The Nuttall Encyclopedia

Tabard, a tunic without sleeves worn by military nobles over their arms, generally emblazoned with heraldic devices. "Toom Tabard," empty king's cloak, nickname given by the Scotch to John Balliol as nothing more.

Tabernacle, a movable structure of the nature of a temple, erected by the Israelites during their wanderings in the wilderness; it was a parallelogram in shape, constructed of boards lined with curtains, the roof flat and of skins, while the floor was the naked earth, included a sanctum and a sanctum sanctorum, and contained altars for sacrifice and symbols of sacred import, especially of the Divine presence, and was accessible only to the priests. See Feasts, Jewish.

Table Mountain, a flat-topped eminence in the SW. of Cape Colony, rising to a height of 3600 ft. behind Cape Town and overlooking it, often surmounted by a drapery of mist.

Tables, The Twelve, the tables of the Roman laws engraven on brass brought from Athens to Rome by the decemvirs.

Tablets, name given to thin boards coated with wax and included in a frame for writing on with a stylus.

Table-turning, movement of a table ascribed to the agency of spirits or some recondite spiritual force acting through the media of a circle of people standing round the edge touching it with their finger-tips in contact with those of the rest.

Taboo or Tabu, a solemn prohibition or interdict among the Polynesians under which a particular person or thing is pronounced inviolable, and so sacred, the violation of which entails malediction at the hands of the supernatural powers.

Tabor, Mount, an isolated cone-shaped hill, 1000 ft. in height and clothed with olive-trees, on the NE. borders of Esdraëlon (q. v.), 7 m. E. of Nazareth. A tradition of the 2nd century identifies it as the scene of the Tranfiguration, and ruins of a church, built by the Crusaders to commemorate the event, crown the summit.

Tabriz (170), an ancient and still important commercial city of Persia, 320 m. SE. of Tiflis, 4500 ft. above sea-level; occupies an elevated site on the Aji, 40 m. E. of its entrance into Lake Urumiah; carries on a flourishing transit trade and has notable manufactures of leather, silk, and gold and silver ware; has been on several occasions visited by severe earthquakes.

Tacitus, Cornelius, Roman historian, born presumably at Rome, of equestrian rank, early famous as an orator; married a daughter of Agricola, held office under the Emperors Vespasian, Domitian, and Nerva, and conducted along with the younger Pliny the prosecution of Marius Priscus; he is best known and most celebrated as a historian, and of writings extant the chief are his "Life of Agricola," his "Germania," his "Histories" and his "Annals"; his "Agricola" is admired as a model biography, while his "Histories" and "Annales" are distinguished for "their conciseness, their vigor, and the pregnancy of meaning; a single word sometimes gives effect to a whole sentence, and if the meaning of the word is missed, the sense of the writer is not reached"; his great power lies in his insight into character and the construing of motives, but the picture he draws of imperial Rome is revolting; b. about A.D. 54.