Page:Popular medicine, customs and superstitions of the Rio Grande, John G. Bourke, 1894.pdf/8

126 and allowed to stand all night, and then applied as a lotion, will cure sore eyes.

If the excrement of a swallow fall in your eyes, you will surely lose the sight. (Federico Rodriguez.)

To cure Sore Eyes and Weakness of Vision.—Bathe them with water in which has been steeped a piece of the umbilical cord of a first child. (M. A.)

Evil Eye.—The evil eye, or blight,—mal ojo, meaning bad eye, or simply ojo, is a spell cast upon children by people who look at them steadily, and generally speak kindly to them. If you can find the man who has "echado el ojo" upon a child, make him fill his mouth with water and eject it into the child's mouth. The child will recover at once.

If you cannot find out who has cast the "ojo "on a child, take the herb called "Yerba de Cristo," boil it in water, and wash the infant from head to foot with the decoction. Then take a raw egg, and make with it, while in the shell, the sign of the cross three times on the baby's breast, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Break the egg, throw away the shell, put both yolk and white on a plate under the child's cradle. The egg will cook, the child will get well, and the villain who cast the evil eye be afflicted with bleary eyes! (M. A.)

United States Commissioner Walter Downs told me that he had seen a horse which the Mexicans asserted had been hurt by the "ojo" (evil eye). The man accused of casting the spell admitted his guilt, but said that he would cure the animal at once. He filled his mouth with water, spat upon the horse's neck, and rubbed and patted the place until dry.

Mr. Downs said that the horse got well, which was, of course, all the better for the reputation of the charlatan.

Maria Antonia confirmed all that I had learned about the method of cure by having the culprit eject water from his own mouth into that of the child.

She said, too, that any "Juez" in the Rio Grande Valley would commit a man accused of such a crime as casting the evil eye; but since so many "Americanos" were coming down to that country, some of the judges thought it to be more prudent to enter a charge of being a tramp, disorderly conduct, or something else of that general character.

What is the meaning of the following expression, "Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye?" Proverbs, cha. xxiii. verse 6. The italics are as given in the Testament.