TALC TALES. 



509 



connected. The species talc comprehends the 

 varieties of pale-green, particularly apple-green, 

 gray, and white varieties, and is divided, in popular 

 language, into common, earthy, and indurated talc. 

 Simple varieties are common talc; also such com- 

 pound ones in which cleavage is transformed into 

 slaty structure, or such as consist of columnar par- 

 ticles of composition : earthy talc, or nacrite, con- 

 sists of loose particles, or such as are but slightly 

 cohering; and indurated talc refers to imperfect 

 and coarse slaty varieties, in which this kind of 

 structure is more the effect of composition than of 

 imperfect cleavage. If this structure be sufficiently 

 imperfect to become coarse and indistinctly granu- 

 lar, potstone, soapstone, lapis ol/aris, or steatite, is 

 formed, which, possessing the united properties of 

 softness and tenacity, may be easily turned, and 

 wrought into vessels. Four varieties of the present 

 species, foliated talc, analyzed by Vauquelin, slaty 

 chlorite, analyzed by Gruner, green earth, analyzed 

 also by Vauquelin, and steatite by Klaproth, have 

 yielded 



Silex, 62-00 



Magnesia, 27'00 

 Oxide of iron, 3-50 



Alumine, 1-50 



Water, 6-00 



Potash, 000 



Lime, 0-00 



29-50 



21-39 



23-39 



15-62 



738 



0-00 



1-50 



52-00 

 6-00 



23-00 

 7-00 

 1-00 

 750 



o-oo 



59-50 

 30-50 

 2-50 



o-oo 



550 



o-oo 

 o-oo 



These analyses, as well as those of several other 

 varieties of the species, show that our information 

 respecting its chemical constitution is still very 

 defective. Before the blow-pipe, some of them 

 fose their colour, and are fused with difficulty ; 

 others are changed into a black scoria; still others 

 are infusible. Common talc, indurated talc, stea- 

 tite, potstone, and slaty chlorite, constitute beds 

 of themselves in primitive mountains. The latter 

 often contains imbedded crystals of magnetic iron. 

 Common chlorite is found in beds in rocks consist- 

 ing chiefly of ores of iron and calcareous spar with 

 augite. Other varieties, and, among them, the 

 small scaly crystals of chlorite and earthy chlorite, 

 occur in veins of various descriptions, and in the 

 crystal caves of the Alps. Green earth occurs 

 in amygdaloidal rocks, lining vesicular cavities. 

 Tyrol, Salzburg, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, 

 Scotland, and New England abound in those varie- 

 ties which by themselves form mountain masses. 

 The soapstone of Cornwall is impalpable in its 

 composition, nearly white, or sometimes mottled 

 with green and purple : when first raised, it is so 

 soft as to allow of being kneaded like dough ; but, 

 by exposure, loses a part of its moisture, and is 

 then translucent on the edges, yields to the nail, 

 and possesses an unctuous feel. A similar variety 

 is met with in Wales. It is included in serpentine, 

 and sometimes embraces veins of amianthus. The 

 white varieties of steatite, or. those that become so 

 by calcination, are employed in the manufactory of 

 the finest porcelain ; other varieties are said to be 

 used in fulling. The Arabs, according to Shaw, 

 use steatite in their baths instead of soap ; and it is 

 confidently asserted, that the inhabitants of New 

 Caledonia either eat it alone, or mingle it with their 

 food, Humboldt says, that the Itomaques, a savage 

 race, inhabiting the banks of the Orinoco, are 

 almost entirely supported, during three months of 

 the year, by eating this variety of talc, which they 

 first slightly bake, and then moisten with water. 

 The varieties known under the name of potstone 

 have been in use for the construction of a variety 

 of utensils from time immemorial. It is particu- 



larly valuable as a fire-stone in furnaces, and is 

 worked into plates in the fabrication of stoves. 

 Numerous localities of it exist in the north-western 

 part of Massachusetts, and, in Vermont, green earth 

 is used, both raw, as a green colour, and burnt, as 

 a reddish-brown colour, for painting houses, &c. 

 Its most important deposits are the Monte Baldo, 

 near Verona, Iceland, and the TyroL The Vene- 

 tian talc, a variety of common talc, of a greenish- 

 white colour, formerly used as a medicine, seems 

 to be no longer in use, except for the purpose of 

 removing oil-spots from woollen clothes. The 

 localities of common talc are too numerous to be 

 mentioned; a few, however, which are somewhat 

 remarkable, may be indicated. At Cumberland, in 

 Rhode Island, it occurs of a delicate green colour, 

 in large columnar pieces, which are contained in a 

 rock of steatite. At Smithfield, in the same 

 region, a beautiful white scaly talc is found, in ir- 

 regularly shaped masses, disseminated through white 

 limestone. A delicate apple-green variety of 

 columnar talc comes from Bridgewater, in Ver- 

 mont, where it occurs in veins in a steatitic rock. 



TALE ; a nominal or imaginary money in China, 

 estimated by Americans as bearing the proportion 

 of 133 dollars to 100 tales. 



TALENT. See Drachm, 



TALES. This term, though used somewhat 

 indefinitely, may, perhaps, be correctly defined as 

 signifying those simple fictitious narratives, in prose 

 or in verse, which hardly extend beyond a single 

 adventure, or group of incidents, without the 

 variety of plot and character which characterizes 

 the novel and the romance. Thus it answers to 

 the French conte, the German marchen, and the 

 Italian novelle. (See Novel, and Romance.') " A 

 work of great interest," says Sir W. Scott (preface 

 to Lady of the Lake), " might be compiled upon 

 the origin of popular fiction, and the transmission 

 of similar tales from age to age, and from country 

 to country. The mythology of one period would 

 then appear to pass into the romance of the next 

 century, and that into the nursery tale of the sub- 

 sequent ages. Such an investigation, while it went 

 greatly to diminish our ideas of the richness of hu- 

 man invention, would also show, that these fictions, 

 however wild and childish, possess such charms for 

 the populace as enable them to penetrate into 

 countries unconnected by manners and language, 

 and having no apparent intercourse to afford the 

 means of transmission." While, in some countries, 

 the people have found amusement in fictions 

 founded on their remote history, or in listening to 

 mythological narratives, the natives of the East 

 have long been celebrated for their tales or stories, 

 founded on familiar incidents and comic scenes, or 

 on wild legends of good and bad spirits. The 

 Hitopadessa (see Pilpay) of India, and the Thou- 

 sand and one Days, Thousand and one Nights, the 

 Tootinameh, or Tales of a Parrot, &c., of Arabia 

 and Persia, are specimens of the wealth of the 

 Eastern story-tellers in these narratives. (See 

 Arabian Nights.') From their Eastern neighbours, 

 the Asiatic Greeks borrowed something of their 

 love for this amusement, as appears from what we 

 know respecting the Milesian Tales, which, how- 

 ever, have all perished. The Gesta liomanorum, 

 composed towards the close of the thirteenth cen- 

 tury, and consisting of classical stories, Arabian 

 apologues, and monkish legends, was the great 

 source from which the Italian novelle, the French 

 contes and fabliaux, and the English tales, were de- 



