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Page 13
This style of antidote against the influence of an evil eye was common
in England within the century, as the following, which is also taken
from a letter which appeared in the same journal, seems to
show:--"Drawing blood from above the mouth of the person suspected is
the favourite antidote in the neighbourhood of Burnley; and in the
district of Craven, a few miles within the borders of Yorkshire, a
person who was ill-disposed towards his neighbours is believed to have
slain a pear-tree which grew opposite his house by directing towards it
'the first morning glances' of his evil eye. Spitting three times in the
person's face; turning a live coal on the fire; and exclaiming, 'The
Lord be with us,' are other means of averting its influence."
We must not, however, pursue this digression further, but return to our
proper subject. It was not necessary that the person possessed of the
evil eye, and desirous of inflicting evil upon a child, should see the
child. All that was necessary was that the person with the evil eye
should get possession of something which had belonged to the child, such
as a fragment of clothing, a toy, hair, or nail parings. I may note here
that it was not considered lucky to pare the nails of a child under one
year old, and when the operation was performed the mother was careful to
collect every scrap of the cutting, and burn them. It was considered a
great offence for any person, other than the mother or near relation, in
whom every confidence could be placed, to cut a baby's nails; if some
forward officious person should do this, and baby afterwards be taken
ill, this would give rise to grave suspicions of evil influence being at
work. The same remarks apply to the cutting of a baby's hair. I have
seen the door locked during hair-cutting, and the floor swept
afterwards, and the sweepings burned, lest perchance any hairs might
remain, and be picked up by an enemy. Dr. Livingstone, in his book on
the Zambesi, mentions the existence of a similar practice among some
African tribes. "They carefully collect and afterwards burn or bury the
hair, lest any of it fall into the hands of a witch." Mr. Munter
mentions that the same practice is common amongst the Patagonians, and
the practice extends to adults. He says that after bathing, which they
do every morning, "the men's hair is dressed by their wives, daughters,
or sweethearts, who take the greatest care to burn the hairs that may be
brushed out, as they fully believe that spells may be wrought by
evil-intentioned persons who can obtain a piece of their hair. From the
same idea, after cutting their nails the parings are carefully committed
to the flames."
Besides this danger--this blighting influence of the evil eye which
environed the years of childhood--there was also this other danger,
already mentioned, that of being spirited away by fairies. The danger
from this source was greater when the baby was pretty, and what fond
mother did not consider her baby pretty? Early in the century, a
labourer's wife living a few miles west of Glasgow, became the mother of
a very pretty baby. All who saw it were charmed with its beauty, and it
was as good as it was bonnie. The neighbours often urged on the mother
the necessity of carefulness, and advised her to adopt such methods as
were, to their minds, well-attested safe-guards for the preservation of
children from fairy influence and an evil eye. She was instructed never
to leave the child without placing near it an open Bible. One unhappy
day the mother went out for a short time, leaving the baby in its
cradle, but she forgot or neglected to place the open Bible near the
child as directed. When she returned baby was crying, and could by no
means be quieted, and the mother observed several blue marks upon its
person, as if it had been pinched. From that day it became a perfect
plague; no amount of food or drink would satisfy it, and yet withal it
became lean. The _girn_, my informant said, was never out its face, and
it _yammered_ on night and day. One day an old highland woman having
seen the child, and inspected it carefully, affirmed that it was a fairy
child. She went the length of offering to put the matter to the test,
and this is how she tested it. She put the poker in the fire, and hung a
pot over the fire wherein were put certain ingredients, an incantation
being said as each new ingredient was stirred into the pot. The child
was quiet during these operations, and watched like a grown person all
that was being done, even rising upon its elbow to look. When the
operations were completed, the old woman took the poker out of the fire,
and carrying it red hot over to the cradle, was about to burn the sign
of the cross on the baby's brow, when the child sprung suddenly up,
knocked the old woman down and disappeared up the _lum_ (chimney,)
filling the house with smoke, and leaving behind it a strong smell of
brimstone. When the smoke cleared away, the true baby was found in the
cradle sleeping as if it never had been taken away. Another case was
related to me as having occurred in the same neighbourhood, but in this
instance the theft was not discovered until after the death of the
child. The surreptitious or false baby, having apparently died, was
buried; but suspicion having been raised, the grave was opened and the
coffin examined, when there was found in it, not a corpse, but a wooden
figure. The late Mr. Rust, in his _Druidism Exhumed_, states that this
superstition is common in the North of Scotland, and adds that it is
also believed that if the theft be discovered before the apparent death
of the changling, there are means whereby the fairies may be propitiated
and induced to restore the real baby. One of these methods is the
following:--The parents or friends of the stolen baby must take the
fairy child to some known haunt of the fairies, generally some spot
where peculiar _soughing_ sounds are heard, where there are remains of
some ancient cairn or stone circle, or some green mound or shady dell,
and lay the child down there, repeating certain incantations. They must
also place beside it a quantity of bread, butter, milk, cheese, eggs,
and flesh of fowl, then retire to a distance and wait for an hour or
two, or until after midnight. If on going back to where the child was
laid they find that the offerings have disappeared, it is held as
evidence that the fairies have been satisfied, and that the human child
is returned. The baby is then carried home, and great rejoicing made.
Mr. Rust states that he knew a woman who, when a baby, had been stolen
away, but was returned by this means.
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