TUMBELAN ISLANDS, a cluster of small islands in the Eastern Seas. Long. 107. 58. E. Lat. 1. N.
Tumbrell TUMBRELL, TUMBRELLUM, or Turbichetum, is an engine of punishment, formerly employed for the correction of scolds and unquiet women.
Tumcure TUMCURU, a town of Southern India, in the province of Mysore, defended by a good fort. It contains from 500 to 600 houses. Long. 77. 12. E. Lat. 13. 15. N.
Tumene, a district of Tobolsk, in Asiatic Russia, with a capital of the same name, situated on the southern bank of the Tura, at its confluence with the Tumenska. It was built in 1586, on the site of a Tartar town, of which the traces still remain. It has a suburb, inhabited by Tartars and Bucharians. It contains 800 houses, with nine churches, a convent, and a nunnery. It has a foundry of bells, manufactories of soap, and considerable tanneries. Long. 100. 14. E. Lat. 57. N.
Tumlook, a small town of Bengal, in the district of Hooghly. The lands in the neighbourhood are extremely low, and only protected from inundation by embankments. It is the head-quarters of an agency for the manufacture of salt, which is a government monopoly. It is thirty-five miles south-west from Calcutta. Long. 88. 2. E. Lat. 22. 17. N.
Tun, a large vessel or cask, of an oblong form, largest in the middle, and diminishing towards its two ends, girt about with hoops, and used for stowing several kinds of merchandise for convenience of carriage; as brandy, oil, sugar, skins, &c.
Tun is also the name of a measure. A tun of wine is four hogsheads; of timber, a square of forty solid feet; and of coals, twenty hundredweight.
Tunbridge, a town of the hundred of the same name, in the lathe of Aylesford, and county of Kent, thirty-one miles from London. It stands on a branch of the Medway, called the Tun, which is navigable, and by which coals and other goods are conveyed from the Thames. It is a well-built and clean town, with a handsome church, of modern construction. There is a well-endowed grammar school, which has many exhibitions at Oxford and Cambridge. The ruins still exist of that ancient castle, which has been the scene of many events in our national history. There is a well-supplied market on Friday. The inhabitants amounted in 1821 to 7406, and in 1831 to 10,380.
Tunbridge Wells, a town partly within the parish of Speldhurst, in the hundred of Washington and lathe of Aylesford, but the larger portion in Tunbridge. It is thirty-six miles from London, and six from the town of Tunbridge. It has been long celebrated for its mineral springs, which are strongly impregnated with iron. It consists of four divisions, viz. Mount Ephraim, Mount Pleasant, Mount Sion, and the Wells. The three former are composed of good houses, let as temporary residences, and the latter consists of rows of houses of smaller dimensions and expense. The place is much frequented in the summer, as well for the water as for the purity of the air. In the town are manufactures of wood, commonly called Tunbridge ware. The inhabitants of Speldhurst amounted in 1821 to 2297, and in 1831 to 2640, but the greater part of the new buildings are within the parish of Tunbridge.
Tune, in Music, means either a short and popular melody, or correct intonation in singing or playing. See MUSIC, ORGAN, SONG, TEMPERAMENT, TONALITY.
Tunguses, a wandering native race of Asiatic Russia, who occupy the whole south-eastern portion of that vast territory, being first found on the banks of the Yenisei, and extending all the way eastward to the sea of Okhotsk. They resemble the Mongols in their countenance, though it is larger and still more flattened. They have small eyes, and a smiling physiognomy, and long black hair, which they allow freely to hang over their shoulders. They gain their subsistence, like all the other savages, by hunting and fishing, ranging through the woods and along the rivers, without any permanent abodes. They are ex-
tremely active and brave in their occupation, attacking with bows and arrows, their principal weapons, the fiercest animals, even bears; and the delicacy and quickness of sight by which they trace the game is almost incredible. The light mark which its steps leave on the moss or on the grass is a sufficient indication. The sable is the most valuable of the animals which they pursue. They clothe themselves rudely with the skins of rein-deer and wild sheep, having the hair or wool turned inward during the winter; in summer they wear the same skins tanned. They ornament this simple costume with beads and glass. They are praised as honest, brave, and frank, holding lying in detestation, and theft and fraud being unknown among them. The females are in general chaste, though a custom prevails among some of the nomadic tribes of lending their wives to strangers. On the women devolve all the domestic duties. To a certain age they are handsome, but after they grow old they are hideous. According to the last enumeration, the Tunguses in the government of Irkutsk amounted to 19,264 males and 11,000 females; but from their wandering mode of life, this census is supposed to be imperfect. In the government of Tobolsk, the reported number amounted to 19,193.
Tunguska, the name of three large rivers of Asiatic Russia, the tributaries of the Yenisei. The Lower Tunguska, the most northerly of the three, has the longest course. It takes its rise in the northern part of the government of Irkutsk, and after running parallel to the Lena, takes a westerly course, when it joins the Yenisei near Tumschansk. Its course is estimated to be 1000 miles in length. The Middle Tunguska, after a course of between 500 and 600 miles, falls into the Yenisei in lat. 62° N. The Upper Tunguska contains a larger body of water than either of the other two. It originates in the southern part of Lake Baikal, and flows through a broken and rocky channel. It bears the name of Angara in the first part of its course, till after it receives the Ilim, when it is called the Tunguska. It then flows west, and joins the Yenisei in 59° N.
Tunica, a kind of waistcoat or under garment, in use among the Romans. They wore it within doors by itself, and abroad under the gown. The common people could not afford the toga, and so went in their tunics; whence Horace calls them populus tuniceatus.
Tuning-Fork, a steel instrument with two prongs and a handle, used to regulate the pitch of voices, or of instruments that require to be tuned.
Tuning-Hammer, an instrument used by piano-forte tuners to twist round the iron pegs to which the wires are fastened at one end, or to fix these pegs by hammering them into their holes.
Tunis, a country of Africa, bounded on the north and east by the Mediterranean Sea and the kingdom of Tripoli, on the south by several tribes of the Arabs, and on the west by the kingdom of Algiers and the country of Ead. It is 300 miles in length from east to west, and 250 in breadth from north to south. See AFRICA.
Tunis, a large town of Barbary, and the capital of the kingdom of the same name. It is seated on the point of the Gulf of Goletta, about eight miles from the place where the city of Carthage stood. It is of an oblong form, and is about four miles in circumference, with ten large streets, five gates, and thirty mosques. The houses are all built with stone, though but one story high; but the walls are very lofty, and flanked with several strong towers. It has neither ditches nor bastions, but a good citadel, built on an eminence on the west side of the city. Its population was estimated by Mr Blaquiere at 130,000. The harbour of Tunis has a very narrow entrance, through a small canal. In the city they have no water but what is kept in cisterns. It is a place of great trade, and is ten miles from the sea. Long. 16. 10. E. Lat. 36. 42. N.