resorted to. This is in most cases the ultimate appeal, and I never heard of a case in which it had failed.
The snaithean[1] is made of wool, often black, so as not to be easily seen. If you buy a cow or horse in the market you are almost sure to find a piece of black wool round its tail, well out of sight under the hair. Certain persons in most districts know how to make it, and can repeat the charm which is part of the process. The person who fetches it should should carry it in silence, and in the palm of the hand—not between the finger and thumb, because with them Eve plucked the apple and they are "not blessed." It must be burnt when removed, and must not be paid for, though those receiving it consider themselves under an obligation which is to be discharged somehow.
When it is the Evil Eye that has fallen on the victim, the person making the snaithean is seized with a fit of yawning, or becomes ill in proportion to the disease of the sufferer and the duration of his attack. Whether the author is male or female is generally determined by casting the Frith, or horoscope, which is another story and belongs to the subject of divining.
When the thread is put about the cattle, first is said the Pater, and then the following:—
"An Eye will see you.
A Tongue will speak of you.
A Heart will think of you.
He of the Arm is blessing you (i.e. St. Columcille).
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Four persons there are who may have dune you harm,
A man, a wife, a lad, a girl.
Who is to turn that back?
- ↑ Cf. Folk-Lore, vol. vi. p. 154. The information there given as to the use of the snaithean is said to be derived from "a native of Bernera," which I take—judging from differences of method—to be Bernera, Harris. There is little in common between the far more conventionalised people of the Lewis, with their Free-Kirk precision, and the less self-conscious, albeit more intelligent, native of the Outer Isles.
