Tufa

“ For as every tree nowadays has to pay toll to the people, the Muses have been ejected, and the wood has to go a-begging. We go down to the Valley of Egeria, and into the caves so unlike to nature; how much more near to us would be the spirit of the fountain if its waters were fringed by a green border of grass, and there were no marble to outrage the native tufa! ”

“ Most of these rivers are accompanied, on one side at least, some little way inland, by a steep rocky ridge of friable white tufa, whose natural caverns are frequently inhabited, enlarged, and made into comfortable dwellings by modern troglodytes. So easy to manipulate is the soft chalky stone! ”

“ The soil crumbles so easily, that no row of excavations one above another could be made in it; for the stroke of the pick-axe brings it down in loose masses. The whole aspect of the sand-pit contrasts strikingly with that of the catacombs, with their three-feet wide galleries, their perpendicular walls, and their tier on tier of graves.
The stratum of pozzolana at the Catacombs of St. Agnes overlies a portion of the more solid stratum of tufa, and the entrance to the sand-pit from the cemetery is by steps leading up from the end of a long gallery. ”

“ Do not be surprised; all the fountain sources and wells of Hasa are so, more or less; in some one can hardly bear to plunge one’s hand; others are less above the average temperature, while a decidedly sulphurous taste is now and then perceptible. In fact, from the extreme north of this province down to its southern-most frontier, this same sign of subterranean fire is everywhere to be found. The rocks, too, are here very frequently of tufa and basalt, another mark of igneous agency. ”

“ The stone in quarries is found to be of different and unlike qualities. In some it is soft: for example, in the environs of the city at the quarries of Grotta Rossa, Palla, Fidenae, and of the Alban hills; in others, it is medium, as at Tivoli, at Amiternum, or Mt. Soracte, and in quarries of this sort; in still others it is hard, as in lava quarries. There are also numerous other kinds: for instance, in Campania, red and black tufas; in Umbria, Picenum, and Venetia, white tufa which can be cut with a toothed saw, like wood. ”

“ The author of the story, Ibn Tufail, though he is generally not reckoned among the most prominent in that brilliant array of Arabian philosophers for whom Spain became the rallying-point in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, yet his name will outlive centuries. For the romance which he has given to the world is a work of everlasting beauty, of immortal freshness; one that will never grow stale in the flight of ages. ”

“ Tuckeah, 130a
Tuckeed, 941a
Tuckiah, 941a
Tufan, Tufão, Tufaon, Tuffon, Tuffoon, Tufões, 948a, 949a, b
Tugger-wood, 335b
Tuia, 924b
Tukaza, 316a
Tukha, 940b
Tulasī, 931a
Tulban, -oghlani, Tulband, Tulbangi, Tulbentar Aga, 944a
Tulce, 931b ”

“ We are this morning close under the island of Bola-Bola, whose high craggy peak appears, on this side at least, totally inaccessible to man; round it is a large quantity of low land, which seems very barren. Tupia tells us that between the shore and the mountain is a large salt lagoon, a certain sign of barrenness in this climate.
31st. Tupia to-day shows us a large breach in the reef of Otahah, through which the ship might conveniently pass into a large bay, where he says there is good anchorage. ”

“ Then said the latter, ‘O my sister, a slave-girl told me of thee that thou saidst, “How loathly is yonder genie Meimoun! There is no eating [in his presence] .”’ [66] ‘By Allah, O my lady,’ answered Tuhfeh, ‘I cannot brook the sight of him, [67] and indeed I am fearful of him.’ When the queen heard this, she laughed, till she fell backward, and said, ‘O my sister, by the virtue of the inscription upon the seal-ring of Solomon, prophet of God, I am queen over all the Jinn, and none dare so much as look on thee a glance of the eye.’ And Tuhfeh kissed her hand. ”

“ From the roots of Tuba spring all the rivers and springs of paradise,—water, wine, milk and honey affording variety. Seventy-two immortal virgins of ravishing loveliness and free from mortal impurities will receive each faithful in a tent of pearls, jacinths, and emeralds; eighty thousand servants will await his orders; each meal will [Pg 339] be served in dishes of gold by three hundred attendants, each one offering a different dish, and the last morsel being as palatable as the first. ”

“ Munir drank off his cup and ordered her eight hundred thousand dinars, whereat Kemeriyeh rejoiced and rising to her feet, kissed Tuhfeh on her face and said to her, ‘May the world not be bereaved of thee, O thou who lordest it over the hearts of Jinn and mortals!’ Then she returned to her place and the Sheikh Iblis arose and danced, till all present were confounded; after which he said to Tuhfeh, ‘Indeed, thou embellishest my festival, O thou who hast commandment over men and Jinn and rejoicest their hearts with thy loveliness and the excellence of thy faithfulness to thy lord. ”

“ The folk summon us to their presence, but we may not present ourselves before them [without leave] . As for me, I have gotten leave of the Sheikh Aboultawaïf to present myself before thee and I desire of thy favour that thou sing me a song, so I may go to thy palace and question its haunters [58] concerning the plight of thy lord after thee and return to thee; and know, O Tuhfet es Sudour, that between thee and thy lord is a distance of fifty years’ journey to the diligent traveller.’ ‘Indeed,’ rejoined Tuhfeh, ‘thou grievest me [for him] between whom and me is fifty years’ journey. ”

“ This morning we were very near the island of Huahine; some canoes very soon came off, but appeared very much frightened; one, however, came to us bringing a chief and his wife, who on Tupia's assurance of our friendship came on board. They resembled the Otahite people in language, dress, tattow, in short, in everything. Tupia has always said that the people of this island and Ulhietea will not steal, in which they indeed differ much from our late friends if they only keep up to their character. ”

“ Between five and six in the evening of the 26th, as I was standing to the northward, I discovered a small low island, lying N. by W. or N.N.W. distant four or five leagues from Bolabola. We were told by Tupia that the name of this island is Tubai; that it produces nothing but cocoa-nuts, and is inhabited only by three families; though it is visited by the inhabitants of the neighbouring islands, who resort thither to catch fish, with which the coast abounds. ”

“ The pitcher then of goblets filled full and brimming o'er With
limpid wine we plunder, that pass from friend to friend.
Queen Shuaaeh was moved to exceeding delight and emptying her cup, gave Tuhfeh an hundred thousand dinars. Then arose Iblis (may God curse him!) and said, 'Verily, the dawn gleameth.' Whereupon the folk arose and disappeared, all of them, and there abode not one of them save Tuhfeh, who went forth to the garden and entering the bath, made her ablutions and prayed that which had escaped her of prayers. ”

“ There will we [take up our abode and] sit drinking and smiting the lute and singing. Now Tuhfeh will of a surety be sitting looking upon the sea, and needs must she see us and come down to us, whereupon we will take her by force and she will be under our hands, so that none shall avail more to molest her on any wise. Or, if Meimoun be gone forth to do battle with the Jinn, we will storm his stronghold and take Tuhfeh and raze his palace and put to death all who are therein. ”

“ All that thy hands possess shall be borne to thee [in thy palace and placed] at thy service; but now the dawn is near at hand; so do thou rise and rest thee, as of thy wont.’ Tuhfeh turned and found with her none of the Jinn; so she laid her head on the ground and slept till she had gotten her rest; after which she arose and betaking herself to the pool, made the ablution and prayed. Then she sat beside the pool awhile and pondered the affair of her lord Er Reshid and that which had betided him after her and wept sore. ”

“ Several times, as at Tolago and here, the people have put themselves into a heat by defending the custom, which Tupia, who had never before heard of such a thing, takes every occasion to speak ill of, exhorting them often to leave it off. They, however, universally agree that they eat none but the bodies of those of their enemies who are killed in war; all others are buried.
3rd. Many canoes visited us in the morning; one very large carrying eighty-two people. Dr. Solander and myself went ashore; we found few plants, and saw but few people, but they were perfectly civil. ”

“ The Tapuya stock is at once the most ancient and the most extensive now living on the soil of Brazil. Its various tribes are found from s. lat. 5° to s. lat. 20°, and from the Atlantic to the Schingu river. The name Tapuya was applied to them by the Tupis, and means “enemies” or “strangers”—two ideas which are always synonymous in primitive life. They are also called Crens or Guerens, the Old Ones or Ancient People. This seems to have reference to their possession of the coast before the arrival of the Tupi hordes from the south. ”

“ Then she took the lute from him and playing thereon, [sang and] presently returned to the passage that he had shown her; and he said, 'By Allah, thou singest better than I!' As for Tuhfeh, it was made manifest to her that her former usance [FN#236] was all of it wrong and that what she had learnt from the Sheikh Aboultawaif Iblis was the origin and foundation [of all perfection] in the art. So she rejoiced in that which she had gotten of [new skill in] touching the lute far more than in all that had fallen to her lot of wealth and raiment and kissed the Sheikh's hand. ”

“ At a point possibly a mile or more down the stream from the place in which it is decided to cast the poison, the women and girls, aided by a few men, fix their conical traps across the stream so that no large fish may escape. When all is ready the túba is thrown into the river, and everyone dashes downstream with loud exclamations, some in boats, some on rafts, or; where the water is shallow, wading or jumping from rock to rock. ”

“ When Jemreh heard her words, she knew that, if she let her not down, she would assuredly destroy herself. So she said to her, 'O Tuhfeh, between thee and them are a thousand fathoms; but I will bring them up to thee.' 'Nay,' answered Tuhfeh, 'needs must I go down to them and take my pleasance in the island and look upon the sea anear; then will we return, thou and I; for that, if thou bring them up to us, they will be affrighted and there will betide them neither easance nor gladness. ”

“ The word Tobba or Tubba, I have been informed by some of the modern Arabs, is still used in the Himyaritic dialect of Arabic to signify "the Great" or "the Chief." [FN#18] Nothing is more remarkable in the annals of the Arabs than their efforts to prove the Ishmaelitic descent of Mohammed; at the same time no historic question is more open to doubt. [FN#19] If this be true it proves that the Jews of Al-Hijaz had in those days superstitious reverence for the Ka'abah; otherwise the Tobba, after conforming to the law of Moses, would not have shown it this mark of respect. ”

“ An interesting suggestion made by Señor Lafone Quevado would make Tupan, Tupa, Tumpa,—the widespread Brazilian name for god,—if not a derivative, at least a cognate form of Tonapa, the culture hero of the Lake Titicaca region, who was certainly identified as Saint Thomas by missionaries and Christian Indians at a very early date. That the myth itself is aboriginal there can be no manner of doubt,—Bochica and Quetzalcoatl are northern forms of it; nor need we doubt that Tupa or Tonapa is a native high deity—in all probability celestial or solar, as Lafone Quevado believes. ”

“ Tohfah went out with her and followed her, till she saw where she dwelt, when she left her and returned to the Caliph's palace; and ceased not wending till she went in to the Lady Zubaydah and kissed ground between her hands; whereupon quoth her mistress, "O Tohfah, why hast thou tarried in the Hammam?" She replied, "O my lady, I have seen a marvel, never saw I its like amongst men or women, and this it was that distracted me and dazed my wit and amazed me, so that I forgot even to wash my head." ”

“ Tupia's death, indeed, cannot be said to be owing wholy to the unwholesome air of Batavia; the long want of a Vegetable Diet, which he had all his life before been used to, had brought upon him all the Disorders attending a Sea life. He was a shrewd, sensible, ingenious man, but proud and obstinate, which often made his situation on board both disagreeable to himself and those about him, and tended much to promote the diseases which put a Period to his Life. ”

“ Just then Tupia came upon deck, they ran to him immediately, he assurd them that their freind would not be killd he would only be whippd, on which they were well satisfied. He endurd the discipline and as soon as he was let go an old man who perhaps was his father beat him very soundly and sent him down into the canoes, into which they all went and dropd astern, saying that they were afraid to come any more near us. ”

“ Then she told him the story of Anca, daughter of Behram Gour, with Anca, daughter of the wind, and described to him her dwelling-place and her island, whereupon quoth Er Reshid, 'O Tuhfet es Sedr, [FN#252] tell me of El Anca, daughter of Behram Gour; is she of the Jinn or of mankind or of the birds? For this long time have I desired to find one who should tell me of her.' 'It is well, O Commander of the Faithful,' answered Tuhfeh. ”