Definitions For Taghairm

Noun

TAGHAIRM (plural s) (historical, Scotland) An ancient divination method of the highland scots involving animal sacrifice#noun, sacrifice. A method of divination involving sewing a person into the hide#noun, hide of a freshly-kill#verb, killed ox which was then placed beside a waterfall or other desolate#adjective, desolate place, to enable the person to foresee the outcome of an impending battle#noun, battle; the oracle of the hide. , or pretended dæmons of antiquity, gave from beneath the ground their oracular anſwers. That in the latter days of taghairm the Gaelic diviners pretended to evocate ghoſts, and from them to extort ſolutions of difficulties propoſed, we have no poſitive evidence; [] Notes to Canto Fourth. Note I. The Highlanders, like all rude people, had various superstitious modes of enquiring into futurity. One of the most noted was the Taghairm, mentioned in the text. A person was wrapped in the skin of a newly slain bullock, and deposited beside a water-fall, or at the bottom of a precipice, or in some other strange, wild, and unusual situation, where the scenery around him suggested nothing but objects of horror. In this situation he revolved in his mind the question proposed, and whatever was impressed upon him by his exalted imagination, passed for the inspiration of the disembodied spirits, who haunt these desolate recesses. ], magazine=, location=London, publisher=Published for the proprietors, by H. Renshaw, 356. w:strand, london, strand; and sold by all booksellers, month=December, year=1844, volume=II, issue=XII, page=603, pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=UJElAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA603, oclc=6420002, passage=A country where such traditions could pass current, and in which more unfortunate creatures, perhaps, passed to death through the torturing fire for the imaginary crime of witchcraft under laws framed and administered in the spirit of Moloch himself, then suffered on the same accursed account in any region of similar extent, was a soil well calculated to cherish the Taghairm and Second Sight. Those who slept on the skin of the sacrificial lamb at the temple of , expectant of visions, were, in truth, trying the augury of the Taghairm; , title=, location=New York, N.Y., publisher=; London: w:t&t clark, t. & t. clark, year=1911, volume=III (Burial–Confessions), page=300, column 2, pageurl=https://archive.org/stream/encyclopaediaofr03hast_0#page/300/mode/1up/, oclc=3065458, passage=In the taghairm the seer was bound in an animal's hide and left by the waters, the spirits of which inspired his dreams. The hide was probably that of a sacrificial animal. A method of divination in which cats were roast#verb, roasted alive to call up the spirit#noun, spirit of the demon cat who would grant the wishes of the torturers. ; published for the proprietors, at the Literary Gazette Office, w:strand, london, strand, date=13 March 1824, issue=373, page=172, pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=jtZRAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA172, oclc=276732578, passage=The last time the Taigheirm was performed in the Highlands, was in the island of Mull, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, and the place is still well known to the inhabitants. The institution was no doubt of pagan origin, and was a sacrifice offered to the Evil Spirit, in return for which the votaries were entitled to demand two boons. The sacrifice consisted of living cats roasted on a spit while life remained, and when the animal expired, another was put on in its place. , transl., chapter=The Magic of the Ancient Germans and of the Northern Nations, editor=, title=The History of Magic. [...] To which is Added an Appendix of the Most Remarkable and Best Authenticated Stories of Apparitions, Dreams, Second Sight, Somnambulism, Predictions, Divination, Witchcraft, Vampires, Fairies, Table-turning, and Spirit-rapping. [...] In Two Volumes, series=Bohn's Scientific Library, location=London, publisher=w:henry george bohn, henry g[eorge] bohn, York Street, , year=1854, volume=II, pages=104 and 105, pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=dhoHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA104, oclc=968472094, passage=According to Horst's Deuteroscopy, black cats were indispensable to the incantation ceremony of the Taigheirm, and these were dedicated to the subterranean gods, or, later, to the demons of Christianity. When the Taigheirm was complete, the sacrificer demanded of the spirits the reward of his offering, which consisted of various things; as riches, children, food, and clothing. The gift of second-sight, which they had not had before, was, however, the usual recompense; and they retained it to the day of their death. , year=1891, volume=X, page=93, column 2, oclc=906999582, passage=Anthropology and National Psychology can tell us something about such things; we have heard of those horrible Taigheirms, when for days together Highland shepherds roasted living cats in front of a fire uninterruptedly, in order that, intoxicated with their frightful wailings, they might obtain the magic gift of 'second sight;'

Alternative forms

taigheirm

Etymology

Borrowed from , possibly from gairm, , to call#verb, call, to cry#verb, cry, from , from , from , from *ǵeh₂r-, *gʰel-, , to call, to cry, to shout#verb, shout; compare , from gairm, gair, , to call; to invoke, ultimately from the same Proto-Indo-European roots. The (3rd ed., 1797) suggests a derivation from + gairm, , to call, to cry,. while the editor of an 1871 edition of Sir ’s w:the lady of the lake (poem), the lady of the lake suggested tarbh, , a bull or targair, , to foretell.. The reliability of these etymologies is uncertain.