(area, 2697 acres) in 1871 was 29,445, and in 1881 it was 30,013.
TIRABOSCHI, Girolamo (1731–1794), the first historian of Italian literature, was born at Bergamo on 18th December 1731. He studied at the Jesuit college at Monza, entered the order, and was appointed in 1755 professor of eloquence in the university of Milan. Here he produced (1766-68) Vetera Humiliatorum Monumenta (3 vols.), a his tory of the extinct order of the Umiliati, which gave him at once a distinguished place in literature. Nominated in 1770 librarian to Francis III., duke of Modena, he turned to account the copious materials there accumulated for the composition of his Storia della Letteratura Italiana. This vast work, in which the progress of Italian literature from the time of the Etruscans to the end of the 17th century is traced in detail, occupied eleven assiduous years, 177182, and the thirteen quarto volumes embodying it appeared successively at Modena during that period. A second enlarged edition (16 vols.) was issued from 1787 to 1794, and was succeeded by many others, besides abridgments in German, French, and English. Tiraboschi died at Modena on 3d June 1794, leaving a high reputation for virtue, learning, and piety.
Tiraboschi wrote besides Biblioteca Modcnese (6 vols., 1781-86); Xotizic de Pittori, Scullori, Incisori, ed Architetfi Modenesi (1786); Memorie Storiche Modenesi (5 vols., 1793-94), and many minor works. He edited the Nuovo Giomale dei Letterati d Italia (177390), and left materials for a work of great research entitled Dizionfirio Topografico-Storico degli Stati Estcnsi (2 vols. 4to, Modena, 1824-25).
TIRESIAS, a famous Theban seer of Greek legend, was a son of Everes and Chariclo, and a descendant of Udaeus, one of the men who had sprung up from the serpent's teeth sown by Cadmus. He was blind, for which various causes were alleged. Some said that the gods had blinded him because he had revealed to men what they ought not to know. Others said that Athene (or Artemis) blinded him because he had seen her naked; when his mother prayed Athene to restore his sight, the goddess instead purged his ears so that he could understand the speech of birds and gave him a staff wherewith to guide his steps. Another story was that on Mount Cyllene (or on Cythaerurn) he saw two snakes coupling; he killed the female and became himself a woman. Seven years afterwards he saw the same sight, and killing the male became himself a man again. When Zeus and Hera disputed whether more pleasure was enjoyed by the male or the female sex, they referred the question to Tiresias, as he had experience of both. He decided in favour of the female sex, and Hera in her anger blinded him; but Zeus gifted him with long life and infallible divination. He lived for seven or, according to others, nine generations. In the war of the Seven against Thebes he foretold to the Thebans that they would be victorious if Menceceus offered himself in sacrifice. In the war of the Epigoni he advised the Thebans to flee. They fled, and he with them; but coming to the Tilphusian well he drank of it and died. According to others, Tiresias was taken prisoner by the victorious Argives and died while they were taking him to Delphi. The Argives took his daughter Manto (or Daphne) prisoner and sent her to Apollo at Delphi, where, being as skilled a seer as her father, she gave oracles. A different version of the legend of Tiresias was given by the elegiac poet Sostratus (reported by Eustathius on Od., x. 492). According to him, Tiresias was originally a girl, but had been changed into a boy by Apollo at the age of seven; after undergoing several more transformations from one sex to the other, she (for the final sex was feminine) was turned into a mouse and her lover Arachnus into a weasel. Tiresias's grave was at the Tilphusian spring; but there was a cenotaph of him at Thebes, where also in later times his "observatory," or place for watching for omens, was pointed out. He had an oracle at Orchomenus, but during a plague it became silent and remained so in Plutarch's time. According to Homer, Tiresias was the only person in the world of the dead whom Proserpine allowed to retain intelligence. He figured in the great paintings by Polygnotus in the Lesche at Delphi. The story of his transformation into a woman is perhaps to be explained by the custom of medicine-men dressing like women, which prevails in Borneo, Patagonia, Kadiak (off Alaska), and probably elsewhere.[1]
TIRHUT, or Tirhoot, a district of British India, was formerly the largest and most populous in Bengal. On 1st January 1875 it was divided into the two districts of Darbhangah and Muzaffarpur. For the latter, see Muzaffarpur. The former, with an area of 3335 square miles, lies between 25° 30΄ and 26° 40΄ N. lat. and 85° 34΄ and 86° 46΄ E. long., and is bounded on the N. by Nepal, on the E. by Bhagalpur, on the S. by Monghyr, and on the W. by Muzaffarpur. The population of Darbhangah in 1881 was 2,633,447 (males 1,295,788, females 1,337,659); of these Hindus numbered 2,323,979, Mohammedans 308,985, and Christians 325. Its chief towns are Darbhangah, the capital, with 65,955 inhabitants; Madhubani, 11,911; and Rusera, 11,578. The total revenue of Darbhangah district in 1885-86 amounted to 157,037, of which the land revenue yielded 80,442.
The alluvial tract of country formerly known as Tirhut is varied by undulations, with groves, orchards, and woods. The principal rivers are the Ganges, Gandak, Baghmati, Tiljuga, and Karai, which are rarely navigable, except during the rainy season, when they are mostly rapid and dangerous. Tirhut produces all sorts of crops, rice being the principal; others are wheat, barley, maize, oil-seeds, &c.; opium and tobacco are largely grown for export. The chief industries include the manufacture of indigo, saltpetre, coarse cloth, pottery, and mats. The Tirhut State Railway runs from Mokameh on the left bank of the Ganges through Darbhangah and Muzaf farpur districts north-west into Champaran district as far as Bettia. A ferry over the Ganges at Mokameh connects it with the East Indian Railway. There are two branches, one extending from Muzaffarpur south-west to Hajipur (to be connected with the Bengal and North-Western Railway at Sonapur by a bridge over the Gandak), the other (226 miles open for traffic in March 1886) from Samastipur via Darbhangah to Janjarpur, from which it will ex tend eastwards to Partabganj, a mart upon the Kosi river near the Nepal frontier.
TIRLEMONT (Flem. Tkienen), a town of Belgium, in the province of Brabant, 29 1 miles by rail to the east of Brussels, on the Great Geete. The old walls, dismantled since 1804, are nearly 6 miles in circuit, but enclose a large extent of arable and garden ground. The streets are regular, and there are some spacious squares; the market-place contains the town-hall, recently restored, and the church of Notre Dame du Lac, founded in 1298, enlarged in the 15th century, but still unfinished. The church of St Germain dates partly from the 9th century. The industries of the place include the making of steam-engines, brewing, distilling, soap-making, tanning, and various woollen and cotton manufactures. The population in 1876 was 13,296.
Tirlemont was once a much larger and more flourishing town than it now is; it has suffered much in war and was taken by the French in 1635, by Marlborough in 1705, and again by the French in 1793. John Bolland, the famous editor of the Acta Sanctorum, was born here in 1596.
- ↑ On this custom see Journals of James Brooke of Sarawak, ii. p. 65 sq.; H. Low, Sarawak, p. 175 sq.; Perelaer, Ethnogr. Beschrijving der Dajaks, p. 32 sq.; Carl Bock, Head Hunters of Borneo, p. 222 n.; Falkner, Description of Patagonia, p. 117; Trans. Ethnolog. Soc. Lond., new series, vii. p. 323; Holmberg, "Ethnogr. Skizzen," in Acta Soc. Scient. Fennicæ, iv. p. 400 sq.
