58 More Folklore from the Hebrides.
three times with the palm of the hand, and the following words are recited :
" The charm that Mary put
To the eye of the fish at the pool.
Against 1
. 1 -J (here name the special ailments).
And against the dry scorching ashes,
The spittle of Mary,
The spittle of God,
The spittle of the Mother of the Son of God.
Thou Who didst shape the eyelid,
Hale be the stone (pupil) about which it (the eyelid) is."
A charm for a stye in the eye was made by saying the following words, while a sharp-edged tool, such as a knife or axe, is held edgewise towards the eye, as though threatening the ailment or the spirit causing it.
and so on to
" What put one stye there Without two styes ? "
What put eight styes there Without nine styes ? "
This, if necessary, is nine times repeated.^
Here is a charm for removing any foreign matter which has got into the eye :
" A pin for piercing Stuck in a rock That sprang from a ling, The thing that is in thine eye May the King of the Elements Put it upon thy tongue."
Another was as follows :
" The dust of a particle of dust. The fraction of a particle of hair, Coming swiftly as the roe from the grass, However small the thing in thine eye, May the King of the Elements put it out.'
' [Cf. Folklore, xi., p. 446.]
