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BLINKING OR IL L-W I S H I N G. 



By E. J. M'Kean, B.A.(Oxon.) 



The belief in the evil eye is very old and we meet it in diverse 

 forms in Saga and Folktale. Medusa's glance in the well-known 

 Greek story and Balor Beimenach's destructive glare in Irish myth 

 are but instances of it. It is still dreaded, in Italy especially, and 

 in all countries of the world besides. The evil eye is not always 

 destructive : it may be used to divert to its owner things which 

 should have gone to another, and in this it usually is aided by 

 magic ceremonies. This is the form which it generally takes in 

 North-West Europe and which is usually found in Ulster and of 

 this my paper is to treat. 



This kind of charming is perhaps the most important department 

 of witchcraft and is possibly the oldest. It involves ideas which 

 belong to an early stage of the human mind. It is simple, 

 another point in favour of its antiquity, and it requires no 

 extraneous aid. The ' blinker ' as we call him in Ulster, can act 

 without the help of ghost or devil. 



All witchcraft depends on the idea that some men can of their 

 own will alter the courses of nature by dread powers not given to 

 all, and this idea, which long survived the advent of Christianity, 

 fell finally not by persecution but by the fuller knowledge of the 

 universe which science gave. Like drove out like : the new 

 knowledge broke down the older theory of the world. 



The English statute against witchcraft was repealed in 1736, 

 and the last condemnation for witchcraft in Ireland took 

 place at Carrickfergus in 171 1, yet we still have in our midst a 

 wide-spread belief in ' blinking ' and not a few blinkers. The 

 blinker seldom attacks persons but usually seeks to satisfy malice 

 and interest by blinking cattle and " taking the good" of milk or 

 crops. But nowadays the art is degenerating, its outlines are 

 growing dim, and we have to compare what we learn of it with 



