Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/54

* TARANTISM. . 34 TARAPACA. epidemic nervous diseases of the Jliddle Ages. The victims were supposed to luive a passion for bright colors, music, and the dance, and a class of tunes called laiantcllu were couii>osc(l for the cure of the disease. To these the patient danced until he was exhausted, and although the sufferers were subjected to other and extraor- dinary methods of treatment such as burial up to the neck in earth, none was so successful as the tarantella (q.v.). Not only dancing but catalepsy was one of the s^'mptoms, and the disease appears to have affected all classes, ages, and both sexes. The disease spread over Italy and Southern Europe, and affected large numbers of people. TARANTO, ta-ran't<% (Lat. Trirciiliim. from Gk. TapHf, Taras). A town of Soiith Italy, in the Province of Lecce, at the northern end of the Gulf of Taranto. It is situated on a rocky islet, former^y an isthmus, between the ^lare Piccolo (Little Sea), an extensive harbor on the east or landward side of the town, and the JIare Grande (Great Sea), or open gulf, on the west. The harbor is one of the finest in Italy, and can be entered safely by the largest vessels. The principal buildings are a cathedral, dedi- cated to Saint Cataldo: a fine episcopal palace; a castle and fortifications, erected by Charles V.; and two hospitals. The streets are as narrow and dark as those of an Oriental city. Taranto has manufactures of velvets, linens, and cottons, and carries on some commerce in wheat, oats, and olive oil. The Mare Piccolo is famous for its abundance of shell-fish, and a considerable por- tion of the population derives its subsistence from the oj'ster and mussel fisheries. Population, about 40,000. .Ancient Tarentum was one of the most splendid cities of Magna Graecia. It was founded, according to very doubtful tradition, about n.c. 707 by the Parthenians, a body of Laconian youth. It rapidly grew in wealth and power, extending its trade even to the Po, and supplying much of Southern Italy with pottery. It seems to have steadily reduced its Messapian neighbors till B.C. 473, when a bloody defeat was followed by the fall of the aristocratic govern- ment and the establishment of a pure democracy. About B.C. 400 Tarentum appears as the lead- ing Greek city in Italy. When in B.C. 281 the Tarentines came into collision with Eome. they invited to Italy Pyrrhus (q.v.) of Epirus. After his departure, his gen- eral. Jlilo, surrendered the^town to the Romans, B.C. 272. who treated it leniently. During the Second Punic War it was captured by Hannibal, with the exception of the Acropolis, and when in B.C. 209 it was retaken by the Romans, it was sacked and 30,000 of the inhabitants sold into slavery. It continued to be inhabited and later was the seat of a prosperous Roman colony. Under the Empire it was quite overshadowed by Brundusium, on the Adriatic, but rose again dur- ing the Gothic wars, which left it in the hands of the Byzantine Empire. It was captured in A.n. 661 by the Lombards, and later passed into the hands of the Saracens, who sacked it in 027. and of the Greeks., from the latter of Avhom it was wrested by Robert Guiscard. the Norman, in 1063. Later it shared the fortunes of the Kingdom of Naples. Few relies of the classic Tarentum are extant, the chief being bits of an amphitheatre and traces of a Doric temple, which from its form nuist be one of the early monuments of that style. TARANTULA (from It. Uimntoln, taran- tclld, from Tuiuiito, Lat. Turcntiiin, Gk. 'lapac, Tarns, n' city in Southern Italv, where the spider is common). A famous species (Taran- tula fascwenlris) of European wolf spiders (Lycosidie), the bite of which was supposed to be fatal or at least to be followed by very serious THE TRTJK TARANTULA. symptoms. As a matter of fact the bite of this spider is not dangerous. The name tarantula is generally applied in the L'Uited States and else- where to certain of the large bird-spiders, or so- called American tarantulas of the family Thera- phosidie. These are large, hairy spiders occur- ring in the Southwestern L'nited States, Central America, and South America, which possess large, hard polished fangs which move vertically and are thus used to pin down their prey. They feed upon insects and all sorts of small animals. Aname nent::ii is a large species of this group wdiich has the most northern distribution of any of the so-called American tarantulas. It has a bite which is quite painful but not dangerous,, and never fatal, so far as accurate records go. These creatures are nocturnal, usually hiding during the day in long silken tubes in cracks in the ground or under thatched roofs or in similar places. Some of the Central American species are occasionally brought into the Northern States in bunches of bananas and on board vessels con- taining tropical fruit. TARANTULA KILLER. A large and con- spicious wasp iPcpsis formosa) common in the Southwestern United States and in Central America, which preys especially on 'tarantulas' (q.v.). It is more than two inches long. The head, thorax, abdomen, and long, spiny legs are black, while the wings are bright reddish brown with black spots at the tips. It stings the spider, the result of the stinging being complete paraly- sis, deposits an egg upon it. then buries it in a hole five inches deep after the manner of other mud-NVAsps (q.v.). TARAPACA, ta'ra-pa-ka'. A northern prov- ince of Chile, bounded by Tacna on the north, from which it is separated by the Camarones, AntofagastiT, on the south with the Loa River as the dividing line, Bolivia on the east, and the Pacific on the west (Map: Peru. D 8). Its area is 19.306 square miles. The coastland is occupied by a mountain range rising to 6000 feet, and the eastern part belongs to the region of the Bolivian Andes. The interior is an ele-