[c. 1590.—"Horses have been divided into seven classes.... Arabs, Persian horses, Mujannas, Turki horses, Yabus (see [YABOO]) and Janglah horses.... The last two classes are also mostly Indian breed. The best kind is called Tází...."—Āīn, i. 234-5.
[1839.—"A good breed of the Indian kind, called Tauzee, is also found in Bunnoo and Damaun...."—Elphinstone, Caubul, ed. 1842, i. 189.
[1883.—"The 'Tazzies,' or greyhounds are not looked upon as unclean...."—Wills, Modern Persia, ed. 1891, p. 306.]
TAZEEA, n. A.—P.—H. ta'ziya, 'mourning for the dead.' In India the word is applied to the [taboot], or representations, in flimsy material, of the tombs of Hussein and Hassan which are carried about in the Muḥarram (see [MOHURRUM]) processions. In Persia it seems to be applied to the whole of the mystery-play which is presented at that season. At the close of the procession the ta'ziyas must be thrown into water; if there be no sufficient mass of water they should be buried. [See Sir L. Pelly, The Miracle Play of Hasan and Husain.] The word has been carried to the W. Indies by the coolies, whose great festival (whether they be Mahommedans or Hindus) the Muḥarram has become. And the attempt to carry the Tazeeas through one of the towns of Trinidad, in spite of orders to the contrary, led in the end of 1884 to a sad catastrophe. [Mahommedan Lascars have an annual celebration at the London Docks.]
1809.—"There were more than a hundred Taziyus, each followed by a long train of Fuqueers, dressed in the most extravagant manner, beating their breasts ... such of the Mahratta Surdars as are not Brahmuns frequently construct Taziyus at their own tents, and expend large sums of money upon them."—Broughton, Letters, 72; [ed. 1892, 53].
1869.—"En lisant la description ... de ces fêtes on croira souvent qu'il s'agit de fêtes hindous. Telle est par exemple la solennité du ta'zia ou deuil, établie en commemoration du martyre de Huçaïn, laquelle est semblable en bien de points à celle du Durga-pujâ.... Le ta'ziya dure dix jours comme le Durga-pujâ. Le dixième jour, les Hindous précipitent dans la rivière la statue de la déesse au milieu d'une foule immense, avec un grand appareil et au son de mille instruments de musique; la même chose a lieu pour les représentations du tombeau de Huçaïn."—Garcin de Tassy, Rel. Musulm. p. 11.
TEA, s. Crawfurd alleges that we got this word in its various European forms from the Malay Te, the Chinese name being Chhâ. The latter is indeed the pronunciation attached, when reading in the 'mandarin dialect,' to the character representing the tea-plant, and is the form which has accompanied the knowledge of tea to India, Persia, Portugal, Greece (τσάι) and Russia. But though it may be probable that Te, like several other names of articles of trade, may have come to us through the Malay, the word is, not the less, originally Chinese, Tê (or Tay as Medhurst writes it) being the utterance attached to the character in the Fuh-kien dialect. The original pronunciation, whether direct from Fuh-kien or through the Malay, accompanied the introduction of tea to England as well as other countries of Western Europe. This is shown by several couplets in Pope, e.g.
1711.—
"... There stands a structure of majestic frame
Which from the neighbouring Hampton takes its name.