J. F. Campbell Collection > Gaelic dictionary, in two parts

T A I
T A I
lis way into iiis mind from so many sources of prophecy, it was I
firmly believed to have been communicated by invisible beings who
were supposed to haunt such solitudes.
Tagiiairmeacii, a. Responsive, prophetic, oracular; echoing.
Taghall. See Taoghai.l.
Taghar, air, s. m. {Ir. id.) A distant noise.
Tagh-giiutii, s. 711. (/;•. toghuth.) A vote or suffrage, a
voice at an election.
Taouta, Taghte, pr.part. of tagli. (/r. toghta.) Chosen;
select ; choice. Or taghta, cAoke (/oW. — Stew. Pro. Daoine
taghta, chosen or picked men ; also, the elect.
Tagluinv, s.y. A contest, a squabble ; animositv. Luchd
tagluinn, tjuarrehome persons.
Tagluinxeaci;, ri. Quarrelsome, squabbling; contestable.
Tagracii, a. (_/br tagarach.) Pleading, advocating; claim-
ing ; prone to plead or to claim ; relating to pleading.
Tagradair, s. m. A pleader, an advocate ; a claimant.
N. pi. tagradairean.
Tagradaireachd, s. f. The business of a pleader or ad-
vocate.
Tagradh, aidh, s. 7n. A pleading; advocating; a claiming.
Tagraidh, fut. aff. of tagair.
Taibean, ein, s. m. Tabby.
Taibhleas, eis, s. m. A backgammon table, the game of
backgammon.
t Taibiireadh, idh, s. m. A dream. — Sitaw.
Taibiireal, eil, s. Laurel. More properly laibhrenl or
laibhreas ; which see.
Taibiirealacii, a. Abounding in laurel; of, or belonging
to, laurel.
Taibiise, s. 7n. {Ir. id. Arab, taljish.) A ghost or appari-
tion ; a vision. iV. p/. taibhsean. Taibhsean an t-sleibh,
the ghosts of the moor. — Oss. Fin. and Lor. A thaibhse !
togaibh leibh e, ye ghosts ! bear him along rcith you. — Ull.
Taibiisdear, eir, s. m. A seer, or one gifted with the second
sight. N. pi. taibhsdearan.
Taibhsdearaciid, s.f. (y>om taibhse.) The second sight,
or the faculty of seeing otherwise invisible objects.
I consider that some account of the Highland seors, and of llair
predictions, will not here be misplaced nor unacceptable.
At tlicsightof a vision of this kind, Dr. Martin observes, the eyelids
of the gifted person were erected, and the eyes continued staring till
tlie vision disappeared. If an object is seen in tlie morning, it will
be accomplished in the afternoon ; if at noon,' on that very day ; if
in the evening, that very night ; and if after candles are lit, on that
night for certain. If a .shroud is seen about a person, it foretells
approaching death ; and the time of it is more or less distant, ac-
cording to the height at which the shroud is obsened on the body.
If it be seen about tlie middle, death is not expected williin a twelve-
month ; if as high as the head, it is not many hours distant. To
see a spark of lire falling on one's arm, foretells that a dead child
shall be seen in the arms of that person. To see a chair empty at
the time a person sits in it, is a sure sign of approaching di.iili to
that person. Seers did not obsene supernatural appearances at the
same time, though they might happen to be in the same apartment ;
but when one of them who saw a vision, touched any number of his
brethren, they all saw it as well iis the first.
Having said this much of seers, and of the second sight, it may
Le amusing to many, to know how far the prophecies and the fullil-
ments agreed. For this purpose I select an instance or two recorded
by an English nobleman in the seventeenth century, who, previous
to his going to the Highlands, was one of the sturdiest unbelievers
in tlie second sight.
" Sin, — I heard very much, and believed very little, of the second
.sight ; yet its being assumed by .severall of great veracitie, I was in-
duced to make inquirie after it, in the year \<ir>2, being confined to
abide in the North of Scotland, by the Knglish usurpers. • » *
" ' * ' I was travelling in the Highlands, and a good num-
ber of servants with me, as is u.sual there. One of them going a
little before me, entering into a house where I was to .stay all nitfht,
and going hastily to the door, he suddenly stept back with a screech,
536
and did fall by a stone which hit his foot. I asked what tlie matt'
was, for he seemed to be very much frighted. He told me ve'
seriously that I should not lodge in tliat hou.se, because shortly'
dead cotfin would be carried out of it, for many were carrying of;
when he was heard to cry. I neglecting his words, and stayi ,
there, he said to the other senants he was sorry for it, and tl!
surely what he saw would come to pass. Tho' no sick person »;
then there, yet the landlord died of ane apoplectick fit before 1 1'
tlie house. ,
" * * * I shall trouble you with but one more which
thought the most remarkable of any that occurred to me. In .1
iiuary 1652, Lieut. Col. Alex. Munro, and I, were in the house'
one Wm. M'Leud, of Ferinlea, in the county of Ross. He,
landlord, and I, were sitting on three chairs neir the fire ; and!
the corner of the great chimney there were two islanders, who wi
that very iiight come to tlie house, and were related to the landlo'
While the one of them was talking to Munro, I perceived the ot r
to look oddly toward me. From his look, and his being an islanc ,
I conjectured him a seer, and asked him what he staired at?
answered me by desiring me to rise from tlie chair, for it was f i
unluckie one. I asked him why ? He answered, because there ■ ;
dead man in the chair next to me. Well, said I, if he be in t
next chair to me, I may keep mine own. But what is the liker*
of tlie man ? He said he was a tall man with a long grey o,
booted, and one of his legs hanging over the arme of the chair, if
his head hanging dead on the other side, and his arm backwards
if it was broken. Tliere were some English troops then quartet
near that place, and there being at that time a great frost aAi
thaw, the country was covered all over with yce. Four or fiv
the English ryding by this hous some two hours after the vis
while we were sitting by the fire, we heard a great noise, wl5
proved to be those troopers, with the help of other servants, carn^
in one of their number, who had a very mischievous fall, and f
his arme broke; and falling frequently in swooning fits, theybrovit
him into the hall, and set him on the verie chair, and in thevfi
posture that the seer propliecied. But the man did not die, thojt
lie recovered with great difiiculty. j
" Among the accounts given me by Sir Norman M'Lud, tljB
was one worthy of special notice, which w.as thus : — There wift
gentleman in the isle of Harris, who was always seen by tlie spr
with an arrow in his thigh. Such in the isle who thought (lie
prognostications infallible, did not doubt but he woulil be shtii
the thigh before he died. Sir Norman told me that he hearjt
the subject of their discourse for many years. At last he ijd
witliout any such accident. Sir Norman was at liis buria.lt
St. Clement's Church in the Harris. At the same time tlie co
of another gentleman was brought to be buried in the verie s
church. The friends on either side came to debate who should it
enter tlie church, and in a trice from words they came to bl
One of the number, who was armed with a bow and arrows, let
fiy among thcni. (Now everie familie in that isle have tlieirb'Sl
place in the church in stone chests, and the bodies are carrie
o|)en biers to the burial place.) Sir Norman having appeasec, e
tumult, one of the arrows was found shot in the dead man's tip.
To this .Sir Norman was a witness.
" These are matters of fact which, I assure yon, are tily
related." — Siiciincl Accompt <i/' imi jMril Tiirbolt's liilatiom, i»
Utter to the Him. Hubert Ih'yle, 'Esi/iiire, of the Predictions .it
hi/ Seers, whereof himself was Ear and Ej/e-witness.
I have seen a work on the second si(;lil, by one who styles 0"
self ' Theophilus Insulanu?,' win rnn iv n cunled a great varic of
cases where these visions wen i i. il\ luliillcd, and in so sat C-
tory a way, that many of the llijiliml rlirgy became believelin
the existence of this faculty, lather Ur. Beattie must not ive
been aware of this circumstance, or he threw out a galling saipm
when he said that none but the most ignorant pretended {he
gifted witli the second sight. j
These cases of shadowy prediction will enable the read to
balance the conflicting opinions entertained on the curious si ject
of the second sight; tìie one by Dr. Beattie of Aberdeen, anfhe
other by the celebrated Dr. Samuel .lohnson. The former asioes
this (iretended faculty wholly to the influence of physical caufOn
Buper.stitious and uninstructed minds. He thinks that long tr;i«ol
mountainous deserts, covered with dark heath, and often obsreo
by misty weather, narrow valleys, thinly inhabited, and bound by
precipices resounding with the fall of torrents, the mournful diMiS
of waves along the friths and lakes that intersect the countr Ihi'
grotesque and ghastly appearance of such a landscajie by tluyli'
of the moon, must difluse a gloom over the fancy, which m;hf
compatible enough with occasional and social merriment, bu an-