Tagʹhairm (2 syl.)

A means employed by the Scotch in inquiring into futurity. A person wrapped up in the hide of a fresh-slain bullock was placed beside a waterfall, or at the foot of a precipice, and there left to meditate on the question propounded. Whatever his fancy suggested to him in this wild situation passed for the inspiration of his disembodied spirit.

“Last evening-tide

Brian an augury hath tried,

Of that kind which must not be

Unless in dread extremity,

The Taghairm called.”

Sir Walter Scott: Lady of the Lake, iv. 4.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.