[c. 1220.—"'Attabi." See under [SUCLAT].]
TABOOT, s. The name applied in India to a kind of shrine, or model of a Mahommedan mausoleum, of flimsy material, intended to represent the tomb of Husain at Kerbela, which is carried in procession during the Moharram (see Herklots, 2nd ed. 119 seqq., and Garcin de Tassy, Rel. Musulm. dans l'Inde, 36). [The word is Ar. tabūt, 'a wooden box, coffin.' The term used in N. India is ta'ziya (see [TAZEEA]).]
[1856.—"There is generally over the vault in which the corpse is deposited an oblong monument of stone or brick (called 'tarkeebeh') or wood (in which case it is called 'taboot')."—Lane, Mod. Egypt., 5th ed. i. 299.]
[TACK-RAVAN, s. A litter carried on men's shoulders, used only by royal personages. It is Pers. takht-ravān, 'travelling-throne.' In the Hindi of Behar the word is corrupted into tartarwān.
[c. 1660.—"... several articles of Chinese and Japan workmanship; among which were a paleky and a tack-ravan, or travelling throne, of exquisite beauty, and much admired."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 128; in 370, tact-ravan.
[1753.—"Mahommed Shah, emperor of Hindostan, seated in a royal litter (takht revan, which signifies a moving throne) issued from his camp...."—Hanway, iv. 169.]
TAEL, s. This is the trade-name of the Chinese ounce, viz., 1⁄16 of a [catty] (q.v.); and also of the Chinese money of account, often called "the ounce of silver," but in Chinese called liang. The standard liang or tael is, according to Dr. Wells Williams, = 579.84 grs. troy. It was formerly equivalent to a string of 1000 tsien, or (according to the trade-name) [cash] (q.v.). The China tael used to be reckoned as worth 6s. 8d., but the rate really varied with the price of silver. In 1879 an article in the Fortnightly Review puts it at 5s. 7½d. (Sept. p. 362); the exchange at Shanghai in London by telegraphic transfer, April 13, 1885, was 4s. 9⅜d.; [on Oct. 3, 1901, 2s. 7¼d.]. The word was apparently got from the Malays, among whom taïl or tahil is the name of a weight; and this again, as Crawfurd indicates, is probably from the India [tola] (q.v.). [Mr. Pringle writes: "Sir H. Yule does not refer to such forms as tahe (see below), taies (plural in Fryer's New Account, p. 210, sub Machawo), Taye (see quotation below from Saris), tayes (see quotation below from Mocquet), or taey, and taeys (Philip's translation of Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 149). These probably come through the medium of the Portuguese, in which the final l of the singular tael is changed into s in the plural. Such a form as taeis might easily suggest a singular wanting the final s, and from such a singular French and English plurals of the ordinary type would in turn be fashioned" (Diary Ft. St. Geo., 1st ser. ii. 126).]
The Chinese scale of weight, with their trade-names, runs: 16 taels = 1 catty, 100 catties = 1 [pecul] = 133½ lbs. avoird. Milburn gives the weights of Achin as 4 copangs (see [KOPANG]) = 1 mace, 5 mace = 1 mayam, 16 mayam = 1 tale (see TAEL), 5 tales = 1 buncal, 20 buncals = 1 catty, 200 catties = 1 bahar; and the catty of Achīn as = 2 lbs. 1 oz. 13 dr. Of these names, [mace], tale and [bahar] (qq.v.) seem to be of Indian origin, mayam, bangkal, and kati Malay.
1540.—"And those three junks which were then taken, according to the assertion of those who were aboard, had contained in silver alone 200,000 taels (taeis), which are in our money 300,000 cruzados, besides much else of value with which they were freighted."—Pinto, cap. xxxv.
1598.—"A Tael is a full ounce and a halfe Portingale weight."—Linschoten, 44; [Hak. Soc. i. 149].