Word: taghairm Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Borrowed from Scottish Gaelic taghairm, from Old Irish togairm, from Proto-Celtic *to-garrman, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵh₂r̥-smn̥, from *ǵeh₂r- (“to call, to shout”); compare Irish toghairm (“an invocation, a summons”), from gairm, gair (“to call; to invoke”), ultimately from the same Proto-Indo-European roots. The Encyclopædia Britannica (3rd ed., 1797) suggests a derivation from Scottish Gaelic ta (“a ghost, a spirit”) + gairm (“to call, to cry”), while the editor of an 1871 edition of Sir Walter Scott’s The Lady of the Lake suggested tarbh (“a bull”) or targair (“to foretell”). These etymologies are no longer to be taken seriously. Pronunciation: /ˈtaɡəɹəm/, /ˈtæɡəɹəm/ 1. An ancient divination method of the Highland Scots involving animal sacrifice. Labels: Scotland, historical, uncountable, usually Example: 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; […] Example: [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. 2. An ancient divination method of the Highland Scots involving animal sacrifice. Labels: Scotland, historical, uncountable, usually Example: 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. Example: 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.