difficult to procure one would naturally expect that damage from the covetous desires of others, where they seemed to affect the life-preserving store, would become equally important.
In the following study of the belief of an Evil Eye among the Gaelic-speaking peoples of Scotland at the present day, an attempt is made neither to disguise nor to improve upon what those in contact with believers have learned from their mouths. The writer is a believer in the Evil Eye only in so far as it may be a term for the natural selfishness of the human being, as a “tender heart” is a recognised way of speaking of a nature apt to sympathy. Selfishness, natural to all of us, is apt to find expression in our habits, however much we may disguise it by religious or charitable profession. Were it a part of our nature to have for our neighbour the same affection that we have for ourselves, no such superstition as that of the Evil Eye could have arisen. But we are not made that way, and so reformers, in endeavouring to cure this sin, as they consider it, have preached and tried to practise such ordinances as “Thou shalt not covet,” and “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Truly hard sayings, and in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand with difficulty getting beyond the status of a pious opinion.
Not that that teaching has been without effect; and we may hope that with the extension of communications and the progress gradually being made to that condition of things where
“Man to man the world o’er
Shall brithers be for a’ that,”
the bad e’e may some day in these isles be merely a study for folklorists as Totemism is, and as difficult to find as an auk’s egg.