[Christine's Halloween Monster and Faery List]

Dha Shealladh (Second Sight)

(pron. da HYAHL-uh) Dr. Johnson, when on his tour in Scotland and the Western Isles, remarks upon it as follows :
Second sight: Taish is an impression made either by the mind upon the eye, or by the eye upon the mind, by which things distant or future are perceived and seen as if they were present. . . . Things distant are seen at the instant when they happen. This receptive faculty, for power it cannot be called, is neither voluntary nor constant. The appearances have no dependence upon choice they cannot be summoned, detained, or recalled - the impression is sudden, and the effect often painful.

Power was sometimes derived by inheritance, and transmitted from father to son. It was formerly supposed, as already stated, that families had Second-sight by succession, and it was also supposed that the only way to be freed from it was by a man who had it marrying a woman affected in the same way.
In the story An T-each uisge agus an ighean: The Kelpie & the Girl (pron. ahn chekh OOSH-guh AH-goos ah NEE-uhn) The Wise Man who has the sight tells a girl that when she hears a’ chuthag: cuckoo (pron. an KHOO-uk) to bring the kelpie to him and chi sinn na chi sinn: We shall see what we shall see. (pron. khee shee nah khee sheen) (95, 255)


Next page - Previous page - Table of Contents - Index - Works Cited

[French Ministry of Education Site: Centre national de documentation pédagogique]Christine O’Keeffe’s Halloween Home Page
cokeeffe at geocities.com
http://www.tartanplace.com/faery/sight.html
© Copyright 1997. Christine O’Keeffe Ver. 3.0. Thursday, July 5, 2001
Created For Educational Use Only.