Blair Collection > Carmina gadelica > Volume 2

NOTES 339
Taimhlisg, traduce, contemn. ' Is tu an taimhlisg ' ; this might mean a traducing
person or one worthy of being traduced.
Tairbhein, leirhkein, tailbhein, leilbhein, surfeit ; also a bloody flux in cattle ; possibly
from ' dairb ' or ' deirb/ water-insect, spider, which when swallowed is supposed
to cause bleeding.
Talmaich, honour, obeisance ; from ' talm,' to obey, to honour.
Tarbh buidhie, a monster, a demon, a god capable of changing himself into many
forms — a man, a bull, a horse, or other animal with supernatural powers.
Tamian, torman, ptarmigan, preferably ' tarmigan,' murmur-bird ; from ' tarni," or
' torm,' murmur, and 'ian,' bird. Derivatives — ' tarmach,' 'tormach,' ' tarmachan,'
' tormachan,' murmuring bird.
The tarmigan is ruddj', mottled grey in summer, changing to pure snow-white
in winter. It confines itself to the summits of liigh hills, never coming down to
the glens except under severe pressure of continued snow. Like a true patriot
it contests its country inch by inch against the invading enemy, and if defeated
is never discomfited.
To the uninitiated the tarmigan is undistinguishable from its habitat. In
1877, the writer went up to examine the beach-like shingly appearance of the
summit of a hill in Harris. On the top of the mountain my companion drew my
attention to tarmigans among the stones before us. I could hear the murmur,
but could not see the birds, nor differentiate between them and the shingle
before us, till they began to move, then to run, and ultimately to fly. The
atmosphere was clear, the sun was bright, and not a breath of air on the hill
nor a speck of cloud in the sky, but my companion said that a snowstorm
was coming on. He insisted on immediate descent, and, incredulous, I
reluctantly followed. In less than an hour the bright sun began to disappear,
and the sky began to darken and blacken, and in less than another hour
a raging storm of snow was on, lasting three days and three nights without
intermission.
My companion said that he knew by the peculiar plaint and mode of flight
of the tarmigans that a snowstorm was approaching.
Tarmach-de, tarmachan-de, the white butterfly, rarely the white-and-black butterfly.
Teanga, tongue, voice, speech, oratory. 'Teanga Chaluim-chille,' the oratory of
Columba (vol. i. p. 56). Columba had a powerful voice ' clearly heard at fifteen
hundred paces.' It is said that he could be heard in Mull when preaching in
lona, more than a mile across the sea. Probably the famous Dr. Macdonald,
Ferrintosh, 'the Apostle of the North,' was the greatest Gaelic orator since
Columba, to whom he has been likened. Dr. Macdonald and the late Sir
John A. Macdonald, Premier of Canada, another orator of renown, were sons
of two crofter brothers evicted from Sutherlandshire.