1687.—"We came to Anchor the same Day, on the N.E. end of St. John's Island. This Island is in Lat. about 32 d. 30 min. North, lying on the S. Coast of the Province of Quantung or Canton in China."—Dampier, i. 406.
1727.—"A Portuguese Ship ... being near an Island on that Coast, called after St. Juan, some Gentlemen and Priests went ashore for Diversion, and accidentally found the Saint's Body uncorrupted, and carried it Passenger to Goa."—A. Hamilton, i. 252; [ed. 1744, ii. 255].
1780.—"St. John's," in Dunn's New Directory, 472.
c. ST. JOHN'S ISLANDS. This is also the chart-name, and popular European name, of two islands about 6 m. S. of Singapore, the chief of which is properly Pulo Sikajang, [or as Dennys (Desc. Dict. 321) writes the word, Pulo Skijang].
SAIVA, s. A worshipper of Śiva; Skt. Śaiva, adj., 'belonging to Siva.'
1651.—"The second sect of the Bramins, 'Seiviá' ... by name, say that a certain Eswara is the supreme among the gods, and that all the others are subject to him."—Rogerius, 17.
1867.—"This temple is reckoned, I believe, the holiest shrine in India, at least among the Shaivites."—Bp. Milman, in Memoirs, p. 48.
SALA, s. Hind. sālā, 'brother-in-law,' i.e. wife's brother; but used elliptically as a low term of abuse.
[1856.—"Another reason (for infanticide) is the blind pride which makes them hate that any man should call them sala, or Sussoor—brother-in-law, or father-in-law."—Forbes, Rās Mālā, ed. 1878, 616.]
1881.—"Another of these popular Paris sayings is 'et ta sœur?' which is as insulting a remark to a Parisian as the apparently harmless remark sālā, 'brother-in-law,' is to a Hindoo."—Sat. Rev., Sept. 10, 326.
SALAAM, s. A salutation; properly oral salutation of Mahommedans to each other. Arab. salām, {783b}'peace.' Used for any act of salutation; or for 'compliments.'
[c. 60 B.C.—
"Ἀλλ' εἰ μὲν Σύρος ἐσσὶ "Σαλὰμ," εἰ δ' οὗν σύ γε φοίνιξ
"Ναίδιος," εἰ δ' Ἕλλην "Χαῖρε"· τὸ δ' αὐτὸ φράσον."
—Meleagros, in Anthologia Palatina, vii. 149.
The point is that he has been a bird of passage, and says good-bye now to his various resting-places in their own tongue.]
1513.—"The ambassador (of Bisnagar) entering the door of the chamber, the Governor rose from the chair on which he was seated, and stood up while the ambassador made him great çalema."—Correa, Lendas, II. i. 377. See also p. 431.
1552.—"The present having been seen he took the letter of the Governor, and read it to him, and having read it told him how the Governor sent him his çalema, and was at his command with all his fleet, and with all the Portuguese...."—Castanheda, iii. 445.
1611.—"Çalema. The salutation of an inferior."—Cobarruvias, Sp. Dict. s.v.
1626.—"Hee (Selim i.e. Jahāngīr) turneth ouer his Beades, and saith so many words, to wit three thousand and two hundred, and then presenteth himself to the people to receive their salames or good morrow...."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 523.
1638.—"En entrant ils se salüent de leur Salom qu'ils accompagnent d'vne profonde inclination."—Mandelslo, Paris, 1659, 223.
1648.—"... this salutation they call salam; and it is made with bending of the body, and laying of the right hand upon the head."—Van Twist, 55.
1689.—"The Salem of the Religious Bramins, is to join their Hands together, and spreading them first, make a motion towards their Head, and then stretch them out."—Ovington, 183.
1694.—"The Town Conicopolies, and chief inhabitants of Egmore, came to make their Salaam to the President."—Wheeler, i. 281.
1717.—"I wish the Priests in Tranquebar a Thousand fold Schalam."—Philipp's Acct. 62.
1809.—"The old priest was at the door, and with his head uncovered, to make his salaams."—Ld. Valentia, i. 273.
1813.—
"'Ho! who art thou?'—'This low salam
Replies, of Moslem faith I am.'"
Byron, The Giaour.
1832.—"Il me rendit tous les salams que je fis autrefois au Grand Mogol."—Jacquemont, Corresp. ii. 137.
1844.—"All chiefs who have made their salam are entitled to carry arms personally."—G. O. of Sir C. Napier, 2.
SALAK, s. A singular-looking fruit, sold and eaten in the Malay regions, described in the quotation. {784a}It is the fruit of a species of ratan (Salacca edulis), of which the Malay name is rotan-salak.
1768-71.—"The salac (Calamus rotang zalacca) which is the fruit of a prickly bush, and has a singular appearance, being covered with scales, like those of a lizard; it is nutritious and well tasted, in flavour somewhat resembling a raspberry."—Stavorinus, E.T. i. 241.
SALEB, SALEP, s. This name is applied to the tubers of various species of orchis found in Europe and Asia, which from ancient times have had a great reputation as being restorative and highly nutritious. This reputation seems originally to have rested on the 'doctrine of signatures,' but was due partly no doubt to the fact that the mucilage of saleb has the property of forming, even with the addition of 40 parts of water, a thick jelly. Good modern authorities quite disbelieve in the virtues ascribed to saleb, though a decoction of it, spiced and sweetened, makes an agreeable drink for invalids. Saleb is identified correctly by Ibn Baithar with the Satyrium of Dioscorides and Galen. The full name in Ar. (analogous to the Greek orchis) is Khuṣī-al-tha'lab, i.e. 'testiculus vulpis'; but it is commonly known in India as s̤a'lab miṣrī, i.e. Salep of Egypt, or popularly salep-misry. In Upper India s̤aleb is derived from various species of Eulophia, found in Kashmīr and the Lower Himālaya. Saloop, which is, or used to be, supplied hot in winter mornings by itinerant vendors in the streets of London, is, we believe, a representative of Saleb; but we do not know from what it is prepared. [In 1889 a correspondent to Notes & Queries (7 ser. vii. 35) stated that "within the last twenty years saloop vendors might have been seen plying their trade in the streets of London. The term saloop was also applied to an infusion of the sassafras bark or wood. In Pereira's Materia Medica, published in 1850, it is stated that 'sassafras tea, flavoured with milk and sugar, is sold at daybreak in the streets of London under the name of saloop.' Saloop in balls is still sold in London, and comes mostly from Smyrna."]
In the first quotation it is doubtful what is meant by salīf; but it seems {784b}possible that the traveller may not have recognised the tha'lab, s̤a'lab in its Indian pronunciation.
c. 1340.—"After that, they fixed the amount of provision to be given by the Sultan, viz. 1000 Indian riṭls of flour ... 1000 of meat, a large number of riṭls (how many I don't now remember) of sugar, of ghee, of salīf, of areca, and 1000 leaves of betel."—Ibn Batuta, iii. 382.
1727.—"They have a fruit called Salob, about the size of a Peach, but without a stone. They dry it hard ... and being beaten to Powder, they dress it as Tea and Coffee are.... They are of opinion that it is a great restorative."—A. Hamilton, i. 125; [ed. 1744, i. 126].
[1754.—In his list of Indian drugs Ives (p. 44) gives "Rad. Salop, Persia Rs. 35 per maund."]
1838.—"Saleb Misree, a medicine, comes (a little) from Russia. It is considered a good nutritive for the human constitution, and is for this purpose powdered and taken with milk. It is in the form of flat oval pieces of about 80 grains each.... It is sold at 2 or 3 Rupees per ounce."—Desc. of articles found in Bazars of Cabool. In Punjab Trade Report, 1862, App. vi.
1882 (?).—"Here we knock against an ambulant salep-shop (a kind of tea which people drink on winter mornings); there against roaming oil, salt, or water-vendors, bakers carrying brown bread on wooden trays, pedlars with cakes, fellows offering dainty little bits of meat to the knowing purchaser."—Levkosia, The Capital of Cyprus, ext. in St. James's Gazette, Sept. 10.
SALEM, n.p. A town and inland district of S. India. Properly Shelam, which is perhaps a corruption of Chera, the name of the ancient monarchy in which this district was embraced. ["According to one theory the town of Salem is said to be identical with Seran or Sheran, and occasionally to have been named Sheralan; when S. India was divided between the three dynasties of Chola, Sera and Pandia, according to the generally accepted belief, Karur was the place where the three territorial divisions met; the boundary was no doubt subject to vicissitudes, and at one time possibly Salem or Serar was a part of Sera."—Le Fanu, Man. of Salem, ii. 18.]
SALEMPOORY, s. A kind of chintz. See allusions under PALEMPORE. [The Madras Gloss., deriving the word from Tel. sāle, 'weaver,' pura, Skt. 'town,' describes it as "a kind of cotton cloth formerly manufactured at Nellore; half the length of ordinary {785a}Punjums" (see PIECE-GOODS). The third quotation indicates that it was sometimes white.]
[1598.—"Sarampuras."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 95.
[1611.—"I ... was only doubtful about the white Betteelas and Salempurys."—Danvers, Letters, i. 155.
[1614.—"Salampora, being a broad white cloth."—Foster, ibid. ii. 32.]
1680.—"Certain goods for Bantam priced as follows:—
"Salampores, Blew, at 14 Pagodas per corge...."—Ft. St. Geo. Consn., April 22. In Notes and Exts. iii. 16; also ibid. p. 24.
1747.—"The Warehousekeeper reported that on the 1st inst. when the French entered our Bounds and attacked us ... it appeared that 5 Pieces of Long Cloth and 10 Pieces of Salampores were stolen, That Two Pieces of Salampores were found upon a Peon ... and the Person detected is ordered to be severely whipped in the Face of the Publick...."—Ft. St. David Consn., March 30 (MS. Records in India Office).
c. 1780.—"... en l'on y fabriquoit différentes espèces de toiles de coton, telles que salempouris."—Haafner, ii. 461.
SALIGRAM, s. Skt. Śālagrāma (this word seems to be properly the name of a place, 'Village of the Sāl-tree'—a real or imaginary tīrtha or place of sacred pilgrimage, mentioned in the Mahābhārata). [Other and less probable explanations are given by Oppert, Anc. Inhabitants, 337.] A pebble having mystic virtues, found in certain rivers, e.g. Gandak, Son, &c. Such stones are usually marked by containing a fossil ammonite. The śālagrāma is often adopted as the representative of some god, and the worship of any god may be performed before it.[235] It is daily worshipped by the Brahmans; but it is especially connected with Vaishnava doctrine. In May 1883 a śālagrāma was the ostensible cause of great popular excitement among the Hindus of Calcutta. During the proceedings in a family suit before the High Court, a question arose regarding the identity of a śālagrāma, regarded as a household {785b}god. Counsel on both sides suggested that the thing should be brought into court. Mr. Justice Norris hesitated to give this order till he had taken advice. The attorneys on both sides, Hindus, said there could be no objection; the Court interpreter, a high-caste Brahman, said it could not be brought into Court, because of the coir-matting, but it might with perfect propriety be brought into the corridor for inspection; which was done. This took place during the excitement about the "Ilbert Bill," giving natives magisterial authority in the provinces over Europeans; and there followed most violent and offensive articles in several native newspapers reviling Mr. Justice Norris, who was believed to be hostile to the Bill. The editor of the Bengallee newspaper, an educated man, and formerly a member of the covenanted Civil Service, the author of one of the most unscrupulous and violent articles, was summoned for contempt of court. He made an apology and complete retractation, but was sentenced to two months' imprisonment.
c. 1590.—"Salgram is a black stone which the Hindoos hold sacred.... They are found in the river Sown, at the distance of 40 cose from the mouth."—Ayeen, Gladwin's E.T. 1800, ii. 25; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 150].
1782.—"Avant de finir l'histoire de Vichenou, je ne puis me dispenser de parler de la pierre de Salagraman. Elle n'est autre chose qu'une coquille petrifiée du genre des cornes d'Ammon: les Indiens prétendent qu'elle represente Vichenou, parcequ'ils en ont découvert de neuf nuances différentes, ce qu'ils rapportent aux neuf incarnations de ce Dieu.... Cette pierre est aux sectateurs de Vichenou ce que le Lingam est à ceux de Chiven."—Sonnerat, i. 307.
[1822.—"In the Nerbuddah are found those types of Shiva, called Solgrammas, which are sacred pebbles held in great estimation all over India."—Wallace, Fifteen Years in India, 296.]
1824.—"The shalgramŭ is black, hollow, and nearly round; it is found in the Gunduk River, and is considered a representation of Vishnoo.... The Shalgramŭ is the only stone that is naturally divine; all the other stones are rendered sacred by incantations."—Wanderings of a Pilgrim, i. 43.
1885.—"My father had one (a Salagram). It was a round, rather flat, jet black, small, shining stone. He paid it the greatest reverence possible, and allowed no one to touch it, but worshipped it with his own hands. When he became ill, and as he would not allow a woman to touch it, he {786a}made it over to a Brahman ascetic with a money present."—Sundrábái, in Punjab Notes and Queries, ii. 109. The śālagrāma is in fact a Hindu fetish.
SALLABAD, s. This word, now quite obsolete, occurs frequently in the early records of English settlements in India, for the customary or prescriptive exactions of the native Governments, and for native prescriptive claims in general. It is a word of Mahratti development, sālābād, 'perennial,' applied to permanent collections or charges; apparently a factitious word from Pers. sāl, 'year,' and Ar. ābād, 'ages.'
[1680.—"Salabad." See under ROOCKA.]
1703.—"... although these are hardships, yet by length of time become Sallabad (as we esteem them), there is no great demur made now, and are not recited here as grievances."—In Wheeler, ii. 19.
1716.—"The Board upon reading them came to the following resolutions:—That for anything which has yet appeared the Comatees (Comaty) may cry out their Pennagundoo Nagarum ... at their houses, feasts, and weddings, &c., according to Salabad but not before the Pagoda of Chindy Pillary...."—Ibid. 234.
1788.—"Sallabaud. (Usual Custom). A word used by the Moors Government to enforce their demand of a present."—Indian Vocabulary (Stockdale).
SALOOTREE, SALUSTREE, s. Hind. Sālotar, Sālotrī. A native farrier or horse-doctor. This class is now almost always Mahommedan. But the word is taken from the Skt. name Sālihotra, the original owner of which is supposed to have written in that language a treatise on the Veterinary Art, which still exists in a form more or less modified and imperfect. "A knowledge of Sanskrit must have prevailed pretty generally about this time (14th century), for there is in the Royal Library at Lucknow a work on the veterinary art, which was translated from the Sanskrit by order of Ghiyásu-d dín Muhammad Sháh Khiljí. This rare book, called Kurrutu-l-Mulk, was translated as early as A.H. 783 (A.D. 1381), from an original styled Sálotar, which is the name of an Indian, who is said to have been a Bráhman, and the tutor of Susruta. The Preface says the translation was made 'from the barbarous Hindi into the refined Persian, {786b}in order that there may be no more need of a reference to infidels.'"[236] (Elliot, v. 573-4.)
[1831.—"'... your aloes are not genuine.' 'Oh yes, they are,' he exclaimed. 'My salutree got them from the Bazaar.'"—Or. Sport. Mag., reprint 1873, ii. 223.]
a. A considerable island immediately north of Bombay. The island of Bombay is indeed naturally a kind of pendant to the island of Salsette, and during the Portuguese occupation it was so in every sense. That occupation is still marked by the remains of numerous villas and churches, and by the survival of a large R. Catholic population. The island also contains the famous and extensive caves of Kāṇhērī (see KENNERY). The old city of Tana (q.v.) also stands upon Salsette. Salsette was claimed as part of the Bombay dotation of Queen Catherine, but refused by the Portuguese. The Mahrattas took it from them in 1739, and it was taken from these by us in 1774. The name has been by some connected with the salt-works which exist upon the islands (Salinas). But it appears in fact to be the corruption of a Mahratti name Shāshṭī, from Shāshashṭī, meaning 'Sixty-six' (Skt. Shaṭ-shashṭi), because (it is supposed) the island was alleged to contain that number of villages. This name occurs in the form Shatsashti in a stone inscription dated Sak. 1103 (A.D. 1182). See Bo. J. R. As. Soc. xii. 334. Another inscription on copper plates dated Sak. 748 (A.D. 1027) contains a grant of the village of Naura, "one of the 66 of Śri Sthānaka (Thana)," thus entirely confirming the etymology (J. R. As. Soc. ii. 383). I have to thank Mr. J. M. Campbell, C.S.I., for drawing my attention to these inscriptions.
b. Salsette is also the name of the three provinces of the Goa territory which constituted the Velhas Conquistas or Old Conquests. These lay all along the coast, consisting of (1) {787a}the Ilhas (viz. the island of Goa and minor islands divided by rivers and creeks), (2) Bardez on the northern mainland, and (3) Salsette on the southern mainland. The port of Marmagaon, which is the terminus of the Portuguese Indian Railway, is in this Salsette. The name probably had the like origin to that of the Island Salsette; a parallel to which was found in the old name of the Island of Goa, Tiçoari, meaning (Mahr.) Tīs-wādī, "30 hamlets." [See BARGANY.]
A.D. 1186.—"I, Aparāditya ("the paramount sovereign, the Ruler of the Koṅkana, the most illustrious King") have given with a libation of water 24 drachms, after exempting other taxes, from the fixed revenue of the oart in the village of Mahauli, connected with Shaṭ-shashṭi."—Inscription edited by Pandit Bhagavānlāl Indraji, in J. Bo. Br. R. A. S. xii. 332. [And see Bombay Gazetteer, I. Pt. ii. 544, 567.]
a.—
1536.—
| "Item—Revenue of the Cusba (Caçabe—see CUSBAH) of Maym: | ||
| R̃bc lxbij | fedeas | (40,567) |
| And the custom-house (Mandovim) of the said Maym |
" | (48,000) |
| And Mazagong (Mazaguão) | " | (11,500) |
| And Bombay (Monbaym) | " | (23,000) |
| And the Cusba and Customs of Caranja |
" | (94,700) |
| And in paddy (baté) | xxi muras (see MOORAH) 1 candil (see CANDY) |
|
| And the Island of Salsete | fedeas | (319,100) |
| And in paddy | xxi muras 1 candil." | |
| S. Botelho, Tombo, 142. |
1538.—"Beyond the Isle of Elephanta (do Alifante) about a league distant is the island of Salsete. This island is seven leagues long by 5 in breadth. On the north it borders the Gulf of Cambay, on the south it has the I. of Elephanta, on the east the mainland, and on the west the I. of Bombai or of Boa Vida. This island is very fertile, abounding in provisions, cattle, and game of sorts, and in its hills is great plenty of timber for building ships and galleys. In that part of the island which faces the S.W. wind is built a great and noble city called Thana; and a league and a half in the interior is an immense edifice called the Pagoda of Salsete; both one and the other objects most worthy of note; Thana for its decay (destroição) and the Pagoda as a work unique in its way, and the like of which is nowhere to be seen."—João de Castro, Primo Roteiro da India, 69-70.
1554.—"And to the Tanadar (tenadar) of Salsete 30,000 reis.
"He has under him 12 peons (piães) of whom the said governor takes 7; leaving him 5, which at the aforesaid rate amount to 10,800 reis.
"And to a Parvu (see PARVOE) that he has, who is the country writer ... and having the same pay as the Tenadar Mor, which is 3 pardaos a month, amounting in a year at the said rate to 10,800 reis."—Botelho, Tombo, in Subsidios, 211-212.
1610.—"Frey Manuel de S. Mathias, guardian of the convent of St. Francis in Goa, writes to me that ... in Goa alone there are 90 resident friars; and besides in Baçaim and its adjuncts, viz., in the island of Salsete and other districts of the north they have 18 parishes (Freguezias) of native Christians with vicars; and five of the convents have colleges, or seminaries where they bring up little orphans; and that the said Ward of Goa extends 300 leagues from north to south."—Livros das Monções, 298.
[1674.—"From whence these Pieces of Land receive their general Name of Salset ... either because it signifies in Canorein a Granary...."—Fryer, 62.]
c. 1760.—"It was a melancholy sight on the loss of Salsett, to see the many families forced to seek refuge on Bombay, and among them some Portuguese Hidalgos or noblemen, reduced of a sudden from very flourishing circumstances to utter beggary."—Grose, i. 72.
[1768.—"Those lands are comprised in 66 villages, and from this number it is called Salsette."—Foral of Salsette, India Office MS.]
1777.—"The acquisition of the Island of Salset, which in a manner surrounds the Island of Bombay, is sufficient to secure the latter from the danger of a famine."—Price's Tracts, i. 101.
1808.—"The island of Sashty (corrupted by the Portuguese into Salsette) was conquered by that Nation in the year of Christ 1534, from the Mohammedan Prince who was then its Sovereign; and thereupon parcelled out, among the European subjects of Her Most Faithful Majesty, into village allotments, at a very small Foro or quit-rent."—Bombay, Regn. I. of 1808, sec. ii.
b.—
1510.—"And he next day, by order of the Governor, with his own people and many more from the Island (Goa) passed over to the mainland of Salsete and Antruz, scouring the districts and the tanadaris, and placing in them by his own hand tanadars and collectors of revenue, and put all in such order that he collected much money, insomuch that he sent to the factor at Goa very good intelligence, accompanied by much money."—Correa, ii. 161.
1546.—"We agree in the manner following, to wit, that I Idalxaa (Idalcan) promise and swear on our Koran (no noso moçaffo), and by the head of my eldest son, that I will remain always firm in the said amity with the King of Portugal and with his governors of India, and that the lands of Salsete and Bardees, which I have made contract and donation of to His Highness, {788a}I confirm and give anew, and I swear and promise by the oath aforesaid never to reclaim them or make them the Subject of War."—Treaty between D. John de Castro and Idalxaa, who was formerly called Idalção (Adil Khān).—Botelho, Tombo, 40.
1598.—"On the South side of the Iland of Goa, wher the riuer runneth againe into the Sea, there cometh euen out with the coast a land called Salsette, which is also vnder the subiection of the Portingales, and is ... planted both with people and fruite."—Linschoten, 51; [Hak. Soc. i. 177].
1602.—"Before we treat of the Wars which in this year (c. 1546) Idalxa (Adil Shāh) waged with the State about the mainland provinces of Salsete and Bardés, which caused much trouble to the Government of India, it seems well to us to give an account of these Moor Kings of Visiapor."—Couto, IV. x. 4.
SALWEN, n.p. The great river entering the sea near Martaban in British Burma, and which the Chinese in its upper course call Lu-kiang. The Burmese form is Than-lwen, but the original form is probably Shān. ["The Salween River, which empties itself into the sea at Maulmain, rivals the Irrawaddy in length but not in importance" (Forbes, British Burma, 8).]
SAMBOOK, s. Ar. sanbuḳ, and sunbūḳ (there is a Skt. word śambūka, 'a bivalve shell,' but we are unable to throw any light on any possible transfer); a kind of small vessel formerly used in Western India and still on the Arabian coast. [See Bombay Gazetteer, xiii. Pt. ii. 470.] It is smaller than the bagalā (see BUGGALOW), and is chiefly used to communicate between a roadstead and the shore, or to go inside the reefs. Burton renders the word 'a foyst,' which is properly a smaller kind of galley. See description in the last but one quotation below.
c. 330.—"It is the custom when a vessel arrives (at Makdashau) that the Sultan's ṣunbūḳ boards her to ask whence the ship comes, who is the owner, and the skipper (or pilot), what she is laden with, and what merchants or other passengers are on board."—Ibn Batuta, ii. 183; also see pp. 17, 181, &c.
1498.—"The Zambuco came loaded with doves'-dung, which they have in those islands, and which they were carrying, it being merchandize for Cambay, where it is used in dyeing cloths."—Correa, Lendas, i. 33-34.
" In the curious Vocabulary of the language of Calicut, at the end of the {788b}Roteiro of Vasco da Gama, we find: "Barcas; Cambuco."
[1502.—"Zambucos." See under NACODA.]
1506.—"Questo Capitanio si prese uno sambuco molto ricco, veniva dalla Mecha per Colocut."—Leonardo Ca' Masser, 17.
1510.—"As to the names of their ships, some are called Sambuchi, and these are flat-bottomed."—Varthema, 154.
1516.—"Item—our Captain Major, or Captain of Cochim shall give passes to secure the navigation of the ships and zanbuqos of their ports ... provided they do not carry spices or drugs that we require for our cargoes, but if such be found, for the first occasion they shall lose all the spice and drugs so loaded, and on the second they shall lose both ship and cargo, and all may be taken as prize of war."—Treaty of Lopo Soares with Coulão (Quilon), in Botelho, Tombo, Subsidios, p. 32.
[1516.—"Zambucos." See under ARECA.]
1518.—"Zambuquo." See under PROW.
1543.—"Item—that the Zanbuquos which shall trade in his port in rice or nele (paddy) and cottons and other matters shall pay the customary dues."—Treaty of Martin Affonso de Sousa with Coulam, in Botelho, Tombo, 37.
[1814.—"Sambouk." See under DHOW.]
1855.—"Our pilgrim ship ... was a Sambuk of about 400 ardébs (50 tons), with narrow wedge-like bows, a clean water-line, a sharp keel, undecked except upon the poop, which was high enough to act as a sail in a gale of wind. We carried 2 masts, imminently raking forward, the main considerably longer than the mizen, and the former was provided with a large triangular latine...."—Burton, Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah, i. 276; [Memorial ed. i. 188].
1858.—"The vessels of the Arabs called Sembuk are small Baggelows of 80 to 100 tons burden. Whilst they run out forward into a sharp prow, the after part of the vessel is disproportionately broad and elevated above the water, in order to form a counterpoise to the colossal triangular sail which is hoisted to the masthead with such a spread that often the extent of the yard is greater than the whole length of the vessel."—F. von Neimans, in Zeitschr. der Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. xii. 420.
1880.—"The small sailing boat with one sail, which is called by the Arabs 'Jámbook' with which I went from Hodeida to Aden."—Letter in Athenaeum, March 13, p. 346.
[1900.—"We scrambled into a sambouka crammed and stuffed with the baggage."—Bent, Southern Arabia, 220.]
SAMBRE, SAMBUR, s. Hind. sābar, sāmbar; Skt. śambara. A kind of stag (Rusa Aristotelis, Jerdon; [Blanford, Mammalia, 543 seqq.]) the {789a}elk of S. Indian sportsmen; ghaus of Bengal; jerrow (jarāo) of the Himālaya; the largest of Indian stags, and found in all the large forests of India. The word is often applied to the soft leather, somewhat resembling chamois leather, prepared from the hide.
1673.—"... Our usual diet was of spotted deer, Sabre, wild Hogs and sometimes wild Cows."—Fryer, 175.
[1813.—"Here he saw a number of deer, and four large sabirs or samboos, one considerably bigger than an ox...."—Diary, in Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. ii. 400.]
1823.—"The skin of the Sambre, when well prepared, forms an excellent material for the military accoutrements of the soldiers of the native Powers."—Malcolm, Central India, i. 9.
[1900.—"The Sambu stags which Lord Powerscourt turned out in his glens...."—Spectator, December 15, p. 883.]
SAMPAN, s. A kind of small boat or skiff. The word appears to be Javanese and Malay. It must have been adopted on the Indian shores, for it was picked up there at an early date by the Portuguese; and it is now current all through the further East. [The French have adopted the Annamite form tamban.] The word is often said to be originally Chinese, 'sanpan,' = 'three boards,' and this is possible. It is certainly one of the most ordinary words for a boat in China. Moreover, we learn, on the authority of Mr. E. C. Baber, that there is another kind of boat on the Yangtse which is called wu-pan, 'five boards.' Giles however says: "From the Malay sam-pan = three boards"; but in this there is some confusion. The word has no such meaning in Malay.
1510.—"My companion said, 'What means then might there be for going to this island?"' They answered: 'That it was necessary to purchase a chiampana,' that is a small vessel, of which many are found there."—Varthema, 242.
1516.—"They (the Moors of Quilacare) perform their voyages in small vessels which they call champana."—Barbosa, 172.
c. 1540.—"In the other, whereof the captain was slain, there was not one escaped, for Quiay Panian pursued them in a Champana, which was the Boat of his Junk."—Pinto (Cogan, p. 79), orig. ch. lix.
1552.-"... Champanas, which are a kind of small vessels."—Castanheda, ii. 76; [rather, Bk. ii. ch. xxii. p. 76].
1613.—"And on the beach called the Bazar of the Jaos ... they sell every sort of {789b}provision in rice and grain for the Jaos merchants of Java Major, who daily from the dawn are landing provisions from their junks and ships in their boats or Champenas (which are little skiffs)...."—Godinho de Eredia, 6.
[1622.—"Yt was thought fytt ... to trym up a China Sampan to goe with the fleete...."—Cocks's Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. 122.]
1648.—In Van Spilbergen's Voyage we have Champane, and the still more odd Champaigne. [See under TOPAZ.]
1702.—"Sampans being not to be got we were forced to send for the Sarah and Eaton's Long-boats."—MS. Correspondence in 1. Office from China Factory (at Chusan), Jan. 8.
c. 1788.—"Some made their escape in prows, and some in sampans."—Mem. of a Malay Family, 3.
1868.—"The harbour is crowded with men-of-war and trading vessels ... from vessels of several hundred tons burthen down to little fishing-boats and passenger sampans."—Wallace, Malay Archip. 21.
SAMSHOO, s. A kind of ardent spirit made in China from rice. Mr. Baber doubts this being Chinese; but according to Wells Williams the name is san-shao, 'thrice fired' (Guide, 220). 'Distilled liquor' is shao-siu, 'fired liquor.' Compare Germ. Brantwein, and XXX beer. Strabo says: 'Wine the Indians drink not except when sacrificing, and that is made of rice in lieu of barley" (xv. c. i. § 53).
1684.—"... sampsoe, or Chinese Beer."—Valentijn, iv. (China) 129.
[1687.—"Samshu." See under ARRACK.]
1727.—"... Samshew or Rice Arrack."—A. Hamilton, ii. 222; [ed. 1744, ii. 224].
c. 1752.—"... the people who make the Chinese brandy called Samsu, live likewise in the suburbs."—Osbeck's Voyage, i. 235.
[1852.—"... samshoe, a Chinese invention, and which is distilled from rice, after the rice has been permitted to foment (?) in ... vinegar and water."—Neale, Residence in Siam, 75.
SANDAL, SANDLE, SANDERS, SANDAL-WOOD, s. From Low Latin santalum, in Greek σάνταλον, and in later Greek σάνδανον; coming from the Arab. ṣandal, and that from Skt. chandana. The name properly belongs to the fragrant wood of the Santalum album, L. Three woods bearing the name santalum, white, yellow, and red, were in officinal use in the Middle Ages. But the name Red Sandalwood, or Red Sanders, {790a}has been long applied, both in English and in the Indian vernaculars, to the wood of Pterocarpus santalina, L., a tree of S. India, the wood of which is inodorous, but which is valued for various purposes in India (pillars, turning, &c.), and is exported as a dye-wood. According to Hanbury and Flückiger this last was the sanders so much used in the cookery of the Middle Ages for colouring sauces, &c. In the opinion of those authorities it is doubtful whether the red sandal of the medieval pharmacologists was a kind of the real odorous sandal-wood, or was the wood of Pteroc. santal. It is possible that sometimes the one and sometimes the other was meant. For on the one hand, even in modern times, we find Milburn (see below) speaking of the three colours of the real sandal-wood; and on the other hand we find Matthioli in the 16th century speaking of the red sandal as inodorous.
It has been a question how the Pterocarpus santalina came to be called sandal-wood at all. We may suggest, as a possible origin of this, the fact that its powder "mixed with oil is used for bathing and purifying the skin" (Drury, s.v.), much as the true sandal-wood powder also is used in the East.
c. 545.—"And from the remoter regions, I speak of Tzinista and other places of export, the imports to Taprobane are silk, aloeswood, cloves, Sandalwood (τζάνδανη), and so forth...."—Cosmas, in Cathay, &c., clxxvii.
1298.—"Encore sachiez que en ceste ysle a arbres de sandal vermoille ausi grant come sunt les arbres des nostre contrée ... et il en ont bois come nos avuns d'autres arbres sauvajes."—Marco Polo, Geog. Text, ch. cxci.
c. 1390.—"Take powdered rice and boil it in almond milk ... and colour it with Saunders."—Recipe quoted by Wright, Domestic Manners, &c., 350.
1554.—"Le Santal donc croist es Indes Orientales et Occidentales: en grandes Forestz, et fort espesses. Il s'en treuue trois especes: mais le plus pasle est le meilleur: le blanc apres: le rouge est mis au dernier ranc, pource qu'il n'a aucune odeur: mais les deux premiers sentent fort bon."—Matthioli (old Fr. version), liv. i. ch. xix.
1563.—"The Sandal grows about Timor, which produces the largest quantity, and it is called chundana; and by this name it is known in all the regions about Malaca; and the Arabs, being those who carried on {790b}the trade of those parts, corrupted the word and called it sandal. Every Moor, whatever his nation, calls it thus...."—Garcia, f. 185v. He proceeds to speak of the sandalo vermelho as quite a different product, growing in Tenasserim and on the Coromandel Coast.
1584.—"... Sandales wilde from Cochin. Sandales domestick from Malacca...."—Wm. Barrett, in Hakl. ii. 412.
1613.—"... certain renegade Christians of the said island, along with the Moors, called in the Hollanders, who thinking it was a fine opportunity, went one time with five vessels, and another time with seven, against the said fort, at a time when most of the people ... were gone to Solor for the Sandal trade, by which they had their living."—Bocarro, Decada, 723.
1615.—"Committee to procure the commodities recommended by Capt. Saris for Japan, viz. ... pictures of wars, steel, skins, sanders-wood."—Sainsbury, i. 380.
1813.—"When the trees are felled, the bark is taken off; they are then cut into billets, and buried in a dry place for two months, during which period the white ants will eat the outer wood without touching the sandal; it is then taken up and ... sorted into three kinds. The deeper the colour, the higher is the perfume; and hence the merchants sometimes divide sandal into red, yellow, and white; but these are all different shades of the same colour."—Milburn, i. 291.
1825.—"Redwood, properly Red Saunders, is produced chiefly on the Coromandel Coast, whence it has of late years been imported in considerable quantity to England, where it is employed in dyeing. It ... comes in round billets of a thickish red colour on the outside, a deep brighter red within, with a wavy grain; no smell or taste."—Ibid. ed. 1825, p. 249.
SANDOWAY, n.p. A town of Arakan, the Burmese name of which is Thandwé (Sand-wé), for which an etymology ('iron-tied'), and a corresponding legend are invented, as usual [see Burmah Gazetteer, ii. 606]. It is quite possible that the name is ancient, and represented by the Sada of Ptolemy.
1553.—"In crossing the gulf of Bengal there arose a storm which dispersed them in such a manner that Martin Affonso found himself alone, with his ship, at the island called Negamale, opposite the town of Sodoe, which is on the mainland, and there was wrecked upon a reef...."—Barros, IV. ii. 1.
In I. ix. 1, it is called Sedoe.
1696.—"Other places along this Coast subjected to this King (of Arracan) are Coromoria, Sedoa, Zara, and Port Magaoni."—Appendix to Ovington, p. 563.
SANGUICEL, s. This is a term (pl. sanguiceis) often used by the Portuguese writers on India for a kind of boat, or small vessel, used in war. We are not able to trace any origin in a vernacular word. It is perhaps taken from the similar proper name which is the subject of the next article. [This supposition is rendered practically certain from the quotation from Albuquerque below, furnished by Mr. Whiteway.] Bluteau gives "Sanguicel; termo da India. He hum genero de embarcação pequena q̃ serve na costa da India para dar alcanse aos paròs dos Mouros," 'to give chase to the prows of the Moors.'
[1512.—"Here was Nuno Vaz in a ship, the St. John, which was built in Çamguicar."—Albuquerque, Cartas, p. 99. In a letter of Nov. 30, 1513, he varies the spelling to Çamgicar. There are many other passages in the same writer which make it practically certain that Sanguicels were the vessels built at Sanguicer.]
1598.—"The Conde (Francisco da Gama) was occupied all the winter (q.v.) in reforming the fleets ... and as the time came on he nominated his brother D. Luiz da Gama to be Captain-Major of the Indian Seas for the expedition to Malabar, and wrote to Baçaim to equip six very light Sanguicels according to instructions which should be given by Sebastian Botelho, a man of great experience in that craft.... These orders were given by the Count Admiral because he perceived that big fleets were not of use to guard convoys, and that it was light vessels like these alone which could catch the paraos and vessels of the pirates ... for these escaped our fleets, and got hold of the merchant vessels at their pleasure, darting in and out, like light horse, where they would...."—Couto, Dec. XII. liv. i. ch. 18.
1605.—"And seeing that I am informed that ... the incursions of certain pirates who still infest that coast might be prevented with less apparatus and expense, if we had light vessels which would be more effective than the foists and galleys of which the fleets have hitherto been composed, seeing how the enemy use their sanguicels, which our ships and galleys cannot overtake, I enjoin and order you to build a quantity of light vessels to be employed in guarding the coast in place of the fleet of galleys and foists...."—King's Letter to Dom Affonso de Castro, in Livros das Monções, i. 26.
[1612.—See under GALLIVAT, b.]
1614.—"The eight Malabaresque Sanguicels that Francis de Miranda despatched to the north from the bar of Goa went with three chief captains, each of them to command a week in turn...."—Bocarro, Decada, 262.
SANGUICER, SANGUEÇA, ZINGUIZAR, &c., n.p. This is a place often mentioned in the Portuguese narratives, as very hostile to the Goa Government, and latterly as a great nest of corsairs. This appears to be Sangameshvar, lat. 17° 9′, formerly a port of Canara on the River Shāstrī, and standing 20 miles from the mouth of that river. The latter was navigable for large vessels up to Sangameshvar, but within the last 50 years has become impassable. [The name is derived from Skt. sangama-īśvara, 'Siva, Lord of the river confluence.']
1516.—"Passing this river of Dabul and going along the coast towards Goa you find a river called Cinguiçar, inside of which there is a place where there is a traffic in many wares, and where enter many vessels and small Zambucos (Sambook) of Malabar to sell what they bring, and buy the products of the country. The place is peopled by Moors, and Gentiles of the aforesaid Kingdom of Daquem" (Deccan).—Barbosa, Lisbon ed. p. 286.
1538.—"Thirty-five leagues from Guoa, in the middle of the Gulf of the Malabars there runs a large river called Zamgizara. This river is well known and of great renown. The bar is bad and very tortuous, but after you get within, it makes amends for the difficulties without. It runs inland for a great distance with great depth and breadth."—De Castro, Primeiro Roteiro, 36.
1553.—De Barros calls it Zingaçar in II. i. 4, and Sangaça in IV. i. 14.
1584.—"There is a Haven belonging to those ryvers (rovers), distant from Goa about 12 miles, and is called Sanguiseo, where many of those Rovers dwell, and doe so much mischiefe that no man can passe by, but they receive some wrong by them.... Which the Viceroy understanding, prepared an armie of 15 Foists, over which he made chiefe Captaine a Gentleman, his Nephew called Don Iulianes Mascharenhas, giving him expresse commandement first to goe unto the Haven of Sanguiseu, and utterly to raze the same downe to the ground."—Linschoten, ch. 92; [Hak. Soc. ii. 170].
1602.—"Both these projects he now began to put in execution, sending all his treasures (which they said exceeded ten millions in gold) to the river of Sanguicer, which was also within his jurisdiction, being a seaport, and there embarking it at his pleasure."—Couto, ix. 8. See also Dec. X. iv.:
"How D. Gileanes Mascarenhas arrived in Malabar, and how he entered the river of Sanguicer to chastise the Naique of that place; and of the disaster in which he met his death." (This is the event of 1584 related by Linschoten); also Dec. X. vi. 4: "Of the things that happened to D. Jeronymo Mascarenhas in Malabar, and how he had a {792a}meeting with the Zamorin, and swore peace with him; and how he brought destruction on the Naique of Sanguicer."
1727.—"There is an excellent Harbour for Shipping 8 Leagues to the Southward of Dabul, called Sanguseer, but the Country about being inhabited by Raparees, it is not frequented."—A. Hamilton, [ed. 1744] i. 244.
SANSKRIT, s. The name of the classical language of the Brahmans, Saṃskṛita, meaning in that language 'purified' or 'perfected.' This was obviously at first only an epithet, and it is not of very ancient use in this specific application. To the Brahmans Sanskrit was the bhāsha, or language, and had no particular name. The word Sanskrit is used by the protogrammarian Pāṇini (some centuries before Christ), but not as a denomination of the language. In the latter sense, however, both 'Sanskrit' and 'Prakrit' (Pracrit) are used in the Bṛihat Samhitā of Varāhamihira, c. A.D. 504, in a chapter on omens (lxxxvi. 3), to which Prof. Kern's translation does not extend. It occurs also in the Mṛichch'hakaṭikā, translated by Prof. H. H. Wilson in his Hindu Theatre, under the name of the 'Toy-cart'; in the works of Kumārila Bhatta, a writer of the 7th century; and in the Pāṇinīyā Śīkshā, a metrical treatise ascribed by the Hindus to Pāṇini, but really of comparatively modern origin.
There is a curiously early mention of Sanskrit by the Mahommedan poet Amīr Khusrū of Delhi, which is quoted below. The first mention (to our knowledge) of the word in any European writing is in an Italian letter of Sassetti's, addressed from Malabar to Bernardo Davanzati in Florence, and dating from 1586. The few words on the subject, of this writer, show much acumen.
In the 17th and 18th centuries such references to this language as occur are found chiefly in the works of travellers to Southern India, and by these it is often called Grandonic, or the like, from grantha, 'a book' (see GRUNTH, GRUNTHUM) i.e. a book of the classical Indian literature. The term Sanskrit came into familiar use after the investigations into this language by the English in Bengal (viz. by Wilkins, Jones, &c.) in the last quarter of the 18th century. [See Macdonell, Hist. of Sanskrit Lit. ch. i.]
A.D. x?—"Maitreya. Now, to me, there are two things at which I cannot choose but laugh, a woman reading Sanskrit, and a man singing a song: the woman snuffles like a young cow when the rope is first passed through her nostrils; and the man wheezes like an old Pandit repeating his bead-roll."—The Toy-Cart, E.T. in Wilson's Works, xi. 60.
A.D. y?—"Three-and-sixty or four-and-sixty sounds are there originally in Prakrit (PRACRIT) even as in Sanskrit, as taught by the Svayambhū."—Pāṇinīyā Śīkshā, quoted in Weber's Ind. Studien (1858), iv. 348. But see also Weber's Akadem. Vorlesungen (1876), p. 194.
1318.—"But there is another language, more select than the other, which all the Brahmans use. Its name from of old is Sahaskrit, and the common people know nothing of it."—Amīr Khusrū, in Elliot, iii. 563.
1586.—"Sono scritte le loro scienze tutte in una lingua che dimandano Samscruta, che vuol dire 'bene articolata': della quale non si ha memoria quando fusse parlata, con avere (com' io dico) memorie antichissime. Imparanla come noi la greca e la latina, e vi pongono molto maggior tempo, si che in 6 anni o 7 sene fanno padroni: et ha la lingua d'oggi molte cose comuni con quella, nella quale sono molti de' nostri nomi, e particularmente de numeri il 6, 7, 8, e 9, Dio, serpe, et altri assai."—Sassetti, extracted in De Gubernatis, Storia, &c., Livorno, 1875, p. 221.
c. 1590.—"Although this country (Kashmīr) has a peculiar tongue, the books of knowledge are Sanskrit (or Sahanskrit). They also have a written character of their own, with which they write their books. The substance which they chiefly write upon is Tūs, which is the bark of a tree,[237] which with a little pains they make into leaves, and it lasts for years. In this way ancient books have been written thereon, and the ink is such that it cannot be washed out."—Āīn (orig.), i. p. 563; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 351].
1623.—"The Jesuites conceive that the Bramenes are of the dispersion of the Israelites, and their Bookes (called Samescretan) doe somewhat agree with the Scriptures, but that they understand them not."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 559.
1651.—"... Souri signifies the Sun in Samscortam, which is a language in which all the mysteries of Heathendom are written, and which is held in esteem by the Bramines just as Latin is among the Learned in Europe."—Rogerius, 4.
In some of the following quotations we have a form which it is difficult to account for:
c. 1666.—"Their first study is in the Hanscrit, which is a language entirely {793a}different from the common Indian, and which is only known by the Pendets. And this is that Tongue, of which Father Kircher hath published the Alphabet received from Father Roa. It is called Hanscrit, that is, a pure Language; and because they believe this to be the Tongue in which God, by means of Brahma, gave them the four Beths (see VEDA), which they esteem Sacred Books, they call it a Holy and Divine Language."—Bernier, E.T. 107; [ed. Constable, 335].
1673.—"... who founded these, their Annals nor their Sanscript deliver not."—Fryer, 161.
1689.—"... the learned Language among them is called the Sanscreet."—Ovington, 248.
1694.—"Indicus ludus Tchûpur, sic nominatus veterum Brachmanorum linguâ Indicè dictâ Sanscroot, seu, ut vulgo, exiliori sono elegantiae causâ Sanscreet, non autem Hanscreet ut minus recte eam nuncupat Kircherus."—Hyde, De Ludis Orientt., in Syntagma Diss. ii. 264.
1726.—"Above all it would be a matter of general utility to the Coast that some more chaplains should be maintained there for the sole purpose of studying the Sanskrit tongue (de Sanskritze taal) the head-and-mother tongue of most of the Eastern languages, and once for all to make an exact translation of the Vedam or Law book of the Heathen...."—Valentijn, Choro. p. 72.
1760.—"They have a learned language peculiar to themselves, called the Hanscrit...."—Grose, i. 202.
1774.—"This code they have written in their own language, the Shanscrit. A translation of it is begun under the inspection of one of the body, into the Persian language, and from that into English."—W. Hastings, to Lord Mansfield, in Gleig, i. 402.
1778.—"The language as well as the written character of Bengal are familiar to the Natives ... and both seem to be base derivatives from the Shanscrit."—Orme, ed. 1803, ii. 5.
1782.—"La langue Samscroutam, Samskret, Hanscrit ou Grandon, est la plus étendue: ses caractères multipliés donnent beaucoup de facilité pour exprimer ses pensées, ce qui l'a fait nommer langue divine par le P. Pons."—Sonnerat, i. 224.
1794.—
"With Jones, a linguist, Sanskrit, Greek, or Manks."
Pursuits of Literature, 6th ed. 286.
1796.—"La madre di tutte le lingue Indiane è la Samskrda, cioè, lingua perfetta, piena, ben digerita. Krda opera perfetta o compita, Sam, simul, insieme, e vuol dire lingua tutta insieme ben digerita, legata, perfetta."—Fra Paolino, p. 258.
SAPECA, SAPÈQUE, s. This word is used at Macao for what we call cash (q.v.) in Chinese currency; {793b}and it is the word generally used by French writers for that coin. Giles says: "From sapek, a coin found in Tonquin and Cochin-China, and equal to about half a pfennig (1⁄600 Thaler), or about one-sixth of a German Kreutzer" (Gloss. of Reference, 122). We cannot learn much about this coin of Tonquin. Milburn says, under 'Cochin China': "The only currency of the country is a sort of cash, called sappica, composed chiefly of tutenague (see TOOTNAGUE), 600 making a quan: this is divided into 10 mace of 60 cash each, the whole strung together, and divided by a knot at each mace" (ed. 1825, pp. 444-445). There is nothing here inconsistent with our proposed derivation, given later on. Mace and Sappica are equally Malay words. We can hardly doubt that the true origin of the term is that communicated by our friend Mr. E. C. Baber: "Very probably from Malay sa, 'one,' and păku, 'a string or file of the small coin called pichis.' Pichis is explained by Crawfurd as 'Small coin ... money of copper, brass, or tin.... It was the ancient coin of Java, and also the only one of the Malays when first seen by the Portuguese.' Păku is written by Favre peḳū (Dict. Malais-Français) and is derived by him from Chinese pé-ko, 'cent.' In the dialect of Canton pak is the word for 'a hundred,' and one pak is the colloquial term for a string of one hundred cash." Sapeku would then be properly a string of 100 cash, but it is not difficult to conceive that it might through some misunderstanding (e.g. a confusion of peku and pichis) have been transferred to the single coin. There is a passage in Mr. Gerson da Cunha's Contributions to the Study of Portuguese Numismatics, which may seem at first sight inconsistent with this derivation. For he seems to imply that the smallest denomination of coin struck by Albuquerque at Goa in 1510 was called cepayqua, i.e. in the year before the capture of Malacca, and consequent familiarity with Malay terms. I do not trace his authority for this; the word is not mentioned in the Commentaries of Alboquerque, and it is quite possible that the dinheiros, as these small copper coins were also called, only received the name cepayqua at a later date, and some time after {794a}the occupation of Malacca (see Da Cunha, pp. 11-12, and 22). [But also see the quotation of 1510 from Correa under PARDAO. This word has been discussed by Col. Temple (Ind. Antiq., August 1897, pp. 222 seq.), who gives quotations establishing the derivation from the Malay sapaku.
[1639.—"It (caxa, cash) hath a four-square hole through it, at which they string them on a Straw; a String of two hundred Caxaes, called Sata, is worth about three farthings sterling, and five Satas tyed together make a Sapocon. The Javians, when this money first came amongst them, were so cheated with the Novelty, that they would give six bags of Pepper for ten Sapocons, thirteen whereof amount to but a Crown."--Mandelslo, Voyages, E.T. p. 117.
[1703.—"This is the reason why the Caxas are valued so little: they are punched in the middle, and string'd with little twists of Straw, two hundred in one Twist, which is called Santa, and is worth nine Deniers. Five Santas tied together make a thousand Caxas, or a Sapoon (? Sapocon)."—Collection of Dutch Voyages, 199.
[1830.—"The money current in Bali consists solely of Chinese pice with a hole in the centre.... They however put them up in hundreds and thousands; two hundred are called satah, and are equal to one rupee copper, and a thousand called Sapaku, are valued at five rupees."—Singapore Chronicle, June 1830, in Moor, Indian Archip. p. 94.
[1892.—"This is a brief history of the Sapec (more commonly known to us as the cash), the only native coin of China, and which is found everywhere from Malaysia to Japan."—Ridgeway, Origin of Currency, 157.]
SAPPAN-WOOD, s. The wood of Caesalpina sappan; the baḳḳam of the Arabs, and the Brazil-wood of medieval commerce. Bishop Caldwell at one time thought the Tamil name, from which this was taken, to have been given because the wood was supposed to come from Japan. Rumphius says that Siam and Champa are the original countries of the Sappan, and quotes from Rheede that in Malabar it was called Tsajampangan, suggestive apparently of a possible derivation from Champa. The mere fact that it does not come from Japan would not disprove this derivation any more than the fact that turkeys and maize did not originally come from Turkey would disprove the fact of the birds and the grain (gran turco) having got names from such a belief. But the tree appears to be indigenous in Malabar, {794b}the Deccan, and the Malay Peninsula; whilst the Malayāl. shappaṅṅam, and the Tamil shappu, both signifying 'red (wood),' are apparently derivatives from shawa, 'to be red,' and suggest another origin as most probable. [The Mad. Gloss. gives Mal. chappannam, from chappu, 'leaf,' Skt. anga, 'body'; Tam. shappangaṃ.] The Malay word is also sapang, which Crawfurd supposes to have originated the trade-name. If, however, the etymology just suggested be correct, the word must have passed from Continental India to the Archipelago. For curious particulars as to the names of this dye-wood, and its vicissitudes, see BRAZIL; [and Burnell's note on Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 121].
c. 1570.—
"O rico Sião ja dado ao Bremem,
O Cochim de Calemba que deu mana
De sapão, chumbo, salitre e vitualhas
Lhe apercebem celleiros e muralhas."
A. de Abreu, Desc. de Malaca.
1598.—"There are likewise some Diamants and also ... the wood Sapon, whereof also much is brought from Sian, it is like Brasill to die withall."—Linschoten, 36; [Hak. Soc. i. 120].
c. 1616.—"There are in this city of Ová (read Odia, Judea), capital of the kingdom of Siam, two factories; one of the Hollanders with great capital, and another of the English with less. The trade which both drive is in deer-skins, shagreen sappan (sapão) and much silk which comes thither from Chincheo and Cochinchina...."—Bocarro, Decada, 530.
[1615.—"Hindering the cutting of baccam or brazill wood."—Foster, Letters, iii. 158.]
1616.—"I went to Sapàn Dono to know whether he would lend me any money upon interest, as he promised me; but ... he drove me afe with wordes, ofring to deliver me money for all our sappon which was com in this junk, at 22 mas per pico."—Cocks's Diary, i. 208-9.
1617.—Johnson and Pitts at Judea in Siam "are glad they can send a junk well laden with sapon, because of its scarcity."—Sainsbury, ii. 32.
1625.—"... a wood to die withall called Sapan wood, the same we here call Brasill."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 1004.
1685.—"Moreover in the whole Island there is a great plenty of Brazill wood, which in India is called sapão."—Ribeiro, Fat. Hist. f. 8.
1727.—"It (the Siam Coast) produces good store of Sapan and Agala-woods, with Gumlack and Sticklack, and many Drugs that I know little about."—A. Hamilton, ii. 194; [ed. 1744].
1860.—"The other productions which constituted the exports of the island were Sapan wood to Persia...."—Tennent, Ceylon, ii. 54.
SARBATANE, SARBACANE, s. This is not Anglo-Indian, but it often occurs in French works on the East, as applied to the blowing-tubes used by various tribes of the Indian Islands for discharging small arrows, often poisoned. The same instrument is used among the tribes of northern South America, and in some parts of Madagascar. The word comes through the Span. cebratana, cerbatana, zarbatana, also Port. sarabatana, &c., Ital. cerbotana, Mod. Greek ζαροβοτάνα, from the Ar. zabaṭāna, 'a tube for blowing pellets' (a pea-shooter in fact!). Dozy says that the r must have been sounded in the Arabic of the Spanish Moors, as Pedro de Alcala translates zebratana by Ar. zarbatāna. The resemblance of this to the Malay sumpitan (q.v.) is curious, though it is not easy to suggest a transition, if the Arabic word is, as it appears, old enough to have been introduced into Spanish. There is apparently, however, no doubt that in Arabic it is a borrowed word. The Malay word seems to be formed directly from sumpit, 'to discharge from the mouth by a forcible expiration' (Crawfurd, Mal. Dict.).
[1516.—"... the force which had accompanied the King, very well armed, many of them with bows, others carrying blowing tubes with poisoned arrows (Zarvatanas com setas ervadas)...."—Comm. of Dalboquerque, Hak. Soc. iii. 104.]
SARBOJI, s. This is the name of some weapon used in the extreme south of India; but we have not been able to ascertain its character or etymology. We conjecture, however, that it may be the long lance or pike, 18 or 20 feet long, which was the characteristic and formidable weapon of the Marava Colleries (q.v.). See Bp. Caldwell's H. of Tinnevelly, p. 103 and passim; [Stuart, Man. of Tinnevelly, 50. This explanation is probably incorrect. Welsh (Military Rem. i. 104) defines sarabogies as "a species of park guns, for firing salutes at feasts, &c.; but not used in war." It has been suggested that the word is simply Hind. sirbojha, 'a head-load,' and Dr. Grierson writes: "'Laden {795b}with a head' may refer to a head carried home on a spear." Dr. Pope writes: "Sarboji is not found in any Dravidian dialect, as far as I know. It is a synonym for Sivaji. Sarva (sarbo)-ji is honorific. In the Tanjore Inscription it is Serfogi. In mythology Siva's name is 'arrow,' 'spear,' and 'head-burthen,' of course by metonomy." Mr. Brandt suggests Tam. sĕrŭ, "war," bŭgei, "a tube." No weapon of the name appears in Mr. Egerton's Hand-book of Indian Arms.]
1801.—"The Rt. Hon. the Governor in Council ... orders and directs all persons, whether Polygars (see POLIGAR), Colleries, or other inhabitants possessed of arms in the Provinces of Dindigul, Tinnevelly, Ramnadpuram, Sivagangai, and Madura, to deliver the said arms, consisting of Muskets, Matchlocks, Pikes, Gingauls (see GINGALL), and Sarabogoi to Lieut.-Col. Agnew...."—Procl. by Madras Govt., dd. 1st Decr., in Bp. Caldwell's Hist. p. 227.
c. 1814.—"Those who carry spear and sword have land given them producing 5 kalams of rice; those bearing muskets, 7 kalams; those bearing the sarboji, 9 kalams; those bearing the sanjali (see GINGALL), or gun for two men, 14 kalams...."—Account of the Maravas, from Mackenzie MSS. in Madras Journal, iv. 360.
SAREE, s. Hind. sāṛī, sāṛhī. The cloth which constitutes the main part of a woman's dress in N. India, wrapt round the body and then thrown over the head.
1598.—"... likewise they make whole pieces or webbes of this hearbe, sometimes mixed and woven with silke.... Those webs are named sarijn...."—Linschoten, 28; [Hak. Soc. i. 96].
1785.—"... Her clothes were taken off, and a red silk covering (a saurry) put upon her."—Acct. of a Suttee, in Seton-Karr, i. 90.
SARNAU, SORNAU, n.p. A name often given to Siam in the early part of the 16th century; from Shahr-i-nao, Pers. 'New-city'; the name by which Yuthia or Ayodhya (see JUDEA), the capital founded on the Menam about 1350, seems to have become known to the traders of the Persian Gulf. Mr. Braddell (J. Ind. Arch. v. 317) has suggested that the name (Sheher-al-nawi, as he calls it) refers to the distinction spoken of by La Loubère between the Thai-Yai, an older people of the race, and the Thai-Noi, the people known to us as Siamese. But this is less probable. {796a}We have still a city of Siam called Lophaburī, anciently a capital, and the name of which appears to be a Sanskrit or Pali form, Nava-pura, meaning the same as Shahr-i-nao; and this indeed may have first given rise to the latter name. The Cernove of Nicolo Conti (c. 1430) is generally supposed to refer to a city of Bengal, and one of the present writers has identified it with Lakhnāotī or Gauṛ, an official name of which in the 14th cent. was Shahr-i-nao. But it is just possible that Siam was the country spoken of.
1442.—"The inhabitants of the sea-coasts arrive here (at Ormuz) from the counties of Chín, Java, Bengal, the cities of Zirbád, Tenásiri, Sokotora, Shahr-i-nao...."—Abdurrazzāk, in Not. et Exts., xiv. 429.
1498.—"Xarnauz is of Christians, and the King is Christian; it is 50 days voyage with a fair wind from Calicut. The King ... has 400 elephants of war; in the land is much benzoin ... and there is aloeswood...."—Roteiro de Vasco da Gama, 110.
1510.—"... They said they were from a city called Sarnau, and had brought for sale silken stuffs, and aloeswood, and benzoin, and musk."—Varthema, 212.
1514.—"... Tannazzari, Sarnau, where is produced all the finest white benzoin, storax, and lac finer than that of Martaman."—Letter of Giov. d'Empoli, in Arch. Storico Italiano, App. 80.
1540.—"... all along the coast of Malaya, and within the Land, a great King commands, who for a more famous and recommendable Title above all other Kings, causeth himself to be called Prechau Saleu, Emperor of all Sornau, which is a Country wherein there are thirteen kingdoms, by us commonly called Siam" (Sião).—Pinto (orig. cap. xxxvi.), in Cogan, p. 43.
c. 1612.—"It is related of Siam, formerly called Sheher-al-Nawi, to which Country all lands under the wind here were tributary, that there was a King called Bubannia, who when he heard of the greatness of Malacca sent to demand submission and homage of that kingdom."—Sijara Malayu, in J. Ind. Arch. v. 454.
1726.—"About 1340 reigned in the kingdom of Siam (then called Sjaharnouw or Sornau), a very powerful Prince."—Valentijn, v. 319.
SARONG, s. Malay. sārung; the body-cloth, or long kilt, tucked or girt at the waist, and generally of coloured silk or cotton, which forms the chief article of dress of the Malays and Javanese. The same article of dress, and the name (saran) are used in Ceylon. It is an old Indian form of {796b}dress, but is now used only by some of the people of the south; e.g. on the coast of Malabar, where it is worn by the Hindus (white), by the Mappilas (Moplah) of that coast, and the Labbais (Lubbye) of Coromandel (coloured), and by the Banṭs of Canara, who wear it of a dark blue. With the Labbais the coloured sarong is a modern adoption from the Malays. Crawfurd seems to explain sarung as Javanese, meaning first 'a case or sheath,' and then a wrapper or garment. But, both in the Malay islands and in Ceylon, the word is no doubt taken from Skt. sāranga, meaning 'variegated' and also 'a garment.'
[1830.—"... the cloth or sarong, which has been described by Mr. Marsden to be 'not unlike a Scots highlander's plaid in appearance, being a piece of party-coloured cloth, about 6 or 8 feet long, and 3 or 4 feet wide, sewed together at the ends, forming, as some writers have described it, a wide sack without a bottom.' With the Maláyus, the sarong is either worn slung over the shoulders as a sash, or tucked round the waist and descending to the ankles, so as to enclose the legs like a petticoat."—Raffles, Java, i. 96.]
1868.—"He wore a sarong or Malay petticoat, and a green jacket."—Wallace, Mal. Arch. 171.
SATIGAM, n.p. Sātgāon, formerly and from remote times a port of much trade on the right bank of the Hoogly R., 30 m. above Calcutta, but for two and a half centuries utterly decayed, and now only the site of a few huts, with a ruined mosque as the only relique of former importance. It is situated at the bifurcation of the Saraswati channel from the Hoogly, and the decay dates from the silting up of the former. It was commonly called by the Portuguese Porto Pequeno (q.v.).
c. 1340.—"About this time the rebellion of Fakhrá broke out in Bengal. Fakhrá and his Bengali forces killed Kádar Khán (Governor of Lakhnauti).... He then plundered the treasury of Lakhnauti, and secured possession of that place and of Satgánw and Sunárgánw."—Ziā-ud-dīn Barnī, in Elliot, iii. 243.
1535.—"In this year Diogo Rabello, finishing his term of service as Captain and Factor of the Choromandel fishery, with license from the Governor went to Bengal in a vessel of his ... and he went well armed along with two foists which equipped with his own money, the Governor only lending him artillery and nothing more.... So this {797a}Diogo Rabello arrived at the Port of Satigaon, where he found two great ships of Cambaya which three days before had arrived with great quantity of merchandise, selling and buying: and these, without touching them, he caused to quit the port and go down the river, forbidding them to carry on any trade, and he also sent one of the foists, with 30 men, to the other port of Chatigaon, where they found three ships from the Coast of Choromandel, which were driven away from the port. And Diogo Rabello sent word to the Gozil that he was sent by the Governor with choice of peace or war, and that he should send to ask the King if he chose to liberate the (Portuguese) prisoners, in which case he also would liberate his ports and leave them in their former peace...."—Correa, iii. 649.
[c. 1590.—"In the Sarkár of Sátgáon, there are two ports at a distance of half a kos from each other; the one is Sátgáon, the other Hugli: the latter the chief; both are in the possession of the Europeans. Fine pomegranates grow here."—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, ii. 125.]
SATIN, s. This is of course English, not Anglo-Indian. The common derivation [accepted by Prof. Skeat (Concise Dict. 2nd ed. s.v.)] is with Low Lat. seta, 'silk,' Lat. seta, saeta, 'a bristle, a hair,' through the Port. setim. Dr. Wells Williams (Mid. King., ii. 123) says it is probably derived eventually from the Chinese sz'-tün, though intermediately through other languages. It is true that sz'tün or sz'-twan is a common (and ancient) term for this sort of silk texture. But we may remark that trade-words adopted directly from the Chinese are comparatively rare (though no doubt the intermediate transit indicated would meet this objection, more or less). And we can hardly doubt that the true derivation is that given in Cathay and the Way Thither, p. 486; viz. from Zaitun or Zayton, the name by which Chwan-chau (Chinchew), the great medieval port of western trade in Fokien, was known to western traders. We find that certain rich stuffs of damask and satin were called from this place, by the Arabs, Zaitūnia; the Span. aceytuni (for 'satin'), the medieval French zatony, and the medieval Ital. zetani, afford intermediate steps.
c. 1350.—"The first city that I reached after crossing the sea was Zaitūn.... It is a great city, superb indeed; and in it they make damasks of velvet as well as those of satin (kimkhā—see KINCOB, ATLAS), which are called from the name of the city zaitūnia."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 269.
1352.—In an inventory of this year in Douet d'Arcq we have: "Zatony at 4 écus the ell" (p. 342).
1405.—"And besides, this city (Samarkand) is very rich in many wares which come to it from other parts. From Russia and Tartary come hides and linens, and from Cathay silk-stuffs, the best that are made in all that region, especially the setunis, which are said to be the best in the world, and the best of all are those that are without pattern."—Clavijo (translated anew—the passage corresponding to Markham's at p. 171). The word setuni occurs repeatedly in Clavijo's original.
1440.—In the Libro de Gabelli, &c., of Giov. da Uzzano, we have mention among silk stuffs, several times, of "zetani vellutati, and other kinds of zetani."—Della Decima, iv. 58, 107, &c.
1441.—"Before the throne (at Bijanagar) was placed a cushion of zaitūnī satin, round which three rows of the most exquisite pearls were sewn."—Abdurrazzāk, in Elliot, iv. 120. (The original is "darpesh-i-takht bālishī az aṭlas-i-zaitūnī"; see Not. et Exts. xiv. 376. Quatremère (ibid. 462) translated 'un carreau de satin olive,' taking zaitūn in its usual Arabic sense of 'an olive tree.') Also see Elliot, iv. 113.
SATRAP, s. Anc. Pers. khshatrapa, which becomes satrap, as khshāyathiya becomes shāh. The word comes to us direct from the Greek writers who speak of Persia. But the title occurs not only in the books of Ezra, Esther, and Daniel, but also in the ancient inscriptions, as used by certain lords in Western India, and more precisely in Surāshtra or Peninsular Guzerat. Thus, in a celebrated inscription regarding a dam, near Girnār:
c. A.D. 150.—"... he, the Mahā-Khshatrapa Rudradāman ... for the increase of his merit and fame, has rebuilt the embankment three times stronger."—In Indian Antiquary, vii. 262. The identity of this with satrap was pointed out by James Prinsep, 1838 (J. As. Soc. Ben. vii. 345). [There were two Indian satrap dynasties, viz. the Western Satraps of Saurāshtra and Gujarāt, from about A.D. 150 to A.D. 388; for which see Rapson and Indraji, The Western Kshatrapas (J. R. A. S., N. S., 1890, p. 639); and the Northern Kshatrapas of Mathura and the neighbouring territories in the 1st cent. A.D. See articles by Rapson and Indraji in J. R. A. S., N. S., 1894, pp. 525, 541.]
1883.—"An eminent Greek scholar used to warn his pupils to beware of false analogies in philology. 'Because,' he used to say, 'σατράπης is the Greek for satrap, it does not follow that ῥατράπης is the Greek for rat-trap.'"—Sat. Rev. July 14, p. 53.
SATSUMA, n.p. Name of a city and formerly of a principality (daimioship) in Japan, the name of which is familiar not only from the deplorable necessity of bombarding its capital Kagosima in 1863 (in consequence of the murder of Mr. Richardson, and other outrages, with the refusal of reparation), but from the peculiar cream-coloured pottery made there and now well known in London shops.
1615.—"I said I had receued suffition at his highnes hands in havinge the good hap to see the face of soe mightie a King as the King of Shashma; whereat he smiled."—Cocks's Diary, i. 4-5.
1617.—"Speeches are given out that the caboques or Japon players (or whores) going from hence for Tushma to meete the Corean ambassadors, were set on by the way by a boate of Xaxma theeves, and kild all both men and women, for the money they had gotten at Firando."—Ibid. 256.
SAUGOR, SAUGOR ISLAND, n.p. A famous island at the mouth of the Hoogly R., the site of a great fair and pilgrimage—properly Ganga Sāgara ('Ocean Ganges'). It is said once to have been populous, but in 1688 (the date is clearly wrong) to have been swept by a cyclone-wave. It is now a dense jungle haunted by tigers.
1683.—"We went in our Budgeros to see ye Pagodas at Sagor, and returned to ye Oyster River, where we got as many Oysters as we desired."—Hedges, March 12; [Hak. Soc. i. 68].
1684.—"James Price assured me that about 40 years since, when ye Island called Gonga Sagur was inhabited, ye Raja of ye Island gathered yearly Rent out of it, to ye amount of 26 Lacks of Rupees."—Ibid. Dec. 15; [Hak. Soc. i. 172].
1705.—"Sagore est une Isle où il y a une Pagode très-respectée parmi les Gentils, où ils vont en pelerinage, et où il y a deux Faquers qui y font leur residence. Ces Faquers sçavent charmer les bêtes feroces, qu'on y trouve en quantité, sans quoi ils seroient tous les jours exposés à estre devorez."—Luillier, p. 123.
1727.—"... among the Pagans, the Island Sagor is accounted holy, and great numbers of Jougies go yearly thither in the Months of November and December, to worship and wash in Salt-Water, tho' many of them fall Sacrifices to the hungry Tigers."—A. Hamilton, ii. 3; [ed. 1744].
SAUL-WOOD, s. Hind. sāl, from Skt. śāla; the timber of the tree Shorea robusta, Gaertner, N.O. Dipterocarpeae, which is the most valuable {798b}building timber of Northern India. Its chief habitat is the forest immediately under the Himālaya, at intervals throughout that region from the Brahmaputra to the Biās; it abounds also in various more southerly tracts between the Ganges and the Godavery. [The botanical name is taken from Sir John Shore. For the peculiar habitat of the Sāl as compared with the Teak, see Forsyth, Highlands of C.I. 25 seqq.] It is strong and durable, but very heavy, so that it cannot be floated without more buoyant aids, and is, on that and other accounts, inferior to teak. It does not appear among eight kinds of timber in general use, mentioned in the Āīn. The saul has been introduced into China, perhaps at a remote period, on account of its connection with Buddha's history, and it is known there by the Indian name, so-lo (Bretschneider on Chinese Botan. Works, p. 6).
c. 650.—"L'Honorable du siècle, animé d'une grande pitié, et obéissant à l'ordre des temps, jugea utile de paraitre dans le monde. Quand il eut fini de convertir les hommes, il se plongea dans les joies du Nirvâna. Se plaçant entre deux arbres Sâlas, il tourna sa tête vers le nord et s'endormit."—Hiouen Thsang, Mémoires (Voyages des Pèl. Bouddh. ii. 340).
1765.—"The produce of the country consists of shaal timbers (a wood equal in quality to the best of our oak)."—Holwell, Hist. Events, &c., i. 200.
1774.—"This continued five kos; towards the end there are sāl and large forest trees."—Bogle, in Markham's Tibet, 19.
1810.—"The saul is a very solid wood ... it is likewise heavy, yet by no means so ponderous as teak; both, like many of our former woods, sink in fresh water."—Williamson, V.M. ii. 69.
SAYER, SYRE, &c., s. Hind. from Arab. sā'ir, a word used technically for many years in the Indian accounts to cover a variety of items of taxation and impost, other than the Land Revenue.
The transitions of meaning in Arabic words are (as we have several times had occasion to remark) very obscure; and until we undertook the investigation of the subject for this article (a task in which we are indebted to the kind help of Sir H. Waterfield, of the India Office, one of the busiest men in the public service, but, as so often happens, one of the readiest to render assistance) the obscurity attaching to {799a}the word sayer in this sense was especially great.
Wilson, s.v. says: "In its original purport the word signifies moving, walking, or the whole, the remainder; from the latter it came to denote the remaining, or all other, sources of revenue accruing to the Government in addition to the land-tax." In fact, according to this explanation, the application of the term might be illustrated by the ancient story of a German Professor lecturing on botany in the pre-scientific period. He is reported to have said: 'Every plant, gentlemen, is divided into two parts. This is the root,—and this is the rest of it!' Land revenue was the root, and all else was 'the rest of it.'
Sir C. Trevelyan again, in a passage quoted below, says that the Arabic word has "the same meaning as 'miscellaneous.'" Neither of these explanations, we conceive, pace tantorum virorum, is correct.
The term Sayer in the 18th century was applied to a variety of inland imposts, but especially to local and arbitrary charges levied by zemindars and other individuals, with a show of authority, on all goods passing through their estates by land or water, or sold at markets (bazar, haut, gunge) established by them, charges which formed in the aggregate an enormous burden upon the trade of the country.
Now the fact is that in sā'ir two old Semitic forms have coalesced in sound though coming from different roots, viz. (in Arabic) sair, producing sā'ir, 'walking, current,' and sā'r, producing sā'ir, 'remainder,' the latter being a form of the same word that we have in the Biblical Shear-jashub, 'the remnant shall remain' (Isaiah, vii. 3). And we conceive that the true sense of the Indian term was 'current or customary charges'; an idea that lies at the root of sundry terms of the same kind in various languages, including our own Customs, as well as the dustoory which is so familiar in India. This interpretation is aptly illustrated by the quotation below from Mr. Stuart's Minute of Feb. 10, 1790.
At a later period it seems probable that some confusion arose with the other sense of sā'ir, leading to its use, {799b}more or less, for 'et ceteras,' and accounting for what we have indicated above as erroneous explanations of the word.
I find, however, that the Index and Glossary to the Regulations, ed. 1832 (vol. iii.), defines: "Sayer. What moves. Variable imports, distinct from land-rent or revenue, consisting of customs, tolls, licenses, duties on merchandise, and other articles of personal moveable property; as well as mixed duties, and taxes on houses, shops, bazars, &c." This of course throws some doubt on the rationale of the Arabic name as suggested above.
In a despatch of April 10, 1771, to Bengal, the Court of Directors drew attention to the private Bazar charges, as "a great detriment to the public collections, and a burthen and oppression to the inhabitants"; enjoining that no Buzars or Gunges should be kept up but such as particularly belonged to the Government. And in such the duties were to be rated in such manner as the respective positions and prosperity of the different districts would admit.
In consequence of these instructions it was ordered in 1773 that "all duties coming under the description of sayer Chelluntah (H. chalantā, 'in transit'), and Rah-darry (radaree) ... and other oppressive impositions on the foreign as well as the internal trade of the country" should be abolished; and, to prevent all pretext of injustice, proportional deductions of rent were conceded to the zemindars in the annual collections. Nevertheless the exactions went on much as before, in defiance of this and repeated orders. And in 1786 the Board of Revenue issued a proclamation declaring that any person levying such duties should be subject to corporal punishment, and that the zemindar in whose zemindarry such an offence might be committed, should forfeit his lands.
Still the evil practices went on till 1790, when Lord Cornwallis took up the matter with intelligence and determination. In the preceding year he had abolished all radaree duties in Behar and Benares, but the abuses in Bengal Proper seem to have been more swarming and persistent. On June 11, 1790, orders were issued resuming the collection of all duties indicated {800a}into the hands of Government; but this was followed after a few weeks (July 28) by an order abolishing them altogether, with some exceptions, which will be presently alluded to. This double step is explained by the Governor-General in a Minute dated July 18: "When I first proposed the resumption of the Sayer from the Landholders, it appeared to me advisable to continue the former collection (the unauthorised articles excepted) for the current year, in order that by the necessary accounts [we might have the means] for making a fair adjustment of the compensation, and at the same time acquire sufficient knowledge of the collections to enable us to enter upon the regulation of them from the commencement of the ensuing year.... The collections appear to be so numerous, and of so intricate a nature, as to preclude the possibility of regulating them all; and as the establishment of new rates for such articles as it might be thought advisable to continue would require much consideration, ... I recommend that, instead of continuing the collection ... for the current year ... all the existing articles of Sayer collection (with the exception of the Abkarry (Abcarree) ...) be immediately abolished; and that the Collectors be directed to withdraw their officers from the Gunges, Bazars and Hauts," compensation being duly made. The Board of Revenue could then consider on what few articles of luxury in general consumption it might be proper to reimpose a tax.
The Order of July 28 abolished "all duties, taxes, and collections coming under the denomination of Sayer (with the exception of the Government and Calcutta Customs, the duties levied on pilgrims at Gya, and other places of pilgrimage,—the Abkarry ... which is to be collected on account of the Government ... the collections made in the Gunges, Bazars and Hauts situated within the limits of Calcutta, and such collections as are confirmed to the land-holders and the holders of Gunges &c. by the published Resolutions of June 11, 1790, namely, rent paid for the use of land (and the like) ... or for orchards, pasture-ground, or fisheries sometimes included in the {800b}sayer under the denomination of phulkur (Hind. phalkar, from phal, 'fruit'), bunkur (from Hind. ban, 'forest or pasture-ground'), and julkur (Hind. jalkar, from jal, 'water')...." These Resolutions are printed with Regn. XXVII. of 1793.
By an order of the Board of Revenue of April 28, 1790, correspondence regarding Sayer was separated from 'Land Revenue'; and on the 16th idem the Abkarry was separately regulated.
The amount in the Accounts credited as Land Revenue in Bengal seems to have included both Sayer and Abkarry down to the Accts. presented to Parliament in 1796. In the "Abstract Statement of Receipts and Disbursements of the Bengal Government" for 1793-94, the "Collections under head of Syer and Abkarry" amount to Rs. 10,98,256. In the Accounts, printed in 1799, for 1794-5 to 1796-7, the "Land and Sayer Revenues" are given, but Abkārī is not mentioned. Among the Receipts and Disbursements for 1800-1 appears "Syer Collections, including Abkaree, 7,81,925."
These forms appear to have remained in force down to 1833. In the accounts presented in 1834, from 1828-9, to 1831-2, with Estimate for 1832-3, Land Revenue is given separately, and next to it Syer and Abkaree Revenue. Except that the spelling was altered back to Sayer and Abkarry, this remained till 1856. In 1857 the accounts for 1854-5 showed in separate lines,—
Land Revenue,
Excise Duties, in Calcutta,
Sayer Revenue,
Abkarry ditto.
In the accounts for 1861-2 it became—
Land Revenue,
Sayer and Miscellaneous,
Abkaree,
and in those for 1863-4 Sayer vanished altogether.
The term Sayer has been in use in Madras and Bombay as well as in Bengal. From the former we give an example under 1802; from the latter we have not met with a suitable quotation.
The following entries in the Bengal accounts for 1858-59 will exemplify {801a}the application of Sayer in the more recent times of its maintenance:—
| Under Bengal, Behar and Orissa: | |||
| Sale of Trees and Sunken Boats | Rs. 555 | 0 | 0 |
| Under Pegu and Martaban Provinces: | |||
| Fisheries | Rs. 1,22,874 | 0 | 2 |
| Tax on Birds' nests (q.v.) | 7,449 | 0 | 0 |
| T"x on Salt | 43,061 | 3 | 10 |
| Fees for fruits and gardens | 7,287 | 9 | 1 |
| Tax on Bees' wax | 1,179 | 8 | 0 |
| Do. Collections | 8,050 | 0 | 0 |
| Sale of Government Timbers, &c. | 4,19,141 | 12 | 8 |
| 6,09,043 | 1 | 9 | |
| Under the same: | |||
| Sale proceeds of unclaimed and confiscated Timbers, | Rs. 146 | 11 | 10 |
| Net Salvage on Drift Timbers | 2,247 | 10 | 0 |
| 2,394 | 5 | 10 |
c. 1580.—"Sāīr az Gangāpat o aṭrāf-i-Hindowi waghaira ..." i.e. "Sayer from the Ganges ... and the Hindu districts, &c.... 170,800 dams."—Āīn-i-Akbarī, orig. i. 395, in detailed Revenues of Sirkar Jannatābād or Gaur; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 131].
1751.—"I have heard that Ramkissen Seat who lives in Calcutta has carried goods to that place without paying the Muxidavad Syre chowkey (choky) duties."—Letter from Nawāb to Prest. Ft. William, in Long, 25.
1788.—"Sairjat.—All kinds of taxation besides the land-rent. Sairs.—Any place or office appointed for the collection of duties or customs."—The Indian Vocabulary, 112.
1790.—"Without entering into a discussion of privileges founded on Custom, and of which it is easier to ascertain the abuse than the origin, I shall briefly remark on the Collections of Sayer, that while they remain in the hands of the Zemindars, every effort to free the internal Commerce from the baneful effects of their vexatious impositions must necessarily prove abortive."—Minute by the Hon. C. Stuart, dd. Feb. 10, quoted by Lord Cornwallis in his Minute of July 18.
" "The Board last day very humanely and politically recommended unanimously the abolition of the Sayr.
"The statement of Mr. Mercer from Burdwan makes all the Sayr (consisting of a strange medley of articles taxable, not omitting even Hermaphrodites) amount only to 58,000 Rupees...."—Minute by Mr. Law of the Bd. of Revenue, forwarded by the Board, July 12.
1792.—"The Jumma on which a settlement for 10 years has been made is about {801b}(current Rupees) 3,01,00,000 ... which is 9,35,691 Rupees less than the Average Collections of the three preceding Years. On this Jumma, the Estimate for 1791-2 is formed, and the Sayer Duties, and some other extra Collections, formerly included in the Land Revenue, being abolished, accounts for the Difference...."—Heads of Mr. Dundas's Speech on the Finances of the E.I. Company, June 5, 1792.
1793.—"A Regulation for re-enacting with alterations and modifications, the Rules passed by the Governor General in Council on 11th June and 28th July, 1790, and subsequent dates, for the resumption and abolition of Sayer, or internal Duties and Taxes throughout Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa," &c. "Passed by the Governor General in Council on the 1st May, 1793...."—Title of Regulation, XXVII. of 1793.
1802.—"The Government having reserved to itself the entire exercise of its discretion in continuing or abolishing, temporarily or permanently, the articles of revenue included according to the custom and practice of the country, under the several heads of salt and saltpetre—of the sayer or duties by sea or land—of the abkarry ...—of the excise ...—of all takes personal and professional, as well as those derived from markets, fairs and bazaars—of lakhiraj (see LACKERAGE) lands.... The permanent land-tax shall be made exclusively of the said articles now recited."—Madras Regulation, XXV. § iv.
1817.—"Besides the land-revenue, some other duties were levied in India, which were generally included under the denomination of Sayer."—Mill, H. of Br. India, v. 417.
1863.—"The next head was 'Sayer,' an obsolete Arabic word, which has the same meaning as 'miscellaneous.' It has latterly been composed of a variety of items connected with the Land Revenue, of which the Revenue derived from Forests has been the most important. The progress of improvement has given a value to the Forests which they never had before, and it has been determined ... to constitute the Revenue derived from them a separate head of the Public Accounts. The other Miscellaneous Items of Land Revenue which appeared under 'Sayer,' have therefore been added to Land Revenue, and what remains has been denominated 'Forest Revenue.'"—Sir C. Trevelyan, Financial Statement, dd. April 30.
SCARLET. See SUCLAT.
SCAVENGER, s. We have been rather startled to find among the MS. records of the India Office, in certain "Lists of Persons in the Service of the Right. Honble. the East India Company, in Fort St. George, and the other Places on the Coast of Choromandell," {802a}beginning with Feby. 170½, and in the entries for that year, the following:
"Fort St. David.
"5. Trevor Gaines, Land Customer and Scavenger of Cuddalore, 5th Councl....
"6. Edward Bawgus, Translator of Country Letters, Sen. Mercht.
"7. John Butt, Scavenger and Cornmeeter, Tevenapatam, Mercht."
Under 1714 we find again, at Fort St. George:
"Joseph Smart, Rentall General and Scavenger, 8th of Council,"
and so on, in the entries of most years down to 1761, when we have, for the last time:
"Samuel Ardley, 7th of Council, Masulipatam, Land-Customer, Military Storekeeper, Rentall General, and Scavenger."
Some light is thrown upon this surprising occurrence of such a term by a reference to Cowel's Law Dictionary, or The Interpreter (published originally in 1607) new ed. of 1727, where we read:
"Scavage, Scavagium. It is otherwise called Schevage, Shewage, and Scheauwing; maybe deduced from the Saxon Seawian (Sceawian?) Ostendere, and is a kind of Toll or Custom exacted by Mayors, Sheriffs, &c., of Merchant-strangers, for Wares shewed or offered to Sale within their Precincts, which is prohibited by the Statute 19 H. 7, 8. In a Charter of Henry the Second to the City of Canterbury it is written Scewinga, and (in Mon. Ang. 2, per fol. 890 b.) Sceawing; and elsewhere I find it in Latin Tributum Ostensorium. The City of London still retains the Custom, of which in An old printed Book of the Customs of London, we read thus, Of which Custom halfen del appertaineth to the Sheriffs, and the other halfen del to the Hostys in whose Houses the Merchants been lodged; And it is to wet that Scavage is the Shew by cause that Merchanties (sic) shewn unto the Sheriffs Merchandizes, of the which Customs ought to be taken ere that ony thing thereof be sold, &c.
"Scavenger, From the Belgick Scavan, to scrape. Two of every Parish within London and the suburbs are yearly chosen into this Office, who hire men called Rakers, and carts, to cleanse the streets, and carry away the Dirt and Filth thereof, mentioned in 14 Car. 2, cap. 2. The Germans call him a Drecksimon, from one Simon, a noted Scavenger of Marpurg.
* * * * *
"Schavaldus, The officer who collected the Scavage-Money, which was sometimes done with Extortion and great Oppression." (Then quotes Hist. of Durham from Wharton, Anglia Sacra, Pt. i. p. 75; "Anno {802b}1311. Schavaldos insurgentes in Episcopatu (Richardus episcopus) fortiter composuit. Aliqui suspendebantur, aliqui extra Episcopatum fugabantur.")
In Spelman also (Glossarium Archaiologicum, 1688) we find:—
"Scavagium.] Tributum quod a mercatoribus exigere solent nundinarum domini, ob licentiam proponendi ibidem venditioni mercimonia, a Saxon (sceawian) id est, Ostendere, inspicere, Angl. schewage and shewage." Spelman has no Scavenger or Scavager.
The scavage then was a tax upon goods for sale which were liable to duty, the word being, as Skeat points out, a Law French (or Low Latin?) formation from shew. ["From O.F. escauw-er, to examine, inspect. O. Sax. skawon, to behold; cognate with A.S. sceawian, to look at." (Concise Dict. s.v.)] And the scavager or scavenger was originally the officer charged with the inspection of the goods and collection of this tax. Passages quoted below from the Liber Albus of the City of London refer to these officers, and Mr. Riley in his translation of that work (1861, p. 34) notes that they were "Officers whose duty it was originally to take custom upon the Scavage, i.e. inspection of the opening out, of imported goods. At a later date, part of their duty was to see that the streets were kept clean; and hence the modern word 'scavenger,' whose office corresponds with the rakyer (raker) of former times." [The meaning and derivation of this word have been discussed in Notes & Queries, 2 ser. ix. 325; 5 ser. v. 49, 452.]
We can hardly doubt then that the office of the Coromandel scavenger of the 18th century, united as we find it with that of "Rentall General," or of "Land-customer," and held by a senior member of the Company's Covenanted Service, must be understood in the older sense of Visitor or Inspector of Goods subject to duties, but (till we can find more light) we should suppose rather duties of the nature of bazar tax, such as at a later date we find classed as sayer (q.v.), than customs on imports from seaward.
It still remains an obscure matter how the charge of the scavagers or scavengers came to be transferred to the oversight of streets and street-cleaning. That this must have become {803a}a predominant part of their duty at an early period is shown by the Scavager's Oath which we quote below from the Liber Albus. In Skinner's Etymologicon, 1671, the definition is Collector sordium abrasarum (erroneously connecting the word with shaving and scraping), whilst he adds: "Nostri Scavengers vilissimo omnium ministerio sordes et purgamenta urbis auferendi funguntur." In Cotgrave's English-French Dict., ed. by Howel, 1673, we have: "Scavinger. Boueur. Gadouard"—agreeing precisely with our modern use. Neither of these shows any knowledge of the less sordid office attaching to the name. The same remark applies to Lye's Junius, 1743. It is therefore remarkable to find such a survival of the latter sense in the service of the Company, and coming down so late as 1761. It must have begun with the very earliest of the Company's establishments in India, for it is probable that the denomination was even then only a survival in England, due to the Company's intimate connection with the city of London. Indeed we learn from Mr. Norton, quoted below, that the term scavage was still alive within the City in 1829.
1268.—"Walterus Hervy et Willelmus de Dunolmo, Ballivi, ut Custodes ... de Lxxv.l. vj.s. & xd. de consuetudinibus omnemodarum mercandisarum venientium de partibus transmarinis ad Civitatem praedictam, de quibus consuetudo debetur quae vocatur Scavagium...."—Mag. Rot. 59. Hen. III., extracted in T. Madox, H. and Ant. of the Exchequer, 1779, i. 779.
Prior to 1419.—"Et debent ad dictum Wardemotum per Aldermannum et probos Wardae, necnon per juratores, eligi Constabularii, Scavegeours, Aleconners, Bedelle, et alii Officiarii."—Liber Albus, p. 38.
" "Serement de Scawageours. Vous jurrez qe vous surverrez diligientiement qe lez pavimentz danz vostre Garde soient bien et droiturelement reparaillez et nyent enhaussez a nosance dez veysyns; et qe lez chemyns, ruwes, et venelles soient nettez dez fiens et de toutz maners dez ordures, pur honestee de la citee; et qe toutz les chymyneys, fournes, terrailles soient de piere, et suffisantement defensables encontre peril de few; et si vous trovez rien a contraire vous monstrez al Alderman, issint qe l'Alderman ordeigne pur amendement de celle. Et ces ne lerrez—si Dieu vous eyde et lez Saintz."—Ibid. p. 313.
1594.—Letter from the Lords of the Council to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, requesting them to admit John de Cardenas to the office of Collector of Scavage, the {803b}reversion of which had ... been granted to him.—Index to the Remembrancia of the C. of London (1878), p. 284.
1607.—Letter from the Lord Mayor to the Lord Treasurer ... enclosing a Petition from the Ward of Aldersgate, complaining that William Court, an inhabitant of that Ward for 8 or 10 years past, refused to undergo the office of Scavenger in the Parish, claiming exemption ... being privileged as Clerk to Sir William Spencer, Knight, one of the Auditors of the Court of Exchequer, and praying that Mr. Court, although privileged, should be directed to find a substitute or deputy and pay him.—Ibid. 288.
1623.—Letter ... reciting that the City by ancient Charters held ... "the office of Package and Scavage of Strangers' goods, and merchandise carried by them by land or water, out of the City and Liberties to foreign parts, whereby the Customs and Duties due to H.M. had been more duly paid, and a stricter oversight taken of such commodities so exported."—Remembrancia, p. 321.
1632.—Order in Council, reciting that a Petition had been presented to the Board from divers Merchants born in London, the sons of Strangers, complaining that the "Packer of London required of them as much fees for Package, Balliage, Shewage, &c., as of Strangers not English-born...."—Ibid. 322.
1760.—"Mr. Handle, applying to the Board to have his allowance of Scavenger increased, and representing to us the great fatigue he undergoes, and loss of time, which the Board being very sensible of. Agreed we allow him Rs. 20 per month more than before on account of his diligence and assiduity in that post."—Ft. William Consn., in Long, 245. It does not appear from this what the duties of the scavenger in Mr. Handle's case were.
1829.—"The oversight of customable goods. This office, termed in Latin supervisus, is translated in another charter by the words search and surveying, and in the 2nd Charter of Charles I. it is termed the scavage, which appears to have been its most ancient and common name, and that which is retained to the present day.... The real nature of this duty is not a toll for showing, but a toll paid for the oversight of showing; and under that name (supervisus apertionis) it was claimed in an action of debt in the reign of Charles II.... The duty performed was seeing and knowing the merchandize on which the King's import customs were paid, in order that no concealment, or fraudulent practices ... should deprive the King of his just dues ... (The duty) was well known under the name of scavage, in the time of Henry III., and it seems at that time to have been a franchise of the commonalty."—G. Norton, Commentaries on the Hist., &c., of the City of London, 3rd ed. (1869), pp. 380-381.
Besides the books quoted, see H. Wedgewood's Etym. Dict. and Skeat's do., which {804a}have furnished useful light, and some references.
SCRIVAN, s. An old word for a clerk or writer, from Port. escrivão.
[1616.—"He desired that some English might early on the Morow come to his howse, wher should meete a Scriuano and finish that busines."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. i. 173. On the same page "The Scriuane of Zulpheckcarcon."]
1673.—"In some Places they write on Cocoe-Leafes dried, and then use an Iron Style, or else on Paper, when they use a Pen made with a Reed, for which they have a Brass Case, which holds them and the Ink too, always stuck at the Girdles of their Scrivans."—Fryer, 191.
1683.—"Mr. Watson in the Taffaty warehouse without any provocation called me Pittyful Prodigall Scrivan, and told me my Hatt stood too high upon my head...."—Letter of S. Langley, in Hedges' Diary, Sept. 5; [Hak. Soc. i. 108].
SCYMITAR, s. This is an English word for an Asiatic sabre. The common Indian word is talwār (see TULWAUR). We get it through the French cimiterre, Ital. scimeterra, and according to Marcel Devic originally from Pers. shamshīr (chimchīr as he writes it). This would be still very obscure unless we consider the constant clerical confusion in the Middle Ages between c and t, which has led to several metamorphoses of words; of which a notable example is Fr. carquois from Pers. tīrkash. Scimecirra representing shimshīr might easily thus become scimetirra. But we cannot prove this to have been the real origin. This word (shamshīr) was known to Greek writers. Thus:
A.D. 93.—"... Καὶ καθίστησι τὸν πρεσβύτατον παῖδα Μορόβαζον βασιλέα περιθεῖσα τὸ διάδημα καὶ δοῦσα τὸν σημαντῆρα τοὺ πατρὸς δακτύλιον, τήντε σαμψηρὰν ὀνομαζομένην παρ' αὐτοῖς."—Joseph. Antiqq. xx. ii. 3.
c. A.D. 114.—"Δῶρα φέρει Τραιανῷ ὑφάσματα σηρικὰ καὶ σαμψήρας αἱ δέ εἰσι σπάθαι βαρβαρικαί."—Quoted in Suidas Lexicon, s.v.
1595.—
"... By this scimitar,
That slew the Sophy, and a Persian prince
That won three fields of Sultan Soliman ..."[238]
Merchant of Venice, ii. 1.
1610.—"... Anon the Patron starting up, as if of a sodaine restored to life; like a mad man skips into the boate, and drawing a Turkise Cymiter, beginneth to lay about him (thinking that his vessell had been surprised by Pirats), when they all leapt into the sea; and diuing vnder water like so many Diue-dappers, ascended without the reach of his furie."—Sandys, Relation, &c., 1615, p. 28.
1614.—"Some days ago I visited the house of a goldsmith to see a scimitar (scimitarra) that Nasuhbashá the first vizir, whom I have mentioned above, had ordered as a present to the Grand Signor. Scabbard and hilt were all of gold; and all covered with diamonds, so that little or nothing of the gold was to be seen."—P. della Valle, i. 43.
c. 1630.—"They seldome go without their swords (shamsheers they call them) form'd like a cresent, of pure metall, broad, and sharper than any rasor; nor do they value them, unlesse at one blow they can cut in two an Asinego...."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1638, p. 228.
1675.—"I kept my hand on the Cock of my Carabine; and my Comrade followed a foote pace, as well armed; and our Janizary better than either of us both: but our Armenian had only a Scimeter."—(Sir) George Wheler, Journey into Greece, London, 1682, p. 252.
1758.—"The Captain of the troop ... made a cut at his head with a scymetar which Mr. Lally parried with his stick, and a Coffree (Caffer) servant who attend him shot the Tanjerine dead with a pistol."—Orme, i. 328.
SEACUNNY, s. This is, in the phraseology of the Anglo-Indian marine, a steersman or quartermaster. The word is the Pers. sukkānī, from Ar. sukkān, 'a helm.'
c. 1580.—"Aos Mocadões, Socões, e Vogas."—Primor e Honra, &c. f. 68v. ("To the Mocuddums, Seacunnies, and oarsmen.")
c. 1590.—"Sukkāngīr, or helmsman. He steers the ship according to the orders of the Mu'allim."—Āīn, i. 280.
1805.—"I proposed concealing myself with 5 men among the bales of cloth, till it should be night, when the Frenchmen being necessarily divided into two watches might be easily overpowered. This was agreed to ... till daybreak, when unfortunately descrying the masts of a vessel on our weather beam, which was immediately supposed to be our old friend, the sentiments of every person underwent a most unfortunate alteration, and the Nakhoda, and the Soucan, as well as the Supercargo, informed me that they would not tell a lie for all the world, even to save their lives; and in short, that they would neither be airt nor pairt in the business."—Letter of Leyden, dd. Oct. 4-7, in Morton's Life.
1810.—"The gunners and quartermasters ... are Indian Portuguese; they are called Secunnis."—Maria Graham, 85.
[1855.—"... the Seacunnies, or helmsmen, were principally Manilla men."—Neale, Residence in Siam, 45.]
SEBUNDY, s. Hind. from Pers. sihbandī (sih, 'three'). The rationale of the word is obscure to us. [Platts says it means 'three-monthly or quarterly payment.' The Madras Gloss. less probably suggests Pers. sipāhbandī (see SEPOY), 'recruitment.'] It is applied to irregular native soldiery, a sort of militia, or imperfectly disciplined troops for revenue or police duties, &c. Certain local infantry regiments were formerly officially termed Sebundy. The last official appearance of the title that we can find is in application to "The Sebundy Corps of Sappers and Miners" employed at Darjeeling. This is in the E.I. Register down to July, 1869, after which the title does not appear in any official list. Of this corps, if we are not mistaken, the late Field-Marshal Lord Napier of Magdala was in charge, as Lieut. Robert Napier, about 1840. An application to Lord Napier, for corroboration of this reminiscence of many years back, drew from him the following interesting note:—
"Captain Gilmore of the (Bengal) Engineers was appointed to open the settlement of Darjeeling, and to raise two companies of Sebundy Sappers, in order to provide the necessary labour.
"He commenced the work, obtained some (Native) officers and N.C. officers from the old Bengal Sappers, and enlisted about half of each company.
"The first season found the little colony quite unprepared for the early commencement of the Rains. All the Coolies, who did not die, fled, and some of the Sappers deserted. Gilmore got sick; and in 1838 I was suddenly ordered from the extreme border of Bengal—Nyacollee—to relieve him for one month. I arrived somehow, with a pair of pitarahs as my sole possession.
"Just then, our relations with Nepaul became strained, and it was thought desirable to complete the Sebundy Sappers with men from the Border Hills unconnected with Nepaul—Garrows and similar tribes. Through the Political Officer the necessary number of men were enlisted and sent to me.
"When they arrived I found, instead of the 'fair recruits' announced, a number of most unfit men; some of them more or less crippled, or with defective sight. It seemed probable that, by the process known to us in India as uddlee buddlee (see BUDLEE), the {805b}original recruits had managed to insert substitutes during the journey! I was much embarrassed as to what I should do with them; but night was coming on, so I encamped them on the newly opened road, the only clear space amid the dense jungle on either side.  During the night there was a storm—and in the morning, to my intense relief, they had all disappeared!
"In the expressive language of my sergeant, there was not a 'visage' of the men left.
"The Sebundies were a local corps, designed to furnish a body of labourers fit for mountain-work. They were armed, and expected to fight if necessary. Their pay was 6rs. a month, instead of a Sepoy's 7½. The pensions of the Native officers were smaller than in the regular army, which was a ground of complaint with the Bengal Sappers, who never expected in accepting the new service that they would have lower pensions than those they enlisted for.
"I eventually completed the corps with Nepaulese, and, I think, left them in a satisfactory condition.
"I was for a long time their only sergeant-major. I supplied the Native officers and N.C. officers from India with a good pea-jacket each, out of my private means, and with a little gold-lace made them smart and happy.
"When I visited Darjeeling again in 1872, I found the remnant of my good Sapper officers living as pensioners, and waiting to give me an affectionate welcome.
* * * * *
"My month's acting appointment was turned into four years. I walked 30 miles to get to the place, lived much in hovels and temporary huts thrown up by my Hill-men, and derived more benefit from the climate than from my previous visit to England. I think I owe much practical teaching to the Hill-men, the Hills and the Climate. I learnt the worst the elements could do to me—very nearly—excepting earthquakes! And I think I was thus prepared for any hard work."
c. 1778.—"At Dacca I made acquaintance with my venerable friend John Cowe. He had served in the Navy so far back as the memorable siege of Havannah, was reduced when a lieutenant, at the end of the American War, went out in the Company's military service, and here I found him in command of a regiment of Sebundees, or native militia."—Hon. R. Lindsay, in L. of the Lindsays, iii. 161.
1785.—"The Board were pleased to direct that in order to supply the place of the Sebundy corps, four regiments of Sepoys be employed in securing the collection of the revenues."—In Seton-Karr, i. 92.
" "One considerable charge upon the Nabob's country was for extraordinary sibbendies, sepoys and horsemen, who appear to us to be a very unnecessary incumbrance upon the revenue."—Append. to {806a}Speech on Nab. of Arcot's Debts, in Burke's Works, iv. 18, ed. 1852.
1796.—"The Collector at Midnapoor having reported the Sebundy Corps attached to that Collectorship, Sufficiently Trained in their Exercise; the Regular Sepoys who have been Employed on that Duty are to be withdrawn."—G. O. Feb. 23, in Suppt. to Code of Military Regs., 1799, p. 145.
1803.—"The employment of these people therefore ... as sebundy is advantageous ... it lessens the number of idle and discontented at the time of general invasion and confusion."—Wellington, Desp. (ed. 1837), ii. 170.
1812.—"Sebundy, or provincial corps of native troops."—Fifth Report, 38.
1861.—"Sliding down Mount Tendong, the summit of which, with snow lying there, we crossed, the Sebundy Sappers were employed cutting a passage for the mules; this delayed our march exceedingly."—Report of Capt. Impey, R.E., in Gawler's Sikhim, p. 95.
SEEDY, s. Hind. sīdī; Arab. saiyid, 'lord' (whence the Cid of Spanish romantic history), saiyidī, 'my lord'; and Mahr. siddhī. Properly an honorific name given in Western India to African Mahommedans, of whom many held high positions in the service of the kings of the Deccan. Of these at least one family has survived in princely position to our own day, viz. the Nawāb of Jangīra (see JUNGEERA), near Bombay. The young heir to this principality, Siddhī Ahmad, after a minority of some years, was installed in the Government in Oct., 1883. But the proper application of the word in the ports and on the shipping of Western India is to negroes in general. [It "is a title still applied to holy men in Marocco and the Maghrib; on the East African coast it is assumed by negro and negroid Moslems, e.g. Sidi Mubarak Bombay; and 'Seedy boy' is the Anglo-Indian term for a Zanzibar-man" (Burton, Ar. Nights, iv. 231).]
c. 1563.—"And among these was an Abyssinian (Abexim) called Cide Meriam, a man reckoned a great cavalier, and who entertained 500 horse at his own charges, and who greatly coveted the city of Daman to quarter himself in, or at the least the whole of its pergunnas (parganas—see PERGUNNAH) to devour."—Couto, VII. x. 8.
[c. 1610.—"The greatest insult that can be passed upon a man is to call him Cisdy—that is to say 'cook.'"—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 173.]
1673.—"An Hobsy or African Coffery (they being preferred here to chief employments, which they enter on by the name of Siddies)."—Fryer, 147.
" "He being from a Hobsy Caphir made a free Denizen ... (who only in this Nation arrive to great Preferment, being the Frizled Woolly-pated Blacks) under the known style of Syddies...."—Ibid. 168.
1679.—"The protection which the Siddees had given to Gingerah against the repeated attacks of Sevagi, as well as their frequent annoyance of their country, had been so much facilitated by their resort to Bombay, that Sevagi at length determined to compel the English Government to a stricter neutrality, by reprisals on their own port."—Orme, Fragments, 78.
1690.—"As he whose Title is most Christian, encouraged him who is its principal Adversary to invade the Rights of Christendom, so did Senor Padre de Pandara, the Principal Jesuite and in an adjacent Island to Bombay, invite the Síddy to exterminate all the Protestants there."—Ovington, 157.
1750-60.—"These (islands) were formerly in the hands of Angria and the Siddies or Moors."—Grose, i. 58.
1759.—"The Indian seas having been infested to an intolerable degree by pirates, the Mogul appointed the Siddee, who was chief of a colony of Coffrees (Caffer), to be his Admiral. It was a colony which, having been settled at Dundee-Rajapore, carried on a considerable trade there, and had likewise many vessels of force."—Cambridge's Account of the War, &c., p. 216.
1800.—"I asked him what he meant by a Siddee. He said a hubshee. This is the name by which the Abyssinians are distinguished in India."—T. Munro, in Life, i. 287.
1814.—"Among the attendants of the Cambay Nabob ... are several Abyssinian and Caffree slaves, called by way of courtesy Seddees or Master."—Forbes, Or. Mem. iii. 167; [2nd ed. ii. 225].
1832.—"I spoke of a Sindhee" (Siddhee) "or Habshee, which is the name for an Abyssinian in this country lingo."—Mem. of Col. Mountain, 121.
1885.—"The inhabitants of this singular tract (Soopah plateau in N. Canara) were in some parts Mahrattas, and in others of Canarese race, but there was a third and less numerous section, of pure African descent called Sidhis ... descendants of fugitive slaves from Portuguese settlements ... the same ebony coloured, large-limbed men as are still to be found on the African coast, with broad, good-humoured, grinning faces."—Gordon S. Forbes, Wild Life in Canara, &c., 32-33.
[1896.—
"We've shouted on seven-ounce nuggets,
We've starved on a Seedee boy's pay."
R. Kipling, The Seven Seas.]
SEEMUL, SIMMUL, &c. (sometimes we have seen Symbol, and Cymbal), s. Hind. semal and sembhal; [Skt. śālmali]. The (so-called) cotton-tree Bombax Malabaricum, D.C. (N.O. Malvaceae), which occurs sporadically from Malabar to Sylhet, and from Burma to the Indus and beyond. It is often cultivated. "About March it is a striking object with its immense buttressed trunks, and its large showy red flowers, 6 inches in breadth, clustered on the leafless branches. The flower-buds are used as a potherb and the gum as a medicine" (Punjab Plants). We remember to have seen a giant of this species near Kishnagarh, the buttresses of which formed chambers, 12 or 13 feet long and 7 or 8 wide. The silky cotton is only used for stuffing pillows and the like. The wood, though wretched in quality for any ordinary purpose, lasts under water, and is commonly the material for the curbs on which wells are built and sunk in Upper India.
[c. 1807.—"... the Salmoli, or Simul ... is one of the most gaudy ornaments of the forest or village...."—Buchanan Hamilton, E. India, ii. 789.]
SEER, s. Hind. ser; Skt. seṭak. One of the most generally spread Indian denominations of weight, though, like all Indian measures, varying widely in different parts of the country. And besides the variations of local ser and ser we often find in the same locality a pakkā (pucka) and a kachchhā (cutcha) ser; a state of things, however, which is human, and not Indian only (see under PUCKA). The ser is generally (at least in upper India) equivalent to 80 tolas or rupee-weights; but even this is far from universally true. The heaviest ser in the Useful Tables (see Thomas's ed. of Prinsep) is that called "Coolpahar," equivalent to 123 tolas, and weighing 3 lbs. 1 oz. 6¼ dr. avoird.; the lightest is the ser of Malabar and the S. Mahratta country, which is little more than 8 oz. [the Macleod ser of Malabar, introduced in 1802, is of 130 tolas; 10 of these weigh 33 lb. (Madras Man. ii. 516).]
Regulation VII. of the Govt. of India of 1833 is entitled "A Reg. for altering the weight of the Furruckabad Rupee (see RUPEE) and for assimilating it to the legal currency of the Madras {807b}and Bombay Presidencies; for adjusting the weight of the Company's sicca Rupee, and for fixing a standard unit of weight for India." This is the nearest thing to the establishment of standard weights that existed up to 1870. The preamble says: "It is further convenient to introduce the weight of the Furruckabad Rupee as the unit of a general system of weights for Government transactions throughout India." And Section IV. contains the following:
"The Tola or Sicca weight to be equal to 180 grains troy, and the other denominations or weights to be derived from this unit, according to the following scale:—
Section VI. of the same Regulation says:
"The system of weights and measures (?) described in Section IV. is to be adopted at the mints and assay offices of Calcutta and Saugor respectively in the adjustment and verification of all weights for government or public purposes sent thither for examination."
But this does not go far in establishing a standard unit of weight for India: though the weights detailed in § iv. became established for Government purposes in the Bengal Presidency. The seer of this Regulation was thus 14,400 grains troy—2½ lbs. troy, 2.057 lbs. avoirdupois.
In 1870, in the Government of Lord Mayo, a strong movement was made by able and influential men to introduce the metrical system, and an Act was passed called "The Indian Weights and Measures Act" (Act XI. of 1870) to pave the way for this. The preamble declares it expedient to provide for the ultimate adoption of an uniform system of weights and measures thoughout British India, and the Act prescribes certain standards, with powers to the Local Governments to declare the adoption of these.
Section II. runs:
"Standards.—The primary standard of weight shall be called ser, and shall be a weight of metal in the possession of the Government of India, which weight, when weighed in a vacuum, is equal to the weight known in France as the kilogramme des Archives."
Again, Act XXXI. of 1872, called "The Indian Weights and Measures of Capacity Act," repeats in substance the same preamble and prescription of standard weight. It is not clear to us what the separate object of this second Act was. But with the death of Lord Mayo the whole scheme fell to the ground. The ser of these Acts would be = 2.2 lbs. avoirdupois, or 0.143 of a pound greater than the 80 tola ser.
1554.—"Porto Grande de Bemgala.—'The maund (mão) with which they weigh all merchandize is of 40 ceres, each cer 182⁄5 ounces; the said maund weighs 46½ arratels (rottle).'"—A. Nunes, 37.
1648.—"One Ceer weighs 18 peysen ... and makes ¾ pound troy weight."—Van Twist, 62.
1748.—"Enfin on verse le tout un serre de l'huile."—Lett. Edif. xiv. 220.
SEER-FISH, s. A name applied to several varieties of fish, species of the genus Cybium. When of the right size, neither too small nor too big, these are reckoned among the most delicate of Indian sea-fish. Some kinds salt well, and are also good for preparing as Tamarind-Fish. The name is sometimes said to be a corruption of Pers. sīah (qu. Pers. 'black?') but the quotations show that it is a corruption of Port. serra. That name would appear to belong properly to the well-known saw-fish (Pristis)—see Bluteau, quoted below; but probably it may have been applied to the fish now in question, because of the serrated appearance of the rows of finlets, behind the second dorsal and anal fins, which are characteristic of the genus (see Day's Fishes of India, pp. 254-256, and plates lv., lvi.).
1554.—"E aos Marinheiros hum peixe cerra par mes, a cada hum."—A. Nunez, Livro dos Pesos, 43.
" "To Lopo Vaaz, Mestre of the firearms (espingardes), his pay and provisions.... And for his three workmen, at the rate of 2 measures of rice each daily, and half a seer fish (peixe serra) each monthly, and a maund of firewood each monthly."—S. Botelho, Tombo, 235.
1598.—"There is a fish called Piexe Serra, which is cut in round pieces, as we cut Salmon and salt it. It is very good."—Linschoten, 88; [Hak. Soc. ii. 11].
1720.—"Peyxe Serra is ordinarily produced in the Western Ocean, and is so called" etc. (describing the Saw-fish).... {808b}"But in the Sea of the Islands of Quirimba (i.e. off Mozambique) there is a different peyxe serra resembling a large corvina,[239] but much better, and which it is the custom to pickle. When cured it seems just like ham."—Bluteau, Vocab. vii. 606-607.
1727.—"They have great Plenty of Seer-fish, which is as savoury as any Salmon or Trout in Europe."—A. Hamilton, i. 379; [ed. 1744, i. 382].
[1813.—"... the robal, the seir-fish, the grey mullet ... are very good."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. i. 36.]
1860.—"Of those in ordinary use for the table the finest by far is the Seir-fish,[240] a species of Scomber, which is called Tora-malu by the natives. It is in size and form very similar to the salmon, to which the flesh of the female fish, notwithstanding its white colour, bears a very close resemblance, both in firmness and in flavour."—Tennent's Ceylon, i. 205.
SEERPAW, s. Pers. through Hind. sar-ā-pā—'cap-a-pie.' A complete suit, presented as a Khilat (Killut) or dress of honour, by the sovereign or his representative.
c. 1666.—"He ... commanded, there should be given to each of them an embroider'd Vest, a Turbant, and a Girdle of Silk Embroidery, which is that which they call Ser-apah, that is, an Habit from head to foot."—Bernier, E.T. 37; [ed. Constable, 147].
1673—"Sir George Oxendine ... had a Collat (Killut) or Serpaw, a Robe of Honour from Head to Foot, offered him from the Great Mogul."—Fryer, 87.
1680.—"Answer is returned that it hath not been accustomary for the Governours to go out to receive a bare Phyrmaund (Firmaun), except there come therewith a Serpow or a Tasheriffe (Tashreef)."—Ft. St. Geo. Consn. Dec. 2, in N. & E. No. iii. 40.
1715.—"We were met by Padre Stephanus, bringing two Seerpaws."—In Wheeler, ii. 245.
1727.—"As soon as he came, the King embraced him, and ordered a serpaw or a royal Suit to be put upon him."—A. Hamilton, i. 171 [ed. 1744].
1735.—"The last Nabob (Sadatulla) would very seldom suffer any but himself to send a Seerpaw; whereas in February last Sunta Sahib, Subder Ali Sahib, Jehare Khan and Imaum Sahib, had all of them taken upon them to send distinct Seerpaws to the President."—In Wheeler, iii. 140.
1759.—"Another deputation carried six costly Seerpaws; these are garments which are presented sometimes by superiors in token of protection, and sometimes by inferiors in token of homage."—Orme, i. 159.
SEETULPUTTY, s. A fine kind of mat made especially in Eastern Bengal, and used to sleep on in the cold weather. [They are made from the split stems of the mukta pata, Phrynium dichotomum, Roxb. (see Watt, Econ. Dict. vi. pt. i. 216 seq.).] Hind. sītalpaṭṭī, 'cold-slip.' Williamson's spelling and derivation (from an Arab. word impossibly used, see SICLEEGUR) are quite erroneous.
1810.—"A very beautiful species of mat is made ... especially in the south-eastern districts ... from a kind of reedy grass.... These are peculiarly slippery, whence they are designated 'seekul-putty' (i.e. polished sheets).... The principal uses of the 'seekul-putty' are to be laid under the lower sheet of a bed, thereby to keep the body cool."—Williamson, V.M. ii. 41.
[1818.—"Another kind (of mat) the shēētŭlŭpatēēs, laid on beds and couches on account of their coolness, are sold from one roopee to five each."—Ward, Hindoos, i. 106.]
1879.—In Fallon's Dicty. we find the following Hindi riddle:—
"Chīnī kā piyālā ṭūṭā, kóī joṛtā nahīn;
Mālī jī kā bāg lagā, koī toṛtā nahīn;
Sītal-pãṭĭ bichhī, koī sotā nahīn;
Rāj-bansī mūā, koī rotā nahīn."
Which might be rendered:
"A china bowl that, broken, none can join;
A flowery field, whose blossoms none purloin;
A royal scion slain, and none shall weep;
A sītalpaṭṭī spread where none shall sleep."
The answer is an Egg; the Starry Sky; a Snake (Rãj-bansī, 'royal scion,' is a placatory name for a snake); and the Sea.
SEMBALL, s. Malay-Javan. sāmbil, sāmbal. A spiced condiment, the curry of the Archipelago. [Dennys (Descr. Dict. p. 337) describes many varieties.]
1817.—"The most common seasoning employed to give a relish to their insipid food is the lombock (i.e. red-pepper); triturated with salt it is called sambel."—Raffles, H. of Java, i. 98.
SEPOY, SEAPOY, s. In Anglo-Indian use a native soldier, disciplined and dressed in the European style. The word is Pers. sipāhī, from sipāh, 'soldiery, an army'; which J. Oppert traces to old Pers. spāda, 'a soldier' (Le peuple et la Langue des Mèdes, 1879, p. 24). But Sbah is a horseman in Armenian; and sound etymologists {809b}connect sipāh with asp, 'a horse'; [others with Skt. padāti, 'a foot-soldier']. The original word sipāhī occurs frequently in the poems of Amīr Khusrū (c. A.D. 1300), bearing always probably the sense of a 'horse-soldier,' for all the important part of an army then consisted of horsemen. See spāhī below.
The word sepoy occurs in Southern India before we had troops in Bengal; and it was probably adopted from Portuguese. We have found no English example in print older than 1750, but probably an older one exists. The India Office record of 1747 from Fort St. David's is the oldest notice we have found in extant MS. [But see below.]
c. 1300.—"Pride had inflated his brain with wind, which extinguished the light of his intellect, and a few sipāhīs from Hindustan, without any religion, had supported the credit of his authority."—Amīr Khusrū, in Elliot, iii. 536.
[1665.—"Souldier—Suppya and Haddee."—Persian Gloss. in Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1677, p. 99.]
1682.—"As soon as these letters were sent away, I went immediately to Ray Nundelall's to have ye Seapy, or Nabob's horseman, consigned to me, with order to see ye Perwanna put in execution; but having thought better of it, ye Ray desired me to have patience till tomorrow morning. He would then present me to the Nabob, whose commands to ye Seapy and Bulchunds Vekeel would be more powerfull and advantageous to me than his own."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 55, seq. Here we see the word still retaining the sense of 'horseman' in India.
[1717.—"A Company of Sepoys with the colours."—Yule, in ditto, II. ccclix. On this Sir H. Yule notes: "This is an occurrence of the word sepoy, in its modern signification, 30 years earlier than any I had been able to find when publishing the A.-I. Gloss. I have one a year earlier, and expect now to find it earlier still."
[1733.—"You are next ... to make a complete survey ... of the number of fighting Sepoys...."—Forrest, Bombay Letters, ii. 55.]
1737.—"Elle com tota a força desponivel, que eram 1156 soldados pagos em que entraram 281 chegados na não Mercês, e 780 sypaes ou lascarins (lascar), recuperon o territorio."—Bosquejo das Possesões Portuguezas no Oriente, &c., por Joaquim Pedro Celestino Soares, Lisboa, 1851, p. 58.
1746.—"The Enemy, by the best Intelligence that could be got, and best Judgment that could be formed, had or would have on Shore next Morning, upwards of 3000 Europeans, with at least 500 Coffrys, and a {810a}number of Cephoys and Peons."—Ext. of Diary, &c., in App. to A Letter to a Propr. of the E.I. Co., London, 1750, p. 94.
[1746.—Their strength on shore I compute 2000 Europeans Seapiahs and 300 Coffrees."—Letter from Madras, Oct. 9, in Bengal Consultations. Ibid. p. 600, we have Seapies.]
1747.—"At a Council of War held at Fort St. David the 25th December, 1747.
Present:—
Charles Floyer, Esq., Governor.
George Gibson
John Crompton
William Brown
John Holland
John Rodolph de Gingens
John Usgate
Robert Sanderson.
* * *
"It is further ordered that Captn. Crompton keep the Detachment under his Command at Cuddalore, in a readiness to march to the Choultry over against the Fort as soon as the Signal shall be made from the Place, and then upon his firing two Muskets, Boats shall be sent to bring them here, and to leave a serjeant at Cuddalore Who shall conduct his Seapoys to the Garden Guard, and the Serjeant shall have a Word by which He shall be received at the Garden."—Original MS. Proceedings (in the India Office).
" The Council of Fort St. David write to Bombay, March 16th, "if they could not supply us with more than 300 Europeans, We should be glad of Five or Six Hundred of the best Northern People their way, as they are reported to be much better than ours, and not so liable to Desertion."
In Consn. May 30th they record the arrival of the ships Leven, Warwick, and Ilchester, Princess Augusta, "on the 28th inst., from Bombay, (bringing) us a General from that Presidency,[241] as entered No. 38, advising of having sent us by them sundry stores and a Reinforcement of Men, consisting of 70 European Soldiers, 200 Topasses (Topaz), and 100 well-trained Seapoys, all of which under the command of Capt. Thomas Andrews, a Good Officer...."
And under July 13th. "... The Reinforcement of Sepoys having arrived from Tellicherry, which, with those that were sent from Bombay, making a formidable Body, besides what are still expected; and as there is far greater Dependance to be placed on those People than on our own Peons ... many of whom have a very weakly Appearance, Agreed, that a General Review be now had of them, that all such may be discharged, and only the Choicest of them continued in the Service."—MS. Records in India Office.
1752.—"... they quitted their entrenchments on the first day of March, 1752, and advanced in order of battle, taking possession of a rising ground on the right, on which they placed 50 Europeans; the front {810b}consisted of 1500 Sipoys, and one hundred and twenty or thirty French."—Complete Hist. of the War in India, 1761, pp. 9-10.
1758.—A Tabular Statement (Mappa) of the Indian troops, 20th Jan. of this year, shows "Corpo de Sipaes" with 1162 "Sipaes promptos."—Bosquejo, as above.
" "A stout body of near 1000 Sepoys has been raised within these few days."—In Long, 134.
[1759.—"Boat rice extraordinary for the Gentoo Seapois...."—Ibid. 174.]
1763.—"The Indian natives and Moors, who are trained in the European manner, are called Sepoys."—Orme, i. 80.