Evil eye and evil mouth -a true story

Gamini Wimalasuriya’s above titled story in The Island of 24 August reminds me of childhood days at my home town Nawalapitiya. Our house was a mile away from the town—a place called Karahandungala, where lived a woman called Abraham Achchi. Whenever she happened to be around, our mother asked us to remain indoors without being seen by her as she had an evil eye and an evil mouth. One morning, while going past our house, she saw a tree full of fruits in our neighbour’s garden and said, “Hamine, me pepol gahe hondata gedi evilla [Madam, this papaw tree has lot of papaw]. Believe me, by evening, the tree withered and all the fruits fell. The owner of the opposite house was a woman called Beebi. She was also puzzled and inquired from my mother whether Abraham Achchi had been in the area.

We had a jak tree which bore sweet waraka. One day, Abraham Achchi, told my mother how sweet waraka from that tree was. The following morning all the jak fruits turned black and fell. Thereafter, it bore no fruits at all. My mother, a devout Buddhist recited pirith and tied a pirith noola around the tree, which started bearing fruits again.

I have not read or heard such incidents recently.

What I cannot understand is Abraham Archchi’s husband had a very successful business.

G. A. D. Sirimal

BORALESGAMUWA