Tamayo's final contribution to the Spanish stage. His last years were spent in recasting his Virginia, and the result of his efforts may be read in the posthumous edition of his Obras (Madrid, 1898-99). In 1858 Tamayo was elected a member of the Spanish Academy, to which he afterwards became permanent secretary; and in 1884 the Conservative minister, Alejandro Pidal y Mon, appointed him director of the National Library. He died on the 20th of June 1898. (J. F.-K.)
TAMBOUR (Fr. for “drum”), the term in architecture given to the inverted bell of a Corinthian capital round which were carved the acanthus leaves decorating it: applied also to the wall of a circular structure, whether on the ground or raised aloft on pendentives and carrying a dome; and to the drum of a column which is built in several courses.
TAMBOURINE (Fr. tambour de Basque; Ger. baskische Trommel, Tambourin, or Schellen-trommel) , a popular instrument of percussion of indefinite musical pitch, used for marking the rhythm in dance or bacchanalian music. The tambourine consists of a flat wooden or metal ring, over one end of which is stretched a parchment or vellum head; in the circumference of the ring are fixed nine or ten metal disks or small bells which jingle as the tambourine is struck by the hand, or merely waved through the air. A tremolo effect is obtained by stroking the head with the finger-tips. In a 14th-century MS. (Brit. Mus. Sloane 3983, fol. 13) a tambourine of modern appearance with a snare bears the inscription “Tympanum.” The tambourine is of the highest antiquity, and was known at different times under the names of timbrel or tabret, tympanon or tympanum, and symphonia. (K. S.)
TAMBOV, one of the largest and most fertile governments of central Russia, extending from N. to S. between the basins of the Oka and the Don, and having the governments of Vladimir and Nizhniy-Novgorod on the N., Penza and Saratov on the E., Voronezh on the S., and Orel, Tula and Ryazan on the W. It has an area of 25,703 sq. m., and consists of an undulating plain intersected by deep ravines and broad valleys, ranging 450 to 800 ft. above sea-level. Cretaceous and Jurassic deposits, thickly covered with boulder-clay and loess, are widely spread over its surface, concealing the underlying Devonian and Carboniferous strata. These last crop out in the deeper ravines, and seams of coal have been noticed at several places. Iron ore (in the north-west), limestone, clay and gypsum are obtained, and traces of petroleum have been discovered. The mineral waters of Lipetsk, similar to those of Franzensbad in their alkaline elements, and chalybeate like those of Pyrmont and Spa, are well known in Russia. The Oka touches the north-west corner of the government, but its tributaries, the Moksha and the Tsna, are important channels of traffic. The Don also merely touches Tambov, and of its affluents none except the Voronezh and the Khoper and the Vorona, a tributary of the Khoper, are at all navigable. As a whole, it is only in the north that Tambov is well drained; in the south, which is exposed to the dry south-east winds, the want of moisture is much felt, especially in the district of Borisoglyebsk. The climate is continental, and, although the average temperature at Tambov is 42° F., the winter is comparatively cold (January, 13°; July, 68°). The rivers remain frozen for four months and a half. Forests occupy about 7½ per cent, of the total area, and occur chiefly in the west; in the south-east wood is scarce, and straw is used for fuel. The soil is fertile throughout; in the north it is clayey and sometimes sandy, but the rest of the government is covered with a sheet, 2 to 3 feet thick, of black earth, of such richness that in Borisoglyebsk cornfields which have not been manured for eighty years still yield good crops.
The estimated population in 1906 was 3,205,200. The government is divided into twelve districts, the chief towns of which are Tambov, Borisoglyebsk, Yelatma, Kirsanov, Kozlov, Lebedyan, Lipetsk, Morshansk, Shatsk, Spask, Temnikov and Usman. The inhabitants are Great Russians in the centre, but there is a notable admixture of Mordvinians and Meshcheryaks in the west and north-west, as also of Tatars. The Mordvinians are rapidly becoming Russified. Nonconformity has a relatively strong hold in the government. Notwithstanding a high birth-rate (45 in the thousand), the annual increase of population is but slow (0.5 per cent. annually). The prevailing occupation is agriculture, modern machinery being used on the steppe farms. More than two-thirds of the area is arable, and of this proportion 53 per cent. belongs to the peasant communities, 36 per cent. to private individuals, and 11 per cent. to the crown. The principal crops are rye, wheat, oats, barley and potatoes. Grain is exported to a considerable extent from the south, although the yield is deficient in the north. Hemp and linseed are also cultivated, and the production of tobacco is yearly increasing. Beetroot is extensively grown for sugar. Livestock breeding, though less extensively carried on than formerly, is still important. Excellent breeds of horses are met with, not only on the larger estates, but also in the hands of the wealthier peasants, those of the Bityug river being most esteemed. Manufacturers are represented chiefly by distilleries, tallow-melting works, sugar factories, flour-mills and woollen-cloth mills. Commerce is brisk, owing to the large grain export—Kozlov, Morshansk, Tambov and Borisoglyebsk being the chief centres for this traffic, and Lebedyan for the trade in horses and cattle. This government is backward educationally. A distinctive feature is its large villages of crown peasants.
The region now included in the north of the government was settled by Russians during the earliest centuries of the principality of Moscow, but until the end of the 17th century the fertile tracts in the south remained too insecure for settlers. In the following century a few immigrants began to come in from the steppe, and landowners who had received large grants of land from the tsars began to bring their serfs from central Russia. (P. A. K.; J. T. Be.)
TAMBOV, a town of Russia, capital of the government of the same name, 300 m. by rail S.E. from Moscow, on the Tsna river, and on the railway to Saratov. Pop. (1884) 34,000; (1900) 49,208. The town is almost entirely built of wood, with broad unpaved streets, lined with low houses surrounded by gardens; but it is an archiepiscopal see of the Orthodox Greek Church. Woollens, tobacco, oil and various other commodities are manufactured. The trade in grain, and in cattle purchased in the south and sent to Moscow, is far less important than that of Morshansk and Kozlov.
TAMBURELLO (called in Piedmont Tabasso), a court game popular in Italy, particularly in the northern provinces. It is a modification of the ancient game of Pallone (q.v.), bearing the same general relation to it as Squash does to Racquets. A full-sized Tamburello Court, which need not be as true and even as that for Pallone, is 90 to 100 yards long and half as wide, divided laterally through the middle by a line (cordino) into two equal spaces, the battuta and the rimessa. Three players regularly form a side, each carrying in one hand an implement called tamburello, resembling a tambourine (whence the name), which is a round frame of wood upon which is tightly stretched a cover of horse-hide. A rubber ball about the size of a lawn-tennis ball is used. One of the players opens the service (battuta), which is made from a small square called the trampolino, situated at one corner of the battuta but outside the court. The service must be over the middle line. The ball must then be hit from side to side over the line, the side failing to return it or sending it out of court losing a point. The game is scored like lawn-tennis, four points constituting a game, counting 15+15+10+10. Tamburello, a less expensive game than Pallone, is popular with the lower classes, who use it as a medium for betting.
TAMILS. The word Tamil (properly Tamil̤) has been identified with Dravida, the Sanskrit generic appellation for the south Indian peoples and their languages; and the various stages through which the word has passed—Dramida, Dramila, Damila—have been finally discussed by Bishop Caldwell in his Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Language; (2d ed., 1875, p. 10 seq.). The identification was first suggested by Dr Graul (Reise nach Ostindien, vol. iii., 1854, p. 349), and then adverted to by Dr G. U. Pope (Tamil Handbook, 1859, Introduction) and Dr Gundert (Malayâḷma Dictionary. 1872, s.v.). Dr Pope,
