T A U 



103 



T A U 



the Tauri, from whom the Chersonesus was called Taurica, 

 and whose name remains in that of the modern Russian 

 province of Taurida, in which the Crimea is included. 

 Who these Tauri were is a question of some difficulty. 

 Strabo (p. 308) calls them a Scythian people, but Hero- 

 dotus (iv. 99) clearly distinguishes the Tauri from the 

 Scythians, as being a different nation. The inhabitants of 

 the whole or a part of the peninsula are not unfrequently 

 called Scythotauri or Tauroscythae. Judging from this 

 mixed name, from the testimony of Herodotus to the two 

 facts that the Tauri were a different people from the 

 Scythians, and that the Scythians did not drive out all the 

 Cimmerians from the peninsula, and, lastly, from several 

 analogous cases,* it seems most probable that the Tauri 

 were a remnant of the old Cimmerian inhabitants, who had 

 maintained themselves in the mountains against the 

 Scythian invaders. The name ' Tauri ' is supposed to be 

 derived from an old root ' Tau,' meaning a mountain. 

 The Tauri were reputed by the Greeks to be inhospi- 

 table and cruel to strangers : they were said to offer 

 human sacrifices, especially of shipwrecked mariners, to a 

 virgin goddess, whom, according to Herodotus, the Tauri 

 themselves identified with Iphigeneia, the daughter of 

 Asramemnon, and whose temple stood on the promontoiy 

 of Parthenion. (Herodot, iv. 103 : Strabo, p. 308 ; Mela, 

 ii. 1 : Diod. Sic., iv. 44.) This legend enters into the 

 composition of the ' Iphigeneia in Tauris'of Euripides, 

 and is several times referred to by the Roman poets. 



From about the sixth century before Christ downwards, 

 several Greek colonies were planted on the Chersonese, 

 and these were gradually formed into two states, that of 

 Chersonesus, comprehending the smaller peninsula on the 

 south-west, and the kingdom of Bosponis on the south- 

 east. These two states were united under Mithridntes. 

 [BospORr.s.] 



Further information respecting the geography and his- 

 tory of the peninsula and of the adjoining delta of the 

 Kuban is given under CRIMEA and TAMAN. 



TAL'HI'DA, one of the governments of South Russia, 

 sometimes called the government of Simferopol, situ- 

 ated on the Black Sea, consists of 1st, the Crimea or 

 Tauric Peninsula ; 2nd. the Nogay Steppe, with the island 

 ol' Taman [TAMAN] ; 3rd, the country of the Tscherno- 

 morsk Cossacks. It is bounded on the north-west by 

 Kherson, on 1he north-east by the country of the Don 

 Cossacks, on the east by Caucasia, on the south-east by the 

 Kuban, and on the south by the Black Sea. The Crimea 

 and all its principal towns are described under the respec- 

 ti\e heads. [BAKTSCHisARAi; CRIMEA; KAFFA ; SEIJAS- 

 TOPOL ; SIMFEROPOL.] The area of the whole is 35,000 

 square miles, with 520,000 inhabitants of many different 

 nations, Tartars, Cossacks, Russians, Jews, Gypsies, Ger- 

 mans, and other foreign colonists, &c. It lies between 

 44 :/ and 47 50* N. lat, and between 31 25' and 40 25' 

 K. long. The Nogay Steppe includes the whole of the ex- 

 tensiYu country from the Dnieper and its limans to the 

 Unda. It is a dry elevated steppe on a basis of granite. 

 The country has precisely the character of a Russian 

 steppe : the soil is dry, poor, in part sandy, and saltish, 

 without wood ; but there are here and there extensive hol- 

 lows with rich black mould, which produce the finest grass. 

 The climate is extremely mild, and differs little from 

 that of the peninsula. The winter, though short, is severe. 

 The only rivers are those which form the boundaries : the 

 Dnieper on the north-west, the Konski Wodi on the north, 

 and the Buda on the east. On the south-east is the Sea 

 of Azof, and on the west the Black Sea. 



The land of the Tschernomorsk Co--acks including the 



il or peninsula of Taman, is bounded on the north 



by (lie country of the Don Cossacks, on the east by 



mth by the river Kuban, and on the 



west by the Sea of Azof, and is separated from the Crimea 



only by the strait, of Yenikale, which connects the Sea of 



Azof with tin- Kuxine. The coast is sandy, flat, and forms 



-idcrable bays or inlets, called by the Russians 



-iderable of which is the Besugakoi, 



v in the middle of the country. It is an innnrix- 



plain, with a few hills in the south, belonging to the Cau- 



For i.'ump].-. in our own island tin- very same thin; has happened In a 

 reopi* hom tome think Inn nrroimt . 1' tli>'ir n imc 1 to he .1 branch at tl.ii 

 i 'j rnry, lu>, in tlie mountains of Wall"), success- 

 fully re*itl tlu: >axon and Norman invaders. 



casian system, consisting in general of very fertile lowlands, 

 which are well adapted for agriculture, but are for the most 

 part used as pasture for cattle : the remainder consists of a 

 poor saline soil ; and there are some small lakes with salt 

 water : the climate is very mild. The principal rivers are 

 the Kuban, on the south, which separates it from Circassia, 

 and discharges itself on the south of Taman by a very broad 

 liman, and the lega, on the north frontier next the country 

 of the Don Cossacks, which is joined by several small 

 streams, and empties itself by a considerable liman into 

 the Sea of Azof. The small streams in the interior fall 

 into the Sea of Azof, one of which, the Besuga, forms at 

 its mouth the liman Besugakoi. 



The countries forming the government of Taurida were 

 inhabited in antient times by the Scythians and by Greek 

 colonists. Since the time of Herodotus, in the fifth cen- 

 tury B.C., they have been successively conquered and 

 ravaged by many different nations. They have been 

 subject to the kings of the Bosporus, the Romans, the 

 Sarmatians, then to the Greek emperors, and at the end 

 of the twelfth century partly to the Genoese ; they were 

 conquered in the thirteenth century by the Tartars, and at 

 the end of the fifteenth by the Turks. Mohammed II. 

 made himself master of Taurida in 1475, and expelled the 

 Genoese and the Venetians, the former of whom possessed 

 Kaffa and Kherson, and the latter had the colony of Tana. 

 Subsequently to 1698 the Russian armies repeatedly pene- 

 trated into the Crimea, the inhabitants of which often 

 made predatory incursions into the neighbouring countries. 

 It was not however till 1771 that the country was really 

 conquered by Dolgorucky, and the Porte compelled, in 

 1774, at the peace of Kutschuk-Kainardji, to recognise the 

 Crimea as an independent country, to be governed by a 

 khan chosen by the nation, and to recognise the sultan as 

 their head in religious matters only. The khan Sahen 

 Ghierai, whose election had been supported by the Rus- 

 sians, being pressed by the Turkish party, was at length 

 induced to seek refuge in St. Petersburg. Russia now de- 

 clared the Crimea to be her property, and the Porte, to 

 avoid a new war, ceded it wholly to Russia, in January, 

 1784. The khan received a pension from Russia, and in 

 the sequel retired to Turkey, but in 1787 was beheaded in 

 the Isle of Rhodes by the sultan's order. Sultan Kalli 

 Ghierai is his lineal descendant, who lives (or at least did 

 live some years ago) in Simferopol, is a Christian, and 

 is married to a Scotchwoman. The Crimea and the pro- 

 vinces dependent on it were formed into a government in 

 1784, by the name of Taurida, and incorporated with the 

 Russian empire. The empress Catherine II. added to the 

 imperial titles that of Czar of the Tauric Chersonese, and 

 conferred on Prince Potemkin, who had been instru- 

 mental in bringing about, not without violence, the sub- 

 mission of the Tartar inhabitants, the surname of the Tau- 

 rian. The Porte indeed appointed a new khan in 17H6, 

 and demanded that the Crimea should be replaced on the 

 footing stipulated in the last peace ; but it was obliged to 

 cede it for ever to Russia in the peace of 1792. Taurida 

 was at first a province of the government of Ekaterinoslav ; 

 in 1797 it was incorporated with the government of New 

 Russia ; and in 1802 it was made a distinct government by 

 the emperor Alexander. 



Among the numerous authorities that might be quoted, 

 besides those already cited under the heads of the 

 CRIMEA, ODESSA, &c., we may mention Muraview Apostol, 

 Reise durch Taurien, 1820 ; Eichwald, Alte Geographic 

 des Kaspischen Meeres des Kaukasus, und des sudlirhen 

 Russlands, 1838 ; and for the NogayTartars, Daniel Schlatter, 

 of St. Gallen, Bruchstiicke aus eigenen Reisen nach dtm 

 siidlichen Russland in den Jahren 1822-1828. 



TAURINE, a peculiar crystallizable substance con- 

 tained in the bile. Its properties are, that it has the 

 form of a six-sided prism terminated by pyramids of four 

 or six faces ; the crystals are gritty between the teeth, and 

 have a sharpish taste, which is neither sweet nor saline ; 

 they undergo no alteration by exposure to the air even 

 at 212, and have neither an acid nor an alkaline reaction. 

 When heated in the naked fire, this substance becomes 

 brown, fuses into a thick liquid, swells up, exhales a 

 sweetish empyreumatie odour resembling that of burn- 

 ing indigo, and leaves a charcoal, which is readily burnt : 

 when submitted to dry distillation, it yields much thick 

 brown oil, and a little yellow acidulous water, which holds 



