CHICKORE, s. The red-legged partridge, or its close congener Caccabis chukor, Gray. It is common in the Western Himālaya, in the N. Punjab, and in Afghanistan. The francolin of Moorcroft's Travels is really the chickore. The name appears to be Skt. chakora, and this disposes of the derivation formerly suggested by one of the present writers, as from the Mongol tsokhor, 'dappled or pied' (a word, moreover, which the late Prof. Schiefner informed us is only applied to horses). The name is sometimes applied to other birds. Thus, according to Cunningham, it is applied in Ladak to the Snow-cock (Tetraogallus {194b}Himalayensis, Gray), and he appears to give chá-kor as meaning 'white-bird' in Tibetan. Jerdon gives 'snow chukor' and 'strath-chukor' as sportsmen's names for this fine bird. And in Bengal Proper the name is applied, by local English sportsmen, to the large handsome partridge (Ortygornis gularis, Tem.) of Eastern Bengal, called in H. kaiyah or ban-tītar ('forest partridge'). See Jerdon, ed. 1877, ii. 575. Also the birds described in the extract from Mr. Abbott below do not appear to have been caccabis (which he speaks of in the same journal as 'red-legged partridge'). And the use of the word by Persians (apparently) is notable; it does not appear in Persian dictionaries. There is probably some mistake. The birds spoken of may have been the Large Sand-grouse (Pterocles arenarius, Pal.), which in both Persia and Afghanistan is called by names meaning 'Black-breast.'
The belief that the chickore eats fire, mentioned in the quotation below, is probably from some verbal misconception (quasi ātish-khōr?). [This is hardly probable as the idea that the partridge drinks the moonbeams is as old as the Brahma Vaivarta Purāna: "O Lord, I drink in with the partridges of my eyes thy face full of nectar, which resembles the full moon of autumn." Also see Katha Sarit Sāgara, tr. by Mr. Tawney (ii. 243), who has kindly given the above references.] Jerdon states that the Afghans call the bird the 'Fire-eater.'
c. 1190.—"... plantains and fruits, Koils, Chakors, peacocks, Sarases, beautiful to behold."—The Prithirája Rásan of Chand Bardáī, in Ind. Ant. i. 273.
In the following passage the word cator is supposed by the editor to be a clerical error for çacor or chacor.
1298.—"The Emperor has had several little houses erected in which he keeps in mew a huge number of cators, which are what we call the Great Partridge."—Marco Polo (2nd ed.), i. 287.
1520.—"Haidar Alemdâr had been sent by me to the Kafers. He met me below the Pass of Bâdîj, accompanied by some of their chiefs, who brought with them a few skins of wine. While coming down the Pass, he saw prodigious numbers of Chikûrs."—Baber, 282.
1814.—"... partridges, quails, and a bird which is called Cupk by the Persians and Afghauns, and the hill Chikore by the Indians, and which I understand is known {195a}in Europe by the name of the Greek Partridge."—Elphinstone's Caubool, ed. 1839, i. 192; ["the same bird which is called Chicore by the natives and fire-eater by the English in Bengal."—Ibid. ii. 95].
c. 1815.—"One day in the fort he found a hill-partridge enclosed in a wicker basket.... This bird is called the chuckoor, and is said to eat fire."—Mrs. Sherwood, Autobiog., 440.
1850.—"A flight of birds attracted my attention; I imagine them to be a species of bustard or grouse—black beneath and with much white about the wings—they were beyond our reach; the people called them Chukore."—K. Abbott, Notes during a Journey in Persia, in J. R. Geog. Soc. xxv. 41.
CHILAW, n.p. A place on the west coast of Ceylon, an old seat of the pearl-fishery. The name is a corruption of the Tam. salābham, 'the diving'; in Singhalese it is Halavatta. The name was commonly applied by the Portuguese to the whole aggregation of shoals (Baixos de Chilao) in the Gulf of Manaar, between Ceylon and the coast of Madura and Tinnevelly.
1543.—"Shoals of Chilao." See quotation under BEADALA.
1610.—"La pesqueria de Chilao ... por hazerse antiguamente in un puerto del mismo nombre en la isla de Seylan ... llamado asi por ista causa; por que chilao, en lengua Chengala, ... quiere dezir pesqueria."—Teixeira, Pt. ii. 29.
CHILLUM, s. H. chilam; "the part of the huḳḳa (see HOOKA) which contains the tobacco and charcoal balls, whence it is sometimes loosely used for the pipe itself, or the act of smoking it" (Wilson). It is also applied to the replenishment of the bowl, in the same way as a man asks for "another glass." The tobacco, as used by the masses in the hubble-bubble, is cut small and kneaded into a pulp with goor, i.e. molasses, and a little water. Hence actual contact with glowing charcoal is needed to keep it alight.
1781.—"Dressing a hubble-bubble, per week at 3 chillums a day. fan 0, dubs 3, cash 0."
—Prison Experiences in Captivity of Hon. J. Lindsay, in Lives of Lindsays, iii.
1811.—"They have not the same scruples for the Chillum as for the rest of the Hooka, and it is often lent ... whereas the very proposition for the Hooka gives rise frequently to the most ridiculous quarrels."—Solvyns, iii.
1828.—"Every sound was hushed but the noise of that wind ... and the occasional bubbling of my hookah, which had just been furnished with another chillum."—The Kuzzilbash, i. 2.
1829.—"Tugging away at your hookah, find no smoke; a thief having purloined your silver chelam and surpoose."—John Shipp, ii. 159.
1848.—"Jos however ... could not think of moving till his baggage was cleared, or of travelling until he could do so with his chillum."—Vanity Fair, ii. ch. xxiii.
CHILLUMBRUM, n.p. A town in S. Arcot, which is the site of a famous temple of Siva, properly Shidamburam. Etym. obscure. [Garstin (Man. S. Arcot, 400) gives the name as Chedambram, or more correctly Chittambalam, 'the atmosphere of wisdom.']
1755.—"Scheringham (Seringam), Schalembron, et Gengy m'offroient également la retraite après laquelle je soupirois."—Anquetil du Perron, Zendav. Disc. Prelim. xxviii.
CHILLUMCHEE, s. H. chilamchī, also silfchī, and silpchī, of which chilamchī is probably a corruption. A basin of brass (as in Bengal), or tinned copper (as usually in the West and South) for washing hands. The form of the word seems Turkish, but we cannot trace it.
1715.—"We prepared for our first present, viz., 1000 gold mohurs ... the unicorn's horn ... the astoa (?) and chelumgie of Manilla work...."—In Wheeler, ii. 246.
1833.—"Our supper was a peelaw ... when it was removed a chillumchee and goblet of warm water was handed round, and each washed his hands and mouth."—P. Gordon, Fragment of the Journal of a Tour, &c.
1851.—"When a chillumchee of water sans soap was provided, 'Have you no soap?' Sir C. Napier asked——"—Mawson, Indian Command of Sir C. Napier.
1857.—"I went alone to the Fort Adjutant, to report my arrival, and inquire to what regiment of the Bengal army I was likely to be posted.
"'Army!—regiment!' was the reply. 'There is no Bengal Army; it is all in revolt.... Provide yourself with a camp-bedstead, and a chillumchee, and wait for orders.'
"I saluted and left the presence of my superior officer, deeply pondering as to the possible nature and qualities of a chillumchee, but not venturing to enquire further."—Lt.-Col. Lewin, A Fly on the Wheel, p. 3.
There is an Anglo-Indian tradition, which we would not vouch for, that {196a}one of the orators on the great Hastings trial depicted the oppressor on some occasion, as "grasping his chillum in one hand and his chillumchee in the other."
The latter word is used chiefly by Anglo-Indians of the Bengal Presidency and their servants. In Bombay the article has another name.  Don't talk to me of the Bombay Army! They call a chillumchee a gindy!——the Beasts!"
CHILLY, s. The popular Anglo-Indian name of the pod of red pepper (Capsicum fruticosum and C. annuum, Nat. Ord. Solanaceae). There can be little doubt that the name, as stated by Bontius in the quotation, was taken from Chili in S. America, whence the plant was carried to the Indian Archipelago, and thence to India.
[1604.—"Indian pepper.... In the language of Cusco, it is called Vchu, and in that of Mexico, chili."—Grimston, tr. D'Acosta, H. W. Indies, I. Bk. iv. 239 (Stanf. Dict.)]
1631.—"... eos addere fructum Ricini Americani, quod lada Chili Malaii vocant, quasi dicas Piper e Chile, Brasiliae contermina regione.'—Jac. Bontii, Dial. V. p. 10.
Again (lib. vi. cap. 40, p. 131) Bontius calls it 'piper Chilensis,' and also 'Ricinus Braziliensis.' But his commentator, Piso, observes that Ricinus is quite improper; "vera Piperis sive Capsici Braziliensis species apparet." Bontius says it was a common custom of natives, and even of certain Dutchmen, to keep a piece of chilly continually chewed, but he found it intolerable.
1848.—"'Try a chili with it, Miss Sharp,' said Joseph, really interested. 'A chili?' said Rebecca, gasping. 'Oh yes!'.... 'How fresh and green they look,' she said, and put one into her mouth. It was hotter than the curry; flesh and blood could bear it no longer."—Vanity Fair, ch. iii.
CHIMNEY-GLASS, s. Gardener's name, on the Bombay side of India, for the flower and plant Allamanda cathartica (Sir G. Birdwood).
CHINA, n.p. The European knowledge of this name in the forms Thinae and Sinae goes back nearly to the Christian era. The famous mention of the Sinim by the prophet Isaiah would carry us much further back, but we fear the possibility of that referring to the Chinese must be abandoned, as must be likewise, perhaps, the similar application of the name Chinas in ancient Sanskrit works. The most probable origin of the name—which is essentially a name applied by foreigners to the country—as yet suggested, is that put forward by Baron F. von Richthofen, that it comes from Jih-nan, an old name of Tongking, seeing that in Jih-nan lay the only port which was open for foreign trade with China at the beginning of our era, and that that province was then included administratively within the limits of China Proper (see Richthofen, China, i. 504-510; the same author's papers in the Trans. of the Berlin Geog. Soc. for 1876; and a paper by one of the present writers in Proc. R. Geog. Soc., November 1882.)
Another theory has been suggested by our friend M. Terrien de la Couperie in an elaborate note, of which we can but state the general gist. Whilst he quite accepts the suggestion that Kiao-chi or Tongking, anciently called Kiao-ti, was the Kattigara of Ptolemy's authority, he denies that Jih-nan can have been the origin of Sinae. This he does on two chief grounds: (l) That Jih-nan was not Kiao-chi, but a province a good deal further south, corresponding to the modern province of An (Nghé Ane, in the map of M. Dutreuil de Rhins, the capital of which is about 2° 17′ in lat. S. of Hanoi). This is distinctly stated in the Official Geography of Annam. An was one of the twelve provinces of Cochin China proper till 1820-41, when, with two others, it was transferred to Tongking. Also, in the Chinese Historical Atlas, Jih-nan lies in Chen-Ching, i.e. Cochin-China. (2) That the ancient pronunciation of Jih-nan, as indicated by the Chinese authorities of the Han period, was Nit-nam. It is still pronounced in Sinico-Annamite (the most archaic of the Chinese dialects) Nhut-nam, and in Cantonese Yat-nam. M. Terrien further points out that the export of Chinese goods, and the traffic with the south and {197a}west, was for several centuries B.C. monopolised by the State of Tsen (now pronounced in Sinico-Annamite Chen, and in Mandarin Tien), which corresponded to the centre and west of modern Yun-nan. The She-ki of Sze-ma Tsien (B.C. 91), and the Annals of the Han Dynasty afford interesting information on this subject. When the Emperor Wu-ti, in consequence of Chang-Kien's information brought back from Bactria, sent envoys to find the route followed by the traders of Shuh (i.e. Sze-chuen) to India, these envoys were detained by Tang-Kiang, King of Tsen, who objected to their exploring trade-routes through his territory, saying haughtily: "Has the Han a greater dominion than ours?"
M. Terrien conceives that as the only communication of this Tsen State with the Sea would be by the Song-Koi R., the emporium of sea-trade with that State would be at its mouth, viz. at Kiao-ti or Kattigara. Thus, he considers, the name of Tsen, this powerful and arrogant State, the monopoliser of trade-routes, is in all probability that which spread far and wide the name of Chīn, Sīn, Sinae, Thinae, and preserved its predominance in the mouths of foreigners, even when, as in the 2nd century of our era, the great Empire of the Han has extended over the Delta of the Song-Koi.
This theory needs more consideration than we can now give it. But it will doubtless have discussion elsewhere, and it does not disturb Richthofen's identification of Kattigara.
[Prof. Giles regards the suggestions of Richthofen and T. de la Couperie as mere guesses. From a recent reconsideration of the subject he has come to the conclusion that the name may possibly be derived from the name of a dynasty, Ch'in or Ts'in, which flourished B.C. 255-207, and became widely known in India, Persia, and other Asiatic countries, the final a being added by the Portuguese.]
c. A.D. 80-89.—"Behind this country (Chrysē) the sea comes to a termination somewhere in Thin, and in the interior of that country, quite to the north, there is a very great city called Thinae, from which raw silk and silk thread and silk stuffs are brought overland through Bactria to Barygaza, as they are on the other hand by the Ganges River to Limyricē. It is not easy, however, to get to this Thin, and few and {197b}far between are those who come from it...."—Periplus Maris Erythraei; see Müller, Geog. Gr. Min. i. 303.
c. 150—"The inhabited part of our earth is bounded on the east by the Unknown Land which lies along the region occupied by the easternmost races of Asia Minor, the Sinae and the natives of Sericē...."—Claudius Ptolemy, Bk. vii. ch. 5.
c. 545.—"The country of silk, I may mention, is the remotest of all the Indies, lying towards the left when you enter the Indian Sea, but a vast distance further off than the Persian Gulf or that island which the Indians call Selediba, and the Greeks Taprobane. Tzinitza (elsewhere Tzinista) is the name of the Country, and the Ocean compasses it round to the left, just as the same Ocean compasses Barbari (i.e. the Somāli Country) round to the right. And the Indian philosophers called Brachmans tell you that if you were to stretch a straight cord from Tzinitza through Persia to the Roman territory, you would just divide the world in halves."—Cosmas, Topog. Christ., Bk. II.
c. 641.—"In 641 the King of Magadha (Behar, &c.) sent an ambassador with a letter to the Chinese Court. The emperor ... in return directed one of his officers to go to the King ... and to invite his submission. The King Shiloyto (Siladitya) was all astonishment. 'Since time immemorial,' he asked his officer, 'did ever an ambassador come from Mohochintan?'.... The Chinese author remarks that in the tongue of the barbarians the Middle Kingdom is called Mohochintan (Mahā-Chīna-sthāna)."—From Cathay, &c., lxviii.
781.—"Adam Priest and Bishop and Pope of Tzinesthan.... The preachings of our Fathers to the King of Tzinia."—Syriac Part of the Inscription of Singanfu.
11th Century.—The "King of China" (Shinattarashan) appears in the list of provinces and monarchies in the great Inscription of the Tanjore Pagoda.
1128.—"Chīna and Mahāchīna appear in a list of places producing silk and other cloths, in the Abhilashitārthachintāmani of the Chālukya King."—Somesvaradiva (MS.)[61] Bk. III. ch. 6.
1298.—"You must know the Sea in which lie the Islands of those parts is called the Sea of Chin.... For, in the language in those Isles, when they say Chin, 'tis Manzi they mean."—Marco Polo, Bk. III. ch. iv.
c. 1300.—"Large ships, called in the language of Chin 'junks,' bring various sorts of choice merchandize and cloths...."—Rashíduddín, in Elliot, i. 69.
1516.—"... there is the Kingdom of China, which they say is a very extensive dominion, both along the coast of the sea, and in the interior...."—Barbosa, 204.
1563.—"R. Then Ruelius and Mathiolus of Siena say that the best camphor is from China, and that the best of all Camphors is that purified by a certain barbarian King whom they call King (of) China.
"O. Then you may tell Ruelius and Mathiolus of Siena that though they are so well acquainted with Greek and Latin, there's no need to make such a show of it as to call every body 'barbarians' who is not of their own race, and that besides this they are quite wrong in the fact ... that the King of China does not occupy himself with making camphor, and is in fact one of the greatest Kings known in the world."—Garcia De Orta, f. 45b.
c. 1590.—"Near to this is Pegu, which former writers called Cheen, accounting this to be the capital city."—Ayeen, ed. 1800, ii. 4; [tr. Jarrett, ii. 119]. (See MACHEEN.)
CHINA, s. In the sense of porcelain this word (Chīnī, &c.) is used in Asiatic languages as well as in English. In English it does not occur in Minshew (2nd ed. 1627), though it does in some earlier publications. [The earliest quotation in N.E.D. is from Cogan's Pinto, 1653.] The phrase China-dishes as occurring in Drake and in Shakspere, shows how the word took the sense of porcelain in our own and other languages. The phrase China-dishes as first used was analogous to Turkey-carpets. But in the latter we have never lost the geographical sense of the adjective. In the word turquoises, again, the phrase was no doubt originally pierres turquoises, or the like, and here, as in china dishes, the specific has superseded the generic sense. The use of arab in India for an Arab horse is analogous to china. The word is used in the sense of a china dish in Lane's Arabian Nights, iii. 492; [Burton, I. 375].
851.—"There is in China a very fine clay with which they make vases transparent like bottles; water can be seen inside of them. These vases are made of clay."—Reinaud, Relations, i. 34.
c. 1350.—"China-ware (al-fakhkhār al-Sīnīy) is not made except in the cities of Zaītūn and of Sīn Kalān...."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 256.
c. 1530.—"I was passing one day along a street in Damascus, when I saw a slave-boy let fall from his hands a great China dish (ṣaḥfat min al-bakhkhār al-Sīnīy) which they call in that country sahn. It broke, and a crowd gathered round the little Mameluke."—Ibn Batuta, i. 238.
c. 1567.—"Le mercantie ch'andauano ogn'anno da Goa a Bezeneger erano molti caualli Arabi ... e anche pezze di China, zafaran, e scarlatti."—Cesare de' Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 389.
1579.—"... we met with one ship more loaden with linnen, China silke, and China dishes...."—Drake, World Encompassed, in Hak. Soc. 112.
c. 1580.—"Usum vasorum aureorum et argenteorum Aegyptii rejecerunt, ubi murrhina vasa adinvenere; quae ex India afferuntur, et ex ea regione quam Sini vocant, ubi conficiuntur ex variis lapidibus, praecipueque ex jaspide."—Prosp. Alpinus, Pt. I. p. 55.
c. 1590.—"The gold and silver dishes are tied up in red cloths, and those in Copper and China (chīnī) in white ones."—Āīn, i. 58.
c. 1603.—"... as it were in a fruit-dish, a dish of some threepence, your honours have seen such dishes; they are not China dishes, but very good dishes."—Measure for Measure, ii. 1.
1608-9.—"A faire China dish (which cost ninetie Rupias, or forty-five Reals of eight) was broken."—Hawkins, in Purchas, i. 220.
1609.—"He has a lodging in the Strand for the purpose, or to watch when ladies are gone to the China-house, or the Exchange, that he may meet them by chance and give them presents...."
"Ay, sir: his wife was the rich China-woman, that the courtiers visited so often."—Ben Jonson, Silent Woman, i. 1.
1615.—
"... Oh had I now my Wishes,
Sure you should learn to make their China Dishes."
Doggrel prefixed to Coryat's Crudities.
c. 1690.—Kaempfer in his account of the Persian Court mentions that the department where porcelain and plate dishes, &c., were kept and cleaned was called Chīn-khāna, 'the China-closet'; and those servants who carried in the dishes were called Chīnīkash.—Amoen. Exot., p. 125.
1711.—"Purselaine, or China-ware is so tender a Commodity that good Instructions are as necessary for Package as Purchase."—Lockyer, 126.
1747.—"The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy; which far Exceeds any Thing of the Kind yet Published. By a Lady. London. Printed for the Author, and Sold by Mrs. Asburn a China Shop Woman, Corner of Fleet Ditch, MDCCXLVII." This the title of the original edition of Mrs. Glass's Cookery, as given by G. A. Sala, in Illd. News, May 12, 1883.
1876.—"Schuyler mentions that the best native earthenware in Turkistan is called Chīnī, and bears a clumsy imitation of a Chinese mark."—(see Turkistan, i. 187.)
For the following interesting note on the Arabic use we are indebted to Professor Robertson Smith:—
Ṣīnīya is spoken of thus in the Latāifo'l-ma'ārif of al-Th'ālibī, ed. De Jong, Leyden, 1867, a book written in A.D. 990. "The Arabs were wont to call all elegant vessels and the like Sīnīya (i.e. Chinese), whatever they really were, because of the specialty of the Chinese in objects of vertu; and this usage remains in the common word ṣawānā (pl. of ṣīnīya) to the present day."
So in the Tajāribo'l-Omam of Ibn Maskowaih (Fr. Hist. Ar. ii. 457), it is said that at the wedding of Mamūn with Būrān "her grandmother strewed over her 1000 pearls from a sīnīya of gold." In Egypt the familiar round brass trays used to dine off, are now called ṣīnīya (vulgo ṣanīya), [the ṣīnī, ṣenī of N. India] and so is a European saucer.
The expression ṣīnīyat al ṣīn, "A Chinese ṣīnīya," is quoted again by De Goeje from a poem of Abul-shibl Agānī, xiii. 27. [See SNEAKER.]
[CHINA-BEER, s. Some kind of liquor used in China, perhaps a variety of saké.
[1615.—"I carid a jarr of China Beare."—Cocks's Diary, i. 34.]
CHINA-BUCKEER, n.p. One of the chief Delta-mouths of the Irawadi is so called in marine charts. We have not been able to ascertain the origin of the name, further than that Prof. Forchhammer, in his Notes on the Early Hist. and Geog. of Br. Burma (p. 16), states that the country between Rangoon and Bassein, i.e. on the west of the Rangoon River, bore the name of Pokhara, of which Buckeer is a corruption. This does not explain the China.
CHINA-ROOT, s. A once famous drug, known as Radix Chinae and Tuber Chinae, being the tuber of various species of Smilax (N. O. Smilaceae, the same to which sarsaparilla belongs). It was said to have been used with good effect on Charles V. when suffering from gout, and acquired a great repute. It was also much used in the same way as sarsaparilla. It is now quite obsolete in England, but is still held in esteem in the native pharmacopœias of China and India.
1563.—"R. I wish to take to Portugal some of the Root or Wood of China, since it is not a contraband drug....
"O. This wood or root grows in China, an immense country, presumed to be on the confines of Muscovy ... and because in all these regions, both in China and in Japan, there exists the morbo napolitano, the merciful God hath willed to give them this root for remedy, and with it the good physicians there know well the treatment."—Garcia, f. 177.
c. 1590.—"Sircar Silhet is very mountainous.... China-Root (chob-chīnī) is produced here in great plenty, which was but lately discovered by some Turks."—Ayeen Akb., by Gladwin, ii. 10; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 124].
1598.—"The roote of China is commonlie vsed among the Egyptians ... specially for a consumption, for the which they seeth the roote China in broth of a henne or cocke, whereby they become whole and faire of face."—Dr. Paludanus, in Linschoten, 124, [Hak. Soc. ii. 112].
c. 1610.—"Quant à la verole.... Ils la guerissent sans suer avec du bois d'Eschine...."—Pyrard de Laval, ii. 9 (ed. 1679); [Hak. Soc. ii. 13; also see i. 182].
[c. 1690.—"The caravans returned with musk, China-wood (bois de Chine)."—Bernier, ed. Constable, p. 425.]
CHINAPATAM, n.p. A name sometimes given by the natives to Madras. The name is now written Shennai-Shenna-ppatanam, Tam., in Tel. Chennapattanamu, and the following is the origin of that name according to the statement given in W. Hamilton's Hindostan.
On "this part of the Coast of Coromandel ... the English ... possessed no fixed establishment until A.D. 1639, in which year, on the 1st of March, a grant was received from the descendants of the Hindoo dynasty of Bijanagur, then reigning at Chandergherry, for the erection of a fort. This document from Sree Rung Rayeel expressly enjoins, that the town and fort to be erected at Madras shall be called after his own name, Sree Runga Rayapatam; but the local governor or Naik, Damerla Vencatadri, who first invited Mr. Francis Day, the chief of Armagon, to remove to Madras, had previously intimated to him that he would have the new English establishment founded in the name of his father Chennappa, and the name of Chenappapatam continues to be universally applied to the town of Madras by the natives of that division of the south of India named Dravida."—(Vol. ii. p. 413).
Dr. Burnell doubted this origin of the name, and considered that the actual name could hardly have been formed from that of Chenappa. It is possible that some name similar to {200a}Chinapatan was borne by the place previously. It will be seen under MADRAS that Barros curiously connects the Chinese with St. Thomé. To this may be added this passage from the English translation of Mendoza's China, the original of which was published in 1585, the translation by R. Parke in 1588:—
"... it is plainely seene that they did come with the shipping vnto the Indies ... so that at this day there is great memory of them in the Ilands Philippinas and on the cost of Coromande, which is the cost against the Kingdome of Norsinga towards the sea of Bengala (misprinted Cengala); whereas is a town called vnto this day the Soile of the Chinos for that they did reedifie and make the same."—(i. 94).
I strongly suspect that this was Chinapatam, or Madras. [On the other hand, the popular derivation is accepted in the Madras Gloss., p. 163. The gold plate containing the grant of Sri Ranga Rāja is said to have been kept by the English for more than a century, till its loss in 1746 at the capture of Madras by the French.—(Wheeler, Early Rec., 49).]
1780.—"The Nawaub sent him to Cheena Pattun (Madras) under the escort of a small party of light Cavalry."—H. of Hydur Naik, 395.
CHINCHEW, CHINCHEO, n.p. A port of Fuhkien in China. Some ambiguity exists as to the application of the name. In English charts the name is now attached to the ancient and famous port of Chwan-chau-fu (Thsiouan-chéou-fou of French writers), the Zayton of Marco Polo and other medieval travellers. But the Chincheo of the Spaniards and Portuguese to this day, and the Chinchew of older English books, is, as Mr. G. Phillips pointed out some years ago, not Chwan-chau-fu, but Chang-chau-fu, distant from the former some 80 m. in a direct line, and about 140 by navigation. The province of Fuhkien is often called Chincheo by the early Jesuit writers. Changchau and its dependencies seem to have constituted the ports of Fuhkien with which Macao and Manilla communicated, and hence apparently they applied the same name to the port and the province, though Chang-chau was never the official capital of Fukhien (see Encyc. Britann., 9th ed. s.v. and {200b}references there). Chincheos is used for "people of Fuhkien" in a quotation under COMPOUND.
1517.—"... in another place called Chincheo, where the people were much richer than in Canton (Cantão). From that city used every year, before our people came to Malaca, to come to Malaca 4 junks loaded with gold, silver, and silk, returning laden with wares from India."—Correa, ii. 529.
CHIN-CHIN. In the "pigeon English" of Chinese ports this signifies 'salutation, compliments,' or 'to salute,' and is much used by Englishmen as slang in such senses. It is a corruption of the Chinese phrase ts'ing-ts'ing, Pekingese ch'ing-ch'ing, a term of salutation answering to 'thank-you,' 'adieu.' In the same vulgar dialect chin-chin joss means religious worship of any kind (see JOSS). It is curious that the phrase occurs in a quaint story told to William of Rubruck by a Chinese priest whom he met at the Court of the Great Kaan (see below). And it is equally remarkable to find the same story related with singular closeness of correspondence out of "the Chinese books of Geography" by Francesco Carletti, 350 years later (in 1600). He calls the creatures Zinzin (Ragionamenti di F. C., pp. 138-9).
1253.—"One day there sate by me a certain priest of Cathay, dressed in a red cloth of exquisite colour, and when I asked him whence they got such a dye, he told me how in the eastern parts of Cathay there were lofty cliffs on which dwelt certain creatures in all things partaking of human form, except that their knees did not bend.... The huntsmen go thither, taking very strong beer with them, and make holes in the rocks which they fill with this beer.... Then they hide themselves and these creatures come out of their holes and taste the liquor, and call out 'Chin Chin.'"—Itinerarium, in Rec. de Voyages, &c., iv. 328.
Probably some form of this phrase is intended in the word used by Pinto in the following passage, which Cogan leaves untranslated:—
c. 1540.—"So after we had saluted one another after the manner of the Country, they went and anchored by the shore" (in orig. "despois de se fazerem as suas e as nossas salvas a Charachina como entre este gente se custuma.")—In Cogan, p. 56; in orig. ch. xlvii.
1795.—"The two junior members of the Chinese deputation came at the appointed hour.... On entering the door of the marquee they both made an abrupt stop, {201a}and resisted all solicitation to advance to chairs that had been prepared for them, until I should first be seated; in this dilemma, Dr. Buchanan, who had visited China, advised me what was to be done; I immediately seized on the foremost, whilst the Doctor himself grappled with the second; thus we soon fixed them in their seats, both parties during the struggle, repeating Chin Chin, Chin Chin, the Chinese term of salutation."—Symes, Embassy to Ava, 295.
1829.—"One of the Chinese servants came to me and said, 'Mr. Talbot chin-chin you come down.'"—The Fankwae at Canton, p. 20.
1880.—"But far from thinking it any shame to deface our beautiful language, the English seem to glory in its distortion, and will often ask one another to come to 'chow-chow' instead of dinner; and send their 'chin-chin,' even in letters, rather than their compliments; most of them ignorant of the fact that 'chow-chow' is no more Chinese than it is Hebrew; that 'chin-chin,' though an expression used by the Chinese, does not in its true meaning come near to the 'good-bye, old fellow,' for which it is often used, or the compliments for which it is frequently substituted."—W. Gill, River of Golden Sand, i. 156; [ed. 1883, p. 41].
CHINSURA, n.p. A town on the Hoogly River, 26 miles above Calcutta, on the west bank, which was the seat of a Dutch settlement and factory down to 1824, when it was ceded to us by the Treaty of London, under which the Dutch gave up Malacca and their settlements in continental India, whilst we withdrew from Sumatra. [The place gave its name to a kind of cloth, Chinechuras (see PIECE-GOODS).]
1684.—"This day between 3 and 6 o'clock in the Afternoon, Capt. Richardson and his Sergeant, came to my house in ye Chinchera, and brought me this following message from ye President...."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 166.
1705.—"La Loge appellée Chamdernagor est une très-belle Maison située sur le bord d'un des bras du fleuve de Gange.... À une lieue de la Loge il y a une grande Ville appellée Chinchurat...."—Luillier, 64-65.
1726.—"The place where our Lodge (or Factory) is is properly called Sinternu [i.e. Chinsura] and not Hoogli (which is the name of the village)."—Valentijn, v. 162.
1727.—"Chinchura, where the Dutch Emporium stands ... the Factors have a great many good Houses standing pleasantly on the River-Side; and all of them have pretty Gardens."—A. Hamilton, ii. 20; ed. 1744, ii. 18.
[1753.—"Shinshura." See quotation under CALCUTTA.]
CHINTS, CHINCH, s. A bug. This word is now quite obsolete both in India and in England. It is a corruption of the Portuguese chinche, which again is from cimex. Mrs. Trollope, in her once famous book on the Domestic Manners of the Americans, made much of a supposed instance of affected squeamishness in American ladies, who used the word chintses instead of bugs.  Thus the case was exactly the opposite of what she chose to imagine; chints was the real name, bug the more or less affected euphonism.
1616.—"In the night we were likewise very much disquieted with another sort, called Musqueetoes, like our Gnats, but some-what less; and in that season we were very much troubled with Chinches, another sort of little troublesome and offensive creatures, like little Tikes: and these annoyed us two wayes; as first by their biting and stinging, and then by their stink."—Terry, ed. 1665, p. 372; [ed. 1777, p. 117].
1645.—"... for the most part the bedsteads in Italy are of forged iron gilded, since it is impossible to keepe the wooden ones from the chimices."—Evelyn's Diary, Sept. 29.
1673.—"... Our Bodies broke out into small fiery Pimples ... augmented by Muskeetoe-Bites, and Chinces raising Blisters on us."—Fryer, 35.
" "Chints are venomous, and if squeezed leave a most Poysonous Stench."—Ibid. 189.
CHINTZ, s. A printed or spotted cotton cloth; Port. chita; Mahr. chīt, and H. chīṇt. The word in this last form occurs (c. 1590) in the Āīn-i-Akbarī (i. 95). It comes apparently from the Skt. chitra, 'variegated, speckled.' The best chintzes were bought on the Madras coast, at Masulipatam and Sadras. The French form of the word is chite, which has suggested the possibility of our sheet being of the same origin. But chite is apparently of Indian origin, through the Portuguese, whilst sheet is much older than the Portuguese communication with India. Thus (1450) in Sir T. Cumberworth's will he directs his "wreched body to be beryd in a chitte with owte any kyste" (Academy, Sept. 27, 1879, p. 230). {202a}The resemblance to the Indian forms in this is very curious.
1614.—"... chintz and chadors...."—Peyton, in Purchas, i. 530.
[1616.—"3 per Chint bramport."—Cocks's Diary, i. 171.
[1623.—"Linnen stamp'd with works of sundry colours (which they call cit)."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 45.]
1653.—"Chites en Indou signifie des toilles imprimeés."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1647, p. 536.
c. 1666.—"Le principal trafic des Hollandois à Amedabad, est de chites, qui sont de toiles peintes."—Thevenot, v. 35. In the English version (1687) this is written schites (iv. ch. v.).
1676.—"Chites or Painted Calicuts, which they call Calmendar, that is done with a pencil, are made in the Kingdom of Golconda, and particularly about Masulipatam."—Tavernier, E.T., p. 126; [ed. Ball, ii. 4].
1725.—"The returns that are injurious to our manufactures, or growth of our own country, are printed calicoes, chintz, wrought silks, stuffs, of herba, and barks."—Defoe, New Voyage round the World. Works, Oxford, 1840, p. 161.
1726.—"The Warehouse Keeper reported to the Board, that the chintzes, being brought from painting, had been examined at the sorting godown, and that it was the general opinion that both the cloth and the paintings were worse than the musters."—In Wheeler, ii. 407.
c. 1733.—
"No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace
Wrap my cold limbs, and shade my lifeless face."
Pope, Moral Essays, i. 248.
"And, when she sees her friend in deep despair,
Observes how much a Chintz exceeds Mohair...."
Ibid. ii. 170.
1817.—"Blue cloths, and chintzes in particular, have always formed an extensive article of import from Western India."—Raffles, H. of Java, i. 86; [2nd ed. i. 95, and comp. i. 190].
In the earlier books about India some kind of chintz is often termed pintado (q.v.). See the phraseology in the quotation from Wheeler above.
This export from India to Europe has long ceased. When one of the present writers was Sub-Collector of the Madras District (1866-67), chintzes were still figured by an old man at Sadras, who had been taught by the Dutch, the cambric being furnished to him by a Madras Chetty (q.v.). He is {202b}now dead, and the business has ceased; in fact the colours for the process are no longer to be had.[62] The former chintz manufactures of Pulicat are mentioned by Correa, Lendas, ii. 2, p. 567. Havart (1693) mentions the manufacture at Sadras (i. 92), and gives a good description of the process of painting these cloths, which he calls chitsen (iii. 13). There is also a very complete account in the Lettres Édifiantes, xiv. 116 seqq.
In Java and Sumatra chintzes of a very peculiar kind of marbled pattern are still manufactured by women, under the name of bātik.
CHIPE, s. In Portuguese use, from Tamil shippi, 'an oyster.' The pearl-oysters taken in the pearl-fisheries of Tuticorin and Manār.
[1602.—"And the fishers on that coast gave him as tribute one day's oysters (hum dia de chipo), that is the result of one day's pearl fishing."—Couto, Dec. 7, Bk. VIII. ch. ii.]
1685.—"The chipe, for so they call those {203a}oysters which their boats are wont to fish."—Ribeiro, f. 63.
1710.—"Some of these oysters or chepîs, as the natives call them, produce pearls, but such are rare, the greater part producing only seed pearls (aljofres) [see ALJOFAR]."—Sousa, Oriente Conquist. ii. 243.
CHIRETTA, s. H. chirāītā, Mahr. kirāītā. A Himalayan herbaceous plant of the order Gentianaceae (Swertia Chirata, Ham.; Ophelia Chirata, Griesbach; Gentiana Chirayita, Roxb.; Agathetes chirayta, Don.), the dried twigs of which, infused, afford a pure bitter tonic and febrifuge. Its Skt. name kirāta-tikta, 'the bitter plant of the Kirātas,' refers its discovery to that people, an extensively-diffused forest tribe, east and north-east of Bengal, the Κιῤῥάδαι of the Periplus, and the people of the Κιῤῥάδια of Ptolemy. There is no indication of its having been known to G. de Orta.
[1773.—"Kol Meg in Bengal; Creat in Bombay.... It is excessively bitter, and given as a stomachic and vermifuge."—Ives, 471.]
1820.—"They also give a bitter decoction of the neem (Melia azadirachta) and chereeta."—Acc. of the Township of Luny, in Trans. Lit. Soc. of Bombay, ii. 232.
1874.—"Chiretta has long been held in esteem by the Hindus.... In England it began to attract some attention about 1829; and in 1839 was introduced into the Edinburgh Pharmacopœia. The plant was first described by Roxburgh in 1814."—Hanbury and Flückiger, 392.
CHIT, CHITTY, s. A letter or note; also a certificate given to a servant, or the like; a pass. H. chiṭṭhī; Mahr. chiṭṭī. [Skt. chitra, 'marked.'] The Indian Portuguese also use chito for escrito (Bluteau, Supplement). The Tamil people use shīt for a ticket, or for a playing-card.
1673.—"I sent one of our Guides, with his Master's Chitty, or Pass, to the Governnor, who received it kindly."—Fryer, 126.
[1757.—"If Mr. Ives is not too busie to honour this chitt which nothing but the greatest uneasiness could draw from me."—Ives, 134.]
1785.—".... Those Ladies and Gentlemen who wish to be taught that polite Art (drawing) by Mr. Hone, may know his terms by sending a Chit...."—In Seton-Karr, i. 114.
1786.—"You are to sell rice, &c., to every merchant from Muscat who brings you a chitty from Meer Kâzim."—Tippoo's Letters, 284.
1787.—"Mrs. Arend ... will wait upon any Lady at her own house on the shortest notice, by addressing a chit to her in Chattawala Gully, opposite Mr. Motte's old house, Tiretta's bazar."—Advt. in Seton-Karr, i. 226.
1794.—"The petty but constant and universal manufacture of chits which prevails here."—Hugh Boyd, 147.
1829.—"He wanted a chithee or note, for this is the most note-writing country under heaven; the very Drum-major writes me a note to tell me about the mails."—Mem. of Col. Mountain, 2nd ed., 80.
1839.—"A thorough Madras lady ... receives a number of morning visitors, takes up a little worsted work; goes to tiffin with Mrs. C., unless Mrs. D. comes to tiffin with her, and writes some dozens of chits.... These incessant chits are an immense trouble and interruption, but the ladies seem to like them."—Letters from Madras, 284.
CHITCHKY, s. A curried vegetable mixture, often served and eaten with meat curry. Properly Beng. chhechkī.
1875.—"... Chhenchki, usually called tarkāri in the Vardhamāna District, a sort of hodge-podge consisting of potatoes, brinjals, and tender stalks...."—Govinda Samanta, i. 59.
CHITTAGONG, n.p. A town, port, and district of Eastern Bengal, properly written Chatgānw (see PORTO PIQUENO). Chittagong appears to be the City of Bengala of Varthema and some of the early Portuguese. (See BANDEL, BENGAL).
c. 1346.—"The first city of Bengal that we entered was Sudkāwān, a great place situated on the shore of the great Sea."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 212.
1552.—"In the mouths of the two arms of the Ganges enter two notable rivers, one on the east, and one on the west side, both bounding this kingdom (of Bengal); the one of these our people call the River of Chatigam, because it enters the Eastern estuary of the Ganges at a city of that name, which is the most famous and wealthy of that Kingdom, by reason of its Port, at which meets the traffic of all that Eastern region."—De Barros, Dec. IV. liv. ix. cap. i.
[1586.—"Satagam." See quotation under HING.]
1591.—"So also they inform me that Antonio de Sousa Goudinho has served me well in Bemgualla, and that he has made tributary to this state the Isle of Sundiva, and has taken the fortress of Chataguão by force of arms."—King's Letter, in Archivio Port. Orient., fasc. iii. 257.
1598.—"From this River Eastward 50 miles lyeth the towne of Chatigan, which is the chief towne of Bengala."—Linschoten, ch. xvi.; [Hak. Soc. i. 94].[63]
c. 1610.—Pyrard de la Val has Chartican, i. 234; [Hak. Soc. i. 326].
1727.—"Chittagoung, or, as the Portuguese call it, Xatigam, about 50 Leagues below Dacca."—A. Hamilton, ii. 24; ed. 1744, ii. 22.
17—.—"Chittigan" in Orme (reprint), ii. 14.
1786.—"The province of Chatigan (vulgarly Chittagong) is a noble field for a naturalist. It is so called, I believe, from the chatag,[64] which is the most beautiful little bird I ever saw."—Sir W. Jones, ii. 101.
Elsewhere (p. 81) he calls it a "Montpelier." The derivation given by this illustrious scholar is more than questionable. The name seems to be really a form of the Sanskrit Chaturgrāma (= Tetrapolis), [or according to others of Saptagrāma, 'seven villages'], and it is curious that near this position Ptolemy has a Pentapolis, very probably the same place. Chaturgrāma is still the name of a town in Ceylon, lat. 6°, long. 81°.
CHITTLEDROOG, n.p. A fort S.W. of Bellary; properly Chitra Durgam, Red Hill (or Hill-Fort, or 'picturesque fort']) called by the Mahommedans Chītaldurg (C. P. B.).
CHITTORE, n.p. Chītor, or Chītorgaṛh, a very ancient and famous rock fortress in the Rajput State of Mewār. It is almost certainly the Τιάτουρα of Ptolemy (vii. 1).
1533.—"Badour (i.e. Bahādur Shāh) ... in Champanel ... sent to carry off a quantity of powder and shot and stores for the attack on Chitor, which occasioned some delay because the distance was so great."—Correa, iii. 506.
1615.—"The two and twentieth (Dec.), Master Edwards met me, accompanied with Thomas Coryat, who had passed into India on foote, fiue course to Cytor, an ancient Citie ruined on a hill, but so that it appeares a Tombe (Towne?) of wonderfull magnificence...."—Sir Thomas Roe, in {204b}Purchas, i. 540; [Hak. Soc. i. 102; "Cetor" in i. 111, "Chytor" in ii. 540].
[1813.—"... a tribute ... imposed by Muhadajee Seendhiya for the restitution of Chuetohrgurh, which he had conquered from the Rana."—Broughton, Letters, ed. 1892, p. 175.]
CHOBDAR, s. H. from P. chobdār, 'a stick-bearer.' A frequent attendant of Indian nobles, and in former days of Anglo-Indian officials of rank. They are still a part of the state of the Viceroy, Governors, and Judges of the High Courts. The chobdārs carry a staff overlaid with silver.
1442.—"At the end of the hall stand tchobdars ... drawn up in line."—Abdur-Razzāk, in India in the XV. Cent. 25.
1673.—"If he (the President) move out of his Chamber, the Silver Staves wait on him."—Fryer, 68.
1701.—"... Yesterday, of his own accord, he told our Linguists that he had sent four Chobdars and 25 men, as a safeguard."—In Wheeler, i. 371.
1788.—"Chubdár.... Among the Nabobs he proclaims their praises aloud, as he runs before their palankeens."—Indian Vocabulary (Stockdale's).
1793.—"They said a Chubdar, with a silverstick, one of the Sultan's messengers of justice, had taken them from the place, where they were confined, to the public Bazar, where their hands were cut off."—Dirom, Narrative, 235.
1798.—"The chief's Chobedar ... also endeavoured to impress me with an ill opinion of these messengers."—G. Forster's Travels, i. 222.
1810.—"While we were seated at breakfast, we were surprised by the entrance of a Choabdar, that is, a servant who attends on persons of consequence, runs before them with a silver stick, and keeps silence at the doors of their apartments, from which last office he derives his name."—Maria Graham, 57.
This usually accurate lady has been here misled, as if the word were chup-dār, 'silence-keeper,' a hardly possible hybrid.
CHOBWA, s. Burmese Tsaubwa, Siamese Chao, 'prince, king,' also Chaohpa (compounded with hpa, 'heaven'), and in Cushing's Shan Dicty. and cacography, sow, 'lord, master,' sowhpa, a 'hereditary prince.' The word chu-hu, for 'chief,' is found applied among tribes of Kwang-si, akin to the Shans, in A.D. 1150 (Prof. T. de la Couperie). The designation of the princes of the Shan States on the east of Burma, many of whom are (or were till lately) tributary to Ava.
1795.—"After them came the Chobwaas, or petty tributary princes: these are personages who, before the Birmans had extended their conquests over the vast territories which they now possess, had held small independent sovereignties which they were able to maintain so long as the balance of power continued doubtful between the Birmans, Peguers, and Siamese."—Symes, 366.
1819.—"All that tract of land ... is inhabited by a numerous nation called Sciam, who are the same as the Laos. Their kingdom is divided into small districts under different chiefs called Zaboà, or petty princes."—Sangermano, 34.
1855.—"The Tsaubwas of all these principalities, even where most absolutely under Ava, retain all the forms and appurtenances of royalty."—Yule, Mission to Ava, 303.
[1890.—"The succession to the throne primarily depends upon the person chosen by the court and people being of princely descent—all such are called chow or prince."—Hallet, A Thousand Miles on an Elephant, p. 32.]
CHOGA, s. Turki choghā. A long sleeved garment, like a dressing-gown (a purpose for which Europeans often make use of it). It is properly an Afghan form of dress, and is generally made of some soft woollen material, and embroidered on the sleeves and shoulders. In Bokhara the word is used for a furred robe. ["In Tibetan ch'uba; in Turki juba. It is variously pronounced chuba, juba or chogha in Asia, and shuba or shubka in Russia" (J.R.A.S., N.S. XXIII. 122)].
1883.—"We do not hear of 'shirt-sleeves' in connection with Henry (Lawrence), so often as in John's case; we believe his favourite dishabille was an Afghan choga, which like charity covered a multitude of sins."—Qu. Review, No. 310, on Life of Lord Lawrence, p. 303.
CHOKIDAR, s. A watchman. Derivative in Persian form from Choky. The word is usually applied to a private watchman; in some parts of India he is generally of a thieving tribe, and his employment may be regarded as a sort of blackmail to ensure one's property. [In N. India the village Chaukīdār is the rural policeman, and he is also employed for watch and ward in the smaller towns.]
1689.—"And the Day following the Chocadars, or Souldiers were remov'd from before our Gates."—Ovington, 416.
1810.—"The chokey-dar attends during the day, often performing many little offices, {205b}... at night parading about with his spear, shield, and sword, and assuming a most terrific aspect, until all the family are asleep; when HE GOES TO SLEEP TOO."—Williamson, V. M. i. 295.
c. 1817.—"The birds were scarcely beginning to move in the branches of the trees, and there was not a servant excepting the chockedaurs, stirring about any house in the neighbourhood, it was so early."—Mrs. Sherwood's Stories, &c. (ed. 1873), 243.
1837.—"Every village is under a potail, and there is a pursau or priest, and choukeednop (sic!) or watchman."—Phillips, Million of Facts, 320.
1864.—The church book at Peshawar records the death there of "The Revd. I—— L——l, who on the night of the —th ——, 1864, when walking in his veranda was shot by his own chokidar"—to which record the hand of an injudicious friend has added: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant!" (The exact words will now be found in the late Mr. E. B. Eastwick's Panjáb Handbook, p. 279).
CHOKRA, s. Hind. chhokrā, 'a boy, a youngster'; and hence, more specifically, a boy employed about a household, or a regiment. Its chief use in S. India is with the latter. (See CHUCKAROO.)
[1875.—"He was dubbed 'the chokra,' or simply 'boy.'"—Wilson, Abode of Snow, 136.]
CHOKY, s. H. chaukī, which in all its senses is probably connected with Skt. chatur, 'four'; whence chatushka, 'of four,' 'four-sided,' &c.
a. (Perhaps first a shed resting on four posts); a station of police; a lock-up; also a station of palankin bearers, horses, &c., when a post is laid; a customs or toll-station, and hence, as in the first quotation, the dues levied at such a place; the act of watching or guarding.
[1535.—"They only pay the choqueis coming in ships from the Moluccas to Malacca, which amounts to 3 parts in 10 for the owner of the ship for choque, which is freight; that which belongs to His Highness pays nothing when it comes in ships. This choque is as far as Malacca, from thence to India is another freight as arranged between the parties. Thus when cloves are brought in His Highness's ships, paying the third and the choquies, there goes from every 30 bahars 16 to the King, our Lord."—Arrangement made by Nuno da Cunha, quoted in Botelho, Tombo, p. 113. On this Mr. Whiteway remarks: "By this arrangement the King of Portugal did not ship any cloves of his own at the Moluccas, but he took one-third of every shipment {206a}free, and on the balance he took one-third as Choky, which is, I imagine, in lieu of customs."]
c. 1590.—"Mounting guard is called in Hindi Chauki."—Āīn, i. 257.
1608.—"The Kings Custome called Chukey, is eight bagges upon the hundred bagges."—Saris, in Purchas, i. 391.
1664.—"Near this Tent there is another great one, which is called Tchaukykane, because it is the place where the Omrahs keep guard, every one in his turn, once a week twenty-four hours together."—Bernier, E.T., 117; [ed. Constable, 363].
1673.—"We went out of the Walls by Broach Gate ... where, as at every gate, stands a Chocky, or Watch to receive Toll for the Emperor...."—Fryer, 100.
" "And when they must rest, if they have no Tents, they must shelter themselves under Trees ... unless they happen on a Chowkie, i.e., a Shed where the Customer keeps a Watch to take Custom."—Ibid. 410.
1682.—"About 12 o'clock Noon we got to ye Chowkee, where after we had shown our Dustick and given our present, we were dismissed immediately."—Hedges, Diary, Dec. 17; [Hak. Soc. i. 58].
1774.—"Il più difficile per viaggiare nell' Indostan sono certi posti di guardie chiamate Cioki ... questi Cioki sono insolentissimi."—Della Tomba, 33.
1810.—"... Chokies, or patrol stations."—Williamson, V. M., i. 297.
This word has passed into the English slang vocabulary in the sense of 'prison.'
b. A chair. This use is almost peculiar to the Bengal Presidency. Dr. John Muir [Orig. Skt. Texts, ii. 5] cites it in this sense, as a Hindi word which has no resemblance to any Skt. vocable. Mr. Growse, however, connects it with chatur, 'four' (Ind. Antiq., i. 105). See also beginning of this article. Chau is the common form of 'four' in composition, e.g. chaubandi, (i.e. 'four fastening') the complete shoeing of a horse; chaupahra ('four watches') all night long; chaupār, 'a quadruped'; chaukaṭ and chaukhaṭ ('four timber'), a frame (of a door, &c.). So chaukī seems to have been used for a square-framed stool, and thence a chair.
1772.—"Don't throw yourself back in your burra chokey, and tell me it won't do...."—W. Hastings to G. Vansittart, in Gleig, i. 238.
c. 1782.—"As soon as morning appeared he (Haidar) sat down on his chair (chaukī) and washed his face."—H. of Hydur Naik, 505.
CHOLERA, and CHOLERA MORBUS, s. The Disease. The term 'cholera,' though employed by the old medical writers, no doubt came, as regards its familiar use, from India. Littré alleges that it is a mistake to suppose that the word cholera (χολέρα) is a derivative from χολή 'bile,' and that it really means 'a gutter,' the disease being so called from the symptoms. This should, however, rather be ἀπὸ τῶν χολάδων, the latter word being anciently used for the intestines (the etym. given by the medical writer, Alex. Trallianus). But there is a discussion on the subject in the modern ed. of Stephani Thesaurus, which indicates a conclusion that the derivation from χολὴ is probably right; it is that of Celsus (see below). [The N.E.D. takes the same view, but admits that there is some doubt.] For quotations and some particulars in reference to the history of this terrible disease, see under MORT-DE-CHIEN.
c. A.D. 20.—"Primoque facienda mentio est cholerae; quia commune id stomachi atque intestinorum vitium videri potest ... intestina torquentur, bilis supra infraque erumpit, primum aquae similis: deinde ut in eâ recens caro tota esse videatur, interdum alba, nonnunquam nigra vel varia. Ergo eo nomine morbum hunc χολέραν Graeci nominârunt...." &c.—A. C. Celsi Med. Libri VIII. iv. xi.
c. A.D. 100.—"ΠΕΡῚ ΧΟΛΈΡΗΣ ... θάνατος ἐπῶδυνος καὶ οἴκτιστος σπασμῷ καὶ πνιγὶ καὶ ἐμέσῳ κενῷ."—Aretaeus, De Causis et signis acutorum morborum, ii. 5.
Also Θεραπεία Χολερῆς, in De Curatione Morb. Ac. ii. 4.
1563.—"R. Is this disease the one which kills so quickly, and from which so few recover? Tell me how it is called among us, and among them, and its symptoms, and the treatment of it in use?
"O. Among us it is called Collerica passio...."—Garcia, f. 74v.
[1611.—"As those ill of Colera."—Couto, Dialogo de Soldado Pratico, p. 5.]
1673.—"The Diseases reign according to the Seasons.... In the extreme Heats, Cholera Morbus."—Fryer, 113-114.
1832.—"Le Choléra Morbus, dont vous me parlez, n'est pas inconnu à Cachemire."—Jacquemont, Corresp. ii. 109.
CHOLERA HORN. See COLLERY.
CHOOLA, s. H. chūlhā, chūlhī, chūlā, fr. Skt. chulli. The extemporized cooking-place of clay which a native of India makes on the ground {207a}to prepare his own food; or to cook that of his master.
1814.—"A marble corridor filled up with choolas, or cooking-places, composed of mud, cowdung, and unburnt bricks."—Forbes, Or. Mem. iii. 120; [2nd ed. ii. 193].
CHOOLIA, s. Chūliā is a name given in Ceylon and in Malabar to a particular class of Mahommedans, and sometimes to Mahommedans generally. There is much obscurity about the origin and proper application of the term. [The word is by some derived from Skt. chūḍa, the top-knot which every Hindu must wear, and which is cut off on conversion to Islam. In the same way in the Punjab, choṭīkaṭ, 'he that has had his top-knot cut off,' is a common form of abuse used by Hindus to Musulman converts; see Ibbetson, Panjab Ethnog. p. 240.] According to Sonnerat (i. 109), the Chulias are of Arab descent and of Shīa profession. [The Madras Gloss. takes the word to be from the kingdom of Chola and to mean a person of S. India.]
c. 1345.—"... the city of Kaulam, which is one of the finest of Malibār. Its bazars are splendid, and its merchants are known by the name of Ṣūlia (i.e. Chūlia)."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 99.
1754.—"Chowlies are esteemed learned men, and in general are merchants."—Ives, 25.
1782.—"We had found ... less of that foolish timidity, and much more disposition to intercourse in the Choliars of the country, who are Mahommedans and quite distinct in their manners...."—Hugh Boyd, Journal of a Journey of an Embassy to Candy, in Misc. Works (1800), i. 155.
1783.—"During Mr. Saunders's government I have known Chulia (Moors) vessels carry coco-nuts from the Nicobar Islands to Madras."—Forrest, Voyage to Mergui, p. v.
" "Chulias and Malabars (the appellations are I believe synonymous)."—Ibid. 24.
1836.—"Mr. Boyd ... describes the Moors under the name of Cholias, and Sir Alexander Johnston designates them by the appellation Lubbies (see LUBBYE). These epithets are, however, not admissible, for the former is only confined to a particular sect among them, who are rather of an inferior grade; and the latter to the priests who officiate."—Casie Chitty, in J. R. A. Soc. iii. 338.
1879.—"There are over 15,000 Klings, Chuliahs, and other natives of India."—Miss Bird, Golden Chersonese, 254.
CHOP, s. Properly a seal-impression, stamp, or brand; H. chhāp; {207b}the verb (chhāpnā) being that which is now used in Hindustani to express the art of printing (books).
The word chhāp seems not to have been traced back with any accuracy beyond the modern vernaculars. It has been thought possible (at least till the history should be more accurately traced) that it might be of Portuguese origin. For there is a Port. word chapa, 'a thin plate of metal,' which is no doubt the original of the Old English chape for the metal plate on the sheath of a sword or dagger.[65] The word in this sense is not in the Portuguese Dictionaries; but we find 'homem chapado,' explained as 'a man of notable worth or excellence,' and Bluteau considers this a metaphor 'taken from the chapas or plates of metal on which the kings of India caused their letters patent to be engraven.' Thus he would seem to have regarded, though perhaps erroneously, the chhāpā and the Portuguese chapa as identical. On the other hand, Mr. Beames entertains no doubt that the word is genuine Hindi, and connects it with a variety of other words signifying striking, or pressing. And Thompson in his Hindi Dictionary says that chhāppā is a technical term used by the Vaishnavas to denote the sectarial marks (lotus, trident, &c.), which they delineate on their bodies. Fallon gives the same meaning, and quotes a Hindi verse, using it in this sense. We may add that while chhāpā is used all over the N.W.P. and Punjab for printed cloths, Drummond (1808) gives chhāpānīya, chhapārā, as words for 'Stampers or Printers of Cloth' in Guzerati, and that the passage quoted below from a Treaty made with an ambassador from Guzerat by the Portuguese in 1537, uses the word chapada for struck or coined, exactly as the modern Hindi verb chhāpnā might be used.[66] Chop, in writers {208a}prior to the last century, is often used for the seal itself. "Owen Cambridge says the Mohr was the great seal, but the small or privy seal was called a 'chop' or 'stamp.'" (C. P. Brown).
The word chop is hardly used now among Anglo-Indians in the sense of seal or stamp. But it got a permanent footing in the 'Pigeon English' of the Chinese ports, and thence has come back to England and India, in the phrase "first-chop," i.e. of the first brand or quality.
The word chop (chāp) is adopted in Malay [with the meanings of seal-impression, stamp, to seal or stamp, though there is, as Mr. Skeat points out, a pure native word tera or tra, which is used in all these senses;] and chop has acquired the specific sense of a passport or licence. The word has also obtained a variety of applications, including that just mentioned, in the lingua franca of foreigners in the China seas. Van Braam applies it to a tablet bearing the Emperor's name, to which he and his fellow envoys made kotow on their first landing in China (Voyage, &c., Paris, An vi., 1798, i. 20-21). Again, in the same jargon, a chop of tea means a certain number of chests of tea, all bearing the same brand. Chop-houses are customs stations on the Canton River, so called from the chops, or seals, used there (Giles, Glossary). Chop-dollar is a dollar chopped, or stamped with a private mark, as a guarantee of its genuineness (ibid.). (Dollars similarly marked had currency in England in the first quarter of last century, and one of the present writers can recollect their occasional occurrence in Scotland in his childhood). The grand chop is the port clearance granted by the Chinese customs when all dues have been paid (ibid.). All these have obviously the same origin; but there are other uses of the word in China not so easily explained, e.g. chop, for 'a hulk'; chop-boat for a lighter or cargo-boat.
In Captain Forrest's work, quoted below, a golden badge or decoration, conferred on him by the King of Achin, is called a chapp (p. 55). The portrait of Forrest, engraved by Sharp, shows this badge, and gives the inscription, translated: "Capt. Thomas Forrest, Orancayo [see ORANKAY] of the Golden Sword. This chapp was conferred as {208b}a mark of honour in the city of Atcheen, belonging to the Faithful, by the hands of the Shabander [see SHAHBUNDER] of Atcheen, on Capt. Thomas Forrest."
[1534.—"The Governor said that he would receive nothing save under his chapa." "Until he returned from Badur with his reply and the chapa required."—Correa, iii. 585.]
1537.—"And the said Nizamamede Zamom was present and then before me signed, and swore on his Koran (moçafo) to keep and maintain and fulfil this agreement entirely ... and he sealed it with his seal" (e o chapo de sua chapa).—Treaty above quoted, in S. Botelho, Tombo, 228.
1552.—"... ordered ... that they should allow no person to enter or to leave the island without taking away his chapa.... And this chapa was, as it were, a seal."—Castanheda, iii. 32.
1614.—"The King (of Achen) sent us his Chop."—Milward, in Purchas, i. 526.
1615.—"Sailed to Acheen; the King sent his Chope for them to go ashore, without which it was unlawful for any one to do so."—Sainsbury, i. 445.
[ " "2 chistes plate ... with the rendadors chape upon it."—Cocks's Diary, i. 219.]
1618.—"Signed with my chop, the 14th day of May (sic), in the Yeare of our Prophet Mahomet 1027."—Letter from Gov. of Mocha, in Purchas, i. 625.
1673.—"The Custom-house has a good Front, where the chief Customer appears certain Hours to chop, that is to mark Goods outward-bound."—Fryer, 98.
1678.—"... sending of our Vuckeel this day to Compare the Coppys with those sent, in order to ye Chaup, he refused it, alledging that they came without ye Visiers Chaup to him...."—Letter (in India Office) from Dacca Factory to Mr. Matthias Vincent (Ft. St. George?).
1682.—"To Rajemaul I sent ye old Duan ...'s Perwanna, Chopt both by the Nabob and new Duan, for its confirmation."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 37.
1689.—"Upon their Chops as they call them in India, or Seals engraven, are only Characters, generally those of their Name."—Ovington, 251.
1711.—"This (Oath at Acheen) is administered by the Shabander ... lifting, very respectfully, a short Dagger in a Gold Case, like a Scepter, three times to their Heads; and it is called receiving the Chop for Trade."—Lockyer, 35.
1715.—"It would be very proper also to put our chop on the said Books."—In Wheeler, ii. 224.
c. 1720.—"Here they demanded tax and toll; felt us all over, not excepting our mouths, and when they found nothing, stamped a chop upon our arms in red paint; which was to serve for a pass."—Zesteen {209a}Jaarige Reize ... door Jacob de Bucquoy, Haarlem, 1757.
1727.—"On my Arrival (at Acheen) I took the Chap at the great River's Mouth, according to Custom. This Chap is a Piece of Silver about 8 ounces Weight, made in Form of a Cross, but the cross Part is very short, that we ... put to our Fore-head, and declare to the Officer that brings the Chap, that we come on an honest Design to trade."—A. Hamilton, ii. 103.
1771.—"... with Tiapp or passports."—Osbeck, i. 181.
1782.—"... le Pilote ... apporte avec lui leur chappe, ensuite il adore et consulte son Poussa, puis il fait lever l'ancre."—Sonnerat, ii. 233.
1783.—"The bales (at Acheen) are immediately opened; 12 in the hundred are taken for the king's duty, and the remainder being marked with a certain mark (chapp) may be carried where the owner pleases."—Forrest, V. to Mergui, 41.
1785.—"The only pretended original produced was a manifest forgery, for it had not the chop or smaller seal, on which is engraved the name of the Mogul."—Carraccioli's Clive, i. 214.
1817.—"... and so great reluctance did he (the Nabob) show to the ratification of the Treaty, that Mr. Pigot is said to have seized his chop, or seal, and applied it to the paper."—Mill's Hist. iii. 340.
1876.—"'First chop! tremendously pretty too,' said the elegant Grecian, who had been paying her assiduous attention."—Daniel Deronda, Bk. I. ch. x.
1882.—"On the edge of the river facing the 'Pow-shan' and the Creek Hongs, were Chop houses, or branches of the Hoppo's department, whose duty it was to prevent smuggling, but whose interest it was to aid and facilitate the shipping of silks ... at a considerable reduction on the Imperial tariff."—The Fankwae at Canton, p. 25.
The writer last quoted, and others before him, have imagined a Chinese origin for chop, e.g., as "from chah, 'an official note from a superior,' or chah, 'a contract, a diploma, &c.,' both having at Canton the sound chăp, and between them covering most of the 'pigeon' uses of chop" (Note by Bishop Moule). But few of the words used by Europeans in Chinese trade are really Chinese, and we think it has been made clear that chop comes from India.
CHOP-CHOP. Pigeon-English (or -Chinese) for 'Make haste! look sharp!' This is supposed to be from the Cantonese, pron. kăp-kăp, of what is in the Mandarin dialect kip-kip. In the Northern dialects kwai-kwai, {209b}'quick-quick' is more usual (Bishop Moule). [Mr. Skeat compares the Malay chepat-chepat, 'quick-quick.']
a. H. chhappar, 'a thatched roof.'
[1773.—"... from their not being provided with a sufficient number of boats, there was a necessity for crouding a large party of Sepoys into one, by which the chuppar, or upper slight deck broke down."—Ives, 174.]
1780.—"About 20 Days ago a Villian was detected here setting fire to Houses by throwing the Tickeea[67] of his Hooka on the Choppers, and was immediately committed to the Phouzdar's Prison.... On his tryal ... it appering that he had more than once before committed the same Nefarieus and abominable Crime, he was sentenced to have his left Hand, and right Foot cut off.... It is needless to expatiate on the Efficacy such exemplary Punishments would be of to the Publick in general, if adopted on all similar occasions...."—Letter from Moorshedabad, in Hicky's Bengal Gazette, May 6.
1782.—"With Mr. Francis came the Judges of the Supreme Court, the Laws of England, partial oppression, and licentious liberty. The common felons were cast loose, ... the merchants of the place told that they need not pay duties ... and the natives were made to know that they might erect their chappor huts in what part of the town they pleased."—Price, Some Observations, 61.
1810.—"Chuppers, or grass thatches."—Williamson, V. M. i. 510.
c. 1817.—"These cottages had neat choppers, and some of them wanted not small gardens, fitly fenced about."—Mrs. Sherwood's Stories, ed. 1873, 258.
[1832.—"The religious devotee sets up a chupha-hut without expence."—Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali, ii. 211.]
[b. In Persia, a corr. of P. chār-pā, 'on four feet, a quadruped' and thence a mounted post and posting.
1812.—"Eight of the horses belong to the East India Company, and are principally employed in carrying choppers or couriers to Shiraz."—Morier, Journey through Persia, &c., p. 64.
1883.—"By this time I had begun to pique myself on the rate I could get over the ground 'en chuppar.'"—Wills, In the Land of the Lion and the Sun, ed. 1891, p. 259.]
CHOPPER-COT, a. Much as this looks like a European concoction, it is {210a}a genuine H. term, chhappar khāṭ, 'a bedstead with curtains.'
1778.—"Leito com armação. Châpâr cátt."—Grammatica Indostana, 128.
c. 1809.—"Bedsteads are much more common than in Puraniya. The best are called Palang, or Chhapar Khat ... they have curtains, mattrasses, pillows, and a sheet...."—Buchanan, Eastern India, ii. 92.
c. 1817.—"My husband chanced to light upon a very pretty chopper-cot, with curtains and everything complete."—Mrs. Sherwood's Stories, ed. 1873, 161. (See COT.)
CHOPSTICKS, s. The sticks used in pairs by the Chinese in feeding themselves. The Chinese name of the article is 'kwai-tsz,' 'speedy-ones.' "Possibly the inventor of the present word, hearing that the Chinese name had this meaning, and accustomed to the phrase chop-chop for 'speedily,' used chop as a translation" (Bishop Moule). [Prof. Giles writes: "The N.E.D. gives incorrectly kwai-tze, i.e. 'nimble boys,' 'nimble ones.' Even Sir H. Yule is not without blemish. He leaves the aspirate out of kwai, of which the official orthography is now k'uai-k'uai-tzŭ, 'hasteners,' the termination -ers bringing out the value of tzŭ, an enclitic particle, better than 'ones.' Bishop Moule's suggestion is on the right track. I think, however, that chopstick came from a Chinaman, who of course knew the meaning of k'uai and applied it accordingly, using the 'pidgin' word chop as the, to him, natural equivalent."]
c. 1540.—"... his young daughters, with their brother, did nothing but laugh to see us feed ourselves with our hands, for that is contrary to the custome which is observed throughout the whole empire of China, where the Inhabitants at their meat carry it to their mouthes with two little sticks made like a pair of Cizers" (this is the translator's folly; it is really com duos paos feitos como fusos—"like spindles")."—Pinto, orig. cap. lxxxiii., in Cogan, p. 103.
[1598.—"Two little peeces of blacke woode made round ... these they use instead of forkes."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 144.]
c. 1610.—"... ont comme deux petites spatules de bois fort bien faites, qu'ils tiennent entre leurs doigts, et prennent avec cela ce qu'ils veulent manger, si dextrement, que rien plus."—Mocquet, 346.
1711.—"They take it very dexterously with a couple of small Chopsticks, which serve them instead of Forks."—Lockyer, 174.
1876.—"Before each there will be found a pair of chopsticks, a wine-cup, a small saucer for soy ... and a pile of small pieces of paper for cleaning these articles as required."—Giles, Chinese Sketches, 153-4.
CHOTA-HAZRY, s. H. chhoṭī hāẓirī, vulg. hāẓrī, 'little breakfast'; refreshment taken in the early morning, before or after the morning exercise. The term (see HAZREE) was originally peculiar to the Bengal Presidency. In Madras the meal is called 'early tea.' Among the Dutch in Java, this meal consists (or did consist in 1860) of a large cup of tea, and a large piece of cheese, presented by the servant who calls one in the morning.
1853.—"After a bath, and hasty ante-breakfast (which is called in India 'a little breakfast') at the Euston Hotel, he proceeded to the private residence of a man of law."—Oakfield, ii. 179.
1866.—"There is one small meal ... it is that commonly known in India by the Hindustani name of chota-hāziri, and in our English colonies as 'Early Tea.'..."—Waring, Tropical Resident, 172.
1875.—"We took early tea with him this morning."—The Dilemma, ch. iii.
CHOUL, CHAUL, n.p. A seaport of the Concan, famous for many centuries under various forms of this name, Cheṅwal properly, and pronounced in Konkani Tseṁwal (Sinclair, Ind. Ant. iv. 283). It may be regarded as almost certain that this was the Σίμυλλα of Ptolemy's Tables, called by the natives, as he says, Τίμουλα. It may be fairly conjectured that the true reading of this was Τιίμουλα, or Τιέμουλα. We find the sound ch of Indian names apparently represented in Ptolemy by τι (as it is in Dutch by tj). Thus Τιάτουρα = Chitor, Τιάστανης = Chashṭaṇa; here Τίμουλα = Cheṅwal; while Τιάγουρα and Τιαύσπα probably stand for names like Chagara and Chauspa. Still more confidently Cheṅwal may be identified with the Ṣaimur (Chaimur) or Jaimur of the old Arab. Geographers, a port at the extreme end of Lār or Guzerat. At Choul itself there is a tradition that its antiquity goes back beyond that of Suali (see SWALLY), Bassein, or Bombay. There were memorable sieges of Choul in 1570-71, and again in 1594, in which the Portuguese successfully resisted Mahommedan {211a}attempts to capture the place. Dr. Burgess identifies the ancient Σήμυλλα rather with a place called Chembur, on the island of Trombay, which lies immediately east of the island of Bombay; but till more evidence is adduced we see no reason to adopt this.[68] Choul seems now to be known as Revadaṇḍa. Even the name is not to be found in the Imperial Gazetteer. Rewadaṇḍa has a place in that work, but without a word to indicate its connection with this ancient and famous port. Mr. Gerson d'Acunha has published in the J. Bo. Br. As. Soc., vol. xii., Notes on the H. and Ant. of Chaul.
A.D. c. 80-90.—"Μετὰ δὲ Καλλιέναν ἄλλα ἐμπόρια τοπικὰ, Σήμυλλα, καὶ Μανδαγόρα...."—Periplus.
A.D. c. 150.—"Σίμυλλα ἐμπόριον (καλούμενον ὑπὸ τῶν ἐγχωρίων Τίμουλα)."—Ptol. i. cap. 17.
A.D. 916. "The year 304 I found myself in the territory of Ṣaimūr (or Chaimūr), belonging to Hind and forming part of the province of Lār.... There were in the place about 10,000 Mussulmans, both of those called baiāsirah (half-breeds), and of natives of Sirāf, Omān, Basrah, Bagdad, &c."—Maṣ'ūdi, ii. 86.
[1020.—"Jaimúr." See quotation under LAR.]
c. 1150.—"Saimūr, 5 days from Sindān, is a large, well-built town."—Edrisi, in Elliot, i. [85].
c. 1470.—"We sailed six weeks in the taca till we reached Chivil, and left Chivil on the seventh week after the great day. This is an Indian country."—Ath. Nikitin, 9, in India in XVth. Cent.
1510.—"Departing from the said city of Combeia, I travelled on until I arrived at another city named Cevul (Chevul) which is distant from the above-mentioned city 12 days' journey, and the country between the one and the other of these cities is called Guzerati."—Varthema, 113.
1546.—Under this year D'Acunha quotes from Freire d'Andrada a story that when the Viceroy required 20,000 pardaos (q.v.) to send for the defence of Diu, offering in pledge a wisp of his mustachio, the women of Choul sent all their earrings and other jewellery, to be applied to this particular service.
1554.—"The ports of Mahaim and Sheúl belong to the Deccan."—The Mohit, in J.A.S.B., v. 461.
1584.—"The 10th of November we arrived at Chaul which standeth in the firme land. There be two townes, the one belonging {211b}to the Portugales, and the other to the Moores."—R. Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 384.
c. 1630.—"After long toil ... we got to Choul; then we came to Daman."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1665, p. 42.
1635.—"Chíval, a seaport of Deccan."—Sádik Isfaháni, 88.
1727.—"Chaul, in former Times, was a noted Place for Trade, particularly for fine embroidered Quilts; but now it is miserably poor."—A. Hamilton, i. 243.
1782.—"That St. Lubin had some of the Mahratta officers on board of his ship, at the port of Choul ... he will remember as long as he lives, for they got so far the ascendancy over the political Frenchman, as to induce him to come into the harbour, and to land his cargo of military stores ... not one piece of which he ever got back again, or was paid sixpence for."—Price's Observations on a Late Publication, &c., 14. In Price's Tracts, vol. i.
CHOULTRY, s. Peculiar to S. India, and of doubtful etymology; Malayāl. chāwaṭī, Tel. chāwaḍi, [tsāvaḍi, chau, Skt. chatur, 'four,' vāṭa, 'road,' a place where four roads meet]. In W. India the form used is chowry or chowree (Dakh. chāoṛī). A hall, a shed, or a simple loggia, used by travellers as a resting-place, and also intended for the transaction of public business. In the old Madras Archives there is frequent mention of the "Justices of the Choultry." A building of this kind seems to have formed the early Court-house.
1673.—"Here (at Swally near Surat) we were welcomed by the Deputy President ... who took care for my Entertainment, which here was rude, the place admitting of little better Tenements than Booths stiled by the name of Choultries."—Fryer, 82.
" "Maderas ... enjoys some Choultries for Places of Justice."—Ibid. 39.
1683.—"... he shall pay for every slave so shipped ... 50 pagodas to be recovered of him in the Choultry of Madraspattanam."—Order of Madras Council, in Wheeler, i. 136.
1689.—"Within less than half a Mile, from the Sea (near Surat) are three Choultries or Convenient Lodgings made of Timber."—Ovington, 164.
1711.—"Besides these, five Justices of the Choultry, who are of the Council, or chief Citizens, are to decide Controversies, and punish offending Indians."—Lockyer, 7.
1714.—In the MS. List of Persons in the Service, &c. (India Office Records), we have:—
"Josiah Cooke ffactor Register of the Choultry, £15."
1727.—"There are two or three little Choulteries or Shades built for Patients to rest in."—A. Hamilton, ch. ix.; [i. 95].
[1773.—"A Choltre is not much unlike a large summer-house, and in general is little more than a bare covering from the inclemency of the weather. Some few indeed are more spacious, and are also endowed with a salary to support a servant or two, whose business is to furnish all passengers with a certain quantity of rice and fresh water."—Ives, 67.]
1782.—"Les fortunes sont employées à bâtir des Chauderies sur les chemins."—Sonnerat, i. 42.
1790.—"On ne rencontre dans ces voyages aucune auberge ou hôtellerie sur la route; mais elles sont remplacées par des lieux de repos appelées schultris (chauderies), qui sont des bâtimens ouverts et inhabités, où les voyageurs ne trouvent, en général, qu'un toit...."—Haafner, ii. 11.
1809.—"He resides at present in an old Choultry which has been fitted up for his use by the Resident."—Ld. Valentia, i. 356.
1817.—"Another fact of much importance is, that a Mahomedan Sovereign was the first who established Choultries."—Mill's Hist. ii. 181.
1820.—"The Chowree or town-hall where the public business of the township is transacted, is a building 30 feet square, with square gable-ends, and a roof of tile supported on a treble row of square wooden posts."—Acc. of Township of Loony, in Tr. Lit. Soc. Bombay, ii. 181.
1833.—"Junar, 6th Jan. 1833.... We at first took up our abode in the Chawadī, but Mr. Escombe of the C. S. kindly invited us to his house."—Smith's Life of Dr. John Wilson, 156.
1836.—"The roads are good, and well supplied with choultries or taverns"(!)—Phillips, Million of Facts, 319.
1879.—"Let an organised watch ... be established in each village ... armed with good tulwars. They should be stationed each night in the village chouri."—Overland Times of India, May 12, Suppl. 7b.
See also CHUTTRUM.
CHOULTRY PLAIN, n.p. This was the name given to the open country formerly existing to the S.W. of Madras. Choultry Plain was also the old designation of the Hd. Quarters of the Madras Army; equivalent to "Horse Guards" in Westminster (C. P. B. MS.).
1780.—"Every gentleman now possessing a house in the fort, was happy in accommodating the family of his friend, who before had resided in Choultry Plain. Note. The country near Madras is a perfect flat, on which is built, at a small distance from the fort, a small choultry."—Hodges, Travels, 7.
CHOUSE, s. and v. This word is originally Turk. chāush, in former days a sergeant-at-arms, herald, or the like. [Vambéry (Sketches, 17) speaks of the Tchaush as the leader of a party of pilgrims.] Its meaning as 'a cheat,' or 'to swindle' is, apparently beyond doubt, derived from the anecdote thus related in a note of W. Gifford's upon the passage in Ben Jonson's Alchemist, which is quoted below. "In 1609 Sir Robert Shirley sent a messenger or chiaus (as our old writers call him) to this country, as his agent, from the Grand Signor and the Sophy, to transact some preparatory business. Sir Robert followed him, at his leisure, as ambassador from both these princes; but before he reached England, his agent had chiaused the Turkish and Persian merchants here of 4000l., and taken his flight, unconscious perhaps that he had enriched the language with a word of which the etymology would mislead Upton and puzzle Dr. Johnson."—Ed. of Ben Jonson, iv. 27. "In Kattywar, where the native chiefs employ Arab mercenaries, the Chaus still flourishes as an officer of a company. When I joined the Political Agency in that Province, there was a company of Arabs attached to the Residency under a Chaus." (M.-Gen. Keatinge). [The N.E.D. thinks that "Gifford's note must be taken with reserve." The Stanf. Dict. adds that Gifford's note asserts that two other Chiauses arrived in 1618-1625. One of the above quotations proves his accuracy as to 1618. Perhaps, however, the particular fraud had little to do with the modern use of the word. As Jonson suggests, chiaus may have been used for 'Turk' in the sense of 'cheat'; just as Cataian stood for 'thief' or 'rogue.' For a further discussion of the word see N. & Q., 7 ser. vi. 387; 8 ser. iv. 129.]
1560.—"Cum vero me taederet inclusionis in eodem diversorio, ago cum meo Chiauso (genus id est, ut tibi scripsi alias, multiplicis apud Turcas officii, quod etiam ad oratorum custodiam extenditur) ut mihi liceat aere meo domum conducere...."—Busbeq. Epist. iii. p. 149.
1610.—"Dapper.... What do you think of me, that I am a chiaus?
Face. What's that?
Dapper. The Turk was here.
As one would say, do you think I am a Turk?
* * * * *
Face. Come, noble doctor, pray thee let's prevail;
This is the gentleman, and he's no chiaus."
Ben. Jonson, The Alchemist, Act I. sc.
i.
1638.—
"Fulgoso. Gulls or Moguls,
Tag, rag, or other, hogen-mogen, vanden,
Ship-jack or chouses. Whoo! the brace are flinched.
The pair of shavers are sneak'd from us, Don...."
Ford, The Lady's Trial, Act II. sc. i.
1619.—"Con gli ambasciatori stranieri che seco conduceva, cioè l'Indiano, di Sciah Selim, un ciausc Turco ed i Moscoviti...."—P. della Valle, ii. 6.
1653.—"Chiaoux en Turq est vn Sergent du Diuan, et dans la campagne la garde d'vne Karauane, qui fait le guet, se nomme aussi Chiaoux, et cet employ n'est pas autrement honeste."—Le Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 536.
1659.—
"Conquest. We are
In a fair way to be ridiculous.
What think you? Chiaus'd by a scholar."
Shirley, Honoria & Mammon, Act II. sc. iii.
1663.—"The Portugals have choused us, it seems, in the Island of Bombay in the East Indys; for after a great charge of our fleets being sent thither with full commission from the King of Portugal to receive it, the Governour by some pretence or other will not deliver it to Sir Abraham Shipman."—Pepys, Diary, May 15; [ed. Wheatley iii. 125].
1674.—
"When geese and pullen are seduc'd
And sows of sucking pigs are chows'd."

Ibid.
1754.—"900 chiaux: they carried in their hand a baton with a double silver crook on the end of it; ... these frequently chanted moral sentences and encomiums on the Shah, occasionally proclaiming also his victories as he passed along."—Hanway, i. 170.
1762.—"Le 27e d'Août 1762 nous entendîmes un coup de canon du chateau de Kâhira, c'étoit signe qu'un Tsjaus (courier) étoit arrivé de la grande caravane."—Niebuhr, Voyage, i. 171.
1826.—"We started at break of day from the northern suburb of Ispahan, led by the chaoushes of the pilgrimage...."—Hajji Baba, ed. 1835, p. 6.
CHOW-CHOW, s. A common application of the Pigeon-English term in China is to mixed preserves; but, as {213b}the quotation shows, it has many uses; the idea of mixture seems to prevail. It is the name given to a book by Viscountess Falkland, whose husband was Governor of Bombay. There it seems to mean 'a medley of trifles.' Chow is in 'pigeon' applied to food of any kind. ["From the erroneous impression that dogs form one of the principal items of a Chinaman's diet, the common variety has been dubbed the 'chow dog'" (Ball, Things Chinese, p. 179).] We find the word chow-chow in Blumentritt's Vocabular of Manilla terms: "Chau-chau, a Tagal dish so called."
1858.—"The word chow-chow is suggestive, especially to the Indian reader, of a mixture of things, 'good, bad, and indifferent,' of sweet little oranges and bits of bamboo stick, slices of sugar-cane and rinds of unripe fruit, all concocted together, and made upon the whole into a very tolerable confection....
"Lady Falkland, by her happy selection of a name, to a certain extent deprecates and disarms criticism. We cannot complain that her work is without plan, unconnected, and sometimes trashy, for these are exactly the conditions implied in the word chow-chow."—Bombay Quarterly Review, January, p. 100.
1882.—"The variety of uses to which the compound word 'chow-chow' is put is almost endless.... A 'No. 1 chow-chow' thing signifies utterly worthless, but when applied to a breakfast or dinner it means 'unexceptionably good.' A 'chow-chow' cargo is an assorted cargo; a 'general shop' is a 'chow-chow' shop ... one (factory) was called the 'chow-chow,' from its being inhabited by divers Parsees, Moormen, or other natives of India."—The Fankwae, p. 63.
CHOWDRY, s. H. chaudharī, lit. 'a holder of four'; the explanation of which is obscure: [rather Skt. chakra-dharin, 'the bearer of the discus as an ensign of authority']. The usual application of the term is to the headman of a craft in a town, and more particularly to the person who is selected by Government as the agent through whom supplies, workmen, &c., are supplied for public purposes. [Thus the Chaudharī of carters provides carriage, the Chaudharī of Kahārs bearers, and so on.] Formerly, in places, to the headman of a village; to certain holders of lands; and in Cuttack it was, under native rule, applied to a district Revenue officer. In a paper of 'Explanations of Terms' {214a}furnished to the Council at Fort William by Warren Hastings, then Resident at Moradbagh (1759), chowdrees are defined as "Landholders in the next rank to Zemindars." (In Long, p. 176.) [Comp. VENDU-MASTER.] It is also an honorific title given by servants to one of their number, usually, we believe, to the mālī [see MOLLY], or gardener—as khalīfa to the cook and tailor, jama'dār to the bhishtī, mehtar to the sweeper, sirdār to the bearer.
c. 1300.—"... The people were brought to such a state of obedience that one revenue officer would string twenty ... chaudharis together by the neck, and enforce payment by blows."—Ziā-ud-dīn Barnī, in Elliot, iii. 183.
c. 1343.—"The territories dependent on the capital (Delhi) are divided into hundreds, each of which has a Jautharī, who is the Sheikh or chief man of the Hindus."—Ibn Batuta, iii. 388.
[1772.—"Chowdrahs, land-holders, in the next rank to Zemeendars."—Verelst, View of Bengal, Gloss. s.v.]
1788.—"Chowdry.—A Landholder or Farmer. Properly he is above the Zemindar in rank; but, according to the present custom of Bengal, he is deemed the next to the Zemindar. Most commonly used as the principal purveyor of the markets in towns or camps."—Indian Vocabulary (Stockdale's).
CHOWK, s. H. chauk. An open place or wide street in the middle of a city where the market is held, [as, for example, the Chāndnī Chauk of Delhi]. It seems to be adopted in Persian, and there is an Arabic form Sūḳ, which, it is just possible, may have been borrowed and Arabized from the present word. The radical idea of chauk seems to be "four ways" [Skt. chatushka], the crossing of streets at the centre of business. Compare Carfax, and the Quattro Cantoni of Palermo. In the latter city there is a market place called Piazza Ballarò, which in the 16th century a chronicler calls Seggeballarath, or as Amari interprets, Sūḳ-Balharā.
[1833.—"The Chandy Choke, in Delhi ... is perhaps the broadest street in any city in the East."—Skinner, Excursions in India, i. 49.]
CHOWNEE, s. The usual native name, at least in the Bengal Presidency, for an Anglo-Indian cantonment (q.v.). It is H. chhāonī, 'a thatched roof,' chhāonā, chhānā, v. 'to thatch.'
[1829.—"The Regent was at the chaoni, his standing camp at Gagrown, when this event occurred."—Tod, Annals (Calcutta reprint), ii. 611.]
CHOWRINGHEE, n.p. The name of a road and quarter of Calcutta, in which most of the best European houses stand; Chaurangī.
1789.—"The houses ... at Chowringee also will be much more healthy."—Seton-Karr, ii. 205.
1790.—"To dig a large tank opposite to the Cheringhee Buildings."—Ibid. 13.
1791.—"Whereas a robbery was committed on Tuesday night, the first instant, on the Chowringhy Road."—Ibid. 54.
1792.—"For Private Sale. A neat, compact and new built garden house, pleasantly situated at Chouringy, and from its contiguity to Fort William, peculiarly well calculated for an officer; it would likewise be a handsome provision for a native lady, or a child. The price is 1500 sicca rupees."—Ibid. ii. 541.
1803.—"Chouringhee, an entire village of palaces, runs for a considerable length at right angles with it, and altogether forms the finest view I ever beheld in any city."—Ld. Valentia, i. 236.
1810.—"As I enjoyed Calcutta much less this time ... I left it with less regret. Still, when passing the Chowringhee road the last day, I—
'Looked on stream and sea and plain
As what I ne'er might see again.'"
Elphinstone, in Life, i. 231.
1848.—"He wished all Cheltenham, all Chowringhee, all Calcutta, could see him in that position, waving his hand to such a beauty, and in company with such a famous buck as Rawdon Crawley, of the Guards."—Vanity Fair, ed. 1867, i. 237.
(a.) See CHOULTRY.
(b.) H. chaṅwar, chauṅrī; from Skt. chamara, chāmara. The bushy tail of the Tibetan Yak (q.v.), often set in a costly decorated handle to use as a fly-flapper, in which form it was one of the insignia of ancient Asiatic royalty. The tail was also often attached to the horse-trappings of native warriors; whilst it formed from remote times the standard of nations and nomad tribes of Central Asia. The Yak-tails and their uses are mentioned by Aelian, and by Cosmas (see under YAK). Allusions to the chāmara, as a sign of royalty, are frequent in Skt. books and inscriptions, e.g. in the Poet Kalidāsa (see transl. by Dr. Mill in {215a}J. As. Soc. Beng. i. 342; the Amarakosha, ii. 7, 31, &c.). The common Anglo-Indian expression in the 18th century appears to have been "Cow-tails" (q.v.). And hence Bogle in his Journal, as published by Mr. Markham, calls Yaks by the absurd name of "cow-tailed cows" though "horse-tailed cows" would have been more germane!
c. A.D. 250.—"Βοῶν δε γένη δύο, δρομικούς τε καὶ ἄλλους ἀγρίους δεινῶς· ἐκ τουτῶν γε τῶν βοῶν καὶ τὰς μυιοσόβας ποιοῦνται, καὶ τὸ μὲν σῶμα παμμέλανες εῖσιν οἵδε· τὰς δὲ οὐρὰς ἔχουσι λευκὰς ἰσχυρῶς."—Aelian. de Nat. An. xv. 14.
A.D. 634-5.—"... with his armies which were darkened by the spotless chāmaras that were waved over them."—Aihole Inscription.
c. 940.—"They export from this country the hair named al-zamar (or al-chamar) of which those fly-flaps are made, with handles of silver or ivory, which attendants held over the heads of kings when giving audience."—Maṣ'ūdī, i. 385. The expressions of Maṣ'ūdī are aptly illustrated by the Assyrian and Persepolitan sculptures. (See also Marco Polo, bk. iii. ch. 18; Nic. Conti, p. 14, in India in the XVth Century).
1623.—"For adornment of their horses they carried, hung to the cantles of their saddles, great tufts of a certain white hair, long and fine, which they told me were the tails of certain wild oxen found in India."—P. della Valle, ii. 662; [Hak. Soc. ii. 260].
1809.—"He also presented me in trays, which were as usual laid at my feet, two beautiful chowries."—Lord Valentia, i. 428.
1810.—"Near Brahma are Indra and Indranee on their elephant, and below is a female figure holding a chamara or chowree."—Maria Graham, 56.
1827.—"A black female slave, richly dressed, stood behind him with a chowry, or cow's tail, having a silver handle, which she used to keep off the flies."—Sir W. Scott, The Surgeon's Daughter, ch. x.
CHOWRYBURDAR, s. The servant who carries the Chowry. H. P. chauṅrī-bardār.
1774.—"The Deb-Rajah on horseback ... a chowra-burdar on each side of him."—Bogle, in Markham's Tibet, 24.
[1838.—"... the old king was sitting in the garden with a chowrybadar waving the flies from him."—Miss Eden, Up the Country, i. 138.]
CHOWT, CHOUT, s. Mahr. chauth, 'one fourth part.' The blackmail levied by the Mahrattas from the provincial governors as compensation {215b}for leaving their districts in immunity from plunder. The term is also applied to some other exactions of like ratio (see Wilson).
[1559.—Mr. Whiteway refers to Couto (Dec. VII. bk. 6, ch. 6), where this word is used in reference to payments made in 1559 in the time of D. Constantine de Bragança, and in papers of the early part of the 17th century the King of the Chouteas is frequently mentioned.]
1644.—"This King holds in our lands of Daman a certain payment which they call Chouto, which was paid him long before they belonged to the Portuguese, and so after they came under our power the payment continued to be made, and about these exactions and payments there have risen great disputes and contentions on one side and another."—Bocarro (MS.).
1674.—"Messengers were sent to Bassein demanding the chout of all the Portuguese territory in these parts. The chout means the fourth part of the revenue, and this is the earliest mention we find of the claim."—Orme's Fragments, p. 45.
1763-78.—"They (the English) were ... not a little surprised to find in the letters now received from Balajerow and his agent to themselves, and in stronger terms to the Nabob, a peremptory demand of the Chout or tribute due to the King of the Morattoes from the Nabobship of Arcot."—Orme, ii. 228-9.
1803.—"The Peshwah ... cannot have a right to two choutes, any more than to two revenues from any village in the same year."—Wellington Desp. (ed. 1837), ii. 175.
1858.—"... They (the Mahrattas) were accustomed to demand of the provinces they threatened with devastation a certain portion of the public revenue, generally the fourth part; and this, under the name of the chout, became the recognized Mahratta tribute, the price of the absence of their plundering hordes."—Whitney, Oriental and Ling. Studies, ii. 20-21.
CHOYA, CHAYA, CHEY, s. A root, [generally known as chayroot,] (Hedyotis umbellata, Lam., Oldenlandia umb., L.) of the Nat. Ord. Cinchonaceae, affording a red dye, sometimes called 'India Madder,' ['Dye Root,' 'Rameshwaram Root']; from Tam. shāyaver, Malayāl. chāyaver (chāya, 'colour,' ver, 'root'). It is exported from S. India, and was so also at one time from Ceylon. There is a figure of the plant in Lettres Edif. xiv. 164.
c. 1566.—"Also from S. Tome they layd great store of red yarne, of bombast died with a roote which they call saia, as aforesayd, which colour will never out."—Caesar Frederike, in Hakl. [ii. 354].
1583.—"Ne vien anchora di detta saia da un altro luogo detto Petopoli, e se ne tingono parimente in S. Thomè."—Balbi, f. 107.
1672.—"Here groweth very good Zaye."—Baldaeus, Ceylon.
[1679.—"... if they would provide mustors of Chae and White goods...."—Memoriall of S. Master, in Kistna Man., p. 131.]
1726.—"Saya (a dye-root that is used on the Coast for painting chintzes)."—Valentijn, Chor. 45.
1727.—"The Islands of Diu (near Masulipatam) produce the famous Dye called Shaii. It is a Shrub growing in Grounds that are overflown with the Spring tides."—A. Hamilton, i. 370; [ed. 1744, i. 374].
1860.—"The other productions that constituted the exports of the Island were sapan-wood to Persia; and choya-roots, a substitute for Madder, collected at Manaar ... for transmission to Surat."—Tennent's Ceylon, ii. 54-55. See also Chitty's Ceylon Gazetteer (1834), p. 40.
CHUCKAROO, s. English soldier's lingo for Chokra (q.v.)
CHUCKER. From H. chakar, chakkar, chakrā, Skt. chakra, 'a wheel or circle.'
(a.) s. A quoit for playing the English game; but more properly the sharp quoit or discus which constituted an ancient Hindu missile weapon, and is, or was till recently, carried by the Sikh fanatics called Akālī (see AKALEE), generally encircling their peaked turbans. The thing is described by Tavernier (E. T. ii. 41: [ed. Ball, i. 82]) as carried by a company of Mahommedan Fakīrs whom he met at Sherpūr in Guzerat. See also Lt.-Col. T. Lewin, A Fly, &c., p. 47: [Egerton, Handbook, Pl. 15, No. 64].
1516.—"In the Kingdom of Dely ... they have some steel wheels which they call chacarani, two fingers broad, sharp outside like knives, and without edge inside; and the surface of these is the size of a small plate. And they carry seven or eight of these each, put on the left arm; and they take one and put it on the finger of the right hand, and make it spin round many times, and so they hurl it at their enemies."—Barbosa, 100-101.
1630.—"In her right hand shee bare a chuckerey, which is an instrument of a round forme, and sharp-edged in the superficies thereof ... and slung off, in the quickness of his motion, it is able to deliuer or conuey death to a farre remote enemy."—Lord, Disc. of the Banian Religion, 12.
(b.) v. and s. To lunge a horse. H. chakarnā or chakar karnā. Also 'the lunge.'
1829.—"It was truly tantalizing to see those fellows chuckering their horses, not more than a quarter of a mile from our post."—John Shipp, i. 153.
[(c.) In Polo, a 'period.'
[1900.—"Two bouts were played to-day.... In the opening chukker Capt. —— carried the ball in."—Overland Mail, Aug. 13.]
CHUCKERBUTTY, n.p. This vulgarized Bengal Brahman name is, as Wilson points out, a corruption of chakravarttī, the title assumed by the most exalted ancient Hindu sovereigns, an universal Emperor, whose chariot-wheels rolled over all (so it is explained by some).
c. 400.—"Then the Bikshuni Uthala began to think thus with herself, 'To-day the King, ministers, and people are all going to meet Buddha ... but I—a woman—how can I contrive to get the first sight of him?' Buddha immediately, by his divine power, changed her into a holy Chakravartti Raja."—Travels of Fah-hian, tr. by Beale, p. 63.
c. 460.—"On a certain day (Asoka), having ... ascertained that the supernaturally gifted ... Nága King, whose age extended to a Kappo, had seen the four Buddhas ... he thus addressed him: 'Beloved, exhibit to me the person of the omniscient being of infinite wisdom, the Chakkawatti of the doctrine.'"—The Mahawanso, p. 27.
1856.—"The importance attached to the possession of a white elephant is traceable to the Buddhist system. A white elephant of certain wonderful endowments is one of the seven precious things, the possession of which marks the Maha Chakravartti Raja ... the holy and universal sovereign, a character which appears once in a cycle."—Mission to the Court of Ava (Major Phayre's), 1858, p. 154.
CHUCKLAH, s. H. chaklā, [Skt. chakra, 'a wheel']. A territorial subdivision under the Mahommedan government, thus defined by Warren Hastings, in the paper quoted under CHOWDRY:
1759.—"The jurisdiction of a Phojdar (see FOUJDAR), who receives the rents from the Zemindars, and accounts for them with the Government."
1760.—"In the treaty concluded with the Nawáb Meer Mohummud Cásim Khán, on the 27th Sept. 1760, it was agreed that ... the English army should be ready to assist {217a}him in the management of all affairs, and that the lands of the chuklahs (districts) of Burdwan, Midnapore and Chittagong, should be assigned for all the charges of the company and the army...."—Harington's Analysis of the Laws and Regulations, vol. i. Calcutta, 1805-1809, p. 5.
CHUCKLER, s. Tam. and Malayāl. shakkili, the name of a very low caste, members of which are tanners or cobblers, like the Chamārs (see CHUMAR) of Upper India. But whilst the latter are reputed to be a very dark caste, the Chucklers are fair (see Elliot's Gloss. by Beames, i. 71, and Caldwell's Gram. 574). [On the other hand the Madras Gloss. (s.v.) says that as a rule they are of "a dark black hue."] Colloquially in S. India Chuckler is used for a native shoemaker.
c. 1580.—"All the Gentoos (Gentios) of those parts, especially those of Bisnaga, have many castes, which take precedence one of another. The lowest are the Chaquivilis, who make shoes, and eat all unclean flesh...."—Primor e Honra, &c., f. 95.
1759.—"Shackelays are shoemakers, and held in the same despicable light on the Coromandel Coast as the Niaddes and Pullies on the Malabar."—Ives, 26.
c. 1790.—"Aussi n'est-ce que le rébut de la classe méprisée des parrias; savoir les tschakelís ou cordonniers et les vettians ou fossoyeurs, qui s'occupent de l'enterrement et la combustion des morts."—Haafner, ii. 60.
[1844.—"... the chockly, who performs the degrading duty of executioner...."—Society, Manners, &c., of India, ii. 282.]
1869.—"The Komatis or mercantile caste of Madras by long established custom, are required to send an offering of betel to the chucklers, or shoemakers, before contracting their marriages."—Sir W. Elliot, in J. Ethn. Soc., N. S. vol. i. 102.
CHUCKMUCK, s. H. chakmak. 'Flint and steel.' One of the titles conferred on Haidar 'Ali before he rose to power was 'Chakmak Jang,' 'Firelock of War'? See H. of Hydur Naik, 112.
CHUCKRUM, s. An ancient coin once generally current in the S. of India, Malayāl. chakram, Tel. chakramu; from Skt. chakra (see under CHUCKER). It is not easy to say what was its value, as the statements are inconsistent: nor do they confirm Wilson's, that it was equal to one-tenth of a pagoda. [According to {217b}the Madras Gloss. (s.v.) it bore the same relation to the gold Pagoda that the Anna does to the Rupee, and under it again was the copper Cash, which was its sixteenth.] The denomination survives in Travancore, [where 28½ go to one rupee. (Ibid.)]
1554.—"And the fanoms of the place are called chocrões, which are coins of inferior gold; they are worth 12½ or 12¼ to the pardao of gold, reckoning the pardao at 360 reis."—A. Nunez, Livro dos Pesos, 36.
1711.—"The Enemy will not come to any agreement unless we consent to pay 30,000 chuckrums, which we take to be 16,600 and odd pagodas."—In Wheeler, ii. 165.
1813.—Milburn, under Tanjore, gives the chuckrum as a coin equal to 20 Madras, or ten gold fanams. 20 Madras fanams would be 4⁄9 of a pagoda.
[From the difficulty of handling these coins, which are small and round, they are counted on a chuckrum board as in the case of the Fanam (q.v.).]
CHUDDER, s. H. chādar, a sheet, or square piece of cloth of any kind; the ample sheet commonly worn as a mantle by women in N. India. It is also applied to the cloths spread over Mahommedan tombs. Barbosa (1516) and Linschoten (1598) have chautars, chautares, as a kind of cotton piece-goods, but it is certain that this is not the same word. Chowtars occur among Bengal piece-goods in Milburn, ii. 221. [The word is chautár, 'anything with four threads,' and it occurs in the list of cotton cloths in the Āīn (i. 94). In a letter of 1610 we have "Chautares are white and well requested" (Danvers, Letters, i. 75); "Chauters of Agra" (Foster, Letters, ii. 45); Cocks has "fine Casho or Chowter" (Diary, i. 86); and in 1615 they are called "Cowter" (Foster, iv. 51).]
1525.—"Chader of Cambaya."—Lembrança, 56.
[c. 1610.—"From Bengal comes another sort of hanging, of fine linen painted and ornamented with colours in a very agreeable fashion; these they call iader."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 222.]
1614.—"Pintados, chints and chadors."—Peyton, in Purchas, i. 530.
1673.—"The habit of these water-nymphs was fine Shudders of lawn embroidered on the neck, wrist, and skirt with a border of several coloured silks or threads of gold."—Herbert, 3rd ed. 191.
1832.—"Chuddur ... a large piece of cloth or sheet, of one and a half or two breadths, thrown over the head, so as to cover the whole body. Men usually sleep rolled up in it."—Herklots, Qanoon-e-Islam, xii.-xiii.
1878.—"Two or three women, who had been chattering away till we appeared, but who, on seeing us, drew their 'chadders' ... round their faces, and retired to the further end of the boat."—Life in the Mofussil, i. 79.
The Rampore Chudder is a kind of shawl, of the Tibetan shawl-wool, of uniform colour without pattern, made originally at Rāmpur on the Sutlej; and of late years largely imported into England: [(see the Panjab Mono. on Wool, p. 9). Curiously enough a claim to the derivation of the title from Rāmpur, in Rohilkhand, N.W.P. is made in the Imperial Gazetteer, 1st ed. (s.v.).]
CHUL! CHULLO! v. in imperative; 'Go on! Be quick.' H. chalo! imper. of chalnā, to go, go speedily. [Another common use of the word in Anglo-Indian slang is—"It won't chul," 'it won't answer, succeed.']
c. 1790.—"Je montai de très-bonne heure dans mon palanquin.—Tschollo (c'est-à-dire, marche), crièrent mes coulis, et aussitôt le voyage commença."—Haafner, ii. 5.
[CHUMAR, s. H. Chamār, Skt. charma-kāra, 'one who works in leather,' and thus answering to the Chuckler of S. India; an important caste found all through N. India, whose primary occupation is tanning, but a large number are agriculturists and day labourers of various kinds.
[1823.—"From this abomination, beef-eating ... they [the Bheels] only rank above the Choomars, or shoemakers, who feast on dead carcases, and are in Central India, as elsewhere, deemed so unclean that they are not allowed to dwell within the precincts of the village."—Malcolm, Central India, 2nd ed. ii. 179.]
CHUMPUK, s. A highly ornamental and sacred tree (Michelia champaca, L., also M. Rheedii), a kind of magnolia, whose odorous yellow blossoms are much prized by Hindus, offered at shrines, and rubbed on the body at marriages, &c. H. champak, Skt. champaka. Drury strangely says that the name is "derived from Ciampa, an island between Cambogia and Cochin China, where the tree {218b}grows." Champa is not an island, and certainly derives its Sanskrit name from India, and did not give a name to an Indian tree. The tree is found wild in the Himālaya from Nepāl, eastward; also in Pegu and Tenasserim, and along the Ghauts to Travancore. The use of the term champaka extends to the Philippine Islands. [Mr. Skeat notes that it is highly prized by Malay women, who put it in their hair.]
1623.—"Among others they showed me a flower, in size and form not unlike our lily, but of a yellowish white colour, with a sweet and powerful scent, and which they call champà [ciampá]."—P. della Valle, ii. 517; [Hak. Soc. i. 40].
1786.—"The walks are scented with blossoms of the champac and nagisar, and the plantations of pepper and coffee are equally new and pleasing."—Sir W. Jones, in Mem., &c., ii. 81.
1810.—"Some of these (birds) build in the sweet-scented champaka and the mango."—Maria Graham, 22.
1819.—
"The wandering airs they faint
On the dark, the silent stream;
And the chumpak's odours fail
Like sweet thoughts in a dream."
Shelley, Lines to an Indian Air.
1821.—
"Some chumpak flowers proclaim it yet divine."
Medwin, Sketches in Hindoostan, 73.
CHUNÁM, s. Prepared lime; also specially used for fine polished plaster. Forms of this word occur both in Dravidian languages and Hind. In the latter chūnā is from Skt. chūrṇa, 'powder'; in the former it is somewhat uncertain whether the word is, or is not, an old derivative from the Sanskrit. In the first of the following quotations the word used seems taken from the Malayāl. chuṇṇāmba, Tam. shuṇṇāmbu.
1510.—"And they also eat with the said leaves (betel) a certain lime made from oyster shells, which they call cionama."—Varthema, 144.
1563.—"... so that all the names you meet with that are not Portuguese are Malabar; such as betre (betel), chuna, which is lime...."—Garcia, f. 37g.
c. 1610.—"... l'vn porte son éventail, l'autre la boëte d'argent pleine de betel, l'autre une boëte ou il y a du chunan, qui est de la chaux."—Pyrard de Laval, ii. 84; [Hak. Soc. ii. 135].
1614.—"Having burnt the great idol into chunah, he mixed the powdered lime with pān leaves, and gave it to the Rājpūts that they might eat the objects of their worship."—Firishta, quoted by Quatremère, Not. et Ext., xiv. 510.
1673.—"The Natives chew it (Betel) with Chinam (Lime of calcined Oyster Shells)."—Fryer, 40.
1687.—"That stores of Brick, Iron, Stones, and Chenam be in readiness to make up any breach."—Madras Consultations, in Wheeler, i. 168.
1689.—"Chinam is Lime made of Cockle-shells, or Lime-stone; and Pawn is the Leaf of a Tree."—Ovington, 123.
1750-60.—"The flooring is generally composed of a kind of loam or stucco, called chunam, being a lime made of burnt shells."—Grose, i. 52.
1763.—"In the Chuckleh of Silet for the space of five years ... my phoasdar and the Company's gomastah shall jointly prepare chunam, of which each shall defray all expenses, and half the chunam so made shall be given to the Company, and the other half shall be for my use."—Treaty of Mir Jaffir with the Company, in Carraccioli's L. of Clive, i. 64.
1809.—"The row of chunam pillars which supported each side ... were of a shining white."—Ld. Valentia, i. 61.
CHUNÁM, TO, v. To set in mortar; or, more frequently, to plaster over with chunam.
1687.—"... to get what great jars he can, to put wheat in, and chenam them up, and set them round the fort curtain."—In Wheeler, i. 168.
1809.—"... having one ... room ... beautifully chunammed."—Ld. Valentia, i. 386.
Both noun and verb are used also in the Anglo-Chinese settlements.
CHUNÁRGURH, n.p. A famous rock-fort on the Ganges, above Benares, and on the right bank. The name is believed to be a corr. of Charana-giri, 'Foot Hill,' a name probably given from the actual resemblance of the rock, seen in longitudinal profile, to a human foot. [There is a local legend that it represents the foot of Vishnu. A native folk etymology makes it a corr. of Chandālgaṛh, from some legendary connection with the Bhangi tribe (see CHANDAUL). (See Crooke, Tribes and Castes, i. 263.)]
[1768.—"Sensible of the vast importance of the fort of Chunar to Sujah al Dowlah ... we have directed Col. Barker to reinforce the garrison...."—Letter to Court of Directors, in Verelst, App. 78.
[1785.—"Chunar, called by the natives Chundalghur...."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. ii. 442.]
CHUPATTY, s. H. chapātī, an unleavened cake of bread (generally of coarse wheaten meal), patted flat with the hand, and baked upon a griddle; the usual form of native bread, and the staple food of Upper India. (See HOPPER).
1615.—Parson Terry well describes the thing, but names it not: "The ordinary sort of people eat bread made of a coarse grain, but both toothsome and wholesome and hearty. They make it up in broad cakes, thick like our oaten cakes; and then bake it upon small round iron hearths which they carry with them."—In Purchas, ii. 1468.
1810.—"Chow-patties, or bannocks."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 348.
1857.—"From village to village brought by one messenger and sent forward by another passed a mysterious token in the shape of one of those flat cakes made from flour and water, and forming the common bread of the people, which in their language, are called chupatties."—Kaye's Sepoy War, i. 570. [The original account of this by the Correspondent of the 'Times,' dated "Bombay, March 3, 1857," is quoted in 2 ser. N. & Q. iii. 365.]
There is a tradition of a noble and gallant Governor-General who, when compelled to rough it for a day or two, acknowledged that "chuprassies and masaulchies were not such bad diet," meaning Chupatties and Mussalla.
CHUPKUN, s. H. chapkan. The long frock (or cassock) which is the usual dress in Upper India of nearly all male natives who are not actual labourers or indigent persons. The word is probably of Turki or Mongol origin, and is perhaps identical with the chakman of the Āīn (i. 90), a word still used in Turkistan. [Vambéry, (Sketches, 121 seqq.) describes both the Tchapan or upper coat and the Tchekmen or gown.] Hence Beames's connection of chapkan with the idea of chap as meaning compressing or clinging [Platts chapaknā, 'to be pressed'], "a tightly-fitting coat or cassock," is a little fanciful. (Comp. Gram. i. 212 seq.) Still this idea may have shaped the corruption of a foreign word.
1883.—"He was, I was going to say, in his shirt-sleeves, only I am not sure that he wore a shirt in those days—I think he had a chupkun, or native under-garment."—C. Raikes, in L. of Ld. Lawrence, i. 59.
CHUPRA, n.p. Chaprā, [or perhaps rather Chhaprā, 'a collection of straw huts,' (see CHOPPER),] a town and head-quarter station of the District Sāran in Bahār, on the north bank of the Ganges.
1665.—"The Holland Company have a House there (at Patna) by reason of their trade in Salt Peter, which they refine at a great Town called Choupar ... 10 leagues above Patna."—Tavernier, E. T. ii. 53; [ed. Ball, i. 122].
1726.—"Sjoppera (Chupra)."—Valentijn, Chorom., &c., 147.
CHUPRASSY, s. H. chaprāsī, the bearer of a chaprās, i.e. a badge-plate inscribed with the name of the office to which the bearer is attached. The chaprāsī is an office-messenger, or henchman, bearing such a badge on a cloth or leather belt. The term belongs to the Bengal Presidency. In Madras Peon is the usual term; in Bombay Puttywalla, (H. paṭṭīwālā), or "man of the belt." The etymology of chaprās is obscure; [the popular account is that it is a corr. of P. chap-o-rāst, 'left and right']; but see Beames (Comp. Gram. i. 212), who gives buckle as the original meaning.
1865.—"I remember the days when every servant in my house was a chuprassee, with the exception of the Khansaumaun and a Portuguese Ayah."—The Dawk Bungalow, p. 389.
c. 1866.—
"The big Sahib's tent has gone from under the Peepul tree,
With his horde of hungry chuprassees, and oily sons of the quill—
I paid them the bribe they wanted, and Sheitan will settle the bill."
Sir A. C. Lyall, The Old Pindaree.
1877.—"One of my chuprassies or messengers ... was badly wounded."—Meadows Taylor, Life, i. 227.
1880.—"Through this refractory medium the people of India see their rulers. The Chuprassie paints his master in colours drawn from his own black heart.  He is the arch-slanderer of our name in India."—Ali Baba, 102-3.
CHURR, s. H. char, Skt. char, 'to move.' "A sand-bank or island in the current of a river, deposited by the water, claims to which were regulated by the Bengal Reg. xi. 1825" (Wilson). A char is new alluvial land deposited by the great rivers as the {220b}floods are sinking, and covered with grass, but not necessarily insulated. It is remarkable that Mr. Marsh mentions a very similar word as used for the same thing in Holland. "New sandbank land, covered with grasses, is called in Zeeland schor" (Man and Nature, p. 339). The etymologies are, however, probably quite apart.
1878.—"In the dry season all the various streams ... are merely silver threads winding among innumerable sandy islands, the soil of which is specially adapted for the growth of Indigo. They are called Churs."—Life in the Mofussil, ii. 3 seq.
CHURRUCK, s. A wheel or any rotating machine; particularly applied to simple machines for cleaning cotton. Pers. charkh, 'the celestial sphere,' 'a wheel of any kind,' &c. Beng. charak is apparently a corruption of the Persian word, facilitated by the nearness of the Skt. chakra, &c.
—— POOJAH. Beng. charak-pūjā (see POOJA). The Swinging Festival of the Hindus, held on the sun's entrance into Aries. The performer is suspended from a long yard, traversing round on a mast, by hooks passed through the muscle over the blade-bones, and then whirled round so as to fly out centrifugally. The chief seat of this barbarous display is, or latterly was, in Bengal, but it was formerly prevalent in many parts of India. [It is the Shirry (Ca. and Tel. sidi, Tam. shedil, Tel. sidi, 'a hook') of S. India.] There is an old description in Purchas's Pilgrimage, p. 1000; also (in Malabar) in A. Hamilton, i. 270; [at Ikkeri, P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. ii. 259]; and (at Calcutta) in Heber's Journal, quoted below.
c. 1430.—"Alii ad ornandos currus perforato latere, fune per corpus immisso se ad currum suspendunt, pendentesque et ipsi exanimati idolum comitantur; id optimum sacrificium putant et acceptissimum deo."—Conti, in Poggius, De Var. Fortunae, iv.
[1754.—See a long account of the Bengal rite in Ives, 27 seqq.].
1824.—"The Hindoo Festival of 'Churruck Poojah' commenced to-day, of which, as my wife has given an account in her journal, I shall only add a few particulars."—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 57.
CHURRUS, s.
a. H. charas. A simple apparatus worked by oxen for drawing water {221a}from a well, and discharging it into irrigation channels by means of pulley ropes, and a large bag of hide (H. charsā, Skt. charma). [See the description in Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. i. 153. Hence the area irrigated from a well.]
[1829.—"To each Churrus, chursa, or skin of land, there is attached twenty-five beeghas of irrigated land."—Tod, Annals (Calcutta repr.), ii. 688.]
b. H. charas, [said to be so called because the drug is collected by men who walk with leather aprons through the field]. The resinous exudation of the hemp-plant (Cannabis Indica), which is the basis of intoxicating preparations (see BANG, GUNJA).
[1842.—"The Moolah sometimes smoked the intoxicating drug called Chirs."—Elphinstone, Caubul, i. 344.]
CHUTKARRY, CHATTAGAR, in S. India, a half-caste; Tam. shaṭṭi-kar, 'one who wears a waistcoat' (C. P. B).
CHUTNY, s. H. chatnī. A kind of strong relish, made of a number of condiments and fruits, &c., used in India, and more especially by Mahommedans, and the merits of which are now well known in England. For native chutny recipes, see Herklots, Qanoon-e-Islam, 2nd ed. xlvii. seqq.
1813.—"The Chatna is sometimes made with cocoa-nut, lime-juice, garlic, and chillies, and with the pickles is placed in deep leaves round the large cover, to the number of 30 or 40."—Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 50 seq.; [2nd ed. i. 348].
1820.—"Chitnee, Chatnee, some of the hot spices made into a paste, by being bruised with water, the 'kitchen' of an Indian peasant."—Acc. of Township of Loony, in Tr. Lit. Soc. Bombay, ii. 194.
CHUTT, s. H. chhat. The proper meaning of the vernacular word is 'a roof or platform.' But in modern Anglo-Indian its usual application is to the coarse cotton sheeting, stretched on a frame and whitewashed, which forms the usual ceiling of rooms in thatched or tiled houses; properly chādar-chhat, 'sheet-ceiling.'
CHUTTANUTTY, n.p. This was one of the three villages purchased for the East India Company in 1686, when the agents found their position in Hugli intolerable, to form the {221b}settlement which became the city of Calcutta. The other two villages were Calcutta and Govindpūr. Dr. Hunter spells it Sūtanatī, but the old Anglo-Indian orthography indicates Chatānatī as probable. In the letter-books of the Factory Council in the India Office the earlier letters from this establishment are lost, but down to 27th March, 1700, they are dated from "Chuttanutte; on and after June 8th, from "Calcutta"; and from August 20th in the same year from "Fort William" in Calcutta. [See Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. lix.] According to Major Ralph Smyth, Chatānatī occupied "the site of the present native town," i.e. the northern quarter of the city. Calcutta stood on what is now the European commercial part; and Govindpūr on the present site of Fort William.[69]
1753.—"The Hoogly Phousdar demanding the payment of the ground rent for 4 months from January, namely:—
| R. | A. | P. | |
| Sootaloota, Calcutta | 325 | 0 | 0 |
| Govindpoor, Picar | 70 | 0 | 0 |
| Govindpoor, Calcutta | 33 | 0 | 0 |
| Buxies | 1 | 8 | 0 |
Agreed that the President do pay the same out of cash."—Consn. Ft. William, April 30, in Long, 43.
CHUTTRUM, s. Tam. shattiram, which is a corruption of Skt. sattra, 'abode.' In S. India a house where pilgrims and travelling members of the higher castes are entertained and fed gratuitously for a day or two. [See CHOULTRY, DHURMSALLA.]
1807.—"There are two distinct kinds of buildings confounded by Europeans under the name of Choultry. The first is that called by the natives Chaturam, and built for the accommodation of travellers. These ... have in general pent roofs ... built in the form of a square enclosing a court.... The other kind are properly built for the reception of images, when these are carried in procession. These have flat roofs, and consist of one apartment only, and by the natives are called Mandapam.... Besides the Chaturam and the Mandapam, there is another kind of building which by Europeans is called Choultry; in the Tamul language it is called Tany Pundal, or Water Shed ... small buildings where weary travellers may enjoy a temporary repose in the shade, and obtain a draught of water or milk."—F. Buchanan, Mysore, i. 11, 15.
CINDERELLA'S SLIPPER. A Hindu story on the like theme appears among the Hala Kanara MSS. of the Mackenzie Collection:—
"Suvarṇadevi having dropped her slipper in a reservoir, it was found by a fisherman of Kusumakesari, who sold it to a shopkeeper, by whom it was presented to the King Ugrabáhu. The Prince, on seeing the beauty of the slipper, fell in love with the wearer, and offered large rewards to any person who should find and bring her to him. An old woman undertook the task, and succeeded in tracing the shoe to its owner...."—Mackenzie Collection, by H. H. Wilson, ii. 52. [The tale is not uncommon in Indian folk-lore. See Miss Cox, Cinderella (Folk-lore Soc.), ii. 91, 183, 465, &c.]
CINTRA ORANGES. See ORANGE and SUNGTARA.
CIRCARS, n.p. The territory to the north of the Coromandel Coast, formerly held by the Nizam, and now forming the districts of Kistna, Godávari, Vizagapatam, Ganjám, and a part of Nellore, was long known by the title of "The Circars," or "Northern Circars" (i.e. Governments), now officially obsolete. The Circars of Chicacole (now Vizagapatam Dist.), Rajamandri and Ellore (these two embraced now in Godávari Dist.), with Condapilly (now embraced in Kistna Dist.), were the subject of a grant from the Great Mogul, obtained by Clive in 1765, confirmed by treaty with the Nizam in 1766. Gantūr (now also included in Kistna Dist.) devolved eventually by the same treaty (but did not come permanently under British rule till 1803). [For the history see Madras Admin. Man. i. 179.] C. P. Brown says the expression "The Circars" was first used by the French, in the time of Bussy. [Another name for the Northern Circars was the Carling or Carlingo country, apparently a corr. of Kalinga (see KLING), see Pringle, Diary, &c., of Ft. St. George, 1st ser. vol. 2, p. 125. (See SIRCAR.)]
1758.—"Il est à remarquer qu'après mon départ d'Ayder Abad, Salabet Zingue a nommé un Phosdar, ou Gouverneur, pour les quatres Cerkars."—Mémoire, by Bussy, in Lettres de MM. de Bussy, de Lally et autres, Paris, 1766, p. 24.
1767.—"Letter from the Chief and Council at Masulipatam ... that in consequence of orders from the President and Council of Fort St. George for securing and sending {222b}away all vagrant Europeans that might be met with in the Circars, they have embarked there for this place...."—Fort William Consn., in Long, 476 seq.
1789.—"The most important public transaction ... is the surrender of the Guntoor Circar to the Company, by which it becomes possessed of the whole Coast, from Jaggernaut to Cape Comorin. The Nizam made himself master of that province, soon after Hyder's invasion of the Carnatic, as an equivalent for the arrears of peshcush, due to him by the Company for the other Circars."—Letter of T. Munro, in Life by Gleig, i. 70.
1823.—"Although the Sirkárs are our earliest possessions, there are none, perhaps, of which we have so little accurate knowledge in everything that regards the condition of the people."—Sir T. Munro, in Selections, &c., by Sir A. Arbuthnot, i. 204.
We know from the preceding quotation what Munro's spelling of the name was.
1836.—"The district called the Circars, in India, is part of the coast which extends from the Carnatic to Bengal.... The domestic economy of the people is singular; they inhabit villages (!!), and all labour is performed by public servants paid from the public stock."—Phillips, Million of Facts, 320.
1878.—"General Sir J. C., C.B., K.C.S.I. He entered the Madras Army in 1820, and in 1834, according to official despatches, displayed 'active zeal, intrepidity, and judgment' in dealing with the savage tribes in Orissa known as the Circars"(!!!).—Obituary Notice in Homeward Mail, April 27.
CIVILIAN, s. A term which came into use about 1750-1770, as a designation of the covenanted European servants of the E. I. Company, not in military employ. It is not used by Grose, c. 1760, who was himself of such service at Bombay. [The earliest quotation in the N.E.D. is of 1766 from Malcolm's L. of Clive, 54.] In Anglo-Indian parlance it is still appropriated to members of the covenanted Civil Service [see COVENANTED SERVANTS]. The Civil Service is mentioned in Carraccioli's L. of Clive, (c. 1785), iii. 164. From an early date in the Company's history up to 1833, the members of the Civil Service were classified during the first five years as Writers (q.v.), then to the 8th year as Factors (q.v.); in the 9th and 11th as Junior Merchants; and thenceforward as Senior Merchants. These names were relics of the original commercial character of the E. I. Company's transactions, and had long ceased to have {223a}any practical meaning at the time of their abolition in 1833, when the Charter Act (3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 85), removed the last traces of the Company's commercial existence.
1848.—(Lady O'Dowd's) "quarrel with Lady Smith, wife of Minos Smith the puisne Judge, is still remembered by some at Madras, when the Colonel's lady snapped her fingers in the Judge's lady's face, and said she'd never walk behind ever a beggarly civilian."—Vanity Fair, ed. 1867, ii. 85.
1872.—"You bloated civilians are never satisfied, retorted the other."—A True Reformer, i. 4.
CLASSY, CLASHY, s. H. khalāṣī, usual etym. from Arab khalāṣ. A tent-pitcher; also (because usually taken from that class of servants) a man employed as chain-man or staff-man, &c., by a surveyor; a native sailor; or Matross (q.v.). Khalāṣ is constantly used in Hindustani in the sense of 'liberation'; thus, of a prisoner, a magistrate says 'khalāṣ karo,' 'let him go.' But it is not clear how khalāṣī got its ordinary Indian sense. It is also written khalāshī, and Vullers has an old Pers. word khalāsha for 'a ship's rudder.' A learned friend suggests that this may be the real origin of khalāṣī in its Indian use. [Khalāṣ also means the 'escape channel of a canal,' and khalāṣī may have been originally a person in charge of such a work.]
1785.—"A hundred clashies have been sent to you from the presence."—Tippoo's Letters, 171.
1801.—"The sepoys in a body were to bring up the rear. Our left flank was to be covered by the sea, and our right by Gopie Nath's men. Then the clashies and other armed followers."—Mt. Stewart Elphinstone, in Life, i. 27.
1824.—"If the tents got dry, the clashees (tent-pitchers) allowed that we might proceed in the morning prosperously."—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 194.
CLEARING NUT, WATER FILTER NUT, s. The seed of Strychnos potatorum, L.; a tree of S. India; [known in N. India as nirmalā, nirmalī, 'dirt-cleaner']. It is so called from its property of clearing muddy water, if well rubbed on the inside of the vessel which is to be filled.