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ePaper created 2014-04-08, 18:05:31 | version 1.29.01
54 more whimsical, a charm; and when the grass season turns out bad, applications to these people are pretty numerous, who never make a charge but always expect a present.’ O/S Memoirs, Parishes of County Londonderry I, vol. 6, Parish of Termoneeny, C.W. Ligar, July 1836. (p. 126) ‘The Presbyterians, the descendants of the Scotch settlers, and the Roman Catholics, the descendants of the native Irish, are equally superstitious, respecting the existence and mischievous propensities of the fairies and also that there are certain men and women who by merely looking at a cow or horse can deprive the one of milk or kill the other, which is called “blinking”. Those persons possessing this power are said to have an “evil or covetous eye”. As one instance out of many may be stated the following recent circumstances. John Martin of Knocknakielt in this parish, having had a cow that was suddenly deprived of her milk, sent a bottle of some of the milk she had before given by his daughter to his son’s house near Maghera, and a Roman Catholic servant maid there went off to the Rev. Mr McKenna, Roman Catholic clergyman, for the purpose of having the cow cured. He gave her some blessed salt, which was dissolved in the water and administered to her but without effect. This failure is attributed partly to the owner of the cow being a Presbyterian and partly to the fault of the girl, who confessed she had kept a small portion of the salt for the use of herself, having placed it under her pillow to guard her against the “gentry”. The cow is still unrecovered and is believed to have been “blinked” (that is looked at by some one who had an “evil eye” or covetous eye).’