The taman of Tipperary

Cunning men, sometimes called white witches, were consulted to cure diseases laid on by witches, to find thieves, recover stolen goods and tell of absent friends. Brand said they were still called wise men in the villages of Durham and Northumberland. Vallancey wrote that in Ireland such a man was called a taman, and knew a farmer’s wife in County Waterford who lost some linen and travelled three days to a taman in County Tipperary. He consulted his black book and promised she would get it back, and after the loss was cried at the chapel with a reward the linen was returned, which she put down to the taman and not the reward.