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.”)
PREVENTING BY DISPRAISING
The expression of a blessing seems to be merely a preventative, which of course is better than curative, if we accept the general proverb. Another preventative, when the expression of praise seems likely to be hurtful, is to miscall the animal spoken of. A man ploughing, who thought very well of his horses, said to his master on seeing another he knew approaching, “Here comes ——, and he will ruin both the horses if he can, for he has the Evil Eye.” His master said, “I’ll tell you what you will do, and if you do it he can do the horses no harm. When he begins to praise either or both just begin to run them down, and be sure you say as much against them as he shall say for them.” He of the Evil Eye came up, and commencing with “What a fine pair of horses you have,” went on to enumerate their good points. The servant objected that they looked better than they were, that their looks were the best of them, and for every point in their favour the other mentioned, the lad said something to counterbalance it. The other began to show signs of impatience, and went on his way not very well pleased with the way his opinions of the horses had been disputed. “Well done, you have saved the horses,” said his master. “Did I do it right?” said the lad. “Yes, indeed, you could not have said more than you have said.”
A native of Campbeltown is the authority for the following. Mrs. M’F. from Knapdale resided in Glasgow for some time after her marriage. She was standing at the mouth of the close one day with her first child in her arms when a little woman whom she had never seen before, and never saw again, as far as she knows, came across the street, and looking at the child began to praise it for its beauty. Mrs. M’F. had not the presence of mind to praise it above what the other woman said, nor to miscall it. Had she done either it would have prevented mischief. As it was, the child began to cry as soon as the little woman went away. It continued crying for a day and a half, and never was right afterwards. The child died. Mrs. M’F. was quite certain it had been injured by the eye of the little woman.
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?)