Mooney.] i4b [April 15, 



shall the sea be calm unto you, for I know that for my sake this great 

 tempest is upon you. * * * So they took up Jonah and cast him forth 

 into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging" (Jonah, i : 11, 12, 15). 



Another belief, which exists alike in Ireland and among the Indians, is 

 that certain localities are the abode of invisible malignant spirits, which 

 visit sickness and death upon those who come within their reach. These 

 evil spirits are overhead in the air, and are quite a different order of be- 

 ings from the fairies, who live upon or under the ground, and on the 

 whole are rather regarded as benevolent. If sickness or death occurs in 

 a new house, it is frequently ascribed to this cause, and the house will be 

 removed, or torn down and rebuilt in another place. 



There is also a way by which the pains of maternity can be transferred 

 from the woman to her husband. This secret is so jealously guarded that 

 a correspondent in the west of Ireland, who had been asked to investigate 

 the matter, was at last obliged to report : " In regard to putting the sick- 

 ness on the father of a child, that is a well-known thing in this country, 

 but after making every inquiry I could not make out how it is done. It 

 is strictly private." It came out, however, in a chance conversation with 

 a woman who, when a child, had once been selected to wait upon a nurse 

 on such an occasion. At a critical moment the nurse "hunted her out of 

 the room," and then, taking the husband's vest, she put it upon the sick 

 woman. The child had hid behind the door in the next room and saw 

 the whole operation, but was too far .off to hear the words which were 

 probably repeated at the same time. It is asserted by some that the hus- 

 band's consent must first be obtained, but the general opinion is that he 

 feels all the pain, and even cries out with the agony, without being aware 

 of the cause. 



The Evil Eye. 



The belief in the existence of the evil eye is general throughout Ireland 

 as well as throughout the greater portion of Europe and Asia. It was 

 held also by the ancients, among whom there were whole nations whose 

 glances were supposed to be fatal, and it was even thought that there was 

 death in the sound of their voices. The eastern nations, both Christian 

 and Mohammedan, ascribe almost every unaccountable illness to this 

 cause ; and among the Turks sentences from the Koran are written upon 

 the walls of the houses to counteract it, while glass balls are hung from 

 the ceiling, and gaudy trappings put upon the horses, to divert from the 

 owner the attention of the evil-minded beholder. So general is this be- 

 lief that a writer upon the subject says : "It is not improbable that if the 

 matter were still more profoundly investigated, it would be found that 

 every nation that exists, or has existed, with anything like a developed 

 system of superstition, believes or has believed in the reality of fiiscina- 

 tion in some form or other."* There seems to be nothing exactly simi- 

 lar among the Indians, at least among the Siouau tribes of the plains, 



*Am. Cy.,iv, 177,1880. 



