TRAUTENAU (Czech Trutňov), a town of Bohemia, 120 m. E.N.E. of Prague by rail. Pop. (1900), 14,777, mostly German. It is situated on the Aupa, a tributary of the Elbe, at the foot of the Riesengebirge, and possesses a beautiful church built in 1283 and restored in 1768. Trautenau is the centre of the Bohemian linen industry and has factories for the manufacture of paper and for the utilization of the waste products of the other mills. Trautenau was founded by German colonists invited to settle there by King Otto Kar II. of Bohemia, and received a charter as a town in 1340. It was the scene of two battles between the Prussians and Austrians on the 27th and the 28th of June 1866.
TRAVANCORE, a state of southern India, in political relation with Madras. Area, 7091 sq. m. In 1901 the population was 2,952,157, showing an increase of 15% in the preceding
decade. The state stands sixteenth among the native states of India in area and third in population. Travancore extends more than 150 m. along the west coast as far as Cape Comorin, the southernmost point of the peninsula. The Western Ghats rise to an elevation of 8000 ft. and are clothed with primeval forest; .they throw out spurs towards the coast, along which there is a belt of flat country of about 10 m. in width, covered with coco-nut and areca palms, which to a great extent constitute the wealth of the country. The whole surface is undulating, and presents a series of hills and valleys traversed from east
to west by many rivers, the floods of which, arrested by the peculiar action of the Arabian Sea, spread themselves out into lagoons or backwaters, connected here and there by artificial canals, and forming an inland line of smooth-water communication for nearly the whole length of the coast. The chief river
is the Periyar, 142 m. in length. Other important rivers are the Pambai and its tributary the Achenkoil, the Kallada, and the Western Tambraparni. Iron is abundant and plumbago is worked. Elephants are numerous, and tigers, leopards, bears, bison and various kinds of deer abound in the forests.
Travancore has an abundant rainfall, with every variety of temperature. The principal ports are Alleppi, Quilon and Paravur; but there is no real harbour. The state has a fine system of roads, and the Cochin-Shoranur and the Tinnevelly-Quilon railways pass through it. The Periyar irrigation project conducts
water through the ghats in a tunnel to irrigate the Madras district of Madura, for which compensation of Rs. 40,000 is annually paid to Travancore. Trade is large and increasing, the chief exports being copra, coir and other coco-nut products,
pepper, tea, sugar, areca-nuts, timber, hides, coffee, &c. The
capital is Trivandrum. The revenue is £670,000; tribute, £80,000; military force, 1360 infantry, 61 cavalry and 30 artillery with 6 guns. The maharaja of Travancore claims descent from Cheraman Perumal, the last Hindu monarch of united Malabar, whose date is variously given from A.D. 378 to 825. Though he is a Kshatriya, the succession follows the local custom of inheritance through females; consequently his sanad of adoption authorizes him to adopt sisters' sons.
For some generations the rulers have been men of education and character, and the state is conspicuous for good administration and prosperity. Education, and female education in particular, is more advanced than in any other part of India.
The two dominant sections of the population are the Namburi Brahmins and the Nairs or military caste. Native Christians, chiefly of the Syrian rite, form nearly one-fourth of the whole, being more numerous than in any Madras district.
See V. Nagam Aiya, Travancore State Manual (Trivandrum, 1906).
TRAVE, a river of north Germany, rising in the Oldenburg
principality of Lübeck, between Eutin and Ahrensbock. Flowing at first southwards through small lakes and marshes, it then turns west and, confined within flat and sandy banks, enters the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein. It now bends due south to Oldesloe, from which point it is navigable.
Hence it takes an easterly course, and, entering the territory of the free city of Lübeck, receives from the right the Stecknitz, through which and the Stecknitz canal built by the merchants of Lübeck in 1398) a direct water communication is maintained with the Elbe, and passing the city of Lübeck discharges itself into the Baltic at the port of Travemünde after a course of 58 m. Its lower course from Lübeck to the sea has been dredged to a depth of 25 ft., permitting sea-going Vessels to lie alongside the wharves and quays.
TRAVELLER'S TREE, a remarkable tree, native of Madagascar and Réunion, with a straight stem reaching 30 ft. in height and bearing at the top a number of large long-stalked leaves which spread vertically like a fan. The leaf has a large sheath at the base in which water collects in such quantity as to yield a copious draught—hence the popular name. The plant is known botanically as Ravenala Madagascariensis and belongs to the same family as the banana (Musaceae).
TRAVEMÜNDE, a seaport of Germany, in the free state of Lübeck, situated on the Baltic, at the mouth of the Trave.
Pop. (1905), 2017. It has an Evangelical church, dating from the end of the 15th century, and is a much frequented watering place. There are extensive herring fisheries. Travemünde arose out of a stronghold placed here by Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, in the 12th century to guard the mouth of the Trave, and the Danes subsequently strengthened it. It became a town in 1317 and in 1329 passed into the possession of the free city of Lübeck, to which it has since belonged. Its fortifications were demolished in 1807.
TRAVERSE, in fortification, a mass of earth or other material employed to protect troops against enfilade. It is constructed at right angles to the parapet manned by the defenders, and is continued sufficiently far to the rear to give the protection required by the circumstances, which, moreover, determine its height. A traverse is sometimes utilized as a casemate. Ordinary field-works, not less than those of more solid construction,
require traversing, though if the trenches, instead of being continuous, are broken into short lengths, they are traversed by the unbroken earth intervening between each length. (For traversing in surveying see Surveying.)
TRAVERSE CITY, the county-seat of Grand Traverse county, Michigan, U.S.A., on the Boardman river, between Boardman Lake and the west arm of Grand Traverse Bay, in the N.W. part of the lower peninsula. Pop. (1900), 9407, of whom 2068 were foreign-born; (1910, census), 12,115. It is served by the Père Marquette, the Grand Rapids & Indiana and the Manistee & North-Eastern railways, and by steamboat line to Chicago and other lake ports. The climate, scenery and good fishing attract summer visitors. The city has a public library and a library owned by the Ladies' Library Association, and is the seat of the Northern Michigan Asylum for the Insane (opened 1885). There are various manufactures, and in 1904 the total value of the factory product was $2,176,903. Traverse City was settled in 1847, incorporated as a village in 1881 and chartered as a city in 1895.
TRAVESTY (Fr. travestie, from travestir, to disguise, se travestir, to change one's clothes; Lat. mms, across, and vestire, to clothe), a burlesque, particularly a grotesque imitation of a
serious work of literature or art, in which the subject, characters, &c., are retained, but the style, language and treatment generally are exaggerated and distorted to excite ridicule (see also Burlesque).
TRAVNIK, the capital of a department of the same name in Bosnia; situated on the Lašva, a left-hand tributary of the Bosna, 44 m. by rail N.W. of Serajevo. Pop. (1895) about 6000. Travnik is mainly built round a steep mass of rock, crowned by an ancient citadel. Several mosques, palaces, arcades and a fine bazaar, left among its narrow lanes and wooden huts, bear witness to its former prosperity, and there are some good modern barracks and public buildings.
The old name of Travnik, Lašva, was last used in the 18th century. It is likely, from the number of Roman remains, that Travnik stands near the site of a Roman colony. It was a stronghold of the Bogomili during the 15th century, but its period of greatness dated from 1686, when the downfall of the Turks in Hungary caused the removal of the Bosnian
