Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/931

TACTJLLI. 817* TAFT. Fraser rivers, in Central British Columbia. Their social organization was based on the clan system. Their canoes were neatly made from birch bark ; they hunted during the winter sea- son on snowshoes ; and their women spun yarn from the hair of the mountain goat and also made a coarse potter}'. They are all now Chris- tianized through the eflforts of French Catholic missionaries, who devised for their language a syllabic alphabet in which nearly all have learned to read and write, although they have no schools. The}' are gathered on small reserva- tions, and they numbered about 750 in 1903. The Denf' syUabary, as it is called, is the in- vention of the Rev. Adrien Morice, who began his mission work among the Athapascan tribes of British Columbia in 1880. It consists of thirty characters, which by inversion of position and the use of accompanying dots or dashes can be made to indicate nearly two hundred distinct syllables or sounds common to the TacuUi, Chilcotin, and other neighboring cognate languages. Its printed literature consists of text-books, religious works, and the Carrier Review, a monthly journal pub- lished by Father Morice at Stuart Lake. TADEMA, tJi'dema, Alma-. An English painter. See Alma-Tadem.. TAD'MOB. Another name for Palmyra (q.v.). TADPOLE (5IE. tadpolle, tnddepol, from iadde, tudc, toad, AS. ttidige, tadie, toad + polle, head, poll). The larval form of anurous am- phibians. For its metamorphosis see Toad. TAEL, tal (Port, tael, from JIalay tail, tahil, weight, tael, from Hind, tola, weight, from Skt. tula, balance). The name commonly given to the Chinese Hang, a money of account in China, and worth from .724 to .806 of an American dollar, but varying in value in different parts of the Empire. T.ffiNIA. An animal parasite developed in the intestines of man and some animals. See Tapeworm. TiE'NIOP'TERIS (NeoLat., from Gk. raivta, tainia, band, ribbon -f- irrepts, pteris, fern). A genus of fossil ferns found in rocks of late Paleozoic and Triassic age. They have long leathery fronds of linguate form with entire mar- gins, a strong central rib, and numerous closely parallel veins that run at right angles from the midrib to the margins. The fruiting frond is not known. See Fern. TAENSA, ta-en'sil, or TENS A. An historic American Indian tribe living, when first known to the French, about the year 1700, in seven villages between the Tensas River and the Mis- sissippi, in the present Tensas Parish of Loui- siana, about 20 miles from Natchez. Like the neighboring Natchez (q.v.), with whom they seem to have been closely connected, they were sun-worshipers and kept a sacred fire constantly burning in a temple. A part of the tribe, driven out by the Chickasaw (q.v.), was afterwards colonized by the French on the west side of Mobile Bay, in the neighborhood of Jlobile, Ala., where the local name still remains. The settlement contained one hundred cabins about 1750. At a later period they removed higher up the Alabama River near the site of the pres- ent Tensaw. They were probably merged finally into the Choctaw or the Creek Confederacy. Nothing is known positively of their language, the Grammaire et vocabiilairc dc la languc Tacnsa by llaunionte, publislicd in Paris in 1882, having l)een proved to be a transparent framl. According to contemporary French testimony, however, the language was cognate with that of the Natchez. TAFFETA (OF., Fr. iaffrtns, from Pers. tuftah, talVeta, woven, p.p. of taflan, to weave). A term of somewhat general applicaticm in silk manufacture. It was formerly applied to all plain silks simply woven by regular alternatinns of the warp and filling (see VkaviN(;). and is by some writers supposed to be the lir-t kind of silk-weaving known even to the Chinese, from whom it came to us. Modifications have, how- ever, been introduced, by varying the iiuality of the warp and filling, and by the substitution of various colors for the single one of the original tatTeta. It has therefore become a sort of ge- neric term for plain sillc. and other silk fabrics, and even for some combinations of silk, wool, and other materials. TAFFY. See National Nicknames. TAF'ILET'. A large oasis in the northwest- ern part of the Sahara, belonging to Morocco, and situated at the southern base of the Atlas Range, 200 miles south of Fez (Map: Africa, D 1 ) . Area, about 500 square miles. The chief product is dates, but the oasis is mainly impor- tant as one of the principal trading stations be- tween Morocco and the Sudan. The oasis includes about 150 towns and villages, the largest and the most important commercial centre being Abuam. Population of the oasis, about 100,000. TAFT, LoBADO (I860—). An American sculp- tor, born at Elmwood, III. He was educated at the University of Illinois (Champaign, 111.) and at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1880- 83). In 1880 he became an instructor at the Art Institute of Chicago, and in 18113 a lecturer in the university extension department of the Chicago University. His works include statues of Schuyler Colfa.x (Indianapolis) and of Gen- eral Grant (Fort Leavenworth, Kan.), and the sculptural decorations for the Horticultural Building of the World's Columbian Exhibition (1893). TAFT, William Howard (1857—). An American jurist and .administrator, son of Al- phonso Taft, born in Cincinnati. He gradu- ated at Yale in 1878, and at the Law School of Cincinnati College two years later. In 1881-82 he was prosecutor of Hamilton County, and later for a time was a collector of internal revenue. From 1887 to 1890 he was a judge of the Superior Court of Oliio. was Solicitor-General of the United States in 1890-92. and was a judge of the United States Circuit Court (sixth cir- cuit) from 1892 to 1900, when at the request of President McKinley he resigned to become chairman of the commission appointed to estab- lish civil government in the Philippines. The following year, on .Tune 5tb. he was appointed the first civil Governor of the islands. In 1903 Taft resigned this position to accept the appoint- ment of Secretary of War, as successor of Elihu Root. Consult: American .Moiithli/ Review of Reviews, vol. xxiv. (1901): and The Outlook, vols. Ixiv., Ixix., and Ixx. See Philippine Isl- ands.