1793.—"The Tellinga language is said to be in use, at present, from the River Pennar in the Carnatic, to Orissa, along the coast, and inland to a very considerable distance."—Rennell, Memoir, 3rd ed. p. [cxi].
TEMBOOL, Betel-leaf. Skt. tāmbūla, adopted in Pers. as tāmbūl, and in Ar. al-tambūl. [It gives its name to the Tambolis or Tamolis, sellers of betel in the N. Indian bazars.]
1298.—"All the people of this city, as well as the rest of India, have a custom of perpetually keeping in the mouth a certain leaf called Tembul...."—Marco Polo, ii. 358.
1498.—"And he held in his left hand a very great cup of gold as high as a half almude pot ... into which he spat a certain herb which the men of this country chew for solace, and which herb they call atambor."—Roteiro de V. da Gama, 59.
1510.—"He also eats certain leaves of herbs, which are like the leaves of the sour orange, called by some tamboli."—Varthema, 110.
1563.—"Only you should know that Avicenna calls the betre ([Betel]) tembul, which seems a word somewhat corrupted, since everybody pronounces it tambul, and not tembul."—Garcia, f. 37h.
TENASSERIM, n.p. A city and territory on the coast of the Peninsula of Further India. It belonged to the ancient kingdom of Pegu, and fell with that to Ava. When we took from the latter the provinces east and south of the Delta of the Irawadi, after the war of 1824-26, these were officially known as "the Martaban and Tenasserim Province," or often as "the Tenasserim Provinces." We have the name probably from the Malay form Tanasari. We do not know to what language the name originally belongs. The Burmese call it Ta-nen-thā-ri. ["The name Tenasserim (Malay Tanah-sari), 'the land of happiness or delight,' was long ago given by the Malays to the Burma province, which still keeps it, the Burmese corruption being Tanang-sari" (Gray, on Pyrard de Laval, quoted below).]
c. 1430.—"Relicta Taprobane ad urbem Thenasserim supra ostium fluvii eodem nomine vocitati diebus XVI tempestate actus est. Quae regio et elephantis et verzano ([brazil-wood]) abundat."—Nic. Conti, in Poggio de Var. Fort. lib. iv.
1442.—"The inhabitants of the shores of the Ocean come thither (to Hormuz) from the countries of Chīn ([China]), Jāvah, Bangāla, the cities of [Zirbād] (q.v.), of Tenaseri, of Sokotara, of Shahrinao (see [SARNAU]), of the Isles of Dīwah Mahal ([Maldives])."—Abdur-razzāk, in Not. et Exts. xiv. 429.
1498.—"Tenaçar is peopled by Christians, and the King is also a Christian ... in this land is much brasyll, which makes a fine vermilion, as good as the grain, and it costs here 3 cruzados a [bahar], whilst in Quayro (Cairo) it costs 60; also there is here aloes-wood, but not much."—Roteiro de V. da Gama, 110.