Chapter TATTY to TAZEEA of T by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

TATTY to TAZEEA

TATTY, s. Hind. tatti and tati, [which Platts connects with Skt. tantra, ‘a thread, the warp in a loom’]. A screen or mat made of the roots of fragrant grass (see CUSCUS) with which door or window openings are filled up in the season of hot winds. The screens being kept wet, their fragrant evaporation as the dry winds blow upon them cools and refreshes the house greatly, but they are only efficient when such winds are blowing. See also THERMANTIDOTE. The principle of the tatty is involved in the quotation from Dr. Fryer, though he does not mention the grass-mats.

c. 1665.—“…or having in lieu of Cellarage certain Kas-Kanays, that is, little Houses of Straw, or rather of odoriferous Roots, that are very neatly made, and commonly placed in the midst of a Parterre…that so the Servants may easily with their Pompion - bottles, water them from without.”—Bernier, E.T. 79; [ed. Constable, 247].

1673.—“They keep close all day for 3 or 4 Months together…repelling the Heat by a coarse wet Cloath, continually hanging before the chamber-windows.”—Fryer, 47.

[1789.—The introduction of tatties into Calcutta is mentioned in a letter from Dr. Campbell, dated May 10, 1789:—“We have had very hot winds and delightful cool houses. Everybody uses tatties now.…Tatties are however dangerous when you are obliged to leave them and go abroad, the heat acts so powerfully on the body that you are commonly affected with a severe catarrh.”—In Carey, Good Old Days, i. 80.]

1808.—“…now, when the hot winds have set in, and we are obliged to make use of tattees, a kind of screens made of the roots of a coarse grass called Kus.”—Broughton’s Letters, 110; [ed. 1892, p. 83].

1809.—“Our style of architecture is by no means adapted to the climate, and the large windows would be insufferable, were it not for the tattyes which are easily applied to a house one story high.”—Ld. Valentia, i. 104.

1810.—“During the hot winds tats (a kind of mat), made of the root of the koosa grass, which has an agreeable smell, are placed against the doors and windows.”—Maria Graham 125.

1814.—“Under the roof, throughout all the apartments, are iron rings, from which the tattees or screens of sweet scented grass, were suspended.”—Forbes, Or. Mem. iv. 6; [2nd ed. ii. 392].

1828.—“An early breakfast was over; the well watered tatties were applied to the windows, and diffused through the apartment a cool and refreshing atmosphere which was most comfortably contrasted with the white heat and roar of the fierce wind without.”—The Kuzzilbash, I. ii.

TAUT, s. Hind. tat, [Skt. tratra, ‘defence,’ or tantri, ‘made of threads’]. Sackcloth.

[c. 1810.—“In this district (Dinajpoor) large quantities of this cloth (Tat or Choti) are made.…”—Buchanan, Eastern India, ii. 851.]

1820.—“…made into coarse cloth taut, by the Brinjaries and people who use pack bullocks for making bags (gonies, see GUNNY) for holding grain, &c.”—Tr. Bo. Lit. Soc. iii. 244.

TAVOY, n.p. A town and district of what we call the Tenasserim Province of B. Burma. The Burmese call it Dha-wé; but our name is probably adopted from a Malay form. The original name is supposed to be Siamese. [The Burmah Gazetteer (ii. 681) gives the choice of three etymologies: ‘landing place of bamboos’; from its arms (dha, ‘a sword,’ way, ‘to buy’); from Hta-way, taken from a cross-legged Buddha.]

1553.—“The greater part of this tract is mountainous, and inhabited by the nation of Brammás and Jangomas, who interpose on the east of this kingdom (Pegu) between it and the great kingdom of Siam; which kingdom of Siam borders the sea from the city of Tavay downwards.”—Barros, III. iii. 4.

1583.—“Also some of the rich people in a place subject to the Kingdom of Pegu, called Tavae, where is produced a quantity of what they call in their language Calain, but which in our language is called Calaia (see CALAY), in summer leave their houses and go into the country, where they make some sheds to cover them, and there they stop three months, leaving their usual dwellings with food in them for the devil, and this they do in order that in the other nine months he may give them no trouble, but rather be propitious and favourable to them.”—G. Balbi, f. 125.

1587.—“…Iland of Tavi, from which cometh great store of Tinne which serveth all India.”—R. Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 395.

1695.—“10th. That your Majesty, of your wonted favour and charity to all distresses, would be pleased to look with Eyes of Pity, upon the poor English Captive, Thomas Browne, who is the only one surviving of four that were accidentally drove into Tauwy by Storm, as they were going for Atcheen about 10 years ago, in the service of the English Company.”—Petition to the King of Burma, presented at Ava by Edward Fleetwood, in Dalrymple, Or. Repert. ii. 374.