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OF THE SEVEN AMERICANS on the Siberian expedition, Natalie Ross had the most acute case of culture shock. (“I was really depressed,” says the cinema production major.) She was also the one Old Believer villagers singled out as a victim of the “evil eye.”
The evil eye can be a curse, Ross was informed, but it isn’t necessarily applied on purpose. It can be picked up from a stranger’s passing glance.
Lucky for Ross, the Old Believers had a cure for her affliction. “I went along with it,” she laughs, “in the interest of science.”
The treatment began with a measurement. “A woman wrapped this woven material, like a lanyard, around my head. She chalked the middle, then compared the resulting two halves,” Ross recalls. “It was determined that my head was out of alignment, and she began pushing on my head, from front and back, with both her hands.”
A second measurement proved satisfactory. Now the ritual could begin in earnest.
Ross’ head was bound very tightly in a scarf and she was told to lie down in a dark spot. A few minutes later, her healer loosened the scarf and asked Ross to drink three teaspoons of salt-laced water. (A salt bowl, normally used in the traditional Russian custom of breaking bread with visitors, had been filled with water expressly for the ritual.)
Next, Ross was told to stand up, walk to the doorway and wash her hands and face there. The healer then sipped some of the salty water into her own mouth and spat it down the front and back of Ross’ shirt.
She was told to lie down again.
“I spent maybe a half hour fighting sleep, and then the scarf was removed completely.” (Ross later learned that letting herself nod off would have been beneficial.) Even so, the treatment was deemed a success. Not only was Ross cured: she was protected for the rest of the journey.
And indeed, she says, “by the next morning, I was feeling better – though I’d attribute it to a good night’s sleep.”
Then again, perhaps Ross slept so well becausean evil eye no longer watched her through the night…
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