Evil Eye. This world-old belief, which even finds place in St. Paul's impatient question to the Galatians, "who has overlooked you?" is strong among the western peasantry to this day.
At Glengad in North Mayo (Erris) in 1839 Otway, asking about a sickly overgrown lad, was told "they say the evil eye has been cast on him." The trouble was evidently from a potato diet. The neighbours wanted to bring in the fairy man, "but he don't like that himself."
The belief exists on Blacksod Bay (at Ballycroy), Achill, Cliara, and Inishturk, but I only heard indefinite statements, no modern instance. On Bofin and Shark it is much feared, and it is most requisite to remember there (and indeed at the other places) to add the prophylactic "God bless it!" to any praise of a child or animal. Otherwise, if any illness or accident occurs, one is apt to gain disrepute and ill-will and suffer much inconvenience. One old woman, a reputed witch, was credited with the evil eye in Bofin in 1892. Yet the evil eye can be easily frustrated by signing the Cross in the name of the Trinity.
It was believed, some five years later, at Lettermullen and Gorumna, that the evil eye springs from the priest having omitted some lesser item in the ritual of baptism. The effects cannot be produced intentionally, but accidentally by the person with the undesirable gift; in this respect differing strongly from the beliefs on the northern coasts and the islands and in Co. Clare.
One old woman, near Lettermullen, told a girl 'twas a wonder she could carry such a load, and the girl on her return home was seized with severe pains and died soon afterwards.[1] Evidently coincidence has much to do with the survival of the belief, and the absence of the prophylactic leads to an anxious look-out for some disaster. When an infant is taken out there or on Bofin it is wise to spit on it as a preservative from the evil eye as well as from fairies. Dr. Charles Browne and I found the belief very strong along Galway Bay from Lettermullen
- ↑ Proc. R.I. Acad., vol. v. ser. iii. p. 263; "Ethnology Lettermullen, etc."
