Being the body’s organs of vision, eyes are logically considered an instrument of knowledge, power of observation and attention. The phrase keep an eye on someone means watching someone’s actions very closely; when you tell someone to keep four eyes open you are advising them to be vigilant. He opened my eyes for me is something we would say to a person who has revealed important truths about life to us. The proverb God forbid that a blind man should see is used to describe an upstart who has turned his back on his humble background and is flaunting his position in society. It is precisely one such person that Bulgarian classic Aleko Konstantinov describes in a short story whose title has been taken from that saying. Here is what he writes: It is not the blind man who has regained his eyesight Bulgarians turn away from, but from the blinded vulgarian, fortuitously risen from a nobody, dragged up from the mire. People who are impudent and arrogant are called thickeyed or eyeless.

Eyes and eyesight are also regarded as linked to desire, hence the saying: Eyes full, hands empty, and the phrase wandering eyes – this when describing someone with an excessive interest in the opposite sex. Winking is seen as a broad sexual hint, but is said to carry the risk of getting an eye stye.

Eyes are crucial to physical beauty especially where women are concerned. In traditional Bulgarian culture the eyes that are beautiful are dark. It is said that the blue eyed lass is worth five hundred, the dark eyed – a thousand. According to one legend about the rebel Chavdar Voivode, the pasha of Sofia finally got to catch him when he lured him with the promise of giving him all dark-eyed girls in the town. There are innumerable folk songs about the black eyes of the beloved girl – there are lyrics that go the black eyes of a deer, the slender eyelashes of the basil, eyebrows like braid. Women’s beautiful eyes are compared to cherries, black olives or bright stars. The young man longs for the black eyes of the girl he is in love with, for her white face and her slender body and asks her to give him that gift, but she hesitates: Shall I give it him? How can I when mother is watching…”

But when the eyes are too big that is not a good thing either. There is a comic song in which the wayward lover says: Your black eyes, lass, as big as slabs! They are not for me, my girl, keep them! According to traditional belief demons and dragons have enormous, scary eyes, as do people with demonic abilities. It is also said that: Fear has big eyes – when you are frightened you tend to exaggerate the danger you are in. Eyes also have magic powers. When given people look at you that might induce certain ailments. This is called uroki or to give the evil eye and may result in headaches, fever, weakness. Blue or green eyes are thought to be more potent. People who have been repeated , i.e. have been suckled then weaned by their mothers and then suckled again, as well as those thought to be stillborn and then brought back to life by the granny-midwife are also thought to have the evil eye. Eyes can cast evil spells, but they can also safeguard against them. A blue glass bead is worn as an amulet against evil eyes, sometimes with a little eye painted on them.

The eyes are thought to be man’s most prized possession, hence the saying: Watch over as you would your eyes! Blind people are considered to be marginal figures within their communities. They are not allowed to take part in the customary rituals performed by other people their age and rarely marry. However, it is believed that such people have spiritual eyes and are able to see into the underworld. An example of this are the blind fortune tellers and clairvoyants; singers of ancient times like Homer, who perform epic songs with thousands of verses are often blind too. Up till the turn of the 20^th century, there were blind beggars in Bulgaria who would travel  to towns and villages singing heroic songs.

There is a saying - The human eye is insatiable and it is confirmed by a story that goes like this: Once upon a time there was a king who ordered a fisherman to throw his net into the sea for the royal pleasure. He promised to pay in gold the weight of whatever was caught in the net. To everybody’s dismay, the only thing caught in the net was a small bone. They put it on one pan of the weighing scales and the king put a gold piece on the other, but the bone was heavier. The king went on piling gold piece upon gold piece, but the pan seemed spell-bound and did not budge. Confused and bewildered, he sent for the wisest old woman in his kingdom to ask her what kind of magic this was. The old woman came, took a look at the scales, then stooped to scoop up a handful of earth and scattered it over the bone. At once the pan grew lighter and the bone shot up into the air. The king was astounded but the old woman explained this was a piece of bone from a human eye: it lusts for more and more and is only appeased when it is buried and there is earth over it. The king never forgot the moral of this incredible story… and neither should we!

Author: Ass. Prof. Dr. Vihra Baeva, expert at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum

English version: Milena Daynova