20/07/2020
From Haiti to the Hebrides! The use of dolls and figures is common in most witchcraft or old magickal traditions and not just for curses.
SCOTTISH DARK MAGIC: THE "CORP CHRE", OR "CORP CHREADH" (CLAY BODY, OR CO**SE)
Dr Robert Craig Maclagan was a Scottish folklorist with a passionate interest in the ancient history of the Scottish people and their folk-beliefs. He was a regular contributor in the early days of the Folklore Society and also wrote several great books including, his best known work, "Evil Eye in the Western Highlands" (1902). Today's small extract is from an earlier paper; one that he presented to the the Folklore Society in June 1895 about "Folklore Objects Collected in Argyleshire". This is what he said about the "Corp Chre, or Corp Chreadh (Clay Body, or Co**se);
"When a person had conceived an ill will to another the Corp Chre was used as a means of effecting the destruction of the person disliked, without injury to the user. The following is the description of it by a firm believer in its efficacy, who died not long ago in the island of Islay. It was made of clay, like (in form) to the human body. Pins were put into it, and with every pin put in an incantation was said. When it was desired that the person to be injured should die a lingering death, care was taken that the pins should not touch where the heart was supposed to be, but when a speedy death was desired the pins were stuck over the region of the heart.
A. M., a native of Bernera, agrees in the above, but adds the information that the Corp had to be placed in a running stream where it would be acted on by the water. It was made as hard as possible at first, but when placed in the water it began to melt away, and in proportion as it crumbled under the influence of the force of the water so did the person represented waste away and turn to clay.
Another informant states that where each pin is put in the figure a pain will be felt in the corresponding part of the body of the person represented by the image.
A. M. relates the following. In one of the Western Islands two young women set their affections on the same young man. He preferred the prettier of the girls, but the other loved him so much that she determined to destroy her rival. Being a bad girl, she made a Corp Chre and filled it as full as possible with pins. She put it in a running stream, and by-and-by the water began to wear it away. At the same time her rival began to become weak and lean, and at last became so ill that she had to keep her bed. The attentions of the lover, her friends, or the doctor failed to restore her to health. About this time a shepherd in the locality, crossing a stream in search of a strayed sheep, noticed the Corp Chre in the water. He said to himself, " This is nothing but the work of Satan;" so taking it out of the water he destroyed it. On reaching home he informed his mother of what he had seen and done. The old woman at once remarked, "It is just the work of Satan; some wicked person has done that to destroy our neighbour's beautiful daughter. Say nothing to anyone about it and you will see she will soon recover."The mother of the shepherd then went to see the sick girl and told her what had been done. The girl had become very weak and was considered to be near her end, but from the day the shepherd had destroyed the clay figure she improved in health steadily. The jealous girl, at a loss to understand how her scheme had failed, went to ask for the sick one. On entering the house she said, "You are getting better?" "Yes," was the answer, "in His name, I am." The wicked girl went away, and on going to the stream where she had placed the figure she saw that it had been destroyed. She set about making another, but, suspicion having been awakened,she was watched, and being caught making it, was seized and punished.
The following is from a Jura man. The grandfather of the present laird of _____ was on one occasion on a visit to Inverary and was returning home accompanied by his servant.
He landed on a Saturday night at a point nearly twenty miles from his house. As he was not expected, no conveyance had been sent to meet him, and he and his servant had to travel the distance on foot. On the way the laird fell sick and began to lag. At last he said to his lad "I do not know what is wrong with me; I feel sick and am growing weak." The lad, who came of a stock that had "Eolas " (knowledge, magical) connections, and knowing some of their secrets, at once suspected some secret mischief, and said, " Oh! I believe the people of K____ are trying to do you harm. Likely they have some grudge against you for something you may have done to them. Never mind, we are coming near the place, and I will see and put it right." The laird continued to get worse, and at last the lad had actually to carry him on his back for a quarter of a mile. Having reached the point on the main road nearest to the township, which was half a mile distant from it, the lad left the laird at the roadside and went down to the place. Having reached the suspected house, he saw through a window (or through a hole in the wall) several old women he knew busy finishing a Corp Chre, and sticking pins into it.
The lad shouted out, "Tigh ri theine air a chaillach an K____" (the house of the old woman K____ is on fire). Thinking the house was on fire, the old women rushed out, and under cover of the night the lad went in, got possession of the Corp Chre, and having destroyed it, went back to his master, whom he found already improving, and who soon became quite well.
Not long ago the late laird of ______ said to one of the people of that township, " Are you one of the K ____s who tried to injure my grandfather by a Corp Chre? " The man replied, "l am a K____, but have no connection with those K____s. That was an affair that happened long ago."
There is evidently nothing peculiar to the Highlands in the belief of the power of the Corp Chre, except the fact of its survival. In Poland, however, we still find the same idea slightly modified, the part of the person in which the injury is to be — say, the head — being drawn with human blood on a wall. Into this a needle is stuck. The person represented will suffer from severe headache till the needle is removed. If the whole body were represented, it is evident that this would be identical with the practice of the Corp Chre. Nothing is said about the action of rain on the figure drawn, but the situation is well adapted for the gradual washing away of the representation.
The Corp Chre sent with this (shown in the photo going with this post) was made in Islay; but the woman who made it will not permit her name to appear, as she is desirous of concealing from her neighbours that she knows how to make them.
When the Corp Chre is made ready for receiving the pins, the operator addresses it in this manner: '"S cosmhal thu o d' chulaobh ri reithe air am bitheadh sean ruisg " (from behind you are like a ram with an old fleece). As the pins are being put in, a long incantation is used, the beginning of which is something to this effect: "Mar a cnamhas thusa, gu cnamhadh ise: mar leonas so thusa, gu leonadh ise" (as you waste away may she waste away, as this wounds you may it wound her)."
