1660.—"Jani Beg might attack us from the hills, the ghrábs from the river, and the men of Sihwān from the rear, so that we should be in a critical position."—Mohammed M'asum, in Elliot, i. 250. The word occurs in many pages of the same history.
[1679.—"My Selfe and Mr. Gapes Grob the stern most."—In Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. clxxxiv.]
1690.—"Galera ... ab Arabibus tam Asiaticis quam Africanis vocatur ... Ghorâb, i.e. Corvus, quasi piceâ nigredine, rostro extenso, et velis remisque sicut alis volans galera: unde et Vlacho Graece dicitur {392b}Μέλαινα."—Hyde, Note on Peritsol, in Synt. Dissertt. i. 97.
1673.—"Our Factors, having concerns in the cargo of the ships in this Road, loaded two Grobs and departed."—Fryer, 153.
1727.—"The Muskat War ... obliges them (the Portuguese) to keep an Armada of five or six Ships, besides small Frigates and Grabs of War."—A. Hamilton, i. 250; [ed. 1744, ii. 253].
1750-52.—"The ships which they make use of against their enemies are called goerabbs by the Dutch, and grabbs by the English, have 2 or 3 masts, and are built like our ships, with the same sort of rigging, only their prows are low and sharp as in gallies, that they may not only place some cannons in them, but likewise in case of emergency for a couple of oars, to push the grabb on in a calm."—Olof Toreen, Voyage, 205.
c. 1754.—"Our E. I. Company had here (Bombay) one ship of 40 guns, one of 20, one Grab of 18 guns, and several other vessels."—Ives, 43. Ives explains "Ketches, which they call grabs." This shows the meaning already changed, as no galley could carry 18 guns.
c. 1760.—"When the Derby, Captain Ansell, was so scandalously taken by a few of Angria's grabs."—Grose, i. 81.
1763.—"The grabs have rarely more than two masts, though some have three; those of three are about 300 tons burthen; but the others are not more than 150: they are built to draw very little water, being very broad in proportion to their length, narrowing, however, from the middle to the end, where instead of bows they have a prow, projecting like that of a Mediterranean galley."—Orme (reprint), i. 408-9.
1810.—"Here a fine English East Indiaman, there a grab, or a dow from Arabia."—Maria Graham, 142.
" "This Glab (sic) belongs to an Arab merchant of Muscat. The Nakhodah, an Abyssinian slave."—Elphinstone, in Life, i. 232.
[1820.—"We had scarce set sail when there came in a ghorab (a kind of boat) the Cotwal of Surat ..."—Trans. Lit. Soc. Bo. ii. 5.]
1872.—"Moored in its centre you saw some 20 or 30 ghurábs (grabs) from Maskat, Baghlahs from the Persian Gulf, Kotiyahs from Kach'h, and Pattimars or Batelas from the Konkan and Bombay."—Burton, Sind Revisited, i. 83.
GRAM, s. This word is properly the Portuguese grão, i.e. 'grain,' but it has been specially appropriated to that kind of vetch (Cicer arietinum, L.) which is the most general grain- (rather pulse-) food of horses all over India, called in H. chanā. It is the Ital. cece, Fr. pois chiche, Eng. chick-pea or Egypt. pea, much used in France and S. {393a}Europe. This specific application of grão is also Portuguese, as appears from Bluteau. The word gram is in some parts of India applied to other kinds of pulse, and then this application of it is recognised by qualifying it as Bengal gram. (See remarks under CALAVANCE.) The plant exudes oxalate of potash, and to walk through a gram-field in a wet morning is destructive to shoe-leather. The natives collect the acid.
[1513.—"And for the food of these horses (exported from the Persian Gulf) the factor supplied grãos."—Albuquerque, Cartas, p. 200, Letter of Dec. 4.
[1554.—(Describing Vijayanagar.) "There the food of horses and elephants consists of grãos, rice and other vegetables, cooked with jagra, which is palm-tree sugar, as there is no barley in that country."—Castanheda, Bk. ii. ch. 16.
[c. 1610.—"They give them also a certain grain like lentils."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 79.]
1702.—"... he confessing before us that their allowance three times a week is but a quart of rice and gram together for five men a day, but promises that for the future it shall be rectified."—In Wheeler, ii. 10.
1776.—"... Lentils, gram ... mustard seed."—Halhed's Code, p. 8 (pt. ii.).
1789.—"... Gram, a small kind of pulse, universally used instead of oats."—Munro's Narrative, 85.
1793.—"... gram, which it is not customary to give to bullocks in the Carnatic."—Dirom's Narrative, 97.
1804.—"The gram alone, for the four regiments with me, has in some months cost 50,000 pagodas."—Wellington, iii. 71.
1865.—"But they had come at a wrong season, gram was dear, and prices low, and the sale concluded in a dead loss."—Palgrave's Arabia, 290.
GRAM-FED, adj. Properly the distinctive description of mutton and beef fattened upon gram, which used to be the pride of Bengal. But applied figuratively to any 'pampered creature.'
c. 1849.—"By an old Indian I mean a man full of curry and of bad Hindustani, with a fat liver and no brains, but with a self-sufficient idea that no one can know India except through long experience of brandy, champagne, gram-fed mutton, cheroots and hookahs."—Sir C. Napier, quoted in Bos. Smith's Life of Ld. Lawrence, i. 338.
1880.—"I missed two persons at the Delhi assemblage in 1877. All the gram-fed secretaries and most of the alcoholic chiefs were there; but the famine-haunted {393b}villagers and the delirium-shattered opium-eating Chinaman, who had to pay the bill, were not present."—Ali Baba, 127.
GRANDONIC. (See GRUNTHUM and SANSKRIT).
GRASS-CLOTH, s. This name is now generally applied to a kind of cambric from China made from the Chuma of the Chinese (Boehmaria nivea, Hooker, the Rhea, so much talked of now), and called by the Chinese sia-pu, or 'summer-cloth.' We find grass-cloths often spoken of by the 16th century travellers, and even later, as an export from Orissa and Bengal. They were probably made of Rhea or some kindred species, but we have not been able to determine this. Cloth and nets are made in the south from the Neilgherry nettle (Girardinia heterophylla, D. C.)
c. 1567.—"Cloth of herbes (panni d'erba), which is a kinde of silke, which groweth among the woodes without any labour of man."—Caesar Frederike, in Hakl. ii. 358.
1585.—"Great store of the cloth which is made from Grasse, which they call yerua" (in Orissa).—R. Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 387.
[1598.—See under SAREE.
[c. 1610.—"Likewise is there plenty of silk, as well that of the silkworm as of the (silk) herb, which is of the brightest yellow colour, and brighter than silk itself."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 328.]
1627.—"Their manufactories (about Balasore) are of Cotton ... Silk, and Silk and Cotton Romals ...; and of Herba (a Sort of tough Grass) they make Ginghams, Pinascos, and several other Goods for Exportation."—A. Hamilton, i. 397; [ed. 1744].
1813.—Milburn, in his List of Bengal Piece-Goods, has Herba Taffaties (ii. 221).
GRASS-CUTTER, s. This is probably a corruption representing the H. ghāskhodā or ghāskāṭā, 'the digger, or cutter, of grass'; the title of a servant employed to collect grass for horses, one such being usually attached to each horse besides the syce or horse-keeper. In the north the grasscutter is a man; in the south the office is filled by the horsekeeper's wife. Ghāskaṭ is the form commonly used by Englishmen in Upper India speaking Hindustani; but ghasiyārā by those aspiring to purer language. The former term appears in Williamson's V. M. (1810) as gauskot (i. 186), the latter in Jacquemont's Correspondence as {394a}grassyara. No grasscutters are mentioned as attached to the stables of Akbar; only a money allowance for grass. The antiquity of the Madras arrangement is shown by a passage in Castanheda (1552): "... he gave him a horse, and a boy to attend to it, and a female slave to see to its fodder."—(ii. 58.)
1789.—"... an Horsekeeper and Grasscutter at two pagodas."—Munro's Narr. 28.
1793.—"Every horse ... has two attendants, one who cleans and takes care of him, called the horse-keeper, and the other the grasscutter, who provides for his forage."—Dirom's Narr. 242.
1846.—"Every horse has a man and a maid to himself—the maid cuts grass for him; and every dog has a boy. I inquired whether the cat had any servants, but I found he was allowed to wait upon himself."—Letters from Madras, 37.
[1850.—"Then there are our servants ... four Saises and four Ghascuts ..."—Mrs. Mackenzie, Life in the Mission, ii. 253.]
1875.—"I suppose if you were to pick up ... a grasscutter's pony to replace the one you lost, you wouldn't feel that you had done the rest of the army out of their rights."—The Dilemma, ch. xxxvii.
[GRASSHOPPER FALLS, n.p. An Anglo-Indian corruption of the name of the great waterfall on the Sheravati River in the Shimoga District of Mysore, where the river plunges down in a succession of cascades, of which the principal is 890 feet in height. The proper name of the place is Gersoppa, or Gerusappe, which takes its name from the adjoining village; geru, Can., 'the marking nut plant' (semecarpus anacardium, L.), soppu, 'a leaf.' See Mr. Grey's note on P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. ii. 218.]
GRASS-WIDOW, s. This slang phrase is applied in India, with a shade of malignity, to ladies living apart from their husbands, especially as recreating at the Hill stations, whilst the husbands are at their duties in the plains.
We do not know the origin of the phrase. In the Slang Dictionary it is explained: "An unmarried mother; a deserted mistress." But no such opprobrious meanings attach to the Indian use. In Notes and Queries, 6th ser. viii. 414, will be found several communications on this phrase. [Also see ibid. x. 436, 526; xi. 178; 8th ser. {394b}iv. 37, 75.] We learn from these that in Moor's Suffolk Words and Phrases, Grace-Widow occurs with the meaning of an unmarried mother. Corresponding to this, it is stated also, is the N.S. (?) or Low German gras-wedewe. The Swedish Gräsänka or -enka also is used for 'a low dissolute married woman living by herself.' In Belgium a woman of this description is called haecke-wedewe, from haecken, 'to feel strong desire' (to 'hanker'). And so it is suggested gräsenka is contracted from grädesenka, from gradig, 'esuriens' (greedy, in fact).  But the German Stroh-Wittwe, 'straw-widow' (which Flügel interprets as 'mock widow'), seems rather inconsistent with the suggestion that grass-widow is a corruption of the kind suggested. A friend mentions that the masc. Stroh-Wittwer is used in Germany for a man whose wife is absent, and who therefore dines at the eating-house with the young fellows. [The N.E.D. gives the two meanings: 1. An unmarried woman who has cohabited with one or more men; a discarded mistress; 2. A married woman whose husband is absent from her. "The etymological notion is obscure, but the parallel forms disprove the notion that the word is a 'corruption' of grace-widow. It has been suggested that in sense 1. grass (and G. stroh) may have been used with opposition to bed. Sense 2. may have arisen as an etymologizing interpretation of the compound after it had ceased to be generally understood; in Eng. it seems to have first appeared as Anglo-Indian." The French equivalent, Veuve de Malabar, was in allusion to Lemierre's tragedy, produced in 1770.]
1878.—"In the evening my wife and I went out house-hunting; and we pitched upon one which the newly incorporated body of Municipal Commissioners and the Clergyman (who was a Grass-widower, his wife being at home) had taken between them."—Life in the Mofussil, ii. 99-100.
1879.—The Indian newspaper's "typical official rises to a late breakfast—probably on herrings and soda-water—and dresses tastefully for his round of morning calls, the last on a grass-widow, with whom he has a tête-à-tête tiffin, where 'pegs' alternate with champagne."—Simla Letter in Times, Aug. 16.
1880.—"The Grass-widow in Nephelococcygia."—Sir Ali Baba, 169.
" "Pleasant times have these Indian grass-widows!"—The World, Jan. 21, 13.
GRASSIA, s. Grās (said to mean 'a mouthful') is stated by Mr. Forbes in the Rās Mālā (p. 186) to have been in old times usually applied to alienations for religious objects; but its prevalent sense came to be the portion of land given for subsistence to cadets of chieftains' families. Afterwards the term grās was also used for the blackmail paid by a village to a turbulent neighbour as the price of his protection and forbearance, and in other like meanings. "Thus the title of grassia, originally an honourable one, and indicating its possessor to be a cadet of the ruling tribe, became at last as frequently a term of opprobrium, conveying the idea of a professional robber" (Ibid. Bk. iv. ch. 3); [ed. 1878, p. 568].
[1584.—See under COOLY.]
c. 1665.—"Nous nous trouvâmes au Village de Bilpar, dont les Habitans qu'on nomme Gratiates, sont presque tous Voleurs."—Thevenot, v. 42.
1808.—"The Grasias have been shewn to be of different Sects, Casts, or families, viz., 1st, Colees and their Collaterals; 2nd, Rajpoots; 3rd, Syed Mussulmans; 4th, Mole-Islams or modern Mahomedans. There are besides many others who enjoy the free usufruct of lands, and permanent emolument from villages, but those only who are of the four aforesaid warlike tribes seem entitled by prescriptive custom ... to be called Grassias."—Drummond, Illustrations.
1813.—"I confess I cannot now contemplate my extraordinary deliverance from the Gracia machinations without feelings more appropriate to solemn silence, than expression."—Forbes, Or. Mem. iii. 393; [conf. 2nd ed. ii. 357].
1819.—"Grassia, from Grass, a word signifying 'a mouthful.' This word is understood in some parts of Mekran, Sind, and Kutch; but I believe not further into Hindostan than Jaypoor."—Mackmurdo, in Tr. Lit. Soc. Bo. i. 270. [On the use in Central India, see Tod, Annals, i. 175; Malcolm, Central India, i. 508.]
GRAVE-DIGGER. (See BEEJOO.)
GREEN-PIGEON. A variety of species belonging to the sub.-fam. Treroninae, and to genera Treron, Cricopus, Osmotreron, and Sphenocereus, bear this name. The three first following quotations show that these {395b}birds had attracted the attention of the ancients.
c. 180.—"Daimachus, in his History of India, says that pigeons of an apple-green colour are found in India."—Athenaeus, ix. 51.
c. A.D. 250.—"They bring also greenish (ὠχρὰς) pigeons which they say can never be tamed or domesticated."—Aelian, De Nat. Anim. xv. 14.
" "There are produced among the Indians ... pigeons of a pale green colour (χλωρόπτιλοι); any one seeing them for the first time, and not having any knowledge of ornithology, would say the bird was a parrot and not a pigeon. They have legs and bill in colour like the partridges of the Greeks."—Ibid. xvi. 2.
1673.—"Our usual diet was (besides Plenty of Fish) Water-Fowl, Peacocks, Green Pidgeons, Spotted Deer, Sabre, Wild Hogs, and sometimes Wild Cows."—Fryer, 176.
1825.—"I saw a great number of pea-fowl, and of the beautiful greenish pigeon common in this country...."—Heber, ii. 19.
GREY PARTRIDGE. The common Anglo-Indian name of the Hind. tītar, common over a great part of India, Ortygornis Ponticeriana, Gmelin. "Its call is a peculiar loud shrill cry, and has, not unaptly, been compared to the word Pateela-pateela-pateela, quickly repeated but preceded by a single note, uttered two or three times, each time with a higher intonation, till it gets, as it were, the key-note of its call."—Jerdon, ii. 566.
GRIBLEE, s. A graplin or grapnel. Lascars' language (Roebuck).
GRIFFIN, GRIFF, s.; GRIFFISH, adj. One newly arrived in India, and unaccustomed to Indian ways and peculiarities; a Johnny Newcome. The origin of the phrase is unknown to us. There was an Admiral Griffin who commanded in the Indian seas from Nov. 1746 to June 1748, and was not very fortunate. Had his name to do with the origin of the term? The word seems to have been first used at Madras (see Boyd, below). [But also see the quotation from Beaumont & Fletcher, below.] Three references below indicate the parallel terms formerly used by the Portuguese at Goa, by the Dutch in the Archipelago, and by the English in Ceylon.
[c. 1624.—"Doves beget doves, and eagles eagles, Madam: a citizen's heir, though never so rich, seldom at the best proves a gentleman."—Beaumont & Fletcher, Honest Man's Fortune, Act III. sc. 1, vol. iii. p. 389, ed. Dyce. Mr. B. Nicolson (3 ser. Notes and Queries, xi. 439) points out that Dyce's MS. copy, licensed by Sir Henry Herbert in 1624, reads "proves but a griffin gentleman." Prof. Skeat (ibid. xi. 504) quoting from Piers Plowman, ed. Wright, p. 96, "Gryffyn the Walshe," shows that Griffin was an early name for a Welshman, apparently a corruption of Griffith. The word may have been used abroad to designate a raw Welshman, and thus acquired its present sense.]
1794.—"As I am little better than an unfledged Griffin, according to the fashionable phrase here" (Madras).—Hugh Boyd, 177.
1807.—"It seems really strange to a griffin—the cant word for a European just arrived."—Ld. Minto, in India, 17.
1808.—"At the Inn I was tormented to death by the impertinent persevering of the black people; for every one is a beggar, as long as you are reckoned a griffin, or a new-comer."—Life of Leyden, 107.
1836.—"I often tire myself ... rather than wait for their dawdling; but Mrs. Staunton laughs at me and calls me a 'Griffin,' and says I must learn to have patience and save my strength."—Letters from Madras, 38.
" "... he was living with bad men, and saw that they thought him no better than themselves, but only more griffish...."—Ibid. 53.
1853.—"There were three more cadets on the same steamer, going up to that great griff depot, Oudapoor."—Oakfield, i. 38.
1853.—
"'Like drill?'
"'I don't dislike it much now: the goose-step was not lively.'
"'Ah, they don't give griffs half enough of it now-a-days; by Jove, Sir, when I was a griff'—and thereupon ..."—Ibid. i. 62.
[1900.—"Ten Rangoon sportsmen have joined to import ponies from Australia on the griffin system, and have submitted a proposal to the Stewards to frame their events to be confined to griffins at the forthcoming autumn meeting."—Pioneer Mail, May 18.]
The griffin at Goa also in the old days was called by a peculiar name. (See REINOL.)
1631.—"Haec exanthemata (prickly heat-spots) magis afficiunt recenter advenientes ut et Mosquitarum puncturae ... ita ut deridiculum ergo hic inter nostrates dicterium enatum sit, eum qui hoc modo affectus sit, esse Orang Barou, quod novitium hominem significat."—Jac. Bontii, Hist. Nat., &c., ii. cap. xviii. p. 33.
Here orang barou is Malay orang-baharu, i.e. 'new man'; whilst Orang-lama, 'man of long since,' is applied to old colonials. In connection with these terms we extract the following:—
c. 1790.—"Si je n'avois pas été un oorlam, et si un long séjour dans l'Inde ne m'avoit pas accoutumé à cette espèce de fleau, j'aurois certainement souffert l'impossible durant cette nuit."—Haafner, ii. 26-27.
On this his editor notes:
"Oorlam est un mot Malais corrumpu; il faut dire Orang-lama, ce qui signifie une personne qui a déjà été long-temps dans un endroit, ou dans un pays, et c'est par ce nom qu'on designe les Européens qui ont habité depuis un certain temps dans l'Inde. Ceux qui ne font qu'y arriver, sont appelés Baar; denomination qui vient du mot Malais Orang-Baru ... un homme nouvellement arrivé."
[1894.—"In the Standard, Jan. 1, there appears a letter entitled 'Ceylon Tea-Planting—a Warning,' and signed 'An Ex-creeper.' The correspondent sends a cutting from a recent issue of a Ceylon daily paper—a paragraph headed 'Creepers Galore.' From this extract it appears that Creeper is the name given in Ceylon to paying pupils who go out there to learn tea-planting."—Mr. A. L. Mayhew, in 8 ser. Notes and Queries, v. 124.]
GROUND, s. A measure of land used in the neighbourhood of Madras. [Also called Munny, Tam. manai.] (See under CAWNY.)
GRUFF, adj. Applied to bulky goods. Probably the Dutch grof, 'coarse.'
[1682-3.—"... that for every Tunne of Saltpetre and all other Groffe goods I am to receive nineteen pounds."—Pringle, Diary, Ft. St. Geo. 1st ser. vol. ii. 3-4.]
1750.—"... all which could be called Curtins, and some of the Bastions at Madrass, had Warehouses under them for the Reception of Naval Stores, and other gruff Goods from Europe, as well as Salt Petre from Bengal."—Letter to a Propr. of the E. I. Co., p. 52.
1759.—"Which by causing a great export of rice enhances the price of labour, and consequently of all other gruff, piece-goods and raw silk."—In Long, 171.
1765.—"... also foole sugar, lump jaggre, ginger, long pepper, and piply-mol ... articles that usually compose the gruff cargoes of our outward-bound shipping."—Holwell, Hist. Events, &c., i. 194.
1783.—"What in India is called a gruff (bulky) cargo."—Forrest, Voyage to Mergui, 42.
GRUNTH, s. Panjābī Granth, from Skt. grantha, lit. 'a knot,' leaves tied together by a string. 'The Book,' i.e. the Scripture of the Sikhs, containing the hymns composed or compiled by their leaders from Nānak (1469-1539) onwards. The Granth has been translated by Dr. Trumpp, and published, at the expense of the Indian Government.
1770.—"As the young man (Nānak) was early introduced to the knowledge of the most esteemed writings of the Mussulmen ... he made it a practice in his leisure hours to translate literally or virtually, as his mind prompted him, such of their maxims as made the deepest impression on his heart. This was in the idiom of Pendjab, his maternal language. Little by little he strung together these loose sentences, reduced them into some order, and put them in verses.... His collection became numerous; it took the form of a book which was entitled Grenth."—Seir Mutaqherin, i. 89.
1798.—"A book entitled the Grunth ... is the only typical object which the Sicques have admitted into their places of worship."—G. Forster's Travels, i. 255.
1817.—"The fame of Nannak's book was diffused. He gave it a new name, Kirrunt."—Mill's Hist. ii. 377.
c. 1831.—"... Au centre du quel est le temple d'or où est gardé le Grant ou livre sacré des Sikes."—Jacquemont, Correspondance, ii. 166.
[1838.—"There was a large collection of priests, sitting in a circle, with the Grooht, their holy book, in the centre...."—Miss Eden, Up the Country, ii. 7.]
GRUNTHEE, s. Panj. granthī from granth (see GRUNTH). A sort of native chaplain attached to Sikh regiments. [The name Granthī appears among the Hindi mendicant castes of the Panjab in Mr. Maclagan's Census Rep., 1891, p. 300.]
GRUNTHUM, s. This (grantham) is a name, from the same Skt. word as the last, given in various odd forms to the Sanskrit language by various Europeans writing in S. India during the 16th and 17th centuries. The term properly applied to the character in which the Sanskrit books were written.
1600.—"In these verses is written, in a particular language, called Gerodam, their Philosophy and Theology, which the Bramens study and read in Universities all over India."—Lucena, Vida do Padre F. Xavier, 95.
1646.—"Cette langue correspond à la nostre Latine, parceque les seules Lettrés l'apprennent; il se nomment Guirindans."—Barretto, Rel. de la Prov. de la Malabar, 257.
1727.—"... their four law-books, Sama Vedam, Urukku Vedam, Edirwarna Vedam, and Adir Vedam, which are all written in the Girandams, and are held in high esteem by the Bramins."—Valentijn, v. (Ceylon), 399.
" "Girandam (by others called Kerendum, and also Sanskrits) is the language of the Bramins and the learned."—Ibid. 386.
1753.—"Les Indiens du pays se donnent le nom de Tamules, et on sait que la langue vulgaire différente du Sanskret, et du Grendam, qui sont les langues sacrées, porte le même nom."—D'Anville, 117.
GUANA, IGUANA, s. This is not properly an Indian term, nor the name of an Indian species, but, as in many other cases, it has been applied by transfer from superficially resembling genera in the new Indies, to the old. The great lizards, sometimes called guanas in India, are apparently monitors. It must be observed, however, that approximating Indian names of lizards have helped the confusion. Thus the large monitor to which the name guana is often applied in India, is really called in Hindi goh (Skt. godhā), Singhalese goyā. The true iguana of America is described by Oviedo in the first quotation under the name of iuana. [The word is Span. iguana, from Carib iwana, written in early writers hiuana, igoana, iuanna or yuana. See N.E.D. and Stanf. Dict.]
c. 1535.—"There is in this island an animal called Iuana, which is here held to be amphibious (neutrale), i.e. doubtful whether fish or flesh, for it frequents the rivers and climbs the trees as well.... It is a Serpent, bearing to one who knows it not a horrid and frightful aspect. It has the hands and feet like those of a great lizard, the head much larger, but almost of the same fashion, with a tail 4 or 5 palms in length.... And the animal, formed as I have described, is much better to eat than to look at," &c.—Oviedo, in Ramusio, iii. f. 156v, 157.
c. 1550.—"We also used to catch some four-footed animals called iguane, resembling our lizards in shape ... the females are most delicate food."—Girolami Benzoni, p. 140.
1634.—"De Lacertae quâdam specie, Incolis Liguan. Est ... genus venenosissimum," &c.—Jac. Bontii, Lib. v. cap. 5. p. 57. (See GECKO.)
1673.—"Guiana, a Creature like a Crocodile, which Robbers use to lay hold on {398a}by their Tails, when they clamber Houses."—Fryer, 116.
1681.—Knox, in his Ceylon, speaks of two creatures resembling the Alligator—one called Kobbera guion, 5 or 6 feet long, and not eatable; the other called tolla guion, very like the former, but "which is eaten, and reckoned excellent meat ... and I suppose it is the same with that which in the W. Indies is called the guiana" (pp. 30, 31). The names are possibly Portuguese, and Kobbera guion may be Cobra-guana.
1704.—"The Guano is a sort of Creature, some of which are found on the land, some in the water ... stewed with a little Spice they make good Broth."—Funnel, in Dampier, iv. 51.
1711.—"Here are Monkeys, Gaunas, Lissards, large Snakes, and Alligators."—Lockyer, 47.
1780.—"They have here an amphibious animal called the guana, a species of the crocodile or alligator, of which soup is made equal to that of turtle. This I take upon hearsay, for it is to me of all others the most loathsome of animals, not less so than the toad."—Munro's Narrative, 36.
c. 1830.—"Had I known I was dining upon a guana, or large wood-lizard, I scarcely think I would have made so hearty a meal."—Tom Cringle (ed. 1863), 178.
1879.—"Captain Shaw asked the Imaum of one of the mosques of Malacca about alligator's eggs, a few days ago, and his reply was, that the young that went down to the sea became alligators, and those that came up the river became iguanas."—Miss Bird, Golden Chersonese, 200.
1881.—"The chief of Mudhol State belongs to the Bhonslá family.... The name, however, has been entirely superseded by the second designation of Ghorpade, which is said to have been acquired by one of the family who managed to scale a fort previously deemed impregnable, by fastening a cord around the body of a ghorpad or iguana."—Imperial Gazetteer, vi. 437.
1883.—"Who can look on that anachronism, an iguana (I mean the large monitor which Europeans in India generally call an iguana, sometimes a guano!) basking, four feet long, on a sunny bank ..."—Tribes on My Frontier, 36.
1885.—"One of my moonshis, José Prethoo, a Concani of one of the numerous families descended from Xavier's converts, gravely informed me that in the old days iguanas were used in gaining access to besieged places; for, said he, a large iguana, sahib, is so strong that if 3 or 4 men laid hold of its tail he could drag them up a wall or tree!"—Gordon Forbes, Wild Life in Canara, 56.
GUARDAFUI, CAPE, n.p. The eastern horn of Africa, pointing towards India. We have the name from the Portuguese, and it has been alleged to have been so called by them as {398b}meaning, 'Take you heed!' (Gardez-vous, in fact.) But this is etymology of the species that so confidently derives 'Bombay' from Boa Bahia. Bruce, again (see below), gives dogmatically an interpretation which is equally unfounded. We must look to history, and not to the 'moral consciousness' of anybody. The country adjoining this horn of Africa, the Regio Aromatum of the ancients, seems to have been called by the Arabs Hafūn, a name which we find in the Periplus in the shape of Opōnē. This name Hafūn was applied to a town, no doubt the true Opōnē, which Barbosa (1516) mentions under the name of Afuni, and it still survives in those of two remarkable promontories, viz. the Peninsula of Rās Hafūn (the Chersonnesus of the Periplus, the Zingis of Ptolemy, the Cape d'Affui and d'Orfui of old maps and nautical directories), and the cape of Jard-Hafūn (or according to the Egyptian pronunciation, Gard-Hafūn), i.e. Guardafui. The nearest possible meaning of jard that we can find is 'a wide or spacious tract of land without herbage.' Sir R. Burton (Commentary on Camõens, iv. 489) interprets jard as = Bay, "from a break in the dreadful granite wall, lately provided by Egypt with a lighthouse." The last statement is unfortunately an error. The intended light seems as far off as ever. [There is still no lighthouse, and shipowners differ as to its advantage; see answer by Secretary of State, in House of Commons, Times, March 14, 1902.] We cannot judge of the ground of his interpretation of jard.
An attempt has been made to connect the name Hafūn with the Arabic af'a, 'pleasant odours.' It would then be the equivalent of the ancient Reg. Aromatum. This is tempting, but very questionable. We should have mentioned that Guardafui is the site of the mart and Promontory of the Spices described by the author of the Periplus as the furthest point and abrupt termination of the continent of Barbarice (or eastern Africa), towards the Orient (τὸ τῶν Ἀρωματών ἐμπόριον καὶ ἀκρωτήριον τελευταῖον τῆς βαρβαρικῆς ἠπείρου πρὸς ἀνατολὴν ἀποκόπον).
According to C. Müller our Guardafui is called by the natives Rās Aser; their Rās Jardafūn being a point some 12 {399a}m. to the south, which on some charts is called Rās Shenarif, and which is also the Τάβαι of the Periplus (Geog. Gr. Minores, i. 263).
1516.—"And that the said ships from his ports (K. of Coulam's) shall not go inwards from the Strait and Cape of Guoardaffuy, nor go to Adem, except when employed in our obedience and service ... and if any vessel or Zambuque is found inward of the Cape of Guoardaffuy it shall be taken as good prize of war."—Treaty between Lopo Soares and the K. of Caulam, in Botelho, Tombo, 33.
" "After passing this place (Afuni) the next after it is Cape Guardafun, where the coast ends, and trends so as to double towards the Red Sea."—Barbosa, 16.
c. 1530.—"This province, called of late Arabia, but which the ancients called Trogloditica, begins at the Red Sea and the country of the Abissines, and finishes at Magadasso ... others say it extends only to the Cape of Guardafuni."—Sommario de' Regni, in Ramusio, i. f. 325.
1553.—"Vicente Sodre, being despatched by the King, touched at the Island of Çocotora, where he took in water, and thence passed to the Cape of Guardafu, which is the most easterly land of Africa."—De Barros, I. vii. cap. 2.
1554.—"If you leave Dábúl at the end of the season, you direct yourselves W.S.W. till the pole is four inches and an eighth, from thence true west to Kardafún."—Sidi 'Ali Kapudān, The Mohit, in J. As. Soc. Ben., v. 464.
" "You find such whirlpools on the coasts of Kardafūn...."—The same, in his narrative, Journ. As. ser. 1. tom. ix. p. 77.
1572.—
"O Cabo vê já Aromata chamado,
E agora Guardafú, dos moradores,
Onde começa a boca do affamado
Mar Roxo, que do fundo toma as cores."
Camões, x. 97.
Englished by Burton:
"The Cape which Antients 'Aromatic' clepe
behold, yclept by Moderns Guardafú;
where opes the Red Sea mouth, so wide and deep,
the Sea whose ruddy bed lends blushing hue."
1602.—"Eitor da Silveira set out, and without any mishap arrived at the Cape of Gardafui."—Couto, IV. i. 4.
1727.—"And having now travell'd along the Shore of the Continent, from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Guardafoy, I'll survey the Islands that lie in the Ethiopian Sea."—A. Hamilton, i. 15; [ed. 1744].
1790.—"The Portuguese, or Venetians, the first Christian traders in these parts, have called it Gardefui, which has no {399b}signification in any language. But in that part of the country where it is situated, it is called Gardefan and means the Straits of Burial, the reason of which will be seen afterwards."—Bruce's Travels, i. 315.
[1823.—"... we soon obtained sight of Cape Gardafui.... It is called by the natives Ras Assere, and the high mountain immediately to its south is named Gibel Jordafoon.... Keeping about nine miles off shore we rounded the peninsula of Hafoon.... Hafoon appears like an island, and belongs to a native Somauli prince...."—Owen, Narr. i. 353.]
GUAVA, s. This fruit (Psidium Guayava, L., Ord. Myrtaceae; Span. guayava, Fr. goyavier, [from Brazilian guayaba, Stanf. Dict.]), Guayabo pomifera Indica of Caspar Bauhin, Guayava of Joh. Bauhin, strangely appears by name in Elliot's translation from Amīr Khosrū, who flourished in the 13th century: "He who has placed only guavas and quinces in his throat, and has never eaten a plantain, will say it is like so much jujube" (iii. 556). This must be due to some ambiguous word carelessly rendered. The fruit and its name are alike American. It appears to be the guaiabo of Oviedo in his History of the Indies (we use the Italian version in Ramusio, iii. f. 141v). There is no mention of the guava in either De Orta or Acosta. Amrūd, which is the commonest Hindustani (Pers.) name for the guava, means properly 'a pear'; but the fruit is often called safarī ām, 'journey mango' (respecting which see under ANANAS). And this last term is sometimes vulgarly corrupted into supārī ām (areca-mango!). In the Deccan (according to Moodeen Sheriff) and all over Guzerat and the Central Provinces (as we are informed by M.-Gen. Keatinge), the fruit is called jām, Mahr. jamba, which is in Bengal the name of Syzigium jambolanum (see JAMOON), and in Guzerāti jāmrūd, which seems to be a factitious word in imitation of āmrūd.
The guava, though its claims are so inferior to those of the pine-apple (indeed except to stew, or make jelly, it is nobis judicibus, an utter impostor), [Sir Joseph Hooker annotates: "You never ate good ones!"] must have spread like that fruit with great rapidity. Both appear in Blochmann's transl. of the Āīn (i. 64) as served at Akbar's table; though when the guava {400a}is named among the fruits of Tūrān, doubts again arise as to the fruit intended, for the word used, amrūd, is ambiguous. In 1688 Dampier mentions guavas at Achin, and in Cochin China. The tree, like the custard-apple, has become wild in some parts of India. See Davidson, below.
c. 1550.—"The guaiava is like a peach-tree, with a leaf resembling the laurel ... the red are better than the white, and are well-flavoured."—Girol. Benzoni, p. 88.
1658.—There is a good cut of the guava, as guaiaba, in Piso, pp. 152-3.
1673.—"... flourish pleasant Tops of Plantains, Cocoes, Guiavas, a kind of Pear."—Fryer, 40.
1676.—"The N.W. part is full of Guaver Trees of the greatest variety, and their Fruit the largest and best tasted I have met with."—Dampier, ii. 107.
1685.—"The Guava ... when the Fruit is ripe, it is yellow, soft, and very pleasant. It bakes well as a Pear."—Ibid. i. 222.
c. 1750-60.—"Our guides too made us distinguish a number of goyava, and especially plumb-trees."—Grose, i. 20.
1764.—
"A wholesome fruit the ripened guava yields,
Boast of the housewife."
Grainger, Bk. i.
1843.—"On some of these extensive plains (on the Mohur R. in Oudh) we found large orchards of the wild Guava ... strongly resembling in their rough appearance the pear-trees in the hedges of Worcestershire."—Col. C. J. Davidson, Diary of Travels, ii. 271.
GUBBER, s. This is some kind of gold ducat or sequin; Milburn says 'a Dutch ducat.' It may have adopted this special meaning, but could hardly have held it at the date of our first quotation. The name is probably gabr (dīnār-i-gabr), implying its being of infidel origin.
c. 1590.—"Mirza Jani Beg Sultán made this agreement with his soldiers, that every one who should bring in an enemy's head should receive 500 gabars, every one of them worth 12 mírís ... of which 72 went to one tanka."—Táríkh-i-Táhiri, in Elliot, i. 287.
1711.—"Rupees are the most current Coin; they have Venetians, Gubbers, Muggerbees, and Pagodas."—Lockyer, 201.
" "When a Parcel of Venetian Ducats are mixt with others the whole goes by the name of Chequeens at Surat, but when they are separated, one sort is called Venetians, and all the others Gubbers indifferently."—Ibid. 242.
1762.—"Gold and Silver Weights:
| oz. | dwts. | grs. | ||
| 100 Venetian Ducats | 11 | 0 | 5 | |
| 10 (100?) Gubbers | 10 | 17 | 12 | ." |
| Brooks, Weights and Measures. |
GUBBROW, v. To bully, to dumbfound, and perturb a person. Made from ghabrāo, the imperative of ghabrānā. The latter, though sometimes used transitively, is more usually neuter, 'to be dumbfounded and perturbed.'
GUDDA, s. A donkey, literal and metaphorical. H. gadhā: [Skt. gardabha, 'the roarer']. The coincidence of the Scotch cuddy has been attributed to a loan from H. through the gypsies, who were the chief owners of the animal in Scotland, where it is not common. On the other hand, this is ascribed to a nickname Cuddy (for Cuthbert), like the English Neddy, similarly applied. [So the N.E.D. with hesitation.] A Punjab proverbial phrase is gadōṅ khurkī, "Donkeys' rubbing" their sides together, a sort of 'claw me and I'll claw thee.'
GUDDY, GUDDEE, s. H. gaddī, Mahr. gādī. 'The Throne.' Properly it is a cushion, a throne in the Oriental sense, i.e. the seat of royalty, "a simple sheet, or mat, or carpet on the floor, with a large cushion or pillow at the head, against which the great man reclines" (Wilson). "To be placed on the guddee" is to succeed to the kingdom. The word is also used for the pad placed on an elephant's back.
[1809.—"Seendhiya was seated nearly in the centre, on a large square cushion covered with gold brocade; his back supported by a round bolster, and his arms resting upon two flat cushions; all covered with the same costly material, and forming together a kind of throne, called a musnud, or guddee."—Broughton, Letters from a Mahratta Camp, ed. 1892, p. 28.]
GUDGE, s. P.—H. gaz, and corr. gaj; a Persian yard measure or thereabouts; but in India applied to measures of very varying lengths, from the hāth, or natural cubit, to the English yard. In the Āīn [ed. Jarrett, ii. 58 seqq.] Abu'l Faẓl details numerous gaz which had been in use under the Caliphs or in India, varying from 18 inches English (as calculated by {401a}J. Prinsep) to 52⅛. The Ilāhī gaz of Akbar was intended to supersede all these as a standard; and as it was the basis of all records of land-measurements and rents in Upper India, the determination of its value was a subject of much importance when the revenue surveys were undertaken about 1824. The results of enquiry were very discrepant, however, and finally an arbitrary value of 33 inches was assumed. The bīghā (see BEEGAH), based on this, and containing 3600 square gaz = ⅝ of an acre, is the standard in the N.W.P., but statistics are now always rendered in acres. See Gladwin's Ayeen (1800) i. 302, seqq.; Prinsep's Useful Tables, ed. Thomas, 122; [Madras Administration Manual, ii. 505.]
[1532.—"... and if in quantity the measure and the weight, and whether ells, roods or gazes."—Archiv. Port. Orient. f. 5, p. 1562.]
1754.—"Some of the townsmen again demanded of me to open my bales, and sell them some pieces of cloth; but ... I rather chose to make several of them presents of 2¼ gaz of cloth, which is the measure they usually take for a coat."—Hanway, i. 125.
1768-71.—"A gess or goss is 2 cobidos, being at Chinsurah 2 feet and 10 inches Rhineland measure."—Stavorinus, E.T. i. 463.
1814.—"They have no measures but the gudge, which is from their elbow to the end of the middle finger, for measuring length."—Pearce, Acc. of the Ways of the Abyssinians, in Tr. Lit. Soc. Bo. ii. 56.
GUICOWAR, n.p. Gāekwār, the title of the Mahratta kings of Guzerat, descended from Dāmāji and Pīlājī Gāekwār, who rose to distinction among Mahratta warriors in the second quarter of the 18th century. The word means 'Cowherd.'
[1813.—"These princes were all styled Guickwar, in addition to their family name ... the word literally means a cow-keeper, which, although a low employment in general, has, in this noble family among the Hindoos, who venerate that animal, become a title of great importance."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. i. 375.]
GUINEA-CLOTHS, GUINEA-STUFFS, s. Apparently these were piece-goods bought in India to be used in the West African trade. [On the other hand, Sir G. Birdwood identifies them with gunny (Report on old Recs., 224). The manufacture {401b}still goes on at Pondicherry.] These are presumably the Negros-tücher of Baldaeus (1672), p. 154.
[1675.—"Guinea-stuffs," in Birdwood, ut supra.]
1726.—We find in a list of cloths purchased by the Dutch Factory at Porto Novo, Guinees Lywaat, and Negros-Kleederen ('Guinea linens and Negro's clothing').—See Valentijn, Chorom. 9.
1813.—"The demand for Surat piece-goods has been much decreased in Europe ... and from the abolition of the slave trade, the demand for the African market has been much reduced.... Guinea stuffs, 4½ yards each (per ton) 1200 (pieces)."—Milburn, i. 289.
[1878.—"The chief trades of Pondicherry are, spinning, weaving and dyeing the cotton stuffs known by the name of Guinees."—Garstin, Man. of S. Arcot, 426.]
[GUINEA DEER, s. An old name for some species of Chevrotain, in the quotation probably the Tragulus meminna or Mouse Deer (Blanford, Mammalia, 555).
[1755.—"Common deer they have here (in Ceylon) in great abundance, and also Guinea Deer."—Ives, 57.]
GUINEA-FOWL. There seems to have been, in the 16th century, some confusion between turkeys and Guinea-fowl. See however under TURKEY. The Guinea-fowl is the Meleagris of Aristotle and others, the Afra avis of Horace.
GUINEA-PIG, s. This was a nickname given to midshipmen or apprentices on board Indiamen in the 18th century, when the command of such a vessel was a sure fortune, and large fees were paid to the captain with whom the youngsters embarked. Admiral Smyth, in his Sailor's Handbook, 1867, defines: 'The younger midshipmen of an Indiaman.'
[1779.—"I promise you, to me it was no slight penance to be exposed during the whole voyage to the half sneering, satirical looks of the mates and guinea-pigs."—Macintosh, Travels, quoted in Carey, Old Days, i. 73.]
GUINEA-WORM, s. A parasitic worm (Filaria Medinensis) inhabiting the subcutaneous cellular tissue of man, frequently in the leg, varying from 6 inches to 12 feet in length, and common on the Pers. Gulf, in Upper Egypt, Guinea, &c. It is found {402a}in some parts of W. India. "I have known," writes M.-Gen. Keatinge, "villages where half the people were maimed by it after the rains. Matunga, the Head Quarters of the Bombay Artillery, was abandoned, in great measure, on account of this pest." [It is the disease most common in the Damoh District (C. P. Gazetteer, 176, Sleeman, Rambles, &c., ed. V. A. Smith, i. 94). It is the rāshta, reshta of Central Asia (Schuyler, Turkistan, i. 147; Wolff, Travels, ii. 407).] The reason of the name is shown by the quotation from Purchas respecting its prevalence in Guinea. The disease is graphically described by Agatharchides in the first quotation.
B.C. c. 113.—"Those about the Red Sea who are stricken with a certain malady, as Agatharchides relates, besides being afflicted with other novel and unheard-of symptoms, of which one is that small snake-like worms (δρακόντια μικρὰ) eat through the legs and arms, and peep out, but when touched instantly shrink back again, and winding among the muscles produce intolerable burning pains."—In Dubner's ed. of Plutarch, iv. 872, viz. Table Discussions, Bk. VIII. Quest. ix. 3.
1600.—"The wormes in the legges and bodies trouble not euery one that goeth to those Countreys, but some are troubled with them and some are not"—(a full account of the disease follows).—Descn. of Guinea, in Purchas, ii. 963.
c. 1630.—"But for their water ... I may call it Aqua Mortis ... it ingenders small long worms in the legges of such as use to drink it ... by no potion, no unguent to be remedied: they have no other way to destroy them, save by rowling them about a pin or peg, not unlike the treble of Theorbo."—Sir T. Herbert, p. 128.
1664.—"... nor obliged to drink of those naughty waters ... full of nastiness of so many people and beasts ... that do cause such fevers, which are very hard to cure, and which breed also certain very dangerous worms in the legs ... they are commonly of the bigness and length of a small Vial-string ... and they must be drawn out little by little, from day to day, gently winding them about a little twig about the bigness of a needle, for fear of breaking them."—Bernier, E.T. 114; [ed. Constable, 355].
1676.—"Guinea Worms are very frequent in some Places of the West Indies ... I rather judge that they are generated by drinking bad water."—Dampier, ii. 89-90.
1712.—"Haec vita est Ormusiensium, imò civium totius littoris Persici, ut perpetuas in corpore calamitates ferant ex coeli intemperie: modo sudore diffluunt; modo vexantur furunculis; nunc cibi sunt, mox aquae inopes; saepè ventis urentibus, {402b}semper sole torrente, squalent et quis omnia recenseat? Unum ex aerumnis gravioribus induco: nimirum Lumbricorum singulare genus, quod non in intestinis, sed in musculis per corporis ambitum natales invenit. Latini medici vermem illum nomine donant τοῦ δρακοντίου, s. Dracunculi.... Guineenses nigritae linguâ suâ ... vermes illos vocant Ickòn, ut produnt reduces ex aurifero illo Africae littore...."—Kaempfer, Amoen. Exot., 524-5. Kaempfer speculates as to why the old physicians called it dracunculus; but the name was evidently taken from the δρακόντιον of Agatharchides, quoted above.
1768.—"The less dangerous diseases which attack Europeans in Guinea are, the dry belly-ache, and a worm which breeds in the flesh.... Dr. Rouppe observes that the disease of the Guinea-worm is infectious."—Lind on Diseases of Hot Climates, pp. 53, 54.
1774.—See an account of this pest under the name of "le ver des nerfs (Vena Medinensis)," in Niebuhr, Desc. de l'Arabie, 117. The name given by Niebuhr is, as we learn from Kaempfer's remarks, 'araḳ Medīnī, the Medina nerve (rather than vein).
[1821.—"The doctor himself is just going off to the Cape, half-dead from the Kotah fever; and, as if that were not enough, the narooa, or guinea-worm, has blanched his cheek and made him a cripple."—Tod, Annals, ed. 1884, ii. 743.]
GUJPUTTY, n.p. (See COSPETIR.)
GUM-GUM, s. We had supposed this word to be an invention of the late Charles Dickens, but it seems to be a real Indian, or Anglo-Indian, word. The nearest approximation in Shakespear's Dict. is gamak, 'sound of the kettledrum.' But the word is perhaps a Malay plural of gong originally; see the quotation from Osbeck. [The quotations from Bowdich and Medley (from Scott, Malay Words, p. 53) perhaps indicate an African origin.]
[1659.—"... The roar of great guns, the sounding of trumpets, the beating of drums, and the noise of the gomgommen of the Indians."—From the account of the Dutch attack (1659) on a village in Ceram, given in Wouter Schouten, Reistogt nadr en door Oostindiën, 4th ed. 1775, i. 55. In the Dutch version, "en het geraas van de gomgommen der Indiäanen." The French of 1707 (i. 92) has "au bruit du canon, des trompettes, des tambour et des gomgommes Indiennes."
[1731.—"One of the Hottentot Instruments of Musick is common to several Negro Nations, and is called both by Negroes and Hottentots, gom-gom ... is a Bow of Iron, or Olive Wood, strung with twisted Sheep-Gut or Sinews."—Medley, tr. Kolben's Cape of Good Hope, i. 271.]
c. 1750-60.—"A music far from delightful, consisting of little drums they call Gumgums, cymbals, and a sort of fife."—Grose, i. 139.
1768-71.—"They have a certain kind of musical instruments called gom-goms, consisting in hollow iron bowls, of various sizes and tones, upon which a man strikes with an iron or wooden stick ... not unlike a set of bells."—Stavorinus, E.T. i. 215. See also p. 65.
1771.—"At night we heard a sort of music, partly made by insects, and partly by the noise of the Gungung."—Osbeck, i. 185.
[1819.—"The gong-gongs and drums were beat all around us."—Bowdich, Mission to Ashantee, i. 7, 136.]
1836.—"'Did you ever hear a tom-tom, Sir?' sternly enquired the Captain....
'A what?' asked Hardy, rather taken aback.
'A tom-tom.'
'Never!'
'Nor a gum-gum?'
'Never!'
'What is a gum-gum?' eagerly enquired several young ladies."—Sketches by Boz, The Steam Excursion.
[GUNGE, s. Hind. ganj, 'a store, store-house, market.'
[1762.—See under GOMASTA.
[1772.—"Gunge, a market principally for grain."—Verelst, View of Bengal, Gloss. s.v.
[1858.—"The term Gunge signifies a range of buildings at a place of traffic, for the accommodation of merchants and all persons engaged in the purchase and sale of goods, and for that of their goods and of the shopkeepers who supply them."—Sleeman, Journey through Oudh, i. 278.]
GUNJA, s. Hind. gānjhā, gānjā. The flowering or fruiting shoots of the female plant of Indian hemp (Cannabis sativa, L., formerly distinguished as C. indica), used as an intoxicant. (See BANG.)
[c. 1813.—"The natives have two proper names for the hemp (Cannabis sativa), and call it Gangja when young, and Siddhi when the flowers have fully expanded."—Buchanan, Eastern India, ii. 865.]
1874.—"In odour and the absence of taste, ganjá resembles bhang. It is said that after the leaves which constitute bhang have been gathered, little shoots sprout from the stem, and that these, picked off and dried, form what is called ganjá."—Hanbury & Flückiger, 493.
GUNNY, GUNNY-BAG, s. From Skt. goṇi, 'a sack'; Hind. and Mahr. goṇ, goṇī, 'a sack, sacking.' The popular and trading name of the {403b}coarse sacking and sacks made from the fibre of jute, much used in all Indian trade. Ṭāṭ is a common Hind. name for the stuff. [With this word Sir G. Birdwood identifies the forms found in the old records—"Guiny Stuffes (1671)," "Guynie stuffs," "Guinea stuffs," "Gunnys" (Rep. on Old Records, 26, 38, 39, 224); but see under GUINEA-CLOTHS.]
c. 1590.—"Sircar Ghoraghat produces raw silk, gunneys, and plenty of Tanghion horses."—Gladwin's Ayeen, ed. 1800, ii. 9; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 123]. (But here, in the original, the term is pārchah-i-ṭāṭband.)
1693.—"Besides the aforenamed articles Goeny-sacks are collected at Palicol."—Havart (3), 14.
1711.—"When Sugar is pack'd in double Goneys, the outer Bag is always valued in Contract at 1 or 1½ Shahee."—Lockyer, 244.
1726.—In a list of goods procurable at Daatzerom: "Goeni-zakken (Gunny bags)."—Valentijn, Chor. 40.
1727.—"Sheldon ... put on board some rotten long Pepper, that he could dispose of in no other Way, and some damaged Gunnies, which are much used in Persia for embaling Goods, when they are good in their kind."—A. Hamilton, ii. 15; [ed. 1744].
1764.—"Baskets, Gunny bags, and dubbers ... Rs. 24."—In Long, 384.
1785.—"We enclose two parwanehs ... directing them each to despatch 1000 goonies of grain to that person of mighty degree."—Tippoo's Letters, 171.
1885.—"The land was so covered with them (plover) that the hunters shot them with all kind of arms. We counted 80 birds in the gunny-sack that three of the soldiers brought in."—Boots and Saddles, by Mrs. Custer, p. 37. (American work.)
GUNTA, s. Hind. ghanṭā, 'a bell or gong.' This is the common term for expressing an European hour in modern Hindūstānī. [See PANDY.]
GUP, s. Idle gossip. P.—H. gap, 'prattle, tattle.' The word is perhaps an importation from Tūrān. Vambéry gives Orient. Turki gep, geb, 'word, saying, talk'; which, however, Pavet de Courteille suggests to be a corruption from the Pers. guftan, 'to say'; of which, indeed, there is a form guptan. [So Platts, who also compares Skt. jalpa, which is the Bengali golpo, 'babble.'] See quotation from Schuyler showing the use in Turkistan. The word is perhaps best known in England through an unamiable account of society in S. {404a}India, published under the name of "Gup," in 1868.
1809-10.—"They (native ladies) sit on their cushions from day to day, with no other ... amusement than hearing the 'gup-gup,' or gossip of the place."—Mrs. Sherwood's Autobiog. 357.
1876.—"The first day of mourning goes by the name of gup, i.e. commemorative talk."—Schuyler's Turkistan, i. 151.
GUREEBPURWUR, GURREEBNUWAUZ, ss. Ar.—P. Gharībpārwar, Gharībnawāz, used in Hind. as respectful terms of address, meaning respectively 'Provider of the Poor!' 'Cherisher of the Poor!'
1726.—"Those who are of equal condition bend the body somewhat towards each other, and lay hold of each other by the beard, saying Grab-anemoas, i.e. I wish you the prayers of the poor."—Valentijn, Chor. 109, who copies from Van Twist (1648), p. 55.
1824.—"I was appealed to loudly by both parties, the soldiers calling on me as 'Ghureeb purwur,' the Goomashta, not to be outdone, exclaiming 'Donai, Lord Sahib! Donai! Rajah!'" (Read Dohāī and see DOAI).—Heber, i. 266. See also p. 279.
1867.—"'Protector of the poor!' he cried, prostrating himself at my feet, 'help thy most unworthy and wretched slave! An unblest and evil-minded alligator has this day devoured my little daughter. She went down to the river to fill her earthen jar with water, and the evil one dragged her down, and has devoured her. Alas! she had on her gold bangles. Great is my misfortune!'"—Lt.-Col. Lewin, A Fly on the Wheel, p. 99.
GURJAUT, n.p. The popular and official name of certain forest tracts at the back of Orissa. The word is a hybrid, being the Hind. gaṛh, 'a fort,' Persianised into a plural gaṛhjāt, in ignorance of which we have seen, in quasi-official documents, the use of a further English plural, Gurjauts or gaṛhjāts, which is like 'fortses.' [In the quotation below, the writer seems to think it a name of a class of people.] This manner of denominating such tracts from the isolated occupation by fortified posts seems to be very ancient in that part of India. We have in Ptolemy and the Periplus Dosarēnē or Dēsarēnē, apparently representing Skt. Daśāṛṇa, quasi daśan ṛiṇa, 'having Ten Forts,' which the lists of the Bṛhat Sanhitā shew us in this part of India (J. R. As. Soc., N.S., v. 83). The forest tract behind Orissa is called in {404b}the grant of an Orissa king, Nava Koti, 'the Nine Forts' (J.A.S.B. xxxiii. 84); and we have, in this region, further in the interior, the province of Chattīsgaṛh, '36 Forts.'
[1820.—"At present nearly one half of this extensive region is under the immediate jurisdiction of the British Government; the other possessed by tributary zemindars called Ghurjauts, or hill chiefs...."—Hamilton, Description of Hindustan, ii. 32.]
GURRY.
a. A little fort; Hind. gaṛhī. Also Gurr, i.e. gaṛh, 'a fort.'
b. See GHURRY.
a.—
1693.—"... many of his Heathen Nobles, only such as were befriended by strong Gurrs, or Fastnesses upon the Mountains...."—Fryer, 165.
1786.—"... The Zemindars in 4 pergunnahs are so refractory as to have forfeited (read fortified) themselves in their gurries, and to refuse all payments of revenue."—Articles against W. Hastings, in Burke, vii. 59.
[1835.—"A shot was at once fired upon them from a high Ghurree."—Forbes, Rās Mālā, ed. 1878, p. 521.]
GUTTA PERCHA, s. This is the Malay name Gatah Pertja, i.e. 'Sap of the Percha,' Dichopsis Gutta, Benth. (Isonandra Gutta, Hooker; N.O. Sapotaceae). Dr. Oxley writes (J. Ind. Archip. i. 22) that percha is properly the name of a tree which produces a spurious article; the real gutta p. is produced by the túbau. [Mr. Maxwell (Ind. Ant. xvii. 358) points out that the proper reading is taban.] The product was first brought to notice in 1843 by Dr. Montgomery. It is collected by first ringing the tree and then felling it, and no doubt by this process the article will speedily become extinct. The history of G. P. is, however, far from well known. Several trees are known to contribute to the exported article; their juices being mixed together. [Mr. Scott (Malay Words, 55 seqq.) writes the word getah percha, or getah perchah, 'gum of percha,' and remarks that it has been otherwise explained as meaning 'gum of Sumatra,' "there being another word percha, a name of Sumatra, as well as a third word percha, 'a rag, a remnant.'" Mr. Maxwell (loc. cit.) writes: "It is still uncertain whether there is a {405a}gutta-producing tree called Percha by the Malays. My experience is that they give the name of Perchah to that kind of getah taban which hardens into strips in boiling. These are stuck together and made into balls for export."]
[1847.—"Gutta Percha is a remarkable example of the rapidity with which a really useful invention becomes of importance to the English public. A year ago it was almost unknown, but now its peculiar properties are daily being made more available in some new branch of the useful or ornamental arts."—Mundy, Journal, in Narrative of Events in Borneo and Celebes, ii. 342 seq. (quoted by Scott, loc. cit.).]
1868.—"The late Mr. d'Almeida was the first to call the attention of the public to the substance now so well known as gutta-percha. At that time the Isonandra Gutta was an abundant tree in the forests of Singapore, and was first known to the Malays, who made use of the juice which they obtained by cutting down the trees.... Mr. d'Almeida ... acting under the advice of a friend, forwarded some of the substance to the Society of Arts. There it met with no immediate attention, and was put away uncared for. A year or two afterwards Dr. Montgomery sent specimens to England, and bringing it under the notice of competent persons, its value was at once acknowledged.... The sudden and great demand for it soon resulted in the disappearance of all the gutta-percha trees on Singapore Island."—Collingwood, Rambles of a Naturalist, pp. 268-9.
GUZZY, s. Pers. and Hind. gazī; perhaps from its having been woven of a gaz (see GUDGE) in breadth. A very poor kind of cotton cloth.
1701.—In a price list for Persia we find: "Gesjes Bengaals."—Valentijn, v. 303.
1784.—"It is suggested that the following articles may be proper to compose the first adventure (to Tibet): ... Guzzie, or coarse Cotton Cloths, and Otterskins...."—In Seton-Karr, i. 4.
[1866.—"... common unbleached fabrics ... used for packing goods, and as a covering for the dead.... These fabrics in Bengal pass under the names of Garrha and Guzee."—Forbes Watson, Textile Manufactures, 83.]
GWALIOR, n.p. Hind. Gwālīār. A very famous rock-fortress of Upper India, rising suddenly and picturesquely out of a plain (or shallow valley rather) to a height of 300 feet, 65 m. south of Agra, in lat. 26° 13′. Gwalior may be traced back, in Gen. Cunningham's opinion, to the 3rd century of our era. It was the seat {405b}of several ancient Hindu dynasties, and from the time of the early Mahommedan sovereigns of Delhi down to the reign of Aurangzīb it was used as a state-prison. Early in the 18th century it fell into the possession of the Mahratta family of Sindhia, whose residence was established to the south of the fortress, in what was originally a camp, but has long been a city known by the original title of Lashkar (camp). The older city lies below the northern foot of the rock. Gwalior has been three times taken by British arms: (1) escaladed by a force under the command of Major Popham in 1780, a very daring feat;[141] (2) by a regular attack under Gen. White in 1805; (3) most gallantly in June 1858, by a party of the 25th Bombay N. I. under Lieutenants Rose and Waller, in which the former officer fell. After the two first captures the fortress was restored to the Sindhia family. From 1858 it was retained in our hands, but in December 1885 it was formally restored to the Mahārājā Sindhia.
The name of the fortress, according to Gen. Cunningham (Archaeol. Survey, ii. 335), is derived from a small Hindū shrine within it dedicated to the hermit Gwāli or Gwāli-pā, after whom the fortress received the name of Gwāli-āwar, contracted into Gwāliār.
c. 1020.—"From Kanauj, in travelling south-east, on the western side of the Ganges, you come to Jajáhotí, at a distance of 30 parasangs, of which the capital is Kajuráha. In that country are the two forts of Gwáliár and Kálinjar...."—Al-Birūnī, in Elliot, i. 57-8.
1196.—The royal army marched "towards Gālewār, and invested that fort, which is the pearl of the necklace of the castles of Hind, the summit of which the nimble-footed wind from below cannot reach, and on the bastions of which the clouds have never cast their shade...."—Hasan Nizāmī, in Elliot, ii. 227.
c. 1340.—"The castle of Gālyūr, of which we have been speaking, is on the top of a high hill, and appears, so to speak, as if it were itself cut out of the rock. There is no other hill adjoining; it contains reservoirs {406a}of water, and some 20 wells walled round are attached to it: on the walls are mounted mangonels and catapults. The fortress is ascended by a wide road, traversed by elephants and horses. Near the castle-gate is the figure of an elephant carved in stone, and surmounted by a figure of the driver. Seeing it from a distance one has no doubt about its being a real elephant. At the foot of the fortress is a fine city, entirely built of white stone, mosques and houses alike; there is no timber to be seen in it, except that of the gates."—Ibn Batuta, ii. 193.
1526.—"I entered Guâliâr by the Hâtipûl gate.... They call an elephant hâti, and a gate pûl. On the outside of this gate is the figure of an elephant, having two elephant drivers on it...."—Baber, p. 383.
[c. 1590.—"Gualiar is a famous fort, in which are many stately buildings, and there is a stone elephant over the gate. The air and water of this place are both esteemed good. It has always been celebrated for fine singers and beautiful women...."—Ayeen, Gladwin, ed. 1800, ii. 38; ed. Jarrett, ii. 181.]
1610.—"The 31 to Gwalere, 6 c., a pleasant Citie with a Castle.... On the West side of the Castle, which is a steep craggy cliffe of 6 c. compasse at least (divers say eleven).... From hence to the top, leads a narrow stone cawsey, walled on both sides; in the way are three gates to be passed, all exceeding strong, with Courts of guard to each. At the top of all, at the entrance of the last gate, standeth a mightie Elephant of stone very curiously wrought...."—Finch, in Purchas, i. 426-7.
1616.—"23. Gwalier, the chief City so called, where the Mogol hath a very rich Treasury of Gold and Silver kept in this City, within an exceeding strong Castle, wherein the King's Prisoners are likewise kept. The Castle is continually guarded by a very strong Company of Armed Souldiers."—Terry, ed. 1665, p. 356.
[ " "Kualiar," in Sir T. Roe's List, Hak. Soc. ii. 539.]
c. 1665.—"For to shut them up in Goualeor, which is a Fortress where the Princes are ordinarily kept close, and which is held impregnable, it being situated upon an inaccessible Rock, and having within itself good water, and provision enough for a Garison; that was not an easie thing."—Bernier, E.T. 5; [ed. Constable, 14].
c. 1670.—"Since the Mahometan Kings became Masters of this Countrey, this Fortress of Goualeor is the place where they secure Princes and great Noblemen. Chaiehan coming to the Empire by foul-play, caus'd all the Princes and Lords whom he mistrusted, to be seiz'd one after another, and sent them to the Fortress of Goualeor; but he suffer'd them all to live and enjoy their estates. Aureng-zeb his Son acts quite otherwise; for when he sends any great Lord to this place, at the end of nine or ten days he orders him to be poison'd; and {406b}this he does that the people may not exclaim against him for a bloody Prince."—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 35; [ed. Ball, i. 63].
GYAUL (properly GAYĀL), [Skt. go, 'an ox'], s. A large animal (Gavaeus frontalis, Jerd., Bos f. Blanford, Mammalia, 487) of the ox tribe, found wild in various forest tracts to the east of India. It is domesticated by the Mishmis of the Assam valley, and other tribes as far south as Chittagong. In Assam it is called Mithan.
[c. 1590.—In Arakan, "cows and buffaloes there are none, but there is an animal which has somewhat of the characteristics of both, piebald and particoloured whose milk the people drink."—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, ii. 119.]
1824.—"In the park several uncommon animals are kept. Among them the Ghyal, an animal of which I had not, to my recollection, read any account, though the name was not unknown to me. It is a very noble creature, of the ox or buffalo kind, with immensely large horns...."—Heber, i. 34.
1866-67.—"I was awakened by an extraordinary noise, something between a bull's bellow and a railway whistle. What was it? We started to our feet, and Fuzlah and I were looking to our arms when Adupah said, 'It is only the guyal calling; Sahib! Look, the dawn is just breaking, and they are opening the village gates for the beasts to go out to pasture.'
"These guyal were beautiful creatures, with broad fronts, sharp wide-spreading horns, and mild melancholy eyes. They were the indigenous cattle of the hills domesticated by these equally wild Lushais...."—Lt.-Col. T. Lewin, A Fly on the Wheel, &c., p. 303.
GYELONG, s. A Buddhist priest in Tibet. Tib. dGe-sLong, i.e. 'beggar of virtue,' i.e. a bhikshu or mendicant friar (see under BUXEE); but latterly a priest who has received the highest orders. See Jaeschke, p. 86.
1784.—"He was dressed in the festival habit of a gylong or priest, being covered with a scarlet satin cloak, and a gilded mitre on his head."—Bogle, in Markham's Tibet, 25.
GYM-KHANA, s. This word is quite modern, and was unknown 40 years ago. The first use that we can trace is (on the authority of Major John Trotter) at Rūrkī in 1861, when a gymkhana was instituted there. It is a factitious word, invented, we believe, in the Bombay Presidency, and probably based upon gend-khāna ('ball-house'), the name usually given {407a}in Hind. to an English racket-court. It is applied to a place of public resort at a station, where the needful facilities for athletics and games of sorts are provided, including (when that was in fashion) a skating-rink, a lawn-tennis ground, and so forth. The gym may have been simply a corruption of gend shaped by gymnastics, [of which the English public school short form gym passed into Anglo-Indian jargon]. The word is also applied to a meeting for such sports; and in this sense it has travelled already as far as Malta, and has since become common among Englishmen abroad. [The suggestion that the word originated in the P.—H. jamā'at-khana, 'a place of assemblage,' is not probable.]
1877.—"Their proposals are that the Cricket Club should include in their programme the games, &c., proposed by the promoters of a gymkhana Club, so far as not to interfere with cricket, and should join in making a rink and lawn-tennis, and badminton courts, within the cricket-ground enclosure."—Pioneer Mail, Nov. 3.
1879.—"Mr. A—— F—— can always be depended on for epigram, but not for accuracy. In his letters from Burma he talks of the Gymkhana at Rangoon as a sort of establissement [sic] where people have pleasant little dinners. In the 'Oriental Arcadia,' which Mr. F—— tells us is flavoured with naughtiness, people may do strange things, but they do not dine at Gymkhanas."—Ibid. July 2.
1881.—"R. E. Gymkhana at Malta, for Polo and other Ponies, 20th June, 1881."—Heading in Royal Engineer Journal, Aug. 1, p. 159.
1883.—"I am not speaking of Bombay people with their clubs and gymkhanas and other devices for oiling the wheels of existence...."—Tribes on My Frontier, 9.
GYNEE, s. H. gainī. A very diminutive kind of cow bred in Bengal. It is, when well cared for, a beautiful creature, is not more than 3 feet high, and affords excellent meat. It is mentioned by Aelian:
c. 250.—"There are other bullocks in India, which to look at are no bigger than the largest goats; these also are yoked, and run very swiftly."—De Nat. Anim., xv. 24.
c. 1590.—"There is also a species of oxen called gaini, small like gūt (see GOONT) horses, but very beautiful."—Āīn, i. 149.
[1829.—"... I found that the said tiger had feasted on a more delicious morsel,—a nice little Ghinee, a small cow."—Mem. of John Shipp, iii. 132.]
1832.—"We have become great farmers, having sown our crop of oats, and are building outhouses to receive some 34 dwarf cows and oxen (gynees) which are to be fed up for the table."—F. Parkes, Wanderings of a Pilgrim, i. 251.
HACKERY, s. In the Bengal Presidency this word is now applied only to the common native bullock-cart used in the slow draught of goods and materials. But formerly in Bengal, as still in Western India and Ceylon, the word was applied to lighter carriages (drawn by bullocks) for personal transport. In Broughton's Letters from a Mahratta Camp (p. 156; [ed. 1892, p. 117]) the word is used for what in Upper India is commonly called an ekka (q.v.), or light native pony-carriage; but this is an exceptional application. Though the word is used by Englishmen almost universally in India, it is unknown to natives, or if known is regarded as an English term; and its origin is exceedingly obscure. The word seems to have originated on the west side of India, where we find it in our earliest quotations. It is probably one of those numerous words which were long in use, and undergoing corruption by illiterate soldiers and sailors, before they appeared in any kind of literature. Wilson suggests a probable Portuguese origin, e.g. from acarretar, 'to convey in a cart.' It is possible that the mere Portuguese article and noun 'a carreta' might have produced the Anglo-Indian hackery. Thus in Correa, under 1513, we have a description of the Surat hackeries; "and the carriages (as carretas) in which he and the Portuguese travelled, were elaborately wrought, and furnished with silk hangings, covering them from the sun; and these carriages (as carretas) run so smoothly (the country consisting of level plains) that the people travelling in them sleep as tranquilly as on the ground" (ii. 369).
But it is almost certain that the origin of the word is the H. chhakra, 'a two-wheeled cart'; and it may be noted that in old Singhalese chakka, {408a}'a cart-wheel,' takes the forms haka and saka (see Kuhn, On Oldest Aryan Elements of Singhalese, translated by D. Ferguson in Indian Ant. xii. 64).  [For these swift oxen, see quot. from Forbes below, and from Aelian under GYNEE].
1690.—"Their Hackeries likewise, which are a kind of Coach, with two Wheels, are all drawn by Oxen."—Ovington, 254.
1711.—"The Streets (at Surat) are wide and commodious; otherwise the Hackerys, which are very common, would be an Inconveniency. These are a sort of Coaches drawn by a Pair of Oxen."—Lockyer, 259.
1742.—"The bridges are much worn, and out of repair, by the number of Hackaries and other carriages which are continually passing over them."—In Wheeler, iii. 262.
1756.—"The 11th of July the Nawab arrived in the city, and with him Bundoo Sing, to whose house we were removed that afternoon in a hackery."—Holwell, in Wheeler's Early Records, 249.
c. 1760.—"The hackrees are a conveyance drawn by oxen, which would at first give an idea of slowness that they do not deserve ... they are open on three sides, covered a-top, and are made to hold two people sitting cross-legged."—Grose, i. 155-156.
1780.—"A hackery is a small covered carriage upon two wheels drawn by bullocks, and used generally for the female part of the family."—Hodges, Travels, 5.
c. 1790.—"Quant aux palankins et hakkaries (voitures à deux roues), on les passe sur une double sangarie" (see JANGAR).—Haafner, ii. 173.
1793.—"To be sold by Public Auction ... a new Fashioned Hackery."—Bombay Courier, April 13.
1798.—"At half-past six o'clock we each got into a hackeray."—Stavorinus, tr. by Wilcocks, iii. 295.
1811.—Solvyns draws and describes the Hackery in the modern Bengal sense.
" "Il y a cependant quelques endroits où l'on se sert de charettes couvertes à deux roues, appelées hickeris, devant lesquelles on attèle des bœufs, et qui servent à voyager."—Editor of Haafner, Voyages, ii. 3.
1813.—"Travelling in a light hackaree, at the rate of five miles an hour."—Forbes, Or. Mem. iii. 376; [2nd ed. ii. 352; in i. 150, hackeries, ii. 253, hackarees]. Forbes's engraving represents such an ox-carriage as would be called in Bengal a bailī (see BYLEE).
1829.—"The genuine vehicle of the country is the hackery. This is a sort of wee {408b}tent, covered more or less with tinsel and scarlet, and bells and gilding, and placed upon a clumsy two-wheeled carriage with a pole that seems to be also a kind of boot, as it is at least a foot deep. This is drawn by a pair of white bullocks."—Mem. of Col. Mountain, 2nd ed., 84.
1860.—"Native gentlemen, driving fast trotting oxen in little hackery carts, hastened home from it."—Tennent's Ceylon, ii. 140.
[HADDY, s. A grade of troops in the Mogul service. According to Prof. Blochmann (Āīn, i. 20, note) they corresponded to our "Warranted officers." "Most clerks of the Imperial offices, the painters of the Court, the foremen in Akbar's workshops, &c., belonged to this corps. They were called Aḥadīs, or single men, because they stood under Akbar's immediate orders." And Mr. Irvine writes: "Midway between the nobles or leaders (mansabdārs) with the horsemen under them (tābīnān) on the one hand, and the Aḥshām (see EYSHAM), or infantry, artillery, and artificers on the other, stood the Aḥadī, or gentleman trooper. The word is literally 'single' or 'alone' (A. aḥad, 'one'). It is easy to see why this name was applied to them; they offered their services singly, they did not attach themselves to any chief, thus forming a class apart from the tābīnān; but as they were horsemen, they stood equally apart from the specialised services included under the remaining head of Aḥshām." (J. R. As. Soc., July 1896, p. 545.)
[c. 1590.—"Some soldiers are placed under the care and guidance of one commander. They are called Ahadis, because they are fit for a harmonious unity."—Āīn, ed. Blochmann, i. 231.
[1616.—"The Prince's Haddy ... betrayed me."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. ii. 383.
[1617.—"A Haddey of horse sent down to see it effected."—Ibid. ii. 450.
[c. 1625.—"The day after, one of the King's Haddys finding the same."—Coryat, in Purchas, i. 600.]
HADGEE, s. Ar. Ḥājj, a pilgrim to Mecca; from ḥajj, the pilgrimage, or visit to a venerated spot. Hence Hājjī and Hājī used colloquially in Persian and Turkish. Prof. Robertson Smith writes: "There is current confusion about the word ḥājj. It is originally the participle of ḥajj, 'he went on the ḥajj.' But in modern use ḥājij is used as part., and ḥājj is the {409a}title given to one who has made the pilgrimage. When this is prefixed to a name, the double j cannot be pronounced without inserting a short vowel and the a is shortened; thus you say 'el-Hajjĕ Soleimān,' or the like. The incorrect form Hājjī is however used by Turks and Persians."
[1609.—"Upon your order, if Hoghee Careen so please, I purpose to delve him 25 pigs of lead."—Danvers, Letters, i. 26.
[c. 1610.—"Those who have been to Arabia ... are called Agy."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 165.
[c. 1665.—"Aureng-Zebe once observed perhaps by way of joke, that Sultan Sujah was become at last an Agy or pilgrim."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 113.
[1673.—"Hodge, a Pilgrimage to Mecca." (See under A MUCK.)
[1683.—"Hodgee Sophee Caun." See under FIRMAUN.]
1765.—"Hodgee acquired this title from his having in his early years made a pilgrimage to Hodge (or the tomb of Mahommed at Mecca)."—Holwell, Hist. Events, &c., i. 59.
[c. 1833.—"The very word in Hebrew Khog, which means 'festival,' originally meant 'pilgrimage,' and corresponds with what the Arabs call hatch...."—Travels of Dr. Wolff, ii. 155.]
HÁKIM, s. H. from Ar. ḥākim, 'a judge, a ruler, a master'; 'the authority.' The same Ar. root ḥakm, 'bridling, restraining, judging,' supplies a variety of words occurring in this Glossary, viz. Ḥākim (as here); Ḥakīm (see HUCKEEM); Ḥukm (see HOOKUM); Ḥikmat (see HICKMAT).
[1611.—"Not standing with his greatness to answer every Haccam, which is as a Governor or petty King."—Danvers, Letters, i. 158. In ibid. i. 175, Hackum is used in the same way.]
1698.—"Hackum, a Governor."—Fryer's Index Explanatory.
c. 1861.—
"Then comes a settlement Hakim, to teach me to plough and weed—
I sowed the cotton he gave me—but first I boiled the seed...."
Sir A. C. Lyall, The Old Pindaree.
HALÁLCORE, s. Lit. Ar.—P. ḥalāl-khor, 'one who eats what is lawful,' [ḥalāl being the technical Mahommedan phrase for the slaying of an animal to be used for food according to the proper ritual], applied euphemistically to a person of very low caste, a sweeper or scavenger, implying 'to whom all is lawful food.' {409b}Generally used as synonymous with bungy (q.v.). [According to Prof. Blochmann, "Ḥalālkhūr, i.e. one who eats that which the ceremonial law allows, is a euphemism for ḥarāmkhūr, one who eats forbidden things, as pork, &c. The word ḥalālkhūr is still in use among educated Muhammadans; but it is doubtful whether (as stated in the Āīn) it was Akbar's invention." (Āīn, i. 139 note.)]
1623.—"Schiah Selim nel principio ... si sdegnò tanto, che poco mancò che per dispetto non la desse per forza in matrimonio ad uno della razza che chiamano halal chor, quasi dica 'mangia lecito,' cioè che ha per lecito di mangiare ogni cosa...." (See other quotation under HAREM).—P. della Valle, ii. 525; [Hak. Soc. i. 54].
1638.—"... sont obligez de se purifier depuis la teste i'usqu'aux pieds si quelqu'vn de ces gens qu'ils appellent Alchores, leur a touché."—Mandelslo, Paris, 1659, 219.
1665.—"Ceux qui ne parlent que Persan dans les Indes, les appellent Halalcour, c'est à dire celui qui se donne la liberté de manger de tout ce qu'il lui plait, ou, selon quelques uns, celui qui mange ce qu'il a légitimement gagné. Et ceux qui approuvent cette dernière explication, disent qu'autrefois Halalcours s'appellent Haramcours, mangeurs de Viande defenduës."—Thevenot, v. 190.
1673.—"That they should be accounted the Offscum of the People, and as base as the Holencores (whom they account so, because they defile themselves by eating anything)."—Fryer, 28; [and see under BOY, b].
1690.—"The Halalchors ... are another Sort of Indians at Suratt, the most contemptible, but extremely necessary to be there."—Ovington, 382.
1763.—"And now I must mention the Hallachores, whom I cannot call a Tribe, being rather the refuse of all the Tribes.  It was probably in this passage that Burns (see below) picked up the word.
1783.—"That no Hollocore, Derah, or Chandala caste, shall upon any consideration come out of their houses after 9 o'clock in the morning, lest they should taint the air, or touch the superior Hindoos in the streets."—Mahratta Proclamation at Baroch, in Forbes, Or. Mem. iv. 232.
1786.—"When all my schoolfellows and youthful compeers (those misguided few excepted who joined, to use a Gentoo phrase, the hallachores of the human race) were striking off with eager hope and earnest intent, in some one or other of the many paths of a busy life, I was 'standing idle in the market-place.'"—Letter of Robert Burns, in A. Cunningham's ed. of Works and Life, vi. 63.
1788.—The Indian Vocabulary also gives Hallachore.
1810.—"For the meaner offices we have a Hallalcor or Chandela (one of the most wretched Pariahs)."—Maria Graham, 31.
HALÁLLCUR. V. used in the imperative for infinitive, as is common in the Anglo-Indian use of H. verbs, being Ar.—H. ḥalāl-kar, 'make lawful,' i.e. put (an animal) to death in the manner prescribed to Mahommedans, when it is to be used for food.
[1855.—"Before breakfast I bought a moderately sized sheep for a dollar. Shaykh Hamid 'halaled' (butchered) it according to rule...."—Burton, Pilgrimage, ed. 1893, i. 255.]
1883.—"The diving powers of the poor duck are exhausted.... I have only ... to seize my booty, which has just enough of life left to allow Peer Khan to make it halal, by cutting its throat in the name of Allah, and dividing the webs of its feet."—Tribes on My Frontier, 167.
HALF-CASTE, s. A person of mixt European and Indian blood. (See MUSTEES; EURASIAN.)
1789.—"Mulattoes, or as they are called in the East Indies, half-casts."—Munro's Narrative, 51.
1793.—"They (the Mahratta Infantry) are commanded by half-cast people of Portuguese and French extraction, who draw off the attention of the spectators from the bad clothing of their men, by the profusion of antiquated lace bestowed on their own."—Dirom, Narrative, ii.
1809.—"The Padre, who is a half-cast Portuguese, informed me that he had three districts under him."—Ld. Valentia, i. 329.
1828.—"An invalid sergeant ... came, attended by his wife, a very pretty young half-caste."—Heber, i. 298.
1875.—"Othello is black—the very tragedy lies there; the whole force of the contrast, the whole pathos and extenuation of his doubts of Desdemona, depend on this blackness. Fechter makes him a half-caste."—G. H. Lewes, On Actors and the Art of Acting.
HANGER, s. The word in this form is not in Anglo-Indian use, but (with the Scotch whinger, Old Eng. whinyard, Fr. cangiar, &c., other forms of the same) may be noted here as a corruption of the Arab. khanjar, 'a dagger or short falchion.' This (vulg. cunjur) is the Indian form. [According to the N.E.D. though 'hanger' has sometimes been employed to translate khanjar (probably with a notion of etymological {410b}identity) there is no connection between the words.] The khanjar in India is a large double-edged dagger with a very broad base and a slight curve. [See drawings in Egerton, Handbook of Indian Arms, pl. X. Nos. 504, 505, &c.]
1574.—"Patrick Spreull ... being persewit be Johne Boill Chepman ... in invadyng of him, and stryking him with ane quhinger ... throuch the quhilk the said Johnes neis wes woundit to the effusioun of his blude."—Exts. from Records of the Burgh of Glasgow (1876), p. 2.
1601.—"The other day I happened to enter into some discourse of a hanger, which I assure you, both for fashion and workmanship was most peremptory beautiful and gentlemanlike...."—B. Jonson, Every Man in His Humour, i. 4.
[c. 1610.—"The islanders also bore their arms, viz., alfanges (al-khanjar) or scimitars."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 43.]
1653.—"Gangeard est en Turq, Persan et Indistanni vn poignard courbé."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 539.
1672.—"... il s'estoit emporté contre elle jusqu'à un tel excès qu'il luy avoit porté quelques coups de Cangiar dans les mamelles...."—Journal d'Ant. Galland, i. 177.
1673.—"... handjar de diamants...."—App. to do. ii. 189.
1676.—
"His pistol next he cock'd anew
And out his nutbrown whinyard drew."
Hudibras, Canto iii.
1684.—"The Souldiers do not wear Hangers or Scimitars like the Persians, but broad Swords like the Switzers...."—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 65; [ed. Ball, i. 157].
1712.—"His Excy ... was presented by the Emperor with a Hindoostany Candjer, or dagger, set with fine stones."—Valentijn, iv. (Suratte), 286.
[1717.—"The 23rd ultimo, John Surman received from his Majesty a horse and a Cunger...."—In Wheeler, Early Records, 183.]
1781.—"I fancy myself now one of the most formidable men in Europe; a blunderbuss for Joe, a pair of double barrels to stick in my belt, and a cut and thrust hanger with a little pistol in the hilt, to hang by my side."—Lord Minto, in Life, i. 56.
" "Lost out of a buggy on the Road between Barnagur and Calcutta, a steel mounted Hanger with a single guard."—Hicky's Bengal Gazette, June 30.
1883.—"... by farrashes, the carpet-spreader class, a large canjar, or curved dagger, with a heavy ivory handle, is carried; less for use than as a badge of office."—Wills, Modern Persia, 326.
HANSALERI, s. Table-servant's Hind. for 'horse-radish'! "A curious corruption, and apparently influenced by saleri, 'celery'"; (Mr. M. L. Dames, in Panjab N. and Q. ii. 184).
HANSIL, s. A hawser, from the English (Roebuck).
HANSPEEK, USPUCK, &c., s. Sea Hind. Aspak. A handspike, from the English.
HARAKIRI, s. This, the native name of the Japanese rite of suicide committed as a point of honour or substitute for judicial execution, has long been interpreted as "happy despatch," but what the origin of this curious error is we do not know. [The N.E.D. s.v. dispatch, says that it is humorous.] The real meaning is realistic in the extreme, viz., hara, 'belly,' kiri, 'to cut.'
[1598.—"And it is often seene that they rip their own bellies open."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 153.
[1615.—"His mother cut her own belly."—Foster, Letters, iv. 45.]
1616.—"Here we had news how Galsa Same was to passe this way to morrow to goe to a church near Miaco, called Coye; som say to cut his bellie, others say to be shaved a prist and to remeane theare the rest of his dais."—Cocks's Diary, i. 164.
1617.—"The King demanded 800 tais from Shosque Dono, or else to cut his belly, whoe, not having it to pay, did it."—Ibid. 337, see also ii. 202.
[1874.—See the elaborate account of the rite in Mitford, Tales of Old Japan, 2nd ed. 329 seqq. For a similar custom among the Karens, see M‘Mahon, Karens of the Golden Chersonese, 294.]
HARAMZADA, s. A scoundrel; literally 'misbegotten'; a common term of abuse. It is Ar.—P. ḥarām-zāda, 'son of the unlawful.' Ḥarām is from a root signifying sacer (see under HAREM), and which appears as Hebrew in the sense of 'devoting to destruction,' and of 'a ban.' Thus in Numbers xxi. 3: "They utterly destroyed them and their cities; and he called the name of the place Hormah." [See Encycl. Bibl. i. 468; ii. 2110.]
[1857.—"I am no advocate for slaying Shahzadas or any such-like Haramzadas without trial."—Bosworth Smith, L. of Ld. Lawrence, ii. 251.]
HAREM, s. Ar. ḥaram, ḥarīm, i.e. sacer, applied to the women of the family and their apartment. This word is not now commonly used in India, zenana (q.v.) being the common word for 'the women of the family,' or their apartments.
1298.—"... car maintes homes emorurent e mantes dames en furent veves ... e maintes autres dames ne furent à toz jorz mès en plores et en lermes: ce furent les meres et les araines de homes qe hi morurent."—Marco Polo, in Old Text of Soc. de Géographie, 251.
1623.—"Non so come sciah Selim ebbe notizia di lei e s'innamorò. Volle condurla nel suo haram o gynaeceo, e tenerla quivi appresso di sè come una delle altre concubine; ma questa donna (Nurmahal) che era sopra modo astuta ... ricusò."—P. della Valle, ii. 525; [Hak. Soc. i. 53].
1630.—"This Duke here and in other seralios (or Harams as the Persians term them) has above 300 concubines."—Herbert, 139.
1676.—"In the midst of the large Gallery is a Nich in the Wall, into which the King descends out of his Haram by a private pair of Stairs."—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 49; [ed. Ball, i. 101].
1726.—"On the Ganges also lies a noble fortress, with the Palace of the old Emperor of Hindostan, with his Hharaam or women's apartment...."—Valentijn, v. 168.
[1727.—"The King ... took his Wife into his own Harran or Seraglio...."—A. Hamilton, ed. 1744, i. 171.
[1812.—"Adjoining to the Chel Sitoon is the Harem; the term in Persia is applied to the establishments of the great, zenana is confined to those of inferior people."—Morier, Journey through Persia, &c., 166.]
HARRY, s. This word is quite obsolete. Wilson gives Hāṛī as Beng. 'A servant of the lowest class, a sweeper.' [The word means 'a collector of bones,' Skt. haḍḍa, 'a bone'; for the caste, see Risley, Tribes of Bengal, i. 314 seqq.] M.-Gen. Keatinge remarks that they are the goldsmiths of Assam; they are village watchmen in Bengal. (See under PYKE.) In two of the quotations below, Harry is applied to a woman, in one case employed to carry water. A female servant of this description is not now known among English families in Bengal.
1706.—
| "2 Tendells (see TINDAL) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| * * * * * | |||
| 1 Hummummee[142] | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| {412a}
* * * * * |
|||
| 4 Manjees | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 Dandees (see DANDY) | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| * * * * * | |||
| 5 Harrys | 9 | 8 | 0 |
| * * * * * |
List of Men's Names, &c., immediately in the Service of the Honble. the Vnited Compy. in their Factory of Fort William, Bengall, November, 1706" (MS. in India Office).
c. 1753.—Among the expenses of the Mayor's Court at Calcutta we find: "A harry ... Rs. 1."—Long, 43.
c. 1754.—"A Harry or water-wench...." (at Madras).—Ives, 50.
[ " "Harries are the same at Bengal, as Frosts (see FARASH) are at Bombay. Their women do all the drudgery at your houses, and the men carry your Palanquin."—Ibid. 26.]
" In a tariff of wages recommended by the "Zemindars of Calcutta," we have: "Harry-woman to a Family ... 2 Rs."—In Seton-Karr, i. 95.
1768-71.—"Every house has likewise ... a harry-maid or matarani (see MATRANEE) who carries out the dirt; and a great number of slaves, both male and female."—Stavorinus, i. 523.
1781.—
| "2 Harries or Sweepers | 6 Rs. | |
| 2 Beesties | 8 Rs. | " |
Establishment ... under the Chief Magistrate of Banaris, in Appendix to Narr. of Insurrection there, Calcutta, 1782.
[1813.—"He was left to view a considerable time, and was then carried by the Hurries to the Golgotha."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. ii. 131.]
HATTY, s. Hind. hāthī, the most common word for an elephant; from Skt. hasta, 'the hand,' and hastī, 'the elephant,' come the Hind. words hāth and hāthī, with the same meanings. The analogy of the elephant's trunk to the hand presents itself to Pliny:
"Mandunt ore; spirant et bibunt odoranturque haud inproprie appellatâ manu."—viii. 10.
and to Tennyson:
"... camels knelt
Unbidden, and the brutes of mountain back
That carry kings in castles, bow'd black knees
Of homage, ringing with their serpent hands,
To make her smile, her golden ankle-bells."
Merlin and Vivien.
c. 1526.—"As for the animals peculiar to Hindustân, one is the elephant, as the Hindustânis call it Hathì, which inhabits the district of Kalpi, the more do the wild elephants increase in number. That is the tract in which the elephant is chiefly taken."—Baber, 315. This notice of Baber's shows {412b}how remarkably times have changed. No elephants now exist anywhere near the region indicated. [On elephants in Hindustan, see Blochmann's Āīn, i. 618].
[1838.—"You are of course aware that we habitually call elephants Hotties, a name that might be safely applied to every other animal in India, but I suppose the elephants had the first choice of names and took the most appropriate."—Miss Eden, Up the Country, i. 269.]
HATTYCHOOK, s. Hind. hāthīchak, servant's and gardener's Hind. for the globe artichoke; [the Jerusalem artichoke is hāthīpīch]. This is worth producing, because our word (artichoke) is itself the corruption of an Oriental word thus carried back to the East in a mangled form.
a. Hind. hāth, (the hand or forearm, and thence) 'a cubit,' from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger; a measure of 18 inches, and sometimes more.
[1614.—"A godown 10 Hast high."—Foster, Letters, ii. 112.
[c. 1810.—"... even in the measurements made by order of the collectors, I am assured, that the only standards used were the different Kazis' arms, which leaves great room for fraud.... All persons measuring cloth know how to apply their arm, so as to measure a cubit of 18 inches with wonderful exactness."—Buchanan, Eastern India, ii. 576.]
b. Hind. hāṭ, Skt. haṭṭa, 'a market held on certain days.'
[1800.—"In this Carnatic ... there are no fairs like the hauts of Bengal."—Buchanan, Mysore, i. 19.
[1818.—"The Hindoos have also market days (hătŭs), when the buyers and sellers assemble, sometimes in an open plain, but in general in market places."—Ward, Hindoos, i. 151.]
HAVILDAR, s. Hind. ḥavildār. A sepoy non-commissioned officer, corresponding to a sergeant, and wearing the chevrons of a sergeant. This dating from about the middle of the 18th century is the only modern use of the term in that form. It is a corruption of Pers. ḥawāladār, or ḥawāldār, 'one holding an office of trust'; and in this form it had, in other times, a variety of applications to different charges and subordinate officers. Thus among the Mahrattas the commandant of a fort was so styled; whilst in {413a}Eastern Bengal the term was, and perhaps still is, applied to the holder of a ḥawāla, an intermediate tenure between those of zemindar and ryot.
1672.—Regarding the Cowle obtained from the Nabob of Golcondah for the Fort and Town of Chinapatnam. 11,000 Pagodas to be paid in full of all demands for the past, and in future Pagodas 1200 per annum rent, "and so to hold the Fort and Town free from any Avildar or Divan's People, or any other imposition for ever."—Fort St. George Consn., April 11, in Notes and Exts., No. i. 25.
1673.—"We landed at about Nine in the Morning, and were civilly treated by the Customer in his Choultry, till the Havildar could be acquainted of my arrival."—Fryer, 123.
[1680.—"Avaldar." See under JUNCAMEER.]
1696.—"... the havildar of St. Thomé and Pulecat."—Wheeler, i. 308.
[1763.—"Three avaldars (avaldares) or receivers."—India Office MSS. Conselho, Ultramarino, vol. i.
[1773.—"One or two Hircars, one Havildah, and a company of sepoys...."—Ives, 67.]
1824.—"Curreem Musseeh was, I believe, a havildar in the Company's army, and his sword and sash were still hung up, with a not unpleasing vanity, over the desk where he now presided as catechist."—Heber, i. 149.
HAVILDAR'S GUARD, s. There is a common way of cooking the fry of fresh-water fish (a little larger than whitebait) as a breakfast dish, by frying them in rows of a dozen or so, spitted on a small skewer. On the Bombay side this dish is known by the whimsical name in question.
HAZREE, s. This word is commonly used in Anglo-Indian households in the Bengal Presidency for 'breakfast.' It is not clear how it got this meaning. [The earlier sense was religious, as below.] It is properly ḥāẓirī, 'muster,' from the Ar. ḥāẓir, 'ready or present.' (See CHOTA-HAZRY.)
[1832.—"The Sheeahs prepare hazree (breakfast) in the name of his holiness Abbas Allee Ullum-burdar, Hosein's step-brother; i.e. they cook polaoo, rotee, curries, &c., and distribute them."—Herklots, Qanoon-e-Islam, ed. 1863, p. 183.]
HENDRY KENDRY, n.p. Two islands off the coast of the Concan, about 7 m. south of the entrance to Bombay Harbour, and now belonging {413b}to Kolāba District. The names, according to Ph. Anderson, are Haneri and Khaneri; in the Admy. chart they are Oonari, and Khundari. They are also variously written (the one) Hundry, Ondera, Hunarey, Henery, and (the other) Kundra, Cundry, Cunarey, Kenery. The real names are given in the Bombay Gazetteer as Underi and Khanderi. Both islands were piratically occupied as late as the beginning of the 19th century. Khanderi passed to us in 1818 as part of the Peshwa's territory; Underi lapsed in 1840. [Sir G. Birdwood (Rep. on Old Records, 83), describing the "Consultations" of 1679, writes: "At page 69, notice of 'Sevagee' fortifying 'Hendry Kendry,' the twin islets, now called Henery (i.e. Vondarī, 'Mouse-like,' Kenery (i.e. Khandarī), i.e. 'Sacred to Khandaroo.'" The former is thus derived from Skt. undaru, unduru, 'a rat'; the latter from Mahr. Khanḍerāv, 'Lord of the Sword,' a form of Siva.]
1673.—"These islands are in number seven; viz. Bombaim, Canorein, Trumbay, Elephanto, the Putachoes, Munchumbay, and Kerenjau, with the Rock of Henry Kenry...."—Fryer, 61.
1681.—"Although we have formerly wrote you that we will have no war for Hendry Kendry, yet all war is so contrary to our constitution, as well as our interest, that we cannot too often inculcate to you our aversion thereunto."—Court of Directors to Surat, quoted in Anderson's Western India, p. 175.
1727.—"... four Leagues south of Bombay, are two small Islands Undra, and Cundra. The first has a Fortress belonging to the Sedee, and the other is fortified by the Sevajee, and is now in the Hands of Connajee Angria."—A. Hamilton, i. 243; [ed. 1744].
c.  These were formerly in the hands of Angria, and the Siddees, or Moors, which last have long been dispossest of them."—Grose, i. 58.
HERBED, s. A Parsee priest, not specially engaged in priestly duties. Pers. hirbad, from Pahlavi aêrpat.
1630.—"The Herbood or ordinary Churchman."—Lord's Display, ch. viii.
HICKMAT, s. Ar.—H. ḥikmat; an ingenious device or contrivance. (See under HAKIM.)
1838.—"The house has been roofed in, and my relative has come up from Meerut, {414a}to have the slates put on after some peculiar hikmat of his own."—Wanderings of a Pilgrim, ii. 240.
HIDGELEE, n.p. The tract so called was under native rule a chakla, or district, of Orissa, and under our rule formerly a zilla of Bengal; but now it is a part of the Midnapūr Zilla, of which it constitutes the S.E. portion, viz. the low coast lands on the west side of the Hoogly estuary, and below the junction of the Rūpnārāyan. The name is properly Hijilī; but it has gone through many strange phases in European records.
1553.—"The first of these rivers (from the E. side of the Ghauts) rises from two sources to the east of Chaul, about 15 leagues distant, and in an altitude of 18 to 19 degrees. The river from the most northerly of these sources is called Crusna, and the more southerly Benkora, and when they combine they are called Ganga: and this river discharges into the illustrious stream of the Ganges between the two places called Angeli and Picholda in about 22 degrees."—Barros, I. ix. 1.
1586.—"An haven which is called Angeli in the Country of Orixa."—Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 389.
1686.—"Chanock, on the 15th December (1686) ... burned and destroyed all the magazines of salt, and granaries of rice, which he found in the way between Hughley and the island of Ingelee."—Orme (reprint), ii. 12.
1726.—"Hingeli."—Valentijn, v. 158.
1727.—... inhabited by Fishers, as are also Ingellie and Kidgerie (see KEDGEREE), two neighbouring Islands on the West Side of the Mouth of the Ganges."—A. Hamilton, i. 275; [ed. 1744, ii. 2].
1758.—In apprehension of a French Fleet the Select Committee at Fort William recommend: "That the pagoda at Ingelie should be washed black, the great tree at the place cut down, and the buoys removed."—In Long, 153.
1784.—"Ships laying at Kedgeree, Ingellee, or any other parts of the great River."—In Seton-Karr, i. 37.
HILSA, s. Hind. hilsā, Skt. ilīśa, illiśa; a rich and savoury fish of the shad kind (Clupea ilisha, Day), called in books the 'sable-fish' (a name, from the Port. savel, quite obsolete in India) and on the Indus pulla (palla). The large shad which of late has been commonly sold by London fishmongers in the beginning of summer, is very near the hilsa, but not so rich. The {414b}hilsa is a sea-fish, ascending the river to spawn, and is taken as high as Delhi on the Jumna, as high as Mandalay on the Irawadi (Day). It is also taken in the Guzerat rivers, though not in the short and shallow streams of the Concan, nor in the Deccan rivers, from which it seems to be excluded by the rocky obstructions. It is the special fish of Sind under the name of palla, and monopolizes the name of fish, just as salmon does on the Scotch rivers (Dr. Macdonald's Acct. of Bombay Fisheries, 1883).
1539.—"... A little Island, called Apofingua (Ape-Fingan) ... inhabited by poor people who live by the fishing of shads (que vive de la pescaria dos saveis)."—Pinto (orig. cap. xviii.), Cogan, p. 22.
1613.—"Na quella costa marittima occidental de Viontana (Ujong-Tana, Malay Peninsula) habitavão Saletes pescadores que não tinhão outro tratto ... salvo de sua pescarya de saveis, donde so aproveitarão das ovas chamado Turabos passados por salmeura."—Eredia de Godinho, 22. [On this Mr. Skeat points out that "Saletes pescadores" must mean "Fishermen of the Straits" (Mal. selat, "straits"); and when he calls them "Turabos" he is trying to reproduce the Malay name of this fish, terubok (pron. trubo).]
1810.—"The hilsah (or sable-fish) seems to be midway between a mackerel and a salmon."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 154-5.
1813.—Forbes calls it the sable or salmon-fish, and says "it a little resembles the European fish (salmon) from which it is named."—Or. Mem. i. 53; [2nd ed. i. 36].
1824.—"The fishery, we were told by these people, was of the 'Hilsa' or 'Sable-fish.'"—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 81.
HIMALÝA, n.p. This is the common pronunciation of the name of the great range
"Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds,"
properly Himālăya, 'the Abode of Snow'; also called Himavat, 'the Snowy'; Himagiri and Himaśaila; Himādri, Himakūta, &c., from various forms of which the ancients made Imaus, Emōdus, &c. Pliny had got somewhere the true meaning of the name: "... a montibus Hemodis, quorum promontorium Imaus vocatur nivosum significante ..." (vi. 17). We do not know how far back the use of the modern name is to be found. [The references in early Hindu literature are collected by Atkinson {415a}(Himalayan Gazetteer, ii. 273 seqq.).] We do not find it in Baber, who gives Siwālak as the Indian name of the mountains (see SIWALIK). The oldest occurrence we know of is in the Āīn, which gives in the Geographical Tables, under the Third Climate, Koh-i-Himālah (orig. ii. 36); [ed. Jarrett, iii. 69]). This is disguised in Gladwin's version by a wrong reading into Kerdehmaleh (ed. 1800, ii. 367).[143] This form (Himmaleh) is used by Major Rennell, but hardly as if it was yet a familiar term. In Elphinstone's Letters Himāleh or some other spelling of that form is always used (see below). When we get to Bishop Heber we find Himalaya, the established English form.
1822.—"What pleases me most is the contrast between your present enjoyment, and your former sickness and despondency. Depend upon it England will turn out as well as Hemaleh."—Elphinstone to Major Close, in Life, ii. 139; see also i. 336, where it is written Himalleh.
HINDEE, s. This is the Pers. adjective form from Hind, 'India,' and illustration of its use for a native of India will be found under HINDOO. By Europeans it is most commonly used for those dialects of Hindustani speech which are less modified by P. vocables than the usual Hindustani, and which are spoken by the rural population of the N.W. Provinces and its outskirts. The earliest literary work in Hindi is the great poem of Chand Bardai (c. 1200), which records the deeds of Prithirāja, the last Hindu sovereign of Delhi. [On this literature see Dr. G. A. Grierson, The Modern Vernacular Literature of Hindustān, in J.A.S.B. Part I., 1888.] The term Hinduwī appears to have been formerly used, in the Madras Presidency, for the Marāṭhī language. (See a note in Sir A. Arbuthnot's ed. of Munro's Minutes, i. 133.)
HINDKĪ, HINDEKĪ, n.p. This modification of the name is applied to people of Indian descent, but converted to Islam, on the Peshawar frontier, and scattered over other parts of Afghanistan. They do the banking business, and hold a large part of the trade in their hands.
[1842.—"The inhabitants of Peshawer are of Indian origin, but speak Pushtoo as well as Hindkee."—Elphinstone, Caubul, i. 74.]
HINDOO, n.p. P. Hindū. A person of Indian religion and race. This is a term derived from the use of the Mahommedan conquerors (see under INDIA). The word in this form is Persian; Hindī is that used in Arabic, e.g.
c. 940.—"An inhabitant of Mansūra in Sind, among the most illustrious and powerful of that city ... had brought up a young Indian or Sindian slave (Hindī aw Sindī)."—Maṣ'ūdī, vi. 264.
In the following quotation from a writer in Persian observe the distinction made between Hindū and Hindī:
c. 1290.—"Whatever live Hindú fell into the King's hands was pounded into bits under the feet of elephants. The Musalmáns, who were Hindís (country born), had their lives spared."—Amīr Khosrū, in Elliot, iii. 539.
1563.—"... moreover if people of Arabia or Persia would ask of the men of this country whether they are Moors or Gentoos, they ask in these words: 'Art thou Mosalman or Indu?'"—Garcia, f. 137b.
1653.—"Les Indous gardent soigneusement dans leurs Pagodes les Reliques de Ram, Schita (Sita), et les autres personnes illustres de l'antiquité."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, 191.
Hindu is often used on the Peshawar frontier as synonymous with bunya (see under BANYAN). A soldier (of the tribes) will say: 'I am going to the Hindu,' i.e. to the bunya of the company.
HINDOO KOOSH, n.p. Hindū-Kūsh; a term applied by our geographers to the whole of the Alpine range which separates the basins of the Kabul River and the Helmand from that of the Oxus. It is, as Rennell points out, properly that part of the range immediately north of Kabul, the Caucasus of the historians of Alexander, who crossed and recrossed it somewhere not far from the {416a}longitude of that city. The real origin of the name is not known; [the most plausible explanation is perhaps that it is a corruption of Indicus Caucasus]. It is, as far as we know, first used in literature by Ibn Batuta, and the explanation of the name which he gives, however doubtful, is still popular. The name has been by some later writers modified into Hindu Koh (mountain), but this is factitious, and throws no light on the origin of the name.
c. 1334.—"Another motive for our stoppage was the fear of snow; for there is midway on the road a mountain called Hindū-Kūsh, i.e. 'the Hindu-Killer,' because so many of the slaves, male and female, brought from India, die in the passage of this mountain, owing to the severe cold and quantity of snow."—Ibn Batuta, iii. 84.
1504.—"The country of Kâbul is very strong, and of difficult access.... Between Balkh, Kundez, and Badakshân on the one side, and Kâbul on the other, is interposed the mountain of Hindû-kûsh, the passes over which are seven in number."—Baber, p. 139.
1548.—"From this place marched, and entered the mountains called Hindū-Kush."—Mem. of Emp. Humayun, 89.
" "It was therefore determined to invade Badakhshan.... The Emperor, passing over the heel of the Hindū-Kush, encamped at Shergirán."—Tabakāt-i-Akbarī, in Elliot, v. 223.
1753.—"Les montagnes qui donnent naissance à l'Indus, et à plusieurs des rivières qu'il reçoit, se nomment Hendou Kesh, et c'est l'histoire de Timur qui m'instruit de cette denomination. Elle est composée du nom d'Hendou ou Hind, qui désigne l'Inde ... et de kush ou kesh ... que je remarque être propre à diverses montagnes."—D'Anville, p. 16.
1793.—"The term Hindoo-Kho, or Hindoo-Kush, is not applied to the ridge throughout its full extent; but seems confined to that part of it which forms the N.W. boundary of Cabul; and this is the Indian Caucasus of Alexander."—Rennell, Mem. 3rd ed. 150.
1817.—
"... those
Who dwell beyond the everlasting snows
Of Hindoo Koosh, in stormy freedom bred."—Mokanna.
HINDOSTAN, n.p. Pers. Hindūstān. (a) 'The country of the Hindūs,' India. In modern native parlance this word indicates distinctively (b) India north of the Nerbudda, and exclusive of Bengal and Behar. The latter provinces are regarded as pūrb (see POORUB), and all south of the Nerbudda as Dakhan (see DECCAN). But the word is used in older {416b}Mahommedan authors just as it is used in English school-books and atlases, viz. as (a) the equivalent of India Proper. Thus Baber says of Hindustān: "On the East, the South, and the West it is bounded by the Ocean" (310).
a.—
1553.—"... and so the Persian nation adjacent to it give it as at present its proper name that of Indostān."—Barros, I. iv. 7.
1563.—"... and common usage in Persia, and Coraçone, and Arabia, and Turkey, calls this country Industam ... for istām is as much as to say 'region,' and indu 'India.'"—Garcia, f. 137b.
1663.—"And thus it came to pass that the Persians called it Indostan."—Faria y Sousa, i. 33.
1665.—"La derniere parti est la plus connüe: c'est celle que l'on appelle Indostan, et dont les bornes naturelles au Couchant et au Levant, sont le Gange et l'Indus."—Thevenot, v. 9.
1672.—"It has been from old time divided into two parts, i.e. the Eastern, which is India beyond the Ganges, and the Western India within the Ganges, now called Indostan."—Baldaeus, 1.
1770.—"By Indostan is properly meant a country lying between two celebrated rivers, the Indus and the Ganges.... A ridge of mountains runs across this long tract from north to south, and dividing it into two equal parts, extends as far as Cape Comorin."—Raynal (tr.), i. 34.
1783.—"In Macassar Indostan is called Neegree Telinga."—Forrest, V. to Mergui, 82.
b.—
1803.—"I feared that the dawk direct through Hindostan would have been stopped."—Wellington, ed. 1837, ii. 209.
1824.—"One of my servants called out to them,—'Aha! dandee folk, take care! You are now in Hindostan! The people of this country know well how to fight, and are not afraid.'"—Heber, i. 124. See also pp. 268, 269.
In the following stanza of the good bishop's the application is apparently the same; but the accentuation is excruciating—'Hindóstan,' as if rhyming to 'Boston.'
1824.—
"Then on! then on! where duty leads,
My course be onward still,
O'er broad Hindostan's sultry meads,
Or bleak Almora's hill."—Ibid. 113.
1884.—"It may be as well to state that Mr. H. G. Keene's forthcoming History of Hindustan ... will be limited in its scope to the strict meaning of the word 'Hindustan' = India north of the Deccan."—Academy, April 26, p. 294.
HINDOSTANEE, s. Hindūstānī, properly an adjective, but used substantively in two senses, viz. (a) a native of Hindustān, and (b) (Hindūstānī zabān) 'the language of that country,' but in fact the language of the Mahommedans of Upper India, and eventually of the Mahommedans of the Deccan, developed out of the Hindi dialect of the Doab chiefly, and of the territory round Agra and Delhi, with a mixture of Persian vocables and phrases, and a readiness to adopt other foreign words. It is also called Oordoo, i.e. the language of the Urdū ('Horde') or Camp. This language was for a long time a kind of Mahommedan lingua franca over all India, and still possesses that character over a large part of the country, and among certain classes. Even in Madras, where it least prevails, it is still recognised in native regiments as the language of intercourse between officers and men. Old-fashioned Anglo-Indians used to call it the Moors (q.v.).
a.—
1653.—(applied to a native.) "Indistanni est vn Mahometan noir des Indes, ce nom est composé de Indou, Indien, et stan, habitation."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, 543.
b.—
1616.—"After this he (Tom Coryate) got a great mastery in the Indostan, or more vulgar language; there was a woman, a landress, belonging to my Lord Embassador's house, who had such a freedom and liberty of speech, that she would sometimes scould, brawl, and rail from the sun-rising to the sun-set; one day he undertook her in her own language. And by eight of the clock he so silenced her, that she had not one word more to speak."—Terry, Extracts relating to T. C.
1673.—"The Language at Court is Persian, that commonly spoke is Indostan (for which they have no proper Character, the written Language being called Banyan), which is a mixture of Persian and Sclavonian, as are all the dialects of India."—Fryer, 201. This intelligent traveller's reference to Sclavonian is remarkable, and shows a notable perspicacity, which would have delighted the late Lord Strangford, had he noticed the passage.
1677.—In Court's letter of 12th Dec. to Ft. St. Geo. they renew the offer of a reward of £20, for proficiency in the Gentoo or Indostan languages, and sanction a reward of £10 each for proficiency in the Persian language, "and that fit persons to teach the said language be entertained."—Notes and Exts., No. i. 22.
1685.—"... so applyed myself to a Portuguese mariner who spoke Indostan (ye current language of all these Islands) [Maldives]."—Hedges, Diary, March 9; [Hak. Soc. i. 191].
1697.—"Questions addressed to Khodja Movaad, Ambassador from Abyssinia.
* * * * *
4.—"What language he, in his audience made use of?
"The Hindustani language (Hindoestanze taal), which the late Hon. Paulus de Roo, then Secretary of their Excellencies the High Government of Batavia, interpreted."—Valentijn, iv. 327.
[1699.—"He is expert in the Hindorstand or Moores Language."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. cclxvii.]
1726.—"The language here is Hindustans or Moors (so 'tis called there), though he who can't speak any Arabic and Persian passes for an ignoramus."—Valentijn, Chor. i. 37.
1727.—"This Persian ... and I, were discoursing one Day of my Affairs in the Industan Language, which is the established Language spoken in the Mogul's large Dominions."—A. Hamilton, ii. 183; [ed. 1744, ii. 182].
1745.—"Benjamini Schulzii Missionarii Evangelici, Grammatica Hindostanica ... Edidit, et de suscipiendâ barbaricarum linguarum culturâ praefatus est D. Jo. Henr. Callenberg, Halae Saxoniae."—Title from Catalogue of M. Garcin de Tassy's Books, 1879. This is the earliest we have heard of.
1763.—"Two of the Council of Pondicherry went to the camp, one of them was well versed in the Indostan and Persic languages, which are the only tongues used in the Courts of the Mahomedan Princes."—Orme, i. 144 (ed. 1803).
1772.—"Manuscripts have indeed been handed about, ill spelt, with a confused mixture of Persian, Indostans, and Bengals."—Preface to Hadley's Grammar, xi. (See under MOORS.)
1777.—"Alphabetum Brammhanicum seu Indostanum."—Romae.
1778.—"Grammatica Indostana—A mais Vulgar—Que se practica no Imperio do gram Mogol—Offerecida—Aos muitos Reverendos—Padres Missionarios—Do dito Imperio. Em Roma MDCCLXXVIII—Na Estamperia da Sagrada Congregação—de Propaganda Fide."—(Title transcribed.) There is a reprint of this (apparently) of 1865, in the Catalogue of Garcin de Tassy's books.
c. 1830.—"Cet ignoble patois d'Hindoustani, qui ne servira jamais à rien quand je serai retourné en Europe, est difficile."—V. Jacquemont, Correspondance, i. 95.
1844.—"Hd. Quarters, Kurrachee, 12th February, 1844. The Governor unfortunately does not understand Hindoostanee, nor Persian, nor Mahratta, nor any other eastern dialect. He therefore will feel particularly obliged to Collectors, {418a}sub-Collectors, and officers writing the proceedings of Courts-Martial, and all Staff Officers, to indite their various papers in English, larded with as small a portion of the to him unknown tongues as they conveniently can, instead of those he generally receives—namely, papers written in Hindostanee larded with occasional words in English.
"Any Indent made for English Dictionaries shall be duly attended to, if such be in the stores at Kurrachee; if not, gentlemen who have forgotten the vulgar tongue are requested to procure the requisite assistance from England."—GG. OO., by Sir Charles Napier, 85.
[Compare the following:
[1617.—(In answer to a letter from the Court not now extant). "Wee have forbidden the severall Factoryes from wrighting words in this languadge and refrayned itt our selues, though in bookes of Coppies wee feare there are many which by wante of tyme for perusall wee cannot rectifie or expresse."—Surat Factors to Court, February 26, 1617. (I.O. Records: O. C., No. 450.)]
1856.—
"... they sound strange
As Hindostanee to an Ind-born man
Accustomed many years to English speech."
E. B. Browning, Aurora Leigh.
HING, s. Asafoetida. Skt. hingu, Hind. hīng, Dakh. hīngu. A repulsively smelling gum-resin which forms a favourite Hindu condiment, and is used also by Europeans in Western and Southern India as an ingredient in certain cakes eaten with curry. (See POPPER-CAKE). This product affords a curious example of the uncertainty which sometimes besets the origin of drugs which are the objects even of a large traffic. Hanbury and Flückiger, whilst describing Falconer's Narthex Asafoetida (Ferula Narthex, Boiss.) and Scorodosma foetidum, Bunge; (F. asafoetida, Boiss.) two umbelliferous plants, both cited as the source of this drug, say that neither has been proved to furnish the asafoetida of commerce. Yet the plant producing it has been described and drawn by Kaempfer, who saw the gum-resin collected in the Persian Province of Lāristān (near the eastern shore of the P. Gulf); and in recent years (1857) Surgeon-Major Bellew has described the collection of the drug near Kandahar. Asafoetida has been identified with the σίλφιον or laserpitium of the ancients. The substance is probably yielded not only by the species mentioned above, but by other allied plants, e.g. Ferula {418b}Jaeschkiana, Vatke, of Kashmīr and Turkistan. The hing of the Bombay market is the produce of F. alliacea, Boiss. [See Watt, Econ. Dict. iii. 328 seqq.]
c. 645.—"This kingdom of Tsao-kiu-tcha (Tsāukūta?) has about 7000 li of compass,—the compass of the capital called Ho-sí-na (Ghazna) is 30 li.... The soil is favourable to the plant Yo-Kin (Curcuma, or turmeric) and to that called Hing-kiu."—Pèlerins Boudd., iii. 187.
1563.—"A Portuguese in Bisnagar had a horse of great value, but which exhibited a deal of flatulence, and on that account the King would not buy it. The Portuguese cured it by giving it this ymgu mixt with flour: the King then bought it, finding it thoroughly well, and asked him how he had cured it. When the man said it was with ymgu, the King replied: ''Tis nothing then to marvel at, for you have given it to eat the food of the gods' (or, as the poets say, nectar). Whereupon the Portuguese made answer sotto voce and in Portuguese: 'Better call it the food of the devils!'"—Garcia, f. 21b. The Germans do worse than this Portuguese, for they call the drug Teufels dreck, i.e. diaboli non cibus sed stercus!
1586.—"I went from Agra to Satagam (see CHITTAGONG) in Bengale in the companie of one hundred and four score Boates, laden with Salt, Opium, Hinge, Lead, Carpets, and divers other commodities down the River Jemena."—R. Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 386.
1611.—"In the Kingdom of Gujarat and Cambaya, the natives put in all their food Ingu, which is Assafetida."—Teixeira, Relaciones, 29.
1631.—"... ut totas aedas foetore replerent, qui insuetis vix tolerandus esset. Quod Javani et Malaii et caeteri Indiarum incolae negabant se quicquam odoratius naribus unquam percepisse. Apud hos Hin his succus nominatur."—Jac. Bontii, lib. iv. p. 41.
1638.—"Le Hingh, que nos droguistes et apoticaires appellent Assa foetida, vient la plus part de Perse, mais celle que la Province d'Vtrad (?) produit dans les Indes est bien meilleur."—Mandelslo, 230.
1673.—"In this Country Assa Foetida is gathered at a place called Descoon; some deliver it to be the Juice of a Cane or Reed inspissated; others, of a Tree wounded: It differs much from the stinking Stuff called Hing, it being of the Province of Carmania; this latter is that the Indians perfume themselves with, mixing it in all their Pulse, and make it up in Wafers to correct the Windiness of their Food."—Fryer, 239.
1689.—"The Natives at Suratt are much taken with Assa Foetida, which they call Hin, and mix a little with the Cakes that they eat."—Ovington, 397.
1712.—"... substantiam obtinet ponderosam, instar rapae solidam candidissimamque, plenam succi pinguis, albissimi, {419a}foetidissimi, porraceo odore nares horridé ferientis; qui ex eâ collectus, Persis Indisque Hingh, Europaeis Asa foetida appellatur."—Eng. Kaempfer Amoen. Exotic. 537.
1726.—"Hing or Assa Foetida, otherwise called Devil's-dung (Duivelsdrek)."—Valentijn, iv. 146.
1857.—"Whilst riding in the plain to the N.E. of the city (Candahar) we noticed several assafœtida plants. The assafœtida, called hang or hing by the natives, grows wild in the sandy or gravelly plains that form the western part of Afghanistan. It is never cultivated, but its peculiar gum-resin is collected from the plants on the deserts where they grow. The produce is for the most part exported to Hindustan."—Bellew, Journal of a Pol. Mission, &c., p. 270.
HIRAVA, n.p. Malayāl. Iraya. The name of a very low caste in Malabar. [The Iraya form one section of the Cherumar, and are of slightly higher social standing than the Pulayar (see POLEA). "Their name is derived from the fact that they are allowed to come only as far as the eaves (ira) of their employers' houses." (Logan, Malabar, i. 148.)]
1510.—"La sexta sorte (de' Gentili) se chiamão Hirava, e questi seminano e raccoglieno il riso."—Varthema (ed. 1517, f. 43v).
[HIRRAWEN, s. The Musulman pilgrim dress; a corruption of the Ar. iḥrām. Burton writes: "Al-Iḥrām, literally meaning 'prohibition' or 'making unlawful,' equivalent to our 'mortification,' is applied to the ceremony of the toilette, and also to the dress itself. The vulgar pronounce the word 'herām,' or 'l'ehrām.' It is opposed to ihlāl, 'making lawful,' or 'returning to laical life.' The further from Mecca it is assumed, provided that it be during the three months of Hajj, the greater is the religious merit of the pilgrim; consequently some come from India and Egypt in the dangerous attire" (Pilgrimage, ed. 1893, ii. 138, note).
[1813.—"... the ceremonies and penances mentioned by Pitts, when the hajes, or pilgrims, enter into Hirrawen, a ceremony from which the females are exempted; but the men, taking off all their clothes, cover themselves with two hirrawens or large white wrappers...."—Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 101, 2nd ed.]
HOBSON-JOBSON, s. A native festal excitement; a tamāsha (see {419b}TUMASHA); but especially the Moharram ceremonies. This phrase may be taken as a typical one of the most highly assimilated class of Anglo-Indian argot, and we have ventured to borrow from it a concise alternative title for this Glossary. It is peculiar to the British soldier and his surroundings, with whom it probably originated, and with whom it is by no means obsolete, as we once supposed. My friend Major John Trotter tells me that he has repeatedly heard it used by British soldiers in the Punjab; and has heard it also from a regimental Moonshee. It is in fact an Anglo-Saxon version of the wailings of the Mahommedans as they beat their breasts in the procession of the Moharram—"Yā Hasan! Yā Hosain!" It is to be remembered that these observances are in India by no means confined to Shī'as. Except at Lucknow and Murshīdābād, the great majority of Mahommedans in that country are professed Sunnis. Yet here is a statement of the facts from an unexceptionable authority:
"The commonalty of the Mussalmans, and especially the women, have more regard for the memory of Hasan and Husein, than for that of Muhammad and his khalifs. The heresy of making Ta'ziyas (see TAZEEA) on the anniversary of the two latter imáms, is most common throughout India: so much so that opposition to it is ascribed by the ignorant to blasphemy. This example is followed by many of the Hindus, especially the Mahrattas. The Muharram is celebrated throughout the Dekhan and Malwa, with greater enthusiasm than in other parts of India. Grand preparations are made in every town on the occasion, as if for a festival of rejoicing, rather than of observing the rites of mourning, as they ought. The observance of this custom has so strong a hold on the mind of the commonalty of the Mussulmans that they believe Muhammadanism to depend merely on keeping the memory of the imáms in the above manner."—Mīr Shahāmat 'Ali, in J. R. As. Soc. xiii. 369.
We find no literary quotation to exemplify the phrase as it stands. [But see those from the Orient. Sporting Mag. and Nineteenth Century below.] Those which follow show it in the process of evolution:
1618.—"... e particolarmente delle donne che, battendosi il petto e facendo gesti di grandissima compassione replicano spesso con gran dolore quegli ultimi versi di certi loro cantici: Vah Hussein! sciah Hussein!"—P. della Valle, i. 552.
c. 1630.—"Nine dayes they wander up and downe (shaving all that while neither head nor beard, nor seeming joyfull), incessantly calling out Hussan, Huṣsan! in a melancholy note, so long, so fiercely, that many can neither howle longer, nor for a month's space recover their voices."—Sir T. Herbert, 261.
1653.—"... ils dressent dans les rues des Sepulchres de pierres, qu'ils couronnent de Lampes ardentes, et les soirs ils y vont dancer et sauter crians Hussan, Houssain, Houssain, Hassan...."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 144.
c. 1665.—"... ainsi j'eus tout le loisir dont j'eus besoin pour y voir celebrer la Fête de Hussein Fils d'Aly.... Les Mores de Golconde le celebrent avec encore beaucoup plus de folies qu'en Perse ... d'autres font des dances en rond, tenant des épées nües la pointe en haut, qu'ils touchent les unes contre les autres, en criant de toute leur force Hussein."—Thevenot, v. 320.
1673.—"About this time the Moors solemnize the Exequies of Hosseen Gosseen, a time of ten days Mourning for two Unfortunate Champions of theirs."—Fryer, p. 108.
" "On the Days of their Feasts and Jubilees, Gladiators were approved and licensed; but feeling afterwards the Evils that attended that Liberty, which was chiefly used in their Hossy Gossy, any private Grudge being then openly revenged: it never was forbid, but it passed into an Edict by the following King, that it should be lawfull to Kill any found with Naked Swords in that Solemnity."—Ibid. 357.
[1710.—"And they sing around them Saucem Saucem."—Oriente Conquistado, vol. ii.; Conquista, i. Div. 2, sec. 59.]
1720.—"Under these promising circumstances the time came round for the Mussulman feast called Hossein Jossen ... better known as the Mohurrum."—In Wheeler, ii. 347.
1726.—"In their month Moharram they have a season of mourning for the two brothers Hassan and Hossein.... They name this mourning-time in Arabic Ashur, or the 10 days; but the Hollanders call it Jaksom Baksom."—Valentijn, Choro. 107.
1763.—"It was the 14th of November, and the festival which commemorates the murder of the brothers Hassein and Jassein happened to fall out at this time."—Orme, i. 193.
[1773.—"The Moors likewise are not without their feasts and processions ... particularly of their Hassan Hassan...."—Ives, 28.
[1829.—"Them paper boxes are purty looking consarns, but then the folks makes sich a noise, firing and troompeting and shouting Hobson Jobson, Hobson Jobson."—Oriental Sporting Mag., reprint 1873, i. 129.
[1830.—"The ceremony of Husen Hasen ... here passes by almost without notice."—Raffles, Hist. Java, 2nd ed. ii. 4.]
1832.—"... they kindle fires in these pits every evening during the festival; and the ignorant, old as well as young, amuse themselves in fencing across them with sticks or swords; or only in running and playing round them, calling out, Ya Allee! Ya Allee! ... Shah Hussun! Shah Hussun! ... Shah Hosein! Shah Hosein! ... Doolha! Doolha! (bridegroom! ...); Haee dost! Haee dost! (alas, friend! ...); Ruheeo! Ruheeo! (Stay! Stay!). Every two of these words are repeated probably a hundred times over as loud as they can bawl out."—Jaffur Shureef, Qanoon-e-Islam, tr. by Herklots, p. 173.
1883.—"... a long procession ... followed and preceded by the volunteer mourners and breast-beaters shouting their cry of Hous-s-e-i-n H-as-san Houss-e-i-n H-a-s-san, and a simultaneous blow is struck vigorously by hundreds of heavy hands on the bare breasts at the last syllable of each name."—Wills' Modern Persia, 282.
[1902.—"The Hobson-Jobson." By Miss A. Goodrich-Freer, in The Nineteenth Century and After, April 1902.]