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TRUCK—TRUFFLE

gradually obtained recognition not only from the petty lords of their own domain but from most of the magnates of the kingdom. Thanks to the moral support and material resources which it found in the ecclesiastical lords of central and northern France, and to the growing popular desire for the suppression of feuds, royalty was able to support its pretension to the general government of the kingdom. Confirming what was doubtless an older custom, Philip Augustus decreed the quarantaine-le-roi, which suspended every act of reprisal for at least forty days; and in 1257 Louis IX. absolutely forbade all private wars in the crown lands. By the beginning of the 14th century the royal authority had sufficient force to ensure the maintenance of the Landesfriede. In England, where the Truce of God does not seem to have acquired a firm footing, state law against private warfare obtained practically from the time of the Norman conquest. At least from Henry I. it became an axiom that the law of the king's court stood above all other law and was the same for all.

See L. Huberti, Studien zur Rechtsgeschichte der Gottesfrieden und Landfrieden, Bd. i. Die Friedens-Ordnungen in Frankreich (Ansbach. 1892); A. Luchaire, “La Paix et la tréve de Dieu, " in E. Lavisse's Histoire de France, II. 2, pp. 133-138 (Paris, 1901); E. Sémichon, La Paix et la tréve de Dieu (2nd ed. 1869); E. Mayer, Deutsche und franzbsirche Verfassungsgeschichte (1899), vol. i.; J. Fehr, Der Gottesfriede und die katholische Kirche des Mittelalters (Augsburg, 1861); A. Kluckhohn, Geschichte des Gottesfriedens (Leipzig, 1857); K. J. von Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, 2nd ed., vol. 4; Du Cange, Glossarium, s.v. Treuga. The principal French documents on the subject are published in Huberti's book, and those of Germany, Italy and Arles are edited by L. Weiland in the Monumenta Germaniae historica, constitutiones i. 596 sqq.

 (C. H. Ha.) 


TRUCK. (1) A name for barter, or commodities used in barter or trade. The word came into English from the French troq, mod. troc; troquer, to barter, is borrowed from Spanish trocar, for which several origins have been suggested, such as a Low Latin travicare, the supposed original of “traffic” (q.v.), or some latinized form of Greek τρόπος, turn; it may, on the other hand, be connected with the Greek τροχός, wheel. “Truck,” in this sense, is chiefly used now in the sense of the payment of the wages of workmen in kind, or in any other way than the unconditional payment of money, a practice known as the “truck system.” Colloquially, “truck” is used in the general sense of “dealing,” in such expressions as “to have no truck with anyone.” The “truck system” has taken various forms. Sometimes the Workman has been paid with “portion of that which he has helped to produce,” whether he had need of it or not, but the more usual form was to give the workman the whole or part of his wages in the shape of commodities suited to his needs. There was also a practice of paying in money, but with an express or tacit understanding that the workman should resort for such goods as he required to shops or stores kept by his employer. The truck system led in many cases to grave abuses and was made illegal by the Truck Acts, under which wages must be paid in current coin of the realm, without any stipulations as to the manner in which the same shall be expended. (See Labour Legislation.) (2) From the Late Latin trochus, wheel, Greek τροχός, we get “truck” in the sense of a wheeled vehicle, such as the hand-barrows used for carrying luggage at a railway station; and the word is used generally for all that portion of railway rolling stock which is intended for the carriage of goods (see Railways: Rolling-stock). The term is also used of a circular disk of wood at the top of a ship's mast, generally provided with sheaves for the signal halyards.


TRUCKLE, a verb meaning to submit servilely or fawningly to another's bidding, to yield in a weak, feeble or contemptible way. The origin is the “truckle bed,” a small bed on wheels which could be pushed under a large one. In early times servants or children slept in such beds, placed at the foot of their masters' and parents' bed, but the name first appears as a university word, and was derived direct from Latin trochlea, a wheel or pulley-block, Greek τροχός, wheel (τρέχειν, to run).


TRUEBA, ANTONIO DE (1819-1889), Spanish novelist, was born on the 24th of December 1819 at Montellano (Biscay), where he was privately educated. In 1835 he was sent to learn business at Madrid; but commerce was not to his taste, and, after a long apprenticeship, he turned to journalism. In 1851 he hit the popular taste with El Cid Campeador and El Libro de los cantares; for the next eleven years he was absorbed by journalistic work, the best of his contributions being issued under the titles of Cuentos popular es (1862), Cuentos de color de rosa (1864), and Cuentos campesinos (1865). The pleasant simplicity and idyllic sentimentalism of these collections delighted an uncritical public, and Trueba met the demand by supplying a series of stories conceived in the same ingenuous vein. In 1862 he was appointed archivist and chronicler of the Biscay provinces; he was deprived of the former post in 1870, but was reinstated after the restoration. He died at Bilbao on the 10th of March 1889.


TRUFFLE (from Med. Fr. trujle, a variant of truffe, generally taken to be for tafie, from Lat. tuber, an esculent root, a tuber, cf. Ital tartufo, truffie, from Lat. torae tuber, another Ital. form tartufola gave Ger. Tartoffel, dissimulated to Kartojel, potato), the name of several different species of subterranean fungi which are used as food. The species sold in English markets is Tuber aestivurn; the commonest species of French markets is T. melanosporum, and of Italian the garlic-scented T. magnatum. Of the three, the English species is the least desirable, and the French is possibly the best. The trufiie used for Perigord pie (pâté de foie gras) is T. melanosporum, regarded by some as a dark variety of our British species, T. brumale. When, however the stock of T. rnelanosporum happens to be deficient, some manufacturers use inferior species, such as the worthless or dangerous Choeromyces meandriforrnis. Even the rank and offensive Scleroderrna vulgare (one of the puffball series of fungi) is sometimes used for stuffing turkeys, sausages, &c. Indeed, good truffles, and then only T. aestivum, are -seldom seen in English markets. The taste of T. melanosporum can be detected in Perigord pie of good quality. True and false truffles can easily be distinguished under the microscope.

Tuber aestivurn, the English truffle, is roundish in shape, covered with coarse polygonal warts, black in colour outside and brownish and veined with white within; its average size is about that of a small apple. It grows from July till autumn or winter, and prefers beech, oak and birch woods on argillaceous or calcareous soil, and has sometimes been observed in pine woods. It grows gregariously, often in company with T. brurnale and (in France and Italy) T. melanosporurn, and sometimes appears in French markets with these two species as well as with T. mesentcricum. The odour of T. aestivum is very strong and penetrating; it is generally esteemed powerfully fragrant, and its taste is considered agreeable. The common French truffle, T. melanosporum, is a winter species. It is a valuable article of commerce and is exported from France in great quantities. The tubers are globose, bright brown or black in colour, and rough with polygonal warts; the mature flesh is blackish grey, marbled within with white veins. It is gathered in autumn and winter in beech and oak woods, and is frequently seen in Italian markets. The odour of T. melanosporum is very pleasant, especially when the tubers are young, then somewhat resembling that of the strawberry; with age the smell gets very potent, but is never considered really unpleasant. The common Italian truffle, T. magnatum, is pallid ochreous or brownish buff in colour, smooth or minutely papillose, irregularly globose, and lobed; the interior is a very pale brownish liver colour veined with white. It grows towards the end of autumn in plantations of willows, poplars and oaks, on clayey soil. Sometimes it occurs in open cultivated fields. The odour of the mature fungus is very potent, and is like strong garlic, onion or decaying cheese. T. brumale, referred to above, grows in Britain. It is a winter truffle, and is found chiefly under oaks and abele trees from October to December. It is black in colour, globose, more or less regular in shape, and is covered with sharp polygonal warts; the mature flesh is blackish grey marbled with white veins. The odour is very strong and lasts a long time; the taste is generally esteemed agreeable. Choeromyces rneandriforrnis, which occurs in Britain, is sometimes sold for T. magnatum, the colour of the flesh of both species being somewhat similar. Scleroderma vulgare, the “false truffie," is extremely common on the surface of the ground in woods, and is gathered by Italians and Frenchmen in Epping Forest for the inferior dining-rooms of London where continental dishes are served. It is a worthless, offensive, and possibly dangerous fungus. A true summer truffle, T. mesentericum, found in oak and birch woods on calcareous clay soil, is frequently eaten on the Continent. It is esteemed equal