And its ever jetty harness, which was always made by Watts...."
A few lines in honour of the late Mr. Simms,
in Parker's Bole Ponjis, 1851, ii. 215.
1853.—"... Smith's plucky proposal to run his notable tat, Pickles."—Oakfield, i. 94.
1875.—"You young Gentlemen rode over on your tats, I suppose? The Subaltern's tat—that is the name, you know, they give to a pony in this country—is the most useful animal you can imagine."—The Dilemma, ch. ii.
TATTY, s. Hind. ṭaṭṭī and ṭaṭi, [which Platts connects with Skt. tantra, 'a thread, the warp in a loom']. A screen or mat made of the roots of fragrant grass (see [CUSCUS]) with which door or window openings are filled up in the season of hot winds. The screens being kept wet, their fragrant evaporation as the dry winds blow upon them cools and refreshes the house greatly, but they are only efficient when such winds are blowing. See also [THERMANTIDOTE]. The principle of the tatty is involved in the quotation from Dr. Fryer, though he does not mention the grass-mats.
c. 1665.—"... or having in lieu of Cellarage certain Kas-Kanays, that is, little Houses of Straw, or rather of odoriferous Roots, that are very neatly made, and commonly placed in the midst of a Parterre ... that so the Servants may easily with their Pompion-bottles, water them from without."—Bernier, E.T. 79; [ed. Constable, 247].
1673.—"They keep close all day for 3 or 4 Months together ... repelling the Heat by a coarse wet Cloath, continually hanging before the chamber-windows."—Fryer, 47.
[1789.—The introduction of tatties into Calcutta is mentioned in a letter from Dr. Campbell, dated May 10, 1789:—"We have had very hot winds and delightful cool houses. Everybody uses tatties now.... Tatties are however dangerous when you are obliged to leave them and go abroad, the heat acts so powerfully on the body that you are commonly affected with a severe catarrh."—In Carey, Good Old Days, i. 80.]
1808.—"... now, when the hot winds have set in, and we are obliged to make use of tattees, a kind of screens made of the roots of a coarse grass called Kus."—Broughton's Letters, 110; [ed. 1892, p. 83].