The Evil Eye in West Indies

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 264, 7 November 1938, Page 12

The Evil Eye in West Indies

Miss Peggy Cox, who has lived for the past II years on her uncle’s sugar estat-e in Barbados, told the West India Royal Commission in London recently about the “evil eye" and “black magic” as practised in the West Indies, says tho Manchester Guardian. “I do not think,” she said, “any servants of mine questioned directly i would admit that they believed in it, because it is a thing no one will confess. It is a thing they are ashamed of, but it is extremely prevalent. One of my own household servants died sud-. denly after a short and inexplicable illness. Her children believed that another woman who hated her had put the evil eye on her and caused her death.” Natives, sho said, paid money to the witch doctor as an insurance against harm coming to them from people who possessed the evil eye. Dame Rachel Crowdy (a member of the commission): D~es this affect their health?—Uundoubtedly it does, because if a man seriously believes that the evil eye is put on him he gets worse in health. Miss Cox suggested to the commission—who are going out to investigate the social and economic conditions in some of tho West India islands—that the Government should at once guarantee tho interest of a loan for the development of land settlement and agriculture in tho West Indies. She also