Throne of Jamsheed
THE, Persepolis, so named by its Persian founders. Jamsheed removed the seat of government from Balkh thither.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Single-source entries: T (40)
Each of these 14 subjects appears in only one of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. None is long enough to carry a page by itself, so they are gathered here by letter. Anything that grows moves out to a page of its own.
Throop
a borough of Pennsylvania, in Lackawanna co. It is on the New York, Ontario and Western and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western railroads. It adjoins Scranton. Its chief industries are coal mining and the manufacture of silk. Pop. (1910) 5,133; (1920) 6,672.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Thugs
a secret, semi-religious fraternity of robbers and assassins. They formerly infested the central and northern provinces of India. They traveled about the country in small bands, disguised as merchants or peddlers or as holy pilgrims. They ingratiated themselves with travelers and murdered them in lonely spots. Even the laborer by the roadside was not safe. Although they stripped their victims they appear to have been moved by a secret fanatical motive, rather than from lust of gain. One-third of their plunder they gave to their goddess. The bodies of their victims they buried, first digging a hole with a consecrated mattock, and performing certain religious rites. Each band had its leader, its teacher, its trappers, its stranglers, and its grave diggers. They were extremely deft in their operations. They strangled their victims with a scarf, turban, or slip noose, without shedding of blood. They were a terror to the natives who dared not, if they could, give information. They were as difficult to suppress as bandits. Between 1826 and 1835, 1,562 thugs were executed. The order was exterminated finally.
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia
Thule
thoo'le, in ancient geography, the most northerly country known. The idea of the ancients was indefinite. By some the term is applied to Iceland; by others it is identified with northern Scotland. William Black, the Scottish novelist, utilizes the latter idea in his A Princess of Thule.
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia
Thulstrup
THURE DE, an American artist and illustrator; born in Sweden in 1848. He graduated from the National Military Academy in Stockholm, and was for a while minister of war in the Swedish Cabinet. He later served as an officer in the French army in Algeria, then studied art in Paris. Later he went to Canada as topographical engineer. Coming to New York, York, he began his career as illustrator, and for many years was a regular contributor to the "New York Graphic," "Leslie's Weekly," "Harper's Weekly," and a number of other similar publications.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Thumb Flint
in anthropology, a popular name for short form of a scrapers, the long varieties of which are sometimes known as "finger flints." Evans thinks that these names, "though colloquially convenient, are not sufficiently definite to be worthy of being retained."
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Thumb-Screw
a former instrument of torture for compressing the thumbs. It was employed in various countries, Scotland in particular; called also thumbikins or thumbkins.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Thun
LAKE OF, a body of water 11 miles long and 2 miles wide, in the canton of Berne, Switzerland. It lies about 1,800 feet above sea-level, in a beautiful region annually visited by great numbers of tourists. On its E. shore is the town of Interlaken, and on its W., Thun, the latter being the starting point of tourists to the Bernese Oberland. There are steamers on the lake and the two towns are joined by a railroad. THUNBERGIA (named after Carl Peter Thunberg, 1743-1828), a Swedish traveler, botanist, and professor of natural history at Upsal, in botany a genus of Gardenida, sometimes made a synonym of Gardenia. Involucre two-leaved; calyx about 12-toothed; corolla campanulate; capsule beaked, two-celled. Handsome and frag fragrant climbers, cultivated in gardens for the beauty of their flowers. T. fragrans has cordate, acuminate leaves; T. grandiflora angular, cordate leaves, larger flowers with no inner calyx, and the anthers bearded and spurred. Both are natives of the East Indies.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Thunder Bird
an imaginary bird occurring in the mythology of races of low culture, and personifying thunder or its cause. Among the Caribs, Brazilians, Harvey Islanders, and Karens, Bechuanas, and Basutos, there are legends of a flapping or flashing thunder bird, which seem to translate into myth the thought of thunder and lightning descending from the upper regions of the air, the home of the eagle and the vulture.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Thunder Fish
a species of fish of the family Siluridæ, found in the Nile, which, like the torpedo, can give an electric shock. It is the Malapterurus electricus of the naturalists.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Thunderbolt
in heraldry, the thunderbolt is represented as a twisted bar in pale, inflamed at each end, surmounting two jagged darts in saltire, between two wings expanded, with streams of fire issuing from the center.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Thundering Legion
a Roman legion containing some Christians, which (A. D. 174) fought under Marcus Antoninus against the Marcomanni. The Roman army was shut up in a defile and ready to perish with thirst, when a thunderstorm with heavy rain relieved them of their distress, and so terrified the enemy that a complete victory was gained. The Christians attributed the deliverance to the prayer. The heathen also considered the interposition supernatural, but ascribed it to Jupiter, Mercury, or to magic. Also a legion composed of Christian soldiers raised in the Thebaïs, and led by St. Maurice. The name existed long before it was applied to either of these two legions.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Thurgau
a canton N. E. of Switzerland; bo inded mainly by the Lake of Constance and the cantons of Zürich and St. Gall; a ea, 381 square miles; capital, Frauenfeld It differs much in physical conformation from most other Swiss cantons, in having no high mountains, though the surface is sufficiently diversified. The whole canton belongs to the basin of the Rhine, to which its waters are conveyed chiefly by the Thur and its affluents, and partly also by the Lake of Constance, including the Untersee. The principal crops are grain and potatoes; large quantities of fruit are also grown. In many places the vine is successfully cultivated. The manufactures consist chiefly of cottons, hosiery, ribbons, lace, etc. Pop. about 135,000.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Thurible
in ecclesiastical usage, a censer, a vessel for burning incense. Their present form, according to Martigny, dates only from the 12th century. The modern thurible consists of a metallic vessel or cup, sometimes of gold or silver, but more commonly of brass or lateen, in which burning charcoal is placed, with a movable perforated cover. Chains are attached, so that the thurible may be waved to and fro.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia