[NewMusic] Taghairm

[Polly Moller]

Ancient divination ritual or ancient performance art?
Or both?  You make the call....
P.

Taghairm:

"A mode of divination formerly used by the Highlanders."
-- John Jamieson's Etymological Scottish Dictionary 1808

A person was wrapped in the skin of a newly slain bullock and
deposited beside a waterfall, 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 their desolate recesses . . .
According to one form of it, the companions of the inquirer
whom they held by the legs and arms, cried, "Let his invisible
friends appear from all quarters, and let them relieve him by
giving an answer to our present demands."

-- Martin Martin's A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland 1703"

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