The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

iSo 1he Highland Monthly
This idea also prevails in Orkney and Shetland, where
praise of the description above indicated receives the name
" Forespoken." If one says to a child " He is a bonnie
bairn ;" or " Thoo are looking well the day," it is regarded
as coming from an " ill tongue," unless the expression
" God save the bairn," or some such blessing is also used.
For the cure of being " Forespoken," the following charm
was repeated over water, which the patient had to drink
off, or be washed with :—
Father, Son, Holy Ghost,
Bitten sail they be
Wha have bitten thee !
Care to their near vein.
Until thou get'st thy health again.
Mend thou in God's name I
The Evil Eye might be described as of a two-fold char-
acter. It was (first) believed to be the outcome of an evil
disposition on the part of the one who possessed it; and
(secondly) many were believed to be possessed of this unhappy
faculty, though at the same time they were void of any
ill design. I have recently met on the West Coast a man
who believed that he himself had the Evil Eye, and that
he could not look even on his own cattle and admire them
without the animals suffering from the baneful influence
In Greece the most popular amulet against fascination, and
the consequent Evil Eye, is garlic. A mother or nurse
walking out with her children, who may be admired, will
at once exclaim " Skordon" (garlic). The ancients seem
to have held that a power which grew out of envy was best
thwarted by anything which provoked laughter. Accord-
ing]}-, amulets of an indelicate character were worn as
charms, and spitting was an universal remedy.
In the Highlands there were amulets worn, such as
coins and beads, about children's necks ;
and the possessor
of the Evil Eye was given something as an antidote to his
env\-. If a neighbour entered when a woman was churning,
the envious eye of the visitor might affect the performance,
!