1762.—"A coffre who commanded the Telingas and Gardees ... asked the horseman whom the horse belonged to?"—Native Letter, in Van Sittart, i. 141.
1786.—"... originally they (Sipahis) were commanded by Arabians, or those of their descendants born in the Canara and Concan or Western parts of India, where those foreigners style themselves Gharbies or Western. Moreover these corps were composed mostly of Arabs, Negroes, and Habissinians, all of which bear upon that coast the same name of Gharbi.... In time the word Gharbi was corrupted by both the French and Indians into that of Gardi, which is now the general name of Sipahies all over India save Bengal ... where they are stiled Talingas."—Note by Transl. of Seir Mutaqherin, ii. 93.
[1815.—"The women composing them are called Gardunees, a corruption of our word Guard."—Blacker, Mem. of the Operations in India in 1817-19, p. 213 note.]
GARDENS, GARDEN-HOUSE, s. In the 18th century suburban villas at Madras and Calcutta were so called. 'Garden Reach' below Fort William took its name from these.
1682.—"Early in the morning I was met by Mr. Littleton and most of the Factory, near Hugly, and about 9 or 10 o'clock by Mr. Vincent near the Dutch Garden, who came attended by severall Boats and Budgerows guarded by 35 Firelocks, and about 50 Rashpoots and Peons well armed."—Hedges, Diary, July 24; [Hak. Soc. i. 32].
1685.—"The whole Council ... came to attend the President at the garden-house...."—Pringle, Diary, Fort St. Geo. 1st ser. iv. 115; in Wheeler, i. 139.
1747.—"In case of an Attack at the Garden House, if by a superior Force they should be oblig'd to retire, according to the orders and send a Horseman before them to advise of the Approach...."—Report of Council of War at Fort St. David, in India Office MS. Records.
1758.—"The guard of the redoubt retreated before them to the garden-house."—Orme, ii. 303.
" "Mahomed Isoof ... rode with a party of horse as far as Maskelyne's garden."—Ibid. iii. 425.
1772.—"The place of my residence at present is a garden-house of the Nabob, about 4 miles distant from Moorshedabad."—Teignmouth, Mem. i. 34.
1782.—"A body of Hyder's horse were at St. Thomas's Mount on the 29th ult. and Gen. Munro and Mr. Brodie with great difficulty escaped from the General's Gardens. They were pursued by Hyder's horse within a mile of the Black Town."—India Gazette, May 11.
1809.—"The gentlemen of the settlement live entirely in their garden-houses, as they very properly call them."—Ld. Valentia, i. 389.
1810.—"... Rural retreats called Garden-houses."—Williamson, V. M. i. 137.
1873.—"To let, or for sale, Serle's Gardens at Adyar.—For particulars apply," &c.—Madras Mail, July 3.
GARRY, GHARRY, s. H. gāṛī, a cart or carriage. The word is used by Anglo-Indians, at least on the Bengal side, in both senses. Frequently the species is discriminated by a distinctive prefix, as palkee-garry (palankin carriage), sej-garry (chaise), rel-garry (railway carriage), &c. [The modern dawk-garry was in its original form called the "Equirotal Carriage," from the four wheels being of equal dimensions. The design is said to have been suggested by Lord Ellenborough. (See the account and drawing in Grant, Rural Life in Bengal, 3 seq.).]
1810.—"The common g'horry ... is rarely, if ever, kept by any European, but may be seen plying for hire in various parts of Calcutta."—Williamson, V. M. i. 329.
1811.—The Gary is represented in Solvyns's engravings as a two-wheeled rath [see RUT] (i.e. the primitive native carriage, built like a light hackery) with two ponies.
1866.—"My husband was to have met us with a two-horse gharee."—Trevelyan, Dawk Bungalow, 384.
[1892.—"The brūm gārī, brougham; the fitton gārī, phaeton or barouche; the vāgnīt, waggonette, are now built in most large towns.... The vāgnīt seems likely to be the carriage of the future, because of its capacity."—R. Kipling, Beast and Man in India, 193.]
GAUM, GONG, s. A village, H. gāon, from Skt. grāma.
1519.—"In every one of the said villages, which they call guãoos."—Goa Proclam. in Arch. Port. Orient., fasc. 5, 38.
Gāonwār occurs in the same vol. (p. 75), under the forms gancare and guancare, for the village heads in Port. India.
GAURIAN, adj. This is a convenient name which has been adopted of late years as a generic name for the existing Aryan languages of India, i.e. those which are radically sprung from, or cognate to, the Sanskrit. The name (according to Mr. E. L. Brandreth) was given by Prof. Hoernle; but it is in fact an adoption and adaptation of a term used by the Pundits of Northern India. They divide the colloquial languages of (civilised) India into the 5 Gauṛas and 5 Drāviras [see DRAVIDIAN]. The Gauṛas of the Pundits appear to be (1) Bengalee (Bangālī) which is the proper language of Gauḍa, or Northern Bengal, from which the name is taken (see GOUR c.), (2) Oṛiya, the language of Orissa, (3) Hindī, (4) Panjābī, (5) Sindhī; their Drāvira languages are (1) Telinga, (2) Karṇāṭaka (Canarese), (3) Marāṭhī, (4) Gurjara (Gujarātī), (5) Drāvira (Tamil). But of these last (3) and (4) are really to be classed with the Gauṛian group, so that the latter is to be considered as embracing 7 principal languages. Kashmīrī, Singhalese, and the languages or dialects of Assam, of Nepaul, and some others, have also been added to the list of this class.
The extraordinary analogies between the changes in grammar and phonology from Sanskrit in passing into those Gaurian languages, and the changes of Latin in passing into the Romance languages, analogies extending into minute details, have been treated by several scholars; and a very interesting view of the subject is given by Mr. Brandreth in vols. xi. and xii. of the J.R.A.S., N.S.
GAUTAMA, n.p. The surname, according to Buddhist legend, of the Sakya tribe from which the Buddha Sakya Muni sprang. It is a derivative from Gotama, a name of "one of the ancient Vedic bard-families" (Oldenberg). It is one of the most common names for Buddha among the Indo-Chinese nations. The Sommona-codom of many old narratives represents the Pali form of S'ramaṇa Gautama, "The Ascetic Gautama."
1545.—"I will pass by them of the sect of Godomem, who spend their whole life in crying day and night on those mountains, Godomem, Godomem, and desist not from {366b}it until they fall down stark dead to the ground."—F. M. Pinto, in Cogan, p. 222.
c. 1590.—See under Godavery passage from Āīn, where Gotam occurs.
1686.—"J'ai cru devoir expliquer toutes ces choses avant que de parler de Sommono-khodom (c'est ainsi que les Siamois appellent le Dieu qu'ils adorent à present)."—Voy. de Siam, Des Pères Jesuites, Paris, 1686, p. 397.
1687-88.—"Now tho' they say that several have attained to this Felicity (Nireupan, i.e. Nirvana) ... yet they honour only one alone, whom they esteem to have surpassed all the rest in Vertue. They call him Sommona-Codom; and they say that Codom was his Name, and that Sommona signifies in the Balie Tongue a Talapoin of the Woods."—Hist. Rel. of Siam, by De La Loubere, E.T. i. 130.
[1727.—"... inferior Gods, such as Somma Cuddom...."—A. Hamilton, ed. 1744, ii. 54.]
1782.—"Les Pegouins et les Bahmans.... Quant à leurs Dieux, ils en comptent sept principaux.... Cependant ils n'en adorent qu'un seul, qu'ils appellent Godeman...."—Sonnerat, ii. 299.
1800.—"Gotma, or Goutum, according to the Hindoos of India, or Gaudma among the inhabitants of the more eastern parts, is said to have been a philosopher ... he taught in the Indian schools, the heterodox religion and philosophy of Boodh. The image that represents Boodh is called Gautama, or Goutum...."—Symes, Embassy, 299.
1828.—"The titles or synonymes of Buddha, as they were given to me, are as follow: "Kotamo (Gautama) ... Somana-kotamo, agreeably to the interpretation given me, means in the Pali language, the priest Gautama."—Crawfurd, Emb. to Siam, p. 367.
GAVEE, s. Topsail. Nautical jargon from Port. gavea, the top. (Roebuck).
GAVIAL, s. This is a name adopted by zoologists for one of the alligators of the Ganges and other Indian rivers, Gavialis gangeticus, &c. It is the less dangerous of the Gangetic saurians, with long, slender, sub-cylindrical jaws expanding into a protuberance at the muzzle. The name must have originated in some error, probably a clerical one, for the true word is Hind. ghaṛiyāl, and gavial is nothing. The term (gariyālī) is used by Baber (p. 410), where the translator's note says: "The geriali is the round-mouthed crocodile," words which seem to indicate the magar {367a}(see MUGGUR) (Crocodilus biporcatus) not the ghaṛiyāl.
c. 1809.—"In the Brohmoputro as well as in the Ganges there are two kinds of crocodile, which at Goyalpara are both called Kumir; but each has a specific name. The Crocodilus Gangeticus is called Ghoriyal, and the other is called Bongcha."—Buchanan's Rungpoor, in Eastern India, iii. 581-2.
GAZAT, s. This is domestic Hind. for 'dessert.' (Panjab N. & Q. ii. 184).
GECKO, s. A kind of house lizard. The word is not now in Anglo-Indian use; it is a naturalist's word; and also is French. It was no doubt originally an onomatopoeia from the creature's reiterated utterance. Marcel Devic says the word is adopted from Malay gekok [gēkoq]. This we do not find in Crawfurd, who has tăké, tăkék, and goké, all evidently attempts to represent the utterance. In Burma the same, or a kindred lizard, is called tokté, in like imitation.
1631.—Bontius seems to identify this lizard with the Guana (q.v.), and says its bite is so venomous as to be fatal unless the part be immediately cut out, or cauterized. This is no doubt a fable. "Nostratis ipsum animal apposito vocabulo gecco vocant; quippe non secus ac Coccyx apud nos suum cantum iterat, etiam gecko assiduo sonat, prius edito stridore qualem Picus emittit."—Lib. V. cap. 5, p. 57.
1711.—"Chaccos, as Cuckoos receive their Names from the Noise they make.... They are much like lizards, but larger.  It is very malicious ... and wherever the Liquor lights on an Animal Body, it presently cankers the Flesh."—A. Hamilton, ii. 131; [ed. 1744, ii. 136].
This is still a common belief. (See BISCOBRA).
1883.—"This was one of those little house lizards called geckos, which have pellets at the ends of their toes. They are not repulsive brutes like the garden lizard, and I am always on good terms with them. They have full liberty to make use of my house, for which they seem grateful, and say chuck, chuck, chuck."—Tribes on My Frontier, 38.
GENTOO, s. and adj. This word is a corruption of the Portuguese Gentio, 'a gentile' or heathen, which they applied to the Hindus in contradistinction to the Moros or 'Moors,' i.e. Mahommedans. [See MOOR.] Both {367b}terms are now obsolete among English people, except perhaps that Gentoo still lingers at Madras in the sense b; for the terms Gentio and Gentoo were applied in two senses:
a. To the Hindūs generally. b. To the Telugu-speaking Hindūs of the Peninsula specially, and to their language.
The reason why the term became thus specifically applied to the Telugu people is probably because, when the Portuguese arrived, the Telugu monarchy of Vijayanagara, or Bijanagar (see BISNAGAR, NARSINGA) was dominant over great part of the Peninsula. The officials were chiefly of Telugu race, and thus the people of this race, as the most important section of the Hindūs, were par excellence the Gentiles, and their language the Gentile language. Besides these two specific senses, Gentio was sometimes used for heathen in general. Thus in F. M. Pinto: "A very famous Corsair who was called Hinimilau, a Chinese by nation, and who from a Gentio as he was, had a little time since turned Moor...."—Ch. L.
a.—
1548.—"The Religiosos of this territory spend so largely, and give such great alms at the cost of your Highness's administration that it disposes of a good part of the funds.... I believe indeed they do all this in real zeal and sincerity ... but I think it might be reduced a half, and all for the better; for there are some of them who often try to make Christians by force, and worry the Gentoos (jentios) to such a degree that it drives the population away."—Simao Botelho, Cartas, 35.
1563.—"... Among the Gentiles (Gentios) Rão is as much as to say 'King.'"—Garcia, f. 35b.
" "This ambergris is not so highly valued among the Moors, but it is highly prized among the Gentiles."—Ibid. f. 14.
1582.—"A gentile ... whose name was Canaca."—Castañeda, trans. by N. L., f. 31.
1588.—In a letter of this year to the Viceroy, the King (Philip II.) says he "understands the Gentios are much the best persons to whom to farm the alfandegas (customs, &c.), paying well and regularly, and it does not seem contrary to canon-law to farm to them, but on this he will consult the learned."—In Arch. Port. Orient. fasc. 3, 135.
c. 1610.—"Ils (les Portugais) exercent ordinairement de semblables cruautez lors qu'ils sortent en trouppe le long des costes, {368a}bruslans et saccageans ces pauures Gentils qui ne desirent que leur bonne grace, et leur amitié mais ils n'en ont pas plus de pitié pour cela."—Mocquet, 349.
1630.—"... which Gentiles are of two sorts ... first the purer Gentiles ... or else the impure or vncleane Gentiles ... such are the husbandmen or inferior sort of people called the Coulees."—H. Lord, Display, &c., 85.
1673.—"The finest Dames of the Gentues disdained not to carry Water on their Heads."—Fryer, 116.
" "Gentues, the Portuguese idiom for Gentiles, are the Aborigines."—Ibid. 27.
1679.—In Fort St. Geo. Cons. of 29th January, the Black Town of Madras is called "the Gentue Town."—Notes and Exts., No. ii. 3.
1682.—"This morning a Gentoo sent by Bulchund, Governour of Hugly and Cassumbazar, made complaint to me that Mr. Charnock did shamefully—to ye great scandal of our Nation—keep a Gentoo woman of his kindred, which he has had these 19 years."—Hedges, Diary, Dec. 1.; [Hak. Soc. i. 52].
1683.—"The ceremony used by these Gentu's in their sicknesse is very strange; they bring ye sick person ... to ye brinke of ye River Ganges, on a Cott...."—Ibid. May 10; [Hak. Soc. i. 86].
In Stevens's Trans. of Faria y Sousa (1695) the Hindus are still called Gentiles. And it would seem that the English form Gentoo did not come into general use till late in the 17th century.
1767.—"In order to transact Business of any kind in this Countrey you must at least have a Smattering of the Language.... The original Language of this Countrey (or at least the earliest we know of) is the Bengala or Gentoo; this is commonly spoken in all parts of the Countrey. But the politest Language is the Moors or Mussulmans, and Persian."—MS. Letter of James Rennell.
1772.—"It is customary with the Gentoos, as soon as they have acquired a moderate fortune, to dig a pond."—Teignmouth, Mem. i. 36.
1774.—"When I landed (on Island of Bali) the natives, who are Gentoos, came on board in little canoes, with outriggers on each side."—Forrest, V. to N. Guinea, 169.
1776.—"A Code of Gentoo Laws or Ordinations of the Pundits. From a Persian Translation, made from the original written in the Shanskrit Language. London, Printed in the Year 1776."—(Title of Work by Nathaniel Brassey Halhed.)
1778.—"The peculiar patience of the Gentoos in Bengal, their affection to business, and the peculiar cheapness of all productions either of commerce or of necessity, had concurred to render the details of the revenue the most minute, voluminous, and complicated system of accounts which exist in the universe."—Orme, ii. 7 (Reprint).
1781.—"They (Syrian Christians of Travancore) acknowledged a Gentoo Sovereign, but they were governed even in temporal concerns by the bishop of Angamala."—Gibbon, ch. xlvii.
1784.—"Captain Francis Swain Ward, of the Madras Establishment, whose paintings and drawings of Gentoo Architecture, &c., are well known."—In Seton-Karr, i. 31.
1785.—"I found this large concourse (at Chandernagore) of people were gathered to see a Gentoo woman burn herself with her husband."—Ibid. i. 90.
" "The original inhabitants of India are called Gentoos."—Carraccioli's Life of Clive, i. 122.
1803.—"Peregrine. O mine is an accommodating palate, hostess. I have swallowed burgundy with the French, hollands with the Dutch, sherbet with a Turk, sloe-juice with an Englishman, and water with a simple Gentoo."—Colman's John Bull, i. sc. 1.
1807.—"I was not prepared for the entire nakedness of the Gentoo inhabitants."—Lord Minto in India, 17.
b.—
1648.—"The Heathen who inhabit the kingdom of Golconda, and are spread all over India, are called Jentives."—Van Twist, 59.
1673.—"Their Language they call generally Gentu ... the peculiar Name of their Speech is Telinga."—Fryer, 33.
1674.—"50 Pagodas gratuity to John Thomas ordered for good progress in the Gentu tongue, both speaking and writing."—Fort St. Geo. Cons., in Notes and Exts. No. i. 32.
[1681.—"He hath the Gentue language."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. cclxxxiv.]
1683.—"Thursday, 21st June.... The Hon. Company having sent us a Law with reference to the Natives ... it is ordered that the first be translated into Portuguese, Gentoo, Malabar, and Moors, and proclaimed solemnly by beat of drum."—Madras Consultation, in Wheeler, i. 314.
1719.—"Bills of sale wrote in Gentoo on Cajan leaves, which are entered in the Register kept by the Town Conicoply for that purpose."—Ibid. ii. 314.
1726.—"The proper vernacular here (Golconda) is the Gentoos (Jentiefs) or Telingaas."—Valentijn, Chor. 37.
1801.—"The Gentoo translation of the Regulations will answer for the Ceded Districts, for even ... the most Canarine part of them understand Gentoo."—Munro, in Life, i. 321.
1807.—"A Grammar of the Gentoo language, as it is understood and spoken by the Gentoo People, residing north and north-westward of Madras. By a Civil Servant under the Presidency of Fort St. George, many years resident in the Northern Circars. Madras. 1807."
1817.—The third grammar of the Telugu language, published in this year, is called a 'Gentoo Grammar.'
1837.—"I mean to amuse myself with learning Gentoo, and have brought a Moonshee with me. Gentoo is the language of this part of the country [Godavery delta], and one of the prettiest of all the dialects."—Letters from Madras, 189.
a. A landing-place; a path of descent to a river; the place of a ferry, &c. Also a quay or the like.
b. A path of descent from a mountain; a mountain pass; and hence
c., n.p. The mountain ranges parallel to the western and eastern coasts of the Peninsula, through which the ghāts or passes lead from the table-lands above down to the coast and lowlands. It is probable that foreigners hearing these tracts spoken of respectively as the country above and the country below the Ghāts (see BALAGHAUT) were led to regard the word Ghāts as a proper name of the mountain range itself, or (like De Barros below) as a word signifying range. And this is in analogy with many other cases of mountain nomenclature, where the name of a pass has been transferred to a mountain chain, or where the word for 'a pass' has been mistaken for a word for 'mountain range.' The proper sense of the word is well illusstrated from Sir A. Wellesley, under b.
a.—
1809.—"The dandys there took to their paddles, and keeping the beam to the current the whole way, contrived to land us at the destined gaut."—Ld. Valentia, i. 185.
1824.—"It is really a very large place, and rises from the river in an amphitheatral form ... with many very fine ghâts descending to the water's edge."—Heber, i. 167.
b.—
c. 1315.—"In 17 more days they arrived at Gurganw. During these 17 days the Gháts were passed, and great heights and depths were seen amongst the hills, where even the elephants became nearly invisible."—Amīr Khusrū, in Elliot, iii. 86.
This passage illustrates how the transition from b to c occurred. The Ghāts here meant are not a range of mountains so called, but, as the context shows, the passes among the Vindhya and Sātpūra hills. Compare {369b}the two following, in which 'down the ghauts' and 'down the passes' mean exactly the same thing, though to many people the former expression will suggest 'down through a range of mountains called the Ghauts.'
1803.—"The enemy are down the ghauts in great consternation."—Wellington, ii. 333.
" "The enemy have fled northward, and are getting down the passes as fast as they can."—M. Elphinstone, in Life by Colebrooke, i. 71.
1826.—"Though it was still raining, I walked up the Bohr Ghât, four miles and a half, to Candaulah."—Heber, ii. 136, ed. 1844. That is, up one of the Passes, from which Europeans called the mountains themselves "the Ghauts."
The following passage indicates that the great Sir Walter, with his usual sagacity, saw the true sense of the word in its geographical use, though misled by books to attribute to the (so-called) 'Eastern Ghauts' the character that belongs to the Western only.
1827.—"... they approached the Ghauts, those tremendous mountain passes which descend from the table-land of Mysore, and through which the mighty streams that arise in the centre of the Indian Peninsula find their way to the ocean."—The Surgeon's Daughter, ch. xiii.
c.—
1553.—"The most notable division which Nature hath planted in this land is a chain of mountains, which the natives, by a generic appellation, because it has no proper name, call Gate, which is as much as to say Serra."—De Barros, Dec. I. liv. iv. cap. vii.
1561.—"This Serra is called Gate."—Correa, Lendas, ii. 2, 56.
1563.—"The Cuncam, which is the land skirting the sea, up to a lofty range which they call Guate."—Garcia, f. 34b.
1572.—
"Da terra os Naturaes lhe chamam Gate,
Do pe do qual pequena quantidade
Se estende hũa fralda estreita, que combate
Do mar a natural ferocidade...."
Camões, vii. 22.
Englished by Burton:
"The country-people call this range the Ghaut,
and from its foot-hills scanty breadth there be,
whose seaward-sloping coast-plain long hath fought
'gainst Ocean's natural ferocity...."
1623.—"We commenced then to ascend the mountain-(range) which the people of the country call Gat, and which traverses in the middle the whole length of that part {370a}of India which projects into the sea, bathed on the east side by the Gulf of Bengal, and on the west by the Ocean, or Sea of Goa."—P. della Valle, ii. 32; [Hak. Soc. ii. 222].
1673.—"The Mountains here are one continued ridge ... and are all along called Gaot."—Fryer, 187.
1685.—"On les appelle, montagnes de Gatte, c'est comme qui diroit montagnes de montagnes, Gatte en langue du pays ne signifiant autre chose que montagne" (quite wrong).—Ribeyro, Ceylan, (Fr. Transl.), p. 4.
1727.—"The great Rains and Dews that fall from the Mountains of Gatti, which ly 25 or 30 leagues up in the Country."—A. Hamilton, i. 282; [ed. 1744, ii. 285].
1762.—"All the South part of India save the Mountains of Gate (a string of Hills in ye country) is level Land the Mould scarce so deep as in England.... As you make use of every expedient to drain the water from your tilled ground, so the Indians take care to keep it in theirs, and for this reason sow only in the level grounds."—MS. Letter of James Rennell, March 21.
1826.—"The mountains are nearly the same height ... with the average of Welsh mountains.... In one respect, and only one, the Ghâts have the advantage,—their precipices are higher, and the outlines of the hills consequently bolder."—Heber, ed. 1844, ii. 136.
GHEE, s. Boiled butter; the universal medium of cookery throughout India, supplying the place occupied by oil in Southern Europe, and more; [the samn of Arabia, the raughan of Persia]. The word is Hind. ghī, Skt. ghṛita. A short but explicit account of the mode of preparation will be found in the English Cyclopaedia (Arts and Sciences), s.v.; [and in fuller detail in Watt, Econ. Dict. iii. 491 seqq.].
c. 1590.—"Most of them (Akbar's elephants) get 5 s. (ers) of sugar, 4 s. of ghí, and half a man of rice mixed with chillies, cloves, &c."—Āīn-i-Akbarī, i. 130.
1673.—"They will drink milk, and boil'd butter, which they call Ghe."—Fryer, 33.
1783.—"In most of the prisons [of Hyder 'Ali] it was the custom to celebrate particular days, when the funds admitted, with the luxury of plantain fritters, a draught of sherbet, and a convivial song. On one occasion the old Scotch ballad, 'My wife has ta'en the gee,' was admirably sung, and loudly encored.... It was reported to the Kelledar (see KILLADAR) that the prisoners said and sung throughout the night of nothing but ghee.... The Kelledar, certain that discoveries had been made regarding his malversations in that article of garrison store, determined to conciliate their secrecy by causing an abundant supply of this unaccustomed luxury to be thenceforth placed within the reach of their farthing purchases."—Wilks, Hist. Sketches, ii. 154.
1785.—"The revenues of the city of Decca ... amount annually to two kherore (see CRORE), proceeding from the customs and duties levied on ghee."—Carraccioli, L. of Clive, i. 172.
1817.—"The great luxury of the Hindu is butter, prepared in a manner peculiar to himself, and called by him ghee."—Mill, Hist. i. 410.
GHILZAI, n.p. One of the most famous of the tribes of Afghanistan, and probably the strongest, occupying the high plateau north of Kandahar, and extending (roundly speaking) eastward to the Sulimānī mountains, and north to the Kābul River. They were supreme in Afghanistan at the beginning of the 18th century, and for a time possessed the throne of Ispahan. The following paragraph occurs in the article Afghanistan, in the 9th ed. of the Encyc. Britan., 1874 (i. 235), written by one of the authors of this book:—
"It is remarkable that the old Arab geographers of the 10th and 11th centuries place in the Ghilzai country" (i.e. the country now occupied by the Ghilzais, or nearly so) "a people called Khilijis, whom they call a tribe of Turks, to whom belonged a famous family of Delhi Kings. The probability of the identity of the Khilijis and Ghilzais is obvious, and the question touches others regarding the origin of the Afghans; but it does not seem to have been gone into."
Nor has the writer since ever been able to go into it. But whilst he has never regarded the suggestion as more than a probable one, he has seen no reason to reject it. He may add that on starting the idea to Sir Henry Rawlinson (to whom it seemed new), a high authority on such a question, though he would not accept it, he made a candid remark to the effect that the Ghilzais had undoubtedly a very Turk-like aspect. A belief in this identity was, as we have recently noticed, entertained by the traveller Charles Masson, as is shown in a passage quoted below. And it has also been maintained by Surgeon-Major Bellew, in his Races of Afghanistan (1880), [who (p. 100) refers the name to Khilichī, a swordsman. The folk etymology of De Guignes and D'Herbelot is Kall, 'repose,' atz, 'hungry,' given to an officer by Ogouz Khān, who delayed on the road to kill game for his sick wife].
All the accounts of the Ghilzais indicate great differences between them {371a}and the other tribes of Afghanistan; whilst there seems nothing impossible, or even unlikely, in the partial assimilation of a Turki tribe in the course of centuries to the Afghans who surround them, and the consequent assumption of a quasi-Afghan genealogy. We do not find that Mr. Elphinstone makes any explicit reference to the question now before us. But two of the notes to his History (5th ed. p. 322 and 384) seem to indicate that it was in his mind. In the latter of these he says: "The Khiljis ... though Turks by descent ... had been so long settled among the Afghans that they had almost become identified with that people; but they probably mixed more with other nations, or at least with their Turki brethren, and would be more civilized than the generality of Afghan mountaineers." The learned and eminently judicious William Erskine was also inclined to accept the identity of the two tribes, doubting (but perhaps needlessly) whether the Khiliji had been really of Turki race. We have not been able to meet with any translated author who mentions both Khiliji and Ghilzai. In the following quotations all the earlier refer to Khiliji, and the later to Ghilzai. Attention may be called to the expressions in the quotation from Zīauddīn Barnī, as indicating some great difference between the Turk proper and the Khiliji even then. The language of Baber, again, so far as it goes, seems to indicate that by his time the Ghilzais were regarded as an Afghan clan.
c. 940.—"Hajjāj had delegated 'Abdar-rahmān ibn Mahommed ibn al-Ash'ath to Sijistān, Bost and Rukhāj (Arachosia) to make war on the Turk tribes diffused in those regions, and who are known as Ghūz and Khulj...."—Maṣ'ūdī, v. 302.
c. 950.—"The Khalaj is a Turkī tribe, which in ancient times migrated into the country that lies between India and the parts of Sijistān beyond the Ghūr. They are a pastoral people and resemble the Turks in their natural characteristics, their dress and their language."—Istakhri, from De Goeje's text, p. 245.
c. 1030.—"The Afgháns and Khiljís having submitted to him (Sabaktigín), he admitted thousands of them ... into the ranks of his armies."—Al-'Utbi, in Elliot, ii. 24.
c. 1150.—"The Khilkhs (read Khilij) are people of Turk race, who, from an early date invaded this country (Dāwar, on the {371b}banks of the Helmand), and whose dwellings are spread abroad to the north of India and on the borders of Ghaur and of Western Sijistān. They possess cattle, wealth, and the various products of husbandry; they all have the aspect of Turks, whether as regards features, dress, and customs, or as regards their arms and manner of making war. They are pacific people, doing and thinking no evil."—Edrisi, i. 457.
1289.—"At the same time Jalálu-d dín (Khilji), who was 'Ariz-i-mamálik (Muster-master-general), had gone to Bahárpúr, attended by a body of his relations and friends. Here he held a muster and inspection of the forces. He came of a race different from that of the Turks, so he had no confidence in them, nor would the Turks own him as belonging to the number of their friends.... The people high and low ... were all troubled by the ambition of the Khiljis, and were strongly opposed to Jalálu-d dín's obtaining the crown.... Sultán Jalálu-d dín Fíroz Khilji ascended the throne in the ... year 688 A.H.... The people of the city (of Delhi) had for 80 years been governed by sovereigns of Turk extraction, and were averse to the succession of the Khiljis ... they were struck with admiration and amazement at seeing the Khiljis occupying the throne of the Turks, and wondered how the throne had passed from the one to the other."—Ziáu-d-dín Barní, in Elliot, iii. 134-136.
14th cent.—The continuator of Rashíduddín enumerates among the tribes occupying the country which we now call Afghanistan, Ghūris, Herawis, Nigudaris, Sejzis, Khilij, Balūch and Afghāns. See Notices et Extraits, xiv. 494.
c. 1507.—"I set out from Kábul for the purpose of plundering and beating up the quarters of the Ghiljis ... a good farsang from the Ghilji camp, we observed a blackness, which was either owing to the Ghiljis being in motion, or to smoke. The young and inexperienced men of the army all set forward full speed; I followed them for two kos, shooting arrows at their horses, and at length checked their speed. When five or six thousand men set out on a pillaging party, it is extremely difficult to maintain discipline.... A minaret of skulls was erected of the heads of these Afghans."—Baber, pp. 220-221; see also p. 225.
[1753.—"The Cligis knowing that his troops must pass thro' their mountains, waited for them in the defiles, and successively defeated several bodies of Mahommed's army."—Hanway, Hist. Acc. iii. 24.]
1842.—"The Ghilji tribes occupy the principal portion of the country between Kándahár and Ghazní. They are, moreover, the most numerous of the Afghân tribes, and if united under a capable chief might ... become the most powerful.... They are brave and warlike, but have a sternness of disposition amounting to ferocity.... Some of the inferior Ghiljís are so violent in their intercourse with strangers that they can scarcely be considered in the {372a}light of human beings, while no language can describe the terrors of a transit through their country, or the indignities which have to be endured.... The Ghiljis, although considered, and calling themselves, Afghâns, and moreover employing the Pashto, or Afghân dialect, are undoubtedly a mixed race.
"The name is evidently a modification or corruption of Khaljí or Khilají, that of a great Turkí tribe mentioned by Sherífudín in his history of Taimúr...."—Ch. Masson, Narr. of various Journeys, &c., ii. 204, 206, 207.
1854.—"The Ghúri was succeeded by the Khilji dynasty; also said to be of Turki extraction, but which seems rather to have been of Afghán race; and it may be doubted if they are not of the Ghiljí Afgháns."—Erskine, Báber and Humáyun, i. 404.
1880.—"As a race the Ghilji mix little with their neighbours, and indeed differ in many respects, both as to internal government and domestic customs, from the other races of Afghanistan ... the great majority of the tribe are pastoral in their habits of life, and migrate with the seasons from the lowlands to the highlands with their families and flocks, and easily portable black hair tents. They never settle in the cities, nor do they engage in the ordinary handicraft trades, but they manufacture carpets, felts, &c., for domestic use, from the wool and hair of their cattle.... Physically they are a remarkably fine race ... but they are a very barbarous people, the pastoral class especially, and in their wars excessively savage and vindictive.
"Several of the Ghilji or Ghilzai-clans are almost wholly engaged in the carrying trade between India and Afghanistan, and the Northern States of Central Asia, and have been so for many centuries."—Races of Afghanistan, by Bellew, p. 103.
GHOUL, s. Ar. ghūl, P. ghōl. A goblin, ἔμπουσα, or man-devouring demon, especially haunting wildernesses.
c. 70.—"In the deserts of Affricke yee shall meet oftentimes with fairies,[137] appearing in the shape of men and women; but they vanish soone away, like fantasticall illusions."—Pliny, by Ph. Holland, vii. 2.
c. 940.—"The Arabs relate many strange stories about the Ghūl and their transformations.... The Arabs allege that the two feet of the Ghūl are ass's feet.... These Ghūl appeared to travellers in the night, and at hours when one meets with no one on the road; the traveller taking them for some of their companions followed them, but the Ghūl led them astray, and caused them to lose their way."—Maṣ'ūdī, iii. 314 seqq. (There is much more after the copious and higgledy-piggledy Plinian fashion of this writer.)
c. 1420.—"In exitu deserti ... rem mirandam dicit contigisse. Nam cum circiter mediam noctem quiescentes magno murmure strepituque audito suspicarentur omnes, Arabes praedones ad se spoliandos venire ... viderunt plurimas equitum turmas transeuntium.... Plures qui id antea viderant, daemones (ghūls, no doubt) esse per desertum vagantes asseruere."—Nic. Conti, in Poggio, iv.
1814.—"The Afghauns believe each of the numerous solitudes in the mountains and desarts of their country to be inhabited by a lonely daemon, whom they call Ghoolee Beeabaun (the Goule or Spirit of the Waste); they represent him as a gigantic and frightful spectre, who devours any passenger whom chance may bring within his haunts."—Elphinstone's Caubul, ed. 1839, i. 291.
[GHURRA, s. Hind. ghaṛa, Skt. ghaṭa. A water-pot made of clay, of a spheroidal shape, known in S. India as the chatty.
[1827.—"... the Rajah sent ... 60 Gurrahs (earthen vessels holding a gallon) of sugar-candy and sweetmeats."—Mundy, Pen and Pencil Sketches, 66.]
GHURRY, GURREE, s. Hind. ghaṛī. A clepsydra or water-instrument for measuring time, consisting of a floating cup with a small hole in it, adjusted so that it fills and sinks in a fixed time; also the gong by which the time so indicated is struck. This latter is properly ghaṛiyāl. Hence also a clock or watch; also the 60th part of a day and night, equal therefore to 24 minutes, was in old Hindu custom the space of time indicated by the clepsydra just mentioned, and was called a ghaṛī. But in Anglo-Indian usage, the word is employed for 'an hour,' [or some indefinite period of time]. The water-instrument is sometimes called Pun-Ghurry (panghaṛī quasi pānī-ghaṛī); also the Sun-dial, Dhoop-Ghurry (dhūp, 'sunshine'); the hour-glass, Ret-Ghurry (ret, retā, 'sand').
(Ancient).—"The magistrate, having employed the first four Ghurries of the day in bathing and praying, ... shall sit upon the Judgment Seat."—Code of the Gentoo Laws (Halhed, 1776), 104.
[1526.—"Gheri." See under PUHUR.
[c. 1590.—An elaborate account of this method of measuring time will be found in Āīn, ed. Jarrett, iii. 15 seq.
[1616.—"About a guary after, the rest of my company arrived with the money."—Foster, Letters, iv. 343.]
1633.—"First they take a great Pot of Water ... and putting therein a little Pot (this lesser pot having a small hole in the bottome of it), the water issuing into it having filled it, then they strike on a great plate of brasse, or very fine metal, which stroak maketh a very great sound; this stroak or parcell of time they call a Goome, the small Pot being full they call a Gree, 8 grees make a Par, which Par (see PUHUR) is three hours by our accompt."—W. Bruton, in Hakl. v. 51.
1709.—"Or un gari est une de leurs heures, mais qui est bien petite en comparaison des nôtres; car elle n'est que de vingt-neuf minutes et environ quarante-trois secondes."(?)—Lettres Edif. xi. 233.
1785.—"We have fixed the Coss at 6,000 Guz, which distance must be travelled by the postmen in a Ghurry and a half.... If the letters are not delivered according to this rate ... you must flog the Hurkârehs belonging to you."—Tippoo's Letters, 215.
[1869.—Wallace describes an instrument of this kind in use on board a native vessel. "I tested it with my watch and found that it hardly varied a minute from one hour to another, nor did the motion of the vessel have any effect upon it, as the water in the bucket of course kept level."—Wallace, Malay Archip., ed. 1890, p. 314.]
GINDY, s. The original of this word belongs to the Dravidian tongues; Malayāl. kiṇḍi; Tel. giṇḍi; Tam. kiṇṇi, from v. kiṇu, 'to be hollow'; and the original meaning is a basin or pot, as opposed to a flat dish. In Malabar the word is applied to a vessel resembling a coffee-pot without a handle, used to drink from. But in the Bombay dialect of H., and in Anglo-Indian usage, giṇḍi means a wash-hand basin of tinned copper, such as is in common use there (see under CHILLUMCHEE).
1561.—"... guindis of gold...."—Correa, Lendas, II. i. 218.
1582.—"After this the Capitaine Generall commanded to discharge theyr Shippes, which were taken, in the whiche was bound store of rich Merchaundize, and amongst the same these peeces following:
"Foure great Guyndes of silver...."—Castañeda, by N. L., f. 106.
1813.—"At the English tables two servants attend after dinner, with a gindey and ewer, of silver or white copper."—Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 397; [2nd ed. ii. 30; also i. 333].
1851.—"... a tinned bason, called a gendee...."—Burton, Scinde, or the Unhappy Valley, i. 6.
GINGALL, JINJALL, s. H. janjāl, 'a swivel or wall-piece'; a word of uncertain origin. [It is a corruption {373b}of the Ar. jazā'il (see JUZAIL).] It is in use with Europeans in China also.
1818.—"There is but one gun in the fort, but there is much and good sniping from matchlocks and gingals, and four Europeans have been wounded."—Elphinstone, Life, ii. 31.
1829.—"The moment the picket heard them, they fired their long ginjalls, which kill a mile off."—Shipp's Mem. iii. 40.
[1900.—"Gingals, or Jingals, are long tapering guns, six to fourteen feet in length, borne on the shoulders of two men and fired by a third. They have a stand, or tripod, reminding one of a telescope...."—Ball, Things Chinese, 38.]
GINGELI, GINGELLY, &c. s. The common trade name for the seed and oil of Sesamum indicum, v. orientale. There is a H. [not in Platts' Dict.] and Mahr. form jinjalī, but most probably this also is a trade name introduced by the Portuguese. The word appears to be Arabic al-juljulān, which was pronounced in Spain al-jonjolīn (Dozy and Engelmann, 146-7), whence Spanish aljonjoli, Italian giuggiolino, zerzelino, &c., Port. girgelim, zirzelim, &c., Fr. jugeoline, &c., in the Philippine Islands ajonjoli. The proper H. name is til. It is the σήσαμον of Dioscorides (ii. 121), and of Theophrastus (Hist. Plant. i. 11). [See Watt, Econ. Dict. VI. ii. 510 seqq.]
1510.—"Much grain grows here (at Zeila) ... oil in great quantity, made not from olives, but from zerzalino."—Varthema, 86.
1552.—"There is a great amount of gergelim."—Castanheda, 24.
[1554.—"... oil of Jergelim and quoquo (Coco)."—Botelho, Tombo, 54.]
1599.—"... Oyle of Zezeline, which they make of a Seed, and it is very good to eate, or to fry fish withal."—C. Fredericke, ii. 358.
1606.—"They performed certain anointings of the whole body, when they baptized, with oil of coco-nut, or of gergelim."—Gouvea, f. 39.
c. 1610.—"I'achetay de ce poisson frit en l'huile de gerselin (petite semence comme nauete dont ils font huile) qui est de tres-mauvais goust."—Mocquet, 232.
[1638.—Mr. Whiteway notes that "in a letter of Amra Rodriguez to the King, of Nov. 30 (India Office MSS. Book of the Monssons, vol. iv.), he says: 'From Masulipatam to the furthest point of the Bay of Bengal runs the coast which we call that of Gergilim.' They got Gingeli thence, I suppose."]
c. 1661.—"La gente più bassa adopra un'altro olio di certo seme detto Telselin, che è una spezie del di setamo, ed è alquanto amarognolo."—Viag. del P. Gio. Grueber, in Thevenot, Voyages Divers.
1673.—"Dragmes de Soussamo ou graine de Georgeline."—App. to Journal d'Ant. Galland, ii. 206.
1675.—"Also much Oil of Sesamos or Jujoline is there expressed, and exported thence."—T. Heiden, Vervaerlyke Schipbreuk, 81.
1726.—"From Orixa are imported hither (Pulecat), with much profit, Paddy, also ... Gingeli-seed Oil...."—Valentijn, Chor. 14.
" "An evil people, gold, a drum, a wild horse, an ill conditioned woman, sugar-cane, Gergelim, a Bellale (or cultivator) without foresight—all these must be wrought sorely to make them of any good."—Native Apophthegms translated in Valentijn, v. (Ceylon) 390.
1727.—"The Men are bedaubed all over with red Earth, or Vermilion, and are continually squirting gingerly Oyl at one another."—A. Hamilton, i. 128; [ed. 1744, i. 130].
1807.—"The oil chiefly used here, both for food and unguent, is that of Sesamum, by the English called Gingeli, or sweet oil."—F. Buchanan, Mysore, &c. i. 8.
1874.—"We know not the origin of the word Gingeli, which Roxburgh remarks was (as it is now) in common use among Europeans."—Hanbury & Flückiger, 426.
1875.—"Oils, Jinjili or Til...."—Table of Customs Duties, imposed on Imports into B. India, up to 1875.
1876.—"There is good reason for believing that a considerable portion of the olive oil of commerce is but the Jinjili, or the ground-nut, oil of India, for besides large exports, of both oils to Europe, several thousand tons of the sesamum seed, and ground-nuts in smaller quantities, are exported annually from the south of India to France, where their oil is expressed, and finds its way into the market, as olive oil."—Suppl. Report on Supply of Drugs to India, by Dr. Paul, India Office, March, 1876.
GINGER, s. The root of Zingiber officinale, Roxb. We get this word from the Arabic zānjabīl, Sp. agengibre (al-zānjabīl), Port. gingibre, Latin zingiber, Ital. zenzero, gengiovo, and many other old forms.
The Skt. name is sṛiñgavera, professedly connected with sṛiñga, 'a horn,' from the antler-like form of the root. But this is probably an introduced word shaped by this imaginary etymology. Though ginger is cultivated all over India, from the Himālaya to the extreme south,[138] the best is grown in Malabar, and in the language {374b}of that province (Malayālam) green ginger is called inchi and inchi-ver, from inchi, 'root.' Inchi was probably in an earlier form of the language siñchi or chiñchi, as we find it in Canarese still sūnti, which is perhaps the true origin of the H. sonth for 'dry ginger,' [more usually connected with Skt. suṇṭhi, suṇṭh, 'to dry'].
It would appear that the Arabs, misled by the form of the name, attributed zānjabīl or zinjabīl, or ginger, to the coast of Zinj or Zanzibar; for it would seem to be ginger which some Arabic writers speak of as 'the plant of Zinj.' Thus a poet quoted by Kazwīnī enumerates among the products of India the shajr al-Zānij or Arbor Zingitana, along with shisham-wood, pepper, steel, &c. (see Gildemeister, 218). And Abulfeda says also: "At Melinda is found the plant of Zinj" (Geog. by Reinaud, i. 257). In Marino Sanudo's map of the world also (c. 1320) we find a rubric connecting Zinziber with Zinj. We do not indeed find ginger spoken of as a product of eastern continental Africa, though Barbosa says a large quantity was produced in Madagascar, and Varthema says the like of the Comoro Islands.
c. A.D. 65.—"Ginger (Ζιγγίβερις) is a special kind of plant produced for the most part in Troglodytic Arabia, where they use the green plant in many ways, as we do rue (πήγανον), boiling it and mixing it with drinks and stews. The roots are small, like those of cyperus, whitish, and peppery to the taste and smell...."—Dioscorides, ii. cap. 189.
c. A.D. 70.—"This pepper of all kinds is most biting and sharpe.... The blacke is more kindly and pleasant.... Many have taken Ginger (which some call Zimbiperi and others Zingiberi) for the root of that tree; but it is not so, although in tast it somewhat resembleth pepper.... A pound of Ginger is commonly sold at Rome for 6 deniers...."—Pliny, by Ph. Holland, xii. 7.
c. 620-30.—"And therein shall they be given to drink a cup of wine, mixed with the water of Zenjebil...."—The Koran, ch. lxxvi. (by Sale).
c. 940.—"Andalusia possesses considerable silver and quicksilver mines.... They export from it also saffron, and roots of ginger (? 'arūḳ al-zanjabīl)."—Maṣ'ūdi, i. 367.
1298.—"Good ginger (gengibre) also grows here (at Coilum—see QUILON), and it is known by the same name of Coilumin, after the country."—Marco Polo, Bk. III. ch. 22.
c. 1343.—"Giengiovo si è di piu maniere, cioe belledi (see COUNTRY), e colombino, e micchino, e detti nomi portano per le contrade, onde sono nati ispezialmente il colombino e il micchino, che primieramente il belledi nasce in molte contrade dell'India, e il colombino nasce nel Isola del Colombo d'India, ed ha la scorza sua piana, e delicata, e cenerognola; e il micchino viene dalle contrade del Mecca ... e ragiona che il buono giengiovo dura buono 10 anni," &c.—Pegolotti, in Della Decima, iii. 361.
c. 1420.—"His in regionibus (Malabar) gingiber oritur, quod belledi (see COUNTRY), gebeli et neli[139] vulgo appellatur. Radices sunt arborum duorum cubitorum altitudine, foliis magnis instar enulae (elecampane), duro cortice, veluti arundinum radices, quae fructum tegunt; ex eis extrahitur gingiber, quod immistum cineri, ad solemque expositum, triduo exsiccatur."—N. Conti, in Poggio.
1580.—In a list of drugs sold at Ormuz we find
Zenzeri da buli (presumably from Dabul.)
Zen"eri mordaci
Zen"eri Mecchini
Zen"eri beledi
Zenzero condito in giaga (preserved in Jaggery?)
—Gasparo Balbi, f. 54.
GINGERLY, s. A coin mentioned as passing in Arabian ports by Milburn (i. 87, 91). Its country and proper name are doubtful. [The following quotations show that Gingerlee or Gergelin was a name for part of the E. coast of India, and Mr. Whiteway (see GINGELI) conjectures that it was so called because the oil was produced there.] But this throws no light on the gold coin of Milburn.
1680-81.—"The form of the pass given to ships and vessels, and Register of Passes given (18 in all), bound to Jafnapatam, Manilla, Mocha, Gingerlee, Tenasserim, &c."—Fort St. Geo. Cons. Notes and Exts., App. No. iii. p. 47.
1701.—The Carte Marine depuis Suratte jusqu'au Detroit de Malaca, par le R. Père P. P. Tachard, shows the coast tract between Vesegapatam and Iagrenate as Gergelin.
1753.—"Some authors give the Coast between the points of Devi and Gaudewari, the name of the Coast of Gergelin. The Portuguese give the name of Gergelim to the plant which the Indians call Ellu, from which they extract a kind of oil."—D'Anville, 134.
[Mr. Pringle (Diary Fort St. Geo. 1st ser. iii. 170) identifies the Gingerly Factory with Vizagapatam. See also i. 109; ii. 99.]
GINGHAM, s. A kind of stuff, defined in the Draper's Dictionary as made from cotton yarn dyed before being woven. The Indian ginghams were apparently sometimes of cotton mixt with some other material. The origin of this word is obscure, and has been the subject of many suggestions. Though it has long passed into the English language, it is on the whole most probable that, like chintz and calico, the term was one originating in the Indian trade.
We find it hardly possible to accept the derivation, given by Littré, from "Guingamp, ville de Bretagne, où il y a des fabriques de tissus." This is also alleged, indeed, in the Encycl. Britannica, 8th ed., which states, under the name of Guingamp, that there are in that town manufactures of ginghams, to which the town gives its name. [So also in 9th ed.] We may observe that the productions of Guingamp, and of the Côtes-du-Nord generally, are of linen, a manufacture dating from the 15th century. If it could be shown that gingham was either originally applied to linen fabrics, or that the word occurs before the Indian trade began, we should be more willing to admit the French etymology as possible.
The Penny Cyclopaedia suggests a derivation from guingois, 'awry.' "The variegated, striped, and crossed patterns may have suggested the name."
'Civilis,' a correspondent of Notes and Queries (5 ser. ii. 366, iii. 30) assigns the word to an Indian term, ginghām, a stuff which he alleges to be in universal use by Hindu women, and a name which he constantly found, when in judicial employment in Upper India, to be used in inventories of stolen property and the like. He mentions also that in Sir G. Wilkinson's Egypt, the word is assigned to an Egyptian origin. The alleged Hind. word is unknown to us and to the dictionaries; if used as 'Civilis' believes, it was almost certainly borrowed from the English term.
It is likely enough that the word came from the Archipelago. Jansz's Javanese Dict. gives "ginggang, a sort of striped or chequered East Indian lijnwand," the last word being applied to cotton as well as linen stuffs, equivalent to French toile. The verb ginggang in Javanese is given as meaning {376a}'to separate, to go away,' but this seems to throw no light on the matter; nor can we connect the name with that of a place on the northern coast of Sumatra, a little E. of Acheen, which we have seen written Gingham (see Bennett's Wanderings, ii. 5, 6; also Elmore, Directory to India and China Seas, 1802, pp. 63-64). This place appears prominently as Gingion in a chart by W. Herbert, 1752. Finally, Bluteau gives the following:—"Guingam. So in some parts of the kingdom (Portugal) they call the excrement of the Silkworm, Bombicis excrementum. Guingão. A certain stuff which is made in the territories of the Mogul. Beirames, guingoens, Canequis, &c. (Godinho, Viagam da India, 44)." Wilson gives kinḍan as the Tamil equivalent of gingham, and perhaps intends to suggest that it is the original of this word. The Tamil Dict. gives "kinḍan, a kind of coarse cotton cloth, striped or chequered." [The Madras Gloss. gives Can. ginta, Tel. gintena, Tam. kinḍan, with the meaning of "double-thread texture." The N.E.D., following Scott, Malayan Words in English, 142 seq., accepts the Javanese derivation as given above: "Malay ginggang ... a striped or checkered cotton fabric known to Europeans in the East as 'gingham.' As an adjective, the word means, both in Malay and Javanese, where it seems to be original, 'striped.' The full expression is kāin ginggang, 'striped cloth' (Grashuis). The Tamil 'kinḍan, a kind of coarse cotton cloth, striped or chequered' (quoted in Yule), cannot be the source of the European forms, nor, I think, of the Malayan forms. It must be an independent word, or a perversion of the Malayan term." On the other hand, Prof. Skeat rejects the Eastern derivation on the ground that "no one explains the spelling. The right explanation is simply that gingham is an old English spelling of Guingamp. See the account of the 'towne of Gyngham' in the Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, iii. 357." (8th ser. Notes and Queries, iv. 386.)]
c. 1567.—Cesare Federici says there were at Tana many weavers who made "ormesini e gingani di lana e di bombaso"—ginghams of wool and cotton.—Ramusio, iii. 387v.
1602.—"With these toils they got to Arakan, and took possession of two islets which stood at the entrance, where they {376b}immediately found on the beach two sacks of mouldy biscuit, and a box with some ginghams (guingões) in it."—De Couto, Dec. IV. liv. iv. cap. 10.
1615.—"Captain Cock is of opinion that the ginghams, both white and browne, which yow sent will prove a good commodity in the Kinge of Shashmahis cuntry, who is a Kinge of certaine of the most westermost ilandes of Japon ... and hath conquered the ilandes called The Leques."—Letter appd. to Cocks's Diary, ii. 272.
1648.—"The principal names (of the stuffs) are these: Gamiguins, Baftas, Chelas (see PIECE-GOODS), Assamanis (asmānīs? sky-blues), Madafoene, Beronis (see BEIRAMEE), Tricandias, Chittes (see CHINTZ), Langans (see LUNGOOTY?), Toffochillen (Tafṣīla, a gold stuff from Mecca; see ADATI, ALLEJA), Dotias (see DHOTY)."—Van Twist, 63.
1726.—In a list of cloths at Pulicat:
"Gekeperde Ginggangs (Twilled ginghams)
Ditto Chialones (shaloons?)"—Valentijn, Chor. 14.
Also
"Bore (?) Gingganes driedraad."—v. 128.
1770.—"Une centaine de balles de mouchoirs, de pagnes, et de guingans, d'un très beau rouge, que les Malabares fabriquent à Gaffanapatam, où ils sont établis depuis très longtemps."—Raynal, Hist. Philos., ii. 15, quoted by Littré.
1781.—"The trade of Fort St. David's consists in longcloths of different colours, sallamporees, morees, dimities, Ginghams, and succatoons."—Carraccioli's L. of Clive, i. 5. [Mr. Whiteway points out that this is taken word for word from Hamilton, New Account (i. 355), who wrote 40 years before.]
" "Sadras est renommé par ses guingans, ses toiles peintes; et Paliacate par ses mouchoirs."—Sonnerat, i. 41.
1793.—"Even the gingham waistcoats, which striped or plain have so long stood their ground, must, I hear, ultimately give way to the stronger kerseymere (q.v.)."—Hugh Boyd, Indian Observer, 77.
1796.—"Guingani are cotton stuffs of Bengal and the Coromandel coast, in which the cotton is interwoven with thread made from certain barks of trees."—Fra Paolino, Viaggio, p. 35.
GINGI, JINJEE, &c., n.p. Properly Chenji, [Shenji; and this from Tam. shingi, Skt. sṛingi, 'a hill']. A once celebrated hill-fortress in S. Arcot, 50 [44] m. N.E. of Cuddalore, 35 m. N.W. from Pondicherry, and at one time the seat of a Mahratta principality. It played an important part in the wars of the first three-quarters of the 18th century, and was held by the French from 1750 to 1761. The place is now entirely deserted.
c. 1616.—"And then they were to publish a proclamation in Negapatam, that no one was to trade at Tevenapatam, at Porto Novo, or at any other port of the Naik of Ginja, or of the King of Massulapatam, because these were declared enemies of the state, and all possible war should be made on them for having received among them the Hollanders...."—Bocarro, p. 619.
1675.—"Approve the treaty with the Cawn [see KHAN] of Chengie."—Letter from Court to Fort St. Geo. In Notes and Exts., No. i. 5.
1680.—"Advice received ... that Santogee, a younger brother of Sevagee's, had seized upon Rougnaut Pundit, the Soobidar of Chengy Country, and put him in irons."—Ibid. No. iii. 44.
1752.—"It consists of two towns, called the Great and Little Gingee.... They are both surrounded by one wall, 3 miles in circumference, which incloses the two towns, and five mountains of ragged rock, on the summits of which are built 5 strong forts.... The place is inaccessible, except from the east and south-east.... The place was well supplied with all manner of stores, and garrisoned by 150 Europeans, and sepoys and black people in great numbers...."—Cambridge, Account of the War, &c., 32-33.
GINSENG, s. A medical root which has an extraordinary reputation in China as a restorative, and sells there at prices ranging from 6 to 400 dollars an ounce. The plant is Aralia Ginseng, Benth. (N.O. Araliaceae). The second word represents the Chinese name Jên-Shên. In the literary style the drug is called simply Shên. And possibly Jên, or 'Man,' has been prefixed on account of the forked radish, man-like aspect of the root. European practitioners do not recognise its alleged virtues. That which is most valued comes from Corea, but it grows also in Mongolia and Manchuria. A kind much less esteemed, the root of Panax quinquefolium, L., is imported into China from America. A very closely-allied plant occurs in the Himālaya, A. Pseudo-Ginseng, Benth. Ginseng is first mentioned by Alv. Semedo (Madrid, 1642). [See Ball, Things Chinese, 268 seq., where Dr. P. Smith seems to believe that it has some medicinal value.]
GIRAFFE, s. English, not Anglo-Indian. Fr. girafe, It. giraffa, Sp. and Port. girafa, old Sp. azorafa, and these from Ar. al-zarāfa, a cameleopard. The Pers. surnāpa, zurnāpa, seems to be a form curiously divergent of the same {377b}word, perhaps nearer the original. The older Italians sometimes make giraffa into seraph. It is not impossible that the latter word, in its biblical use, may be radically connected with giraffe.
The oldest mention of the animal is in the Septuagint version of Deut. xiv. 5, where the word zămăr, rendered in the English Bible 'chamois,' is translated καμηλοπαρδάλις; and so also in the Vulgate camelopardalus, [probably the 'wild goat' of the Targums, not the giraffe (Encycl. Bibl. i. 722)]. We quote some other ancient notices of the animal, before the introduction of the word before us:
c. B.C. 20.—"The animals called camelopards (καμηλοπαρδάλεις) present a mixture of both the animals comprehended in this appellation. In size they are smaller than camels, and shorter in the neck; but in the distinctive form of the head and eyes. In the curvature of the back again they have some resemblance to a camel, but in colour and hair, and in the length of tail, they are like panthers."—Diodorus, ii. 51.
c. A.D. 20.—"Camelleopards (καμηλοπαρδάλεις) are bred in these parts, but they do not in any respect resemble leopards, for their variegated skin is more like the streaked and spotted skin of fallow deer. The hinder quarters are so very much lower than the fore quarters, that it seems as if the animal sat upon its rump.... It is not, however, a wild animal, but rather like a domesticated beast; for it shows no sign of a savage disposition."—Strabo, Bk. XVI. iv. § 18, E.T. by Hamilton and Falconer.
c. A.D. 210.—Athenaeus, in the description which he quotes of the wonderful procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus at Alexandria, besides many other strange creatures, details 130 Ethiopic sheep, 20 of Eubœa, 12 white koloi, 26 Indian oxen, 8 Aethiopic, a huge white bear, 14 pardales and 16 panthers, 4 lynxes, 3 arkēloi, one camēlopardalis, 1 Ethiopic Rhinoceros.—Bk. V. cap. xxxii.
c. A.D. 520.—
"Ἔννεπέ μοι κἀκεῖνα, πολύθρος Μοῦσα λιγεῖα,
μικτὰ φύσιν θηρῶν, διχόθεν κεκερασμένα, φῦλα,
πάρδαλιν αἰολόνωτον ὁμοῦ ξυνήν τε κάμηλον.
* * * * * * * *
Δειρή οἱ ταναὴ, στικτὸν δέμας, οὖατα βαιὰ,
ψιλὸν ὕπερθε κάρη, δολιχοὶ πόδες εὐρέα ταρσὰ,
κώλων δ' οὐκ ἴσα μέτρα, πόδες τ' οὐ πάμπαν ὁμοῖοι,
ἀλλ' οἱ πρόσθεν ἔασιν ἀρείονες, ὑστάτιοι δὲ
πολλὸν ὀλιζότεροι."—κ. τ. λ.
Oppiani Cynegetica, iii. 461 seqq.
c. 380.—"These also presented gifts, among which besides other things a certain {378a}species of animal, of nature both extraordinary and wonderful. In size it was equal to a camel, but the surface of its skin marked with flower-like spots. Its hinder parts and the flanks were low, and like those of a lion, but the shoulders and forelegs and chest were much higher in proportion than the other limbs. The neck was slender, and in regard to the bulk of the rest of the body was like a swan's throat in its elongation. The head was in form like that of a camel, but in size more than twice that of a Libyan ostrich.... Its legs were not moved alternately, but by pairs, those on the right side being moved together, and those on the left together, first one side and then the other.... When this creature appeared the whole multitude was struck with astonishment, and its form suggesting a name, it got from the populace, from the most prominent features of its body, the improvised name of camelopardalis."—Heliodorus, Aethiopica, x. 27.
c. 940.—"The most common animal in those countries is the giraffe (Zarāfa) ... some consider its origin to be a variety of the camel; others say it is owing to a union of the camel with the panther: others in short that it is a particular and distinct species, like the horse, the ass, or the ox, and not the result of any cross-breed.... In Persian the giraffe is called Ushturgāo ('camel-cow'). It used to be sent as a present from Nubia to the kings of Persia, as in later days it was sent to the Arab princes, to the first khālifs of the house of 'Abbās, and to the Wālis of Misr.... The origin of the giraffe has given rise to numerous discussions. It has been noticed that the panther of Nubia attains a great size, whilst the camel of that country is of low stature, with short legs," &c., &c.—Maṣ'ūdī, iii. 3-5.
c. 1253.—"Entre les autres joiaus que il (le Vieil de la Montagne) envoia au Roy, li envoia un oliphant de cristal mout bien fait, et une beste que l'on appelle orafle, de cristal aussi."—Joinville, ed. de Wailly, 250.
1271.—"In the month of Jumada II. a female giraffe in the Castle of the Hill (at Cairo) gave birth to a young one, which was nursed by a cow."—Makrizi (by Quatremère), i. pt. 2, 106.
1298.—"Mais bien ont giraffes assez qui naissent en leur pays."—Marco Polo, Pauthier's ed., p. 701.
1336.—"Vidi in Kadro (Cairo) animal geraffan nomine, in anteriori parte multum elevatum, longissimum collum habens, ita ut de tecto domus communis altitudinis comedere possit. Retro ita demissum est ut dorsum ejus manu hominis tangi possit. Non est ferox animal, sed ad modum jumenti pacificum, colore albo et rubeo pellem habens ordinatissime decoratam."—Gul. de Boldensele, 248-249.
1384.—"Ora racconteremo della giraffa che bestia ella è. La giraffa è fatta quasi come lo struzzolo, salvo che l'imbusto suo non ha penne ('just like an ostrich, except that {378b}it has no feathers on its body'!) anzi ha lana branchissima ... ella è veramente a vedere una cosa molto contraffatta."—Simone Sigoli, V. al Monte Sinai, 182.
1404.—"When the ambassadors arrived in the city of Khoi, they found in it an ambassador, whom the Sultan of Babylon had sent to Timour Bey.... He had also with him 6 rare birds and a beast called jornufa ..." (then follows a very good description).—Clavijo, by Markham, pp. 86-87.
c. 1430.—"Item, I have also been in Lesser India, which is a fine Kingdom. The capital is called Dily. In this country are many elephants, and animals called surnasa (for surnafa), which is like a stag, but is a tall animal and has a long neck, 4 fathoms in length or longer."—Schiltberger, Hak. Soc. 47.
1471.—"After this was brought foorthe a giraffa, which they call Girnaffa, a beaste as long legged as a great horse, or rather more; but the hinder legges are halfe a foote shorter than the former," &c. (The Italian in Ramusio, ii. f. 102, has "vna Zirapha, la quale essi chiamano Zirnapha ouer Giraffa.")—Josafa Barbaro, in Venetians in Persia, Hak. Soc. 54.
1554.—"Il ne fut onc que les grands seigneurs quelques barbares qu'ilz aient esté, n'aimassent qu'on leurs presentast les bestes d'estranges pais. Aussi en auons veu plusieurs au chasteau du Caire ... entre lesquelles est celle qu'ilz nomment vulgairement Zurnapa."—P. Belon, f. 118. It is remarkable to find Belon adopting this Persian form in Egypt.
GIRJA, s. This is a word for a Christian church, commonly used on the Bengal side of India, from Port. igreja, itself a corruption of ecclesia. Khāfī Khān (c. 1720) speaking of the Portuguese at Hoogly, says they called their places of worship Kalīsā (Elliot, vii. 211). No doubt Kalīsā, as well as igreja, is a form of ecclesia, but the superficial resemblance is small, so it may be suspected that the Musulman writer was speaking from book-knowledge only.
1885.—"It is related that a certain Maulví, celebrated for the power of his curses, was called upon by his fellow religionists to curse a certain church built by the English in close proximity to a Masjid. Anxious to stand well with them, and at the same time not to offend his English rulers, he got out of the difficulty by cursing the building thus:
'Gir jā ghar! Gir jā ghar! Gir jā!'
(i.e.) 'Fall down, house! Fall down, house! Fall down!' or simply
'Church-house! Church-house! Church!'"—W. J. D'Gruyther, in Panjab Notes and Queries, ii. 125.
The word is also in use in the Indian Archipelago:
1885.—"The village (of Wai in the Moluccas) is laid out in rectangular plots.... One of its chief edifices is the Gredja, whose grandeur quite overwhelmed us; for it is far more elaborately decorated than many a rural parish church at home."—H. O. Forbes, A Naturalist's Wanderings, p. 294.
GOA, n.p. Properly Gowa, Gova, Mahr. Goven, [which the Madras Gloss. connects with Skt. go, 'a cow,' in the sense of the 'cowherd country']. The famous capital of the Portuguese dominions in India since its capture by Albuquerque in 1510. In earlier history and geography the place appears under the name of Sindābūr or Sandābūr (Sundāpūr?) (q.v.). Govā or Kuva was an ancient name of the southern Konkan (see in H. H. Wilson's Works, Vishnu Purana, ii. 164, note 20). We find the place called by the Turkish admiral Sidi 'Ali Gowai-Sandābūr, which may mean "Sandābūr of Gova."
1391.—In a copper grant of this date (S. 1313) we have mention of a chief city of Kankan (see CONCAN) called Gowa and Gowāpūra. See the grant as published by Major Legrand Jacob in J. Bo. Br. B. As. Soc. iv. 107. The translation is too loose to make it worth while to transcribe a quotation; but it is interesting as mentioning the reconquest of Goa from the Turushkas, i.e. Turks or foreign Mahommedans. We know from Ibn Batuta that Mahommedan settlers at Hunāwar had taken the place about 1344.
1510 (but referring to some years earlier). "I departed from the city of Dabuli aforesaid, and went to another island which is about a mile distant from the mainland and is called Goga.... In this island there is a fortress near the sea, walled round after our manner, in which there is sometimes a captain who is called Savaiu, who has 400 mamelukes, he himself being also a mameluke."—Varthema, 115-116.
c. 1520.—"In the Island of Tissoury, in which is situated the city of Goa, there are 31 aldeas, and these are as follows...."—In Archiv. Port. Orient., fasc. 5.
c. 1554.—"At these words (addressed by the Vizir of Guzerat to a Portuguese Envoy) my wrath broke out, and I said: 'Malediction! You have found me with my fleet gone to wreck, but please God in his mercy, before long, under favour of the Pādshāh, you shall be driven not only from Hormuz, but from Diu and Gowa too!'"—Sidi 'Ali Kapudān, in J. Asiat. Ser. I. tom. ix. 70.
1602.—"The island of Goa is so old a place that one finds nothing in the writings of the Canaras (to whom it always belonged) {379b}about the beginning of its population. But we find that it was always so frequented by strangers that they used to have a proverbial saying: 'Let us go and take our ease among the cool shades of Goe moat,' which in the old language of the country means 'the cool fertile land.'"—Couto, IV. x. cap. 4.
1648.—"All those that have seen Europe and Asia agree with me that the Port of Goa, the Port of Constantinople, and the Port of Toulon, are three of the fairest Ports of all our vast continent."—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 74; [ed. Ball, i. 186].
GOA PLUM. The fruit of Parinarium excelsum, introduced at Goa from Mozambique, called by the Portuguese Matomba. "The fruit is almost pure brown sugar in a paste" (Birdwood, MS.).
GOA POTATO. Dioscorea aculeata (Birdwood, MS.).
GOA POWDER. This medicine, which in India is procured from Goa only, is invaluable in the virulent eczema of Bombay, and other skin diseases. In eczema it sometimes acts like magic, but smarts like the cutting of a knife. It is obtained from Andira Araroba (N.O. Leguminosae), a native (we believe) of S. America. The active principle is Chrysophanic acid (Commn. from Sir G. Birdwood).
GOA STONE. A factitious article which was in great repute for medical virtues in the 17th century. See quotation below from Mr. King. Sir G. Birdwood tells us it is still sold in the Bombay Bazar.
1673.—"The Paulistines enjoy the biggest of all the Monasteries at St. Roch; in it is a Library, an Hospital, and an Apothecary's Shop well furnished with Medicines, where Gasper Antonio, a Florentine, a Lay-Brother of the Order, the Author of the Goa-Stones, brings them in 50,000 Xerephins, by that invention Annually; he is an Old Man, and almost Blind."—Fryer, 149-150.
1690.—"The double excellence of this Stone (snake-stone) recommends its worth very highly ... and much excels the deservedly famed Gaspar Antoni, or Goa Stone."—Ovington, 262.
1711.—"Goa Stones or Pedra de Gasper Antonio, are made by the Jesuits here: They are from ¼ to 8 Ounces each; but the Sise makes no Difference in the Price: We bought 11 Ounces for 20 Rupees. They are often counterfeited, but 'tis an easie Matter for one who has seen the right Sort, to {380a}discover it.... Manooch's Stones at Fort St. George come the nearest to them ... both Sorts are deservedly cried up for their Vertues."—Lockyer, 268.
1768-71.—"Their medicines are mostly such as are produced in the country. Amongst others, they make use of a kind of little artificial stone, that is manufactured at Goa, and possesses a strong aromatic scent. They give scrapings of this, in a little water mixed with sugar, to their patients."—Stavorinus, E.T. i. 454.
1867.—"The Goa-Stone was in the 16th (?) and 17th centuries as much in repute as the Bezoar, and for similar virtues ... It is of the shape and size of a duck's egg, has a greyish metallic lustre, and though hard, is friable. The mode of employing it was to take a minute dose of the powder scraped from it in one's drink every morning ... So precious was it esteemed that the great usually carried it about with them in a casket of gold filigree."—Nat. Hist. of Gems, by C. W. King, M.A., p. 256.
GOBANG, s. The game introduced some years ago from Japan. The name is a corr. of Chinese K'i-p'an, 'checker-board.'
[1898.—"Go, properly gomoku narabe, often with little appropriateness termed 'checkers' by European writers, is the most popular of the indoor pastimes of the Japanese,—a very different affair from the simple game known to Europeans as Goban or Gobang, properly the name of the board on which go is played."—Chamberlain, Things Japanese, 3rd ed., 190 seq., where a full account of the game will be found.]
GODAVERY, n.p. Skt. Godāvarī, 'giving kine.' Whether this name of northern etymology was a corruption of some indigenous name we know not. [The Dravidian name of the river is Goday (Tel. gode, 'limit'), of which the present name is possibly a corruption.] It is remarkable how the Godavery is ignored by writers and map-makers till a comparatively late period, with the notable exception of D. João de Castro, in a work, however, not published till 1843. Barros, in his trace of the coasts of the Indies (Dec. I. ix. cap. 1), mentions Gudavarij as a place adjoining a cape of the same name (which appears in some much later charts as C. Gordewar), but takes no notice of the great river, so far as we are aware, in any part of his history. Linschoten also speaks of the Punto de Guadovaryn, but not of the river. Nor does his map show the latter, though showing the Kistna distinctly. The small general map of {380b}India in "Cambridge's Acc. of the War in India," 1761, confounds the sources of the Godavery with those of the Mahanadi (of Orissa) and carries the latter on to combine with the western rivers of the Ganges Delta. This was evidently the prevailing view until Rennell published the first edition of his Memoir (1783), in which he writes:
"The Godavery river, or Gonga Godowry, commonly called Ganga in European maps, and sometimes Gang in Indian histories, has generally been represented as the same river with that of Cattack.
"As we have no authority that I can find for supposing it, the opinion must have been taken up, on a supposition that there was no opening between the mouths of the Kistna and Mahanadee (or Cattack river) of magnitude sufficient for such a river as the Ganga" (pp. 74-75) [also ibid. 2nd ed. 244]. As to this error see also a quotation from D'Anville under KEDGEREE. It is probable that what that geographer says in his Éclaircissemens, p. 135, that he had no real idea of the Godavery. That name occurs in his book only as "la pointe de Gaudewari." This point, he says, is about E.N.E. of the "river of Narsapur," at a distance of about 12 leagues; "it is a low land, intersected by several river-arms, forming the mouths of that which the maps, esteemed to be most correct, call Wenseron; and the river of Narsapur is itself one of those arms, according to a MS. map in my possession." Narsaparam is the name of a taluk on the westernmost delta branch, or Vasishta Godāvarī [see Morris, Man. of Godavery Dist., 193]. Wenseron appears on a map in Baldaeus (1672), as the name of one of the two mouths of the Eastern or Gautamī Godāvarī, entering the sea near Coringa. It is perhaps the same name as Injaram on that branch, where there was an English Factory for many years.
In the neat map of "Regionum Choromandel, Golconda, et Orixa," which is in Baldaeus (1672), there is no indication of it whatever except as a short inlet from the sea called Gondewary.
1538.—"The noblest rivers of this province (Daquem or Deccan) are six in number, to wit: Crusna (Krishna), in many places known as Hinapor, because it passes by a city of this name (Hindapūr?); Bivra (read Bima?); these two rivers join on the borders of the Deccan and the land of Canara (q.v.), and after traversing great distances enter the sea in the Oria territory; Malaprare (Malprabha?); Guodavam (read Guodavari) otherwise called Gangua; Purnadi; Tapi. Of these the Malaprare enters the sea in the Oria territory, and so does the Guodavam; but Purnadi and Tapi enter the Gulf of Cambay at different points."—João de Castro, Primeiro Roteiro da Costa da India, pp. 6, 7.
c. 1590.—"Here (in Berar) are rivers in abundance; especially the Ganga of Gotam, which they also call Godovārī. The Ganga of Hindustan they dedicate to Mahadeo, but this Ganga to Gotam. And they tell wonderful legends of it, and pay it great adoration. It has its springs in the Sahyā Hills near Trimbak, and passing through the Wilāyat of Ahmadnagar, enters Berār and thence flows on to Tilingāna."—Āīn-i-Akbari (orig.) i. 476; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 228.] We may observe that the most easterly of the Delta branches of the Godavery is still called Gautami.
GODDESS, s. An absurd corruption which used to be applied by our countrymen in the old settlements in the Malay countries to the young women of the land. It is Malay gādīs, 'a virgin.'
c. 1772.—
"And then how strange, at night opprest
By toils, with songs you're lulled to rest;
Of rural goddesses the guest,
Delightful!"
W. Marsden, in Memoirs, 14.
1784.—"A lad at one of these entertainments, asked another his opinion of a gaddees who was then dancing. 'If she were plated with gold,' replied he, 'I would not take her for my concubine, much less for my wife.'"—Marsden's H. of Sumatra, 2nd ed., 230.
GODOWN, s. A warehouse for goods and stores; an outbuilding used for stores; a store-room. The word is in constant use in the Chinese ports as well as in India. The H. and Beng. gudām is apparently an adoption of the Anglo-Indian word, not its original. The word appears to have passed to the continent of India from the eastern settlements, where the Malay word gadong is used in the same sense of 'store-room,' but also in that of 'a house built of brick or stone.' Still the word appears to have come primarily from the South of India, where in Telugu giḍaṅgi, giḍḍangi, in Tamil kiḍaṅgu, signify 'a place where goods lie,' from kiḍu, 'to lie.' It appears in Singhalese also as gudāma. It is a fact that many common Malay and Javanese words are Tamil, or only to be explained by Tamil. Free intercourse between the Coromandel Coast and the Archipelago is very ancient, and when the Portuguese first appeared at Malacca they found there numerous settlers from S. India (see s.v. KLING). Bluteau gives the word as palavra da India, and explains it as a "logea {381b}quasi debaixo de chão" ("almost under ground"), but this is seldom the case.
[1513.—"... in which all his rice and a Gudam full of mace was burned."—Letter of F. P. Andrade to Albuquerque, Feb. 22, India Office, MSS. Corpo Chronologico, vol. I.
[1552.—"At night secretly they cleared their Gudams, which are rooms almost under ground, for fear of fire."—Barros, Dec. II. Bk. vi. ch. 3.]
1552.—"... and ordered them to plunder many godowns (gudoes) in which there was such abundance of clove, nutmeg, mace, and sandal wood, that our people could not transport it all till they had called in the people of Malacca to complete its removal."—Castanheda, iii. 276-7.
1561.—"... Godowns (Gudões), which are strong houses of stone, having the lower part built with lime."—Correa, II. i. 236. (The last two quotations refer to events in 1511.)
1570.—"... but the merchants have all one house or Magazon, which house they call Godon, which is made of brickes."—Caesar Frederike, in Hakl.
1585.—"In the Palace of the King (at Pegu) are many magazines both of gold and of silver.... Sandalwood, and lign-aloes, and all such things, have their gottons (gottoni), which is as much as to say separate chambers."—Gasparo Balbi, f. 111.
[c. 1612.—"... if I did not he would take away from me the key of the gadong."—Danvers, Letters, i. 195.]
1613.—"As fortelezas e fortificações de Malayos ordinariamente erão aedifficios de matte entaypado, de que havia muytas casas e armenyas ou godoens que são aedifficios sobterraneos, em que os mercadores recolhem as roupas de Choromandel per il perigo de fogo."—Godinho de Eredia, 22.
1615.—"We paid Jno. Dono 70 taies or plate of bars in full payment of the fee symple of the gadonge over the way, to westward of English howse, whereof 100 taies was paid before."—Cocks's Diary, i. 39; [in i. 15 gedonge].
[ " "An old ruined brick house or godung."—Foster, Letters, iii. 109.
[ " "The same goods to be locked up in the gaddones."—Ibid. iii. 159.]
1634.—
"Virão das ruas as secretas minas
* * * * *
Das abrazadas casas as ruinas,
E das riquezas os gudões desertos."
Malacca Conquistada, x. 61.
1680.—"Rent Rowle of Dwelling Houses, Goedowns, etc., within the Garrison in Christian Town."—In Wheeler, i. 253-4.
1683.—"I went to ye Bankshall to mark out and appoint a Plat of ground to build a Godown for ye Honble. Company's Salt Petre."—Hedges, Diary, March 5; [Hak. Soc. i. 67].
1696.—"Monday, 3rd August. The Choultry Justices having produced examinations taken by them concerning the murder of a child in the Black town, and the robbing of a godown within the walls:—it is ordered that the Judge-Advocate do cause a session to be held on Tuesday the 11th for the trial of the criminals."—Official Memorandum, in Wheeler, i. 303.
[1800.—"The cook-room and Zodoun at the Laul Baug are covered in."—Wellington, i. 66.]
1809.—"The Black Hole is now part of a godown or warehouse: it was filled with goods, and I could not see it."—Ld. Valentia, i. 237.
1880.—"These 'Godowns' ... are one of the most marked features of a Japanese town, both because they are white where all else is gray, and because they are solid where all else is perishable."—Miss Bird's Japan, i. 264.
GOGLET, GUGLET. s. A water-bottle, usually earthenware, of globular body with a long neck, the same as what is called in Bengal more commonly a surāhī (see SERAI, b., KOOZA). This is the usual form now; the article described by Linschoten and Pyrard, with a sort of cullender mouth and pebbles shut inside, was somewhat different. Corrupted from the Port. gorgoleta, the name of such a vessel. The French have also in this sense gargoulette, and a word gargouille, our medieval gurgoyle; all derivations from gorga, garga, gorge, 'the throat,' found in all the Romance tongues. Tom Cringle shows that the word is used in the W. Indies.
1598.—"These cruses are called Gorgoletta."—Linschoten, 60; [Hak. Soc. i. 207].
1599.—In Debry, vii. 28, the word is written Gorgolane.
c. 1610.—"Il y a une pièce de terre fort delicate, et toute percée de petits trous façonnez, et au dedans y a de petites pierres qui ne peuvent sortir, c'est pour nettoyer le vase. Ils appellent cela gargoulette: l'eau n'en sorte que peu à la fois."—Pyrard de Laval, ii. 43; [Hak Soc. ii. 74, and see i. 329].
[1616.—"... 6 Gorgoletts."—Foster, Letters, iv. 198.]
1648.—"They all drink out of Gorgelanes, that is out of a Pot with a Spout, without setting the Mouth thereto."—T. Van Spilbergen's Voyage, 37.
c. 1670.—"Quand on est à la maison on a des Gourgoulettes ou aiguières d'une certaine pierre poreuse."—Bernier (ed. Amst.), ii. 214; [and comp. ed. Constable, 356].
1688.—"L'on donne à chacun de ceux que leur malheur conduit dans ces saintes {382b}prisons, un pot de terre plein d'eau pour se laver, un autre plus propre de ceux qu'on appelle Gurguleta, aussi plein d'eau pour boire."—Dellon, Rel. de l'Inquisition de Goa, 135.
c. 1690.—"The Siamese, Malays, and Macassar people have the art of making from the larger coco-nut shells most elegant drinking vessels, cups, and those other receptacles for water to drink called Gorgelette, which they set with silver, and which no doubt by the ignorant are supposed to be made of the precious Maldive cocos."—Rumphius, I. iii.
1698.—"The same way they have of cooling their Liquors, by a wet cloth wrapped about their Gurgulets and Jars, which are vessels made of a porous Kind of Earth."—Fryer, 47.
1726.—"However, they were much astonished that the water in the Gorgolets in that tremendous heat, especially out of doors, was found quite cold."—Valentijn, Choro. 59.
1766.—"I perfectly remember having said that it would not be amiss for General Carnac to have a man with a Goglet of water ready to pour on his head, whenever he should begin to grow warm in debate."—Lord Clive, Consn. Fort William, Jan. 29. In Long, 406.
1829.—"Dressing in a hurry, find the drunken bheesty ... has mistaken your boot for the goglet in which you carry your water on the line of march."—Shipp's Memoirs, ii. 149.
c. 1830.—"I was not long in finding a bottle of very tolerable rum, some salt junk, some biscuit, and a goglet, or porous earthen jar of water, with some capital cigars."—Tom Cringle, ed. 1863, 152.
1832.—"Murwan sent for a woman named Joada, and handing her some virulent poison folded up in a piece of paper, said, 'If you can throw this into Hussun's gugglet, he on drinking a mouthful or two of water will instantly bring up his liver piece-meal.'"—Herklots, Qanoon-e-Islam, 156.
1855.—"To do it (gild the Rangoon Pagoda) they have enveloped the whole in an extraordinary scaffolding of bamboos, which looks as if they had been enclosing the pagoda in basketwork to keep it from breaking, as you would do with a water goglet for a dâk journey."—In Blackwood's Mag., May, 1856.
GOGO, GOGA, n.p. A town on the inner or eastern shore of Kattywar Peninsula, formerly a seaport of some importance, with an anchorage sheltered by the Isle of Peram (the Beiram of the quotation from Ibn Batuta). Gogo appears in the Catalan map of 1375. Two of the extracts will show how this unhappy city used to suffer at the hands of the Portuguese. Gogo is now {383a}superseded to a great extent by Bhaunagar, 8 m. distant.
1321.—"Dated from Caga the 12th day of October, in the year of the Lord 1321."—Letter of Fr. Jordanus, in Cathay, &c. i. 228.
c. 1343.—"We departed from Beiram and arrived next day at the city of Ḳūka, which is large, and possesses extensive bazars. We anchored 4 miles off because of the ebb tide."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 60.
1531.—"The Governor (Nuno da Cunha) ... took counsel to order a fleet to remain behind to make war upon Cambaya, leaving Antonio de Saldanha with 50 sail, to wit: 4 galeons, and the rest galleys and galeots, and rowing-vessels of the King's, with some private ones eager to remain, in the greed for prize. And in this fleet there stayed 1000 men with good will for the plunder before them, and many honoured gentlemen and captains. And running up the Gulf they came to a city called Goga, peopled by rich merchants; and the fleet entering by the river ravaged it by fire and sword, slaying much people...."—Correa, iii. 418.
[c. 1590.—"Ghogeh." See under SURATH.]
1602.—"... the city of Gogá, which was one of the largest and most opulent in traffic, wealth and power of all those of Cambaya.... This city lies almost at the head of the Gulf, on the western side, spreading over a level plain, and from certain ruins of buildings still visible, seems to have been in old times a very great place, and under the dominion of certain foreigners."—Couto, IV. vii. cap. 5.
1614.—"The passage across from Surrate to Goga is very short, and so the three fleets, starting at 4 in the morning, arrived there at nightfall.... The next day the Portuguese returned ashore to burn the city ... and entering the city they set fire to it in all quarters, and it began to blaze with such fury that there was burnt a great quantity of merchandize (fazendas de porte), which was a huge loss to the Moors.... After the burning of the city they abode there 3 days, both captains and soldiers content with the abundance of their booty, and the fleet stood for Dio, taking, besides the goods that were on board, many boats in tow laden with the same."—Bocarro, Decada, 333.
[c. 1660.—"A man on foot going by land to a small village named the Gauges, and from thence crossing the end of the Gulf, can go from Diu to Surat in four or five days...."—Tavernier, ed. Ball, ii. 37.]
1727.—"Goga is a pretty large Town ... has some Trade.... It has the Conveniences of a Harbour for the largest Ships, though they lie dry on soft Mud at low Water."—A. Hamilton, i. 143.
GOGOLLA, GOGALA, n.p. This is still the name of a village on a peninsular sandy spit of the mainland, {383b}opposite to the island and fortress of Diu, and formerly itself a fort. It was known in the 16th century as the Villa dos Rumes, because Melique Az (Malik Ayāz, the Mahom. Governor), not much trusting the Rumes (i.e. the Turkish Mercenaries), "or willing that they should be within the Fortress, sent them to dwell there." (Barros, II. iii. cap. 5).
1525.—"Paga dyo e gogolla a el Rey de Cambaya treze layques em tangas ... xiij laiques."—Lembrança, 34.
1538.—In Botelho, Tombo, 230, 239, we find "Alfandegua de Guogualaa."
1539.—"... terminating in a long and narrow tongue of sand, on which stands a fort which they call Gogala, and the Portuguese the Villa dos Rumes. On the point of this tongue the Portuguese made a beautiful round bulwark."—João de Castro, Primeiro Roteiro, p. 218.
GOLAH, s. Hind. golā (from gol, 'round'). A store-house for grain or salt; so called from the typical form of such store-houses in many parts of India, viz. a circular wall of mud with a conical roof. [One of the most famous of these is the Golā at Patna, completed in 1786, but never used.]
[1785.—"We visited the Gola, a building intended for a public granary."—In Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. ii. 445.]
1810.—"The golah, or warehouse."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 343.
1878.—"The villagers, who were really in want of food, and maddened by the sight of those golahs stored with grain, could not resist the temptation to help themselves."—Life in the Mofussil, ii. 77.
GOLD MOHUR FLOWER, s. Caesalpinia pulcherrima, Sw. The name is a corruption of the H. gulmor, which is not in the dictionaries, but is said to mean 'peacock-flower.'
[1877.—"The crowd began to press to the great Gool-mohur tree."—Allardyce, City of Sunshine, iii. 207.]
GOLE, s. The main body of an army in array; a clustered body of troops; an irregular squadron of horsemen. P.—H. ghol; perhaps a confusion with the Arab. jaul (gaul), 'a troop': [but Platts connects it with Skt. kula, 'an assemblage'].
1507.—"As the right and left are called Berânghâr and Sewânghâr ... and are not included in the centre which they call ghūl, the right and left do not belong to the ghūl."—Baber, 227.
1803.—"When within reach, he fired a few rounds, on which I formed my men into two gholes.... Both gholes attempted to turn his flanks, but the men behaved ill, and we were repulsed."—Skinner, Mil. Mem. i. 298.
1849.—"About this time a large gole of horsemen came on towards me, and I proposed to charge; but as they turned at once from the fire of the guns, and as there was a nullah in front, I refrained from advancing after them."—Brigadier Lockwood, Report of 2nd Cavalry Division at Battle of Goojerat.
GOMASTA, GOMASHTAH, s. Hind. from Pers. gumāshtah, part. 'appointed, delegated.' A native agent or factor. In Madras the modern application is to a clerk for vernacular correspondence.
1747.—"As for the Salem Cloth they beg leave to defer settling any Price for that sort till they can be advised from the Goa Masters (!) in that Province."—Ft. St. David Consn., May 11. MS. Records in India Office.
1762.—"You will direct the gentleman, Gomastahs, Muttasuddies (see MOOTSUDDY), and Moonshies, and other officers of the English Company to relinquish their farms, taalucs (see TALOOK), gunges, and golahs."—The Nabob to the Governor, in Van Sittart, i. 229.
1776.—"The Magistrate shall appoint some one person his gomastah or Agent in each Town."—Halhed's Code, 55.
1778.—"The Company determining if possible to restore their investment to the former condition ... sent gomastahs, or Gentoo factors in their own pay."—Orme, ed. 1803, ii. 57.
c. 1785.—"I wrote an order to my gomastah in the factory of Hughly."—Carraccioli's Life of Clive, iii. 448.
1817.—"The banyan hires a species of broker, called a Gomastah, at so much a month."—Mill's Hist. iii. 13.
1837.—"... (The Rajah) sent us a very good breakfast; when we had eaten it, his gomashta (a sort of secretary, at least more like that than anything else) came to say ..."—Letters from Madras, 128.
GOMBROON, n.p. The old name in European documents of the place on the Persian Gulf now known as Bandar 'Abbās, or 'Abbāsī. The latter name was given to it when Shāh 'Abbās, after the capture and destruction of the island city of Hormuz, established a port there. The site which he selected was the little town of Gamrūn. This had been occupied by the Portuguese, who took it from the 'King of Lar' in 1612, but two years later it was taken by the Shāh. {384b}The name is said (in the Geog. Magazine, i. 17) to be Turkish, meaning 'a Custom House.' The word alluded to is probably gumruḳ, which has that meaning, and which is again, through Low Greek, from the Latin commercium. But this etymology of the name seems hardly probable. That indicated in the extract from A. Hamilton below is from Pers. ḳamrūn, 'a shrimp,' or Port. camarão, meaning the same.
The first mention of Gombroon in the E. I. Papers seems to be in 1616, when Edmund Connok, the Company's chief agent in the Gulf, calls it "Gombraun, the best port in all Persia," and "that hopeful and glorious port of Gombroon" (Sainsbury, i. 484-5; [Foster, Letters, iv. 264]). There was an English factory here soon after the capture of Hormuz, and it continued to be maintained in 1759, when it was taken by the Comte d'Estaing. The factory was re-established, but ceased to exist a year or two after.
[1565.—"Bamdel Gombruc, so-called in Persian and Turkish, which means Custom-house."—Mestre Afonso's Overland Journey, Ann. Maritim. e Colon. ser. 4. p. 217.]
1614.—(The Captain-major) "under orders of Dom Luis da Gama returned to succour Comorão, but found the enemy's fleet already there and the fort surrendered.... News which was heard by Dom Luis da Gama and most of the people of Ormuz in such way as might be expected, some of the old folks of Ormuz prognosticating at once that in losing Comorão Ormuz itself would be lost before long, seeing that the former was like a barbican or outwork on which the rage of the Persian enemy spent itself, giving time to Ormuz to prepare against their coming thither."—Bocarro, Decada, 349.
1622.—"That evening, at two hours of the night, we started from below that fine tree, and after travelling about a league and a half ... we arrived here in Combrù, a place of decent size and population on the sea-shore, which the Persians now-a-days, laying aside as it were the old name, call the 'Port of Abbas,' because it was wrested from the Portuguese, who formerly possessed it, in the time of the present King Abbas."—P. della Valle, ii. 413; [in Hak. Soc. i. 3, he calls it Combu].
c. 1630.—"Gumbrown (or Gomroon, as some pronounce it) is by most Persians Κατ' ἐξοχὴν cald Bander or the Port Towne ... some (but I commend them not) write it Gamrou, others Gomrow, and other-some Cummeroon.... A Towne it is of no Antiquity, rising daily out of the ruines of late glorious (now most wretched) Ormus."—Sir T. Herbert, 121.
1673.—"The Sailors had stigmatized this place of its Excessive Heat, with this sarcastical Saying, That there was but an Inch-Deal between Gomberoon and Hell"—Fryer, 224.
Fryer in another place (marginal rubric, p. 331) says: "Gombroon ware, made of Earth, the best next China." Was this one of the sites of manufacture of the Persian porcelain now so highly prized? ["The main varieties of this Perso-Chinese ware are the following:—(1) A sort of semi-porcelain, called by English dealers, quite without reason, 'Gombroon ware,' which is pure white and semi-transparent, but, unlike Chinese porcelain, is soft and friable where not protected by the glaze."—Ency. Brit. 9th ed. xix. 621.]
1727.—"This Gombroon was formerly a Fishing Town, and when Shaw Abass began to build it, had its Appellation from the Portugueze, in Derision, because it was a good place for catching Prawns and Shrimps, which they call Camerong."—A. Hamilton, i. 92; [ed. 1744, i. 93].
1762.—"As this officer (Comte d'Estaing) ... broke his parole by taking and destroying our settlements at Gombroon, and upon the west Coast of Sumatra, at a time when he was still a prisoner of war, we have laid before his Majesty a true state of the case."—In Long, 288.
GOMUTÍ, s. Malay gumuti [Scott gives gāmūti]. A substance resembling horsehair, and forming excellent cordage (the cabos negros of the Portuguese—Marre, Kata-Kata Malayou, p. 92), sometimes improperly called coir (q.v.), which is produced by a palm growing in the Archipelago, Arenga saccharifera, Labill. (Borassus Gomutus, Lour.). The tree also furnishes ḳalams or reed-pens for writing, and the material for the poisoned arrows used with the blow-tube. The name of the palm itself in Malay is anau. (See SAGWIRE.) There is a very interesting account of this palm in Rumphius, Herb. Amb., i. pl. xiii. Dampier speaks of the fibre thus:
1686.—"... There is another sort of Coire cables ... that are black, and more strong and lasting, and are made of Strings that grow like Horse-hair at the Heads of certain Trees, almost like the Coco-trees. This sort comes mostly from the Island of Timor."—i. 295.
GONG, s. This word appears to be Malay (or, according to Crawfurd, originally Javanese), gong or agong. ["The word gong is often said to be Chinese. Clifford and Swettenham so mark it; but no one seems to be able to point out the Chinese original" (Scott, Malayan Words in English, 53).] {385b}Its well-known application is to a disk of thin bell-metal, which when struck with a mallet, yields musical notes, and is used in the further east as a substitute for a bell. ["The name gong, agong, is considered to be imitative or suggestive of the sound which the instrument produces" (Scott, loc. cit. 51).] Marcel Devic says that the word exists in all the languages of the Archipelago; [for the variants see Scott, loc. cit.]. He defines it as meaning "instrument de musique aussi appelé tam-tam"; but see under TOM-TOM. The great drum, to which Dampier applies the name, was used like the metallic gong for striking the hour. Systems of gongs variously arranged form harmonious musical instruments among the Burmese, and still more elaborately among the Javanese.
The word is commonly applied by Anglo-Indians also to the H. ghanṭā (ganṭa, Dec.) or ghaṛī, a thicker metal disc, not musical, used in India for striking the hour (see GHURRY). The gong being used to strike the hour, we find the word applied by Fryer (like gurry) to the hour itself, or interval denoted.
c. 1590.—"In the morning before day the Generall did strike his Gongo, which is an instrument of War that soundeth like a Bell."—(This was in Africa, near Benguela). Advent. of Andrew Battel, in Purchas, ii. 970.
1673.—"They have no Watches nor Hour-Glasses, but measure Time by the dropping of Water out of a Brass Bason, which holds a Ghong, or less than half an Hour; when they strike once distinctly, to tell them it's the First Ghong, which is renewed at the Second Ghong for Two, and so Three at the End of it till they come to Eight; when they strike on the Brass Vessel at their liberty to give notice the Pore (see PUHUR) is out, and at last strike One leisurely to tell them it is the First Pore."—Fryer, 186.
1686.—"In the Sultan's Mosque (at Mindanao) there is a great Drum with but one Head, called a Gong; which is instead of a Clock. This Gong is beaten at 12 a Clock, at 3, 6, and 9."—Dampier, i. 333.
1726.—"These gongs (gongen) are beaten very gently at the time when the Prince is going to make his appearance."—Valentijn, iv. 58.
1750-52.—"Besides these (in China) they have little drums, great and small kettle drums, gungungs or round brass basons like frying pans."—Olof Toreen, 248.
1817.—
"War music bursting out from time to time
With gong and tymbalon's tremendous chime."—Lalla Rookh, Mokanna.
Tremendous sham poetry!
1878.—"... le nom plébéien ... sonna dans les salons.... Comme un coup de cymbale, un de ces gongs qui sur les théâtres de féerie annoncent les apparitions fantastiques."—Alph. Daudet, Le Nabab, ch. 4.
GOODRY, s. A quilt; H. gudṛī. [The gudṛī, as distinguished from the razāi (see ROZYE), is the bundle of rags on which Faḳīrs and the very poorest people sleep.]
1598.—"They make also faire couerlits, which they call Godoriins [or] Colchas, which are very faire and pleasant to the eye, stitched with silke; and also of cotton of all colours and stitchinges."—Linschoten, ch. 9; [Hak. Soc. i. 61].
c. 1610.—"Les matelats et les couvertures sont de soye ou de toille de coton façonnée à toutes sortes de figures et couleur. Ils appellent cela Gouldrins."—Pyrard de Laval, ii. 3; [Hak. Soc. ii. 4].
1653.—"Goudrin est vn terme Indou et Portugais, qui signifie des couuertures picquées de cotton."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 539.
[1819.—"He directed him to go to his place, and take a godhra of his (a kind of old patched counterpane of shreds, which Fuqueers frequently have to lie down upon and throw over their shoulders)."—Tr. Lit. Soc. Bo. i. 113.]
GOOGUL, s. H. gugal, guggul, Skt. guggula, guggulu. The aromatic gum-resin of the Balsamodendron Mukul, Hooker (Amyris agallocha, Roxb.), the muḳl of the Arabs, and generally supposed to be the bdellium of the ancients. It is imported from the Beyla territory, west of Sind (see Bo. Govt. Selections (N.S.), No. xvii. p. 326).
1525.—(Prices at Cambay). "Gugall d'orumuz (the maund), 16 fedeas."—Lembrança, 43.
1813.—"Gogul is a species of bitumen much used at Bombay and other parts of India, for painting the bottom of ships."—Milburn, i. 137.
GOOJUR, n.p. H. Gūjar, Skt. Gurjjara. The name of a great Hindu clan, very numerous in tribes and in population over nearly the whole of Northern India, from the Indus to Rohilkhand. In the Delhi territory and the Doab they were formerly notorious for thieving propensities, and are still much addicted to cattle-theft; and they are never such steady and industrious cultivators as the Jāts, among whose villages they are so largely interspersed. In the Punjab they are Mahommedans. Their {386b}extensive diffusion is illustrated by their having given name to Gujarāt (see GOOZERAT) as well as to Gujrāt and Gujrānwāla in the Punjab. And during the 18th century a great part of Sahāranpūr District in the Northern Doab was also called Gujrāt (see Elliot's Races, by Beames, i. 99 seqq.).
1519.—"In the hill-country between Nilâb and Behreh ... and adjoining to the hill-country of Kashmīr, are the Jats, Gujers, and many other men of similar tribes."—Memoirs of Baber, 259.
[1785.—"The road is infested by tribes of banditti called googurs and mewatties."—In Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. II. 426.]
GOOLAIL, s. A pellet-bow. H. gulel, probably from Skt. guḍa, gula, the pellet used. [It is the Arabic Kaus-al-bandūk, by using which the unlucky Prince in the First Kalandar's Tale got into trouble with the Wazīr (Burton, Arab. Nights, i. 98).]
1560.—Busbeck speaks of being much annoyed with the multitude and impudence of kites at Constantinople: "ego interim cum manuali balista post columnam sto, modo hujus, modo illius caudae vel alarum, ut casus tulerit, pinnas testaceis globis verberans, donec mortifero ictu unam aut alteram percussam decutio...."—Busbeq. Epist. iii. p. 163.
[c. 1590.—"From the general use of pellet bows which are fitted with bowstrings, sparrows are very scarce (in Kashmīr)."—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, ii. 351. In the original kamān-i-guroha, guroha, according to Steingass, Dict., being "a ball ... ball for a cannon, balista, or cross-bow."]
1600.—"O for a stone-bow to hit him in the eye."—Twelfth Night, ii. 5.
1611.—
"Children will shortly take him for a wall,
And set their stone-bows in his forehead."
Beaum. & Flet., A King and No King, V.
[1870.—"The Gooleil-bans, or pellet-bow, generally used as a weapon against crows, is capable of inflicting rather severe injuries."—Chevers, Ind. Med. Jurisprudence, 337.]
GOOLMAUL, GOOLMOOL, s. H. gol-māl, 'confusion, jumble'; gol-māl karnā, 'to make a mess.'
[1877.—"The boy has made such a gol-mol (uproar) about religion that there is a risk in having anything to do with him."—Allardyce, City of Sunshine, ii. 106.]
[GOOMTEE, n.p. A river of the N.W.P., rising in the Shāhjahānpur District, and flowing past the cities of Lucknow and Jaunpur, and joining the Ganges between Benares and {387a}Ghāzipur. The popular derivation of the name, as in the quotation, is, as if Ghūmtī, from H. ghūmnā, 'to wind,' in allusion to its winding course. It is really from Skt. gomati, 'rich in cattle.'
[1848.—"The Ghumti, which takes its name from its windings...."—Buyers, Recoll. of N. India, 240.]
GOONT, s. H. gūnṭh, gūṭh. A kind of pony of the N. Himālayas, strong but clumsy.
c. 1590.—"In the northern mountainous districts of Hindustan a kind of small but strong horses is bred, which is called guṭ; and in the confines of Bengal, near Kúch, another kind of horses occurs, which rank between the guṭ and Turkish horses, and are called tánghan (see TANGUN); they are strong and powerful."—Āīn, i. 183; [also see ii. 280].
1609.—"On the further side of Ganges lyeth a very mighty Prince, called Raiaw Rodorow, holding a mountainous Countrey ... thence commeth much Muske, and heere is a great breed of a small kind of Horse, called Gunts, a true travelling scale-cliffe beast."—W. Finch, in Purchas, i. 438.
1831.—"In Cashmere I shall buy, without regard to price, the best ghounte in Tibet."—Jacquemont's Letters, E.T. i. 238.
1838.—"Give your gūnth his head and he will carry you safely ... any horse would have struggled, and been killed; these gūnths appear to understand that they must be quiet, and their master will help them."—Fanny Parkes, Wanderings of a Pilgrim, ii. 226.
GOORKA, GOORKALLY, n.p. H. Gurkhā, Gurkhālī. The name of the race now dominant in Nepāl, and taking their name from a town so called 53 miles W. of Khatmandu. [The name is usually derived from the Skt. go-raksha, 'cow-keeper.' For the early history see Wright, H. of Nepāl, 147]. They are probably the best soldiers of modern India, and several regiments of the Anglo-Indian army are recruited from the tribe.
1767.—"I believe, Sir, you have before been acquainted with the situation of Nipal, which has long been besieged by the Goorcully Rajah."—Letter from Chief at Patna, in Long, 526.
[ " "The Rajah being now dispossessed of his country, and shut up in his capital by the Rajah of Goercullah, the usual channel of commerce has been obstructed."—Letter from Council to E.I. Co., in Verelst, View of Bengal, App. 36.]
GOOROO, s. H. gurū, Skt. guru; a spiritual teacher, a (Hindu) priest.
(Ancient).—"That brahman is called guru who performs according to rule the rites on conception and the like, and feeds (the child) with rice (for the first time)."—Manu, ii. 142.
c. 1550.—"You should do as you are told by your parents and your Guru."—Rāmāyana of Tulsī Dās, by Growse (1878), 43.
[1567.—"Grous." See quotation under CASIS.]
1626.—"There was a famous Prophet of the Ethnikes, named Goru."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 520.
1700.—"... je suis fort surpris de voir à la porte ... le Pénitent au colier, qui demandoit à parler au Gourou."—Lettres Edif., x. 95.
1810.—"Persons of this class often keep little schools ... and then are designated gooroos; a term implying that kind of respect we entertain for pastors in general."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 317.
1822.—"The Adventures of the Gooroo Paramartan; a tale in the Tamul Language" (translated by B. Babington from the original of Padre Beschi, written about 1720-1730), London.
1867.—"Except the guru of Bombay, no priest on earth has so large a power of acting on every weakness of the female heart as a Mormon bishop at Salt Lake."—Dixon's New America, 330.
GOORUL, s. H. gūral, goral; the Himālayan chamois; Nemorhoedus Goral of Jerdon. [Cemas Goral of Blanford (Mammalia, 516).]
[1821.—"The flesh was good and tasted like that of the ghorul, so abundant in the hilly belt towards India."—Lloyd & Gerard's Narr., ii. 112.
[1886.—"On Tuesday we went to a new part of the hill to shoot 'gurel,' a kind of deer, which across a khud, looks remarkably small and more like a hare than a deer."—Lady Dufferin, Viceregal Life, 235.]
[GOORZEBURDAR, s. P. gurz-bardār, 'a mace-bearer.'
[1663.—"Among the Kours and the Mansebdars are mixed many Gourze-berdars, or mace-bearers chosen for their tall and handsome persons, and whose business it is to preserve order in assemblies, to carry the King's orders, and execute his commands with the utmost speed."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 267.
[1717.—"Everything being prepared for the Goorzeburdar's reception."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. ccclix.
[1727.—"Goosberdar." See under HOSBOLHOOKUM.]
GOOZERAT, GUZERAT, n.p. The name of a famous province in Western India, Skt. Gurjjara, Gurjjara-rāshtra, Prakrit passing into H. and Mahr. Gujarāt, Gujrāt, taking its name from the Gūjar (see GOOJUR) tribe. The name covers the British Districts of Surat, Broach, Kaira, Panch Mahals, and Ahmedābād, besides the territories of the Gaekwar (see GUICOWAR) of Baroda, and a multitude of native States. It is also often used as including the peninsula of Kāthiāwāṛ or Surāshtra, which alone embraces 180 petty States.
c. 640.—Hwen T'sang passes through Kiu-chi-lo, i.e. Gurjjara, but there is some difficulty as to the position which he assigns to it.—Pèlerins Bouddh., iii. 166; [Cunningham, Arch. Rep. ii. 70 seqq.].
1298.—"Gozurat is a great Kingdom.... The people are the most desperate pirates in existence...."—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. ch. 26.
c. 1300.—"Guzerat, which is a large country, within which are Kambáy, Somnát, Kanken-Tána, and several other cities and towns."—Rashíduddín, in Elliot, i. 67.
1300.—"The Sultan despatched Ulugh Khán to Ma'bar and Gujarát for the destruction of the idol-temple of Somnát, on the 20th of Jumádá'-l awwal, 698 H...."—Amīr Khusrū, in Elliot, iii. 74.
[c. 1330.—"Juzrat." See under LAR.]
1554.—"At last we made the land of Guchrát in Hindustan."—Sidi 'Ali, p. 79.
The name is sometimes used by the old writers for the people, and especially for the Hindu merchants or banyans (q.v.) of Guzerat. See Sainsbury, i. 445 and passim.
[c. 1605.—"And alsoe the Guzatts do saile in the Portugalls shipps in euery porte of the East Indies...."—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 85.]
GOOZUL-KHANA, s. A bathroom; H. from Ar.—P. ghusl-khāna, of corresponding sense. The apartment so called was used by some of the Great Moghuls as a place of private audience.
1616.—"At eight, after supper he comes down to the guzelcan (v.l. gazelcan), a faire Court wherein in the middest is a Throne erected of freestone."—Sir T. Roe, in Purchas, ii.; [Hak. Soc. i. 106].
" "The thirteenth, at night I went to the Gussell Chan, where is best opportunitie to doe business, and tooke with me the Italian, determining to walk no longer in darknesse, but to prooue the King...."—Ibid. p. 543; [in Hak. Soc. i. 202, Guzel-chan; in ii. 459, Gushel choes].
c. 1660.—"The grand hall of the Am-Kas opens into a more retired chamber, called the gosel-kane, or the place to wash in. But few are suffered to enter there.... There it is where the king is seated in a chair ... and giveth a more particular Audience to his officers."—Bernier, E.T. p. 85; [ed. Constable, 265; ibid. 361 gosle-kane].
GOPURA, s. The meaning of the word in Skt. is 'city-gate,' go 'eye,' pura, 'city.' But in S. India the gopuram is that remarkable feature of architecture, peculiar to the Peninsula, the great pyramidal tower over the entrance-gate to the precinct of a temple. See Fergusson's Indian and Eastern Architecture, 325, &c. [The same feature has been reproduced in the great temple of the Seth at Brindāban, which is designed on a S. Indian model. (Growse, Mathura, 260).] This feature is not, in any of the S. Indian temples, older than the 15th or 16th cent., and was no doubt adopted for purposes of defence, as indeed the Śilpa-śāstra ('Books of Mechanical Arts') treatises imply. This fact may sufficiently dispose of the idea that the feature indicates an adoption of architecture from ancient Egypt.
1862.—"The gopurams or towers of the great pagoda."—Markham, Peru and India, 408.
GORA, s. H. gorā, 'fair-complexioned.' A white man; a European soldier; any European who is not a sahib (q.v.). Plural gorā-lōg, 'white people.'
[1861.—"The cavalry ... rushed into the lines ... declaring that the Gora Log (the European soldiers) were coming down upon them."—Cave Browne, Punjab and Delhi, i. 243.]
GORAWALLAH, s. H. ghoṛā-wālā, ghoṛā, 'a horse.' A groom or horsekeeper; used at Bombay. On the Bengal side syce (q.v.) is always used, on the Madras side horsekeeper (q.v.).
1680.—Gurrials, apparently for ghoṛā-wālās (Gurrials would be alligators, Gavial), are allowed with the horses kept with the Hoogly Factory.—See Fort St. Geo. Consns. on Tour, Dec. 12, in Notes and Exts., No. ii. 63.
c. 1848.—"On approaching the different points, one knows Mrs. —— is at hand, for her Gorahwallas wear green and gold puggries."—Chow-Chow, i. 151.
GORAYT, s. H. goṛeṭ, goṛaiṭ, [which has been connected with Skt. ghur, 'to shout']; a village watchman and messenger, [in the N.W.P. usually of a lower grade than the chokidar, and not, like him, paid a cash wage, but remunerated by a piece of rent-free land; one of the village establishment, whose special duty it is to watch crops and harvested grain].
[c. 1808.—"Fifteen messengers (gorayits) are allowed ¼ ser on the man of grain, and from 1 to 5 bigahs of land each."—Buchanan, Eastern India, ii. 231.]
GORDOWER, GOORDORE, s. A kind of boat in Bengal, described by Ives as "a vessel pushed on by paddles." Etym. obscure. Ghuṛdauṛ is a horse-race, a race-course; sometimes used by natives to express any kind of open-air assemblage of Europeans for amusement. [The word is more probably a corr. of P. girdāwā, 'a patrol'; girdāwar, 'all around, a supervisor,' because such boats appear to be used in Bengal by officials on their tours of inspection.]
1757.—"To get two bolias (see BOLIAH), a goordore, and 87 dandies (q.v.) from the Nazir."—Ives, 157.
GOSAIN, GOSSYNE, &c. s. H. and Mahr. Gosāīn, Gosāī, Gosāvī, Gusā'īn, &c., from Skt. Goswāmī, 'Lord of Passions' (lit. 'Lord of cows'), i.e. one who is supposed to have subdued his passions and renounced the world. Applied in various parts of India to different kinds of persons not necessarily celibates, but professing a life of religious mendicancy, and including some who dwell together in convents under a superior, and others who engage in trade and hardly pretend to lead a religious life.
1774.—"My hopes of seeing Teshu Lama were chiefly founded on the Gosain."—Bogle, in Markham's Tibet, 46.
c. 1781.—"It was at this time in the hands of a Gosine, or Hindoo Religious."—Hodges, 112. (The use of this barbarism by Hodges is remarkable, common as it has become of late years.)
[1813.—"Unlike the generality of Hindoos, these Gosaings do not burn their dead...."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. i. 312-3; in i. 544 he writes Gosannee.]
1826.—"I found a lonely cottage with a light in the window, and being attired in the habit of a gossein, I did not hesitate to request a lodging for the night."—Pandurang Hari, 399; [ed. 1873, ii. 275].
GOSBECK, COSBEAGUE, s. A coin spoken of in Persia (at Gombroon and elsewhere). From the quotation from Fryer it appears that there was a Goss and a Gosbegi, corresponding to Herbert's double and single Cozbeg. Mr. Wollaston in his English-Persian Dict. App. p. 436, among "Moneys now current in Persia," gives "5 dínár = 1 ghāz; also a nominal money." The ghāz, then, is the name of a coin (though a coin no longer), and ghāz-begī was that worth 10 dīnārs. Marsden mentions a copper coin, called kazbegi = 50 (nominal) dīnārs, or about 3½d. (Numism. Orient., 456.) But the value in dīnārs seems to be in error. [Prof. Browne, who referred the matter to M. Husayn Kuli Khān, Secretary of the Persian Embassy in London, writes: "This gentleman states that he knows no word ghāzī-beg, or g̣āzī-beg, but that there was formerly a coin called ghāz, of which 5 went to the shāhī; but this is no longer used or spoken of." The ghāz was in use at any rate as late as the time of Hajji Baba; see below.]
[1615.—"The chiefest money that is current in Persia is the Abase, which weigheth 2 metzicales. The second is the mamede, which is half an abesse. The third is the shahey and is a quarter of an abbesse. In the rial of eight are 13 shayes. In the cheken of Venetia 20 shayes. In a shaye are 2½ bisties or casbeges 10. One bistey is 4 casbeges or 2 tanges. The Abasse, momede and Shahey and bistey are of silver; the rest are of copper like to the pissas of India."—Foster, Letters, iii. 176.]
c. 1630.—"The Abbasee is in our money sixteene pence; Larree ten pence; Mamoodee eight pence; Bistee two pence; double Cozbeg one penny; single Cozbeg one half-penny; Fluces are ten to a Cozbeg."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1638, p. 231.
1673.—"A Banyan that seemingly is not worth a Gosbeck (the lowest coin they have)."—Fryer, 113. See also p. 343.
" "10 cosbeagues is 1 Shahee; 4 Shahees is one Abassee or 16d."—Ibid. 211.
"
"Brass money with characters,
Are a Goss, ten whereof compose a Shahee,
A Gosbeege, five of which go to a Shahee."
Ibid. 407.
1711.—"10 Coz, or Pice, a Copper Coin, are 1 Shahee."—Lockyer, 241.
1727.—"1 Shahee is ... 10 Gaaz or Cosbegs."—A. Hamilton, ii. 311; [ed. 1744].
1752.—"10 cozbaugues or Pice (a Copper Coin) are 1 Shatree" (read Shahee).—Brooks, p. 37. See also in Hanway, vol. i. p. 292, Kazbegie; [in ii. 21, Kazbekie].
[1824.—"But whatever profit arose either from these services, or from the spoils of my monkey, he alone was the gainer, for I never touched a ghauz of it."—Hajji Baba, 52 seq.]
1825.—"A toman contains 100 mamoodies; a new abassee, 2 mamoodies or 4 shakees ... a shakee, 10 coz or cozbaugues, a small copper coin."—Milburn, 2nd ed. p. 95.
GOSHA, adj. Used in some parts, as an Anglo-Indian technicality, to indicate that a woman was secluded, and cannot appear in public. It is short for P. gosha-nishīn, 'sitting in a corner'; and is much the same as parda-nishīn (see PURDAH).
GOUNG, s. Burm. gaung; a village head man. ["Under the Thoogyee were Rwa-goung, or heads of villages, who aided in the collection of the revenue and were to some extent police officials." (Gazetteer of Burma, i. 480.)]
a. GOUR, s. H. gāur, gāuri gāē, (but not in the dictionaries), [Platts gives gaur, Skt. gaura, 'white, yellowish, reddish, pale red']. The great wild ox, Gavaeus Gaurus, Jerd.; [Bos gaurus, Blanford (Mammalia), 484 seq.], the same as the Bison (q.v.). [The classical account of the animal will be found in Forsyth, Highlands of Central India, ed. 1889, pp. 109 seqq.]
1806.—"They erect strong fences, but the buffaloes generally break them down.... They are far larger than common buffaloes. There is an account of a similar kind called the Gore; one distinction between it and the buffalo is the length of the hoof."—Elphinstone, in Life, i. 156.
b. GOUR, s. Properly Can. gauḍ, gauṛ, gauḍa. The head man of a village in the Canarese-speaking country; either as corresponding to patel, or to the Zemindar of Bengal. [See F. Buchanan, Mysore, i. 268; Rice, Mysore, i. 579.]
c. 1800.—"Every Tehsildary is farmed out in villages to the Gours or head-men."—In Munro's Life, iii. 92.
c. GOUR, n.p. Gauṛ, the name of a medieval capital of Bengal, which lay immediately south of the modern civil station of Malda, and the traces of which, with occasional Mahommedan buildings, extend over an immense area, {390b}chiefly covered with jungle. The name is a form of the ancient Gauḍa, meaning, it is believed, 'the country of sugar,' a name applied to a large part of Bengal, and specifically to the portion where those remains lie. It was the residence of a Hindu dynasty, the Senas, at the time of the early Mahommedan invasions, and was popularly known as Lakhnāotī; but the reigning king had transferred his seat to Nadiya (70 m. above Calcutta) before the actual conquest of Bengal in the last years of the 12th century. Gaur was afterwards the residence of several Mussulman dynasties. [See Ravenshaw, Gaur, its Ruins and Inscriptions, 1878.]
1536.—"But Xercansor [Shīr Khān Sūr, afterwards King of Hindustan as Shīr Shāh] after his success advanced along the river till he came before the city of Gouro to besiege it, and ordered a lodgment to be made in front of certain verandahs of the King's Palace which looked upon the river; and as he was making his trenches certain Rumis who were resident in the city, desiring that the King should prize them highly (d'elles fizesse cabedal) as he did the Portuguese, offered their service to the King to go and prevent the enemy's lodgment, saying that he should also send the Portuguese with them."—Correa, iii. 720.
[1552.—"Caor." See under BURRAMPOOTER.]
1553.—"The chief city of the Kingdom (of Bengala) is called Gouro. It is situated on the banks of the Ganges, and is said to be 3 of our leagues in length, and to contain 200,000 inhabitants. On the one side it has the river for its defence, and on the landward faces a wall of great height ... the streets are so thronged with the concourse and traffic of people ... that they cannot force their way past ... a great part of the houses of this city are stately and well-wrought buildings."—Barros, IV. ix. cap. 1.
1586.—"From Patanaw I went to Tanda which is in the land of the Gouren. It hath in times past been a kingdom, but is now subdued by Zelabdin Echebar ..."—R. Fitch, in Hakluyt, ii. 389.
1683.—"I went to see ye famous Ruins of a great Citty and Pallace called [of] GOWRE ... we spent 3½ hours in seeing ye ruines especially of the Pallace which has been ... in my judgment considerably bigger and more beautifull than the Grand Seignor's Seraglio at Constantinople or any other Pallace that I have seen in Europe."—Hedges, Diary, May 16; [Hak. Soc. i. 88].
GOVERNOR'S STRAITS, n.p. This was the name applied by the Portuguese (Estreito do Gobernador) to the Straits of Singapore, i.e. the straits {391a}south of that island (or New Strait). The reason of the name is given in our first quotation. The Governor in question was the Spaniard Dom João da Silva.
1615.—"The Governor sailed from Manilha in March of this year with 10 galleons and 2 galleys.... Arriving at the Straits of Sincapur, * * * * and passing by a new strait which since has taken the name of Estreito do Governador, there his galleon grounded on the reef at the point of the strait, and was a little grazed by the top of it."—Bocarro, 428.
1727.—"Between the small Carimon and Tanjong-bellong on the Continent, is the entrance of the Streights of Sincapure before mentioned, and also into the Streights of Governadore, the largest and easiest Passage into the China Seas."—A. Hamilton, ii. 122.
1780.—"Directions for sailing from Malacca to Pulo Timoan through Governor's Straits, commonly called the Straits of Sincapour."—Dunn's N. Directory, 5th ed. p. 474. See also Lettres Edif., 1st ed. ii. 118.
1841.—"Singapore Strait, called Governor Strait, or New Strait, by the French and Portuguese."—Horsburgh, 5th ed. ii. 264.
GOW, GAOU, s. Dak. H. gau. An ancient measure of distance preserved in S. India and Ceylon. In the latter island, where the term still is in use, the gawwa is a measure of about 4 English miles. It is Pali gāvuta, one quarter of a yojana, and that again is the Skt. gavyūti with the same meaning. There is in Molesworth's Mahr. Dictionary, and in Wilson, a term gaukos (see COSS), 'a land measure' (for which read 'distance measure'), the distance at which the lowing of a cow may be heard. This is doubtless a form of the same term as that under consideration, but the explanation is probably modern and incorrect. The yojana with which the gau is correlated, appears etymologically to be 'a yoking,' viz. "the stage, or distance to be gone in one harnessing without unyoking" (Williams); and the lengths attributed to it are very various, oscillating from 2½ to 9 miles, and even to 8 krośas (see COSS). The last valuation of the yojana would correspond with that of the gau at ¼.
c. 545.—"The great Island (Taprobane), according to what the natives say, has a length of 300 gaudia, and a breadth of the same, i.e. 900 miles."—Cosmas Indicopleustes, (in Cathay, clxxvii.).
1623.—"From Garicota to Tumbre may be about a league and a half, for in that {391b}country distances are measured by gaù, and each gaù is about two leagues, and from Garicòta to Tumbre they said was not so much as a gaù of road."—P. della Valle, ii. 638; [Hak. Soc. ii. 230].
1676.—"They measure the distances of places in India by Gos and Costes. A Gos is about 4 of our common leagues, and a Coste is one league."—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 30; [ed. Ball, i. 47].
1860.—"A gaou in Ceylon expresses a somewhat indeterminate length, according to the nature of the ground to be traversed, a gaou across a mountainous country being less than one measured on level ground, and a gaou for a loaded cooley is also permitted to be shorter than for one unburthened, but on the whole the average may be taken under four miles."—Tennent's Ceylon, 4th ed. i. 467.
GRAB, s. This name, now almost obsolete, was applied to a kind of vessel which is constantly mentioned in the sea- and river-fights of India, from the arrival of the Portuguese down to near the end of the 18th century. That kind of etymology which works from inner consciousness would probably say: "This term has always been a puzzle to the English in India. The fact is that it was a kind of vessel much used by corsairs, who were said to grab all that passed the sea. Hence," &c. But the real derivation is different.
The Rev. Howard Malcom, in a glossary attached to his Travels, defines it as "a square-rigged Arab vessel, having a projecting stern (stem?) and no bowsprit; it has two masts." Probably the application of the term may have deviated variously in recent days. [See Bombay Gazetteer, xiii. pt. i. 348.] For thus again in Solvyns (Les Hindous, vol. i.) a grab is drawn and described as a ship with three masts, a sharp prow, and a bowsprit. But originally the word seems, beyond question, to have been an Arab name for a galley. The proper word is Arab. ghorāb, 'a raven,' though adopted into Mahratti and Konkani as gurāb. Jal says, quoting Reinaud, that ghorāb was the name given by the Moors to the true galley, and cites Hyde for the rationale of the name. We give Hyde's words below. Amari, in a work quoted below (p. 397), points out the analogous corvetta as perhaps a transfer of ghurāb:
1181.—"A vessel of our merchants ... making sail for the city of Tripoli (which God protect) was driven by the winds on {392a}the shore of that country, and the crew being in want of water, landed to procure it, but the people of the place refused it unless some corn were sold to them. Meanwhile there came a ghurāb from Tripoli ... which took and plundered the crew, and seized all the goods on board the vessel."[140]—Arabic Letter from Ubaldo, Archbishop and other authorities of Pisa, to the Almohad Caliph Abu Yak'ub Yusuf, in Amari, Diplomi Arabi, p. 8.
The Latin contemporary version runs thus:
"Cum quidam nostri cari cives de Siciliâ cum carico frumenti ad Tripolim venirent, tempestate maris et vi ventorum compulsi, ad portum dictum Macri devenerunt; ibique aquâ deficiente, et cum pro eâ auriendâ irent, Barbarosi non permiserunt eos ... nisi prius eis de frumento venderent. Cumque inviti eis de frumento venderent galea vestra de Tripoli armata," &c.—Ibid. p. 269.
c. 1200.—Ghurāb, Cornix, Corvus, galea.
* * * * *
Galea, Ghurāb, Gharbān.—Vocabulista Arabico (from Riccardian Library), pubd. Florence, 1871, pp. 148, 404.
1343.—"Jalansi ... sent us off in company with his son, on board a vessel called al-'Ukairi, which is like a ghorāb, only more roomy. It has 60 oars, and when it engages is covered with a roof to protect the rowers from the darts and stone-shot."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 59.
1505.—In the Vocabulary of Pedro de Alcala, galera is interpreted in Arabic as gorâb.
1554.—In the narrative of Sidi 'Ali Kapudān, in describing an action that he fought with the Portuguese near the Persian Gulf, he says the enemy's fleet consisted of 4 barques as big as carracks (q.v.), 3 great ghurābs, 6 Karāwals (see CARAVEL) and 12 smaller ghurābs, or galliots (see GALLEVAT) with oars.—In J. As., ser. 1. tom. ix. 67-68.
[c. 1610.—"His royal galley called by them Ogate Gourabe (gourabe means 'galley,' and ogate 'royal')."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 312.]