taghairm

plural taghairms · alternative taigheirm

1. An ancient divination method of the Highland Scots involving animal sacrifice.
   1. ScotlandhistoricaluncountableusuallyA method of divination involving wrapping a person in the hide of a freshly-killed ox which was then placed beside a waterfall or other desolate place, to enable the person to foresee the outcome of an impending battle; the oracle of the hide.

      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.

      1911, J[ohn] A[rnott] MacCulloch, “CELTS”, in James Hastings, editor, Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, volumes III (Burial–Confessions), New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner's Sons; London: T. & T. Clark, →OCLC, page 300, column 2

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      There were different kinds of taghairm, of which one was very lately practiſed in Sky. The diviner covered himſelf with a cow's hide, and repaired at night to ſome deep-ſounding cave, whither the perſon who conſulted him followed ſoon after without any attendants. At the mouth of the cave he propoſed aloud the queſtions of which he wanted ſolutions; and the man within pronounced the reſponſes in a tone of voice ſimilar to that which the obs, 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; […]

      1797, “NECROMANCY”, in Encyclopædia Britannica; or, A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature; [...] In Eighteen Volumes, 3rd greatly enlarged edition, volume XII, Edinburgh: Printed for A[ndrew] Bell and C[olin] Macfarquhar, →OCLC, page 787, column 2

      [page 146] [L]ast evening-tide / Brian an augury hath tried, / Of that dread kind which must not be / Unless in dread extremity, / The Taghairm called; by which, afar, / Our sires foresaw the events of war. / Duncraggan's milk-white bull they slew, […] [page lxv] 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.

      1810, Walter Scott, “Canto IV. The Prophecy.”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller, →OCLC, stanza IV, pages 146 and lxv

      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 Amphiaraus, expectant of visions, were, in truth, trying the augury of the Taghairm; […]

      1844 December, Gideon Shaddoe, “Recollections and Reflections of Gideon Shaddoe, Esq. No. VI.”, in [Thomas Hood], editor, Hood's Magazine and Comic Miscellany, volume II, number XII, London: Published for the proprietors, by H. Renshaw, 356. Strand; and sold by all booksellers, →OCLC, page 603

   2. ScotlandhistoricaluncountableusuallyA method of divination in which cats were roasted alive to call up the spirit of the demon cat who would grant the wishes of the torturers.

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      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.

      1824 March 13, “Traditions of the Western Highlands. No. II. The Taigheirm.”, in The Literary Gazette, and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, &c., number 373, London: Printed by B. Bensley, Bolt Court, Fleet Street; published for the proprietors, at the Literary Gazette Office, Strand, →OCLC, page 172

      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.

      1854, Joseph Ennemoser, “The Magic of the Ancient Germans and of the Northern Nations”, in William Howitt, transl., edited by Mary Howitt, 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 (Bohn's Scientific Library), volume II, London: Henry G[eorge] Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden, →OCLC, pages 104 and 105

      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;' […]

      1891, The Zoophilist and Animals' Defender, volume X, London: National Anti-Vivisection Society, →OCLC, page 93, column 2