Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/823

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TOALDO


749


TOBIAS


mentioned by the "Notitiae episcopatuum " as a suffragan of Myra. Le Quien (Oriens christ., I, 979) gives a list of five known bishops: Andreas, at Chal- cedon, 451 (signed in 45S the letter of the Lycian bishops to Emperor Leo); Eustathius at Constanti- nople, under the patriarch Menas, 536 (also known by Novella 115 of Justinian); John, at the Council of TruUo, 692; Constantine, at Nice, 787; Constantino, at Constantinople, 879.

Fellows, Asia Minor, 237 sqq.; Idem, Lycia, 132 sqq.; Texier, Asie mineure, 672; Smith, Diet, of Greek and Roman Geogr, s. v.

S. Petrides.

Toaldo, Giuseppe, priest and physicist, b. at Pianezze, 1719; d. at Padua, 1797. In his fourteenth year ho entered the seminary of Padua, in which he subsequently taught mathematics and Itahan litera- ture. While connected with the seminary he edited the works of Galilei (1744), for which he wrote an ap- preciative preface and critical notes. In 1754 he was appointed pastor of Montegalda; and, eight years hitcr, was called to the chair of astronomy in the University of Padua. Toaldo, like his contempora- ries, Di\'isch and Beccaria (both priests), gave special attention to the study of atmospheric electricity and to the means of protecting buildings against lightning. He advocated the erection of lightning-rods, adopting the views of Franklin on their preventive and protect- ive action, rather than those of the French school led by Abbe NoUet. His treatise "Delia maniera di difendere gli edificii dal fulmine" (1772) and his pamphlet "Dei conduttori metaUici a preservazione degli edifici dal fulmine" (1774) contributed largely to remove the popular prejudices of the time against the use of the "Frankhnian rod"; and through his exertions lightning-conductors were placed on the Cathedral of Siena, on the tower of St. Mark's, Venice, on powder magazines, and ships of the Vene- tian nav'y. Toaldo was a member of many of the learned bodies of Europe, notably of the Royal Society,. London.

Tip.\LDO. Biografia degli Jlaliani illustri.

Bkother Potamian.

Toba Indians, one of the few still unconquered savage tribes of the gi-oat Chaco wilderness of South America, and notable alike for their persistent hos- tility to the white man and for their close resemblance in language, customs, and manner of living to the celebrated Abip6n, among whom the famous Jesuit Dobrizhoffer (q. v.) laboured one hundred and fifty years ago. They are of Guaycuran linguistic stock, which includes also the .\bip6n, Mocovi, and a num- ber of other tribes of similar predatory habit, and range, in alliance with the Mocovi, through the forests and marshes of the Chaco region on the west bank of the Paraguay River about the lower Pilco- maj'o and Verraejo, in Paraguay and north-east Ar- gentina, sometimes extending their forays westward to the frontiers of Oran and Tarija. They are known imder various names, the most common being from the GuaranI tohni, signifying "opposite", i. e. those hving on the opposite bank of the Paraguay from the Guaranf. They number now perhaps 2000 souls.

Physically they are tall and well-built, with fierce countenance, and from going constantly barefoot the soles of their feet are toughened to resist thorns and sharp rocks. Both sexes go nearly naked except when in the presence of strangers, and wear their hair long, the men confining it by means of a band or turban. On si)ecial occasions they wear shirts or skirts of skins or of woollen stuff, of their own weaving, from the sheep they now possess, together with head-dresses, bells, and wristlets of ostrich feathers. They tattoo their faces and upper bodies with vegetable dye. They live almost entireh' by hunting and fi.shing, but raise a little corn. They liave large herds of horses and are fine horsemen. The men are expert in the


making of dug-out canoes and fish traps, while the women are expert potters .and net weavers. Their huts are simple structures of willow branches covered with grass, sometimes large enough to have several compartments. Their weapons are the bow, lance, and wooden club, besides which they now have some guns. They bury the dead, the aged being sometimes killed by their own children from a feeling of pity for their helplessness. For the same reason, when a mother dies her infant is buried with her. Men have only one wife at a time. There is no head chief, the government resting principally with the old men. Little is known of their rehgion, which seems to con- sist chiefly of a special reverence for the sun and the rising moon, and the propitiation of a host of invisible spirits which are held responsible for sickness and other misfortunes. In war they are distinguished for their ferocity and barbarous cruelty, and are dreaded aUke by settlers, travellers, and Christianized Indians throughout the whole northern Chaco fron- tier. In 1882 they massacred an entire exploring expedition of fifteen men under command of the French geographer, Crevaux. In 18.')4, however, the American expedition up t he Paraguay, imder Captain Page, held friendly intercourse with them. Some special studies of their language, which is virtually the same as that of the Abip6n, have been made by Car- ranza and Quevedo. An interesting, though strongly anti-rehgious, account of their latter-day condition and habits is given by the Italian engineer, Pelleschi. In the early colonization period of the eighteenth century the Toba, with the Abipon and Mocovi, were among the most determined and constant enemies of the Argentine-Paraguayan settlements and missions, and hardly a half year ever passed without a raid or retaliatory punitive expedition. On one occasion six hundred Toba attacked Dobrizhoffer's mission, but were repelled by the missionary himself single-handed with the aid of his firearms, of which the savages were in deadly terror. The missionary received an arrow wound in the encounter. In 1756 a number of Toba and Mataco were gathered into the Mission of San Ignacio de Ledesma, on the Rio Grande tributary of the Vermejo, where they numbered 600 souls at the time of the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767. Some later atteiniil was made by the Franciscans to restore the Chaco missions, but with the end of Spanish rule the missions declined and the Indians scattered to the forests. (See Mataco Indians; Mocovi Indians.)


Consult: Brinton, Avier\ ZA, Expedicidn al Chaco A i. voix. Hist, du Paraguay < I

RIZHOFFER, AcCOUUt of 0<'

Catdiogo de las Letiguas, I Chorogrdphica del Gran ' L'Homme Americain (Pari Confederation and Parotv Eight Months


fN'iw York, 1891) ; Carran- \ires. 1S84): Chable- I.ondon, 1769); Dob- lon, 1822); Hehvas, I>ozA-NO. Descripridn . 1733) : d'Obbiony, / I Plata, the Argentine , 18.59) ; Pelleschi, "11. 1886): Quevedo.


Lenguas Argentinas, Idiomn A'^'i^'i'i (Buenos Ayres, 1896); Reclcs. The Earth and its Inhabitants; Houth America, II, Ama- zonia and La Plata (New York. 189.5).

James Mooney.

Tobias. — We shall first enumerate the various Biblical persons and then treat the book of this name.

I. Per-sons. a.— Tobias (II P.ar., xvii, 8), Heb. tdbi/yahU " Yahweh is good"; Sept. Tw^ias, one of the Levites whom Josaphat .sent to teach in the cities of Juda. The name is omitted in the Vatican and Alexandrian codices, but given in the other important Greek MSS. and the Vulg.ate.

B.— Tobias (Zach., vi, 10), Heb. IdhyyahU, qeri I6byydh which is the reading also of ver.se 14; Sept. XPifffM""" (ver.se 10), Tois xpvcl/j-o'-^ avTTjs (ver.se 14), which infers the reading U'Mhd; Vulg. Tobia; one of the party of Jews who came from Babylon to Jenisa- lem, in the time of Zorobabel, with silver and gold wherewith to make a crown for the head of Jesus, son of Josedec.

C— Tobia (I Esdr., ii, 60), Heb. tdbyydh, "Jah is