35, [_Frazer, Golden Bough_, 2nd ed. i. 421 _seqq._]. Now, by an analogous
process, it is possible that some martinet, holding the office of adjutant,
at an early date in the Anglo-Indian history, may have resented the
ludicrously appropriate employment of the usual name of the bird, and so
may have introduced the entirely inappropriate name of _pelican_ in its
place. It is in the recollection of one of the present writers that a
worthy northern matron, who with her husband had risen from the ranks in
the —th Light Dragoons, on being challenged for speaking of "the _pelicans_
in the barrack-yard," maintained her correctness, conceding only that "some
ca'd them PAYLICANS, some ca'd them AUDJUTANTS."

  1829.—"This officer ... on going round the yard (of the military prison)
  ... discovered a large beef-bone recently dropped. The sergeant was
  called to account for this ominous appearance. This sergeant was a shrewd
  fellow, and he immediately said,—'Oh Sir, the PELICANS have dropped it.'
  This was very plausible, for these birds will carry enormous bones; and
  frequently when fighting for them they drop them, so that this might very
  probably have been the case. The moment the dinner-trumpet sounds, whole
  flocks of these birds are in attendance at the barrack-doors, waiting for
  bones, or anything that the soldiers may be pleased to throw to
  them."—_Mem. of John Shipp_, ii. 25.

PENANG, n.p. This is the proper name of the Island adjoining the Peninsula
of Malacca (_Pulo_, properly _Pulau_, _Pinang_), which on its cession to
the English (1786) was named 'Prince of Wales's Island.' But this official
style has again given way to the old name. _Pinang_ in Malay signifies an
areca-nut or areca-tree, and, according to Crawfurd, the name was given on
account of the island's resemblance in form to the fruit of the tree
(_vulgo_, 'the betel-nut').

  1592.—"Now the WINTER coming vpon vs with much contagious weather, we
  directed our course from hence with the Ilands of _Pulo_ PINAOU (where by
  the way is to be noted that _Pulo_ in the Malaian tongue signifieth an
  Iland) ... where we came to an anker in a very good harborough betweene
  three Ilands.... This place is in 6 degrees and a halfe to the Northward,
  and some fiue leagues from the maine betweene Malacca and
  Pegu."—_Barker_, in _Hakl._ ii. 589-590.

PENANG LAWYER, s. The popular name of a handsome and hard (but sometimes
brittle) walking-stick, exported from Penang and Singapore. It is the stem
of a miniature palm (_Licuala acutifida_, Griffith). The sticks are
prepared by scraping the young stem with glass, so as to remove the
epidermis and no more. The sticks are then straightened by fire and
polished (_Balfour_). The name is popularly thought to have originated in a
jocular supposition that law-suits in Penang were decided by the _lex
baculina_. But there can be little doubt that it is a corruption of some
native term, and _pinang liyar_, 'wild areca' [or _pinang lāyor_,
"fire-dried areca," which is suggested in _N.E.D._], may almost be assumed
to be the real name. [Dennys (_Descr. Dict._ s.v.) says from "_Layor_, a
species of cane furnishing the sticks so named." But this is almost
certainly wrong.]

  1883.—(But the book—an excellent one—is without date—more shame to the
  _Religious Tract Society_ which publishes it). "Next morning, taking my
  'PENANG LAWYER' to defend myself from dogs...." The following note is
  added: "A PENANG LAWYER is a heavy walking-stick, supposed to be so
  called from its usefulness in settling disputes in Penang."—_Gilmour,
  Among the Mongols_, 14.

PENGUIN, s. Popular name of several species of birds belonging to the
genera _Aptenodytes_ and _Spheniscus_. We have not been able to ascertain
the etymology of this name. It may be from the Port. _pingue_, 'fat.' See
Littré. He quotes Clausius as picturing it, who says they were called a
_pinguedine_. It is surely not that given by Sir Thomas Herbert in proof of
the truth of the legend of Madoc's settlement in America; and which is
indeed implied 60 years before by the narrator of Drake's voyage; though
probably borrowed by Herbert direct from Selden.

  1578.—"In these Islands we found greate relief and plenty of good
  victuals, for infinite were the number of fowle which the Welsh men named
  PENGUIN, and Magilanus tearmed them geese...."—_Drake's Voyage_, by _F.
  Fletcher_, Hak. Soc. p. 72.

  1593.—"The PENGWIN described."—_Hawkins, V. to S. Sea_, p. 111, Hak. Soc.

  1606.—"The PENGWINES bee as bigge as our greatest Capons we have in
  England, they have no winges nor cannot flye ... they bee exceeding
  fatte, but their flesh is verie ranke...."—_Middleton_, f. B. 4.

  1609.—"Nous trouvâmes beaucoup de Chiẽs de Mer, et Oyseaux qu'on appelle
  PENGUYNS, dont l'Escueil en estait quasi couvert."—_Houtman_, p. 4.

  c. 1610.—"... le reste est tout couvert ... d'vne quantité d'Oyseaux
  nommez PINGUY, qui font là leurs oeufs et leurs petits, et il y en a une
  quantité si prodigieuse qu'on ne sçauroit mettre ... le pied en quelque
  endroit que ce soit sans toucher."—_Pyrard de Laval_, i. 73; [Hak. Soc.
  i. 97, also see i. 16].

  1612.—"About the year CIↃ. C.LXX. Madoc brother to _David ap Owen_,
  prince of Wales, made this sea voyage (to _Florida_); and by probability
  these names of _Capo de Briton_ in _Norumbeg_, and PENGWIN in part of the
  Northern America, for a _white_ rock, and a _white-headed_ bird,
  according to the _British_, were relicks of this discovery."—_Selden,
  Notes on Drayton's Polyolbion_, in _Works_ (ed. 1726), iii. col. 1802.

  1616.—"The Island called PEN-GUIN Island, probably so named by some
  Welshman, in whose Language PEN-GUIN signifies a white head; and there
  are many great lazy fowls upon, and about, this Island, with great
  cole-black bodies, and very white heads, called PENGUINS."—_Terry_, ed.
  1665, p. 334.

  1638.—"... that this people (of the Mexican traditions) were Welsh rather
  than Spaniards or others, the Records of this Voyage writ by many Bardhs
  and Genealogists confirme it ... made more orthodoxall by Welsh names
  given there to birds, rivers, rocks, beasts, &c., as ... PENGWYN, refer'd
  by them to a bird that has a white head...."—_Herbert, Some Yeares
  Travels_, &c., p. 360.

  Unfortunately for this etymology the head is precisely that part which
  seems in all species of the bird to be black! But M. Roulin, quoted by
  Littré, maintains the Welsh (or Breton) etymology, thinking the name was
  first given to some short-winged sea-bird with a white head, and then
  transferred to the penguin. And _Terry_, if to be depended on, supports
  this view. [So Prof. Skeat (_Concise Dict._, s.v.): "In that case, it
  must first have been given to another bird, such as the auk (the puffin
  is common in Anglesey), since the penguin's head is black."]

  1674.—

   "So Horses they affirm to be
    Mere Engines made by Geometry,
    And were invented first from Engins,
    As _Indian Britons_ were from PENGUINS."
               _Hudibras_, Pt. I. Canto ii. 57.

  [1869.—In Lombock ducks "are very cheap and are largely consumed by the
  crews of the rice ships, by whom they are called Baly-soldiers, but are
  more generally known elsewhere as PENGUIN-_ducks_."—_Wallace, Malay
  Archip._ ed. 1890, p. 135.]

PEON, s. This is a Portuguese word _peão_ (Span. _peon_); from _pé_,
'foot,' and meaning a 'footman' (also a _pawn_ at chess), and is not
therefore a corruption, as has been alleged, of Hind. _piyāda_, meaning the
same; though the words are, of course ultimately akin in root. It was
originally used in the sense of 'a foot-soldier'; thence as 'orderly' or
messenger. The word _Sepoy_ was used within our recollection, and perhaps
is still, in the same sense in the city of Bombay. The transition of
meaning comes out plainly in the quotation from Ives. In the sense of
'orderly,' _peon_ is the word usual in S. India, whilst CHUPRASSY (q.v.) is
more common in N. India, though _peon_ is also used there. The word is
likewise very generally employed for men on police service (see
BURKUNDAUZE). [Mr. Skeat notes that _Piyun_ is used in the Malay States,
and _Tambi_ or _Tanby_ at Singapore]. The word had probably become unusual
in Portugal by 1600; for Manoel Correa, an early commentator on the Lusiads
(d. 1613), thinks it necessary to explain PIÕES by 'gente de pé.'

  1503.—"The Çamorym ordered the soldier (PIÃO) to take the letter away,
  and strictly forbade him to say anything about his having seen
  it."—_Correa, Lendas_, I. i. 421.

  1510.—"So the Sabayo, putting much trust in this (Rumi), made him captain
  within the city (Goa), and outside of it put under him a captain of his
  with two thousand soldiers (PIÃES) from the Balagate...."—_Ibid._ II. i.
  51.

  1563.—"The pawn (PIÃO) they call _Piada_, which is as much as to say a
  man who travels on foot."—_Garcia_, f. 37.

  1575.—

   "O Rey de Badajos era alto Mouro
    Con quatro mil cavallos furiosos,
    Innumeros PIÕES, darmas e de ouro,
    Guarnecidos, guerreiros, e lustrosos."
               _Camões_, iii. 66.

By Burton:

   "The King of Badajos was a Moslem bold,
      with horse four thousand, fierce and furious knights,
      and countless PEONS, armed and dight with gold,
      whose polisht surface glanceth lustrous light."

  1609.—"The first of February the Capitaine departed with fiftie
  PEONS...."—_W. Finch_, in _Purchas_, i. 421.

  c. 1610.—"Les PIONS marchent après le prisonnier, lié avec des cordes
  qu'ils tiennent."—_Pyrard de Laval_, ii. 11; [Hak. Soc. ii. 17; also i.
  428, 440; ii. 16].

  [1616.—"This Shawbunder (see SHABUNDER) imperiously by a couple of PYONS
  commanded him from me."—_Foster, Letters_, iv. 351.]

  c. 1630.—"The first of _December_, with some PE-UNES (or black
  Foot-boyes, who can pratle some English) we rode (from Swally) to
  Surat."—_Sir T. Herbert_, ed. 1638, p. 35. [For "black" the ed. of 1677
  reads "olive-coloured," p. 42.]

  1666.—"... siete cientos y treinta y tres mil PEONES."—_Faria y Sousa_,
  i. 195.

  1673.—"The Town is walled with Mud, and Bulwarks for Watch-Places for the
  English PEONS."—_Fryer_, 29.

     "    "... PEONS or servants to wait on us."—_Ibid._ 26.

  1687.—"Ordered that ten PEONS be sent along the coast to Pulicat ... and
  enquire all the way for goods driven ashore."—In _Wheeler_, i. 179.

  1689.—"At this Moors Town, they got a PEUN to be their guide to the
  Mogul's nearest Camp.... These PEUNS are some of the Gentous or
  _Rashbouts_ (see RAJPOOT), who in all places along the Coast, especially
  in Seaport Towns, make it their business to hire themselves to wait upon
  Strangers."—_Dampier_, i. 508.

     "    "A PEON of mine, named _Gemal_, walking abroad in the Grass after
  the Rains, was unfortunately bit on a sudden by one of them" (a
  snake).—_Ovington_, 260.

  1705.—"... PIONS qui sont ce que nous appellons ici des
  Gardes...."—_Luillier_, 218.

  1745.—"Dès le lendemain je fis assembler dans la Forteresse où je
  demeurois en qualité d'Aumonier, le Chef des PIONS, chez qui s'étaient
  fait les deux mariages."—_Norbert, Mém._ iii. 129.

  1746.—"As the Nabob's behaviour when Madras was attacked by De la
  Bourdonnais, had caused the English to suspect his assurances of
  assistance, they had 2,000 PEONS in the defence of Cuddalore...."—_Orme_,
  i. 81.

  c. 1760.—"PEON. One who waits about the house to run on messages; and he
  commonly carries under his arm a sword, or in his sash a _krese_, and in
  his hand a ratan, to keep the rest of the servants in subjection. He also
  walks before your palanquin, carries CHITS (q.v.) or notes, and is your
  bodyguard."—_Ives_, 50.

  1763.—"Europeans distinguish these undisciplined troops by the general
  name of PEONS."—_Orme_, ed. 1803, i. 80.

  1772.—Hadley, writing in Bengal, spells the word PUNE; but this is
  evidently phonetic.

  c. 1785.—"... PEONS, a name for the infantry of the
  Deckan."—_Carraccioli's Life of Clive_, iv. 563.

  1780-90.—"I sent off annually from Sylhet from 150 to 200 (elephants)
  divided into 4 distinct flocks.... They were put under charge of the
  common PEON. These people were often absent 18 months. On one occasion my
  servant Manoo ... after a twelve-months' absence returned ... in
  appearance most miserable; he unfolded his girdle, and produced a scrap
  of paper of small dimensions, which proved to be a banker's bill
  amounting to 3 or 4,000 pounds,—his own pay was 30 shillings a month....
  When I left India Manoo was still absent on one of these excursions, but
  he delivered to my agents as faithful an account of the produce as he
  would have done to myself...."—_Hon. R. Lindsay_, in _Lives of the
  Lindsays_, iii. 77.

  1842.—"... he was put under arrest for striking, and throwing into the
  Indus, an inoffensive PEON, who gave him no provocation, but who was
  obeying the orders he received from Captain ——. The Major General has
  heard it said that the supremacy of the British over the native must be
  maintained in India, and he entirely concurs in that opinion, but it must
  be maintained by justice."—_Gen. Orders, &c., of Sir Ch. Napier_, p. 72.

  1873.—"Pandurang is by turns a servant to a shopkeeper, a PEON, or
  orderly, a groom to an English officer ... and eventually a pleader
  before an English Judge in a populous city."—_Saturday Review_, May 31,
  p. 728.

PEPPER, s. The original of this word, Skt. _pippali_, means not the
ordinary pepper of commerce ('black pepper') but _long pepper_, and the
Sanskrit name is still so applied in Bengal, where one of the long-pepper
plants, which have been classed sometimes in a different genus (_Chavica_)
from the black pepper, was at one time much cultivated. There is still
indeed a considerable export of long pepper from Calcutta; and a kindred
species grows in the Archipelago. Long pepper is mentioned by Pliny, as
well as white and black pepper; the three varieties still known in trade,
though with the kind of error that has persisted on such subjects till
quite recently, he misapprehends their relation. The proportion of their
ancient prices will be found in a quotation below.

The name must have been transferred by foreign traders to black pepper, the
staple of export, at an early date, as will be seen from the quotations.
_Pippalimūla_, the root of long pepper, still a stimulant medicine in the
native pharmacopoeia, is probably the πεπέρεως ῥίζα of the ancients
(_Royle_, p. 86).

We may say here that _Black pepper_ is the fruit of a perennial climbing
shrub, _Piper nigrum_, L., indigenous in the forests of Malabar and
Travancore, and thence introduced into the Malay countries, particularly
Sumatra.

_White pepper_ is prepared from the black by removing the dark outer layer
of pericarp, thereby depriving it of a part of its pungency. It comes
chiefly _viâ_ Singapore from the Dutch settlement of Rhio, but a small
quantity of fine quality comes from Tellicherry in Malabar.

_Long pepper_ is derived from two shrubby plants, _Piper officinarum_,
C.D.C., a native of the Archipelago, and _Piper longum_, L., indigenous in
Malabar, Ceylon, E. Bengal, Timor, and the Philippines. Long pepper is the
fruit-spike gathered and dried when not quite ripe (_Hanbury and Flückiger,
Pharmacographia_). All these kinds of pepper were, as has been said, known
to the ancients.

  c. 70 A.D.—"The cornes or graines ... lie in certaine little huskes or
  cods.... If that be plucked from the tree before they gape and open of
  themselves, they make that spice which is called LONG PEPPER; but if as
  they do ripen, they cleave and chawne by little and little, they shew
  within the WHITE PEPPER: which afterwards beeing parched in the Sunne,
  chaungeth colour and waxeth blacke, and therewith riveled also.... LONG
  PEPPER is soone sophisticated, with the senvie or mustard seed of
  Alexandria: and a pound of it is worth fifteen Roman deniers. The WHITE
  costeth seven deniers a pound, and the BLACK is sold after foure deniers
  by the pound."—_Pliny_, tr. by _Phil. Holland_, Bk. xii. ch. 7.

  c. 80-90.—"And there come to these marts great ships, on account of the
  bulk and quantity of PEPPER and MALABATHRUM.... The PEPPER is brought (to
  market) here, being produced largely only in one district near these
  marts, that which is called _Kottonarikē_."—_Periplus_, § 56.

  c. A.D. 100.—"The PEPPER-tree (πέπερι δένδρον) is related to grow in
  India; it is short, and the fruit as it first puts it forth is long,
  resembling pods; and this LONG PEPPER has within it (grains) like small
  millet, which are what grow to be the perfect (BLACK) PEPPER. At the
  proper season it opens and puts forth a cluster bearing the berries such
  as we know them. But those that are like unripe grapes, which constitute
  the WHITE PEPPER, serve the best for eye-remedies, and for antidotes, and
  for theriacal potencies."—_Dioscorides, Mat. Med._ ii. 188.

  c. 545.—"This is the PEPPER-tree" (there is a drawing). "Every plant of
  it is twined round some lofty forest tree, for it is weak and slim like
  the slender stems of the vine. And every bunch of fruit has a double leaf
  as a shield; and it is very green, like the green of rue."—_Cosmas_, Book
  xi.

  c. 870.—"The mariners say every bunch of PEPPER has over it a leaf that
  shelters it from the rain. When the rain ceases the leaf turns aside; if
  rain recommences the leaf again covers the fruit."—_Ibn Khurdādba_, in
  _Journ. As._ 6th ser. tom. v. 284.

  1166.—"The trees which bear this fruit are planted in the fields which
  surround the towns, and every one knows his plantation. The trees are
  small, and the PEPPER is originally white, but when they collect it they
  put it into basons and pour hot water upon it; it is then exposed to the
  heat of the sun, and dried ... in the course of which process it becomes
  of a black colour."—_Rabbi Benjamin_, in _Wright_, p. 114.

  c. 1330.—"L'albore che fa il PEPE è fatto come l'elera che nasce su per
  gli muri. Questo pepe sale su per gli arbori che l'uomini piantano a modo
  de l'elera, e sale sopra tutti li arbori più alti. Questo pepe fa rami a
  modo dell'uve; ... e maturo si lo vendemiano a modo de l'uve e poi
  pongono il pepe al sole a seccare come uve passe, e nulla altra cosa si
  fa del PEPE."—_Odoric_, in _Cathay_, App. xlvii.

PERGUNNAH, s. Hind. _pargana_ [Skt. _pragaṇ_, 'to reckon up'], a
subdivision of a 'District' (see ZILLAH).

  c. 1500.—"The divisions into _súbas_ (see SOUBA) and PARGANAS, which are
  maintained to the present day in the province of Tatta, were made by
  these people" (the Samma Dynasty).—_Tárikh-i-Táhirí_, in _Elliot_, i.
  273.

  1535.—"Item, from the three PRAGUANAS, viz., Anzor, Cairena, Panchenaa
  133,260 _fedeas_."—_S. Botelho, Tombo_, 139.

  [1614.—"I wrote him to stay in the PREGONAS near Agra."—_Foster,
  Letters_, ii. 106.]

  [1617.—"For that Muckshud had also newly answered he had mist his
  PRIGANY."—_Sir T. Roe_, Hak. Soc. ii. 415.]

  1753.—"Masulipatnam ... est capitale de ce qu'on appelle dans l'Inde un
  Sercar (see SIRCAR), qui comprend plusieurs PERGANÉS, ou districts
  particuliers."—_D'Anville_, 132.

  1812.—"A certain number of villages with a society thus organised, formed
  a PERGUNNAH."—_Fifth Report_, 16.

PERGUNNAHS, THE TWENTY-FOUR, n.p. The official name of the District
immediately adjoining and inclosing, though not administratively including,
Calcutta. The name is one of a character very ancient in India and the
East. It was the original 'Zemindary of Calcutta' granted to the English
Company by a 'Subadar's Perwana' in 1757-58. This grant was subsequently
confirmed by the Great Mogul as an unconditional and rent-free JAGHEER
(q.v.). The quotation from Sir Richard Phillips' _Million of Facts_,
illustrates the development of 'facts' out of the moral consciousness. The
book contains many of equal value. An approximate parallel to this
statement would be that London is divided into Seven Dials.

  1765.—"The lands of the TWENTY-FOUR PURGUNNAHS, ceded to the Company by
  the treaty of 1757, which subsequently became Colonel _Clive's_ jagghier,
  were rated on the King's books at 2 lac and 22,000 rupees."—_Holwell,
  Hist. Events_, 2nd ed., p. 217.

  1812.—"The number of convicts confined at the six stations of this
  division (independent of _Zillah_ TWENTY-FOUR PERGUNNAHS), is about
  4,000. Of them probably nine-tenths are dacoits."—_Fifth Report_, 559.

  c. 1831.—"Bengal is divided in 24 PERGUNNAHS, each with its judge and
  magistrate, registrar, &c."—_Sir R. Phillips, Million of Facts_, stereot.
  ed. 1843, 927.

PERI, s. This Persian word for a class of imaginary sprites, rendered
familiar in the verses of Moore and Southey, has no blood-relationship with
the English _Fairy_, notwithstanding the exact compliance with Grimm's Law
in the change of initial consonant. The Persian word is _parī_, from _par_,
'a feather, or wing'; therefore 'the winged one'; [so F. Johnson, _Pers.
Dict._; but the derivation is very doubtful;] whilst the genealogy of
_fairy_ is apparently Ital. _fata_, French _fée_, whence _féerie_
('fay-dom') and thence _fairy_.

  [c. 1500?—"I am the only daughter of a Jinn chief of noblest strain and
  my name is PERI-Banu."—_Arab. Nights, Burton_, x. 264.]

  1800.—

   "From cluster'd henna, and from orange groves,
      That with such perfumes fill the breeze
        As PERIS to their Sister bear,
      When from the summit of some lofty tree
    She hangs encaged, the captive of the Dives."
               _Thalaba_, xi. 24.

  1817.—

   "But nought can charm the luckless PERI;
    Her soul is sad—her wings are weary."
               _Moore, Paradise and the_ PERI.

PERPET, PERPETUANO, s. The name of a cloth often mentioned in the 17th and
first part of the 18th centuries, as an export from England to the East. It
appears to have been a light and glossy twilled stuff of wool, [which like
another stuff of the same kind called '_Lasting_,' took its name from its
durability. (See _Draper's Dict._ s.v.)]. In France it was called
_perpétuanne_ or _sempiterne_, in Ital. _perpetuana_.

  [1609.—"Karsies, PERPETUANOS and other woollen Comodities."—_Birdwood,
  Letter Book_, 288.

  [1617.—"PERPETUANO, 1 bale."—_Cocks's Diary_, Hak. Soc. i. 293.

  [1630.—"... Devonshire kersies or PERPETUITIES...."—_Forrest, Bombay
  Letters_, i. 4.

  [1680.—"PERPETUANCES."—_Ibid._ ii. 401.]

  1711.—"Goods usually imported (to China) from _Europe_ are Bullion
  Cloths, Clothrash, PERPETUANO'S, and Camblets of Scarlet, black, blew,
  sad and violet Colours, which are of late so lightly set by; that to bear
  the Dutys, and bring the prime Cost, is as much as can reasonably be
  hoped for."—_Lockyer_, 147.

  [1717.—"... a Pavilion lined with Imboss'd PERPETS."—In _Yule, Hedges'
  Diary_, Hak. Soc. ii. ccclix.]

  1754.—"Being requested by the Trustees of the Charity Stock of this place
  to make an humble application to you for an order that the children upon
  the Foundation to the number of 12 or 14 may be supplied at the expense
  of the Honorable Company with a coat of blue PERPETS or some ordinary
  cloth...."—_Petition of Revd. R. Mapletoft_, in _Long_, p. 29.

  1757.—Among the presents sent to the King of Ava with the mission of
  Ensign Robert Lester, we find:

   "2 Pieces of ordinary Red Broad Cloth.
    3 Do. of PÉRPETUÁNOES Popingay."
               In _Dalrymple, Or. Rep._ i. 203.

PERSAIM, n.p. This is an old form of the name of BASSEIN (q.v.) in Pegu. It
occurs (_e.g._) in _Milburn_, ii. 281.

  1759.—"The Country for 20 miles round PERSAIM is represented as capable
  of producing Rice, sufficient to supply the Coast of CHOROMANDEL from
  _Pondicherry_ to _Masulipatam_."—Letter in _Dalrymple, Or. Rep._ i. 110.
  Also in a Chart by Capt. G. Baker, 1754.

  1795.—"Having ordered presents of a trivial nature to be presented, in
  return for those brought from Negrais, he referred the deputy ... to the
  Birman Governor of PERSAIM for a ratification and final adjustment of the
  treaty."—_Symes_, p. 40. But this author also uses _Bassien_ (_e.g._ 32),
  and "PERSAIM or _Bassien_" (39), which alternatives are also in the chart
  by Ensign Wood.

PERSIMMON, s. This American name is applied to a fruit common in China and
Japan, which in a dried state is imported largely from China into Tibet.
The tree is the _Diospyros kaki_, L. fil., a species of the same genus
which produces ebony. The word is properly the name of an American fruit
and tree of the same genus (_D. virginiana_), also called date-plum, and,
according to the Dictionary of Worcester, belonged to the Indian language
of Virginia. [The word became familiar in 1896 as the name of the winner of
the Derby.]

  1878.—"The finest fruit of Japan is the _Kaki_ or PERSIMMON (_Diospyros
  Kaki_), a large golden fruit on a beautiful tree."—_Miss Bird's Japan_,
  i. 234.

PERUMBAUCUM, n.p. A town 14 m. N.W. of Conjevaram, in the district of
Madras [Chingleput]. The name is perhaps _perum-pākkam_, Tam., 'big
village.'

PESCARIA, n.p. The coast of Tinnevelly was so called by the Portuguese,
from the great pearl 'fishery' there.

  [c. 1566.—See under BAZAAR.]

  1600.—"There are in the Seas of the East three principal mines where they
  fish pearls.... The third is between the Isle of Ceilon and Cape Comory,
  and on this account the Coast which runs from the said Cape to the shoals
  of Ramanancor and Manâr is called, in part, PESCARIA...."—_Lucena_, 80.

  [1616.—"PESQUERIA." See under CHILAW.]

  1615.—"Iam nonnihil de orâ _Piscariâ_ dicamus quae iam inde a promontorio
  Commorino in Orientem ad usque breuia Ramanancoridis extenditur, quod
  haud procul inde celeberrimus, maximus, et copiosissimus toto Oriente
  Margaritarum piscatus instituitur...."—_Jarric, Thes._ i. 445.

  1710.—"The Coast of the PESCARIA of the mother of pearl which runs from
  the Cape of Camorim to the Isle of Manar, for the space of seventy
  leagues, with a breadth of six inland, was the first debarcation of this
  second conquest."—_Sousa, Orient. Conquist._ i. 122.

PESHAWUR, n.p. _Peshāwar_. This name of what is now the frontier city and
garrison of India towards Kābul, is sometimes alleged to have been given by
Akbar. But in substance the name is of great antiquity, and all that can be
alleged as to Akbar is that he is said to have modified the old name, and
that since his time the present form has been in use. A notice of the
change is quoted below from Gen. Cunningham; we cannot give the authority
on which the statement rests. Peshāwar could hardly be called a frontier
town in the time of Akbar, standing as it did according to the
administrative division of the _Āīn_, about the middle of the Sūba of
Kābul, which included Kashmīr and all west of it. We do not find that the
modern form occurs in the text of the _Āīn_ as published by Prof.
Blochmann. In the translation of the _Ṭabaḳāt-i-Akbarī_ of Nizāmu-d-din
Ahmad (died 1594-95), in Elliot, we find the name transliterated variously
as _Pesháwar_ (v. 448), _Parsháwar_ (293), _Parshor_ (423), _Pershor_
(424). We cannot doubt that the Chinese form _Folausha_ in Fah-hian already
expresses the name _Parashāwar_, or _Parshāwar_.

  c. 400.—"From Gandhâra, going south 4 days' journey, we arrive at the
  country of FO-LAU-SHA. In old times Buddha, in company with all his
  disciples, travelled through this country."—_Fah-hian_, by _Beal_, p. 34.

  c. 630.—"The Kingdom of Kien-to-lo (Gândhâra) extends about 1000 _li_
  from E. to W. and 800 _li_ from S. to N. On the East it adjoins the river
  _Sin_ (Indus). The capital of this country is called PU-LU-SHA-PU-LO
  (Purashapura).... The towns and villages are almost deserted.... There
  are about a thousand convents, ruined and abandoned; full of wild plants,
  and presenting only a melancholy solitude...."—_Hwen T'sang, Pèl. Boud._
  ii. 104-105.

  c. 1001.—"On his (Mahmúd's) reaching PURSHAUR, he pitched his tent
  outside the city. There he received intelligence of the bold resolve of
  Jaipál, the enemy of God, and the King of Hind, to offer
  opposition."—_Al-Utbi_, in _Elliot_, ii. 25.

  c. 1020.—"The aggregate of these waters forms a large river opposite the
  city of PARSHÁWAR."—_Al-Birūnī_, in _Elliot_, i. 47. See also 63.

  1059.—"The Amír ordered a letter to be despatched to the minister,
  telling him 'I have determined to go to Hindustán, and pass the winter in
  Waihind, and Marminára, and BARSHÚR...."—_Baihaki_, in _Elliot_, ii. 150.

  c. 1220.—"FARSHĀBŪR. The vulgar pronunciation is BARSHĀWŪR. A large tract
  between Ghazna and Lahor, famous in the history of the Musulman
  conquest."—_Yāḳūt_, in _Barbier de Maynard, Dict. de la Perse_, 418.

  1519.—"We held a consultation, in which it was resolved to plunder the
  country of the Aferîdî Afghâns, as had been proposed by Sultan Bayezîd,
  to fit up the fort of PERSHÂWER for the reception of their effects and
  corn, and to leave a garrison in it."—_Baber_, 276.

  c. 1555.—"We came to the city of PURSHAWAR, and having thus fortunately
  passed the _Kotal_ we reached the town of Joshāya. On the Kotal we saw
  rhinoceroses, the size of a small elephant."—_Sidi 'Ali_, in _J. As._
  Ser. i. tom. ix. 201.

  c. 1590.—"Tumān Bagrām, which they call PARSHĀWAR; the spring here is a
  source of delight. There is in this place a great place of worship which
  they call Gorkhatri, to which people, especially Jogis, resort from great
  distances."—_Āīn_ (orig.), i. 592; [ed. _Jarrett_, ii. 404. In iii. 69,
  PARASHÁWAR].

  1754.—"On the news that PEISHOR was taken, and that Nadir Shah was
  preparing to pass the Indus, the Moghol's court, already in great
  disorder, was struck with terror."—_H. of Nadir Shah_, in _Hanway_, ii.
  363.

  1783.—"The heat of PESHOUR seemed to me more intense, than that of any
  country I have visited in the upper parts of India. Other places may be
  warm; hot winds blowing over tracts of sand may drive us under the
  shelter of a wetted skreen; but at PESHOUR, the atmosphere, in the summer
  solstice, becomes almost inflammable."—_G. Forster_, ed. 1808, ii. 57.

  1863.—"Its present name we owe to Akbar, whose fondness for innovation
  led him to change the ancient PARASHÂWARA, of which he did not know the
  meaning, to PESHÂWAR, or the 'frontier town.' Abul Fazl gives both
  names."—_Cunningham, Arch. Reports_, ii. 87. Gladwin does in his
  translation give both names; but see above.

PESHCUBZ, s. A form of dagger, the blade of which has a straight thick
back, while the edge curves inwardly from a broad base to a very sharp
point. Pers. _pesh-ḳabz_, 'fore-grip.' The handle is usually made of
_shirmāhī_, 'the white bone (tooth?) of a large cetacean'; probably
morse-tooth, which is repeatedly mentioned in the early English trade with
Persia as an article much in demand (_e.g._ see _Sainsbury_, ii. 65, 159,
204, 305; iii. 89, 162, 268, 287, &c.). [The _peshḳubz_ appears several
times in Mr. Egerton's _Catalogue of Indian Arms_, and one is illustrated,
Pl. xv. No. 760.]

  1767.—

   "Received for sundry jewels, &c.   (Rs.) 7326  0  0
    Ditto for knife, or PESHCUBZ
      (misprinted _pesheolz_)                3500  0  0."
               _Lord Clive's Accounts_, in _Long_, 497.

PESHCUSH, s. Pers. _pesh-kash_. Wilson interprets this as literally
'first-fruits.' It is used as an offering or tribute, but with many
specific and technical senses which will be found in Wilson, _e.g._ a fine
on appointment, renewal, or investiture; a quit-rent, a payment exacted on
lands formerly rent-free, or in substitution for service no longer exacted;
sometimes a present to a great man, or (loosely) for the ordinary
Government demand on land. PESHCUSH, in the old English records, is most
generally used in the sense of a present to a great man.

  1653.—"PESKET est vn presant en Turq."—_De la Boullaye-le-Gouz_, ed.
  1657, p. 553.

  1657.—"As to the PISCASH for the King of Golcundah, if it be not already
  done, we do hope with it you may obteyn our liberty to coyne silver
  Rupees and copper Pice at the Fort, which would be a great accommodation
  to our Trade. But in this and all other PISCASHES be as sparing as you
  can."—_Letter of Court to Ft. St. Geo._, in _Notes and Exts._, No. i. p.
  7.

  1673.—"Sometimes sending PISHCASHES of considerable value."—_Fryer_, 166.

  1675.—"Being informed that Mr. Mohun had sent a PISCASH of Persian Wine,
  Cases of Stronge Water, &c. to ye Great Governour of this Countrey, that
  is 2_d._ or 3_d._ pson in ye kingdome, I went to his house to speake abt.
  it, when he kept me to dine with him."—_Puckle's Diary_, MS. in India
  Office.

  [1683.—"PISCASH." (See under FIRMAUN.)]

  1689.—"But the PISHCUSHES or Presents expected by the _Nabobs_ and
  _Omrahs_ retarded our Inlargement for some time
  notwithstanding."—_Ovington_, 415.

  1754.—"After I have refreshed my army at DELHIE, and received the subsidy
  (_Note._—'This is called a PEISCHCUSH, or present from an inferior to a
  superior. The sum agreed for was 20 crores') which must be paid, I will
  leave you in possession of his dominion."—_Hist. of Nadir Shah_, in
  _Hanway_, ii. 371.

  1761.—"I have obtained a promise from his Majesty of his royal
  confirmation of all your possessions and priviledges, provided you pay
  him a proper PISHCUSH...."—_Major Carnac_ to the Governor and Council, in
  _Van Sittart_, i. 119.

  1811.—"By the _fixed or regulated sum_ ... the Sultan ... means the
  PAISHCUSH, or tribute, which he was bound by former treaties to pay to
  the Government of Poonah; but which he does not think proper to ...
  designate by any term denotive of inferiority, which the word _Paishcush_
  certainly is."—_Kirkpatrick_, Note on _Tippoo's Letters_, p. 9.

PESH-KHĀNA, PESH-KHIDMAT, ss. Pers. 'Fore-service.' The tents and
accompanying retinue sent on over-night, during a march, to the new camping
ground, to receive the master on his arrival. A great personage among the
natives, or among ourselves, has a complete double establishment, one
portion of which goes thus every night in advance. [Another term used is
PESHKHAIMA Pers. 'advance tents,' as below.]

  1665.—"When the King is in the field, he hath usually two Camps ... to
  the end that when he breaketh up and leaveth one, the other may have
  passed before by a day and be found ready when he arriveth at the place
  design'd to encamp at; and 'tis therefore that they are called
  PEICHE-KANES, as if you should say, Houses going before...."—_Bernier_,
  E.T. 115; [ed. _Constable_, 359].

  [1738.—"PEISH-KHANNA is the term given to the royal tents and their
  appendages in India."—_Hanway_, iv. 153.

  [1862.—"The result of all this uproarious bustle has been the erection of
  the Sardár's peshkhaima, or advanced tent."—_Bellew, Journal of Mission_,
  409.]

PESHWA, s. from Pers. 'a leader, a guide.' The chief minister of the
Mahratta power, who afterwards, supplanting his master, the descendant of
Sivaji, became practically the prince of an independent State and chief of
the Mahrattas. The Peshwa's power expired with the surrender to Sir John
Malcolm of the last Peshwa, Bājī Rāo, in 1817. He lived in wealthy exile,
and with a _jāgīr_ under his own jurisdiction, at Bhitūr, near Cawnpoor,
till January 1851. His adopted son, and the claimant of his honours and
allowances, was the infamous Nānā Sāhib.

Mr C. P. Brown gives a feminine _peshwīn_: "The princess Gangā Bāī was
_Peshwīn_ of Purandhar." (MS. notes).

  1673.—"He answered, it is well, and referred our Business to _Moro
  Pundit_ his PESHUA, or Chancellour, to examine our Articles, and give an
  account of what they were."—_Fryer_, 79.

  1803.—"But how is it with the PESHWAH? He has no minister; no person has
  influence over him, and he is only guided by his own
  caprices."—_Wellington Desp._, ed. 1837, ii. 177.

In the following passage (_quandoquidem dormitans_) the Great Duke had
forgotten that things were changed since he left India, whilst the editor
perhaps did not know:

  1841.—"If you should draw more troops from the Establishment of Fort St.
  George, you will have to place under arms the subsidiary force of the
  Nizam, the PEISHWAH, and the force in Mysore, and the districts ceded by
  the Nizam in 1800-1801."—Letter from the _D. of Wellington_, in _Ind.
  Adm. of Lord Ellenborough_, 1874. (Dec. 29). The Duke was oblivious when
  he spoke of the Peshwa's Subsidiary Force in 1841.

PETERSILLY, s. This is the name by which 'parsley' is generally called in
N. India. We have heard it quoted there as an instance of the absurd
corruption of English words in the mouths of natives. But this case at
least might more justly be quoted as an example of accurate transfer. The
word is simply the Dutch term for 'parsley,' viz. PETERSILIE, from the Lat.
_petroselinum_, of which _parsley_ is itself a double corruption through
the French _persil_. In the Arabic of Avicenna the name is given as
_fatrasiliūn_.

PETTAH, s. Tam. _pēṭṭai_. The extramural suburb of a fortress, or the town
attached and adjacent to a fortress. The _pettah_ is itself often
separately fortified; the fortress is then its citadel. The Mahratti _peṭh_
is used in like manner; [it is Skt. _peṭaka_, and the word possibly came to
the Tamil through the Mahr.]. The word constantly occurs in the histories
of war in Southern India.

  1630.—"'Azam Khán, having ascended the Pass of Anjan-dúdh, encamped 3
  _kos_ from Dhárúr. He then directed Multafit Khán ... to make an attack
  upon ... Dhárúr and its PETTA, where once a week people from all parts,
  far and near, were accustomed to meet for buying and selling."—_Abdul
  Hamīd_, in _Elliot_, vii. 20.

  1763.—"The pagoda served as a citadel to a large PETTAH, by which name
  the people on the Coast of Coromandel call every town contiguous to a
  fortress."—_Orme_, ed. 1803, i. 147.

  1791.—"... The PETTA or town (at Bangalore) of great extent to the north
  of the fort, was surrounded by an indifferent rampart and excellent
  ditch, with an intermediate berm ... planted with impenetrable and
  well-grown thorns.... Neither the fort nor the PETTA had
  drawbridges."—_Wilks, Hist. Sketches_, iii. 123.

  1803.—"The PETTAH wall was very lofty, and defended by towers, and had no
  rampart."—_Wellington_, ed. 1837, ii. 193.

  1809.—"I passed through a country little cultivated ... to Kingeri, which
  has a small mud-fort in good repair, and a PETTAH apparently well filled
  with inhabitants."—_Ld. Valentia_, i. 412.

  1839.—"The English ladies told me this PETTAH was 'a horrid place—quite
  native!' and advised me never to go into it; so I went next day, of
  course, and found it most curious—really _quite native_."—_Letters from
  Madras_, 289.

PHANSEEGAR, s. See under THUG.

[PHOOLKAREE, s. Hind. _phūl-kārī_, 'flowered embroidery.' The term applied
in N. India to the cotton sheets embroidered in silk by village women,
particularly Jats. Each girl is supposed to embroider one of these for her
marriage. In recent years a considerable demand has arisen for specimens of
this kind of needlework among English ladies, who use them for screens and
other decorative purposes. Hence a considerable manufacture has sprung up
of which an account will be found in a note by Mrs. F. A. Steel, appended
to Mr. H. C. Cookson's _Monograph on the Silk Industry of the Punjab_
(1886-7), and in the _Journal of Indian Art_, ii. 71 _seqq._

  [1887.—"They (native school girls) were collected in a small inner court,
  which was hung with the pretty PHULCARRIES they make here (Rawal Pindi),
  and which ... looked very Oriental and gay."—_Lady Dufferin, Viceregal
  Life_, 336.]

[PHOORZA, s. A custom-house; Gujarātī _phurjā_, from Ar. _furẓat_ 'a
notch,' then 'a bight,' 'river-mouth,' 'harbour'; hence 'a tax' or
'custom-duty.'

  [1791.—The East India Calendar (p. 131) has "John Church, PHOORZA-Master,
  Surat."

  [1727.—"And the Mogul's FURZA or custom-house is at this place
  (Hughly)."—_A. Hamilton_, ed. 1744, ii. 19.

  [1772.—"But as they still insisted on their people sitting at the gates
  on the PHOORZER Coosky ..."—_Forrest, Bombay Letters_, i. 386, and see
  392, "PHOORZE Master." _Coosky_ = P.—Mahr. _Khushkī_, "inland
  transit-duties."

  [1813.—"... idols ... were annually imported to a considerable number at
  the Baroche PHOORZA, when I was custom-master at that
  settlement."—_Forbes, Or. Mem._ 2nd ed. ii. 334.]

PIAL, s. A raised platform on which people sit, usually under the verandah,
or on either side of the door of the house. It is a purely S. Indian word,
and partially corresponds to the N. Indian _chabūtra_ (see CHABOOTRA).
Wilson conjectures the word to be Telugu, but it is in fact a form of the
Portuguese _poyo_ and _poyal_ (Span. _poyo_), 'a seat or bench.' This is
again, according to Diez (i. 326), from the Lat. _podium_, 'a projecting
base, a balcony.' Bluteau explains _poyal_ as 'steps for mounting on
horseback' (_Scoticè_, 'a louping-on stone') [see _Dalboquerque_, Hak. Soc.
ii. 68]. The quotation from Mr. Gover describes the S. Indian thing in
full.

  1553.—"... paying him his courtesy in Moorish fashion, which was seating
  himself along with him on a POYAL."—_Castanheda_, vi. 3.

  1578.—"In the public square at Goa, as it was running furiously along, an
  infirm man came in its way, and could not escape; but the elephant took
  him up in his trunk, and without doing him any hurt deposited him on a
  POYO."—_Acosta, Tractado_, 432.

  1602.—"The natives of this region who are called Iaos, are men so
  arrogant that they think no others their superiors ... insomuch that if a
  Iao in passing along the street becomes aware that any one of another
  nation is on a POYAL, or any place above him, if the person does not
  immediately come down, ... until he is gone by, he will kill
  him."—_Couto_, IV. iii. 1. [For numerous instances of this superstition,
  see _Frazer, Golden Bough_, 2nd ed. i. 360 _seqq._]

  1873.—"Built against the front wall of every Hindu house in southern
  India ... is a bench 3 feet high and as many broad. It extends along the
  whole frontage, except where the house-door stands.... The posts of the
  VERANDA or PANDAL are fixed in the ground a few feet in front of the
  bench, enclosing a sort of platform: for the basement of the house is
  generally 2 or 3 feet above the street level. The raised bench is called
  the PYAL, and is the lounging-place by day. It also serves in the hot
  months as a couch for the night.... There the visitor is received; there
  the bargaining is done; there the beggar plies his trade, and the _Yogi_
  (see JOGEE) sounds his CONCH; there also the members of the household
  clean their teeth, amusing themselves the while with belches and other
  frightful noises...."—_Pyal Schools in Madras_, by _E. C. Gover_, in
  _Ind. Antiq._ ii. 52.

PICAR, s. Hind. _paikār_, [which again is a corruption of Pers. _pā'e-kār_,
_pā'e_, 'a foot'], a retail-dealer, an intermediate dealer or broker.

  1680.—"PICAR." See under DUSTOOR.

  1683.—"Y^e said Naylor has always corresponded with Mr. Charnock, having
  been always his intimate friend; and without question either provides him
  goods out of the Hon. Comp.'s Warehouse, or connives at the Weavers and
  PICCARS doing of it."—_Hedges, Diary_, Hak. Soc. i. 133.

  [1772.—"PYKÂRS (_Dellols_ (see DELOLL) and Gomastahs) are a chain of
  agents through whose hands the articles of merchandize pass from the loom
  of the manufacturer, or the store-house of the cultivator, to the public
  merchant, or exporter."—_Verelst, View of Bengal, Gloss._ s.v.]

PICE, s. Hind. _paisā_, a small copper coin, which under the Anglo-Indian
system of currency is ¼ of an anna, 1/64 of a rupee, and somewhat less than
3/2 of a farthing. _Pice_ is used slangishly for money in general. By Act
XXIII. of 1870 (cl. 8) the following copper coins are current:—1. Double
_Pice_ or Half-anna. 2. _Pice_ or ¼ anna. 3. _Half-pice_ or ⅛ anna. 4.
_Pie_ or 1/12 anna. No. 2 is the only one in very common use. As with most
other coins, weights, and measures, there used to be PUCKA pice, and CUTCHA
pice. The distinction was sometimes between the regularly minted copper of
the Government and certain amorphous pieces of copper which did duty for
small change (_e.g._ in the N.W. Provinces within memory), or between
single and double pice, _i.e._ ¼ anna-pieces and ½ anna-pieces. [Also see
PIE.]

  c. 1590.—"The _dám_ ... is the fortieth part of the rupee. At first this
  coin was called PAISAH."—_Āīn_, ed. _Blochmann_, i. 31.

  [1614.—"Another coin there is of copper, called a PIZE, whereof you have
  commonly 34 in the mamudo."—_Foster, Letters_, iii. 11.]

  1615.—"PICE, which is a Copper Coyne; twelve Drammes make one PICE. The
  English Shilling, if weight, will yeeld thirtie three _Pice_ and a
  halfe."—_W. Peyton_, in _Purchas_, i. 530.

  1616.—"Brasse money, which they call PICES, whereof three or thereabouts
  countervail a Peny."—_Terry_, in _Purchas_, ii. 1471.

  1648.—"... de PEYSEN zijn kooper gelt...."—_Van Twist_, 62.

  1653.—"PEÇA est vne monnoye du Mogol de la valeur de 6 deniers."—_De la
  Boullaye-le-Gouz_, ed. 1657, p. 553.

  1673.—"PICE, a sort of Copper Money current among the Poorer sort of
  People ... the Company's Accounts are kept in Book-rate PICE, viz. 32 to
  the Mam. [i.e. _Mamoodee_, see GOSBECK], and 80 PICE to the
  Rupee."—_Fryer_, 205.

  1676.—"The Indians have also a sort of small Copper-money; which is
  called PECHA.... In my last Travels, a _Roupy_ went at Surat for nine and
  forty PECHA'S."—_Tavernier_, E.T. ii. 22; [ed. _Ball_, i. 27].

  1689.—"Lower than these (pice), bitter-Almonds here (at Surat) pass for
  Money, about Sixty of which make a PICE."—_Ovington_, 219.

  1726.—"1 _Ana_ makes 1½ stuyvers or 2 PEYS."—_Valentijn_, v. 179. [Also
  see under MOHUR GOLD.]

  1768.—"Shall I risk my cavalry, which cost 1000 rupees each horse,
  against your cannon balls that cost two PICE?—No.—I will march your
  troops until their legs become the size of their bodies."—_Hyder Ali_,
  Letter to _Col. Wood_, in _Forbes, Or. Mem._ iii. 287; [2nd ed. ii. 300].

  c. 1816.—"'Here,' said he, 'is four PUCKER-PICE for Mary to spend in the
  bazar; but I will thank you, Mrs. Browne, not to let her have any
  fruit....'"—_Mrs. Sherwood's Stories_, 16, ed. 1863.

PICOTA, s. An additional allowance or percentage, added as a handicap to
the weight of goods, which varied with every description,—and which the
editor of the _Subsidios_ supposes to have lead to the varieties of BAHAR
(q.v.). Thus at Ormuz the bahar was of 20 farazolas (see FRAZALA), to which
was added, as _picota_, for cloves and mace 3 maunds (of Ormuz), or about
1/72 additional; for cinnamon 1/20 additional; for benzoin 1/5 additional,
&c. See the _Pesos_, &c. of _A. Nunes_ (1554) _passim_. We have not been
able to trace the origin of this term, nor any modern use.

  [1554.—"PICOTAA." (See under BRAZIL-WOOD, DOOCAUN.)]

PICOTTAH, s. This is the term applied in S. India to that ancient machine
for raising water, which consists of a long lever or yard, pivotted on an
upright post, weighted on the short arm and bearing a line and bucket on
the long arm. It is the _ḍhenklī_ of Upper India, the _shādūf_ of the Nile,
and the old English _sweep_, _swape_, or _sway-pole_. The machine is we
believe still used in the Terra Incognita of market-gardens S.E. of London.
The name is Portuguese, _picota_, a marine term now applied to the handle
of a ship's pump and post in which it works—a 'pump-brake.' The _picota_ at
sea was also used as a pillory, whence the employment of the word as quoted
from Correa. The word is given in the Glossary attached to the "Fifth
Report" (1812), but with no indication of its source. Fryer (1673, pub.
1698) describes the thing without giving it a name. In the following the
word is used in the marine sense:

  1524.—"He (V. da Gama) ordered notice to be given that no seaman should
  wear a cloak, except on Sunday ... and if he did, that it should be taken
  from him by the constables (_lhe serra tomada polos meirinhos_), and the
  man put in the PICOTA in disgrace, for one day. He found great fault with
  men of military service wearing cloaks, for in that guise they did not
  look like soldiers."—_Correa, Lendas_, II. ii. 822.

  1782.—"Pour cet effet (arroser les terres) on emploie une machine
  appellée PICÔTE. C'est une bascule dressée sur le bord d'un puits ou d'un
  réservoir d'eaux pluviales, pour en tirer l'eau, et la conduire ensuite
  où l'on veut."—_Sonnerat, Voyage_, i. 188.

  c. 1790.—"Partout les PAKOTIÉS, ou puits à bascule, étoient en mouvement
  pour fournir l'eau nécessaire aux plantes, et partout on entendoit les
  jardiniers égayer leurs travaux par des chansons."—_Haafner_, ii. 217.

  1807.—"In one place I saw people employed in watering a rice-field with
  the _Yatam_, or PACOTA, as it is called by the English."—_Buchanan,
  Journey through Mysore_, &c., i. 15. [Here _Yatam_, is Can. _yāta_, Tel.
  _ētamu_, Mal. _ēttam_.]

  [1871.—

   "Aye, e'en PICOTTA-work would gain
        By using such bamboos."
               _Gover, Folk Songs of S. India_, 184.]

PIE, s. Hind. _pā'ī_, the smallest copper coin of the Anglo-Indian
currency, being 1/12 of an anna, 1/192 of a rupee, = about ½ a farthing.
This is now the authorised meaning of _pie_. But _pā'ī_ was originally, it
would seem, the fourth part of an anna, and in fact identical with PICE
(q.v.). It is the H.—Mahr. _pā'ī_, 'a quarter,' from Skt. _pad_, _pādikā_
in that sense.

  [1866.—"... his father has a one PIE share in a small village which may
  yield him perhaps 24 rupees per annum."—_Confessions of an Orderly_,
  201.]

PIECE-GOODS. This, which is now the technical term for Manchester cottons
imported into India, was originally applied in trade to the Indian cottons
exported to England, a trade which appears to have been deliberately killed
by the heavy duties which Lancashire procured to be imposed in its own
interest, as in its own interest it has recently procured the abolition of
the small import duty on English piece-goods in India.[223] [In 1898 a duty
at the rate of 3 per cent. on cotton goods was reimposed.]

Lists of the various kinds of Indian piece-goods will be found in Milburn
(i. 44, 45, 46, and ii. 90, 221), and we assemble them below. It is not in
our power to explain their peculiarities, except in very few cases, found
under their proper heading. [In the present edition these lists have been
arranged in alphabetical order. The figures before each indicate that they
fall into the following classes: 1. Piece-goods formerly exported from
Bombay and Surat; 2. Piece-goods exported from Madras and the Coast; 3.
Piece-goods: the kinds imported into Great Britain from Bengal. Some notes
and quotations have been added. But it must be understood that the classes
of goods now known under these names may or may not exactly represent those
made at the time when these lists were prepared. The names printed in
capitals are discussed in separate articles.]

  1665.—"I have sometimes stood amazed at the vast quantity of Cotton-Cloth
  of all sorts, fine and others, tinged and white, which the _Hollanders_
  alone draw from thence and transport into many places, especially into
  _Japan_ and _Europe_; not to mention what the _English_, _Portingal_ and
  _Indian_ merchants carry away from those parts."—_Bernier_, E.T. 141;
  [ed. _Constable_, 439].

  1785.—(Res^n. of Court of Directors of the E.I.C., 8th October) "... that
  the Captains and Officers of all ships that shall sail from any part of
  India, after receiving notice hereof, shall be allowed to bring 8000
  pieces of PIECE-GOODS and no more ... that 5000 pieces and no more, may
  consist of white Muslins and Callicoes, stitched or plain, or either of
  them, of which 5000 pieces only 2000 may consist of any of the following
  sorts, viz., _Alliballies_, _Alrochs_ (?), _Cossaes_, _Doreas_,
  _Jamdannies_, _Mulmuls_, _Nainsooks_, _Neckcloths_, _Tanjeebs_, and
  _Terrindams_, and that 3000 pieces and no more, may consist of coloured
  piece-goods...." &c., &c.—In _Seton-Karr_, i. 83.

  [ABRAWAN, P. _āb-i-ravān_, 'flowing water'; a very fine kind of Dacca
  muslin. 'Woven air' is the name applied in the _Arabian Nights_ to the
  Patna gauzes, a term originally used for the produce of the Coan looms
  (_Burton_, x. 247.) "The Hindoos amuse us with two stories, as instances
  of the fineness of this muslin. One, that the Emperor Aurungzebe was
  angry with his daughter for exposing her skin through her clothes;
  whereupon the young princess remonstrated in her justification that she
  had seven _jamahs_ (see JAMMA) or suits on; and another, in the Nabob
  Allaverdy Khawn's time a weaver was chastised and turned out of the city
  for his neglect, in not preventing his cow from eating up a piece of
  ABROOAN, which he had spread and carelessly left on the grass."—_Bolt,
  Considerations on Affairs of India_, 206.]

  3. ADATIS.

  2. ALLEJAS.

  3. ALLIBALLIES.—"_Alaballee_ (signifying according to the weavers'
  interpretation of the word 'very fine') is a muslin of fine
  texture."—(_J. Taylor, Account of the Cotton Manufacture at Dacca_, 45).
  According to this the word is perhaps from Ar. _ā'lā_, 'superior,' H.
  _bhalā_, 'good.'

  3. ALLIBANEES.—Perhaps from _ā'lā_, 'superior,' _bānā_, 'woof.'

  1. ANNABATCHIES.

  3. ARRAHS.—Perhaps from the place of that name in Shahābād, where,
  according to Buchanan Hamilton (_Eastern India_, i. 548) there was a
  large cloth industry.

  3. AUBRAHS.

  2. AUNNEKETCHIES.

  3. BAFTAS.

  3. BANDANNAS.

  1. BEJUTAPAUTS.—H. _be-jūṭā_, 'without join,' _pāt_, 'a piece.'

  1. BETEELAS.

  3. BLUE CLOTH.

  1. BOMBAY STUFFS.

  1. BRAWL.—The _N.E.D._ describes Brawl as a 'blue and white striped cloth
  manufactured in India.' In a letter of 1616 (_Foster_, iv. 306) we have
  "Lolwee champell and BURRAL." The editor suggests H. _biral_, 'open in
  texture, fine.' But Roquefort (s.v.) gives: "_Bure_, _Burel_, grosse
  étoffe en laine de couleur rousse ou grisâtre, dont s'habillent
  ordinairement les ramoneurs; cette étoffe est faite de brebis noire et
  brune, sans aucune autre teinture." And see _N.E.D._ s.v. _Borrel_.

  3. BYRAMPAUTS. (See BEIRAMEE.)

  2. CALLAWAPORES.

  3. CALLIPATTIES.—H. _Kālī_, 'black,' _pattī_, 'strip.'

  3. CAMBAYS.

  3. CAMBRICS.

  3. CARPETS.

  3. CARRIDARIES.

  2. CATTAKETCHIES.

  1. CHALIAS. (See under SHALEE.)

  3. CHARCONNAES.—H. _chār-khāna_, 'chequered.' "The _charkana_, or
  chequered muslin, is, as regards manufacture, very similar to the
  _Doorea_ (see DOREAS below). They differ in the breadth of the stripes,
  their closeness to each other, and the size of the squares." (_Forbes
  Watson, Textile Man._ 78). The same name is now applied to a silk cloth.
  "The word _chārkhāna_ simply means 'a check,' but the term is applied to
  certain silk or mixed fabrics containing small checks, usually about 8 or
  10 checks in a line to an inch." (_Yusuf Ali, Mon. on Silk_, 93. Also see
  _Journ. Ind. Art_, iii. 6.)

  1683.—"20 yards of CHARKONNAS."—In _Yule, Hedges' Diary_, Hak. Soc. i.
  94.

  2. CHAVONIS.

  1. CHELLOES. (See SHALEE.)

  3. CHINECHURAS.—Probably cloth from CHINSURA.

  1. CHINTZ, of sorts.

  3. CHITTABULLIES.

  3. CHOWTARS.—This is almost certainly not identical with CHUDDER. In a
  list of cotton cloths in the _Āīn_ (i. 94) we have _chautār_, which may
  mean 'made with four threads or wires.' _Chautāhī_, 'four-fold,' is a
  kind of cloth used in the Punjab for counterpanes (_Francis, Man.
  Cotton_, 7). This cloth is frequently mentioned in the early letters.

  1610.—"CHAUTARES are white and well requested."—_Danvers, Letters_, i.
  75.

  1614.—"The CHAUTERS of Agra and fine baftas nyll doth not here
  vend."—_Foster, Letters_, ii. 45.

  1615.—"Four pieces fine white COWTER."—_Ibid._ iv. 51.

  3. CHUCLAES.—This may be H. _chaklā_, _chakrī_, which Platts defines as
  'a kind of cloth made of silk and cotton.'

  3. CHUNDERBANNIES.—This is perhaps H. _chandra_, 'the moon,' _bānā_,
  'woof.'

  3. CHUNDRACONAES.—Forbes Watson has: "_Chunderkana_, second quality
  muslin for handkerchiefs": "Plain white bleached muslin called
  _Chunderkora_." The word is probably _chandrakhāna_, 'moon checks.'

  3. CLOUTS, common coarse cloth, for which see _N.E.D._

  3. COOPEES.—This is perhaps H. _kaupin_, _kopin_, 'the small LUNGOOTY
  worn by Fakirs.'

  3. CORAHS.—H. _korā_, 'plain, unbleached, undyed.' What is now known as
  Kora silk is woven in pieces for waist-cloths (see _Yusuf Ali_, _op.
  cit._ 76).

  3. COSSAES.—This perhaps represents Ar. _khāṣṣa_ 'special.' In the _Āīn_
  we have _khāçah_ in the list of cotton cloths (i. 94). Mr. Taylor
  describes it as a muslin of a close fine texture, and identifies it with
  the fine muslin which, according to the _Āīn_ (ii. 124), was produced at
  Sonārgāon. The finest kind he says is "_jungle-khasu_." (_Taylor_, _op.
  cit._ 45.)

  3. CUSHTAES.—These perhaps take their name from Kushtia, a place of
  considerable trade in the Nadiya District.

  3. CUTTANNEES. (See COTTON.)

  1. DHOOTIES. (See DHOTY.)

  3. DIAPERS.

  3. DIMITIES.

  3. DOREAS.—H. _ḍoriyā_, 'striped cloth,' _ḍor_, 'thread.' In the list in
  the _Āīn_ (i. 95), _Doriyah_ appears among cotton stuffs. It is now also
  made in silk: "The simplest pattern is the stripe; when the stripes are
  longitudinal the fabric is a _doriya_.... The _doriya_ was originally a
  cotton fabric, but it is now manufactured in silk, silk-and-cotton,
  _tasar_, and other combinations." (_Yusuf Ali_, _op. cit._ 57, 94.)

  1683.—"3 pieces DOOREAS."—_Hedges, Diary_, Hak. Soc. i. 94.

  3. DOSOOTIES.

  3. DUNGAREES.

  3. DYSUCKSOYS.

  3. ELATCHES.—Platts gives H. _Ilāchā_, 'a kind of cloth woven of silk and
  thread so as to present the appearance of cardamoms (_ilāchī_).' But it
  is almost certainly identical with ALLEJA. It was probably introduced to
  Agra, where now alone it is made, by the Moghuls. It differs from
  _doriya_ (see DOREAS above) in having a substantial texture, whereas the
  _doriya_ is generally flimsy. (_Yusuf Ali_, _op. cit._ 95.)

  3. EMMERTIES.—This is H. _amratī_, _imratī_, 'sweet as nectar.'

  2. GINGHAMS.

  2. GUDELOOR (dimities).—There is a place of the name in the Neilgherry
  District, but it does not seem to have any cloth manufacture.

  1. GUINEA STUFFS.

  3. GURRAHS.—This is probably the H. _gārhā_: "unbleached fabrics which
  under names varying in different localities, constitute a large
  proportion of the clothing of the poor. They are used also for packing
  goods, and as a covering for the dead, for which last purpose a large
  quantity is employed both by Hindoos and Mahomedans. These fabrics in
  Bengal pass under the name of GARRHA and GUZEE." (_Forbes Watson_, _op.
  cit._ 83.)

  3. HABASSIES.—Probably P. _'abbāsī_, used of cloths dyed in a sort of
  magenta colour. The recipe is given by _Hadi, Mon. on Dyeing in the
  N.W.P._ p. 16.

  3. HERBA TAFFETIES.—These are cloths made of GRASS-CLOTH.

  3. HUMHUMS, from Ar. _ḥammām_, 'a Turkish bath' "(apparently so named
  from its having been originally used at the bath), is a cloth of a thick
  stout texture, and generally worn as a wrapper in the cold season."
  (_Taylor_, _op. cit._ 63.)

  2. IZAREES.—P. _izār_, 'drawers, trousers.' Watson (_op. cit._ 57, note)
  says that in some places it is peculiar to men, the women's drawers being
  _Turwar_. Herklots (_Qanoon-e-Islam_, App. xiv.) gives _eezar_ as
  equivalent to SHULWAUR, like the PYJAMMA, but not so wide.

  3. JAMDANNIES.—P.-H. _jāmdānī_, which is said to be properly _jāmahdānī_,
  'a box for holding a suit.' The _jāmdānī_ is a loom-figured muslin, which
  Taylor (_op. cit._ 48) calls "the most expensive productions of the Dacca
  looms."

  3. JAMWARS. H. _jāmawār_, 'sufficient for a dress.' It is not easy to say
  what stuff is intended by this name. In the _Āīn_ (ii. 240) we have
  _jamahwār_, mentioned among Guzerat stuffs worked in gold thread, and
  again (i. 95) _jāmahwār Parmnarm_ among woollen stuffs. Forbes Watson
  gives among Kashmīr shawls: "_Jamewars_, or striped shawl pieces"; in the
  Punjab they are of a striped pattern made both in pashm and wool
  (_Johnstone, Mon. on Wool_, 9), and Mr. Kipling says, "the stripes are
  broad, of alternate colours, red and blue, &c." (_Mukharji, Art
  Manufactures of India_, 374.)

  3. KINCHA CLOTH.

  3. KISSORSOYS.

  3. LACCOWRIES.

  1. LEMMANNEES.

  3. LONG CLOTHS.

  3. LOONGHEES, HERBA. (See GRASS-CLOTH.)

  1. LOONGHEE, MAGHRUB. Ar. _maghrib_, _maghrab_, 'the west.'

  3. MAMOODEATIS.

  3. MAMMOODIES. Platts gives _Maḥmūdī_, 'praised, fine muslin.' The _Āīn_
  (i. 94) classes the _Maḥmūdī_ among cotton cloths, and at a low price. A
  cloth under this name is made at Shāhābād in the Hardoi District. (_Oudh
  Gazetteer_, ii. 25.)

  2. MONEPORE CLOTHS. (See MUNNEPORE.)

  2. MOOREES.—"_Moories_ are blue cloths, principally manufactured in the
  districts of Nellore and at Canatur in the Chingleput collectorate of
  Madras.... They are largely exported to the Straits of Malacca."
  (_Balfour, Cycl._ ii. 982.)

  1684-5.—"MOOREES superfine, 1000 pieces."—_Pringle, Diary Ft. St. Geo._
  iv. 41.

  3. MUGGADOOTIES. (See MOONGA.)

  3. MULMULS.

  3. MUSHRUES.—P. _mashrū'_, 'lawful.' It is usually applied to a kind of
  silk or satin with a cotton back. "Pure silk is not allowed to men, but
  women may wear the most sumptuous silk fabrics" (_Yusuf Ali_, _op. cit._
  90, _seq._). "All _Mushroos_ wash well, especially the finer kinds, used
  for bodices, petticoats, and trousers of both sexes." (_Forbes Watson_,
  _op. cit._ 97.)

  1832.—"... MUSSHEROO (striped washing silks manufactured at
  Benares)...."—_Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali, Observations_, i. 106.

  1. MUSTERS.

  3. NAIBABIES.

  3. NAINSOOKS.—H. _nainsukh_, 'pleasure of the eye.' A sort of fine white
  calico. Forbes Watson (_op. cit._ 76) says it is used for neckerchiefs,
  and Taylor (_op. cit._ 46) defines it as "a thick muslin, apparently
  identical with the _tunsook_ (_tansak'h_, _Blochmann_, i. 94) of the
  _Ayeen_." A cloth is made of the same name in silk, imitated from the
  cotton fabric. (_Yusuf Ali_, _op. cit._ 95.)

  1. NEGANEPAUTS.

  1. NICANNEES.—Quoting from a paper of 1683, Orme (_Fragments_, 287) has
  "6000 NICCANNEERS, 13 yards long."

  3. NILLAES.—Some kind of blue cloth, H. _nīlā_, 'blue.'

  1. NUNSAREES.—There is a place called Nansārī in the Bhandāra District
  (_Central Provinces Gazetteer_, 346).

  2. ORINGAL (cloths). Probably take their name from the once famous city
  of Warangal in Hyderabad.

  3. PALAMPORES.

  3. PENIASCOES.—In a paper quoted by Birdwood (_Report on Old Records_,
  40) we have PINASCOS, which he says are stuffs made of pine-apple fibre.

  2, 3. PERCAULAS.—H. _parkālā_, 'a spark, a piece of glass.' These were
  probably some kind of spangled robe, set with pieces of glass, as some of
  the modern PHOOLKARIS are. In the _Madras Diaries_ of 1684-5 we have
  "PERCOLLAES," and "PERCOLLES, fine" (_Pringle_, i. 53, iii. 119, iv. 41.)

  3. PHOTAES.—In a letter of 1615 we have "Lunges (see LOONGHEE) and
  FOOTAES of all sorts." (_Foster, Letters_, iv. 306), where the editor
  suggests H. _phūṭā_, 'variegated.' But in the _Āīn_ we find "_Fautahs_
  (loin-bands)" (i. 93), which is the P. _foṭa_, and this is from the
  connection the word probably meant.

  3. PULECAT handkerchiefs. (See MADRAS handkerchiefs and BANDANNA.)

  2. PUNJUM.—The _Madras Gloss._ gives Tel. _punjamu_, Tam. _puñjam_,
  _lit._ 'a collection.' "In Tel. a collection of 60 threads and in Tam. of
  120 threads skeined, ready for the formation of the warp for weaving. A
  cloth is denominated 10, 12, 14, up to 40 _poonjam_, according to the
  number of times 60, or else 120, is contained in the total number of
  threads in the warp. _Poonjam_ thus also came to mean a cloth of the
  length of one _poonjam_ as usually skeined; this usual length is 36
  cubits, or 18 yards, and the width from 38 to 44 inches, 14 lbs. being
  the common weight; pieces of half length were formerly exported as
  SALEMPOORY." Writing in 1814, Heyne (_Tracts_, 347) says: "Here (in
  Salem) two punjums are designated by 'first call,' so that twelve punjums
  of cloth is called 'six call,' and so on."

  3. PUTEAHS. (See PUTTEE.) In a letter of 1610 we have: "PATTA, katuynen,
  with red stripes over thwart through." (_Danvers, Letters_, i. 72.)

  2. PUTTON KETCHIES.—Cloths which ossibly took their name from the city of
  Anhilwāra PATAN in CUTCH.

  1727.—"That country (Tegnapatam) produces Pepper, and coarse Cloth called
  CATCHAS."—_A. Hamilton_, i. 335.

  3. RAINGS.—"_Rang_ is a muslin which resembles jhuna in its transparent
  gauze or net-like texture. It is made by passing a single thread of the
  warp through each division of the reed" (_Taylor_, _op. cit._ 44.) "1
  Piece of RAIGLINS."—_Hedges, Diary_, Hak. Soc. i. 94.

  1. SALOOPAUTS. (See SHALEE.)

  3. SANNOES.

  2. SASSERGATES.—Some kind of cloth called 'that of the 1000 knots,' H.
  _sahasra granṭhi_. "_Saserguntees_" (_Birdwood, Rep. on Old Records_,
  63).

  2. SASTRACUNDEES.—These cloths seem to take their name from a place
  called _Sāstrakunḍa_, 'Pool of the Law.' This is probably the place named
  in the _Āīn_ (ed. _Jarrett_, ii. 124): "In the township of _Kiyāra
  Sundar_ is a large reservoir which gives a peculiar whiteness to the
  cloths washed in it." Gladwin reads the name _Catarashoonda_, or
  _Catarehsoonder_ (see _Taylor_, _op. cit._ 91).

  3. SEERBANDS, SEERBETTIES.—These are names for turbans, H. _sirband_,
  _sirbatti_. Taylor (_op. cit._ 47) names them as Dacca muslins under the
  names of _surbund_ and _surbutee_.

  3. SEERSHAUDS.—This is perhaps P. _sirshād_, 'head-delighting,' some kind
  of turban or veil.

  3. SEERSUCKERS.—Perhaps, _sir_, 'head,' _sukh_, 'pleasure.'

  3. SHALBAFT.—P. _shālbāft_, 'shawl-weaving.' (See SHAWL.)

  3. SICKTERSOYS.

  3. SOOSIES.

  3. SUBNOMS, SUBLOMS.—"_Shubnam_ is a thin pellucid muslin to which the
  Persian figurative name of 'evening dew' (_shabnam_) is given, the fabric
  being, when spread over the bleaching-field, scarcely distinguishable
  from the dew on the grass." (_Taylor_, _op. cit._ 45.)

  3. SUCCATOONS. (See SUCLAT.)

  3. TAFFATIES of sorts. "A name applied to plain woven silks, in more
  recent times signifying a light thin silk stuff with a considerable
  lustre or gloss" (_Drapers' Dict._ s.v.). The word comes from P.
  _tāftan_, 'to twist, spin.' The _Āīn_ (i. 94) has _tāftah_ in the list of
  silks.

  3. TAINSOOKS.—H. _tansukh_, 'taking ease.' (See above under NAINSOOKS.)

  3. TANJEEBS. P. _tanzeb_, 'body adorning.'—"A tolerably fine muslin"
  (_Taylor_, _op. cit._ 46; _Forbes Watson_, _op. cit._ 76). "The silk
  _tanzeb_ seems to have gone out of fashion, but that in cotton is very
  commonly used for the chicken work in Lucknow." (_Yusuf Ali_, _op. cit._
  96.)

  1. TAPSEILS. (See under ALLEJA.) In the _Āīn_ (i. 94) we have:
  "_Tafçilah_ (a stuff from Mecca)."

  1670.—"So that in your house are only left some TAPSEILES and cotton
  yarn."—In _Yule, Hedges' Diary_, Hak. Soc. ii. ccxxvi. Birdwood in
  _Report on Old Records_, 38, has TOPSAILS.

  2. TARNATANNES.—"There are various kinds of muslins brought from the East
  Indies, chiefly from Bengal, betelles (see BETTEELA), _tarnatans_...."
  (_Chambers' Cycl._ of 1788, quoted in 3rd ser. _N. & Q._ iv. 135). It is
  suggested (_ibid._ 3rd ser. iv. 135) that this is the origin of English
  _tarletan_, Fr. _tarletane_, which is defined in the _Drapers' Dict._ as
  "a fine open muslin, first imported from India and afterwards imitated
  here."

  3. TARTOREES.

  3. TEPOYS.

  3. TERINDAMS.—"_Turundam_ (said by the weavers to mean 'a kind of cloth
  for the body,' the name being derived from the Arabic word _turuh_
  (_tarḥ_, _taraḥ_) 'a kind,' and the Persian one _undam_ (_andām_) 'the
  body,' is a muslin which was formerly imported, under the name of
  _terendam_, into this country." (_Taylor_, _op. cit._ 46.)

  2. VENTEPOLLAMS.

PIGDAUN, s. A spittoon; Hind. _pīkdān_. _Pīk_ is properly the expectorated
juice of chewed betel.

  [c. 1665.—"... servants ... to carry the PICQUEDENT or
  spittoon...."—_Bernier_, ed. _Constable_, 214. In 283 PIQUEDANS.]

  1673.—"The Rooms are spread with Carpets as in _India_, and they have
  PIGDANS, or Spitting pots of the Earth of this Place, which is valued
  next to that of China, to void their Spittle in."—_Fryer_, 223.

  [1684.—Hedges speaks of purchasing a "Spitting Cup."—_Diary_, Hak. Soc.
  i. 149.]

PIGEON ENGLISH. The vile jargon which forms the means of communication at
the Chinese ports between Englishmen who do not speak Chinese, and those
Chinese with whom they are in the habit of communicating. The word
"_business_" appears in this kind of talk to be corrupted into "_pigeon_,"
and hence the name of the jargon is supposed to be taken. [For examples see
_Chamberlain, Things Japanese_, 3rd ed. pp. 321 _seqq._; _Ball, Things
Chinese_, 3rd ed. 430 _seqq._ (See BUTLER ENGLISH.)]

  1880.—"... the English traders of the early days ... instead of inducing
  the Chinese to make use of correct words rather than the misshapen
  syllables they had adopted, encouraged them by approbation and example,
  to establish PIGEON ENGLISH—a grotesque gibberish which would be
  laughable if it were not almost melancholy."—_Capt. W. Gill, River of
  Golden Sand_, i. 156.

  1883.—"The 'PIDJUN ENGLISH' is revolting, and the most dignified persons
  demean themselves by speaking it.... How the whole English-speaking
  community, without distinction of rank, has come to communicate with the
  Chinese in this baby talk is extraordinary."—_Miss Bird, Golden
  Chersonese_, 37.

PIG-STICKING. This is Anglo-Indian hog-hunting, or what would be called
among a people delighting more in lofty expression, 'the chase of the Wild
Boar.' When, very many years since, one of the present writers, destined
for the Bengal Presidency, first made acquaintance with an Indian
mess-table, it was that of a Bombay regiment at Aden—in fact of that
gallant corps which is now known as the 103rd Foot, or Royal Bombay
Fusiliers. Hospitable as they were, the opportunity of enlightening an
aspirant Bengalee on the short-comings of his Presidency could not be
foregone. The chief counts of indictment were three: 1st. The inferiority
of the Bengal Horse Artillery system; 2nd. That the Bengalees were guilty
of the base effeminacy of drinking beer out of champagne glasses; 3rd. That
in pig-sticking they _threw_ the spear at the boar. The two last charges
were evidently ancient traditions, maintaining their ground as facts down
to 1840 therefore; and showed how little communication practically existed
between the Presidencies as late as that year. Both the allegations had
long ceased to be true, but probably the second had been true in the 18th
century, as the third certainly had been. This may be seen from the
quotation from R. Lindsay, and by the text and illustrations of
Williamson's _Oriental Field Sports_ (1807), [and much later (see below)].
There is, or perhaps we should say more diffidently there was, still a
difference between the Bengal practice in pig-sticking, and that of Bombay.
The Bengal spear is about 6½ feet long, loaded with lead at the butt so
that it can be grasped almost quite at the end and carried with the point
down, inclining only slightly to the front; the boar's charge is received
on the right flank, when the point, raised to 45° or 50° of inclination, if
rightly guided, pierces him in the shoulder. The Bombay spear is a longer
weapon, and is carried under the armpit like a dragoon's lance. Judging
from Elphinstone's statement below we should suppose that the Bombay as
well as the Bengal practice originally was to throw the spear, but that
both independently discarded this, the QUI-HIS adopting the short overhand
spear, the DUCKS the long lance.

  1679.—"In the morning we went a hunting of wild Hoggs with Kisna Reddy,
  the chief man of the Islands" (at mouth of the Kistna) "and about 100
  other men of the island (Dio) with lances and Three score doggs, with
  whom we killed eight Hoggs great and small, one being a Bore very large
  and fatt, of greate weight."—_Consn. of Agent and Council of Fort St.
  Geo._ on Tour. In _Notes and Exts._ No. II.

  The party consisted of Streynsham Master "Agent of the Coast and Bay,"
  with "Mr. Timothy Willes and Mr. Richard Mohun of the Councell, the
  Minister, the Chyrurgeon, the Schoolmaster, the Secretary, and two
  Writers, an Ensign, 6 mounted soldiers and a Trumpeter," in all 17
  Persons in the Company's Service, and "Four Freemen, who went with the
  Agent's Company for their own pleasure, and at their own charges." It was
  a Tour of Visitation of the Factories.

  1773.—The Hon. R. Lindsay _does_ speak of the "Wild-boar chase"; but he
  wrote after 35 years in England, and rather eschews Anglo-Indianisms:

  "Our weapon consisted only of a short heavy spear, three feet in length,
  and well poised; the boar being found and unkennelled by the spaniels,
  runs with great speed across the plain, is pursued on horseback, and the
  first rider who approaches him throws the javelin...."—_Lives of the
  Lindsays_, iii. 161.

  1807.—"When (the hog) begins to slacken, the attack should be commenced
  by the horseman who may be nearest pushing on to his left side; into
  which the spear should be thrown, so as to lodge behind the shoulder
  blade, and about six inches from the backbone."—_Williamson, Oriental
  Field Sports_, p. 9. (_Left_ must mean hog's _right_.) This author says
  that the bamboo shafts were 8 or 9 feet long, but that _very short_ ones
  had formerly been in use; thus confirming Lindsay.

  1816.—"We hog-hunt till two, then tiff, and hawk or course till dusk ...
  we do not throw our spears in the old way, but poke with spears longer
  than the common ones, and never part with them."—_Elphinstone's Life_, i.
  311.

  [1828.—"... the boar who had made good the next cane with only a slight
  scratch from a spear thrown as he was charging the hedge."—_Orient.
  Sport. Mag._ reprint 1873, i. 116.]

  1848.—"Swankey of the Body-Guard himself, that dangerous youth, and the
  greatest buck of all the Indian army now on leave, was one day discovered
  by Major Dobbin, _tête-à-tête_ with Amelia, and describing the sport of
  PIGSTICKING to her with great humour and eloquence."—_Vanity Fair_, ii.
  288.

  1866.—"I may be a young PIG-STICKER, but I am too old a sportsman to make
  such a mistake as that."—_Trevelyan, The Dawk Bungalow_, in _Fraser_,
  lxxiii. 387.

  1873.—"PIGSTICKING may be very good fun...."—_A True Reformer_, ch. i.

  1876.—"You would perhaps like tiger-hunting or PIG-STICKING; I saw some
  of that for a season or two in the East. Everything here is poor stuff
  after that."—_Daniel Deronda_, ii. ch. xi.

  1878.—"In the meantime there was a 'PIG-STICKING' meet in the
  neighbouring district."—_Life in the Mofussil_, i. 140.

PIG-TAIL, s. This term is often applied to the Chinaman's long plait of
hair, by transfer from the _queue_ of our grandfathers, to which the name
was much more appropriate. Though now universal among the Chinese, this
fashion was only introduced by their Manchu conquerors in the 17th century,
and was "long resisted by the natives of the Amoy and Swatow districts,
who, when finally compelled to adopt the distasteful fashion, concealed the
badge of slavery beneath cotton turbans, the use of which has survived to
the present day" (_Giles, Glossary of Reference_, 32). Previously the
Chinese wore their unshaven back hair gathered in a net, or knotted in a
chignon. De Rhodes (Rome, 1615, p. 5) says of the people of Tongking, that
"_like the Chinese_ they have the custom of gathering the hair in fine nets
under the hat."

  1879.—"One sees a single Sikh driving four or five Chinamen in front of
  him, having knotted their PIGTAILS together for reins."—_Miss Bird,
  Golden Chersonese_, 283.

PILAU, PILOW, PILÁF, &c., s. Pers. _pulāo_, or _pilāv_, Skt. _pulāka_, 'a
ball of boiled rice.' A dish, in origin purely Mahommedan, consisting of
meat, or fowl, boiled along with rice and spices. Recipes are given by
Herklots, ed. 1863, App. xxix.; and in the _Āīn-i-Akbarī_ (ed. _Blochmann_,
i. 60), we have one for _ḳīma pulāo_ (_ḳīma_ = 'hash') with several others
to which the name is not given. The _name_ is almost as familiar in England
as CURRY, but not the _thing_. It was an odd circumstance, some 45 years
ago, that the two surgeons of a dragoon regiment in India were called
_Currie_ and _Pilleau_.

  1616.—"Sometimes they boil pieces of flesh or hens, or other fowl, cut in
  pieces in their rice, which dish they call PILLAW. As they order it they
  make it a very excellent and a very well tasted food."—_Terry_, in
  _Purchas_, ii. 1471.

  c. 1630.—"The feast begins: it was compounded of a hundred sorts of PELO
  and candied dried meats."—_Sir T. Herbert_, ed. 1638, p. 138, [and for
  varieties, p. 310].

  [c. 1660.—"... my elegant hosts were fully employed in cramming their
  mouths with as much PELAU as they could contain...."—_Bernier_, ed.
  _Constable_, 121.]

  1673.—"The most admired Dainty wherewith they stuff themselves is PULLOW,
  whereof they will fill themselves to the Throat and receive no hurt, it
  being so well prepared for the Stomach."—_Fryer_, 399. See also p. 93. At
  p. 404 he gives a recipe.

  1682.—"They eate their PILAW and other spoone-meate withoute spoones,
  taking up their pottage in the hollow of their fingers."—_Evelyn, Diary_,
  June 19.

  1687.—"They took up their Mess with their Fingers, as the Moors do their
  PILAW, using no Spoons."—_Dampier_, i. 430.

  1689.—"PALAU, that is Rice boil'd ... with Spices intermixt, and a boil'd
  Fowl in the middle, is the most common _Indian_ Dish."—_Ovington_, 397.

  1711.—"They cannot go to the Price of a PILLOE, or boil'd Fowl and Rice;
  but the better sort make that their principal Dish."—_Lockyer_, 231.

  1793.—"On a certain day ... all the Musulman officers belonging to your
  department shall be entertained at the charge of the _Sircar_, with a
  public repast, to consist of PULLAO of the first sort."—_Select Letters
  of Tippoo S._, App. xlii.

  c. 1820.—

   "And nearer as they came, a genial savour
      Of certain stews, and roast-meats, and PILAUS,
      Things which in hungry mortals' eyes find favour."—_Don Juan_, v. 47.

  1848.—"'There's a PILLAU, Joseph, just as you like it, and Papa has
  brought home the best turbot in Billingsgate.'"—_Vanity Fair_, i. 20.

PINANG, s. This is the Malay word for Areca, and it is almost always used
by the Dutch to indicate that article, and after them by some Continental
writers of other nations. The Chinese word for the same
product—_pin-lang_—is probably, as Bretschneider says, a corruption of the
Malay word. (See PENANG.)

  [1603.—"They (the Javans) are very great eaters—and they haue a certaine
  hearbe called _bettaile_ (see BETEL) which they vsually have carryed with
  them wheresouer they goe, in boxes, or wrapped vp in a cloath like a
  sugar loafe: and also a nut called PINANGE, which are both in operation
  very hott, and they eate them continually to warme them within, and keepe
  them from the fluxe. They do likewise take much tabacco, and also
  opium."—_E. Scott, An Exact Discovrse_, &c., _of the East Indies_, 1606,
  Sig. N. 2.

  [1665.—"Their ordinary food ... is Rice, Wheat, PINANGE...."—_Sir T.
  Herbert, Travels_, 1677, p. 365 (_Stanf. Dict._).]

  1726.—"But Shah Sousa gave him (viz. Van der Broek, an envoy to Rajmahal
  in 1655) good words, and regaled him with PINANG (a great favour), and
  promised that he should be amply paid for everything."—_Valentijn_, v.
  165.

PINDARRY, s. Hind. _pinḍārī_, _pinḍārā_, but of which the more original
form appears to be Mahr. _penḍhārī_, a member of a band of plunderers
called in that language _penḍhār_ and _penḍhārā_. The etymology of the word
is very obscure. We may discard as a curious coincidence only, the
circumstance observed by Mr. H. T. Prinsep, in the work quoted below (i.
37, note), that "PINDARA seems to have the same reference to _Pandour_ that
_Kuzāk_ has to _Cossack_." Sir John Malcolm observes that the most popular
etymology among the natives ascribes the name to the dissolute habits of
the class, leading them to frequent the shops dealing in an intoxicating
drink called _pinda_. (One of the senses of _penḍhā_, according to
Molesworth's _Mahr. Dict._, is 'a drink for cattle and men, prepared from
_Holcus sorghum_' (see JOWAUR) 'by steeping it and causing it to ferment.')
Sir John adds: 'Kurreem Khan' (a famous Pindarry leader) 'told me he had
never heard of any other reason for the name; and Major Henley had the
etymology confirmed by the most intelligent of the Pindarries of whom he
enquired' (_Central India_, 2nd ed. i. 433). Wilson again considers the
most probable derivation to be from the Mahr. _penḍhā_, but in the sense of
a 'bundle of rice-straw,' and _hara_, 'who takes,' because the name was
originally applied to horsemen who hung on to an army, and were employed in
collecting forage. We cannot think either of the etymologies very
satisfactory. We venture another, as a plausible suggestion merely. Both
_pinḍ-paṛnā_ in Hindi, and _pinḍās-basneṅ_ in Mahr. signify 'to follow';
the latter being defined 'to stick closely to; to follow to the death; used
of the adherence of a disagreeable fellow.' Such phrases would aptly apply
to these hangers-on of an army in the field, looking out for prey. [The
question has been discussed by Mr. W. Irvine in an elaborate note published
in the _Indian Antiq._ of 1900. To the above three suggestions he adds two
made by other authorities: 4. that the term was taken from the _Beder_
race; 5. from _Pinḍārā_, _pinḍ_, 'a lump of food,' _ār_, 'bringer,' a
plunderer. As to the fourth suggestion, he remarks that there was a Beder
race dwelling in Mysore, Belary and the Nizam's territories. But the
objection to this etymology is that as far back as 1748 both words, _Bedar_
and _Pinḍārī_, are used by the native historian, Rām Singh Munshī, side by
side, but applied to different bodies of men. Mr. Irvine's suggestion is
that the word _Pinḍārī_, or more strictly _Panḍhār_, comes from a place or
region called _Pāndhār_ or _Pandhār_. This place is referred to by native
historians, and seems to have been situated between Burhānpur and Handiya
on the Nerbudda. There is good evidence to prove that large numbers of
Pindāris were settled in this part of the country. Mr. Irvine sums up by
saying: "If it were not for a passage in Grant Duff (_H. of the Mahrattas_,
Bombay reprint, 157), I should have been ready to maintain that I had
proved my case. My argument requires two things to make it irrefutable: (1)
a very early connection between Pandhār and the Pindhāris; (2) that the
Pindhāris had no early home or settlement outside Pandhār. As to the first
point, the recorded evidence seems to go no further back than 1794, when
Sendhiah granted them lands in Nimār; whereas before that time the name had
become fixed, and had even crept into Anglo-Indian vocabularies. As to the
second point, Grant Duff says, and he if anybody must have known, that
"there were a number of Pindhāris about the borders of Mahārāshtra and the
Carnatic...." Unless these men emigrated from Khandesh about 1726 (that is
a hundred years before 1826, the date of Grant Duff's book), their presence
in the South with the same name tends to disprove any special connection
between their name, Pindhāri, and a place, Pindhār, several hundred miles
from their country. On the other hand, it is a very singular coincidence
that men known as Pindhāris should have been newly settled about 1794 in a
country which had been known as Pandhār at least ninety years before they
thus occupied it. Such a mere fortuitous connection between Pandhār and the
Pindhāris is so extraordinary that we may call it an impossibility. A fair
inference is that the region Pandhār was the original home of the
Pindhāris, that they took their name from it, and that grants of land
between Burhānpur and Handiya were made to them in what had always been
their home-country, namely Pandhār."]

The Pinḍārīs seem to have grown up in the wars of the late Mahommedan
dynasties in the Deccan, and in the latter part of the 17th century
attached themselves to the Mahrattas in their revolt against Aurangzīb; the
first mention which we have seen of the name occurs at this time. For some
particulars regarding them we refer to the extract from Prinsep below.
During and after the Mahratta wars of Lord Wellesley's time many of the
Pinḍārī leaders obtained grants of land in Central India from Sindia and
Holkar, and in the chaos which reigned at that time outside the British
territory their raids in all directions, attended by the most savage
atrocities, became more and more intolerable; these outrages extended from
Bundelkhand on the N.E., Kadapa on the S., and Orissa on the S.E., to
Guzerat on the W., and at last repeatedly violated British territory. In a
raid made upon the coast extending from Masulipatam northward, the Pinḍārīs
in ten days plundered 339 villages, burning many, killing and wounding 682
persons, torturing 3600, and carrying off or destroying property to the
amount of £250,000. It was not, however, till 1817 that the
Governor-General, the Marquis of Hastings, found himself armed with
permission from home, and in a position to strike at them effectually, and
with the most extensive strategic combinations ever brought into action in
India. The Pinḍārīs were completely crushed, and those of the native
princes who supported them compelled to submit, whilst the British power
for the first time was rendered truly paramount throughout India.

  1706-7.—"Zoolfecar Khan, after the rains pursued Dhunnah, who fled to the
  Beejapore country, and the Khan followed him to the banks of the Kistnah.
  The PINDERREHS took Velore, which however was soon retaken.... A great
  caravan, coming from Aurungabad, was totally plundered and everything
  carried off, by a body of Mharattas, at only 12 coss distance from the
  imperial camp."—_Narrative of a Bondeela Officer_, app. to Scott's Tr. of
  Firishta's _H. of Deccan_, ii. 122. [On this see _Malcolm, Central
  India_, 2nd ed. i. 426. Mr. Irvine in the paper quoted above shows that
  it is doubtful if the author really used the word. "By a strange
  coincidence the very copy used by J. Scott is now in the British Museum.
  On turning to the passage I find 'Peḍā Baḍar,' a well-known man of the
  period, and not _Pindārā or Pinderreh_ at all."]

  1762.—"Siwaee Madhoo Rao ... began to collect troops, stores, and heavy
  artillery, so that he at length assembled near 100,000 horse, 60,000
  PINDAREHS, and 50,000 matchlock foot.... In reference to the PINDAREHS,
  it is not unknown that they are a low tribe of robbers entertained by
  some of the princes of the Dakhan, to plunder and lay waste the
  territories of their enemies, and to serve for guides."—_H. of Hydur
  Naik_, by _Meer Hassan Ali Khan_, 149. [Mr. Irvine suspects that this may
  be based on a misreading as in the former quotation. The earliest
  undoubted mention of the name in native historians is by Rām Singh
  (1748). There is a doubtful reference in the _Tārīkh-i-Muhammadī_
  (1722-23)].

  1784.—"BINDARRAS, who receive no pay, but give a certain monthly sum to
  the commander-in-chief for permission to maraud, or plunder, under
  sanction of his banners."—_Indian Vocabulary_, s.v.

  1803.—"Depend upon it that no PINDARRIES or straggling horse will venture
  to your rear, so long as you can keep the enemy in check, and your
  detachment well in advance."—_Wellington_, ii. 219.

  1823.—"On asking an intelligent old PINDARRY, who came to me on the part
  of Kurreem Khan, the reason of this absence of high character, he gave me
  a short and shrewd answer: 'Our occupation' (said he) 'was incompatible
  with the fine virtues and qualities you state; and I suppose if any of
  our people ever had them, the first effect of such good feeling would be
  to make him leave our community.'"—_Sir John Malcolm, Central India_, i.
  436.

  [    "    "He had ascended on horseback ... being mounted on a PINDAREE
  pony, an animal accustomed to climbing."—_Hoole, Personal Narrative_,
  292.]

  1825.—"The name of PINDARA is coeval with the earliest invasion of
  Hindoostan by the Mahrattas.... The designation was applied to a sort of
  sorry cavalry that accompanied the Pêshwa's armies in their expeditions,
  rendering them much the same service as the Cossacks perform for the
  armies of Russia.... The several leaders went over with their bands from
  one chief to another, as best suited their private interests, or those of
  their followers.... The rivers generally became fordable by the close of
  the DUSSERA. The horses then were shod, and a leader of tried courage and
  conduct having been chosen as _Luhbureea_, all that were inclined set
  forth on a foray or _Luhbur_, as it was called in the PINDAREE
  nomenclature; all were mounted, though not equally well. Out of a
  thousand, the proportion of good cavalry might be 400: the favourite
  weapon was a bamboo spear ... but ... it was a rule that every 15th or
  20th man of the fighting PINDAREES should be armed with a matchlock. Of
  the remaining 600, 400 were usually common _looteas_ (see LOOTY),
  indifferently mounted, and armed with every variety of weapon, and the
  rest, slaves, attendants, and camp-followers, mounted on TATTOOS, or wild
  ponies, and keeping up with the _luhbur_ in the best manner they
  could."—_Prinsep, Hist. of Pol. and Mil. Transactions_ (1813-1823), i.
  37, note.

  1829.—"The person of whom she asked this question said '_Brinjaree_' (see
  BRINJARRY) ... but the lady understood him PINDAREE, and the name was
  quite sufficient. She jumped out of the palanquin and ran towards home,
  screaming, 'PINDAREES, PINDAREES.'"—_Mem. of John Shipp_, ii. 281.

  [1861.—

   "So I took to the hills of Malwa, and the free PINDAREE life."]
               _Sir A. Lyall, The Old Pindaree._

PINE-APPLE. (See ANANAS.) [The word has been corrupted by native weavers
into PINAPHAL or MINAPHAL, as the name of a silk fabric, so called because
of the pine-apple pattern on it. (See _Yusuf Ali, Mon. on Silk_, 99.)]

PINJRAPOLE, s. A hospital for animals, existing perhaps only in Guzerat, is
so called. Guz. _pinjrāpor_ or _pinjrapol_, [properly a cage (_pinjra_) for
the sacred bull (_pola_) released in the name of Siva]. See _Heber_, ed.
1844, ii. 120, and _Ovington_, 300-301; [_P. della Valle_, Hak. Soc. i. 67,
70. _Forbes_ (_Or. Mem._ 2nd ed. i. 156) describes "the Banian hospital" at
Surat; but they do not use this word, which Molesworth says is quite modern
in Mahr.]

  1808.—"Every marriage and mercantile transaction among them is taxed with
  a contribution for the PINJRAPOLE ostensibly."—_R. Drummond._

PINTADO. From the Port.

A. A 'painted' (or 'spotted') cloth, _i.e._ CHINTZ (q.v.). Though the word
was applied, we believe, to all printed goods, some of the finer Indian
chintzes were, at least in part, finished by hand-painting.

  1579.—"With cloth of diverse colours, not much unlike our vsuall
  PENTADOES."—_Drake, World Encompassed_, Hak. Soc. 143.

  [1602.—"... some fine PINTHADOES."—_Birdwood, First Letter Book_, 34.]

  1602-5.—"... about their loynes a fine PINTADOE."—_Scot's Discourse of
  Iava_, in _Purchas_, i. 164.

  1606.—"Heare the Generall deliuered a Letter from the KINGS MAIESTIE of
  ENGLAND, with a fayre standing Cuppe, and a cover double gilt, with
  divers of the choicest PINTADOES, which hee kindly accepted
  of."—_Middleton's Voyage_, E. 3.

  [1610.—"PINTADOES of divers sorts will sell.... The names are Sarassa,
  Berumpury, large Chaudes, Selematt Cambaita, Selematt white and black,
  Cheat Betime and divers others."—_Danvers, Letters_, i. 75.

  c. 1630.—"Also they stain Linnen cloth, which we call PANTADOES."—_Sir T.
  Herbert_, ed. 1677, p. 304.]

  1665.—"To Woodcott ... where was a roome hung with PINTADO, full of
  figures greate and small, prettily representing sundry trades and
  occupations of the Indians."—_Evelyn's Diary_, Dec. 30.

  c. 1759.—"The chintz and other fine PAINTED GOODS, will, if the market is
  not overstocked, find immediate vent, and sell for 100 p. cent."—_Letter
  from Pegu_, in _Dalrymple, Or. Rep._ i. 120.

B. A name (not Anglo-Indian) for the Guinea-fowl. This _may_ have been
given from the resemblance of the speckled feathers to a chintz. But in
fact _pinta_ in Portuguese is 'a spot,' or fleck, so that probably it only
means speckled. This is the explanation of _Bluteau_. [The word is more
commonly applied to the cape Pigeon. See Mr. Gray's note on _Pyrard de
Laval_, Hak. Soc. i. 21, who quotes from Fryer, p. 12.]

PISACHEE, Skt. _piśāchī_, a she-demon, m. _piśācha_. In S. India some of
the demons worshipped by the ancient tribes are so called. The spirits of
the dead, and particularly of those who have met with violent deaths, are
especially so entitled. They are called in Tamil _pey_. Sir Walter Elliot
considers that the _Piśāchīs_ were (as in the case of _Rākshasas_) a branch
of the aboriginal inhabitants. In a note he says: 'The _Piśāchī_ dialect
appears to have been a distinct Dravidian dialect, still to be recognised
in the speech of the _Paraiya_, who cannot pronounce distinctly some of the
pure Tamil letters.' There is, however, in the Hindu drama a _Piśāchā
bhāshā_, a gibberish or corruption of Sanskrit, introduced. [This at the
present day has been applied to English.] The term _piśāchī_ is also
applied to the small circular storms commonly by Europeans called DEVILS
(q.v.). We do not know where Archdeacon Hare (see below) found the
_Piśāchī_ to be a _white_ demon.

  1610.—"The fifth (mode of Hindu marriage) is the _Pisácha-viváha_, when
  the lover, without obtaining the sanction of the girl's parents, takes
  her home by means of talismans, incantations, and such like magical
  practices, and then marries her. PISÁCH, in Sanskrit, is the name of a
  demon, which takes whatever person it fixes on, and as the above marriage
  takes place after the same manner, it has been called by this name."—_The
  Dabistán_, ii. 72; [See _Manu_, iii. 34].

  c. 1780.—"'Que demandez-vous?' leur criai-je d'un ton de voix rude.
  'Pourquoi restez-vous là à m'attendre? et d'où vient que ces autres
  femmes se sont enfuies, comme si j'étois un PÉSCHASEH (esprit malin), ou
  une bête sauvage qui voulût vous devorer?'"—_Haafner_, ii. 287.

  1801.—"They believe that such men as die accidental deaths become
  PYSÁCHI, or evil spirits, and are exceedingly troublesome by making
  extraordinary noises, in families, and occasioning fits and other
  diseases, especially in women."—_F. Buchanan's Mysore_, iii. 17.

  1816.—"Whirlwinds ... at the end of March, and beginning of April, carry
  dust and light things along with them, and are called by the natives
  PESHASHES or devils."—_Asiatic Journal_, ii. 367.

  1819.—"These demons or PEISACHES are the usual attendants of
  Shiva."—_Erskine_ on _Elephanta_, in _Bo. Lit. Soc. Trans._ i. 219.

  1827.—"As a little girl was playing round me one day with her white frock
  over her head, I laughingly called her PISASHEE, the name which the
  Indians give to their white devil. The child was delighted with so fine a
  name, and ran about the house crying out to every one she met, _I am the_
  PISASHEE, _I am the_ PISASHEE. Would she have done so, had she been wrapt
  in black, and called _witch_ or _devil_ instead? No: for, as usual, the
  reality was nothing, the sound and colour everthing."—_J. C. Hare_, in
  _Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers_, 1st Series, ed. 1838, p. 7.

PISANG, s. This is the Malay word for PLANTAIN or BANANA (qq.v.). It is
never used by English people, but is the usual word among the Dutch, and
common also among the Germans, [Norwegians and Swedes, who probably got it
through the Dutch.]

  1651.—"Les _Cottewaniens_ vendent des fruits, come du PISANG, &c."—_A.
  Roger, La Porte Ouverte_, p. 11.

  c. 1785.—"Nous arrivâmes au grand village de _Colla_, où nous vîmes de
  belles allées de bananiers ou PISANG...."—_Haafner_, ii. 85.

  [1875.—"Of the PISANG or plantain ... there are over thirty kinds, of
  which, the _Pisang-mas_, or golden plantain, so named from its colour,
  though one of the smallest, is nevertheless most deservedly
  prized."—_Thomson, The Straits of Malacca_, 8.]

PISHPASH, s. Apparently a factitious Anglo-Indian word, applied to a slop
of rice-soup with small pieces of meat in it, much used in the Anglo-Indian
nursery. [It is apparently P. _pash-pash_, 'shivered or broken in pieces';
from Pers. _pashīdan_.]

  1834.—"They found the Secretary disengaged, that is to say, if surrounded
  with huge volumes of Financial Reports on one side, and a small silver
  tray holding a mess of PISHPASH on the other, can be called
  disengaged."—_The Baboo_, &c. i. 85.

PITARRAH, s. A coffer or box used in travelling by palankin, to carry the
traveller's clothes, two such being slung to a BANGHY (q.v.). Hind.
_piṭārā_, _peṭārā_, Skt. _piṭaka_, 'a basket.' The thing was properly a
basket made of cane; but in later practice of tin sheet, with a light
wooden frame.

  [1833.—"... he sat in the palanquin, which was filled with water up to
  his neck, whilst everything he had in his BATARA (or 'trunk') was soaked
  with wet...."—_Travels of Dr. Wolff_, ii. 198.]

  1849.—"The attention of the staff was called to the necessity of putting
  their PITARAHS and property in the Bungalow, as thieves abounded. 'My
  dear Sir,' was the reply, 'we are quite safe; we have nothing.'"—_Delhi
  Gazette_, Nov. 7.

  1853.—"It was very soon settled that Oakfield was to send to the dák
  bungalow for his PETARAHS, and stay with Staunton for about three
  weeks."—_W. D. Arnold, Oakfield_, i. 223.

PLANTAIN, s. This is the name by which the _Musa sapientum_ is universally
known to Anglo-India. Books distinguish between the _Musa sapientum_ or
plantain, and the _Musa paradisaica_ or banana; but it is hard to
understand where the line is supposed to be drawn. Variation is gradual and
infinite.

The botanical name _Musa_ represents the Ar. _mauz_, and that again is from
the Skt. _mocha_. The specific name _sapientum_ arises out of a
misunderstanding of a passage in Pliny, which we have explained under the
head JACK. The specific _paradisaica_ is derived from the old belief of
Oriental Christians (entertained also, if not originated by the
Mahommedans) that this was the tree from whose leaves Adam and Eve made
themselves aprons. A further mystical interest attached also to the fruit,
which some believed to be the forbidden apple of Eden. For in the pattern
formed by the core or seeds, when the fruit was cut across, our forefathers
discerned an image of the Cross, or even of the Crucifix. Medieval
travellers generally call the fruit either _Musa_ or 'Fig of Paradise,' or
sometimes 'Fig of India,' and to this day in the W. Indies the common small
plantains are called 'figs.' The Portuguese also habitually called it
'Indian Fig.' And this perhaps originated some confusion in Milton's mind,
leading him to make the BANYAN (_Ficus Indica_ of Pliny, as of modern
botanists) the Tree of the aprons, and greatly to exaggerate the size of
the leaves of that _ficus_.

The name BANANA is never employed by the English in India, though it is the
name universal in the London fruit-shops, where this fruit is now to be had
at almost all seasons, and often of excellent quality, imported chiefly, we
believe, from Madeira, [and more recently from Jamaica. Mr. Skeat adds that
in the Strait Settlements the name PLANTAIN seems to be reserved for those
varieties which are only eatable when cooked, but the word BANANA is used
indifferently with PLANTAIN, the latter being on the whole perhaps the
rarer word].

The name _plantain_ is no more originally Indian than is _banana_. It, or
rather _platano_, appears to have been the name under which the fruit was
first carried to the W. Indies, according to Oviedo, in 1516; the first
edition of his book was published in 1526. That author is careful to
explain that the plant was _improperly_ so called, as it was quite another
thing from the _platanus_ described by Pliny. Bluteau says the word is
Spanish. We do not know how it came to be applied to the _Musa_. [Mr. Guppy
(8 ser. _Notes & Queries_, viii. 87) suggests that "the Spaniards have
obtained _platano_ from the Carib and Galibi words for _banana_, viz.,
_balatanna_ and _palatana_, by the process followed by the Australian
colonists when they converted a native name for the casuarina trees into
'she-oak'; and that we can thus explain how _platano_ came in Spanish to
signify both the plane-tree and the banana." Prof. Skeat (_Concise Dict._
s.v.) derives plantain from Lat. _planta_, 'a plant'; properly 'a spreading
sucker or shoot'; and says that the plantain took its name from its
spreading leaf.] The rapid spread of the plantain or banana in the West,
whence both names were carried back to India, is a counterpart to the rapid
diffusion of the ANANAS in the Old World of Asia. It would seem from the
translation of Mendoça that in his time (1585) the Spaniards had come to
use the form _plantano_, which our Englishmen took up as _plantan_ and
_plantain_. But even in the 1736 edition of Bailey's Dict. the only
explanation of plantain given is as the equivalent of the Latin _plantago_,
the field-weed known by the former name. _Platano_ and _Plantano_ are used
in the Philippine Islands by the Spanish population.

  1336.—"Sunt in Syriâ et Aegypto poma oblonga quae Paradisi nuncupantur
  optimi saporis, mollia, in ore cito dissolubilia: per transversum
  quotiescumque ipsa incideris invenies _Crucifixum_ ... diu non durant,
  unde per mare ad nostras partes duci non possunt incorrupta."—_Gul. de
  Boldensele._

  c. 1350.—"Sunt enim in orto illo Adae de Seyllano primo _musae_, quas
  incolae ficus vocant ... et istud vidimus oculis nostris quod ubicunque
  inciditur per transversum, in utrâque parte incisurae videtur ymago
  hominis _crucifixi_ ... et de istis foliis ficûs Adam et Eva fecerunt
  sibi perizomata...."—_John de' Marignolli, in Cathay_, &c. p. 352.

  1384.—"And there is again a fruit which many people assert to be that
  regarding which our first father Adam sinned, and this fruit they call
  _Muse_ ... in this fruit you see a very great miracle, for when you
  divide it anyway, whether lengthways or across, or cut it as you will,
  you shall see inside, as it were, the image of the _Crucifix_; and of
  this we comrades many times made proof."—_Viaggio di Simone Sigoli_
  (Firenze, 1862, p. 160).

  1526 (tr. 1577).—"There are also certayne plantes whiche the Christians
  call PLATANI. In the myddest of the plant, in the highest part thereof,
  there groweth a cluster with fourtie or fiftie PLATANS about it.... This
  cluster ought to be taken from the plant, when any one of the PLATANS
  begins to appeare yelowe, at which time they take it, and hang it in
  their houses, where all the cluster waxeth rype, with all his
  PLATANS."—_Oviedo_, transl. in _Eden's Hist. of Travayle_, f. 208.

  1552 (tr. 1582).—"Moreover the Ilande (of Mombas) is verye pleasaunt,
  having many orchards, wherein are planted and are groweing ... Figges of
  the Indias...."—_Castañeda_, by N. L., f. 22.

  1579.—"... a fruit which they call _Figo_ (Magellane calls it a figge of
  a span long, but it is no other than that which the Spaniards and
  Portingalls have named PLANTANES)."—_Drake's Voyage_, Hak. Soc. p. 142.

  1585 (tr. 1588).—"There are mountaines very thicke of orange trees,
  siders [_i.e._ _cedras_, 'citrons'], limes, PLANTANOS, and
  palmas."—_Mendoça_, by _R. Parke_, Hak. Soc. ii. 330.

  1588.—"Our Generall made their wiues to fetch vs PLANTANS, Lymmons, and
  Oranges, Pine-apples, and other fruits."—_Voyage of Master Thomas
  Candish_, in _Purchas_, i. 64.

  1588 (tr. 1604).—"... the first that shall be needefulle to treate of is
  the PLANTAIN (_Platano_), or PLANTANO, as the vulgar call it.... The
  reason why the Spaniards call it PLATANO (for the Indians had no such
  name), was, as in other trees for that they have found some resemblance
  of the one with the other, even as they called some fruites prunes,
  pines, and cucumbers, being far different from those which are called by
  those names in Castille. The thing wherein was most resemblance, in my
  opinion, between the PLATANOS at the Indies and those which the ancients
  did celebrate, is the greatnes of the leaves.... But, in truth, there is
  no more comparison nor resemblance of the one with the other than there
  is, as the Proverb saith, betwixt an egge and a chesnut."—_Joseph de
  Acosta_, transl. by E. G., Hak. Soc. i. 241.

  1593.—"The PLANTANE is a tree found in most parts of Afrique and America,
  of which two leaves are sufficient to cover a man from top to
  toe."—_Hawkins, Voyage into the South Sea_, Hak. Soc. 49.

  1610.—"... and every day failed not to send each man, being one and
  fiftie in number, two cakes of white bread, and a quantitie of Dates and
  PLANTANS...."—_Sir H. Middleton_, in _Purchas_, i. 254.

  c. 1610.—"Ces Gentils ayant pitié de moy, il y eut vne femme qui me mit
  ... vne seruiete de feuilles de PLANTANE accommodées ensemble auec des
  espines, puis me ietta dessus du rys cuit auec vne certaine sauce qu'ils
  appellent _caril_ (see CURRY)...."—_Mocquet, Voyages_, 292.

  [   "    "They (elephants) require ... besides leaves of trees, chiefly
  of the Indian fig, which we call Bananes and the Turks
  PLANTENES."—_Pyrard de Laval_, Hak. Soc. ii. 345.]

  1616.—"They have to these another fruit we English there call a PLANTEN,
  of which many of them grow in clusters together ... very yellow when they
  are Ripe, and then they taste like unto a _Norwich_ Pear, but much
  better."—_Terry_, ed. 1665, p. 360.

  c. 1635.—

   "... with candy PLANTAINS and the juicy Pine,
    On choicest Melons and sweet Grapes they dine,
    And with Potatoes fat their wanton wine."
               _Waller, Battle of the Summer Islands._

  c. 1635.—

   "Oh how I long my careless Limbs to lay
    Under the PLANTAIN'S Shade; and all the Day
    With amorous Airs my Fancy entertain."
               _Waller, Battle of the Summer Islands._

  c. 1660.—

   "The Plant (at Brasil _Bacone_ call'd) the Name
    Of the Eastern PLANE-TREE takes, but not the same:
    Bears leaves so large, one single Leaf can shade
    The Swain that is beneath her Covert laid;
    Under whose verdant Leaves fair Apples grow,
    Sometimes two Hundred on a single Bough...."
               _Cowley, of Plants_, Bk. v.

  1664.—

   "Wake, Wake Quevera! Our soft rest must cease,
    And fly together with our country's peace.
    No more must we sleep under PLANTAIN shade,
    Which neither heat could pierce nor cold invade;
    Where bounteous Nature never feels decay,
    And opening buds drive falling fruits away."
               _Dryden, Prologue to the Indian Queen._

  1673.—"Lower than these, but with a Leaf far broader, stands the curious
  PLANTAN, loading its tender Body with a Fruit, whose clusters emulate the
  Grapes of _Canaan_, which burthened two men's shoulders."—_Fryer_, 19.

  1686.—"The PLANTAIN I take to be King of all Fruit, not except the Coco
  itself."—_Dampier_, i. 311.

  1689.—"... and now in the Governour's Garden (at St. Helena) and some
  others of the Island are quantities of PLANTINS, BONANOES, and other
  delightful Fruits brought from the East...."—_Ovington_, 100.

  1764.—

   "But round the upland huts, BANANAS plant;
    A wholesome nutriment bananas yield,
    And sunburnt labour loves its breezy shade,
    Their graceful screen let kindred PLANTANES join,
    And with their broad vans shiver in the breeze."
               _Grainger_, Bk. iv.

  1805.—"The PLANTAIN, in some of its kinds, supplies the place of
  bread."—_Orme, Fragments_, 479.

PLASSEY, n.p. The village _Palāsī_, which gives its name to Lord Clive's
famous battle (June 23, 1757). It is said to take its name from the _pālas_
(or DHAWK) tree.

  1748.—"... that they have great reason to complain of Ensign English's
  conduct in not waiting at PLACY ... and that if he had staid another day
  at PLACY, as Tullerooy Caun was marching with a large force towards
  Cutway, they presume the Mahrattas would have retreated inland on their
  approach and left him an open passage...."—_Letter from Council at
  Cossimbazar_, in _Long_, p. 2.

  [1757.—Clive's original report of the battle is dated on the "plain of
  PLACIS."—_Birdwood, Report on Old Records_, 57.]

  1768-71.—"General CLIVE, who should have been the leader of the English
  troops in this battle (PLASSY), left the command to Colonel COOTE, and
  remained hid in his palankeen during the combat, out of the reach of the
  shot, and did not make his appearance before the enemy were put to
  flight."—_Stavorinus_, E.T. i. 486. This stupid and inaccurate writer
  says that several English officers who were present at the battle related
  this "anecdote" to him. This, it may be hoped, is as untrue as the rest
  of the story. Even to such a writer one would have supposed that Clive's
  mettle would be familiar.

PODÁR, s. Hind. _poddār_, corrn. of Pers. _fot̤adār_, from _fot̤a_, 'a bag
of money.' A cash-keeper, or especially an officer attached to a treasury,
whose business it is to weigh money and bullion and appraise the value of
coins.

  [c. 1590.—"The Treasurer. Called in the language of the day
  FOTADAR."—_Āīn_, ed. _Jarrett_, ii. 49.]

  1680.—"PODAR." (See under DUSTOOR.)

  1683.—"The like losses in proportion were preferred to be proved by
  Ramchurne PODAR, Bendura bun PODAR, and Mamoobishwas who produced their
  several books for evidence."—_Hedges, Diary_, Hak. Soc. i. 84.

  [1772.—"PODĀR, a money-changer or teller, under a SHROFF."—_Verelst, View
  of Bengal_, Gloss. s.v.]

POGGLE, PUGGLY, &c., s. Properly Hind. _pāgal_; 'a madman, an idiot'; often
used colloquially by Anglo-Indians. A friend belonging to that body used to
adduce a macaronic adage which we fear the non-Indian will fail to
appreciate: "PAGAL _et pecunia jaldè separantur_!" [See NAUTCH.]

  1829.—"It's true the people call me, I know not why, the PUGLEY."—_Mem.
  John Shipp_, ii. 255.

  1866.—"I was foolish enough to pay these BUDMASHES beforehand, and they
  have thrown me over. I must have been a PAUGUL to do it."—_Trevelyan, The
  Dawk Bungalow_, 385.

  [1885.—"He told me that the native name for a regular picnic is a
  'POGGLE-_khana_,' that is, a fool's dinner."—_Lady Dufferin, Viceregal
  Life_, 88.]

POISON-NUT, s. _Strychnos nux vomica_, L.

POLEA, n.p. Mal. _pulayan_, [from Tam. _pulam_, 'a field,' because in
Malabar they are occupied in rice cultivation]. A person of a low or impure
tribe, who causes pollution (_pula_) to those of higher caste, if he
approaches within a certain distance. [The rules which regulate their
meeting with other people are given by Mr. Logan (_Malabar_, i. 118).] From
_pula_ the Portuguese formed also the verbs _empolear-se_, 'to become
polluted by the touch of a low-caste person,' and _desempolear-se_, 'to
purify oneself after such pollution' (_Gouvea_, f. 97, and _Synod._ f.
52_v_), superstitions which Menezes found prevailing among the Christians
of Malabar. (See HIRAVA.)

  1510.—"The fifth class are called POLIAR, who collect pepper, wine, and
  nuts ... the POLIAR may not approach either the Naeri (see NAIR) or the
  Brahmins within 50 paces, unless they have been called by
  them...."—_Varthema_, 142.

  1516.—"There is another lower sort of gentiles called PULER.... They do
  not speak to the nairs except for a long way off, as far as they can be
  heard speaking with a loud voice.... And whatever man or woman should
  touch them, their relations immediately kill them like a contaminated
  thing...."—_Barbosa_, 143.

  1572.—

   "A ley, da gente toda, ricca e pobre,
    De fabulas composta se imagina:
    Andão nus, e somente hum pano cobre
    As partes que a cubrir natura ensina.
    Dous modos ha de gente; porque a nobre
    _Nayres_ chamados são, e a minos dina
    POLEAS tem por nome, a quem obriga
    A ley não misturar a casta antiga."
               _Camões_, vii. 37.

By Burton:

   "The Law that holds the people high and low,
    is fraught with false phantastick tales long past;
    they go unclothèd, but a wrap they throw
    for decent purpose round the loins and waist:
    Two modes of men are known: the nobles know
    the name of Nayrs, who call the lower caste
    POLÉAS, whom their haughty laws contain
    from intermingling with the higher strain...."

  1598.—"When the Portingales came first into India, and made league and
  composition with the King of _Cochin_, the _Nayros_ desired that men
  shovld give them place, and turne out of the Way, when they mette in the
  Streetes, as the POLYAS. ..." (used to do).—_Linschoten_, 78; [Hak. Soc.
  i. 281; also see i. 279].

  1606.—"... he said by way of insult that he would order him to touch a
  POLEAA, which is one of the lowest castes of Malauar."—_Gouvea_, f. 76.

  1626.—"These PULER are Theeves and Sorcerers."—_Purchas, Pilgrimage_,
  553.

  [1727.—"POULIAS." (See under MUCOA.)

  [1754.—"Niadde and PULLIE are two low castes on the _Malabar_
  coast...."—_Ives_, 26.

  [1766.—"... POOLIGHEES, a cast hardly suffered to breathe the common air,
  being driven into the forrests and mountains out of the commerce of
  mankind...."—_Grose_, 2nd ed. ii. 161 _seq._]

  1770.—"Their degradation is still more complete on the Malabar coast,
  which has not been subdued by the Mogul, and where they (the pariahs) are
  called POULIATS."—_Raynal_, E.T. 1798, i. 6.

  1865.—"Further south in India we find polyandry among ... POLERES of
  Malabar."—_McLennan, Primitive Marriage_, 179.

POLIGAR, s. This term is peculiar to the Madras Presidency. The persons so
called were properly subordinate feudal chiefs, occupying tracts more or
less wild, and generally of predatory habits in former days; they are now
much the same as ZEMINDARS in the highest use of that term (q.v.). The word
is Tam. _pāḷaiyakkāran_, 'the holder of a _pālaiyam_,' or feudal estate;
Tel. _paḷegāḍu_; and thence Mahr. _pālegār_; the English form being no
doubt taken from one of the two latter. The southern Poligars gave much
trouble about 100 years ago, and the "Poligar wars" were somewhat serious
affairs. In various assaults on Pānjālamkurichi, one of their forts in
Tinnevelly, between 1799 and 1801 there fell 15 British officers. Much
regarding the Poligārs of the south will be found in Nelson's _Madura_, and
in Bishop Caldwell's very interesting _History of Tinnevelly_. Most of the
quotations apply to those southern districts. But the term was used north
to the Mahratta boundary.

  1681.—"They pulled down the POLEGAR'S houses, who being conscious of his
  guilt, had fled and hid himself."—_Wheeler_, i. 118.

  1701.—"Le lendemain je me rendis à Tailur, c'est une petite ville qui
  appartient à un autre PALEAGAREN."—_Lett. Edif._ x. 269.

  1745.—"J'espère que Votre Eminence agréera l'établissement d'une nouvelle
  Mission près des Montagnes appellées vulgairement des PALLEAGARES, où
  aucun Missionnaire n'avait paru jusqu'à présent. Cette contrée est
  soumise à divers petits Rois appellés également PALLEAGARS, qui sont
  independans du Grand Mogul quoique placés presque au milieu de son
  Empire."—_Norbert, Mem._ ii. 406-7.

  1754.—"A POLYGAR ... undertook to conduct them through defiles and passes
  known to very few except himself."—_Orme_, i. 373.

  1780.—"He (Hyder) now moved towards the pass of Changana, and encamped
  upon his side of it, and sent ten thousand POLYGÀRS to clear away the
  pass, and make a road sufficient to enable his artillery and stores to
  pass through."—_Hon. James Lindsay_, in _Lives of the Lindsays_, iii.
  233.

     "    "The matchlock men are generally accompanied by POLIGARS, a set
  of fellows that are almost savage, and make use of no other weapon than a
  pointed bamboo spear, 18 or 20 feet long."—_Munro's Narrative_, 131.

  1783.—"To Mahomet Ali they twice sold the Kingdom of Tanjore. To the same
  Mahomet Ali they sold at least twelve sovereign Princes called the
  POLYGARS."—_Burke's Speech on Fox's India Bill_, in _Works_, iii. 458.

  1800.—"I think Pournaya's mode of dealing with these rajahs ... is
  excellent. He sets them up in palankins, elephants, &c., and a great
  SOWARRY, and makes them attend to his person. They are treated with great
  respect, which they like, but can do no mischief in the country. Old
  Hyder adopted this plan, and his operations were seldom impeded by
  POLYGAR wars."—_A. Wellesley_ to _T. Munro_, in _Arbuthnot's Mem._ xcii.

  1801.—"The southern POLIGARS, a race of rude warriors habituated to arms
  of independence, had been but lately subdued."—_Welsh_, i. 57.

  1809.—"Tondiman is an hereditary title. His subjects are POLYGARS, and
  since the late war ... he is become the chief of those tribes, among whom
  the singular law exists of the female inheriting the sovereignty in
  preference to the male."—_Ld. Valentia_, i. 364.

  1868.—"There are 72 bastions to the fort of Madura; and each of them was
  now formally placed in charge of a particular chief, who was bound for
  himself and his heirs to keep his post at all times, and under all
  circumstances. He was also bound to pay a fixed annual tribute; to supply
  and keep in readiness a quota of troops for the Governor's armies; to
  keep the Governor's peace over a particular tract of country.... A grant
  was made to him of a tract of a country ... together with the title of
  _Páleiya Kâran_ (POLIGAR)...."—_Nelson's Madura_, Pt. iii. p. 99.

     "    "Some of the POLIGARS were placed in authority over others, and
  in time of war were answerable for the good conduct of their
  subordinates. Thus the Sethupati was chief of them all; and the POLIGAR
  of Dindigul is constantly spoken of as being the chief of eighteen
  POLIGARS ... when the levying of troops was required the Delavay (see
  DALAWAY) sent requisitions to such and such POLIGARS to furnish so many
  armed men within a certain time...."—_Nelson's Madura_, Pt. iii. p. 157.

  The word got transferred in English parlance to the people _under_ such
  Chiefs (see quotations above, 1780-1809); and especially, it would seem,
  to those whose habits were predatory:

  1869.—"There is a third well-defined race mixed with the general
  population, to which a common origin may probably be assigned. I mean the
  predatory classes. In the south they are called POLIGARS, and consist of
  the tribes of Marawars, Kallars (see COLLERY), Bedars (see BYDE), Ramuses
  (see RAMOOSY): and in the North are represented by the Kolis (see COOLY)
  of Guzerat, and the Gujars (see GOOJUR) of the N.W. Provinces."—_Sir
  Walter Elliot_, in _J. Ethn. Soc. L._, N.S. i. 112.

[POLIGAR DOG, s. A large breed of dogs found in S. India. "The Polygar dog
is large and powerful, and is peculiar in being without hair" (_Balfour,
Cycl._ i. 568).]

  [1853.—"It was evident that the original breed had been crossed with the
  bull-dog, or the large POLIGAR DOG of India."—_Campbell, Old Forest
  Ranger_, 3rd ed. p. 12.]

POLLAM, s. Tam. _pālaiyam_; Tel. _pāḷemu_; (see under POLIGAR).

  1783.—"The principal reason which they assigned against the extirpation
  of the POLYGARS (see POLIGAR) was that the weavers were protected in
  their fortresses. They might have added, that the Company itself which
  stung them to death, had been warmed in the bosom of these unfortunate
  princes; for on the taking of Madras by the French, it was in their
  hospitable POLLAMS that most of the inhabitants found refuge and
  protection."—_Burke's Speech on Fox's E. I. Bill_, in _Works_, iii. 488.

  1795.—"Having submitted the general remarks on the POLLAMS I shall
  proceed to observe that in general the conduct of the POLIGARS is much
  better than could be expected from a race of men, who have hitherto been
  excluded from those advantages, which almost always attend conquered
  countries, an intercourse with their conquerors. With the exception of a
  very few, when I arrived they had never seen a European...."—_Report on
  Dindigal_, by _Mr. Wynch_, quoted in _Nelson's Madura_, Pt. iv. p. 15.

POLO, s. The game of hockey on horseback, introduced of late years into
England, under this name, which comes from Baltī; _polo_ being properly in
the language of that region the ball used in the game. The game thus lately
revived was once known and practised (though in various forms) from
Provence to the borders of China (see CHICANE). It had continued to exist
down to our own day, it would seem, only near the extreme East and the
extreme West of the Himālaya, viz. at Manipur in the East (between Cachar
and Burma), and on the West in the high valley of the Indus (in Ladāk,
Balti, Astōr and Gilgit, and extending into Chitrāl). From the former it
was first adopted by our countrymen at Calcutta, and a little later (about
1864) it was introduced into the Punjab, almost simultaneously from the
Lower Provinces and from Kashmīr, where the summer visitors had taken it
up. It was first played in England, it would seem at Aldershot, in July
1871, and in August of the same year at Dublin in the Phœnix Park. The next
year it was played in many places.[224] But the first mention we can find
in the _Times_ is a notice of a match at Lillie-Bridge, July 11, 1874, in
the next day's paper. There is mention of the game in the _Illustrated
London News_ of July 20, 1872, where it is treated as a new invention by
British officers in India. [According to the author of the _Badminton
Library_ treatise on the game, it was adopted by Lieut. Sherer in 1854, and
a club was formed in 1859. The same writer fixes its introduction into the
Punjab and N.W.P. in 1861-62. See also an article in _Baily's Magazine_ on
"The Early History of Polo" (June 1890). The Central Asian form is
described, under the name of _Baiga_ or _Kok-büra_, 'grey wolf,' by
Schuyler (_Turkistan_, i. 268 _seqq._) and that in Dardistan by Biddulph
(_Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh_, 84 _seqq._).] In Ladāk it is not indigenous,
but an introduction from Baltistan. See a careful and interesting account
of the game of those parts in Mr. F. Drew's excellent book, _The Jummoo and
Kashmir Territories_, 1875, pp. 380-392.

We learn from Professor Tylor that the game exists still in Japan, and a
very curious circumstance is that the polo _racket_, just as that described
by Jo. Cinnamus in the extract under CHICANE has survived there. [See
_Chamberlain, Things Japanese_, 3rd ed. 333 _seqq._]

  1835.—"The ponies of Muneepoor hold a very conspicuous rank in the
  estimation of the inhabitants.... The national game of Hockey, which is
  played by every male of the country capable of sitting a horse, renders
  them all expert equestrians; and it was by men and horses so trained,
  that the princes of Muneepoor were able for many years not only to repel
  the aggressions of the Burmahs, but to save the whole country ... and
  plant their banners on the banks of the Irrawattee."—_Pemberton's Report
  on the E. Frontier of Br. India_, 31-32.

  1838.—"At Shighur I first saw the game of the Chaughán, which was played
  the day after our arrival on the MYDAN or plain laid out expressly for
  the purpose.... It is in fact hocky on horseback. The ball, which is
  larger than a cricket ball, is only a globe made of a kind of
  willow-wood, and is called in Tibeti 'PULU.'... I can conceive that the
  Chaughán requires only to be seen to be played. It is the fit sport of an
  equestrian nation.... The game is played at almost every valley in Little
  Tibet and the adjoining countries ... Ladakh, Yessen, Chitral, &c.; and I
  should recommend it to be tried on the Hippodrome at
  Bayswater...."—_Vigne, Travels in Kashmir, Ladakh, Iskardo_, &c. (1842),
  ii. 289-392.

  1848.—"An assembly of all the principal inhabitants took place at
  Iskardo, on some occasion of ceremony or festivity.... I was thus
  fortunate enough to be a witness of the chaugan, which is derived from
  Persia, and has been described by Mr. Vigne as hocky on horseback....
  Large quadrangular enclosed meadows for this game may be seen in all the
  larger villages of Balti, often surrounded by rows of beautiful willow
  and poplar trees."—_Dr. T. Thomson, Himalaya and Tibet_, 260-261.

  1875.—

   "POLO, Tent-pegging, Hurlingham, the Rink,
    I leave all these delights."
               _Browning, Inn Album_, 23.

POLLOCK-SAUG, s. Hind. _pālak_, _pālak-sāg_; a poor vegetable, called also
'country spinach' (_Beta vulgaris_, or _B. Bengalensis_, Roxb.). [Riddell
(_Domest. Econ._ 579) calls it 'Bengal Beet.']

POLONGA, TIC-POLONGA, s. A very poisonous snake, so called in Ceylon
(_Bungarus?_ or _Daboia elegans?_); Singh. _poloñgarā_. [The _Madras
Gloss._ identifies it with the _Daboia elegans_, and calls it 'Chain
viper,' 'Necklace snake,' 'Russell's viper,' or COBRA MANILLA. The Singh.
name is said to be TITPOLANGA, _tit_, 'spotted,' _polanga_, 'viper.']

  1681.—"There is another venomous snake called POLONGO, the most venomous
  of all, that kills cattel. Two sorts of them I have seen, the one green,
  the other of reddish gray, full of white rings along the sides, and about
  five or six feet long."—_Knox_, 29.

  1825.—"There are only four snakes ascertained to be poisonous; the COBRA
  DE CAPELLO is the most common, but its bite is not so certainly fatal as
  that of the TIC POLONGA, which destroys life in a few minutes."—_Mrs.
  Heber_, in _H.'s Journal_, ed. 1844, ii. 167.

POMFRET, POMPHRET, s. A genus of sea-fish of broad compressed form,
embracing several species, of good repute for the table on all the Indian
coasts. According to Day they are all reducible to _Stromateus sinensis_,
'the white Pomfret,' _Str. cinereus_, which is, when immature, 'the silver
Pomfret,' and when mature, 'the gray Pomfret,' and _Str. niger_, 'the black
P.' The French of Pondicherry call the fish _pample_. We cannot connect it
with the πομπίλος of _Aelian_ (xv. 23) and Athenaeus (Lib. VII. cap. xviii.
_seqq._) which is identified with a very different fish, the 'pilot-fish'
(_Naucrates ductor_ of Day). The name is probably from the Portuguese, and
a corruption of _pampano_, 'a vine-leaf,' from supposed resemblance; this
is the Portuguese name of a fish which occurs just where the _pomfret_
should be mentioned. Thus:

  [1598.—"The best fish is called Mordexiin, PAMPANO, and
  Tatiingo."—_Linschoten_, Hak. Soc. ii. 11.]

  1613.—"The fishes of this Mediterranean (the Malayan sea) are very
  savoury SABLES, and SEER FISH (_serras_) and PAMPANOS, and
  rays...."—_Godinho de Eredia_, f. 33_v_.

  [1703.—"... Albacores, Daulphins, PAUMPHLETS."—In _Yule, Hedges' Diary_,