b. We find it stated in Lieut. Garnier's narrative of his great expedition to Yunnan that there is a hybrid Chinese race occupying part of the plain of Tali-fu, who are called {670b}Pen-ti (see Garnier, Voy. d'Expl. i. 518). This name again, it has been suggested, may possibly have to do with Panthé. But we find that Pen-ti ('root-soil') is a generic expression used in various parts of S. China for 'aborigines'; it could hardly then have been applied to the Mahommedans.
PANWELL, n.p. This town on the mainland opposite Bombay was in pre-railway times a usual landing-place on the way to Poona, and the English form of the name must have struck many besides ourselves. [Hamilton (Descr. ii. 151) says it stands on the river Pan, whence perhaps the name]. We do not know the correct form; but this one has substantially come down to us from the Portuguese: e.g.
1644.—"This Island of Caranja is quite near, almost frontier-place, to six cities of the Moors of the Kingdom of the Melique, viz. Carnallî, Drugo, Pene, Sabayo, Abitta, and Panoel."—Bocarro, MS. f. 227.
1804.—"P.S. Tell Mrs. Waring that notwithstanding the debate at dinner, and her recommendation, we propose to go to Bombay, by Panwell, and in the balloon!"—Wellington, from "Candolla," March 8.
PAPAYA, PAPAW, s. This word seems to be from America like the insipid, not to say nasty, fruit which it denotes (Carica papaya, L.). A quotation below indicates that it came by way of the Philippines and Malacca. [The Malay name, according to Mr. Skeat, is betik, which comes from the same Ar. form as pateca, though papaya and kapaya have been introduced by Europeans.] Though of little esteem, and though the tree's peculiar quality of rendering fresh meat tender which is familiar in the W. Indies, is little known or taken advantage of, the tree is found in gardens and compounds all over India, as far north as Delhi. In the N.W. Provinces it is called by the native gardeners aranḍ-kharbūza, 'castor-oil-tree-melon,' no doubt from the superficial resemblance of its foliage to that of the Palma Christi. According to Moodeen Sheriff it has a Perso-Arabic name 'anbah-i-Hindī; in Canarese it is called P'arangi-haṇṇu or -mara ('Frank or Portuguese fruit, tree'). The name papaya according to Oviedo {671a}as quoted by Littré ("Oviedo, t. l. p. 333, Madrid, 1851,"—we cannot find it in Ramusio) was that used in Cuba, whilst the Carib name was ababai.[206] [Mr. J. Platt, referring to his article in 9th Ser. Notes & Queries, iv. 515, writes: "Malay papaya, like the Accra term kpakpa, is a European loan word. The evidence for Carib origin is, firstly, Oviedo's Historia, 1535 (in the ed. of 1851, vol. i. 323): 'Del arbol que en esta isla Española llaman papaya, y en la tierra firme los llaman los Españoles los higos del mastuerço, y en la provincia de Nicaragua llaman a tal arbol olocoton.' Secondly, Breton, Dictionnaire Caraibe, has: 'Ababai, papayer.' Gilij, Saggio, 1782, iii. 146 (quoted in N. & Q., u.s.), says the Otamic word is pappai."] Strange liberties are taken with the spelling. Mr. Robinson (below) calls it popeya; Sir L. Pelly (J.R.G.S. xxxv. 232), poppoi (ὦ πόποι!). Papaya is applied in the Philippines to Europeans who, by long residence, have fallen into native ways and ideas.
c. 1550.—"There is also a sort of fruit resembling figs, called by the natives Papaie ... peculiar to this kingdom" (Peru).—Girol. Benzoni, 242.
1598.—"There is also a fruite that came out of the Spanish Indies, brought from beyond ye Philipinas or Lusons to Malacca, and frõ thence to India, it is called Papaios, and is very like a Mellon ... and will not grow, but alwaies two together, that is male and female ... and when they are diuided and set apart one from the other, then they yield no fruite at all.... This fruite at the first for the strangeness thereof was much esteemed, but now they account not of it."—Linschoten, 97; [Hak. Soc. ii. 35].
c. 1630.—"... Pappaes, Cocoes, and Plantains, all sweet and delicious...."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1665, p. 350.
c. 1635.—
"The Palma Christi and the fair Papaw
Now but a seed (preventing Nature's Law)
In half the circle of the hasty year,
Project a shade, and lovely fruits do wear."
Waller, Battle of the Summer Islands.
1658.—"Utraque Pinoguaçu (mas. et fœmina), Mamoeira Lusitanis dicta, vulgò Papay, cujus fructum Mamam vocant a figura, quia mammae instar pendet in arbore ... carne lutea instar melonum, sed sapore ignobiliori...."—Gul. Pisonis ... de Indiae utriusque Re Naturali et Medicâ, Libri xiv. 159-160.
1673.—"Here the flourishing Papaw (in Taste like our Melons, and as big, but {671b}growing on a Tree leaf'd like our Fig-tree...."—Fryer, 19.
1705.—"Il y a aussi des ananas, des Papées...."—Luillier, 33.
1764.—
"Thy temples shaded by the tremulous palm,
Or quick papaw, whose top is necklaced round
With numerous rows of particoloured fruit."
Grainger, Sugar Cane, iv.
[1773.—"Paw Paw. This tree rises to 20 feet, sometimes single, at other times it is divided into several bodies."—Ives, 480.]
1878.—"... the rank popeyas clustering beneath their coronal of stately leaves."—Ph. Robinson, In My Indian Garden, 50.
PAPUA, n.p. This name, which is now applied generically to the chief race of the island of New Guinea and resembling tribes, and sometimes (improperly) to the great island itself, is a Malay word papuwah, or sometimes puwah-puwah, meaning 'frizzle-haired,' and was applied by the Malays to the people in question.
1528.—"And as the wind fell at night the vessel was carried in among the islands, where there are strong currents, and got into the Sea of the Strait of Magalhães,[207] where he encountered a great storm, so that but for God's mercy they had all been lost, and so they were driven on till they made the land of the Papuas, and then the east winds began to blow so that they could not sail to the Moluccas till May 1527. And with their stay in these lands much people got ill and many died, so that they came to Molucca much shattered."—Correa, iii. 173-174.
1553.—(Referring to the same history.) "Thence he went off to make the islands of a certain people called Papuas, whom many on account of this visit of Don Jorge (de Menezes) call the Islands of Don Jorge, which lie east of the Moluccas some 200 leagues...."—Barros, IV. i. 6.
PARABYKE, s. Burmese pārabeik; the name given to a species of writing book which is commonly used in Burma. It consists of paper made from the bark of a spec. of daphne, which is agglutinated into a kind of pasteboard and blackened with a paste of charcoal. It is then folded, screen-fashion, into a note-book and written on with a steatite pencil. The same mode of writing has long been used in Canara; and from La Loubère we see {672a}that it is or was used also in Siam. The Canara books are called kaḍatam, and are described by Col. Wilks under the name of cudduttum, carruttum, or currut (Hist. Sketches, Pref. I. xii.). They appear exactly to resemble the Burmese para-beik, except that the substance blackened is cotton cloth instead of paper. "The writing is similar to that on a slate, and may be in like manner rubbed out and renewed. It is performed by a pencil of the balapum [Can. balapa] or lapis ollaris; and this mode of writing was not only in ancient use for records and public documents, but is still universally employed in Mysoor by merchants and shopkeepers, I have even seen a bond, regularly witnessed, entered in the cudduttum of a merchant, produced and received in evidence.
"This is the word kirret, translated 'palm-leaf' (of course conjecturally) in Mr. Crisp's translation of Tippoo's regulations. The Sultan prohibited its use in recording the public accounts; but altho' liable to be expunged, and affording facility to permanent entries, it is a much more durable material and record than the best writing on the best paper.... It is probable that this is the linen or cotton cloth described by Arrian, from Nearchus, on which the Indians wrote." (Strabo, XV. i. 67.)
1688.—"The Siamese make Paper of old Cotton rags, and likewise of the bark of a Tree named Ton coi ... but these Papers have a great deal less Equality, Body and Whiteness than ours. The Siameses cease not to write thereon with China Ink. Yet most frequently they black them, which renders them smoother, and gives them a greater body; and then they write thereon with a kind of Crayon, which is made only of a clayish earth dry'd in the Sun. Their Books are not bound, and consist only in a very long Leaf ... which they fold in and out like a Fan, and the way which the Lines are wrote, is according to the length of the folds...."—De la Loubère, Siam, E.T. p. 12.
1855.—"Booths for similar goods are arrayed against the corner of the palace palisades, and at the very gate of the Palace is the principal mart for the stationers who deal in the para-beiks (or black books) and steatite pencils, which form the only ordinary writing materials of the Burmese in their transactions."—Yule, Mission to Ava, 139.
PARANGHEE, s. An obstinate chronic disease endemic in Ceylon. It has a superficial resemblance to {672b}syphilis; the whole body being covered with ulcers, while the sufferer rapidly declines in strength. It seems to arise from insufficient diet, and to be analogous to the pellagra which causes havoc among the peasants of S. Europe. The word is apparently firinghee, 'European,' or (in S. India) 'Portuguese'; and this would point perhaps to association with syphilis.
PARBUTTY, s. This is a name in parts of the Madras Presidency for a subordinate village officer, a writer under the patel, sometimes the village-crier, &c., also in some places a superintendent or manager. It is a corruption of Telug. and Canarese pārapatti, pārupatti, Mahr. and Konkani, pārpatya, from Skt. pravṛitti, 'employment.' The term frequently occurs in old Port. documents in such forms as perpotim, &c. We presume that the Great Duke (audax omnia perpeti!) has used it in the Anglicised form at the head of this article; for though we cannot find it in his Despatches, Gurwood's Explanation of Indian Terms gives "Parbutty, writer to the Patell." [See below.]
1567.—"... That no unbeliever shall serve as scrivener, shroff (xarrafo), mocuddum, naique (see NAIK), peon, parpatrim, collector (saccador), constable (? corrector), interpreter, procurator, or solicitor in court, nor in any other office or charge by which they may in any way whatever exercise authority over Christians...."—Decree 27 of the Sacred Council of Goa, in Arch. Port. Orient. fasc. 4.
1800.—"In case of failure in the payment of these instalments, the crops are seized, and sold by the Parputty or accomptant of the division."—Buchanan's Mysore, ii. 151-2. The word is elsewhere explained by Buchanan, as "the head person of a Hobly in Mysore." A Hobly [Canarese and Malayāl. hobali] is a sub-division of a talook (i. 270).
[1803.—"Neither has any one a right to compel any of the inhabitants, much less the particular servants of the government, to attend him about the country, as the soubahdar (see SOUBADAR) obliged the parbutty and pateel (see PATEL) to do, running before his horse."—Wellington, Desp. i. 323. (Stanf. Dict.).]
1878.—"The staff of the village officials ... in most places comprises the following members ... the crier (parpoti)...."—Fonseca, Sketch of Goa, 21-22.
PARDAO, s. This was the popular name among the Portuguese of a gold coin from the native mints of Western {673a}India, which entered largely into the early currency of Goa, and the name of which afterwards attached to a silver money of their own coinage, of constantly degenerating value.
There could hardly be a better word with which to associate some connected account of the coinage of Portuguese India, as the pardao runs through its whole history, and I give some space to the subject, not with any idea of weaving such a history, but in order to furnish a few connected notes on the subject, and to correct some flagrant errors of writers to whose works I naturally turned for help in such a special matter, with little result except that of being puzzled and misled, and having time occupied in satisfying myself regarding the errors alluded to. The subject is in itself a very difficult one, perplexed as it is by the rarity or inaccessibility of books dealing with it, by the excessive rarity (it would seem) of specimens, by the large use in the Portuguese settlements of a variety of native coins in addition to those from the Goa mint,[208] by the frequent shifting of nomenclature in the higher coins and constant degeneration of value in the coins that retained old names. I welcomed as a hopeful aid the appearance of Dr. Gerson D'Acunha's Contributions to the Study of Indo-Chinese Numismatics. But though these contributions afford some useful facts and references, on the whole, from the rarity with which they give data for the intrinsic value of the gold and silver coins, and from other defects, they seem to me to leave the subject in utter chaos. Nor are the notes which Mr. W. de G. Birch appends, in regard to monetary values, to his translation of Alboquerque, more to be commended. Indeed Dr. D'Acunha, when he goes astray, seems sometimes to have followed Mr. Birch.
The word pardao is a Portuguese (or perhaps an indigenous) corruption of Skt. pratāpa, 'splendour, majesty,' &c., and was no doubt taken, as Dr. {673b}D'Acunha says, from the legend on some of the coins to which the name was applied, e.g. that of the Raja of Ikkeri in Canara: Sri Pratāpa krishṇa-rāya.
A little doubt arises at first in determining to what coin the name pardao was originally attached. For in the two earliest occurrences of the word that we can quote—on the one hand Abdurrazzāk, the Envoy of Shāh Rukh, makes the partāb (or pardāo) half of the Varāha ('boar,' so called from the Boar of Vishnu figured on some issues), hūn, or what we call pagoda;—whilst on the other hand, Ludovico Varthema's account seems to identify the pardao with the pagoda itself. And there can be no doubt that it was to the pagoda that the Portuguese, from the beginning of the 16th century, applied the name of pardao d'ouro. The money-tables which can be directly formed from the statements of Abdurrazzāk and Varthema respectively are as follows:[209]
| Abdurrazzak (A.D. 1443). | |
| 3 Jitals (copper) | = 1 Tar (silver). |
| 6 Tars | = 1 Fanam (gold). |
| 10 Fanams | = 1 Partāb. |
| 2 Partābs | = 1 Varāha. |
And the Varāha weighed about 1 Mithḳāl (see MISCALL), equivalent to 2 dīnārs Kopekī.
| Varthema (A.D. 1504-5). | |
| 16 Cas (see CASH) | = 1 Tare (silver). |
| 16 Tare | = 1 Fanam (gold). |
| 20 Fanams | = 1 Pardao. |
And the Pardao was a gold ducat, smaller than the seraphim (see XERAFINE) of Cairo (gold dīnār), but thicker.
The question arises whether the varāha of Abdurrazzāk was the double pagoda, of which there are some examples in the S. Indian coinage, and his partāb therefore the same as Varthema's, i.e. the pagoda itself; or whether his varāha was the pagoda, and his partāb a half-pagoda. The weight which he assigns to the varāha, "about one mithḳāl," a weight which may be taken at 73 grs., does not well suit either one or the other. I find the mean weight of 27 different issues of the (single) hūn or pagoda, given in Prinsep's Tables, to be 43 grs., the {674a}maximum being 45 grs. And the fact that both the Envoy's varāha and the Italian traveller's pardao contain 20 fanams is a strong argument for their identity.[210]
In further illustration that the pardao was recognised as a half hūn or pagoda, we quote in a foot-note "the old arithmetical tables in which accounts are still kept" in the south, which Sir Walter Elliot contributed to Mr. E. Thomas's excellent Chronicles of the Pathan Kings of Delhi, illustrated, &c.[211]
Moreover, Dr. D'Acunha states that in the "New Conquests," or provinces annexed to Goa only about 100 years ago, "the accounts were kept until lately in sanvoy and nixane pagodas, each of them being divided into 2 pratáps...." &c. (p. 46, note).
As regards the value of the pardao d'ouro, when adopted into the Goa currency by Alboquerque, Dr. D'Acunha tells us that it "was equivalent to 370 reis, or 1s. 6½d.[212] English." Yet he accepts the identity of this pardao d'ouro with the hūn current in Western India, of which the Madras pagoda was till 1818 a living and unchanged representative, a coin which was, at the time of its abolition, the recognised equivalent of 3½ rupees, or 7 shillings. And doubtless this, or a few pence more, was the intrinsic value of the pardao. Dr. D'Acunha in fact has made his calculation from the present value of the (imaginary) rei. Seeing that a milrei is now reckoned equal to a dollar, or 50d., we have a single rei = 1⁄20d., and 370 reis = 1s. 6½d. It seems not to have occurred to the author that the rei might have degenerated in value as well as every other denomination of money with which he has to do, every other in fact of which we can at this moment remember anything, except the pagoda, {674b}the Venetian sequin, and the dollar.[213] Yet the fact of this degeneration everywhere stares him in the face. Correa tells us that the cruzado which Alboquerque struck in 1510 was the just equivalent of 420 reis. It was indubitably the same as the cruzado of the mother country, and indeed A. Nunez (1554) gives the same 420 reis as the equivalent of the cruzado d'ouro de Portugal, and that amount also for the Venetian sequin, and for the sultani or Egyptian gold dīnār. Nunez adds that a gold coin of Cambaya, which he calls Madrafaxao (q.v.), was worth 1260 to 1440 reis, according to variations in weight and exchange. We have seen that this must have been the gold-mohr of Muzaffar-Shāh II. of Guzerat (1511-1526), the weight of which we learn from E. Thomas's book.
| From the Venetian sequin (content of pure gold 52.27 grs. value 111d.[214]) the value of the rei at 111⁄420d. will be | 0.264d. |
| From the Muzaffar Shāhi mohr (weight 185 grs. value, if pure gold, 392.52d.) value of rei at 1440 | 0.272d. |
| Mean value of rei in 1513 i.e. more than five times its present value. |
0.268d. |
Dr. D'Acunha himself informs us (p. 56) that at the beginning of the 17th century the Venetian was worth 690 to 720 reis (mean 705 reis), whilst {675a}the pagoda was worth 570 to 600 reis (mean 585 reis).
These statements, as we know the intrinsic value of the sequin, and the approximate value of the pagoda, enable us to calculate the value of the rei of about 1600 at ... 0.16d. Values of the milrei given in Milburn's Oriental Commerce, and in Kelly's Cambist, enable us to estimate it for the early years of the last century. We have then the progressive deterioration as follows:
| Value of rei in the beginning of the 16th century | 0.268d. |
| Value of rei in the beginning of the 17th century | 0.16d. |
| Value of rei in the beginning of the 19th century | 0.06 to 0.066d. |
| Value of rei at present | 0.06d. |
Yet Dr. D'Acunha has valued the coins of 1510, estimated in reis, at the rate of 1880. And Mr. Birch has done the same.[215]
The Portuguese themselves do not seem ever to have struck gold pardaos or pagodas. The gold coin of Alboquerque's coinage (1510) was, we have seen, a cruzado (or manuel), and the next coinage in gold was by Garcia de Sá in 1548-9, who issued coins called San Thomé, worth 1000 reis, say about £1, 2s. 4d.; with halves and quarters of the same. Neither, according to D'Acunha, was there silver money of any importance coined at Goa from 1510 to 1550, and the coins then issued were silver San Thomés, called also {675b}patacões (see PATACA). Nunez in his Tables (1554) does not mention these by either name, but mentions repeatedly pardaos, which represented 5 silver tangas, or 300 reis, and these D'Acunha speaks of as silver coins. Nunez, as far as I can make out, does not speak of them as coins, but rather implies that in account so many tangas of silver were reckoned as a pardao. Later in the century, however, we learn from Balbi (1580), Barrett[216] (1584), and Linschoten (1583-89), the principal currency of Goa consisted of a silver coin called xerafin (see XERAFINE) and pardao-xerafin, which was worth 5 tangas, each of 60 reis. (So these had been from the beginning, and so they continued, as is usual in such cases. The scale of sub-multiples remains the same, whilst the value of the divisible coin diminishes. Eventually the lower denominations become infinitesimal, like the maravedis and the reis, and either vanish from memory, or survive only as denominations of account). The data, such as they are, allow us to calculate the pardao or xerafin at this time as worth 4s. 2d. to 4s. 6d.
A century later, Fryer's statement of equivalents (1676) enables us to use the stability of the Venetian sequin as a gauge; we then find the tanga gone down to 6d. and the pardao or xerafin to 2s. 6d. Thirty years later Lockyer (1711) tells us that one rupee was reckoned equal to 1½ perdo. {676a}Calculating the Surat Rupee, which may have been probably his standard, still by help of the Venetian (p. 262) at about 2s. 3d., the pardao would at this time be worth 1s. 6d. It must have depreciated still further by 1728, when the Goa mint began to strike rupees, with the effigy of Dom João V., and the half-rupee appropriated the denomination of pardao. And the half-rupee, till our own time, has continued to be so styled. I have found no later valuation of the Goa Rupee than that in Prinsep's Tables (Thomas's ed. p. 55), the indications of which, taking the Company's Rupee at 2s., would make it 21d. The pardao therefore would represent a value of 10½d., and there we leave it.
[On this Mr. Whiteway writes: "Should it be intended to add a note to this, I would suggest that the remarks on coinage commencing at page 67 of my Rise of the Portuguese Power in India be examined, as although I have gone to Sir H. Yule for much, some papers are now accessible which he does not appear to have seen. There were two pardaos, the pardao d'ouro and the pardao de tanga, the former of 360 reals, the latter of 300. This is clear from the Foral of Goa of Dec. 18, 1758 (India Office MSS. Conselho Ultramarino), which passage is again quoted in a note to Fasc. 5 of the Archiv. Port. Orient. p. 326. Apparently patecoons were originally coined in value equal to the pardao d'ouro, though I say (p. 71) their value is not recorded. The patecoon was a silver coin, and when it was tampered with, it still remained of the nominal value of the pardao d'ouro, and this was the cause of the outcry and of the injury the people of Goa suffered. There were monies in Goa which I have not shown on p. 69. There was the tanga branca used in revenue accounts (see Nunez, p. 31), nearly but not quite double the ordinary tanga. This money of account was of 4 barganims (see BARGANY) each of 24 bazarucos (see BUDGROOK), that is rather over 111 reals. The whole question of coinage is difficult, because the coins were continually being tampered with. Every ruler, and they were numerous in those days, stamped a piece of metal at his pleasure, and the trader had to calculate its value, unless as a subject {676b}of the ruler he was under compulsion."]
1444.—"In this country (Vijayanagar) they have three kinds of money, made of gold mixed with alloys: one called varahah weighs about one mithkal, equivalent to two dinars kopeki; the second, which is called pertab, is the half of the first; the third, called fanom, is equivalent in value to the tenth part of the last-mentioned coin. Of these different coins the fanom is the most useful...."—Abdurrazzāk, in India in the XVth Cent. p. 26.
c. 1504-5; pubd. 1510.—"I departed from the city of Dabuli aforesaid, and went to another island, which ... is called Goga (Goa) and which pays annually to the King of Decan 19,000 gold ducats, called by them pardai. These pardai are smaller than the seraphim of Cairo, but thicker, and have two devils stamped on one side, and certain letters on the other."—Varthema, pp. 115-116.
" "... his money consists of a pardao, as I have said. He also coins a silver money called tare (see TARA), and others of gold, twenty of which go to a pardao, and are called fanom. And of these small ones of silver, there go sixteen to a fanom...."—Ibid. p. 130.
1510.—"Meanwhile the Governor (Alboquerque) talked with certain of our people who were goldsmiths, and understood the alligation of gold and silver, and also with goldsmiths and money-changers of the country who were well acquainted with that business. There were in the country pardaos of gold, worth in gold 360 reys, and also a money of good silver which they call barganym (see BARGANY) of the value of 2 vintems, and a money of copper which they call bazaruqos (see BUDGROOK), of the value of 2 reis. Now all these the Governor sent to have weighed and assayed. And he caused to be made cruzados of their proper weight of 420 reis, on which he figured on one side the cross of Christ, and on the other a sphere, which was the device of the King Dom Manuel; and he ordered that this cruzado should pass in the place (Goa) for 480 reis, to prevent their being exported ... and he ordered silver money to be struck which was of the value of a bargany; on this money he caused to be figured on one side a Greek Α, and on the other side a sphere, and gave the coin the name of Espera; it was worth 2 vintems; also there were half esperas worth one vintem and he made bazarucos of copper of the weight belonging to that coin, with the A and the sphere; and each bazaruco he divided into 4 coins which they called cepayquas (see SAPECA), and gave the bazarucos the name of leaes. And in changing the cruzado into these smaller coins it was reckoned at 480 reis."—Correa, ii. 76-77.
1516.—"There are current here (in Baticala—see BATCUL) the pardaos, which are a gold coin of the kingdom, and it is worth here 360 reis, and there is another coin of silver, called dama, which is worth 20 reis...."—Barbosa, Lisbon ed. p. 293.
1516.—"There is used in this city (Bisnagar) and throughout the rest of the Kingdom much pepper, which is carried hither from Malabar on oxen and asses; and it is all bought and sold for pardaos, which are made in some places of this Kingdom, and especially in a city called Hora (?), whence they are called horãos."—Barbosa, Lisbon ed. p. 297.
1552.—"Hic Sinam mercatorem indies exspecto, quo cum, propter atroces poenas propositas iis qui advenam sine fide publica introduxerint, Pirdais ducentis transegi, ut me in Cantonem trajiciat."—Scti. Franc. Xaverii Epistt., Pragae, 1667, IV. xiv.
1553.—
"R. Let us mount our horses and take a ride in the country, and as we ride you shall tell me what is the meaning of Nizamoxa (see NIZAMALUCO), as you have frequently mentioned such a person.
"O. I can tell you that at once; it is the name of a King in the Bagalat (read Balagat, Balaghaut), whose father I often attended, and the son also not so often. I received from him from time to time more than 12,000 pardaos; and he offered me an income of 40,000 pardaos if I would pay him a visit of several months every year, but this I did not accept."—Garcia, f. 33v.
1584.—"For the money of Goa there is a kind of money made of lead and tin mingled, being thicke and round, and stamped on the one side with the spheare or globe of the world, and on the other side two arrows and five rounds;[217] and this kind of money is called Basaruchi, and 15 of them make a vinton of naughty money, and 5 vintons make a tanga, and 4 vintenas make a tanga of base money ... and 5 tangas make a seraphine of gold[218] (read 'of silver'), which in marchandize is worth 5 tangas good money: but if one would change them into basaruchies, he may have 5 tangas, and 16 basaruchies, which matter they call cerafaggio, and when the bargain of the pardaw is gold, each pardaw is meant to be 6 tangas good money,[219] but in murchandize, the vse is not to demaund pardawes of gold in Goa, except it be for jewels and horses, for all the rest they take of seraphins of silver, per aduiso.... The ducat of gold is worth 9 tangas and a halfe good money, and yet not stable in price, for that when the ships depart from Goa to Cochin, they pay them at 9 tangas and 3 fourth partes, and 10 tangas, and that is the most that they are worth...."—W. Barret, in Hakl. ii. 410. I retain this for the old {677b}English, but I am sorry to say that I find it is a mere translation of the notes of Gasparo Balbi, who was at Goa in 1580. We learn from Balbi that there were at Goa tangas not only of good money worth 75 basarucchi, and of bad money worth 60 basarucchi, but also of another kind of bad money used in buying wood, worth only 50 basarucchi!
1598.—"The principall and commonest money is called Pardaus Xeraphiins, and is silver, but very brasse (read 'base'), and is coyned in Goa. They have Saint Sebastian on the one side, and three or four arrows in a bundle on the other side, which is as much as three Testones, or three hundred Reijs Portingall money, and riseth or falleth little lesse or more, according to the exchange. There is also a kind of money which is called Tangas, not that there is any such coined, but are so named onely in telling, five Tangas is one Pardaw or Xeraphin, badde money, for you must understande that in telling they have two kinds of money, good and badde.... Wherefore when they buy and sell, they bargain for good or badde money," &c.—Linschoten, ch. 35; [Hak. Soc. i. 241, and for another version see XERAPHINE].
" "They have a kind of money called Pagodes which is of Gold, of two or three sortes, and are above 8 tangas in value. They are Indian and Heathenish money, with the feature of a Devill upon them, and therefore they are called Pagodes. There is another kind of gold money, which is called Venetianders; some of Venice, and some of Turkish coine, and are commonly (worth) 2 Pardawe Xeraphins. There is yet another kind of golde called S. Thomas, because Saint Thomas is figured thereon and is worth about 7 and 8 Tangas: There are likewise Rialles of 8 which are brought from Portingall, and are Pardawes de Reales.... They are worth at their first coming out 436 Reyes of Portingall; and after are raysed by exchaunge, as they are sought for when men travell for China.... They use in Goa in their buying and selling a certaine maner of reckoning or telling. There are Pardawes Xeraphins, and these are silver. They name likewise Pardawes of Gold, and those are not in kinde or in coyne, but onely so named in telling and reckoning: for when they buy and sell Pearles, stones, golde, silver and horses, they name but so many Pardawes, and then you must understand that one Pardaw is sixe Tangas: but in other ware, when you make not your bargaine before hand, but plainely name Pardawes, they are Pardawes Xeraphins of 5 Tangas the peece. They use also to say a Pardaw of Lariins (see LARIN), and are five Lariins for every Pardaw...."—Ibid.; [Hak. Soc. i. 187].
This extract is long, but it is the completest picture we know of the Goa currency. We gather from the passage (including a part that we have omitted) that in the latter part of the 16th century there were really no national coins there used intermediate between the basaruccho, worth at this time 0.133d., and the pardao xerafin {678a}worth 50d.[220] The vintens and tangas that were nominally interposed were mere names for certain quantities of basaruccos, or rather of reis represented by basaruccos. And our interpretation of the statement about pardaos of gold in a note above is here expressly confirmed.
[1599.—"Perdaw." See under TAEL.]
c. 1620.—"The gold coin, struck by the rāīs of Bijanagar and Tiling, is called hūn and partāb."—Firishta, quoted by Quatremère, in Notices et Exts. xiv. 509.
1643.—"... estant convenu de prix auec luy à sept perdos et demy par mois tant pour mon viure que pour le logis...."—Mocquet, 284.
PARELL, n.p. The name of a northern suburb of Bombay where stands the residence of the Governor. The statement in the Imperial Gazetteer that Mr. W. Hornby (1776) was the first Governor who took up his residence at Parell requires examination, as it appears to have been so occupied in Grose's time. The 2nd edition of Grose, which we use, is dated 1772, but he appears to have left India about 1760. It seems probable that in the following passage Niebuhr speaks of 1763-4, the date of his stay at Bombay, but as the book was not published till 1774, this is not absolutely certain. Evidently Parell was occupied by the Governor long before 1776.
"Les Jesuites avoient autrefois un beau couvent aupres du Village de Parell au milieu de l'Isle, mais il y a déjà plusieurs années, qu'elle est devenue la maison de campagne du Gouverneur, et l'Eglise est actuellement une magnifique salle à manger et de danse, qu'on n'en trouve point de pareille en toutes les Indes."—Niebuhr, Voyage, ii. 12.
[Mr. Douglas (Bombay and W. India, ii. 7, note) writes: "High up and outside the dining-room, and which was the chapel when Parel belonged to the Jesuits, is a plaque on which is printed:—'Built by Honourable Hornby, 1771.'"]
1554.—Parell is mentioned as one of 4 aldeas, "Parell, Varella, Varell, and Siva, attached to the Kasbah (Caçabe—see CUSBAH) of Maim."—Botelho, Tombo, 157, in Subsidios.
c. 1750-60.—"A place called Parell, where the Governor has a very agreeable country-house, which was originally a {678b}Romish chapel belonging to the Jesuits, but confiscated about the year 1719, for some foul practices against the English interest."—Grose, i. 46; [1st ed. 1757, p. 72].
a. The name of a low caste of Hindus in Southern India, constituting one of the most numerous castes, if not the most numerous, in the Tamil country. The word in its present shape means properly 'a drummer.' Tamil parai is the large drum, beaten at certain festivals, and the hereditary beaters of it are called (sing.) paraiyan, (pl.) paraiyar. [Dr. Oppert's theory (Orig. Inhabitants, 32 seq.) that the word is a form of Pahaṛiyā, 'a mountaineer' is not probable.] In the city of Madras this caste forms one fifth of the whole population, and from it come (unfortunately) most of the domestics in European service in that part of India. As with other castes low in caste-rank they are also low in habits, frequently eating carrion and other objectionable food, and addicted to drink. From their coming into contact with and under observation of Europeans, more habitually than any similar caste, the name Pariah has come to be regarded as applicable to the whole body of the lowest castes, or even to denote out-castes or people without any caste. But this is hardly a correct use. There are several castes in the Tamil country considered to be lower than the Pariahs, e.g. the caste of shoemakers, and the lowest caste of washermen. And the Pariah deals out the same disparaging treatment to these that he himself receives from higher castes. The Pariahs "constitute a well-defined, distinct, ancient caste, which has 'subdivisions' of its own, its own peculiar usages, its own traditions, and its own jealousy of the encroachments of the castes which are above it and below it. They constitute, perhaps, the most numerous caste in the Tamil country. In the city of Madras they number 21 per cent. of the Hindu people."—Bp. Caldwell, u. i., p. 545. Sir Walter Elliot, however, in the paper referred to further on includes under the term Paraiya all the servile class not recognised by Hindus of caste as belonging to their community.
A very interesting, though not {679a}conclusive, discussion of the ethnological position of this class will be found in Bp. Caldwell's Dravidian Grammar (pp. 540-554). That scholar's deduction is, on the whole, that they are probably Dravidians, but he states, and recognises force in, arguments for believing that they may have descended from a race older in the country than the proper Dravidian, and reduced to slavery by the first Dravidians. This last is the view of Sir Walter Elliot, who adduces a variety of interesting facts in its favour, in his paper on the Characteristics of the Population of South India.[221]
Thus, in the celebration of the Festival of the Village Goddess, prevalent all over Southern India, and of which a remarkable account is given in that paper, there occurs a sort of Saturnalia in which the Pariahs are the officiating priests, and there are several other customs which are most easily intelligible on the supposition that the Pariahs are the representatives of the earliest inhabitants and original masters of the soil. In a recent communication from this venerable man he writes: 'My brother (Col. C. Elliot, C.B.) found them at Raipur, to be an important and respectable class of cultivators. The Pariahs have a sacerdotal order amongst themselves.' [The view taken in the Madras Gloss. is that "they are distinctly Dravidian without fusion, as the Hinduized castes are Dravidian with fusion."]
The mistaken use of pariah, as synonymous with out-caste, has spread in English parlance over all India. Thus the lamented Prof. Blochmann, in his School Geography of India: "Outcasts are called pariahs." The name first became generally known in Europe through Sonnerat's Travels {679b}(pub. in 1782, and soon after translated into English). In this work the Parias figure as the lowest of castes. The common use of the term is however probably due, in both France and England, to the appearance in the Abbé Raynal's famous Hist. Philosophique des Établissements dans les Indes, formerly read very widely in both countries, and yet more perhaps to its use in Bernardin de St. Pierre's preposterous though once popular tale, La Chaumière Indienne, whence too the misplaced halo of sentiment which reached its acme in the drama of Casimir Delavigne, and which still in some degree adheres to the name. It should be added that Mr. C. P. Brown says expressly: "The word Paria is unknown" (in our sense?) "to all natives, unless as learned from us."
b. See PARIAH-DOG.
1516.—"There is another low sort of Gentiles, who live in desert places, called Pareas. These likewise have no dealings with anybody, and are reckoned worse than the devil, and avoided by everybody; a man becomes contaminated by only looking at them, and is excommunicated.... They live on the imane (iname, i.e. yams), which are like the root of iucca or batate found in the West Indies, and on other roots and wild fruits."—Barbosa, in Ramusio, i. f. 310. The word in the Spanish version transl. by Lord Stanley of Alderley is Pareni, in the Portuguese of the Lisbon Academy, Parcens. So we are not quite sure that Pareas is the proper reading, though this is probable.
1626.—"...
" "And there ... is such a resort of basket-makers, Scavengers, people that look after the buffaloes, and other Parriars, {680a}to drink Toddy, that all the Punch-houses in Madras have not half the noise in them."—Wheeler, ii. 125.
1716.—"A young lad of the Left-hand Caste having done hurt to a Pariah woman of the Right-Hand Caste (big with child), the whole caste got together, and came in a tumultuous manner to demand justice."—Ibid. 230.
1717.—"... Barrier, or a sort of poor people that eat all sort of Flesh and other things, which others deem unclean."—Phillips, Account, &c., 127.
1726.—"As for the separate generations and sorts of people who embrace this religion, there are, according to what some folks say, only 4; but in our opinion they are 5 in number, viz.:
α. The Bramins.
β. The Settreas.
γ. The Weynyas or Veynsyas.
δ. The Sudras.
ε. The Perrias, whom the High-Dutch and Danes call Barriars."—Valentijn, Chorom. 73.
1745.—"Les Parreas ... sont regardés comme gens de la plus vile condition, exclus de tous les honneurs et prérogatives. Jusques-là qu'on ne sçauroit les souffrir, ni dans les Pagodes des Gentils, ni dans les Eglises des Jesuites."—Norbert, i. 71.
1750.—"K. Es ist der Mist von einer Kuh, denselben nehmen die Parreyer-Weiber, machen runde Kuchen daraus, und wenn sie in der Sonne genug getrocken sind, so verkauffen sie dieselbigen (see OOPLAH). Fr. O Wunder! Ist das das Feuerwerk, das ihr hier halt?"—Madras, &c., Halle, p. 14.
1770.—"The fate of these unhappy wretches who are known on the coast of Coromandel by the name of Parias, is the same even in those countries where a foreign dominion has contributed to produce some little change in the ideas of the people."—Raynal, Hist. &c., see ed. 1783, i. 63.
" "The idol is placed in the centre of the building, so that the Parias who are not admitted into the temple may have a sight of it through the gates."—Raynal (tr. 1777), i. p. 57.
1780.—"If you should ask a common cooly, or porter, what cast he is of, he will answer, 'the same as master, pariar-cast.'"—Munro's Narrative, 28-9.
1787.—"... I cannot persuade myself that it is judicious to admit Parias into battalions with men of respectable casts...."—Col. Fullarton's View of English Interests in India, 222.
1791.—"Le masalchi y courut pour allumer un flambeau; mais il revient un peu après, pris d'haleine, criant: 'N'approchez pas d'ici; il y a un Paria!' Aussitôt la troupe effrayée cria: 'Un Paria! Un Paria!' Le docteur, croyant que c'était quelque animal féroce, mit la main sur ses pistolets. 'Qu'est ce que qu'un Paria?' demanda-t-il à son porte-flambeau."—B. de St. Pierre, La Chaumière Indienne, 48.
1800.—"The Parriar, and other impure tribes, comprising what are called the Punchum Bundum, would be beaten, were they to attempt joining in a Procession of any of the gods of the Brahmins, or entering any of their temples."—Buchanan's Mysore, i. 20.
c. 1805-6.—"The Dubashes, then all powerful at Madras, threatened loss of cast and absolute destruction to any Brahmin who should dare to unveil the mysteries of their language to a Pariar Frengi. This reproach of Pariar is what we have tamely and strangely submitted to for a long time, when we might with a great facility have assumed the respectable character of Chatriya."—Letter of Leyden, in Morton's Memoir, ed. 1819, p. lxvi.
1809.—"Another great obstacle to the reception of Christianity by the Hindoos, is the admission of the Parias in our Churches...."—Ld. Valentia, i. 246.
1821.—
"Il est sur ce rivage une race flêtrie,
Une race étrangère au sein de sa patrie.
Sans abri protecteur, sans temple hospitalier,
Abominable, impie, horrible au peuple entier.
Les Parias; le jour à regret les éclaire,
La terre sur son sein les porte avec colère.
* * * * *
Eh bien! mais je frémis; tu vas me fuir peut-être;
Je suis un Paria...."
Casimir Delavigne, Le Paria, Acte 1. Sc. 1.
1843.—"The Christian Pariah, whom both sects curse, Does all the good he can and loves his brother."—Forster's Life of Dickens, ii. 31.
1873.—"The Tamilas hire a Pariya (i.e. drummer) to perform the decapitation at their Badra Kâli sacrifices."—Kittel, in Ind. Ant. ii. 170.
1878.—"L'hypothèse la plus vraisemblable, en tout cas la plus heureuse, est celle qui suppose que le nom propre et spécial de cette race [i.e. of the original race inhabiting the Deccan before contact with northern invaders] était le mot 'paria'; ce mot dont l'orthographe correcte est pareiya, derivé de par'ei, 'bruit, tambour,' et à très-bien pu avoir le sens de 'parleur, doué de la parole'"(?)—Hovelacque et Vinson, Études de Linguistique, &c., Paris, 67.
1872.—
"Fifine, ordained from first to last,
In body and in soul
For one life-long debauch,
The Pariah of the north,
The European nautch."
Browning, Fifine at the Fair.
Very good rhyme, but no reason. See under NAUTCH.
The word seems also to have been adopted in Java, e.g.:
1860.—"We Europeans ... often ... stand far behind compared with the poor pariahs."—Max Havelaar, ch. vii.
PARIAH-ARRACK, s. In the 17th and 18th centuries this was a name commonly given to the poisonous native spirit commonly sold to European soldiers and sailors. [See FOOL'S RACK.]
1671-72.—"The unwholesome liquor called Parrier-arrack...."—Sir W. Langhorne, in Wheeler, iii. 422.
1711.—"The Tobacco, Beetle, and Pariar Arack, on which such great profit arises, are all expended by the Inhabitants."—Lockyer, 13.
1754.—"I should be very glad to have your order to bring the ship up to Calcutta ... as ... the people cannot here have the opportunity of intoxicating and killing themselves with Pariar Arrack."—In Long, 51.
PARIAH-DOG, s. The common ownerless yellow dog, that frequents all inhabited places in the East, is universally so called by Europeans, no doubt from being a low-bred casteless animal; often elliptically 'pariah' only.
1789.—"... A species of the common cur, called a pariar-dog."—Munro, Narr. p. 36.
1810.—"The nuisance may be kept circling for days, until forcibly removed, or until the pariah dogs swim in, and draw the carcase to the shore."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 261.
1824.—"The other beggar was a Pariah dog, who sneaked down in much bodily fear to our bivouac."—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 79.
1875.—"Le Musulman qui va prier à la mosquée, maudit les parias honnis."—Rev. des Deux Mondes, April, 539.
[1883.—"Paraya Dogs are found in every street."—T. V. Row, Man. of Tanjore Dist. 104.]
PARIAH-KITE, s. The commonest Indian kite, Milvus Govinda, Sykes, notable for its great numbers, and its impudence. "They are excessively bold and fearless, often snatching morsels off a dish en route from kitchen to hall, and even, according to Adams, seizing a fragment from a man's very mouth" (Jerdon). Compare quotation under BRAHMINY KITE.
[1880.—"I had often supposed that the scavenger or Pariah Kites (Milvus govinda), which though generally to be seen about the tents, are not common in the jungles, must follow the camp for long distances, and to-day I had evidence that such was the case...."—Ball, Jungle Life, 655.]
PARSEE, n.p. This name, which distinguishes the descendants of those emigrants of the old Persian stock, who left their native country, and, retaining their Zoroastrian religion, settled in India to avoid Mahommedan persecution, is only the old form of the word for a Persian, viz., Pārsī, which Arabic influences have in more modern times converted into Fārsī. The Portuguese have used both Parseo and Perseo. From the latter some of our old travellers have taken the form Persee; from the former doubtless we got Parsee. It is a curious example of the way in which different accidental mouldings of the same word come to denote entirely different ideas, that Persian, in this form, in Western India, means a Zoroastrian fire-worshipper, whilst Pathi (see PANTHAY), a Burmese corruption of the same word, in Burma means a Mahommedan.
c. 1328.—"There be also other pagan-folk in this India who worship fire; they bury not their dead, neither do they burn them, but cast them into the midst of a certain roofless tower, and there expose them totally uncovered to the fowls of heaven. These believe in two First Principles, to wit, of Evil and of Good, of Darkness and of Light."—Friar Jordanus, 21.
1552.—"In any case he dismissed them with favour and hospitality, showing himself glad of the coming of such personages, and granting them protection for their ships as being (Parseos) Persians of the Kingdom of Ormuz."—Barros, I. viii. 9.
" "... especially after these were induced by the Persian and Guzerati Moors (Mouros, Parseos e Guzarates) to be converted from heathen (Gentios) to the sect of Mahamed."—Ibid. II. vi. i.
[1563.—"There are other herb-sellers (mercadores de boticas) called Coaris, and in the Kingdom of Cambay they call them Esparcis, and we Portuguese call them Jews, but they are not, only Hindus who came from Persia and have their own writing."—Garcia, p. 213.]
1616.—"There is one sect among the Gentiles, which neither burne nor interre their dead (they are called Parcees) who incircle pieces of ground with high stone walls, remote from houses or Road-wayes, and therein lay their Carcasses, wrapped in Sheetes, thus having no other Tombes but the gorges of rauenous Fowles."—Terry, in Purchas, ii. 1479.
1630.—"Whilst my observation was bestowed on such inquiry, I observed in the town of Surrat, the place where I resided, another Sect called the Persees...."—Lord, Two Forraigne Sects.
1638.—"Outre les Benjans il y a encore vne autre sorte de Payens dans le royaume de Gusuratte, qu'ils appellent Parsis. Ce sont des Perses de Fars, et de Chorasan."—Mandelslo (Paris, 1659), 213.
1648.—"They (the Persians of India, i.e. Parsees) are in general a fast-gripping and avaricious nation (not unlike the Benyans and the Chinese), and very fraudulent in buying and selling."—Van Twist, 48.
1653.—"Les Ottomans appellent gueuure vne secte de Payens, que nous connaissons sous le nom d'adorateurs du feu, les Persans sous celuy d'Atechperés, et les Indous sous celuy de Parsi, terme dont ils se nomment eux-mesmes."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 200.
1672.—"Non tutti ancora de' Gentili sono d'vna medesima fede. Alcuni descendono dalli Persiani, li quali si conoscono dal colore, ed adorano il fuoco.... In Suratte ne trouai molti...."—P. F. Vincenzo Maria, Viaggio, 234.
1673.—"On this side of the Water are people of another Offspring than those we have yet mentioned, these be called Parseys ... these are somewhat white, and I think nastier than the Gentues...."—Fryer, 117.
" "The Parsies, as they are called, are of the old Stock of the Persians, worship the Sun and Adore the Elements; are known only about Surat."—Ibid. p. 197.
1689.—"... the Persies are a Sect very considerable in India...."—Ovington, 370.
1726.—"... to say a word of a certain other sort of Heathen who have spread in the City of Suratte and in its whole territory, and who also maintain themselves in Agra, and in various places of Persia, especially in the Province of Kerman, at Yezd, and in Ispahan. They are commonly called by the Indians Persees or Parsis, but by the Persians Gaurs or Gebbers, and also Atech Peres or adorers of Fire."—Valentijn, iv. (Suratte) 153.
1727.—"The Parsees are numerous about Surat and the adjacent Countries. They are a remnant of the ancient Persians."—A. Hamilton, ch. xiv; [ed. 1744, i. 159].
1877.—"... en se levant, le Parsi, après s'être lavé les mains et la figure avec l'urine du taureau, met sa ceinture en disant: Souverain soit Ormuzd, abattu soit Ahrimān."—Darmesteter, Ormuzd et Ahriman, p. 2.
PARVOE, PURVO, s. The popular name of the writer-caste in Western India, Prabhū or Parbhū, 'lord or chief' (Skt. prabhu), being an honorific title assumed by the caste of Kāyath or Kāyastha, one of the mixt castes which commonly furnished writers. A Bombay term only.
1548.—"And to the Parvu of the Tenadar Mor 1800 reis a year, being 3 pardaos a month...."—S. Botelho, Tombo, 211.
[1567.—See Paibus under CASIS.
[1676-7.—"... the same guards the Purvos yt look after ye Customes for the same charge can receive ye passage boats rent...."—Forrest, Bombay Letters, Home Series, i. 125.
[1773.—"Conucopola (see CONICOPOLY).... At Bombay he is stiled Purvo, and is of the Gentoo religion."—Ives, 49 seq.]
1809.—"The Bramins of this village speak and write English; the young men are mostly parvoes, or writers."—Maria Graham, 11.
1813.—"These writers at Bombay are generally called Purvoes; a faithful diligent class."—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 156-157; [2nd ed. i. 100].
1833.—"Every native of India on the Bombay Establishment, who can write English, and is employed in any office, whether he be a Brahman, Goldsmith, Parwary, Portuguese, or of English descent, is styled a Purvoe, from several persons of a caste of Hindoos termed Prubhoe having been among the first employed as English writers at Bombay."—Mackintosh on the Tribe of Ramoosies, p. 77.
PASADOR, s. A marlin-spike. Sea-Hind., from Port. passador.—Roebuck.
PASEI, PACEM, n.p. The name of a Malay State near the N.E. point of Sumatra, at one time predominant in those regions, and reckoned, with Malacca and Majapahit (the capital of the Empire of Java), the three greatest cities of the Archipelago. It is apparently the Basma of Marco Polo, who visited the coast before Islam had gained a footing.
c. 1292.—"When you quit the kingdom of Ferlec you enter upon that of Basma. This also is an independent kingdom, and the people have a language of their own; but they are just like beasts, without laws or religion."—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. ch. 9.
1511.—"Next day we departed with the plunder of the captured vessel, which also we had with us; we took our course forward until we reached another port in the same island Trapobana (Sumatra), which was called Pazze; and anchoring in the said port we found at anchor there several junks and ships from divers parts."—Empoli, p. 53.
1553.—"In the same manner he (Diogo Lopes) was received in the kingdom of Pacem ... and as the King of Pedir had given him a cargo of pepper ... he did not think well to go further ... in case ... they should give news of his coming at Malaca, those two ports of Pedir and Pacem being much frequented by a multitude of ships that go there for cargoes."—Barros, II. iv. 31.
1726.—"Next to this and close to the East-point of Sumatra is the once especially famous city Pasi (or Pacem), which in old times, next to Magapahit and Malakka, was one of the three greatest cities of the East ... but now is only a poor open village with not more than 4 or 500 families, dwelling in poor bamboo cottages."—Valentijn, (v.) Sumatra, 10.
1727.—"And at Pissang, about 10 Leagues to the Westward of Diamond Point, there is a fine deep River, but not frequented, because of the treachery and bloody disposition of the Natives."—A. Hamilton, ii. 125; [ed. 1744].
PĀT, s. A can or pot. Sea-Hind. from English.—Roebuck.
PATACA, PATACOON, s. Ital. patacco; Provenc. patac; Port. pataca and patação; also used in Malayālam. A term, formerly much diffused, for a dollar or piece of eight. Littré connects it with an old French word patard, a kind of coin, "du reste, origine inconnue." But he appears to have overlooked the explanation indicated by Volney (Voyage en Egypte, &c., ch. ix. note) that the name abūṭāḳa (or corruptly bāṭāḳa, see also Dozy & Eng. s.v.) was given by the Arabs to certain coins of this kind with a scutcheon on the reverse, the term meaning 'father of the window, or niche'; the scutcheon being taken for such an object. Similarly, the pillar-dollars are called in modern Egypt abū medfa', 'father of a cannon'; and the Maria Theresa dollar abū ṭēra, 'father of the bird.' But on the Red Sea, where only the coinage of one particular year (or the modern imitation thereof, still struck at Trieste from the old die), is accepted, it is abū nuḳāṭ, 'father of dots,' from certain little points which mark the right issue.
[1528.—"Each of the men engaged in the attack on Purakkat received no less than 800 gold Pattaks (ducats) as his share."—Logan, Malabar, i. 329.
[1550.—"And afterwards while Viceroy Dom Affonso Noronha ordered silver coins to be made, which were patecoons (patecoes)."—Arch. Port. Orient., Fasc. ii. No. 54 of 1569.]
PATCH, s. "Thin pieces of cloth at Madras" (Indian Vocabulary, 1788). Wilson gives patch as a vulgar abbreviation for Telug. pach'chadamu, 'a particular kind of cotton cloth, generally 24 cubits long and 2 broad; two cloths joined together.'
[1667.—"Pray if can procuer a good Pallenkeen bambo and 2 patch of ye finest with what colours you thinke hansome for my own wear, chockoloes and susaes (see SOOSIE)."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. cclxii.]
PATCHARÉE, PATCHERRY, PARCHERRY, s. In the Bengal Presidency, before the general construction of 'married quarters' by Government, patcharée was the name applied in European corps to the cottages which used to form the quarters of married soldiers. The origin of the word is obscure, and it has been suggested that it was a corruption of Hind. pichch'hārī, 'the rear,' because these cottages were in rear of the barracks. But we think it most likely that the word was brought, with many other terms peculiar to the British soldier in India, from Madras, and is identical with a term in use there, parcherry or patcherry, which represents the Tam. parash'shēri, paraiççeri, 'a Pariah village,' or rather the quarter or outskirts of a town or village where the Pariahs reside. Mr. Whitworth (s.v. Patcherry) says that "in some native regiments the term denotes the married sepoys' quarters, possibly because Pariah sepoys had their families with them, while the higher castes left them at home." He does not say whether Bombay or Madras sepoys are in question. But in any case what he states confirms the origin ascribed to the Bengal Presidency term Patcharée.
1747.—"Patcheree Point, mending Platforms and Gunports ... (Pgs.) 4 : 21 : 48."—Accounts from Ft. St. David, under Feb. 21. MS. Records, in India Office.
1781.—"Leurs maisons (c.-à-d. des Parias) sont des cahutes où un homme peut à peine entrer, et elles forment de petits villages qu'on appelle Paretcheris."—Sonnerat, ed. 1782, i. 98.
1878.—"During the greater portion of the year extra working gangs of scavengers were kept for the sole purpose of going from Parcherry to Parcherry and cleaning them."—Report of Madras Municipality, p. 24.
c. 1880.—"Experience obtained in Madras some years ago with reconstructed parcherries, and their effect on health, might be imitated possibly with advantage in Calcutta."—Report by Army Sanitary Commission.
PATCHOULI, PATCH-LEAF, also PUTCH and PUTCHA-LEAF, s. In Beng. pachapāt; Deccani Hind. {684a}pacholī. The latter are trade names of the dried leaves of a labiate plant allied to mint (Pogostemon patchouly, Pelletier). It is supposed to be a cultivated variety of Pogostemon Heyneanus, Bentham, a native of the Deccan. It is grown in native gardens throughout India, Ceylon, and the Malay Islands, and the dried flowering spikes and leaves of the plant, which are used, are sold in every bazar in Hindustan. The pacha-pāt is used as an ingredient in tobacco for smoking, as hair-scent by women, and especially for stuffing mattresses and laying among clothes as we use lavender. In a fluid form patchouli was introduced into England in 1844, and soon became very fashionable as a perfume.
The origin of the word is a difficulty. The name is alleged in Drury, and in Forbes Watson's Nomenclature to be Bengāli. Littré says the word patchouli is patchey-elley, 'feuille de patchey'; in what language we know not; perhaps it is from Tamil pachcha, 'green,' and êlâ, êlam, an aromatic perfume for the hair. [The Madras Gloss. gives Tamil paççilai, paççai, 'green,' ilai, 'leaf.']
1673.—"Note, that if the following Goods from Acheen hold out the following Rates, the Factor employed is no further responsible.
* * * * *
Patch Leaf, 1 Bahar Maunds 7 20 sear."—Fryer, 209.
PATECA, s. This word is used by the Portuguese in India for a water-melon (Citrullus vulgaris, Schrader; Cucurbita Citrullus, L.). It is from the Ar. al-baṭṭikh or al-biṭṭīkh. F. Johnson gives this 'a melon, musk-melon. A pumpkin; a cucurbitaceous plant.' We presume that this is not merely the too common dictionary looseness, for the chaos of cucurbitaceous nomenclature, both vulgar and scientific, is universal (see A. De Candolle, Origine des Plantes cultivées). In Lane's Modern Egyptians (ed. 1837, i. 200) the word butteekh is rendered explicitly 'water-melon.' We have also in Spanish albadeca, which is given by Dozy and Eng. as 'espèce de melon'; and we have French pastèque, which we believe always means a water-melon. De Candolle seems to have no doubt that the water-melon was cultivated in ancient Egypt, and believes it to have been introduced into the Graeco-Roman world about {684b}the beginning of our era; whilst Hehn carries it to Persia from India, 'whether at the time of the Arabian or of the Mongol domination, (and then) to Greece, through the medium of the Turks, and to Russia, through that of the Tartar States of Astrakan and Kazan.'
The name pateca, looking to the existence of the same word in Spanish, we should have supposed to have been Portuguese long before the Portuguese establishment in India; yet the whole of what is said by Garcia de Orta is inconsistent with this. In his Colloquio XXXVI. the gist of the dialogue is that his visitor from Europe, Ruano, tells how he had seen what seemed a most beautiful melon, and how Garcia's housekeeper recommended it, but on trying it, it tasted only of mud instead of melon! Garcia then tells him that at Diu, and in the Bālaghāt, &c., he would find excellent melons with the flavour of the melons of Portugal but "those others which the Portuguese here in India call patecas are quite another thing—huge round or oval fruits, with black seeds—not sweet (doce) like the Portugal melons, but bland (suave), most juicy and cooling, excellent in bilious fevers, and congestions of the liver and kidneys, &c." Both name and thing are represented as novelties to Ruano. Garcia tells him also that the Arabs and Persians call it batiec indi, i.e. melon of India (F. Johnson gives 'biṭṭīkh-i-hindī, the citrul'; whilst in Persian hinduwāna is also a word for water-melon) but that the real Indian country name was (calangari Mahr. kālingaṛ, [perhaps that known in the N.W.P. as kalindā, 'a water-melon']). Ruano then refers to the budiecas of Castille of which he had heard, and queries if these were not the same as these Indian patecas, but Garcia says they are quite different. All this is curious as implying that the water-melon was strange to the Portuguese at that time (1563; see Colloquios, f. 141v. seqq.).
[A friend who has Burnell's copy of Garcia De Orta tells me that he finds a note in the writing of the former on bateca: "i.e. the Arabic term. As this is used all over India, water-melons must have been imported by the Mahommedans." I believe it to be a mistake that the word is in use {685a}all over India. I do not think the word is ever used in Upper India, nor is it (in that sense) in either Shakespear or Fallon. [Platts gives: A. biṭṭīkh, s.m. The melon (kharbūza); the water-melon, Cucurbita citrullus.] The most common word in the N.W.P. for a water-melon is Pers. tarbūz, whilst the musk-melon is Pers. kharbūza. And these words are so rendered from the Āīn respectively by Blochmann (see his E.T. i. 66, "melons ... water-melons," and the original i. 67, "kharbuza ... tarbuz"). But with the usual chaos already alluded to, we find both these words interpreted in F. Johnson as "water-melon." And according to Hehn the latter is called in the Slav tongues arbuz and in Mod. Greek καρπούσια, the first as well as the last probably from the Turkish ḳārpūz, which has the same meaning, for this hard ḳ is constantly dropt in modern pronunciation.—H. Y.]
We append a valuable note on this from Prof. Robertson-Smith:
"(1) The classical form of the Ar. word is biṭṭīkh. Baṭṭīkh is a widely-spread vulgarism, indeed now, I fancy, universal, for I don't think I ever heard the first syllable pronounced with an i.
"(2) The term, according to the law-books, includes all kinds of melons (Lane); but practically it is applied (certainly at least in Syria and Egypt) almost exclusively to the water-melon, unless it has a limiting adjective. Thus "the wild biṭṭīkh" is the colocynth, and with other adjectives it may be used of very various cucurbitaceous fruits (see examples in Dozy's Suppt.)
"(6) The biblical form is ăbaṭṭīkh (e.g. Numbers xi. 5, where the E.V. has 'melons'). But this is only the 'water-melon'; for in the Mishna it is distinguished from the sweet melon, the latter being named by a mere transcription in Hebrew letters of the Greek μηλοπέπων. Löw justly concludes that the Palestinians (and the Syrians, for their name only differs slightly) got the sweet melon from the Greeks, whilst for the water-melon they have an old and probably true Semitic word. For baṭṭīkh Syriac has paṭṭīkh, indicating that in literary Arabic the a has been changed to i, only to agree with rules of grammar. Thus popular pronunciation seems {685b}always to have kept the old form, as popular usage seems always to have used the word mainly in its old specific meaning. The Bible and the Mishna suffice to refute Hehn's view (of the introduction of the water-melon from India). Old Ḳimḥi, in his Miklol, illustrates the Hebrew word by the Spanish budiecas."
1598.—"... ther is an other sort like Melons, called Patecas or Angurias, or Melons of India, which are outwardlie of a darke greene colour; inwardlie white with blacke kernels; they are verie waterish and hard to byte, and so moyst, that as a man eateth them his mouth is full of water, but yet verie sweet and verie cold and fresh meat, wherefore manie of them are eaten after dinner to coole men."—Linschoten, 97; [Hak. Soc. ii. 35].
c. 1610.—"Toute la campagne est couverte d'arbres fruitiers ... et d'arbres de coton, de quantité de melons et de pateques, qui sont espèce de citrouilles de prodigieuse grosseur...."—Pyrard de Laval, ed. 1679, i. 286; [Hak. Soc. i. 399, and see i. 33].
" A few pages later the word is written Pasteques.—Ibid. 301; [Hak. Soc. i. 417].
[1663.—"Pateques, or water-melons, are in great abundance nearly the whole year round: but those of Delhi are soft, without colour or sweetness. If this fruit be ever found good, it is among the wealthy people, who import the seed and cultivate it with much care and expense."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 250.]
1673.—"From hence (Elephanta) we sailed to the Putachoes, a Garden of Melons (Putacho being a Melon) were there not wild Rats that hinder their growth, and so to Bombaim."—Fryer, 76.
PATEL, POTAIL, s. The headman of a village, having general control of village affairs, and forming the medium of communication with the officers of Government. In Mahr. paṭīl, Hind. paṭel. The most probable etym. seems to be from paṭ, Mahr. 'a roll or register,' Skt.—Hind. paṭṭa. The title is more particularly current in territories that are or have been subject to the Mahrattas, "and appears to be an essentially Maráthi word, being used as a respectful title in addressing one of that nation, or a Súdra in general" (Wilson). The office is hereditary, and is often held under a Government grant. The title is not used in the Gangetic Provinces, but besides its use in Central and W. India it has been commonly employed in S. India, probably as a Hindustani word, though Monigar (see MONEGAR) {686a}(Maṇiyakāram), adhikārī (see ADIGAR), &c., are appropriate synonyms in Tamil and Malabar districts.
[1535.—"The Tanadars began to come in and give in their submission, bringing with them all the patels (pateis) and renters with their payments, which they paid to the Governor, who ordered fresh records to be prepared."—Couto, Dec. IV. Bk. ix. ch. 2 (description of the commencement of Portuguese rule in Bassein).
[1614.—"I perceive that you are troubled with a bad commodity, wherein the desert of Patell and the rest appeareth."—Foster, Letters, ii. 281.]
1804.—"The Patel of Beitculgaum, in the usual style of a Mahratta patel, keeps a band of plunderers for his own profit and advantage. You will inform him that if he does not pay for the horses, bullocks, and articles plundered, he shall be hanged also."—Wellington, March 27.
1809.—"... Pattels, or headmen."—Lord Valentia, i. 415.
1814.—"At the settling of the jummabundee, they pay their proportion of the village assessment to government, and then dispose of their grain, cotton, and fruit, without being accountable to the patell."—Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 418; [2nd ed. ii. 44].
1819.—"The present system of Police, as far as relates to the villagers may easily be kept up; but I doubt whether it is enough that the village establishment be maintained, and the whole put under the Mamlutdar. The Potail's respectability and influence in the village must be kept up."—Elphinstone, in Life, ii. 81.
1820.—"The Patail holds his office direct of Government, under a written obligation ... which specifies his duties, his rank, and the ceremonies of respect he is entitled to; and his perquisites, and the quantity of freehold land allotted to him as wages."—T. Coats, in Tr. Bo. Lit. Soc. iii. 183.
1823.—"The heads of the family ... have purchased the office of Potail, or headman."—Malcolm, Central India, i. 99.
1826.—"The potail offered me a room in his own house, and I very thankfully accepted it."—Pandurang Hari, ed. 1877, p. 241; [ed. 1873, ii. 45].
1851.—"This affected humility was in fact one great means of effecting his elevation. When at Poonah he (Madhajee Sindea) ... instead of arrogating any exalted title, would only suffer himself to be called Pateil...."—Fraser, Mil. Mem. of Skinner, i. 33.
1870.—"The Potail accounted for the revenue collections, receiving the perquisites and percentages, which were the accustomed dues of the office."—Systems of Land Tenure (Cobden Club), 163.
PATNA, n.p. The chief city of Bahar; and the representative of the {686b}Palibothra (Pātaliputra) of the Greeks. Hind. Paṭṭana, "the city." [See quotation from D'Anville under ALLAHABAD.]
1586.—"From Bannaras I went to Patenaw downe the riuer of Ganges.... Patenaw is a very long and a great towne. In times past it was a kingdom, but now it is vnder Zelabdim Echebar, the great Mogor.... In this towne there is a trade of cotton, and cloth of cotton, much sugar, which they carry from hence to Bengala and India, very much Opium, and other commodities."—R. Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 388.
1616.—"Bengala, a most spacious and fruitful Province, but more properly to be called a kingdom, which hath two very large Provinces within it, Purb (see POORUB) and Patan, the one lying on the east, and the other on the west side of the River Ganges."—Terry, ed. 1665, p. 357.
[1650.—"Patna is one of the largest towns in India, on the margin of the Ganges, on its western side, and it is not less than two coss in length."—Tavernier, ed. Ball, i. 121 seq.]
1673.—"Sir William Langham ... is Superintendent over all the Factories on the coast of Coromandel, as far as the Bay of Bengala, and up Huygly River ... viz. Fort St. George, alias Maderas, Pettipolee, Mechlapatan, Gundore, Medapollon, Balasore, Bengala, Huygly, Castle Buzzar, Pattanaw."—Fryer, 38.
1726.—"If you go higher up the Ganges to the N. W. you come to the great and famous trading city of Pattena, capital of the Kingdom of Behar, and the residence of the Vice-roy."—Valentijn, v. 164.
1727.—"Patana is the next Town frequented by Europeans ... for Saltpetre and raw Silk. It produces also so much Opium, that it serves all the Countries in India with that commodity."—A. Hamilton, ii. 21; [ed. 1744].
PATOLA, s. Canarese and Malayāl. paṭṭuda, 'a silk-cloth.' In the fourth quotation it is rather misapplied to the Ceylon dress (see COMBOY).
1516.—"Coloured cottons and silks which the Indians call patola."—Barbosa, 184.
1522.—"... Patolos of silk, which are cloths made at Cambaya that are highly prized at Malaca."—Correa, Lendas, ii. 2, 714.
1545.—"... homems ... enchachados com patolas de seda."—Pinto, ch. clx. (Cogan, p. 219).
1552.—"They go naked from the waist upwards, and below it they are clothed with silk and cotton which they call patolas."—Castanheda, ii. 78.
[1605.—"Pattala."—Birdwood, Letter Book, 74.]
1614.—"... Patollas...."—Peyton, in Purchas, i. 530.
PATTAMAR, PATIMAR, &c. This word has two senses:
a. A foot-runner, a courier. In this use the word occurs only in the older writers, especially Portuguese.
b. A kind of lateen-rigged ship, with one, two, or three masts, common on the west coast. This sense seems to be comparatively modern. In both senses the word is perhaps the Konkani path-mār, 'a courier.' C. P. Brown, however, says that patta-mar, applied to a vessel, is Malayāl. signifying "goose-wing." Molesworth's Mahr. Dict. gives both patemārī and phatemārī for "a sort of swift-sailing vessel, a pattymar," with the etym. "tidings-bringer." Patta is 'tidings,' but the second part of the word so derived is not clear. Sir. J. M. Campbell, who is very accurate, in the Bo. Gazetteer writes of the vessel as pātimār, though identifying, as we have done, both uses with pathmār, 'courier.' The Moslem, he says, write phatemārī quasi fatḥ-mār, 'snake of victory'(?). [The Madras Gloss. gives Mal. pattamāri, Tam. pāttimār, from patār, Hind. 'tidings' (not in Platts), māri, Mahr. 'carrier.'] According to a note in Notes and Extracts, No. 1 (Madras, 1871), p. 27, under a Ft. St. Geo. Consultation of July 4, 1673, Pattamar is therein used "for a native vessel on the Coromandel Coast, though now confined to the Western Coast." We suspect a misapprehension. For in the following entry we have no doubt that the parenthetical gloss is wrong, and that couriers are meant:
"A letter sent to the President and Councell at Surratt by a Pair of Pattamars (native craft) express...."—Op. cit. No. ii. p. 8. [On this word see further Sir H. Yule's note on Linschoten, Hak. Soc. ii. 165.]
a.—
1552.—"... But Lorenço de Brito, seeing things come to such a pass that certain Captains of the King (of Cananor) with troops chased him to the gates, he wrote to the Viceroy of the position in which he was by Patamares, who are men that make great journeys by land."—De Barros, II. i. 5.
The word occurs repeatedly in Correa, Lendas, e.g. III. i. 108, 149, &c.
1598.—"... There are others that are called Patamares, which serue onlie for Messengers or Posts, to carie letters from place to place by land in winter-time when men cannot travaile by sea."—Linschoten, 78; [Hak. Soc. i. 260, and see ii. 165].
1606.—"The eight and twentieth, a Pattemar told that the Governor was a friend to us only in shew, wishing the Portugalls in our roome; for we did no good in the Country, but brought Wares which they were forced to buy...."—Roger Hawes, in Purchas, i. 605.
[1616.—"The Patamar (for so in this country they call poor footmen that are letter-bearers)...."—Foster, Letters, iv. 227.]
1666.—"Tranquebar, qui est eloigné de Saint Thomé de cinq journées d'un Courier à pié, qu'on appelle Patamar."—Thevenot, v. 275.
1673.—"After a month's Stay here a Patamar (a Foot Post) from Fort St. George made us sensible of the Dutch being gone from thence to Ceylon."—Fryer, 36.
[1684.—"The Pattamars that went to Codaloor by reason of the deepness of the Rivers were forced to Return...."—Pringle, Diary Ft. St. Geo. 1st ser. iii. 133.]
1689.—"A Pattamar, i.e. a Foot Messenger, is generally employ'd to carry them (letters) to the remotest Bounds of the Empire."—Ovington, 251.
1705.—"Un Patemare qui est un homme du Pais; c'est ce que nous appellons un exprès...."—Luillier, 43.
1758.—"Yesterday returned a Pattamar or express to our Jew merchant from Aleppo, by the way of the Desert...."—Ives, 297.
c. 1760.—"Between Bombay and Surat there is a constant intercourse preserved, not only by sea ... but by Pattamars, or foot-messengers overland."—Grose, i. 119. This is the last instance we have met of the word in this sense, which is now quite unknown to Englishmen.
b.—
1600.—"... Escrevia que hum barco pequeno, dos que chamam patamares, se meteria...."—Lucena, Vida do P. F. Xavier, 185.
[1822.—"About 12 o'clock on the same night they embarked in Paddimars for Cochin."—Wallace, Fifteen Years, 206.]
1834.—A description of the Patamárs, with a plate, is given in Mr. John Edye's paper on Indian coasting vessels, in vol. i. of the R. As. Soc. Journal.
1860.—"Among the vessels at anchor lie the dows (see DHOW) of the Arabs, the petamares of Malabar, and the dhoneys (see DONEY) of Coromandel."—Tennent's Ceylon, ii. 103.
PATTELLO, PATELLEE, s. A large flat-bottomed boat on the Ganges; Hind. paṭelā. [Mr. Grierson gives among the Behar boats "the paṭelī or paṭailī, also called in Sāran katrā, on which the boards forming the sides overlap and are not joined edge to edge," with an illustration (Bihar Peasant Life, 42).]
[1680.—"The Patella; the boats that come down from Pattana with Saltpeeter or other goods, built of an Exceeding Strength and are very flatt and burthensome."—Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. 15.]
1685.—"We came to a great Godowne, where ... this Nabob's Son has laid in a vast quantity of Salt, here we found divers great Patellos taking in their lading for Pattana."—Ibid. Jan 6; [Hak. Soc. i. 175].
1860.—"The Putelee (or Kutora), or Baggage-boat of Hindostan, is a very large, flat-bottomed, clinker-built, unwieldy-looking piece of rusticity of probably ... about 35 tons burthen; but occasionally they may be met with double this size."—Colesworthy Grant, Rural Life in Bengal, p. 6.
PAULIST, n.p. The Jesuits were commonly so called in India because their houses in that country were formerly always dedicated to St. Paul, the great Missionary to the Heathen. They have given up this practice since their modern re-establishment in India. They are still called Paolotti in Italy, especially by those who don't like them.
c. 1567.—"... e vi sono assai Chiese dei padri di San Paulo i quali fanno in quei luoghi gran profitto in conuertire quei popoli."—Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 390.
1623.—"I then went to the College of the Jesuit Fathers, the Church of which, like that at Daman, at Bassaim, and at almost all the other cities of the Portuguese in India, is called San Paolo; whence it happens that in India the said Fathers are known more commonly by the name of Paolisti than by that of Jesuits."—P. della Valle, April 27; [iii. 135].
c. 1650.—"The Jesuits at Goa are known by the name of Paulists; by reason that their great Church is dedicated to St. Paul. Nor do they wear Hats, or Corner-Caps, as in Europe, but only a certain Bonnet, resembling the Skull of a Hat without the Brims."—Tavernier, E.T. 77; [ed. Ball, i. 197].
1672.—"There was found in the fortress of Cranganor a handsome convent, and Church of the Paulists, or disciples and followers of Ignatius Loyola...."—Baldaeus, Germ., p. 110. In another passage this author says they were called Paulists because they were first sent to India by Pope Paul III. But this is not the correct reason.
1673.—"St. Paul's was the first Monastery of the Jesuits in Goa, from whence they receive the name Paulistins."—Fryer, 150.
[1710.—See quotation under COBRA DE CAPELLO.]
1760.—"The Jesuits, who are better known in India by the appellation of Paulists, from their head church and convent of St. Paul's in Goa."—Grose, i. 50.
PAUNCHWAY, s. A light kind of boat used on the rivers of Bengal; like a large dingy (q.v.), with a tilted roof of matting or thatch, a mast and four oars. Beng. panśī, and pansoī. [Mr. Grierson (Peasant Life, 43) describes the pansūhī as a boat with a round bottom, but which goes in shallow water, and gives an illustration.]
[1757.—"He was then beckoning to his servant that stood in a Ponsy above the Gaut."—A. Grant, Account of the Loss of Calcutta, ed. by Col. Temple, p. 7.]
c. 1760.—"Ponsways, Guard-boats."—Grose (Glossary).
1780.—"The Paunchways are nearly of the same general construction (as budgerows), with this difference, that the greatest breadth is somewhat further aft, and the stern lower."—Hodges, 39-40.
1790.—"Mr. Bridgwater was driven out to sea in a common paunchway, and when every hope forsook him the boat floated into the harbour of Masulipatam."—Calcutta Monthly Review, i. 40.
1823.—"... A panchway, or passage-boat ... was a very characteristic and interesting vessel, large and broad, shaped like a snuffer-dish; a deck fore-and-aft, and the middle covered with a roof of palm-branches...."—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 21.
1860.—"... You may suppose that I engage neither pinnace nor bujra (see BUDGEROW), but that comfort and economy are sufficiently obtained by hiring a small bhouliya (see BOLIAH) ... what is more likely at a fine weather season like this, a small native punsóee, which, with a double set of hands, or four oars, is a lighter and much quicker boat."—C. Grant, Rural Life in Bengal, 10 [with an illustration].
PAWL, s. Hind. pāl, [Skt. paṭala, 'a roof']. A small tent with two light poles, and steep sloping sides; no walls, or ridge-pole. I believe the statement 'no ridge-pole,' is erroneous. It is difficult to derive from memory an exact definition of tents, and especially of the difference between pawl and shooldarry. A reference to India failed in getting a reply. The shooldarry is not essentially different from the pawl, but is trimmer, tauter, better closed, and sometimes has two flies. [The names of tents are used in various senses in different parts. The Madras Gloss. defines a paul as "a small tent with two light poles, a ridge-bar, and steep sloping sides; the walls, if any, are very short, often not more than 6 inches high. Sometimes a second {689a}ridge above carries a second roof over the first; this makes a common shooting tent." Mr. G. R. Dampier writes: "These terms are, I think, used rather loosely in the N.W.P. Sholdārī generally means a servant's tent, a sort of tente d'abri, with very low sides: the sides are generally not more than a foot high; there are no doors only flaps at one end. Pāl is generally used to denote a sleeping tent for Europeans; the roof slopes on both sides from a longitudinal ridge-pole; the sides are much higher than in the sholdārī, and there is a door at one end; the fly is almost invariably single. The Raoti (see ROWTEE) is incorrectly used in some places to denote a sleeping pāl; it is, properly speaking, I believe, a larger tent, of the same kind, but with doors in the side, not at the end. In some parts I have found they use the word pāl as equivalent to sholdārī and bilṭan (? bell-tent)."]
1785.—"Where is the great quantity of baggage belonging to you, seeing that you have nothing besides tents, pawls, and other such necessary articles?"—Tippoo's Letters, p. 49.
1793.—"There were not, I believe, more than two small Pauls, or tents, among the whole of the deputation that escorted us from Patna."—Kirkpatrick's Nepaul, p. 118.
[1809.—"The shops which compose the Bazars, are mostly formed of blankets or coarse cloth stretched over a bamboo, or some other stick for a ridge-pole, supported at either end by a forked stick fixed in the ground. These habitations are called pals."—Broughton, Letters, ed. 1892, p. 20.]
1827.—"It would perhaps be worth while to record ... the matériel and personnel of my camp equipment; an humble captain and single man travelling on the most economical principles. One double-poled tent, one routee (see ROWTEE), or small tent, a pâl or servants' tent, 2 elephants, 6 camels, 4 horses, a pony, a buggy, and 24 servants, besides mahouts, serwâns or camel-drivers, and tent pitchers."—Mundy, Journal of a Tour in India, [3rd ed. p. 8]. We may note that this is an absurd exaggeration of any equipment that, even seventy-five years since, would have characterised the march of a "humble captain travelling on economical principles," or any one under the position of a highly-placed civilian. Captain Mundy must have been enormously extravagant.
[1849.—"... we breakfasted merrily under a paul (a tent without walls, just like two cards leaning against each other)."—Mrs. Mackenzie, Life in the Mission, ii. 141.]
PAWN, s. The betel-leaf (q.v.) Hind. pān, from Skt. parṇa, 'a leaf.' {689b}It is a North Indian term, and is generally used for the combination of betel, areca-nut, lime, &c., which is politely offered (along with otto of roses) to visitors, and which intimates the termination of the visit. This is more fully termed pawn-sooparie (supārī, [Skt. supriya, 'pleasant,'] is Hind. for areca). "These leaves are not vsed to bee eaten alone, but because of their bitternesse they are eaten with a certaine kind of fruit, which the Malabars and Portugalls call Arecca, the Gusurates and Decanijns Suparijs...." (In Purchas, ii. 1781).
1616.—"The King giving mee many good words, and two pieces of his Pawne out of his Dish, to eate of the same he was eating...."—Sir T. Roe, in Purchas, i. 576; [Hak. Soc. ii. 453].
[1623.—"... a plant, whose leaves resemble a Heart, call'd here pan, but in other parts of India, Betle."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 36.]
1673.—"... it is the only Indian entertainment, commonly called Pawn."—Fryer, p. 140.
1809.—"On our departure pawn and roses were presented, but we were spared the attar, which is every way detestable."—Ld. Valentia, i. 101.
PAWNEE, s. Hind. pānī, 'water.' The word is used extensively in Anglo-Indian compound names, such as bilayutee pawnee, 'soda-water,' brandy-pawnee, Khush-bo pawnee (for European scents), &c., &c. An old friend, Gen. J. T. Boileau, R.E. (Bengal), contributes from memory the following Hindi ode to Water, on the Pindaric theme ἄριστον μὲν ὕδωρ, or the Thaletic one ἀρχὴ δε τῶν πάντων ὑδωρ!
"Pānī kūā, pānī tāl;
Pānī āṭā, pānī dāl;
Pānī bāgh, pānī ramnā;
Pānī Gangā, pānī Jumnā;
Pānī haṅstā, pānī rotā;
Pānī jagtā, pānī sotā;
Pānī bāp, pānī mā;
Barā nām Pānī kā!"
Thus rudely done into English:
"Thou, Water, stor'st our Wells and Tanks,
Thou fillest Gunga's, Jumna's banks;
Thou Water, sendest daily food,
And fruit and flowers and needful wood;
Thou, Water, laugh'st, thou, Water, weepest;
Thou, Water, wak'st, thou, Water, sleepest;
—Father, Mother, in thee blent,—
Hail, O glorious element!"
PAWNEE, KALLA, s. Hind. kālā pānī, i.e. 'Black Water'; the name of dread by which natives of the interior of India designate the Sea, with especial reference to a voyage across it, and to transportation to penal settlements beyond it. "Hindu servants and sepoys used to object to cross the Indus, and called that the kālā pānī. I think they used to assert that they lost caste by crossing it, which might have induced them to call it by the same name as the ocean,—or possibly they believed it to be part of the river that flows round the world, or the country beyond it to be outside the limits of Aryavartta" (Note by Lt.-Col. J. M. Trotter).
1823.—"An agent of mine, who was for some days with Cheetoo" (a famous Pindārī leader), "told me he raved continually about Kala Panee, and that one of his followers assured him when the Pindarry chief slept, he used in his dreams to repeat these dreaded words aloud."—Sir J. Malcolm, Central India (2nd ed.), i. 446.
1833.—"Kala Pany, dark water, in allusion to the Ocean, is the term used by the Natives to express transportation. Those in the interior picture the place to be an island of a very dreadful description, and full of malevolent beings, and covered with snakes and other vile and dangerous nondescript animals."—Mackintosh, Acc. of the Tribe of Ramoosies, 44.
PAYEN-GHAUT, n.p. The country on the coast below the Ghauts or passes leading up to the table-land of the Deccan. It was applied usually on the west coast, but the expression Carnatic Payen-ghaut is also pretty frequent, as applied to the low country of Madras on the east side of the Peninsula, from Hind. and Mahr. ghāt, combined with Pers. pāīn, 'below.' [It is generally used as equivalent to Talaghāt, "but some Musalmans seem to draw the distinction that the Pāyīn-ghāt is nearer to the foot of the Ghāts than the Talaghāt" (Le Fanu, Man. of Salem, ii. 338).]
1629-30.—"But ('Azam Khán) found that the enemy having placed their elephants and baggage in the fort of Dhárúr, had the design of descending the Páyín-ghát."—Abdu'l Hamíd Lahori, in Elliot, vii. 17.
1784.—"Peace and friendship ... between the said Company and the Nabob Tippo Sultan Bahauder, and their friends and allies, particularly including therein the Rajahs of Tanjore and Travencore, who are friends and allies to the English and the {690b}Carnatic Payen Ghaut."—Treaty of Mangalore, in Munro's Narr., 252.
1785.—"You write that the European taken prisoner in the Pâyen-ghaut ... being skilled in the mortar practice, you propose converting him to the faith.... It is known (or understood)."—Letters of Tippoo, p. 12.
PAZEND, s. See for meaning of this term s.v. Pahlavi, in connection with Zend. (See also quotation from Maṣ'ūdī under latter.)
PECUL, PIKOL, s. Malay and Javanese pikul, 'a man's load.' It is applied as the Malay name of the Chinese weight of 100 katis (see CATTY), called by the Chinese themselves shih, and = 133⅓lb. avoird. Another authority states that the shih is = 120 kin or katis, whilst the 100 kin weight is called in Chinese tan.
1554.—"In China 1 tael weighs 7½ tanga larins of silver, and 16 taels = 1 caté (see CATTY); 100 catés = 1 pico = 45 tangas of silver weigh 1 mark, and therefore 1 pico = 133½ arratels (see ROTTLE)."—A. Nunes, 41.
" "And in China anything is sold and bought by cates and picos and taels, provisions as well as all other things."—Ibid. 42.
1613.—"Bantam pepper vngarbled ... was worth here at our comming tenne Tayes the Peccull which is one hundred cattees, making one hundred thirtie pound English subtill."—Saris, in Purchas, i. 369.
[1616.—"The wood we have sold at divers prices from 24 to 28 mas per Picoll."—Foster, Letters, iv. 259.]
PEDIR, n.p. The name of a port and State of the north coast of Sumatra. Barros says that, before the establishment of Malacca, Pedir was the greatest and most famous of the States on that island. It is now a place of no consequence.
1498.—It is named as Pater in the Roteiro of Vasco da Gama, but with very incorrect information. See p. 113.
1510.—"We took a junk and went towards Sumatra, to a city called Pider.... In this country there grows a great quantity of pepper, and of long pepper which is called Molaga ... in this port there are laden with it every year 18 or 20 ships, all of which go to Cathai."—Varthema, 233.
1511.—"And having anchored before the said Pedir, the Captain General (Alboquerque) sent for me, and told me that I should go ashore to learn the disposition of the people ... and so I went ashore in the evening, the General thus sending me into {691a}a country of enemies,—people too whose vessels and goods we had seized, whose fathers, sons, and brothers we had killed;—into a country where even among themselves there is little justice, and treachery in plenty, still more as regards strangers; truly he acted as caring little what became of me!... The answer given me was this: that I should tell the Captain Major General that the city of Pedir had been for a long time noble and great in trade ... that its port was always free for every man to come and go in security ... that they were men and not women, and that they could hold for no friend one who seized the ships visiting their harbours; and that if the General desired the King's friendship let him give back what he had seized, and then his people might come ashore to buy and sell."—Letter of Giov. da Empoli, in Archiv. Stor. Ital. 54.
1516.—"The Moors live in the seaports, and the Gentiles in the interior (of Sumatra). The principal kingdom of the Moors is called Pedir. Much very good pepper grows in it, which is not so strong or so fine as that of Malabar. Much silk is also grown there, but not so good as the silk of China."—Barbosa, 196.
1538.—"Furthermore I told him what course was usually held for the fishing of seed-pearl between Pullo Tiquos and Pullo Quenim, which in time past were carried by the Bataes to Pazem (see PASEI) and Pedir, and exchanged with the Turks of the Straight of Mecqua, and the Ships of Judaa (see JUDEA) for such Merchandise as they brought from Grand Cairo."—Pinto (in Cogan), 25.
1553.—"After the foundation of Malaca, and especially after our entrance to the Indies, the Kingdom of Pacem began to increase, and that of Pedir to wane. And its neighbour of Achem, which was then insignificant, is now the greatest of all, so vast are the vicissitudes in States of which men make so great account."—Barros, iii. v. 1.
1615.—"Articles exhibited against John Oxwicke. That since his being in Peedere 'he did not entreate' anything for Priaman and Tecoe, but only an answer to King James's letter...."—Sainsbury, i. 411.
" "Pedeare."—Ibid. p. 415.
PEEÁDA. See under PEON.
PEENUS, s. Hind. pīnas; a corruption of Eng. pinnace. A name applied to a class of budgerow rigged like a brig or brigantine, on the rivers of Bengal, for European use. Roebuck gives as the marine Hind. for pinnace, p'hineez. [The word has been adopted by natives in N. India as the name for a sort of palankin, such as that used by a bride.]
[1615.—"Soe he sent out a Penisse to look out for them."—Cocks's Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 22.]
1784.—"For sale ... a very handsome Pinnace Budgerow."—In Seton-Karr, i. 45.
[1860.—"The Pinnace, the largest and handsomest, is perhaps more frequently a private than a hired boat—the property of the planter or merchant."—C. Grant, Rural Life in Bengal, 4 (with an illustration).]
PEEPUL, s. Hind. pīpal, Skt. pippala, Ficus religiosa, L.; one of the great fig-trees of India, which often occupies a prominent place in a village, or near a temple. The Pīpal has a strong resemblance, in wood and foliage, to some common species of poplar, especially the aspen, and its leaves with their long footstalks quaver like those of that tree. This trembling is popularly attributed to spirits agitating each leaf. And hence probably the name of 'Devil's tree' given to it, according to Rheede (Hort. Mal. i. 48), by Christians in Malabar. It is possible therefore that the name is identical with that of the poplar. Nothing would be more natural than that the Aryan immigrants, on first seeing this Indian tree, should give it the name of the poplar which they had known in more northern latitudes (popul-us, pappel, &c.). Indeed, in Kumāon, a true sp. of poplar (Populus ciliata) is called by the people gar-pipal (qu. ghar, or 'house'-peepul? [or rather perhaps as another name for it is pahāṛī, from gir, giri, 'a mountain']). Dr. Stewart also says of this Populus: "This tree grows to a large size, occasionally reaching 10 feet in girth, and from its leaves resembling those of the pipal ... is frequently called by that name by plainsmen" (Punjab Plants, p. 204). A young peepul was shown to one of the present writers in a garden at Palermo as populo delle Indie. And the recognised name of the peepul in French books appears to be peuplier d'Inde. Col. Tod notices the resemblance (Rajasthan, i. 80), and it appears that Vahl called it Ficus populifolia. (See also Geograph. Magazine, ii. 50). In Balfour's Indian Cyclopaedia it is called by the same name in translation, 'the poplar-leaved Fig-tree.' We adduce these facts the more copiously perhaps because the suggestion of the identity of the names pippala and populus was somewhat scornfully rejected by a very {692a}learned scholar. The tree is peculiarly destructive to buildings, as birds drop the seeds in the joints of the masonry, which becomes thus penetrated by the spreading roots of the tree. This is alluded to in a quotation below. "I remember noticing among many Hindus, and especially among Hinduized Sikhs, that they often say Pīpal ko jātā hūṅ ('I am going to the Peepul Tree'), to express 'I am going to say my prayers.'" (Lt.-Col. John Trotter.) (See BO-TREE.)
c. 1550.—"His soul quivered like a pipal leaf."—Rāmāyana of Tulsi Dás, by Growse (1878), ii. 25.
[c. 1590.—"In this place an arrow struck Sri Kishn and buried itself in a pipal tree on the banks of the Sarsuti."—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, ii. 246.]
1806.—"Au sortir du village un pipal élève sa tête majestueuse.... Sa nombreuse posterité l'entoure au loin sur la plaine, telle qu'une armée de géans qui entrelacent fraternellement leurs bras informes."—Haafner, i. 149. This writer seems to mean a banyan. The peepul does not drop roots in that fashion.
1817.—"In the second ordeal, an excavation in the ground ... is filled with a fire of pippal wood, into which the party must walk barefoot, proving his guilt if he is burned; his innocence, if he escapes unhurt."—Mill (quoting from Halhed), ed. 1830, i. 280.
1826.—"A little while after this he arose, and went to a Peepul-tree, a short way off, where he appeared busy about something, I could not well make out what."—Pandurang Hari, 26; [ed. 1873, i. 36, reading Peepal].
1836.—"It is not proper to allow the English, after they have made made war, and peace has been settled, to remain in the city. They are accustomed to act like the Peepul tree. Let not Younger Brother therefore allow the English to remain in his country."—Letter from Court of China to Court of Ava. See Yule, Mission to Ava, p. 265.
1854.—"Je ne puis passer sous silence deux beaux arbres ... ce sont le peuplier d'Inde à larges feuilles, arbre réputé sacré...."—Pallegoix, Siam, i. 140.
1861.—
"... Yonder crown of umbrage hoar
Shall shield her well; the Peepul whisper a dirge
And Caryota drop her tearlike store
Of beads; whilst over all slim Casuarine
Points upwards, with her branchlets ever green,
To that remaining Rest where Night and Tears are o'er."
Barrackpore Park, 18th Nov. 1861.
PEER, s. Pers. pīr, a Mahommedan Saint or Beatus. But the word is used {692b}elliptically for the tombs of such personages, the circumstance pertaining to them which chiefly creates notoriety or fame of sanctity; and it may be remarked that wali (or Wely as it is often written), Imāmzāda, Shaikh, and Marabout (see ADJUTANT), are often used in the same elliptical way in Syria, Persia, Egypt, and Barbary respectively. We may add that Nabī (Prophet) is used in the same fashion.
[1609.—See under NUGGURCOTE.
[1623.—"Within the Mesquita (see MOSQUE) ... is a kind of little Pyramid of Marble, and this they call Pir, that is Old, which they say is equivalent to Holy; I imagine it the Sepulchre of some one of their Sect accounted such."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 69.]
1665.—"On the other side was the Garden and the chambers of the Mullahs, who with great conveniency and delight spend their lives there under the shadow of the miraculous Sanctity of this Pire, which they are not wanting to celebrate: But as I am always very unhappy on such occasions, he did no Miracle that day upon any of the sick."—Bernier, 133; [ed. Constable, 415].
1673.—"Hard by this is a Peor, or Burying place of one of the Prophets, being a goodly monument."—Fryer, 240.
1869.—"Certains pirs sont tellement renommés, qu'ainsi qu'on le verra plus loin, le peuple a donné leurs noms aux mois lunaires où se trouvent placées les fêtes qu'on celèbre en leur honneur."—Garcin de Tassy, Rel. Musulm. p. 18.
The following are examples of the parallel use of the words named:
Wali:
1841.—"The highest part (of Hermon) crowned by the Wely, is towards the western end."—Robinson, Biblical Researches, iii. 173.
" "In many of the villages of Syria the Traveller will observe small dome-covered buildings, with grated windows and surmounted by the crescent. These are the so-called Welis, mausolea of saints, or tombs of sheikhs."—Baedeker's Egypt, Eng. ed. Pt. i. 150.
Imamzada:
1864.—"We rode on for three farsakhs, or fourteen miles, more to another Imámzádah, called Kafsh-gírí...."—Eastwick, Three Years' Residence in Persia, ii. 46.
1883.—"The few villages ... have numerous walled gardens, with rows of poplar and willow-trees and stunted mulberries, and the inevitable Imamzadehs."—Col. Beresford Lovett's Itinerary Notes of Route Surveys in N. Persia in 1881 and 1882, Proc. R.G.S. (N.S.) v. 73.
Shaikh:
1817.—"Near the ford (on Jordan), half a mile to the south, is a tomb called 'Sheikh Daoud,' standing on an apparent round hill like a barrow."—Irby and Mangles, Travels in Egypt, &c., 304.
Nabi:
1856.—"Of all the points of interest about Jerusalem, none perhaps gains so much from an actual visit to Palestine as the lofty-peaked eminence which fills up the north-west corner of the table-land.... At present it bears the name of Nebi-Samuel, which is derived from the Mussulman tradition—now perpetuated by a mosque and tomb—that here lies buried the prophet Samuel."—Stanley's Palestine, 165.
So also Nabi-Yūnus at Nineveh; and see Nebi-Mousa in De Saulcy, ii. 73.
PEGU, n.p. The name which we give to the Kingdom which formerly existed in the Delta of the Irawadi, to the city which was its capital, and to the British province which occupies its place. The Burmese name is Bagó. This name belongs to the Talaing language, and is popularly alleged to mean 'conquered by stratagem,' to explain which a legend is given; but no doubt this is mere fancy. The form Pegu, as in many other cases of our geographical nomenclature, appears to come through the Malays, who call it Paigū. The first European mention that we know of is in Conti's narrative (c. 1440) where Poggio has Latinized it as Pauco-nia; but Fra Mauro, who probably derived this name, with much other new knowledge, from Conti, has in his great map (c. 1459) the exact Malay form Paigu. Nikitin (c. 1475) has, if we may depend on his translator into English, Pegu, as has Hieronimo di S. Stefano (1499). The Roteiro of Vasco da Gama (1498) has Pegúo, and describes the land as Christian, a mistake arising no doubt from the use of the ambiguous term Kāfir by his Mahommedan informants (see under CAFFER).  This King can assemble 20,000 fighting men, i.e. 10,000 horsemen, as many footmen, and 400 war elephants; here is all the musk in the world ... and on the main land he has many rubies and much gold, so that for 10 cruzados you can {693b}buy as much gold as will fetch 25 in Calecut, and there is much lac (lacra) and benzoin...."—Roteiro, 112.
1505.—"Two merchants of Cochin took on them to save two of the ships; one from Pegú with a rich cargo of lac (lacre), benzoin, and musk, and another with a cargo of drugs from Banda, nutmeg, mace, clove, and sandalwood; and they embarked on the ships with their people, leaving to chance their own vessels, which had cargoes of rice, for the value of which the owners of the ships bound themselves."—Correa, i. 611.
1514.—"Then there is Pecù, which is a populous and noble city, abounding in men and in horses, where are the true mines of linoni (? 'di linoni e perfetti rubini,' perhaps should be 'di buoni e perfetti') and perfect rubies, and these in great plenty; and they are fine men, tall and well limbed and stout; as of a race of giants...."—Empoli, 80.
[1516.—"Peigu." (See under BURMA).]
1541.—"Bagou." (See under PEKING.)
1542.—"... and for all the goods which came from any other ports and places, viz. from Peguu to the said Port of Malaqua, from the Island of Çamatra and from within the Straits...."—Titolo of the Fortress and City of Malaqua, in Tombo, p. 105 in Subsidios.
1568.—"Concludo che non è in terra Re di possãza maggiore del Re di Pegù, per ciòche ha sotto di se venti Re di corona."—Ces. Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 394.
1572.—
"Olha o reino Arracão, olha o assento
De Pegú, que já monstros povoaram,
Monstros filhos do feo ajuntamento
D'huma mulher e hum cão, que sos se acharam."
Camões, x. 122.
By Burton:
"Arracan-realm behold, behold the seat
of Pegu peopled by a monster-brood;
monsters that gendered meeting most unmeet
of whelp and woman in the lonely wood...."
1597.—"... I recommend you to be very watchful not to allow the Turks to export any timber from the Kingdom of Pegú nor yet from that of Achin (do Dachem); and with this view you should give orders that this be the subject of treatment with the King of Dachem since he shows so great a desire for our friendship, and is treating in that sense."—Despatch from the King to Goa, 5th Feb. In Archiv. Port. Orient. Fasc. iii.
PEGU PONIES. These are in Madras sometimes termed elliptically Pegus, as Arab horses are universally termed Arabs. The ponies were much valued, and before the annexation of Pegu commonly imported into India; less commonly since, for the local demand absorbs them.
1880.—"For sale ... also Bubble and Squeak, bay Pegues."—Madras Mail, Feb. 19.
[1890.—"Ponies, sometimes very good ones, were reared in a few districts in Upper Burma, but, even in Burmese times, the supply was from the Shan States. The so-called Pegu Pony, of which a good deal is heard, is, in fact, not a Pegu pony at all, for the justly celebrated animals called by that name were imported from the Shan States."—Report of Capt. Evans, in Times, Oct. 17.]
PEKING, n.p. This name means 'North-Court,' and in its present application dates from the early reigns of the Ming Dynasty in China. When they dethroned the Mongol descendants of Chinghiz and Kublai (1368) they removed the capital from Taitu or Khānbāligh (Cambaluc of Polo) to the great city on the Yangtsze which has since been known as Nan-King or 'South-Court.' But before many years the Mongol capital was rehabilitated as the imperial residence, and became Pe-King accordingly. Its preparation for reoccupation began in 1409. The first English mention that we have met with is that quoted by Sainsbury, in which we have the subjects of more than one allusion in Milton.
1520.—"Thomé Pires, quitting this pass, arrived at the Province of Nanquij, at its chief city called by the same name, where the King dwelt, and spent in coming thither always travelling north, four months; by which you may take note how vast a matter is the empire of this gentile prince. He sent word to Thomé Pires that he was to wait for him at Pequij, where he would despatch his affair. This city is in another province so called, much further north, in which the King used to dwell for the most part, because it was on the frontier of the Tartars...."—Barros, III. vi. 1.
1541.—"This City of Pequin ... is so prodigious, and the things therein so remarkable, as I do almost repent me for undertaking to discourse of it.... For one must not imagine it to be, either as the City of Rome, or Constantinople, or Venice, or Paris, or London, or Sevill, or Lisbon.... Nay I will say further, that one must not think it to be like to Grand Cairo in Egypt, Tauris in Persia, Amadaba (Amadabad, Avadavat) in Cambaya, Bisnaga(r) in Narsingaa, Goura (Gouro) in Bengala, Ava in Chalen, Timplan in Calaminham, Martaban (Martavão) and Bagou in Pegu, Guimpel and Tinlau in Siammon, Odia in the Kingdom of Sornau, Passavan and Dema in the Island of Java, Pangor in the Country of the Lequiens (no Lequio), Usangea (Uzãgnè) in the Grand Cauchin, Lancama (Laçame) in Tartary, and Meaco (Mioco) in Jappun ... for I dare well affirm that all those same {694b}are not to be compared to the least part of the wonderful City of Pequin...."—Pinto (in Cogan), p. 136 (orig. cap. cvii.).
[c. 1586.—"The King maketh alwayes his abode in the great city Pachin, as much as to say in our language ... the towne of the kingdome."—Reports of China, in Hakl. ii. 546.]
1614.—"Richard Cocks writing from Ferando understands there are great cities in the country of Corea, and between that and the sea mighty bogs, so that no man can travel there; but great waggons have been invented to go upon broad flat wheels, under sail as ships do, in which they transport their goods ... the deceased Emperor of Japan did pretend to have conveyed a great army in these sailing waggons, to assail the Emperor of China in his City of Paquin."—In Sainsbury, i. 343.
166*.—
"from the destined walls
Of Cambalu, seat of Cathaian Can,
And Samarchand by Oxus, Temer's throne,
To Paquin of Sinaean Kings...."
Paradise Lost, xi. 387-390.
PELICAN, s. This word, in its proper application to the Pelicanus onocrotalus, L., is in no respect peculiar to Anglo-India, though we may here observe that the bird is called in Hindi by the poetical name gagan-bheṛ, i.e. 'Sheep of the Sky,' which we have heard natives with their strong propensity to metathesis convert into the equally appropriate Gangā-bheṛī or 'Sheep of the Ganges.' The name may be illustrated by the old term 'Cape-sheep' applied to the albatross.[222] But Pelican is habitually misapplied by the British soldier in India to the bird usually called Adjutant (q.v.). We may remember how Prof. Max Müller, in his Lectures on Language, tells us that the Tahitians show respect to their sovereign by ceasing to employ in common language those words which form part or the whole of his name, and invent new terms to supply their place. "The object was clearly to guard against the name of the sovereign being ever used, even by accident, in ordinary conversation," 2nd ser. 1864, p. 35, [Frazer, Golden Bough, 2nd ed. i. 421 seqq.]. Now, by an analogous process, it is possible that {695a}some martinet, holding the office of adjutant, at an early date in the Anglo-Indian history, may have resented the ludicrously appropriate employment of the usual name of the bird, and so may have introduced the entirely inappropriate name of pelican in its place. It is in the recollection of one of the present writers that a worthy northern matron, who with her husband had risen from the ranks in the —th Light Dragoons, on being challenged for speaking of "the pelicans in the barrack-yard," maintained her correctness, conceding only that "some ca'd them paylicans, some ca'd them audjutants."
1829.—"This officer ... on going round the yard (of the military prison) ... discovered a large beef-bone recently dropped. The sergeant was called to account for this ominous appearance. This sergeant was a shrewd fellow, and he immediately said,—'Oh Sir, the pelicans have dropped it.' This was very plausible, for these birds will carry enormous bones; and frequently when fighting for them they drop them, so that this might very probably have been the case. The moment the dinner-trumpet sounds, whole flocks of these birds are in attendance at the barrack-doors, waiting for bones, or anything that the soldiers may be pleased to throw to them."—Mem. of John Shipp, ii. 25.
PENANG, n.p. This is the proper name of the Island adjoining the Peninsula of Malacca (Pulo, properly Pulau, Pinang), which on its cession to the English (1786) was named 'Prince of Wales's Island.' But this official style has again given way to the old name. Pinang in Malay signifies an areca-nut or areca-tree, and, according to Crawfurd, the name was given on account of the island's resemblance in form to the fruit of the tree (vulgo, 'the betel-nut').
1592.—"Now the winter coming vpon vs with much contagious weather, we directed our course from hence with the Ilands of Pulo Pinaou (where by the way is to be noted that Pulo in the Malaian tongue signifieth an Iland) ... where we came to an anker in a very good harborough betweene three Ilands.... This place is in 6 degrees and a halfe to the Northward, and some fiue leagues from the maine betweene Malacca and Pegu."—Barker, in Hakl. ii. 589-590.
PENANG LAWYER, s. The popular name of a handsome and hard (but sometimes brittle) walking-stick, exported from Penang and Singapore. {695b}It is the stem of a miniature palm (Licuala acutifida, Griffith). The sticks are prepared by scraping the young stem with glass, so as to remove the epidermis and no more. The sticks are then straightened by fire and polished (Balfour). The name is popularly thought to have originated in a jocular supposition that law-suits in Penang were decided by the lex baculina. But there can be little doubt that it is a corruption of some native term, and pinang liyar, 'wild areca' [or pinang lāyor, "fire-dried areca," which is suggested in N.E.D.], may almost be assumed to be the real name. [Dennys (Descr. Dict. s.v.) says from "Layor, a species of cane furnishing the sticks so named." But this is almost certainly wrong.]
1883.—(But the book—an excellent one—is without date—more shame to the Religious Tract Society which publishes it). "Next morning, taking my 'Penang lawyer' to defend myself from dogs...." The following note is added: "A Penang lawyer is a heavy walking-stick, supposed to be so called from its usefulness in settling disputes in Penang."—Gilmour, Among the Mongols, 14.
PENGUIN, s. Popular name of several species of birds belonging to the genera Aptenodytes and Spheniscus. We have not been able to ascertain the etymology of this name. It may be from the Port. pingue, 'fat.' See Littré. He quotes Clausius as picturing it, who says they were called a pinguedine. It is surely not that given by Sir Thomas Herbert in proof of the truth of the legend of Madoc's settlement in America; and which is indeed implied 60 years before by the narrator of Drake's voyage; though probably borrowed by Herbert direct from Selden.
1578.—"In these Islands we found greate relief and plenty of good victuals, for infinite were the number of fowle which the Welsh men named Penguin, and Magilanus tearmed them geese...."—Drake's Voyage, by F. Fletcher, Hak. Soc. p. 72.
1593.—"The pengwin described."—Hawkins, V. to S. Sea, p. 111, Hak. Soc.
1606.—"The Pengwines bee as bigge as our greatest Capons we have in England, they have no winges nor cannot flye ... they bee exceeding fatte, but their flesh is verie ranke...."—Middleton, f. B. 4.
1609.—"Nous trouvâmes beaucoup de Chiẽs de Mer, et Oyseaux qu'on appelle Penguyns, dont l'Escueil en estait quasi couvert."—Houtman, p. 4.
c. 1610.—"... le reste est tout couvert ... d'vne quantité d'Oyseaux nommez pinguy, qui font là leurs oeufs et leurs petits, et il y en a une quantité si prodigieuse qu'on ne sçauroit mettre ... le pied en quelque endroit que ce soit sans toucher."—Pyrard de Laval, i. 73; [Hak. Soc. i. 97, also see i. 16].
1612.—"About the year CIↃ. C.LXX. Madoc brother to David ap Owen, prince of Wales, made this sea voyage (to Florida); and by probability these names of Capo de Briton in Norumbeg, and Pengwin in part of the Northern America, for a white rock, and a white-headed bird, according to the British, were relicks of this discovery."—Selden, Notes on Drayton's Polyolbion, in Works (ed. 1726), iii. col. 1802.
1616.—"The Island called Pen-guin Island, probably so named by some Welshman, in whose Language Pen-guin signifies a white head; and there are many great lazy fowls upon, and about, this Island, with great cole-black bodies, and very white heads, called Penguins."—Terry, ed. 1665, p. 334.
1638.—"... that this people (of the Mexican traditions) were Welsh rather than Spaniards or others, the Records of this Voyage writ by many Bardhs and Genealogists confirme it ... made more orthodoxall by Welsh names given there to birds, rivers, rocks, beasts, &c., as ... Pengwyn, refer'd by them to a bird that has a white head...."—Herbert, Some Yeares Travels, &c., p. 360.
Unfortunately for this etymology the head is precisely that part which seems in all species of the bird to be black! But M. Roulin, quoted by Littré, maintains the Welsh (or Breton) etymology, thinking the name was first given to some short-winged sea-bird with a white head, and then transferred to the penguin. And Terry, if to be depended on, supports this view. [So Prof. Skeat (Concise Dict., s.v.): "In that case, it must first have been given to another bird, such as the auk (the puffin is common in Anglesey), since the penguin's head is black."]
1674.—
"So Horses they affirm to be
Mere Engines made by Geometry,
And were invented first from Engins,
As Indian Britons were from Penguins."
Hudibras, Pt. I. Canto ii. 57.
[1869.—In Lombock ducks "are very cheap and are largely consumed by the crews of the rice ships, by whom they are called Baly-soldiers, but are more generally known elsewhere as penguin-ducks."—Wallace, Malay Archip. ed. 1890, p. 135.]
PEON, s. This is a Portuguese word peão (Span. peon); from pé, 'foot,' and meaning a 'footman' (also a pawn at chess), and is not therefore a corruption, as has been alleged, of Hind. piyāda, meaning the same; though {696b}the words are, of course ultimately akin in root. It was originally used in the sense of 'a foot-soldier'; thence as 'orderly' or messenger. The word Sepoy was used within our recollection, and perhaps is still, in the same sense in the city of Bombay. The transition of meaning comes out plainly in the quotation from Ives. In the sense of 'orderly,' peon is the word usual in S. India, whilst chuprassy (q.v.) is more common in N. India, though peon is also used there. The word is likewise very generally employed for men on police service (see BURKUNDAUZE). [Mr. Skeat notes that Piyun is used in the Malay States, and Tambi or Tanby at Singapore]. The word had probably become unusual in Portugal by 1600; for Manoel Correa, an early commentator on the Lusiads (d. 1613), thinks it necessary to explain piões by 'gente de pé.'
1503.—"The Çamorym ordered the soldier (pião) to take the letter away, and strictly forbade him to say anything about his having seen it."—Correa, Lendas, I. i. 421.
1510.—"So the Sabayo, putting much trust in this (Rumi), made him captain within the city (Goa), and outside of it put under him a captain of his with two thousand soldiers (piães) from the Balagate...."—Ibid. II. i. 51.
1563.—"The pawn (pião) they call Piada, which is as much as to say a man who travels on foot."—Garcia, f. 37.
1575.—
"O Rey de Badajos era alto Mouro
Con quatro mil cavallos furiosos,
Innumeros piões, darmas e de ouro,
Guarnecidos, guerreiros, e lustrosos."
Camões, iii. 66.
By Burton:
"The King of Badajos was a Moslem bold,
with horse four thousand, fierce and furious knights,
and countless Peons, armed and dight with gold,
whose polisht surface glanceth lustrous light."
1609.—"The first of February the Capitaine departed with fiftie Peons...."—W. Finch, in Purchas, i. 421.
c. 1610.—"Les Pions marchent après le prisonnier, lié avec des cordes qu'ils tiennent."—Pyrard de Laval, ii. 11; [Hak. Soc. ii. 17; also i. 428, 440; ii. 16].
[1616.—"This Shawbunder (see SHABUNDER) imperiously by a couple of Pyons commanded him from me."—Foster, Letters, iv. 351.]
c. 1630.—"The first of December, with some Pe-unes (or black Foot-boyes, who can pratle some English) we rode (from Swally) to Surat."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1638, p. 35. {697a}[For "black" the ed. of 1677 reads "olive-coloured," p. 42.]
1666.—"... siete cientos y treinta y tres mil peones."—Faria y Sousa, i. 195.
1673.—"The Town is walled with Mud, and Bulwarks for Watch-Places for the English peons."—Fryer, 29.
" "... Peons or servants to wait on us."—Ibid. 26.
1687.—"Ordered that ten peons be sent along the coast to Pulicat ... and enquire all the way for goods driven ashore."—In Wheeler, i. 179.
1689.—"At this Moors Town, they got a Peun to be their guide to the Mogul's nearest Camp.... These Peuns are some of the Gentous or Rashbouts (see RAJPOOT), who in all places along the Coast, especially in Seaport Towns, make it their business to hire themselves to wait upon Strangers."—Dampier, i. 508.
" "A Peon of mine, named Gemal, walking abroad in the Grass after the Rains, was unfortunately bit on a sudden by one of them" (a snake).—Ovington, 260.
1705.—"... pions qui sont ce que nous appellons ici des Gardes...."—Luillier, 218.
1745.—"Dès le lendemain je fis assembler dans la Forteresse où je demeurois en qualité d'Aumonier, le Chef des Pions, chez qui s'étaient fait les deux mariages."—Norbert, Mém. iii. 129.
1746.—"As the Nabob's behaviour when Madras was attacked by De la Bourdonnais, had caused the English to suspect his assurances of assistance, they had 2,000 Peons in the defence of Cuddalore...."—Orme, i. 81.
c. 1760.—"Peon. One who waits about the house to run on messages; and he commonly carries under his arm a sword, or in his sash a krese, and in his hand a ratan, to keep the rest of the servants in subjection. He also walks before your palanquin, carries chits (q.v.) or notes, and is your bodyguard."—Ives, 50.
1763.—"Europeans distinguish these undisciplined troops by the general name of Peons."—Orme, ed. 1803, i. 80.
1772.—Hadley, writing in Bengal, spells the word pune; but this is evidently phonetic.
c. 1785.—"... Peons, a name for the infantry of the Deckan."—Carraccioli's Life of Clive, iv. 563.
1780-90.—"I sent off annually from Sylhet from 150 to 200 (elephants) divided into 4 distinct flocks.... They were put under charge of the common peon. These people were often absent 18 months. On one occasion my servant Manoo ... after a twelve-months' absence returned ... in appearance most miserable; he unfolded his girdle, and produced a scrap of paper of small dimensions, which proved to be a banker's bill amounting to 3 or 4,000 pounds,—his own pay was 30 shillings a month.... When I left India Manoo was still absent on one of these excursions, but he delivered {697b}to my agents as faithful an account of the produce as he would have done to myself...."—Hon. R. Lindsay, in Lives of the Lindsays, iii. 77.
1842.—"... he was put under arrest for striking, and throwing into the Indus, an inoffensive Peon, who gave him no provocation, but who was obeying the orders he received from Captain ——. The Major General has heard it said that the supremacy of the British over the native must be maintained in India, and he entirely concurs in that opinion, but it must be maintained by justice."—Gen. Orders, &c., of Sir Ch. Napier, p. 72.
1873.—"Pandurang is by turns a servant to a shopkeeper, a peon, or orderly, a groom to an English officer ... and eventually a pleader before an English Judge in a populous city."—Saturday Review, May 31, p. 728.
PEPPER, s. The original of this word, Skt. pippali, means not the ordinary pepper of commerce ('black pepper') but long pepper, and the Sanskrit name is still so applied in Bengal, where one of the long-pepper plants, which have been classed sometimes in a different genus (Chavica) from the black pepper, was at one time much cultivated. There is still indeed a considerable export of long pepper from Calcutta; and a kindred species grows in the Archipelago. Long pepper is mentioned by Pliny, as well as white and black pepper; the three varieties still known in trade, though with the kind of error that has persisted on such subjects till quite recently, he misapprehends their relation. The proportion of their ancient prices will be found in a quotation below.
The name must have been transferred by foreign traders to black pepper, the staple of export, at an early date, as will be seen from the quotations. Pippalimūla, the root of long pepper, still a stimulant medicine in the native pharmacopoeia, is probably the πεπέρεως ῥίζα of the ancients (Royle, p. 86).
We may say here that Black pepper is the fruit of a perennial climbing shrub, Piper nigrum, L., indigenous in the forests of Malabar and Travancore, and thence introduced into the Malay countries, particularly Sumatra.
White pepper is prepared from the black by removing the dark outer layer of pericarp, thereby depriving it of a part of its pungency. It comes chiefly viâ Singapore from the Dutch settlement of Rhio, but a small {698a}quantity of fine quality comes from Tellicherry in Malabar.
Long pepper is derived from two shrubby plants, Piper officinarum, C.D.C., a native of the Archipelago, and Piper longum, L., indigenous in Malabar, Ceylon, E. Bengal, Timor, and the Philippines. Long pepper is the fruit-spike gathered and dried when not quite ripe (Hanbury and Flückiger, Pharmacographia). All these kinds of pepper were, as has been said, known to the ancients.
c. 70 A.D.—"The cornes or graines ... lie in certaine little huskes or cods.... If that be plucked from the tree before they gape and open of themselves, they make that spice which is called Long pepper; but if as they do ripen, they cleave and chawne by little and little, they shew within the white pepper: which afterwards beeing parched in the Sunne, chaungeth colour and waxeth blacke, and therewith riveled also.... Long pepper is soone sophisticated, with the senvie or mustard seed of Alexandria: and a pound of it is worth fifteen Roman deniers. The white costeth seven deniers a pound, and the black is sold after foure deniers by the pound."—Pliny, tr. by Phil. Holland, Bk. xii. ch. 7.
c. 80-90.—"And there come to these marts great ships, on account of the bulk and quantity of pepper and malabathrum.... The pepper is brought (to market) here, being produced largely only in one district near these marts, that which is called Kottonarikē."—Periplus, § 56.
c. A.D. 100.—"The Pepper-tree (πέπερι δένδρον) is related to grow in India; it is short, and the fruit as it first puts it forth is long, resembling pods; and this long pepper has within it (grains) like small millet, which are what grow to be the perfect (black) pepper. At the proper season it opens and puts forth a cluster bearing the berries such as we know them. But those that are like unripe grapes, which constitute the white pepper, serve the best for eye-remedies, and for antidotes, and for theriacal potencies."—Dioscorides, Mat. Med. ii. 188.
c. 545.—"This is the pepper-tree" (there is a drawing). "Every plant of it is twined round some lofty forest tree, for it is weak and slim like the slender stems of the vine. And every bunch of fruit has a double leaf as a shield; and it is very green, like the green of rue."—Cosmas, Book xi.
c. 870.—"The mariners say every bunch of pepper has over it a leaf that shelters it from the rain. When the rain ceases the leaf turns aside; if rain recommences the leaf again covers the fruit."—Ibn Khurdādba, in Journ. As. 6th ser. tom. v. 284.
1166.—"The trees which bear this fruit are planted in the fields which surround the towns, and every one knows his plantation. The trees are small, and the pepper is originally white, but when they collect it {698b}they put it into basons and pour hot water upon it; it is then exposed to the heat of the sun, and dried ... in the course of which process it becomes of a black colour."—Rabbi Benjamin, in Wright, p. 114.
c. 1330.—"L'albore che fa il pepe è fatto come l'elera che nasce su per gli muri. Questo pepe sale su per gli arbori che l'uomini piantano a modo de l'elera, e sale sopra tutti li arbori più alti. Questo pepe fa rami a modo dell'uve; ... e maturo si lo vendemiano a modo de l'uve e poi pongono il pepe al sole a seccare come uve passe, e nulla altra cosa si fa del pepe."—Odoric, in Cathay, App. xlvii.
PERGUNNAH, s. Hind. pargana [Skt. pragaṇ, 'to reckon up'], a subdivision of a 'District' (see ZILLAH).
c. 1500.—"The divisions into súbas (see SOUBA) and parganas, which are maintained to the present day in the province of Tatta, were made by these people" (the Samma Dynasty).—Tárikh-i-Táhirí, in Elliot, i. 273.
1535.—"Item, from the three praguanas, viz., Anzor, Cairena, Panchenaa 133,260 fedeas."—S. Botelho, Tombo, 139.
[1614.—"I wrote him to stay in the Pregonas near Agra."—Foster, Letters, ii. 106.]
[1617.—"For that Muckshud had also newly answered he had mist his prigany."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. ii. 415.]
1753.—"Masulipatnam ... est capitale de ce qu'on appelle dans l'Inde un Sercar (see SIRCAR), qui comprend plusieurs Perganés, ou districts particuliers."—D'Anville, 132.
1812.—"A certain number of villages with a society thus organised, formed a pergunnah."—Fifth Report, 16.
PERGUNNAHS, THE TWENTY-FOUR, n.p. The official name of the District immediately adjoining and inclosing, though not administratively including, Calcutta. The name is one of a character very ancient in India and the East. It was the original 'Zemindary of Calcutta' granted to the English Company by a 'Subadar's Perwana' in 1757-58. This grant was subsequently confirmed by the Great Mogul as an unconditional and rent-free jagheer (q.v.). The quotation from Sir Richard Phillips' Million of Facts, illustrates the development of 'facts' out of the moral consciousness. The book contains many of equal value. An approximate parallel to this statement would be that London is divided into Seven Dials.
1765.—"The lands of the twenty-four Purgunnahs, ceded to the Company by {699a}the treaty of 1757, which subsequently became Colonel Clive's jagghier, were rated on the King's books at 2 lac and 22,000 rupees."—Holwell, Hist. Events, 2nd ed., p. 217.
1812.—"The number of convicts confined at the six stations of this division (independent of Zillah Twenty-four pergunnahs), is about 4,000. Of them probably nine-tenths are dacoits."—Fifth Report, 559.