T A L 



priests, or rather monks, of Siam, and is supposed to be 

 derived from the fan which they always cany, usually 

 made of a leaf of the palmyra-tree, and hence, says Craw- 

 furd (Journal nf Embassy to Siam, p. 358), denominated 

 by the Sanscrit word Talpat. Tal is the common Indian 

 name for the palmyra ; and the older travellers give Ta- 

 lapa as the Siamese word for a fan. In the Pali (or learned 

 tongue) theTalapoins of Siam are said to be called Thayn- 

 ka ; but in the common language of the country they are 

 spoken of, as well as to, simply by the term Chau-cou, or 

 Chau-ca, which signifies My lord (or literally Lord of me), 

 the first of the two forms being that commonly used, the 

 other thai employed to express extraordinary inferiority on 

 the part of the speaker. (La Loubere, Du Royaume de 



'. i. 407.) Mr. Crawfurd states that they are called 

 Plira. which IK- says is a Pali word signifying Lord, ap- 

 plied also to Gautama or Buddha, to the king, to the white 

 elephant, to the idols of Buddha, &c. By the Burmese 

 the Talapoins are said to be called Rahans, whence seems 

 to come the name Raulins, given to them by the Moham- 

 medans ; as by the Chinese they are called Ho-changi ; in 

 Tibet, Lama-seng or Lamas ; and in Japan, Bonzes. (Pre- 



// v/r,//v> Genemlp (l"a Voyages, vi. 328 ; and Dr. Fr. 

 Buchanan, ' On the Religion and Literature of the Bur- 

 mas,' in A -arches, vol. vi.) In Ceylon the name 

 for the ordinary priests is stated to be Tirounnanse ; but, 

 as the novices are said to be styled Saman Eroo Ounnanse, 

 find certain inspectors, exercising a general superintend- 

 over the temples, NaYke Ounnanse and MahanaYke 

 Ounnanse, it would seem that the name for priests of all 

 kinds is Ounnanse. (Joinville, ' On the Religion and Man- 



of the People of Ceylon,' in Asiatic Researches, vol. 

 \ii. i SamaMfi, or Somona, according to Dr. Buchanan, is 

 a title given in Burma both to the priests and to the images 

 of Buddha ; whence the Buddhists are often called Sama- 

 nians. It is derived, he says, from the Sanscrit word Saman, 



living- gentleness or affability. 



Ample information on the subject of the Talapoins is 

 by La Loubere, who visited Siam in 1687-8, in 



y of envoy from the French king, in his work entitled 

 ' Du Royaume de Siam,' 2 vo!s. 12mo., Amsterdam, 1 001. 

 vol. i., chaps. 17. 18, 19, 21, pp. 341-368 and 381-120; 

 and by Mr. Crawfurd, in his ' Journal of an Embassy from 

 tor-General of India to the Courts of Siam and 

 Cochin China' (in 1821-22,, 4to., London, 1828, pp. 350, 

 &c. Tlu y are, as has been stated, a species of monks 

 living in communities of from ten to some hundreds, and 



lying their time in devotion, religious study, and me- 

 ditation, and in begging, or rather receiving alms, for they 

 are not permitted actually to solicit charity. Their monas- 



. in which each monk has his separate cell, are always 

 adjoining to some temple ; but it does not appear that the 

 Talapoins officiate as priests or ministers of religion in our 

 sense of the term. Neither are they considered as forming 

 or belonging to the literary or learned class : the pursuit 

 of any secular study is looked upon as unseemly and pro- 

 fane in a Talapoin ; and in fact they are mostly very 

 ignorant. Yet the instruction of youth in the elements of 



mgappears to be chiefly or exclusively in their hands. 

 Every Siamese, we are told, becomes a Talapoin for some 

 time. ' Every male in the kingdom,' says Mr. Crawfurd, 

 ' must at one period or another of his life enter the priest- 

 hood, for however short a time. Even the king will be a 

 priest for two or three days, going about for alms like the 

 rest, and the highest officers of the government continue 

 in the priesthood for some months.' Usually, it, may be 

 supposed, a man goes through the ceremony of getting 

 himself made a talapoin without any intention of perma- 

 nently forsaking the world ; but if he enters one of the sa- 

 cred communities a second time, he cannot again withdraw 

 from it. The Talapoins are said to be very numerous ; but 

 they sei.-m to consist, for the greater part, of mere tempo- 

 rary members of the order, and of persons who have thus 



:d it for the second time in advanced life. Its ad- 



iges, or temptations, are, a life of idleness, exemption 

 .taxation and from the conscription, security of sub- 

 id comfortable raiment, together with the cere- 

 ith which a talapoin is every- 

 All the monasteries are endowed by the 

 government, or by wralthy individuals, under whose protec- 



i hey are considered to be. La Loubere has given a 



!iig of one; imd another is described in FinTaj 

 account of The Mission to Siam and Hue in 1821-22,' 



5 TAL 



p. 110. In their dresses of yellow cotton or silk, which 

 are of the same fashion with those of the Buddhist priests 

 in Ava and Ceylon, the Talapoins of Siam present a highly 

 favourable contrast to the rags and squalidity of the gene- 

 ral population. On the other hand, a talapoin is not only 

 separated from society by being condemned to celibacy, 

 and is prohibited from possessing property, but is expected 

 to observe very strictly several of the precepts of the 

 national religion which are very little attended to by any- 

 body else, especially the prohibitions against the slaying 

 of animals (although they will eat them when slain), steal- 

 ing, adultery, lying, and drinking wine. There are differ- 

 ent orders of Talapoins, and La Loubere says there are 

 also female Talapoins, whom he calls Talapouines ; but 

 these, according to Crawford, are only a few old women 

 who are allowed to live in the unoccupied cells of some of 

 the monasteries. The national head of the Talapoins, 

 styled the Son-krat, is appointed to that dignity by the 

 king, and always resides in the royal palace. 



TALAVE'RA DE LA REYNA, or LA REAL, a 

 large town of Spain, formerly in the province of Toledo, 

 but now, since the late division of the Spanish territory, 

 the capital of the province of its name. It is situated on 

 the right bank of the Tagus, at the end of an extensive 

 and well cultivated plain, 38 52' N. lat., 6 39' W. long. 

 It was called by the Romans Ebora Talabriga, as the in- 

 scriptions and remains found in its territory show. It has 

 a fine Gothic church, the foundation of the celebrated 

 Rodiigo Ximenez, archbishop of Toledo, the author of a 

 history of the Arabs and a Latin chronicle of Spain, about 

 the beginning of the thirteenth century. The town is 

 badly built, and the streets are narrow and crooked. The 

 population does not exceed 12,000, who are chiefly occu- 

 pied in the manufacture of pottery and hardware, for 

 which Talavera is famous all over Spain. A large silk 

 manufactory, which belongs to the. government, employs 

 also many of the population. In July, 1809, Talavera was 

 the scene of a battle between the British under Wellington 

 (then General Wellesley) and the French commanded by 

 .lourdan. The battle was long and obstinately contested, 

 but it ended in the complete defeat of the French. The 

 exhausted condition of the English troops, who were 

 without provisions, prevented them from following up 

 their Advantage and pursuing the enemy. There is an- 

 other town, in La Mancha, called Talavera la Vieja, or 

 ' the old.' 



TALC, a mineral which occurs crystallized and massive, 

 and it is probable that some distinct species of minerals 

 have been so called. Primary form of the crystal a rhom 

 boid, but usually occurs in the secondary form of hexa- 

 gonal laminae, and sometimes in long prisms. Cleavage 

 distinct, perpendicular to the axis. It is easily separable 

 into thin plates, which are flexible, but not elastic. It 

 is easily scraped with a knife, and the powder is unc- 

 tuous to the touch. Colour white, green, greyish, and 

 blackish-green and red. Becomes negatively electrical by 

 friction; lustre pearly. Transparent; translucent; opaque. 

 Specific gravity 2" 713. 



Crystallized talc is mostly white, or of a light green 

 colour ; is met with in serpentine rocks in small quantity, 

 with carbonate of lime, actinoiite, steatite, and massive 

 talc, &c. It is found in the mountains of Salzburg and 

 the Tyrol : it occurs in many other parts of the world, as 

 in Cornwall, in Kynan's Cove, where a bed of it underlies 

 serpentine. It also occurs in Scotland, in Glen Tilt, 

 Perthshire ; and in Saxony, Silesia, and Piedmont, &c. 



The massii-c varieties of talc are less flexible than the 

 crystallized : they are principally of an apple-green colour, 

 and sometimes of a radiated structure. It is met with in 

 considerable quantity in beds in micaceous schistus, gneiss, 

 and serpentine. 



Some of the varieties of talc are infusible ; others be 

 come white, and yield a small button of eiiamel with 

 borax. 



Indurated talc is massive, of a greenish grey colour ; the 

 structure is schistose and curved : it is of a shining and 

 sometimes of a pearly lustre, and somewhat translucent. 

 It is soft, and rather unctuous to the touch. Its specific 

 gravity is 2' 9. 



It occurs in primitive mountains in clay slate and ser- 

 pentine, in several countries on the continent of Europe ; 

 in Britain, in Perthshire and Banflshire in Scotland, and 

 in the Shetland Islands. 



B2 



