877 
T E F 
TEETGAUM, a town of Hindostan, province of Guje- 
rat, district of Neyer. Its inhabitants are Hindoos of the 
military tribe, and pay tribute to the chief of Theraud. 
Latitude not ascertained. 
TEETH, the plural of tooth. —Who can open the doors 
of his face ? his teeth are terrible round about. Job. 
To TEETH, v. n. To breed teeth; to be at the time of 
dentition.—When the symptoms of teething appear, the 
gums ought to be relaxed by softening ointment. Arbuth - 
not. 
TEETON, a hamlet of England, in Northamptonshire; 
7 miles from Northampton. 
TEFE, or Tefee, a settlement of Brazil, in the govern¬ 
ment of Para, on the shore of the river of its name, and at 
the mouth by which it enters the Amazons, and where also a 
fort has been built for its defence. Lat. 3. 20. S. long. 64. 
48. W. 
TEFE, a river of Brazil, which rises, as is conjectured, 
in the country of the Indians, between the Purus to the east, 
and the Jurua to the west; and after several windings, enters 
the Amazons. 
TEFESSAD, a town of Algiers, on whose site are found 
extensive ruins, reaching two miles in length, and half a 
mile in breadth, supposed to be those of the ancient Tipasa; 
32 miles south-south-w’est of Algiers. 
TEFETHNE, orTEFTANE, a small sea-port of Morocco, 
situated at the mouth of a river of the same name; 60 miles 
west of Morocco. 
TEFFONT, Evias, a parish of England, in Wiltshire; 
7 miles west of Wilton. 
TEFFONT, Magna, another parish in the same county, 
half a mile distant from the foregoing. 
TEFLIS, or Tiflis, a city of Asia, and capital of the 
kingdom of Georgia. This city was visited in 1817 by Sir 
R. Kerr Porter, who describes it as situated on the precipitous 
and sublime banks of the Kur, at the extremity of a defile 
formed by two bold ranges of mountains, which gloomily 
overshadow it. The city has no claim to an antiquity be¬ 
yond the lapse of a few centuries ; having been founded in 
the year 1063, by the Tzar Liewvang, who wished to derive 
personal benefit from certain warm springs in its neighbour¬ 
hood. Till-that period it could boast no habitation in the 
form of a house; unless, perhaps, a few mud hovels for the 
convenience of the occupiers of a small fortress, which stood 
on an adjacent height, and protected the valley. 
Teflis has been long celebrated for its baths, which are si¬ 
tuated at one extremity of the bazar. At this place is a small 
bridge over a deep ravine, at the bottom of which flow's a 
mountain stream; pure and cold at its fountain-head, but 
mingling here with the hot springs which take their rise in 
the adjacent heights, it becomes warm, and derives all the 
medicinal properties whose fame gave birth to Teflis. Over 
this steaming flood the public baths are erected. They form 
not only a resource in sickness to the natives, and to travel¬ 
lers visiting them with the same object, but they are the daily 
resort of both sexes, as places of luxury and amusement. 
On one side of the bridge stand those apropriated to the men; 
and on the other, immediately below' the gloomy w'alls of 
the citadel, the range intended for the women. The w'ater 
which supplies these distinct bath-houses is strongly impreg¬ 
nated with sulphur, having the usual offensive smell of such 
.^springs. Its degree of heat may be reckoned at from 15 to 
36 degrees of Reaumur in the several basons. At the source 
of the hot stream it is about 42. The basons are excavated 
in the solid rcck,„over whose surface the w'ater had origi¬ 
nally flowed; and these are divided, under one immense 
vaulted roof, into different apartments, whence even the 
smallest egress of day-light is excluded ; and which are merely 
rescued from total darkness by the faint glimmerings of a few 
twinkling lamps struggling with the vapours from the stream. 
The place is kept intolerably filthy, and full of disorder and 
stench. There is not a spot where a bather could lay down 
his clothes, without the certainty of taking them up again 
drenched with wet and dirt. These baths are open to all 
ranks indiscriminately, who may be seen here huddled to- 
Vol.XXIII. No. 1614. 
T E F 
gether, scrubbing, scraping, rubbing, shaving, &c.; the 
offices of each act being done, either by the companions of 
the bather, or the persons of the bath, who are always in at¬ 
tendance with the necessary requisites. The baths appro¬ 
priated to the women were also visited by Sir R. K. Porter, 
who was admitted without the least scruple. 
There are several fine churches, of different Christian per¬ 
suasions, in Teflis ; and that which is dedicated to the Ro¬ 
man Catholic mode of worship, is one of the most beauti¬ 
ful. The cathedral of Holy Sion, the great Arminian church, 
is more extensive, but does not equal its tolerated rival in 
richness and grace of architecture ; yet it has an advantage 
in situation, which, adding the majesty of nature to the 
holy sanctity of the place, seems fully to answer the cha¬ 
racter of its name. The noble waters of the Kur roll near 
its base, increasing in rapidity and sound as they pour on¬ 
ward amongst the thickening rocks of the suddenly closing 
in of the bold cliffs which embank the stream. At this 
narrowed point, a bridge of one single arch connects the 
town with a considerable suburb called Aviabar. It is 
chiefly inhabited by a colony of Arminians, who fled from 
the neighbourhood of Erivan, during Ihe late wars between 
Russia and the Persian government. Here also are the ruins 
of an ancient fort, church, and houses; and about two miles 
further from this side of the city, stand the remains of an¬ 
other sacred edifice of old times, on the summit of a hill so 
high, that it commands the most extensive view to be found 
anywhere in the environs of Teflis. From one side it em¬ 
braces the city, with its citadel, churches, and gardens; on 
the other to the north, the windings of the Kur, through 
the varied shores of the valley and plain; and takes also into 
the same wide landscape, not only the whole chain of 
mountains from the province of Kahetia to Kasibeck, but 
their tremendous summits, pile above pile, as far as the eye 
can reach to the north-west, till all are crowned by the pale 
and cloud-encircled head of Elborus. A Russian officer, 
who measured this last-named mountain, calculates it to be 
16,700 feet above the level of the sea. 
Since the conquest of the Russians, it has been the re¬ 
sidence of their governor and commander-in-chief, who has 
always a great force stationed here under him. The troops 
are quartered, as in Europe, in the houses of the inhabitants; 
a circumstance which gives extreme disgust to the Georgians, 
in consequence of their wives and daughters being exposed 
to the view of strangers. This habitual intercourse with 
Europeans has effected within the last 20 years a consider¬ 
able change in the manners of the female Georgians. The 
higher ranks have lost much of their Asiatic manners; and it 
is said that in some cases the change not being well under¬ 
stood, the women have become licentious, and have thrown 
off their former Asiatic restraint, without assuming the re¬ 
serve and decorum of European manners. Amongst the 
low’er classes this effect of foreign intercourse has been even 
more decided, as the customary lines of separation between 
the women and the men, owing to the introduction of Rus¬ 
sian soldiers into their houses, could no longer be preserved. 
When the women walk abroad, they still so far retain the 
old custom of concealment, as to wear its costume; and they 
may be seen tripping along, enveloped from head to foot in 
a large Asiatic veil, called a chadre; and, when any of these 
females happen to be standing at the doors, without this safe¬ 
guard, they retreat hastily into the house on observing them¬ 
selves to be attentively looked at by a man. The beauty of 
the Georgian women cannot be disputed ; having fine dark 
large eyes, very regular features, and a pleasing mild ex¬ 
pression of countenance. The dress of the higher ranks is 
splendid, and carefully adjusted ; but the lower order of 
females, notwithstanding they share the same taste for the 
ceremonies of the bath, and regularly go through them all, 
appear often in rags, and always in dirt. 
Before its capture in 1797, by Aga Mohammed Khan, 
Teflis contained 4000 houses, and 22,000 inhabitants. The 
greater part of the houses are still standing, and are neatly 
built; but the population does not now exceed 15,000. 
Teflis is distant from St. Petersburg!! 2627 worsts, or about 
10 O 1752 
