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TANSY 249 TAOISM, or TAONISM den origin. It now holds a place in gar- dens mainly for the young leaves, which are ^redded down and employed to fla- TANSY vor puddings, omelets and cakes. A va- riety with leaves doubly curled is gener- ally preferred. T ANT AH, a town of lower Egypt; on the railway about 50 miles N. of Cairo. It has many large public buildings, be- sides a palace of the Khedive, and is cele- brated in connection with the Great Mos- lem saint Seyyidel-Bedawi, to whom a mosque is here erected. Tantah has three great annual fairs, which are held in January, April, and August, and at the latter 500,000 persons are said to congregate from the surrounding coun- tries. Pop. about 74,000. TANTALEM ISLAND, an island in the Gulf of Siam, on the E. coast of the main peninsula, from which it is sepa- rated by a narrow strait; 65 miles long by 20 wide. TANTALITE, an orthorhombic min- eral of rare occurrence, found in granite rocks rich in albite or oligoclase; luster, metallic; color, black; streak, reddish brown to black; opaque, brittle. Com- position : A tantalate of the protoxides of iron and manganese, part of the tan- talic acid being sometimes replaced by oxide of tin, forming a stanno-tantalate. Formula (FeOMnO), TaOs. TANTALUM, a pentad metallic ele- ment, symbol, Ta., at. wt. 182, discovered in 1803 by Ekeberg in the minerals tan- talite and yttrotantalite. The metal is obtained by heating the fluotantalate of potassium or sodium with metallic so- dium in a covered iron crucible, cooling, and washing out the soluble salts with water. It is a black powder, insoluble in sulphuric, hydrochloric, nitric, or even in nitrohydrochloric acid, but is slowly dissolved in warm aqueous hydrofluoric acid, very rapidly when nitric acid is present. TANTALUS, in Greek mythology, a King of Lydia, son of Zeus. He was father of Niobe and Pelops, by Dione, one of the Atlantides, and is repre- sented by the poets as punished in Hades with an insatiable thirst, and placed up to the chin in the midst of a pool of water, which flowed away as soon as he attempted to taste it. There hung also above his head a bough, richly loaded with delicious fruit, which, as soon as he attempted to seize it, was carried away from his reach by a sudden blast of wind. He was thus punished either for theft, cruelty, and impiety, or lasci- viousness; for the causes are variously stated. TANTIA TOPI ("the weaver who be- came an artilleryman") ; the most ener- getic of the rebel ringleaders during the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. He commenced as a lieutenant of Nana Sahib, of whom he is said to have been a relation; but after the latter had fled into Nepal, he continued the war for several months, retreating with great rapidity through Bundelcund and central India, but was finally captured, tried, and hanged in April, 1859. He was the last armed rebel in the field. TANTRA, in Hindu sacred literature, one of the compositions, great in num- ber and in some cases extensive, always assuming the form of a dialogue between Siva and his bride in one of her many forms, but chiefly as Uma and Parvati, in which the goddess asks her consort for directions how to perform certain ceremonies. In giving her the necessary prayers and incantations he warns her that it must on no account be divulged to the profane. The Tantrikas, or fol- lowers of the Tantras, consider them a fifth Veda, and attribute to them equal antiquity and superior authority. They were composed chiefly in Bengal and eastern India. The Saktas are great supporters of the Tantras. TAOISM, or TAONISM, one of the three religions of China. Its founder, Laotse, lived, according to tradition, in the 6th century B. c. Tao is a word meaning "way." The whole teaching was vague and unsatisfactory; but its followers made a great advance on those