"EVIL EYE" IN THE WESTERN HIGHLANDS.
Evil Eye in the Western Highlands. By R. C. Maclagan. (David Nutt. 7s. 6d.)—This is undoubtedly an interesting collection of
stories dealing with a familiar Highland superstition, but the wisdom of the author in distending it into a volume of nearly two hundred and thirty pages may be questioned ; there is really enough in it only to make a good chapter in a work on super- stitions or on Celtic sociology. Then the serious tone of tho volume is occasionally marred by what looks like flippancy. "Tho only diagnostic mark that has been mentioned physically demon- strating a possessor was got from an Islay woman, who said that she had always heard that a person whose eyes are of a
different colour has the evil eye. This seems explicable enough ; if one were a nice bright blue eye or a deep and gentle brown one, and the other paler and less expressive, their best friends might I say they had a bad eye.' All the parti-coloured eyes in Scotland ' would not account for a tenth part of the results accredited to evil eyes." This is rather too "smart." Dr. Maclagan is inclined, indeed, to rationalise too often and a trifle superficially, as when he tells us in the very beginning of his book that the "evil eye" is "a result of an original tendency of the human mind. The natural irritation felt at the hostile look of a neighbour, still more of an enemy, is implanted in the breast of all, however much they may be influenced by moral teaching." At the same time, Dr. Maclagan has been at great pains, by means of personal in- vestigation in the Western Highlands, and by listening to travellers', and still more residenters', tales, to represent the "evil eye" from practically every conceivable point of view. He demonstrates how it affects its owner as well as the person blighted by its influ- ence, details the means taken to neutralise that influence, and proves that the malignant influence is really often quite inde- pendent of the person who possesses the "eye." Altogether a great deal of entertainment, and a little edification as well, may be obtained from this book, amorphous and unnecessarily bulky though it is.
Previous page
