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 TADAMA

429

TAENSA

scendant of Joliot, the discoverer of the Mississippi. He served in the war of 1S12 as lieutenant of the "Chasseurs canadiens". He was a self-made man, who after a mere elementary course succeeded in graduating at Pliiladelphia as a physician, and later in taking the foremost rank among Canadian states- men. After twenty-two j'ears of succes.sful medical practice, he entered politics as member of the Legisla- tive Assembly at the first election following the Union (1841), which he had strenuously opposed. Re- elected in 1844, he accepted (1846) the post of adju- tant-general of militia. In 1848 he became cliief com- missioner of public works in the Lafontaine-Baldwin ministry, and helped to save the former's life during the violent sessions of 1849. M. Tache was a mem- ber of each successive Cabinet from 18'48 to 18.56. In 1858 he was knighted by Queen Victoria, and in 1860 appointed aide-de-camp to Her Majesty, with the rank of colonel in the regular army. In 1862 Pius IX bestowed on him the title of Commander of the Order of St. Gregory. He aided in reorganizing the militia at the time of the Trent affair. In 1864 he formed the Tache-MacDonald administration, and presided over the conference of the delegates of the British North American provinces preparatory to confederation. Tach6 was ever a loyal Catholic.

TcBCOTTE, Le Canada sous V Union (Quebec, 1872); Morgan. Bibliothrm (-arMrfCTLsts (Ottawa, 1S67): RoT, La famille Tache (L^vis, 1904).

Lionel Lindsay.

Tadama, a titular see in Mauretania Casariensis, of which nothing is known. Its bishop Da\dd is mentioned among the bishops of Mauretania Caesari- ensis in the "Notitiiv episcopatuum" of 482. He is also the hundredth and fifth on the list of the bishops of that province who went in 484 to the Conference of Carthage and were subsequently exiled by Huneric. His name is followed by the word probalus, showing that he died in exile for the Faith.

TouLOTTE. Geographic de VA/rique chretiennc: Mauretanics (Montrcuil, 1894), 149.

S. P£tridJ;s.

Tsenarum, a titular see in Greece, suflfragan of Cor- inth. T;enarum, or Ticnarus, was situated five Eng- lish miles north of Cape Txnarum, now Cape Mata- pan. It contained a temple of Demeter, also one of Aphrodite. It is to-day the village of Kyparrisos. After their freedom from the Spartan yoke, the maritime Laconians formed a confederation, and founded a capital, called C;pnepolis, i. e. new town. From inscriptions we learn that thisnew city wasreally Tcenarum, which still preserved its old name. How- ever, there may have been two distinct cities, in close proximity; but there is no mention of IVnarum in the "Xotitia? episcopatuum", or of any of its bishops.

Smith, Diet, of (ircck and Roman Gcog., s. v. ; MtJLLEB, Sotes to Ptolemy, ed. Didot, I, .Ml.

S. PETRinfes.

Taensa Indians, a tribe of Muskhogean stock and somewhat superior culture, hving when first known on the west bank of the Mississippi, within the present limits of Tensas parish, Loui.siana, and numbering perhaps 1200 souls, in several villages. The meaning of the name is unknown. In language, religion, and custom they were nearly identical with the celebrated Xalchez, their near neighbours on the opposite bank of the Mi.s.sissippi, a little lower down. The Taensa were sedentary and agricultural and expert canoe men, living in large houses described a.s having walls of earth, but more probably of logs pla-stered with claj-, and roofed with mats of woven cane splits. Their chiefs ex(T(is<'(l despotic power and were treated with great resijcct, in ni;ukrd contra-sl to the custom among the norlhern tribes. On one occa.-<ion of a ciTenionial visit to La Salle the chief wa-s accomiianicd by attendants who, with their hands, swept the road in front of him as he

advanced. Towards the French they manifested from the first a warm friendship, but although described by the early e^lorers as dignified, ))olished, docile, and even "humane", their rehgion, like that of the Natchez, was notable for its bloody rites. Their chief deities seem to have been the sun and the serpent. Their dome-shaped temple was surmounted by the figures of three eagles facing the rising sun, the outer walls and the roof being of cane mats paint ed en t ircly red, and t he whole was surrounded with a palisade of stakes, on each of which was set a human skull, the remains of a former sacrifice. Inside was an altar, with a rope of liuman scalp locks, and a perpetual fire guarded day and night by two old jjriesls. When a chief died his wives and personal attendants were killed that their spirits might accompany him to the other world. At one chief's funeral thirteen victims were thus slaughtered. On another occasion Father Montignj-, being present, interpo.sed and prevented the sacrifice. Shortly afterwards, during a thunder storm, the temple was struck by lightning and entirely consumed. The high priest interpreted this as a sign of the anger of the god at the neglect of the ancient custom, and for rejjaration called upon the women to throw their children into the fire. In response five mothers rushed forward and cast their infants into the flames and others were about to follow when the sol- diers of Iberville's party interfered. The five mothers who had thus given their children to death were after- wards led in procession, clad in white robes woven from the fiber of the inner bark of the mulberry.

The Taensa may have been visited by De Soto's expedition in 154(1, but their definite history dates from 1682, when the French commander La Salle, accompanied by Tonti and the Recollect Father Zenobius Membre, stopped at their tillages for a day or two while descending the Mississippi and met a friendly reception. In 1686 Tonti again visited them, and in 1690 he made their villages the starting-point for his expedition to the west in search of La Salle. In 1698 they were terribly wasted by a smallpox epidemic which ravaged all the tribes of the lower Mississippi, but were stiU estimated at about 800. In the same year. Fathers F. J. de Montigny, Antoine Davion, and Thaumur de la Source were sent out from (,juebec by the Sem- inary of Foreign Missions (Missions Etrangeres) which had undertaken work among the southern tribes. After a preliminary reconnaissance. Father Montigny, with powers of vicar-general from the Bishop of Quebec, went in 1699 to the Taensa, a.ssigning Davion to the Tonica. Later on Father Buisson de St. Cosme, of the same seminary, arrived and was assigned to the Natchez. Father Montigny was well received, and, as has been stated, was able at the time to prevent the funeral slaugh- ter on the death of the chief, as also to make peace between the Taensa and the Natchez. In 1700 they were visited by Iberville, governor of the Louisiana colony. The missions, however, did not prosper. Iber- ville himself was unfriendly to the Quebec order, and the Taensa and Tonica, while ajjiiarenlly kindly, were too much attached to their own ritual and custom to be moved. The murder of Father Foucault by a neighbouring hostile tribe, the Koroa, in 1702, led to the withdrawal of the seminary i)ricsts and the abandonment of the missions.

In 1706 the hostility of the Chickasaw and Yazoo compelled the Taensa lo abandon their villages and retire lower down the river. In consequence of their treacherous attack upon a tribe which had given them shelter, they were again forced to become reftigecs and finally, about 1740, removed to Tensas river near Mobile, Alabama, under the protection of the French. They were still mainly heathen. On the cession of Mobile to the English in 17C3 they,