TARSET, a township of England, in Northumberland, 19 miles N. W. by N. d Hexham.

TARSET CASTLE, in England, a Roman cupent in the county of Northumberland, near Bellingham. It is 20 yards long, and 10 broad, and is defended by a fusse. At each corner of the area er the remains of turrets or mounds. TARSIA, a small town of Italy, in the wth of the kingdom of Naples, in Cala Citra.

Tao, a small town in the east of Ausin Italy, in the delegation of Treviso. TASTON, a hamlet of England, in Oxhire, 2 miles S. S. W. of Neat En

TARSUS, a large city of Asia Minor, cient capital of Cilicia. It certainly es a very high antiquity, and is said Arrian and Strabo to have been founded Sardanapalus on the same day with Anle, while others are of opinion that it Grecian colony founded by TriploleIt was much favoured by Angustus, As Adrian, and rose to such celebrity Athens, Antioch, and Alexandria, in wealth and grandeur, as well as in the cultivation of literature and science. Isale adorned with a number of magtemples, as well as with a gymnasium and theatre. It has, however, been subto so many vicissitudes, and has been den taken and plundered, as to retain rely a vestige of its former magnificence. Bally a single inscription, or any monuof beauty or art, can now be discoverThe city is situated in a fertile plain, on enght bank of the Cydnus. The houses intersected by gardens and orchards; seldom exceed one story in height, flat roofed, and mostly constructed of her stone, derived from the demolition the ancient edifices. There is a castle be built by Bajazet; and the town ly surrounded by a wall, probably mains of that erected by Haroun al Bachid. On an eminence to the southare the ruins of a spacious edifice, may very probably have been the ium, and about two hundred yards er to the west, an ancient gateway to almost entire. The city contains public baths, a number of mosques, al handsome caravanserai, and a Dancient church. The land in the ghbourhood is exceedingly fertile, yieldgreat abundance of wheat, barley, me, and cotton, which are exported to ha, and thence to Spain and Portugal. Capper from Maden, and gallnuts from the ntains, are also staple commodities. The imports consist chiefly of rice, sugar, coffee. The port is about seven or

eight miles distant from the town, whence the sea is not visible. The population during the winter is stated at 30,000, of which there are 200 Armenian, and 100 Greek families; while the remainder consist of Turkmen, who migrate with their families in summer to the mountains.

TARTARO, a river of Austrian Italy, in the government of Venice, which rises among the mountains near the lake of Garda, is joined in the department of the Mincio by a canal of the Adige, takes the name of Canale bianca, and expands into a number of marshes as it approaches the Adriatic.

TARTARY, the name vaguely given to a most extensive region of Asia, occupying nearly the whole central part of that con tinent, interposed between Asiatic Russia on the north, and the great empires of Persia, Hindostan, and China on the south. Under the appellation of Tartars are comprehended many various tribes, having local names and characters, but who ge nerally agree in being addicted to the pas toral life, living in tents in the open fields, without towns or villages; delighting in horsemanship, and having a breed of the finest horses in the world; living on horse flesh, and drinking mares milk. This race was known and celebrated in antiquity under the name of Scythians, a people who are described under the same warlike, rude, and pastoral features which distinguish now the tenants of the same regions. The simplicity of their manners, their ignorance of money and of luxury, and their hospitality, caused them to be quoted with admiration by the Greek sages. At the same time, the earliest records of history bear ample testimony to the calamities which their inroads inflicted on the more civilised part of the world, and to the disasters incurred by the greatest conquerors, in attempting to subdue them. Even under the Assyrian dynasty, they are represented as having overwhelmed and held the sceptre of Western Asia for the space of 28 years. It we may believe Herodotus, Cyrus, after hav ing subdued the rest of Asia, found the termination of his life in his conflict with Tomyris, queen of this warlike race. Darius, his successor, with difficulty escaped the same fate, in pursuing through their extensive wilds the European Scythians, who then occupied what now constitutes the southern part of Russia in Europe. Alexander himself was little more fortunate; for though he compelled the Scythian host to cross the Jaxartes, he in vain attempted to pursue them beyond it, and suffered in his retreat considerable annoy ance from their desultory attacks.

In these earlier periods, although the

Scythian tribes frequently laid waste the southern empires, and defeated the, most powerful of their armies, they were never able to effect any permanent conquest or settlement. It was during the decline of the Roman empire, when its vast spoils attracted the cupidity of all the races of barbarians, that the pastoral tribes in the interior of Asia began permanently to forsake their vast plains, in search of happier and more fertile regions. The first of these distant ravagers, whose terror and fame reached the frontier of Italy, were the Huns, under which name the modern race of Mongols are evidently designated. In pursuing their Gothic enemies over the vast plains of Scythia and Sarmatia, as far as the Danube, they came first in contact with the Roman frontier. The intelligence there obtained of wealth and plunder, drew a succession of these rapidly moving hosts from the most remote extremities of the Asiatic continent. The deformity of their aspect, and the ferocity of their manners, rendered their name more terrible than that of any of the German and Scandinavian barbarians. Under Attila, whom Europeans characterised as "the sword of God, and the destroyer of nations," the Huns acted a grand part in hastening the downfall of the western empire. On the castern frontier, another Tartar race took no less active a part. The Turks, or Toorks, inhabiting extensive tracks of what is now called Chinese and Independent Tartary, poured down in large bodies upon the Persian empire, where they established a dynasty, celebrated under the name of Seljukian. About the end of the tenth century, they crossed the Euphrates in four divisions, under different leaders, and seized upon some of the finest unoccupied provinces of Asia Minor and Syria. Their fortunes were various, and their power was reduced at one time to a very low ebb; but at length rousing their vigour, and swelling their force from the migratory and warlike population of the country itself, they succeeded in overturning the eastern empire, and establishing themselves masters of Constantinople. The Tartar tribes, once engaged in this career of migratory conquest, did not willingly desist. In the twelfth century Tartary became the seat of the most formidable and extensive empire that perhaps has ever been established. Zingis, originally an obscure Mongol chief, having succeeded in uniting under his standard all the neighbouring tribes, successively conquered China, Persia, and all Central Asia, from the Black sea to the Eastern ocean. His successors added Russia, and overran Poland, with part of Germany. For some time the great

est panic prevailed in Europe, which seem

ed on the point of being reduced to tot: subjection. In the course of a few reign this vast empire was split into parts, an lost its original energy; but the Tartar were still not weary of giving masters t Asia. The lead was now taken by the p pulous countries on the Oxus and the Ja artes, where Timur established a swa which, though less extended than that Zingis, was superior in the value and in portance of the regions which it compr hended. Timur conquered all Persi broke the power of the Turks in Asia M nor, and established in India a dynast which continued to reign, and to form th most splendid court of Asia, till the close the last century. China has always bet subject to Tartar dynasties; and abo three centuries ago was conquered by th Mantchoos, a tribe inhabiting to the nort! near the coasts of the Eastern ocean. F a long time, however, the power of th great race has been much on the declin Russia, which had long been trampled ur der foot by their inroads, was the first t rouse herself. Under a succession of ab monarchs, she not only cleared her terr tory of these invaders, but began to anne part of their territories to her dominion After learning the European art of war, an conquering Siberia, the arms of Russia be came decidedly predominant over all thi part of Asia. The original conquering dy nasties in Persia, India, and China, becam entirely severed from the countries in whic they arose, or viewed them only as conquer ed provinces. Independent Tartary, whic comprehends the territory extending west ward from the boundary of the Chinese em pire to the Caspian and the Oural, has nov its limits so reduced, and is parcelled ou among so many different states, that ther appears no prospect of its again becoming formidable.

The grand division of this extensive por tion of Asia is into Independent Tartary and Chinese Tartary.

Independent Tartary is bounded on the east by a great chain of mountains called the Beloor Taugh, connected with the Indian ranges of the Himmaleh and the Mooz Taugh, and which separates it from Cashgar and the other districts of Chinese Tartary. On the south it has the country of Balk or Bulkh (now forming part of the kingdom of Cabul), and the Persian province of Korassan; on the west it extends as far as the Caspian; while on the north it has the provinces of Oufa, Orenburg, and Tobolsk, belonging to Asiatic Russia. The map will afford some idea of the vast and indefinite limits of this region, of whose dimensions it would be difficult to form any precise estimate. Since the time of Timur,

de population and political state of this antry have undergone an entire change. It has been occupied, and the ancient inhabitants either exterminated or expelled by the Uzbecks, a people of the widely atended race of Turk or Toork, but whose riginal seat is not precisely ascertained. They appear to have inhabited some of the ore rugged and barren tracks to the north, ad to have been attracted by the magnift plains on the Oxus and Jaxartes. Ter this impulse they descended, as is among pastoral nations, not with an but with the whole mass of their ple, to occupy the place of the descendof Timur. They have completely sucled, and the whole population of Bokhara, Samarcand, and the other countries a this part of Asia, is now entirely UzThey have even peopled Bulkh, gh here they remain subject to the sodgn of Cabul. The Uzbecks, like the Turks, are celebrated in the east for tir beauty, the reputation of which, ever, arises chiefly from its contrast to the hideous forms of the Mongols, Calmus, and other Tartar tribes. The natal features are broad foreheads, high kbones, thin beards, and small eyes. Their complexion is clear and ruddy, their generally black. The political constiof this, as of the other conquering Tartar tribes, presents a great contrast to hat usually prevails in so rude and simple state of manners. It is a complete and e despotism, the will of the sovereign ing the only law, and commanding unved obedience. This circumstance depads probably upon the military habits fed in making this conquest; and acanding to which, and to the forms and toms of a camp, the whole government a administered. In Bokhara the men are rided, like troops, into parties or masses ften each, who have a boiler, a tent, and el in common. The authority of the vereign is also strengthened by the Mametan religion, which is here professed a its utmost rigour. The Koran is imcitly assumed as the guide, not only a faith and doctrine, but in civil govern ent and domestic life. The king, now ning at Bokhara, was raised to the trone by the ostentatious profession of poty, and of all those observances which tablish the character of a Musulman t; prayer, abstinence, fasting, and mendicity. Even in his present elevation, e has not renounced these religious obserfaces, but spends part of every day in teaching the Mahometan religion, and of every night in watching and prayer. The revenue is collected exactly in the proportots prescribed in the Koran; and one

tenth of it is expended in alms. The drinking of wine, and even the smoking of tobacco, is most strictly prohibited, and made liable to the severest punishment.

The habitations of the Uzbecks consisted originally of a species of moveable tent called onool, composed of a lattice of thin lath, covered with black felt. From 20 to 50 of these compose a species of moveable village or camp. Many of them now, however, reside in towns. Horsemanship is the favourite pursuit of the Uzbecks, and their horses are considered, next to the Arabian, as the best in Asia. An immense exportation formerly took place to India, where horses cannot be reared to advantage, though this has been diminished by recent events, which have reduced the power of those predatory tribes, whose force consisted in cavalry. In this trade, the horses are purchased in the markets of Bokhara or Bulkh, where they cost from five to a hundred pounds, and are fattened on the way in the rich pastures of Cabul. Among the Uzbecks, as among all Tartar tribes, horse flesh, and koumiss, or fermented mares milk, are considered as the greatest of luxuries; in regard to which last, even the Mahometan law is obliged somewhat to relax its rigour, though the indulgence must still be kept secret. Horses are so numerous, that there is scarcely a man so poor as to walk on foot; even beggars travel on horse-back, or at least on camels or asses. As might be expected in a people with these habits, the Uzbecks produce numerous bodies of light cavalry, and excel in predatory warfare. Their arins are a long and heavy lance, and a shield; few have swords, but many long knives and daggers. They charge in a body, with shouts, which are described as loud and terrific. They are brave, and have a wonderful power of enduring thirst, hunger, and fatigue. In battle they are drawn up in three lines, so that, even after being repulsed, they can return twice to the charge. Their laws of war are most barbarous, giving no quarter except to infidels, whom the Koran allows them to sell as slaves; while the faithful, who cannot be subjected to that indignity, have the honour of being killed on the spot. Yet they do not want good qualities. Compared with other Asiatics, they are sincere and honest; there are few private quarrels among them, and murder scarcely ever occurs. Merchants are protected and encouraged, and notwithstanding the national bigotry, no distinction of religion is made in regard to them.

Of the kingdoms into which Independent Tartary is now divided, Bokhara may be considered as the most important. The territory of the king includes the finest part

of the country on the banks of the Oxus, and, though not very extensive, enables him to maintain an army of 80,000, or 100,000 cavalry. The city of Bokhara still contains upwards of 100,000 inhabitants, with very extensive establishments for the cultivation of learning. Samarcand, though greatly declined from its ancient splendour, exhibits the same beauty of climate and situation for which it was celebrated, and contains many fine buildings. Of late Shah Murad Bey, the present possessor, has paid much attention to it, and restored some share of its former greatness. On the Jaxartes, the Bey of Koukan or Ferganna, possesses an extensive, fertile, and highly populous kingdom, scarcely known to Europeans. The cities of Koukan, Khojund, and Murghelan, are said in populousness and beauty of situation to surpass any other in Central Asia. Unless, however, in these cities on the banks of great rivers, the population generally retains its pastoral and migratory habits. This is more particularly the case as we proceed northwards among the Kirghises, who connect Independent Tartary with Russia, and who have already been described. There remains of Inde pendent Tartary, the country on the Upper Oxus, and that between the Aral and the Caspian. It consists almost entirely of a vast sandy desert, tenanted by roving tribes of Uzbecks and Turcomans, who subsist partly by pasturage, and partly by plunder. Even here, however, are interspersed a few richer tracks, on which towns are built; but the deserts and wandering tribes greatly preponderate.

Chinese Tartary.-The tracks of Central Asia, over which the Chinese empire holds at least nominal sway, are of truly immense extent. They include the whole territory contained between Hindostan and Asiatic Russia, and from the Eastern ocean to the mountain boundary of Independent Tartary; a space comprising, in its greatest dimensions, about seventy degrees of longitude, and twenty degrees of latitude. The southern and mountainous part of this vast track passes under the naine of Thibet, and is commonly considered as an appendage to India. The western part of what is usually called Chinese Tartary is among the regions of the globe with regard to which our information is most imperfect. We have scarcely any knowledge respecting it, except the narratives, now by no means recent, of Marco Polo and Goez, with some Chinese maps procured by the missionaries. The most westerly country, situated immediately on the other side of the Beloor Taugh, appears to be Cashgar, with a capital of the same name, forming the residence of a Chinese Amdan or viceroy. The great

emporium of this region, however, is Yar cund, situated farther to the south, an forming the rendezvous of the merchant from India, Cabul, and Independent Tarts ry. Proceeding eastward, the two princi pal kingdoms are Koten or Khoten, an Hami or Chamil. The former is repr sented as very flourishing, containing m merous fortified cities, and excelling both agriculture and manufactures. It is partic larly celebrated for a species of beautifully v riegated marble, which bears a high price China. Hami is also described as a wealt region, inhabited by a voluptuous and ev dissolute people. In this part of Asia are a mentioned Acsu, Cialis, Ciarcian, Lop, a Peym. One of its most distinguishing f tures is the great desert of Shamo or Co which extends from west to east throu nearly its whole extent, and afterwards i terposes between China and the Russi empire. It extends in this direction nea 2000 miles, and could not be thus cros without insuperable difficulties. Yet position is such as to make it impossible avoid it, on going from Cashgar to Chi The caravans therefore coast its north border, till they come to Lop, where t cross from north to south, and proc along the southern border to China.

The part of Tartary situated to the w and north-west of China, consists entiri of desert, or at least of naked plains, par cular portions only of which afford pasti and water, and which is traversed by w dering tribes of Mongols, Kalkas, s Eluths. All these own the supremacy the Chinese empire, though it is necess to secure their allegiance by giving pensi to the regulos or chiefs. These wander tribes likewise claim, or at least exercise, right of making war upon each other, thou when these contests rise to an alarm height, a Chinese force is employed to s press them. All these people are devoted Shamanism, or the religion of the Lam and in each distinguished place there i sovereign priest, who, like that of Thib claims the privilege of immortality and p existence. Under the head of Mong will be found farther particulars respect these races.

The most eastern extremity of Tarts bordering on the Pacific, consists of country of the Mantchoo Tartars, whi in consequence of having given a c quering dynasty to China, forms a province of that empire. It is s a favourite hunting residence of the e perors, who have a suminer palace some distance beyond the great wall, which they resort during three months the year. The country consists gener: of very lofty mountains, covered with i