CANARY ISLANDS. 105 



church. It is not uncommon on such occasions, to see a 

 live sheep, a pipe of wine, and some sacks of grain, at 

 the steps leading to the altar. 



The ceremonies of children under seven years of age 

 usually take place in the night, if their parents are 

 wealthy, and all their male friends send their servants with 

 lanterns to accompany the procession. No females of any 

 class attend as mourners to the burial. 



Many of the people of Hierro employ at their funerals, 

 professional mourners, or weepers, who are always paid in 

 proportion to the violence of their lamentations. 



Supcrsiitio?is, The lower classes in these islands are 

 very credulous, and in addition to their common faith in 

 witches, ghosts, hobgoblins, signs, and auguries, one of 

 their greatest fears, is the effect of the " evil eye.*' This 

 charm they do not believe to be always an act of volun- 

 tary malice, but think that an excess of fondness or admo- 

 nition of an object, animate or inanimate, may pro- 

 duce the same baneful influence. Anything in the 

 shape of a horn is supposed to neutralize the spell ; and 

 small pieces of bone worked into that shape, are fre- 

 quently suspended on bird-cages, as preventives, or on 

 the headstall of a well-conditioned mule or other beast ; 

 and the countryman who has a good share of fruit in his 

 vineyard, takes care to protect it from the evil eye, by 

 planting about it a number of stakes with a ram's horn 

 on each. 



It is not many years since a lady, every time her infant 

 went out under the charge of her nurse, used to send 

 another servant a few steps in advance, requesting every 

 person who looked upon the child, to say Dios lo hendiga^ 

 (God bless it,) lest they should unwillingly cast upon it 

 the dreadful mal de ojo, which operates, it is believed, in 

 withering up, and causing to decline and perish, whatever 

 it lights upon. 



When a countryman feels the apprehension of the pres- 

 ence of a witch, he turns the waistband of his ** unmention- 

 ables" inside out, or to make security doubly sure, pulls them 

 off, and reverses them altogether. This is considered a charm 

 of such potency, that no witch has the power of annoying 

 any person while protected in this manner. Setting the 



