Page:EB1911 - Volume 27.djvu/93

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
TORUS—TOTEMISM
79


The “cave of roses,” where reptiles were kept for the purpose of torture, was closed by Gustavus III. in 1772.

Slav Countries.—The earliest mention of torture seems to be that of the mutilation provided for certain offences by the code of Stephen Dushan in 1349. In Russia torture does not occur in the recension's of the earlier law. It was possibly of Tatar origin, and the earliest mention of it in an official document is probably in the Sudebnik of Ivan the Terrible (1497). In the orcfinance of 1556 there are elaborate regulations, which one learns from history were not always observed in periods of political disturbance, and torture seems to have been used even as a means of enforcing payment of debts. The reaction begins with Peter the Great and culminates with Catharine II., who was largely influenced by the opinions of Beccaria and Voltaire. In the instructions to the commission for framing a criminal code (1766), it is declared that all punishments by which the body is maimed ought to be abolished,[1] and that the torture of the rack violates the rules of equity and does not produce the end proposed by the laws.[2] It was formally abolished by Alexander I. in 1801, and in 1832 the Svod Zakonov subjected to penalties any judge who presumed to order it. But even as late as 1847 it seems to have been inflicted in one or two exceptional cases.[3]

Authorities.—For England Jardine's is still the standard work. Much general information and numerous authorities will be found in Lipenius, Bibliotheca realis Juridica, s.v. “Tortura” (Frankfort, 1679), and in the more modern work of J. Helbing, Die Tortur (Berlin, 1902). For those who can obtain access to it the catalogue issued at the sale of M. G. Libri (1861) is valuable. He had collected most of the books on the subject. There are several publications dealing with cases of individuals in addition to the numerous ones on witchcraft trials, e.g. those of William Lithgow, the Amboyna case, Dellon and Van Halen. Lithgow's story has been republished (Glasgow, 1907).  (J. W.) 


TORUS, a Latin word, meaning a round swelling or protuberance, applied to a convex moulding in architecture, which in section is generally a semicircle. The earliest examples are found in Egypt, where it was carried up the angles of the pylon and temple walls and horizontally across the same. Its most frequent employment is in the bases of columns; in the Roman Doric order being the lowest moulding; in the Ionic orders there are generally two torus mouldings separated by a scotia with fillets. Both in Greek and Roman bases sometimes the torus is elaborately carved. (See Moulding.)

TORZHOK, a town of Russia, in the government of Tver, on the river Tvertsa, 21 m. by rail S.W. of the Likhoslavl, station of the St Petersburg & Moscow railway. Pop. (1900), 15,119. It dates from the 11th century, and the name (marketplace) shows that this dependency of Novgorod was a commercial centre. It was fortified with a stone wall, which only partially protected it from the attacks of Mongols, Lithuanians and Poles. Torzhok is celebrated in Russia for its embroidered velvet and embroidered leather-work, for the manufacture of travelling bags, and for its trade in corn and flour.

TOSCANELLA (anc. Tuscana), a town of the province of Rome, Italy, 15 m. N.E. of Corneto by road, 545 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901), 4839. The medieval walls with their towers are still preserved. On the ancient citadel hill is the Romanesque church of S. Pietro, belonging to four different periods—739, 1093 (the date of the reconstruction of the crypt), the middle of the 12th and the end of the 12th century. It has the shape of a Roman basilica, with a nave and two aisles and one apse. The elaborate façade with its rose window also belongs to the 12th century. S. Maria in the valley below dates from 1050 to 1206, and has a similar façade and a massive square campanile. In the town are two other Romanesque churches.

See G. T. Rivoira, Origini dell' architettura Lombarda l. 146 (Rome 1901).

TOSTIG (d. 1066), earl of Northumbria, was a son, probably the third, of Earl Godwine, and in 1051 married Judith, sister or daughter of Baldwin V., count of Flanders. In the year of his marriage he shared the short exile of his father, returning with him to England in 1052, and became earl of Northumbria after the death of Earl Siward in 1055. He was very intimate with his brother-in-law, Edward the Confessor, and in 1061 he visited Pope Nicholas II. at Rome in the company of Aldred, archbishop of York. By stern and cruel measures Tostig introduced a certain amount of order into the wild northern district under his rule; this severity made him exceedingly unpopular, and in 1065 Northumbria broke into open revolt. Declaring Tostig an outlaw and choosing Morkere in his stead, the rebels marched southwards and were met at Oxford by Earl Harold, who, rather against the will of the king, granted their demands. Tostig sailed to Flanders and thence to Normandy, where he offered his services to Duke William, who was related to his wife and who was preparing for his invasion of England. He then harried the Isle of Wight and the Kentish and Lincolnshire coasts, and, after a stay in Scotland and possibly a visit to Norway, joined another invader, Harald III. Hardrada, king of Norway, in the Tyne. Together they sailed up the Humber and at Gate Fulford, near York, defeated Earls Morkere and Edwine and entered York. But Harold, now king, was hurrying to the north. Taking the Norwegians by surprise at Stamford Bridge he destroyed their army on the 25th of September 1066, and in this battle both Tostig and the king of Norway were slain. Tostig’s two sons appear to have taken refuge in Norway, and his widow Judith married Welf, duke of Bavaria.

See E. A. Freeman, The Norman Conquest, vols. ii. and iii. (1870–1876).

TOTANA, a town of eastern Spain, in the province of Murcia, on the Lorca-Murcia railway. Pop. (1900), 13,703. The town, which consists of two parts, the Barrio de Sevilla and Barrio de Triana, contains several handsome public buildings, among them the church of Santiago, with its three naves. Water is conveyed to Totana from the Sierra de Espuña by an aqueduct 7 m. long. Saltpetre is obtained among the hills, and there is a thriving trade in wheat, oranges, olives, almonds, and wine from the Sangonera valley. Other industries are the manufacture of linen, leather and the earthenware jars called tinajas, which are used for the storage of oil and wine.

TOTEMISM. The word “totem” is used in too many varying senses by students of early society and religion. The term came into the English language in the form of “totam,” through a work of 1791, by I. Long, an interpreter between the whites and the Red Indians of North America.[4] Long himself seems to have used the word to denote the protective familiar, usually an animal, which each Indian selected for himself, generally through the monition of a dream during the long fast of lads at their initiation. Such selected (or, when bestowed by medicine-men or friends, “given”) totems are styled “personal totems” and have no effect in savage law, nor are they hereditary, with any legal consequences.

In stricter terminology “totem” denotes the object, generally of a natural species, animal or vegetable, but occasionally rain, cloud, star, wind, which gives its name to a kindred actual or supposed, among many savages and barbaric races in America, Africa, Australia and Asia and the isles. Each child, male, or female, inherits this name, either from its mother (“female descent”) or from its father (“male descent”). Between each person and his or her name-giving object, a certain mystic rapport is supposed to exist. Where descent wavers, persons occasionally have, in varying degrees, the totems of both parents.

Religions Aspect of the Totem.—As a rule, by no means invariable, the individual may not kill or eat the name-giving object of his kin, except under dire necessity; while less usually it is supposed to protect him and to send him monitory dreams. This is the “religious” or semi-religious aspect of the totem, or this aspect is, by some students, called “religious.”

We also hear of customs of burying and lamenting dead animals which are regarded with reverence by this or that “family,” or “clan.” This custom is reported among the Samoans, and one “clan” was said to offer first-fruits to its sacred animal, the eel; while the “clan” that revered the pigeon kept and fed a tame specimen.[5] But in Samoa, though the sacred animals of “clans” or “families” are, in all probability, survivals of totemism, they are now regarded by the people as the vehicles

  1. Art. 96
  2. Ibid. 192–197.
  3. See the various histories of Russian law, such as Maceiovski, Lange and Zagoskin, under the heads of puitka or muchenie.
  4. Long, Voyages and Travels of an Indian Interpreter (1791), p. 86.
  5. Turner, Samoa, p. 71.