Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/379

 Rh to show us the length—and with long, very long moustache—and again the small hands were stretched out to emphasize its length—had come up to her. The old man carried in his hands a big basket, such as the fruit-sellers use; and he it was who had cast the evil eye upon her. Since the moment he had come and stared at her, her face, her hands, and her feet had all swollen.' It was all said simply and naturally, yet with the evident strength of a firm belief in the fact. When asked where her father and mother were, she answered, pathetically, that they had long since 'gone to Kamjee's home.' 'Had she no one, then—no brother or sister to take care of her?' 'Yes, she had one sister and a brother-in-law. The sheep were the Collector sahib's sheep, and he often petted them; so that was why they came round her at first; but now the dogs had frightened them away.' Presently the scattered flock returned, driven by a respectable-looking man. We told him the dogs were to blame, and that he was not to scold the small atom. He spoke quietly and kindly to her; said she had long been ailing, and they did not know what to do for her, as she would eat earth and lime. We watched the poor wee thing trot painfully off after her reassembled flock, with her little hoard of Gorakhpur pice tight shut in her trembling small fingers; and we felt it would be well if Ramjee's home opened wide its gates for her also, poor wee waif and stray."

This little episode aroused our interest in the native superstitions regarding the evil eye, and resulted in our collecting a few more examples. Phulloo Kooree, a well-to-do man, came one day to complain to the owner of the estate on which he lived that he had a fine calf, which in a year or so would be worth fifty rupees; but which was dying. This calamity, he said, was being caused by Boodhun Khara's evil eye, which had already slain one or more of his cattle. The two men were near neighbours, and quarrelled; whereupon Phulloo took his grain to be parched elsewhere. This Boodhun resented; it had always been his right to parch the village grain; his family had held the right for generations. Therefore, to bring his neighbour to a sense of the heinousness of his conduct, he resorted to the expedient of turning on the evil eye. Boodhun was sent for, and remonstrated with. Whereupon he openly declared he had done the