In the days of the Mongol supremacy in China, when Chinese affairs were for a time more distinctly conceived in Western Asia, and the name of Manzi as denoting Southern China, unconquered by the Mongols till 1275, was current in the West, it would appear that this name was confounded with Māchīn, and the latter thus acquired a specific but erroneous application. One author of the 16th century also (quoted by Klaproth, J. As. Soc. ser. 2, tom. i. 115) distinguishes Chīn and Māchīn as N. and S. China, but this distinction seems never to have been entertained by the Hindus. Ibn Batuta sometimes distinguishes Ṣīn (i.e. Chīn) as South China from Khitāi (see CATHAY) as North China. In times when intimacy with {531a}China had again ceased, the double name seems to have recovered its old vagueness as a rotund way of saying China, and had no more plurality of sense than in modern parlance Sodor and Man. But then comes an occasional new application of Māchīn to Indo-China, as in Conti (followed by Fra Mauro). An exceptional application, arising from the Arab habit of applying the name of a country to the capital or the chief port frequented by them, arose in the Middle Ages, through which Canton became known in the West as the city of Māchīn, or in Persian translation Chīnkalān, i.e. Great Chīn.
Mahāchīna as applied to China:
636.—"'In what country exists the kingdom of the Great Thang?' asked the king (Sīlāditya of Kanauj), 'how far is it from this?'
"'It is situated,' replied he (Hwen T'sang), 'to the N.E. of this kingdom, and is distant several ten-thousands of li. It is the country which the Indian people call Mahāchīna.'"—Pèl. Bouddh. ii. 254-255.
c. 641.—"Mohochintan." See quotation under CHINA.
c. 1030.—"Some other mountains are called Harmakút, in which the Ganges has its source. These are impassable from the side of the cold regions, and beyond them lies Māchīn."—Al-Birūnī, in Elliot, i. 46.
1501.—In the Letter of Amerigo Vespucci on the Portuguese discoveries, written from C. Verde, 4th June, we find mention among other new regions of Marchin. Published in Baldelli Boni's Il Milione, p. ciii.
c. 1590.—"Adjoining to Asham is Tibet, bordering upon Khatai, which is properly Mahacheen, vulgarly called Macheen. The capital of Khatai is Khan Baleegh, 4 days' journey from the sea."—Ayeen, by Gladwin, ed. 1800, ii. 4; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 118].
[c. 1665.—"... you told me ... that Persia, Usbec, Kachguer, Tartary, and Catay, Pegu, Siam, China and Matchine (in orig. Tchine et Matchine) trembled at the name of the Kings of the Indies."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 155 seq.]
Applied to Southern China.
c. 1300.—"Khatāi is bounded on one side by the country of Māchīn, which the Chinese call Manzi.... In the Indian language S. China is called Mahā-chīn, i.e. 'Great China,' and hence we derive the word Manzi."—Rashīd-uddīn, in H. des Mongols (Quatremère), xci.-xciii.
c. 1348.—"It was the Kaam's orders that we should proceed through Manzi, which was formerly known as India Maxima" (by which he indicates Mahā-Chīnā, see below, in last quotation).—John Marignolli, in Cathay, p. 354.
Applied to Indo-China:
c. 1430.—"Ea provincia (Ava)—Macinum incolae dicunt— ... referta est elephantis."—Conti, in Poggius, De Var. Fortunae.
Chin and Machin:
c. 1320.—"The curiosities of Chín and Machín, and the beautiful products of Hind and Sind."—Wassāf, in Elliot, iii. 32.
c. 1440.—"Poi si retrova in quella istessa provincia di Zagatai Sanmarcant città grandissima e ben popolata, por la qual vanno e vengono tutti quelli di Cini e Macini e del Cataio, o mercanti o viandanti che siano."—Barbaro, in Ramusio, ii. f. 106v.
c. 1442.—"The merchants of the 7 climates from Egypt ... from the whole of the realms of Chīn and Māchīn, and from the city of Khānbālik, steer their course to this port."--Abdurrazāk, in Notices et Extraits, xiv. 429.
[1503.—"Sin and Masin." See under JAVA.]
Mahāchīn or Chīn Kalān, for Canton.
c. 1030.—In Sprenger's extracts from Al-Birūnī we have "Sharghūd, in Chinese Sanfū. This is Great China (Māhāṣīn)."—Post und Reise-routen des Orients, 90.
c. 1300.—"This canal extends for a distance of 40 days' navigation from Khānbāligh to Khingsaī and Zaitūn, the ports frequented by the ships that come from India, and from the city of Māchīn."—Rashīd-uddin, in Cathay, &c., 259-260.
c. 1332.—"... after I had sailed eastward over the Ocean Sea for many days I came to that noble province Manzi.... The first city to which I came in this country was called Cens-Kalan, and 'tis a city as big as three Venices."—Odoric, in Cathay, &c., 103-105.
c. 1347.—"In the evening we stopped at another village, and so on till we arrived at Sīn-Kalān, which is the city of Ṣīn-ul-Ṣīn ... one of the greatest of cities, and one of those that has the finest of bazaars. One of the largest of these is the porcelain bazaar, and from it china-ware is exported to the other cities of China, to India, and to Yemen."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 272.
c. 1349.—"The first of these is called Manzi, the greatest and noblest province in the world, having no paragon in beauty, pleasantness, and extent. In it is that noble city of Campsay, besides Zayton, Cynkalan, and many other cities."—John Marignolli, in Cathay, &c., 373.
MĀCHIS, s. This is recent Hind. for 'lucifer matches.' An older and purer phrase for sulphur-matches is dīwā-, dīyā-salāī.
MADAPOLLAM, n.p. This term, applying to a particular kind of cotton {532a}cloth, and which often occurs in prices current, is taken from the name of a place on the Southern Delta-branch of the Godavery, properly Mādhavapalam, [Tel. Mādhavayya-pālemu, 'fortified village of Mādhava']. This was till 1833 [according to the Madras Gloss. 1827] the seat of one of the Company's Commercial Agencies, which was the chief of three in that Delta; the other two being Bunder Malunka and Injeram. Madapollam is now a staple export from England to India; it is a finer kind of white piece-goods, intermediate between calico and muslin.
[1610.—"Madafunum is chequered, somewhat fine and well requested in Pryaman."—Danvers, Letters, i. 74.]
1673.—"The English for that cause (the unhealthiness of Masulipatam), only at the time of shipping, remove to Medopollon, where they have a wholesome Seat Forty Miles more North."—Fryer, 35.
[1684-85.—"Mr. Benja Northey having brought up Musters of the Madapollm Cloth, Itt is thought convenient that the same be taken of him...."—Pringle, Diary Ft. St. Geo. 1st ser. iv. 49.]
c. 1840.—"Pierrette eût de jolies chemises en Madapolam."—Balzac, Pierrette.
1879.—"... liveliness seems to be the unfailing characteristic of autographs, fans, Cremona fiddles, Louis Quatorze snuff-boxes, and the like, however sluggish pig-iron and Madapollams may be."—Sat. Review, Jan. 11, p. 45.
MADRAFAXAO, s. This appears in old Portuguese works as the name of a gold coin of Guzerat; perhaps representing Muẓaffar-shāhī. There were several kings of Guzerat of this name. The one in question was probably Muẓaffar-Shah II. (1511-1525), of whose coinage Thomas mentions a gold piece of 185 grs. (Pathán Kings, 353).
1554.—"There also come to this city Madrafaxaos, which are a money of Cambaya, which vary greatly in price; some are of 24 tangas of 60 reis the tanga, others of 23, 22, 21, and other prices according to time and value."—A. Nunez, 32.
MADRAS, n.p. This alternative name of the place, officially called by its founders Fort St. George, first appears about the middle of the 17th century. Its origin has been much debated, but with little result. One derivation, backed by a fictitious legend, derives the name from an imaginary Christian fisherman called {532b}Madarasen; but this may be pronounced philologically impossible, as well as otherwise unworthy of serious regard.[155] Lassen makes the name to be a corruption of Manda-rājya, 'Realm of the Stupid!' No one will suspect the illustrious author of the Indische Alterthumskunde to be guilty of a joke; but it does look as if some malign Bengalee had suggested to him this gibe against the "Benighted"! It is indeed curious and true that, in Bengal, sepoys and the like always speak of the Southern Presidency as Mandrāj. In fact, however, all the earlier mentions of the name are in the form of Madraspatanam, 'the city of the Madras,' whatever the Madras may have been. The earliest maps show Madraspatanam as the Mahommedan settlement corresponding to the present Triplicane and Royapettah. The word is therefore probably of Mahommedan origin; and having got so far we need not hesitate to identify it with Madrasa, 'a college.' The Portuguese wrote this Madaraza (see Faria y Sousa, Africa Portuguesa, 1681, p. 6); and the European name probably came from them, close neighbours as they were to Fort St. George, at Mylapore or San Thomé. That there was such a Madrasa in existence is established by the quotation from Hamilton, who was there about the end of the 17th century.[156] Fryer's Map (1698, but illustrating 1672-73) represents the Governor's House as a building of Mahommedan architecture, with a dome. This may have been the Madrasa itself. Lockyer also (1711) speaks of a "College," of which the building was "very ancient"; formerly a hospital, and then used apparently as a residence for young writers. But it is not clear whether the name "College" was not given on this last account. [The Madras Admin. Man. says: "The origin of this name has been much discussed. Madrissa, a Mahommedan school, has been suggested, which considering the date at which the name is first found seems fanciful. Manda is in Sanscrit 'slow.' Mandarāz was a king of the lunar race. {533a}The place was probably called after this king" (ii. 91). The Madras Gloss. again writes: "Hind. Madrās, Can. Madarāsu, from Tel. Mandaradzu, name of a local Telegu Royer," or ruler. The whole question has been discussed by Mr. Pringle (Diary Ft. St. Geo., 1st ser. i. 106 seqq.). He points out that while the earliest quotation given below is dated 1653, the name, in the form Madrazpatam, is used by the President and Council of Surat in a letter dated 29th December, 1640 (I. O. Records, O. C. No. 1764); "and the context makes it pretty certain that Francis Day or some other of the factors at the new Settlement must have previously made use of it in reference to the place, or 'rather,' as the Surat letter says, 'plot of ground' offered to him. It is no doubt just possible that in the course of the negotiations Day heard or caught up the name from the Portuguese, who were at the time in friendly relations with the English; but the probabilities are certainly in the opposite direction. The nayak from whom the plot was obtained must almost certainly have supplied the name, or what Francis Day conceived to be the name. Again, as regards Hamilton's mention of a 'college,' Sir H. Yule's remark certainly goes too far. Hamilton writes, 'There is a very Good Hospital in the Town, and the Company's Horse-stables are neat, but the old College where a good many Gentlemen Factors are obliged to lodge, is ill-kept in repair.' This remark taken together with that made by Lockyer ... affords proof, indeed, that there was a building known to the English as the 'College.' But it does not follow that this, or any, building was distinctively known to Musulmans as the 'madrasa.' The 'old College' of Hamilton may have been the successor of a Musulman 'madrasa' of some size and consequence, and if this was so the argument for the derivation would be strengthened. It is however equally possible that some old buildings within the plot of territory acquired by Day, which had never been a 'madrasa,' was turned to use as a College or place where the young writers should live and receive instruction; and in this case the argument, so far as it rests on a mention of 'a College' by Hamilton {533b}and Lockyer, is entirely destroyed. Next as regards the probability that the first part of 'Madraspatanam' is 'of Mahommedan origin.' Sir H. Yule does not mention that date of the maps in which Madraspatanam is shown 'as the Mahommedan settlement corresponding to the present Triplicane and Royapettah'; but in Fryer's map, which represents the fort as he saw it in 1672, the name 'Madirass'—to which is added 'the Indian Town with flat houses'—is entered as the designation of the collection of houses on the north side of the English town, and the next makes it evident that in the year in question the name of Madras was applied chiefly to the crowded collection of houses styled in turn the 'Heathen,' the 'Malabar,' and the 'Black' town. This consideration does not necessarily disprove the supposed Musulman origin of 'Madras,' but it undoubtedly weakens the chain of Sir H. Yule's argument." Mr. Pringle ends by saying: "On the whole it is not unfair to say that the chief argument in favour of the derivation adopted by Sir H. Yule is of a negative kind. There are fatal objections to whatever other derivations have been suggested, but if the mongrel character of the compound 'Madrasa-patanam' is disregarded, there is no fatal objection to the derivation from 'madrasa.'... If however that derivation is to stand, it must not rest upon such accidental coincidences as the use of the word 'College' by writers whose knowledge of Madras was derived from visits made from 30 to 50 years after the foundation of the colony."]
1653.—"Estant desbarquez le R. P. Zenon reçut lettres de Madraspatan de la detention du Rev. P. Ephraim de Neuers par l'Inquisition de Portugal, pour avoir presché a Madraspatan que les Catholiques qui foüetoient et trampoient dans des puys les images de Sainct Antoine de Pade, et de la Vierge Marie, estoient impies, et que les Indous à tout le moins honorent ce qu'ils estiment Sainct...."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, 244.
c. 1665.—"Le Roi de Golconde a de grands Revenus.... Les Douanes des marchandises qui passent sur ses Terres, et celles des Ports de Masulipatan et de Madrespatan, lui rapportent beaucoup."—Thevenot, v. 306.
1672.—"... following upon Madraspatan, otherwise called Chinnepatan, where the English have a Fort called St. George, {534a}chiefly garrisoned by Toepasses and Mistices; from this place they annually send forth their ships, as also from Suratte."—Baldaeus, Germ. ed. 152.
1673.—"Let us now pass the Pale to the Heathen Town, only parted by a wide Parrade, which is used for a Buzzar, or Mercate-place. Maderas then divides itself into divers long streets, and they are checquered by as many transverse. It enjoys some Choultries for Places of Justice; one Exchange; one Pagod...."—Fryer, 38-39.
1726.—"The Town or Place, anciently called Chinapatnam, now called Madraspatnam, and Fort St. George."—Letters Patent, in Charters of E.I. Company, 368-9.
1727.—"Fort St. George or Maderass, or as the Natives call it, China Patam, is a Colony and City belonging to the English East India Company, situated in one of the most incommodious Places I ever saw.... There is a very good Hospital in the Town, and the Company's Horse-Stables are neat, but the Old College, where a great many Gentlemen Factors are obliged to lodge, is kept in ill Repair."—A. Hamilton, i. 364, [ed. 1744, ii. 182]. (Also see CHINAPATAM.)
MADRAS, s. This name is applied to large bright-coloured handkerchiefs, of silk warp and cotton woof, which were formerly exported from Madras, and much used by the negroes in the W. Indies as head-dresses. The word is preserved in French, but is now obsolete in England.
c. 1830.—"... We found President Petion, the black Washington, sitting on a very old ragged sofa, amidst a confused mass of papers, dressed in a blue military undress frock, white trowsers, and the everlasting Madras handkerchief bound round his brows."—Tom Cringle, ed. 1863, p. 425.
1846.—"Et Madame se manifesta! C'était une de ces vieilles dévinées par Adrien Brauwer dans ses sorcières pour le Sabbat ... coiffée d'un Madras, faisant encore papillottes avec les imprimés, que recevait gratuitement son maître."—Balzac, Le Cousin Pons, ch. xviii.
MADREMALUCO, n.p. The name given by the Portuguese to the Mahommedan dynasty of Berar, called 'Imād-shāhī. The Portuguese name represents the title of the founder 'Imād-ul-Mulk, ('Pillar of the State'), otherwise Fath Ullah 'Imād Shāh. The dynasty was the most obscure of those founded upon the dissolution of the Bāhmani monarchy in the Deccan. (See COTAMALUCO, IDALCAN, MELIQUE VERIDO, NIZAMALUCO, SABAIO.) It began about 1484, and in 1572 was merged in the kingdom of {534b}Ahmednagar. There is another Madremaluco (or 'Imād-ul-Mulk) much spoken of in Portuguese histories, who was an important personage in Guzerat, and put to death with his own hand the king Sikandar Shāh (1526) (Barros, IV. v. 3; Correa, ii. 272, 344, &c.; Couto, Decs. v. and vi. passim).
[1543.—See under COTAMALUCO.]
1553.—"The Madre Maluco was married to a sister of the Hidalchan (see IDALCAN), and the latter treated this brother-in-law of his, and Meleque Verido as if they were his vassals, especially the latter."—Barros, IV. vii. 1.
1563.—"The Imademaluco or Madremaluco, as we corruptly style him, was a Circassian (Cherques) by nation, and had originally been a Christian, and died in 1546.... Imad is as much as to say 'prop,' and thus the other (of these princes) was called Imadmaluco, or 'Prop of the Kingdom.'..."—Garcia, f. 36v.
Neither the chronology of De Orta here, nor the statement of Imād-ul-Mulk's Circassian origin, agree with those of Firishta. The latter says that Fath-Ullah 'Imād Shāh was descended from the heathen of Bijanagar (iii. 485).
MADURA, n.p., properly Madurei, Tam. Mathurai. This is still the name of a district in S. India, and of a city which appears in the Tables of Ptolemy as "Μόδουρα βασίλειον Πανδιόνος." The name is generally supposed to be the same as that of Mathurā, the holy and much more ancient city of Northern India, from which the name was adopted (see MUTTRA), but modified after Tamil pronunciation.[157] [On the other hand, a writer in J. R. As. Soc. (xiv. 578, n. 3) derives Madura from the Dravidian Madur in the sense of 'Old Town,' and suggests that the northern Mathura may be an offshoot from it.] Madura was, from a date, at least as early as the Christian era, the seat of the Pāṇḍya sovereigns. These, according to Tamil tradition, as stated by Bp. Caldwell, had previously held their residence at Kolkei on the Tamraparni, the Κόλχοι of Ptolemy. (See Caldwell, pp. 16, 95, 101). The name of Madura, probably as adopted from the holier northern Muttra, seems to have been a favourite among the Eastern settlements under Hindu influence. Thus we have {535a}Matura in Ceylon; the city and island of Madura adjoining Java; and a town of the same name (Madura) in Burma, not far north of Mandalé, Madeya of the maps.
A.D. c. 70-80.—"Alius utilior portus gentis Neacyndon qui vocatur Becare. Ibi regnabat Pandion, longe ab emporio mediterraneo distante oppido quod vocatur Modura."—Pliny, vi. 26.
[c. 1315.—"Mardi." See CRORE.]
c. 1347.—"The Sultan stopped a month at Fattan, and then departed for his capital. I stayed 15 days after his departure, and then started for his residence, which was at Mutra, a great city with wide streets.... I found there a pest raging of which people died in brief space ... when I went out I saw only the dead and dying."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 200-1.
1311.—"... the royal canopy moved from Bírdhúl ... and 5 days afterwards they arrived at the city of Mathra ... the dwelling-place of the brother of the Ráí Sundar Pándya. They found the city empty, for the Ráí had fled with the Ránís, but had left two or three elephants in the temple of Jagnár (Jaganāth)."—Amír Khusrú, in Elliot, iii. 91.
MADURA FOOT, s. A fungoidal disease of the foot, apparently incurable except by amputation, which occurs in the Madura district, and especially in places where the 'Black soil' prevails. Medical authorities have not yet decided on the causes or precise nature of the disease. See Nelson, Madura, Pt. i. pp. 91-94; [Gribble, Cuddapah, 193].
MAGADOXO, n.p. This is the Portuguese representation, which has passed into general European use, of Makdashau, the name of a town and State on the Somālī coast in E. Africa, now subject to Zanzibar. It has been shown by one of the present writers that Marco Polo, in his chapter on Madagascar, has made some confusion between Magadoxo and that island, mixing up particulars relating to both. It is possible that the name of Madagascar was really given from Makdashau, as Sir R. Burton supposes; but he does not give any authority for his statement that the name of Madagascar "came from Makdishú (Magadoxo) ... whose Sheikh invaded it" (Comment. on Camões, ii. 520). [Owen (Narrative, i. 357) writes the name Mukdeesha, and Boteler (Narrative, ii. 215) says it is pronounced by {535b}the Arabs Mākŏdĭsha. The name is said to be Magaad-el-Shata, "Harbour of the Sheep," and the first syllable has been identified with that of Maqdala and is said to mean "door" in some of the Galla dialects (Notes & Queries, 9 ser. ii. 193, 310. Also see Mr. Gray's note on Pyrard, Hak. Soc. i. 29, and Dr. Burnell on Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 19.]
c. 1330.—"On departing from Zaila, we sailed on the sea for 15 days, and then arrived at Maḳdashau, a town of great size. The inhabitants possess a great number of camels, and of these they slaughter (for food) several hundreds every day."—Ibn Batuta, ii. 181.
1498.—"And we found ourselves before a great city with houses of several stories, and in the midst of the city certain great palaces; and about it a wall with four towers; and this city stood close upon the sea, and the Moors call it Magadoxó. And when we were come well abreast of it, we discharged many bombards (at it), and kept on our way along the coast with a fine wind on the poop."—Roteiro, 102.
1505.—"And the Viceroy (Don Francisco D'Almeida) made sail, ordering the course to be made for Magadaxo, which he had instructions also to make tributary. But the pilots objected saying that they would miss the season for crossing to India, as it was already the 26th of August...."—Correa, i. 560.
1514.—"... The most of them are Moors such as inhabit the city of Zofalla ... and these people continue to be found in Mazambic, Melinda, Mogodecio, Marachilue (read Brava Chilve, i.e. Brava and Quiloa), and Mombazza; which are all walled cities on the main land, with houses and streets like our own; except Mazambich."—Letter of Giov. da Empoli, in Archiv. Stor. Ital.
1516.—"Further on towards the Red Sea there is another very large and beautiful town called Magadoxo, belonging to the Moors, and it has a King over it, and is a place of great trade and merchandise."—Barbosa, 16.
1532.—"... and after they had passed Cape Guardafu, Dom Estevão was going along in such depression that he was like to die of grief, on arriving at Magadoxo, they stopped to water. And the King of the country, hearing that there had come a son of the Count Admiral, of whom all had ample knowledge as being the first to discover and navigate on that coast, came to the shore to see him, and made great offers of all that he could require."—Couto, IV. viii. 2.
1727.—"Magadoxa, or as the Portuguese call it, Magadocia, is a pretty large City, about 2 or 3 Miles from the Sea, from whence it has a very fine Aspect, being adorn'd with many high Steeples and Mosques."—A. Hamilton, i. 12-13, [ed. 1744].
MAGAZINE, s. This word is, of course, not Anglo-Indian, but may find a place here because of its origin from Ar. makhāzin, plur. of al-makhzan, whence Sp. almacen, almagacen, magacen, Port. almazem, armazem, Ital. magazzino, Fr. magazin.
c. 1340.—"The Sultan ... made him a grant of the whole city of Sīrī and all its houses with the gardens and fields of the treasury (makhzan) adjacent to the city (of Delhi)."—Ibn Batuta, iii. 262.
1539.—"A que Pero de Faria respondea, que lhe desse elle commissão per mandar nos almazẽs, et que logo proveria no socorro que entendia ser necessario."—Pinto, cap. xxi.
MAHÁJUN, s. Hind. from Skt. mahā-jan, 'great person.' A banker and merchant. In Southern and Western India the vernacular word has various other applications which are given in Wilson.
[1813.—"Mahajen, Mahajanum, a great person, a merchant."—Gloss. to 5th Rep. s.v.]
c. 1861.—
"Down there lives a Mahajun—my father gave him a bill,
I have paid the knave thrice over, and here I'm paying him still.
He shows me a long stamp paper, and must have my land—must he?

Sir A. C. Lyall, The Old Pindaree.
1885.—"The Mahajun hospitably entertains his victim, and speeds his homeward departure, giving no word or sign of his business till the time for appeal has gone by, and the decree is made absolute. Then the storm bursts on the head of the luckless hill-man, who finds himself loaded with an overwhelming debt, which he has never incurred, and can never hope to discharge; and so he practically becomes the Mahajun's slave for the rest of his natural life."—Lt.-Col. T. Lewin, A Fly on the Wheel, 339.
MAHANNAH, s. (See MEEANA.)
MAHÉ, n.p. Properly Māyēl̤i. [According to the Madras Gloss. the Mal. name is Mayyazhi, mai, 'black,' azhi, 'river mouth'; but the title is from the French Mahé, being one of the names of Labourdonnais.] A small settlement on the Malabar coast, 4 m. S.E. of Tellicherry, where the French established a factory for the sake of the pepper trade in 1722, and which they still retain. It is not now of any importance.
MAHI, n.p. The name of a considerable river flowing into the upper part {536b}of the Gulf of Cambay. ["The height of its banks, and the fierceness of its floods; the deep gullies through which the traveller has to pass on his way to the river, and perhaps, above all, the bad name of the tribes on its banks, explain the proverb: 'When the Mahi is crossed, there is comfort'" (Imp. Gazetteer, s.v.).]
c. A.D. 80-90.—"Next comes another gulf ... extending also to the north, at the mouth of which is an island called Baiōnēs (Perim), and at the innermost extremity a great river called Maïs."—Periplus, ch. 42.
MAHOUT, s. The driver and tender of an elephant. Hind. mahā-wat, from Skt. mahā-mātra, 'great in measure,' a high officer, &c., so applied. The Skt. term occurs in this sense in the Mahābhārata (e.g. iv. 1761, &c.). The Mahout is mentioned in the 1st Book of Maccabees as 'the Indian.' It is remarkable that we find what is apparently mahā-mātra, in the sense of a high officer in Hesychius:
"Μαμάτραι, οἱ στρατηγοὶ παρ' Ἰνδοῖς."—Hesych. s.v.
c. 1590.—"Mast elephants (see MUST). There are five and a half servants to each, viz., first a Mahawat, who sits on the neck of the animal and directs its movements.... He gets 200 dáms per month.... Secondly a Bhói, who sits behind, upon the rump of the elephant, and assists in battle, and in quickening the speed of the animal; but he often performs the duties of the Mahawat.... Thirdly the Met'hs (see MATE).... A Met'h fetches fodder, and assists in caparisoning the elephant...."—Āīn, ed. Blochmann, i. 125.
1648.—"... and Mahouts for the elephants...."—Van Twist, 56.
1826.—"I will now pass over the term of my infancy, which was employed in learning to read and write—my preceptor being a mahouhut, or elephant-driver—and will take up my adventures."—Pandurang Hari, 21; [ed. 1873, i. 28].
1848.—"Then he described a tiger hunt, and the manner in which the Mahout of his elephant had been pulled off his seat by one of the infuriate animals."—Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. iv.
MAHRATTA, n.p. Hind. Marhaṭā, Marhaṭṭā, Marhāṭā (Marhaṭī, Marahṭī, Marhaiṭī), and Marāṭhā. The name of a famous Hindu race, from the old Skt. name of their country, Mahā-rāshṭra, 'Magna Regio.' [On the other hand H. A. Acworth (Ballads of the Marathas, Intro. vi.) derives the word from a tribal name {537a}Raṭhī or Raṭhā, 'chariot fighters,' from raṭh, 'a chariot,' thus Mahā-Raṭhā means 'Great Warrior.' This was transferred to the country and finally Sanskritised into Mahā-rāshṭra. Again some authorities (Wilson, Indian Caste, ii. 48; Baden-Powell, J. R. As. Soc., 1897, p. 249, note) prefer to derive the word from the Mhār or Mahār, a once numerous and dominant race. And see the discussion in the Bombay Gazetteer, I. pt. ii. 143 seq.]
c. 550.—"The planet (Saturn's) motion in Açleshâ causes affliction to aquatic animals or products, and snakes ... in Pûrva Phalgunî to vendors of liquors, women of the town, damsels, and the Mahrattas...."—Bṛhat Saṇhitā, tr. by Kern, J.R. As. Soc. 2nd ser. v. 64.
640.—"De là il prit la direction du Nord-Ouest, traversa une vaste forêt, et ... il arriva au royaume de Mo-ho-la-to (Mahārāshṭra)...."—Pèl. Bouddh. i. 202; [Bombay Gazetteer, I. pt. ii. 353].
c. 1030.—"De Dhar, en se dirigeant vers le midi, jusqu'à la rivière de Nymyah on comte 7 parasanges; de là à Mahrat-dessa 18 paras."—Albirúni, in Reinaud's Fragmens, 109.
c. 1294-5.—"Alá-ud-dín marched to Elichpúr, and thence to Ghati-lajaura ... the people of that country had never heard of the Mussulmans; the Mahratta land had never been punished by their armies; no Mussulman King or Prince had penetrated so far."—Zía-ud-dín Barní, in Elliot, iii. 150.
c. 1328.—"In this Greater India are twelve idolatrous Kings, and more.... There is also the Kingdom of Maratha which is very great."—Friar Jordanus, 41.
1673.—"They tell their tale in Moratty; by Profession they are Gentues."—Fryer, 174.
1747.—"Agreed on the arrival of these Ships that We take Five Hundred (500) Peons more into our Service, that the 50 Moratta Horses be augmented to 100 as We found them very usefull in the last Skirmish...."—Consn. at Ft. St. David, Jan. 6 (MS. Record in India Office).
1748.—"That upon his hearing the Mirattoes had taken Tanner's Fort ..."—In Long, p. 5.
c. 1760.—"... those dangerous and powerful neighbors the Morattoes; who being now masters of the contiguous island of Salsette ..."—Grose, ii. 44.
" "The name of Morattoes, or Marattas, is, I have reason to think, a derivation in their country-language, or by corruption, from Mar-Rajah."—Ibid. ii. 75.
1765.—"These united princes and people are those which are known by the general name of Maharattors; a word compounded of Rattor and Maahah; the first being the name of a particular Raazpoot (or Rajpoot) {537b}tribe; and the latter, signifying great or mighty (as explained by Mr. Fraser)...."—Holwell, Hist. Events, &c., i. 105.
c. 1769.—Under a mezzotint portrait: "The Right Honble George Lord Pigot, Baron Pigot of Patshul in the Kingdom of Ireland, President and Governor of and for all the Affairs of the United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies, on the Coast of Choromandel, and Orixa, and of the Chingee and Moratta Countries, &c., &c., &c."
c. 1842.—
"... Ah, for some retreat
Deep in yonder shining Orient, where my life began to beat;
Where in wild Mahratta battle fell my father evil starr'd."
—Tennyson, Locksley Hall.
The following is in the true Hobson-Jobson manner:
[1859.—"This term Marhatta or Mârhutta, is derived from the mode of warfare adopted by these men. Mar means to strike, and hutna, to get out of the way, i.e. those who struck a blow suddenly and at once retreated out of harm's way."—H. Dundas Robertson, District Duties during the Revolt in 1857, p. 104, note.]
MAHRATTA DITCH, n.p. An excavation made in 1742, as described in the extract from Orme, on the landward sides of Calcutta, to protect the settlement from the Mahratta bands. Hence the term, or for shortness 'The Ditch' simply, as a disparaging name for Calcutta (see DITCHER). The line of the Ditch corresponded nearly with the outside of the existing Circular Road, except at the S.E. and S., where the work was never executed. [There is an excavation known by the same name at Madras excavated in 1780. (Murray, Handbook, 1859, p. 43).]
1742.—"In the year 1742 the Indian inhabitants of the Colony requested and obtained permission to dig a ditch at their own expense, round the Company's bounds, from the northern parts of Sootanatty to the southern part of Govindpore. In six months three miles were finished: when the inhabitants ... discontinued the work, which from the occasion was called the Morattoe ditch."—Orme, ed. 1803, ii. 45.
1757.—"That the Bounds of Calcutta are to extend the whole Circle of Ditch dug upon the Invasion of the Marattes; also 600 yards without it, for an Esplanade."—Articles of Agreement sent by Colonel Clive (previous to the Treaty with the Nabob of May 14). In Memoirs of the Revolution in Bengal, 1760, p. 89.
1782.—"To the Proprietors and Occupiers of Houses and other Tenements within the {538a}Mahratta Entrenchment."—India Gazette, Aug. 10.
[1840.—"Less than a hundred years ago, it was thought necessary to fortify Calcutta against the horsemen of Berar, and the name of the Mahratta Ditch still preserves the memory of the danger."—Macaulay, Essay on Clive.]
1872.—"The Calcutta cockney, who glories in the Mahratta Ditch...."—Govinda Samanta, i. 25.
MAHSEER, MASEER, MASAL, &c. Hind. mahāsir, mahāser, mahāsaulā, s. The name is applied to perhaps more than one of the larger species of Barbus (N.O. Cyprinidae), but especially to B. Mosul of Buchanan, B. Tor, Day, B. megalepis, McLelland, found in the larger Himālayan rivers, and also in the greater perennial rivers of Madras and Bombay. It grows at its largest, to about the size of the biggest salmon, and more. It affords also the highest sport to Indian anglers; and from these circumstances has sometimes been called, misleadingly, the 'Indian salmon.' The origin of the name Mahseer, and its proper spelling, are very doubtful. It may be Skt. mahā-śiras, 'big-head,' or mahā-śalka, 'large-scaled.' The latter is most probable, for the scales are so large that Buchanan mentions that playing cards were made from them at Dacca. Mr. H. S. Thomas suggests mahā-āsya, 'great mouth.' [The word does not appear in the ordinary dicts.; on the whole, perhaps the derivation from mahā-śiras is most probable.]
c. 1809.—"The Masal of the Kosi is a very large fish, which many people think still better than the Rohu, and compare it to the salmon."—Buchanan, Eastern India, iii. 194.
1822.—"Mahasaula and Tora, variously altered and corrupted, and with various additions may be considered as genuine appellations, amongst the natives for these fishes, all of which frequent large rivers."—F. Buchanan Hamilton, Fishes of the Ganges, 304.
1873.—"In my own opinion and that of others whom I have met, the Mahseer shows more sport for its size than a salmon."—H. S. Thomas, The Rod in India, p. 9.
MAINATO, s. Tam. Mal. Mainātta, a washerman or dhoby (q.v.).
1516.—"There is another sect of Gentiles which they call Mainatos, whose business it is to wash the clothes of the Kings, Bramins, and Naires; and by this they get their living; and neither they nor their {538b}sons can take up any other business."—Barbosa, Lisbon ed., 334.
c. 1542.—"In this inclosure do likewise remain all the Landresses, by them called Maynates, which wash the linnen of the City (Pequin), who, as we were told, are above an hundred thousand."—Pinto, in Cogan, p. 133. The original (cap. cv.) has todos os mainatos, whose sex Cogan has changed.
1554.—"And the farm (renda) of mainatos, which farm prohibits any one from washing clothes, which is the work of a mainato, except by arrangement with the farmer (Rendeiro)...."—Tombo, &c., 53.
[1598.—"There are some among them that do nothing els but wash cloathes: ... they are called Maynattos."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 260.
[c. 1610.—"These folk (the washermen) are called Menates."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 71.]
1644.—(Expenses of Daman) "For two maynatos, three water boys (bois de agoa), one sombreyro boy, and 4 torch bearers for the said Captain, at 1 xerafim each a month, comes in the year to 36,000 rés or xns. 00120.0.00."—Bocarro, MS. f. 181.
MAISTRY, MISTRY, sometimes even MYSTERY, s. Hind. mistrī. This word, a corruption of the Portuguese mestre, has spread into the vernaculars all over India, and is in constant Anglo-Indian use. Properly 'a foreman,' 'a master-workman'; but used also, at least in Upper India, for any artizan, as rāj-mistrī (properly Pers. rāz), 'a mason or bricklayer,' lohār-mistrī, 'a blacksmith,' &c. The proper use of the word, as noted above, corresponds precisely to the definition of the Portuguese word, as applied to artizans in Bluteau: "Artifice que sabe bem o seu officio. Peritus artifex.... Opifex, alienorum operum inspector." In W. and S. India maistry, as used in the household, generally means the cook, or the tailor. (See CALEEFA.)
Mastèr (Мастеръ) is also the Russian term for a skilled workman, and has given rise to several derived adjectives. There is too a similar word in modern Greek, μαγίστωρ.
1404.—"And in these (chambers) there were works of gold and azure and of many other colours, made in the most marvellous way; insomuch that even in Paris whence come the subtle maestros, it would be reckoned beautiful to see."—Clavijo, § cv. (Comp. Markham, p. 125).
1524.—"And the Viceroy (D. Vasco da Gama) sent to seize in the river of the Culymutys four newly-built caturs, and fetched them to Cochin. These were built {539a}very light for fast rowing, and were greatly admired. But he ordered them to be burned, saying that he intended to show the Moors that we knew how to build better caturs than they did; and he sent for Mestre Vyne the Genoese, whom he had brought to build galleys, and asked him if he could build boats that would row faster than the Malabar paraos (see PROW). He answered: 'Sir, I'll build you brigantines fast enough to catch a mosquito....'"—Correa, ii. 830.
[1548.—"He ordered to be collected in the smithies of the dockyard as many smiths as could be had, for he had many misteres."—Ibid. iv. 663.]
1554.—"To the mestrè of the smith's shop (ferraria) 30,000 reis of salary and 600 reis for maintenance" (see BATTA).—S. Botelho, Tombo, 65.
1800.—"... I have not yet been able to remedy the mischief done in my absence, as we have the advantage here of the assistance of some Madras dubashes and maistries" (ironical).—Wellington, i. 67.
1883.—"... My mind goes back to my ancient Goanese cook. He was only a maistry, or more vulgarly a bobberjee (see BOBACHEE), yet his sonorous name recalled the conquest of Mexico, or the doubling of the Cape."—Tribes on My Frontier, 35.
[1900.—"Mystery very sick, Mem Sahib, very sick all the night."—Temple Bar, April.]
MAJOON, s. Hind. from Ar. ma'jūn, lit. 'kneaded,' and thence what old medical books call 'an electuary' (i.e. a compound of medicines kneaded with syrup into a soft mass), but especially applied to an intoxicating confection of hemp leaves, &c., sold in the bazar. [Burton, Ar. Nights, iii. 159.] In the Deccan the form is ma'jūm. Moodeen Sheriff, in his Suppt. to the Pharmac. of India, writes maghjūn. "The chief ingredients in making it are ganja (or hemp) leaves, milk, ghee, poppy-seeds, flowers of the thorn-apple (see DATURA), the powder of nux vomica, and sugar" (Qanoon-e-Islam, Gloss. lxxxiii).
1519.—"Next morning I halted ... and indulging myself with a maajûn, made them throw into the water the liquor used for intoxicating fishes, and caught a few fish."—Baber, 272.
1563.—"And this they make up into an electuary, with sugar, and with the things above-mentioned, and this they call maju."—Garcia, f. 27v.
1781.—"Our ill-favoured guard brought in a dose of majum each, and obliged us to eat it ... a little after sunset the surgeon came, and with him 30 or 40 Caffres, who seized us, and held us fast till the operation (circumcision) was performed."—Soldier's letter quoted in Hon. John Lindsay's Journal {539b}of Captivity in Mysore, Lives of Lindsays, iii. 293.
1874.—"... it (Bhang) is made up with flour and various additions into a sweetmeat or majum of a green colour."—Hanbury and Flückiger, 493.
a. The name of the sea-board country which the Arabs called the 'Pepper-Coast,' the ancient Kerala of the Hindus, the Λιμύρικη, or rather Διμύρικη, of the Greeks (see TAMIL), is not in form indigenous, but was applied, apparently, first by the Arab or Arabo-Persian mariners of the Gulf. The substantive part of the name, Malai, or the like, is doubtless indigenous; it is the Dravadian term for 'mountain' in the Sanskritized form Malaya, which is applied specifically to the southern portion of the Western Ghauts, and from which is taken the indigenous term Malayālam, distinguishing that branch of the Dravidian language in the tract which we call Malabar. This name—Male or Malai, Malīah, &c.,—we find in the earlier post-classic notices of India; whilst in the great Temple-Inscription of Tanjore (11th century) we find the region in question called Malai-nāḍu (nāḍu, 'country'). The affix bār appears attached to it first (so far as we are aware) in the Geography of Edrisi (c. 1150). This (Persian?) termination, bār, whatever be its origin, and whether or no it be connected either with the Ar. barr, 'a continent,' on the one hand, or with the Skt. vāra, 'a region, a slope,' on the other, was most assuredly applied by the navigators of the Gulf to other regions which they visited besides Western India. Thus we have Zangī-bār (mod. Zanzibar), 'the country of the Blacks'; Kalāh-bār, denoting apparently the coast of the Malay Peninsula; and even according to the dictionaries, Hindū-bār for India. In the Arabic work which affords the second of these examples (Relation, &c., tr. by Reinaud, i. 17) it is expressly explained: "The word bār serves to indicate that which is both a coast and a kingdom." It will be seen from the quotations below that in the Middle Ages, even after the establishment of the use of this termination, the exact form of the name as given by foreign travellers and writers, varies considerably. But, from the time of {540a}the Portuguese discovery of the Cape route, Malavar, or Malabar, as we have it now, is the persistent form. [Mr. Logan (Manual, i. 1) remarks that the name is not in use in the district itself except among foreigners and English-speaking natives; the ordinary name is Malayālam or Malāyam, 'the Hill Country.']
c. 545.—"The imports to Taprobane are silk, aloeswood, cloves, sandalwood.... These again are passed on from Sielediba to the marts on this side, such as Μαλὲ, where the pepper is grown.... And the most notable places of trade are these, Sindu ... and then the five marts of Μαλὲ, from which the pepper is exported, viz., Parti, Mangaruth, Salopatana, Nalopatana, and Pudopatana."—Cosmas, Bk. xi. In Cathay, &c., p. clxxviii.
c. 645.—"To the south this kingdom is near the sea. There rise the mountains called Mo-la-ye (Malaya), with their precipitous sides, and their lofty summits, their dark valleys and their deep ravines. On these mountains grows the white sandalwood."—Hwen T'sang, in Julien, iii. 122.
851.—"From this place (Maskat) ships sail for India, and run for Kaulam-Malai; the distance from Maskat to Kaulam-Malai is a month's sail with a moderate wind."—Relation, &c., tr. by Reinaud, i. 15. The same work at p. 15 uses the expression "Country of Pepper" (Balad-ul-falfal).
890.—"From Sindán to Malí is five days' journey; in the latter pepper is to be found, also the bamboo."—Ibn Khurdádba, in Elliot, i. 15.
c. 1030.—"You enter then on the country of Lárán, in which is Jaimúr (see under CHOUL), then Maliah, then Kánchí, then Dravira (see DRAVIDIAN)."—Al-Birúni, in Reinaud, Fragmens, 121.
c. 1150.—"Fandarina (see PANDARANI) is a town built at the mouth of a river which comes from Maníbár, where vessels from India and Sind cast anchor."—Idrisi, in Elliot, i. 90.
c. 1200.—"Hari sports here in the delightful spring ... when the breeze from Malaya is fragrant from passing over the charming lavanga" (cloves).—Gīta Govinda.
1270.—"Malibar is a large country of India, with many cities, in which pepper is produced."—Kazwīnī, in Gildemeister, 214.
1293.—"You can sail (upon that sea) between these islands and Ormes, and (from Ormes) to those parts which are called (Minibar), is a distance of 2,000 miles, in a direction between south and south-east; then 300 miles between east and south-east from Minibar to Maabar" (see MABAR).—Letter of Fr. John of Montecorvino, in Cathay, i. 215.
1298.—"Melibar is a great kingdom lying towards the west.... There is in {540b}this kingdom a great quantity of pepper."—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. ch. 25.
c. 1300.—"Beyond Guzerat are Kankan (see CONCAN) and Tāna; beyond them the country of Malíbár, which from the boundary of Karoha to Kúlam (probably from Gheriah to Quilon) is 300 parasangs in length."—Rashíduddín, in Elliot, i. 68.
c. 1320.—"A certain traveller states that India is divided into three parts, of which the first, which is also the most westerly, is that on the confines of Kerman and Sind, and is called Gūzerāt; the second Manībār, or the Land of Pepper, east of Gūzerāt."—Abulfeda, in Gildemeister, 184.
c. 1322.—"And now that ye may know how pepper is got, let me tell you that it groweth in a certain empire, whereunto I came to land, the name whereof is Minibar."—Friar Odoric, in Cathay, &c., 74.
c. 1343.—"After 3 days we arrived in the country of the Mulaibār, which is the country of Pepper. It stretches in length a distance of two months' march along the sea-shore."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 71.
c. 1348-49.—"We embarked on board certain junks from Lower India, which is called Minubar."—John de' Marignolli, in Cathay, 356.
c. 1420-30.—"... Departing thence he ... arrived at a noble city called Coloen.... This province is called Melibaria, and they collect in it the ginger called by the natives colombi, pepper, brazil-wood, and the cinnamon, called canella grossa."—Conti, corrected from Jones's tr. in India in XVth Cent. 17-18.
c. 1442.—"The coast which includes Calicut with some neighbouring ports, and which extends as far as (Kael), a place situated opposite to the Island of Serendib ... bears the general name of Melībār."—Abdurrazzāk, ibid. 19.
1459.—Fra Mauro's great Map has Milibar.
1514.—"In the region of India called Melibar, which province begins at Goa, and extends to Cape Comedis (Comorin)...."—Letter of Giov. da Empoli, 79. It is remarkable to find this Florentine using this old form in 1514.
1516.—"And after that the Moors of Meca discovered India, and began to navigate near it, which was 610 years ago, they used to touch at this country of Malabar on account of the pepper which is found there."—Barbosa, 102.
1553.—"We shall hereafter describe particularly the position of this city of Calecut, and of the country of Malauar in which it stands."—Barros, Dec. I. iv. c. 6. In the following chapter he writes Malabar.
1554.—"From Diu to the Islands of Dib. Steer first S.S.E., the pole being made by five inches, side towards the land in the direction of E.S.E. and S.E. by E. till you see the mountains of Moníbár."—The Mohit, in J. As. Soc. Ben. v. 461.
1572.—
"Esta provincia cuja porto agora
Tomado tendes, Malabar se chama:
Do culto antiguo os idolos adora,
Que cà por estas partes se derrama."
Camões, vii. 32.
By Burton:
"This province, in whose Ports your ships have tane
refuge, the Malabar by name is known;
its ántique rite adoreth idols vain,
Idol-religion being broadest sown."
Since De Barros Malabar occurs almost universally.
[1623.—"... Mahabar Pirates...."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 121.]
1877.—The form Malibar is used in a letter from Athanasius Peter III., "Patriarch of the Syrians of Antioch" to the Marquis of Salisbury, dated Cairo, July 18.
b. This word, through circumstances which have been fully elucidated by Bishop Caldwell in his Comparative Grammar (2nd ed. 10-12), from which we give an extract below,[158] was applied by the Portuguese not only to the language and people of the country thus called, but also to the Tamil language and the people speaking Tamil. In the quotations following, those under A apply, or may apply, to the proper people or language of Malabar (see MALAYALAM); those under B are instances of the misapplication to Tamil, a misapplication which was general (see e.g. in Orme, passim) down to the beginning of the last century, and which still holds among the more ignorant Europeans and Eurasians in S. India and Ceylon.
(A.)
1552.—"A lingua dos Gentios de Canara e Malabar."—Castanheda, ii. 78.
1572.—
"Leva alguns Malabares, que tomou
Por força, dos que o Samorim mandara."
Camões, ix. 14.
[By Aubertin:
"He takes some Malabars he kept on board
By force, of those whom Samorin had sent ..."]
1582.—"They asked of the Malabars which went with him what he was?"—Castañeda, (tr. by N. L.) f. 37v.
1602.—"We came to anchor in the Roade of Achen ... where we found sixteene or eighteene saile of shippes of diuers Nations, some Goserats, some of Bengala, some of Calecut, called Malabares, some Pegues, and some Patanyes."—Sir J. Lancaster, in Purchas, i. 153.
1606.—In Gouvea (Synodo, ff. 2v, 3, &c.) Malavar means the Malayālam language.
(B.)
1549.—"Enrico Enriques, a Portuguese priest of our Society, a man of excellent virtue and good example, who is now in the Promontory of Comorin, writes and speaks the Malabar tongue very well indeed."—Letter of Xavier, in Coleridge's Life, ii. 73.
1680.—"Whereas it hath been hitherto accustomary at this place to make sales and alienations of houses in writing in the Portuguese, Gentue, and Mallabar languages, from which some inconveniences have arisen...."—Ft. St. Geo. Consn., Sept 9, in Notes and Extracts, No. iii. 33.
[1682.—"An order in English Portuguez Gentue & Mallabar for the preventing the transportation of this Countrey People and makeing them slaves in other Strange Countreys...."—Pringle, Diary Ft. St. Geo., 1st ser. i. 87.]
1718.—"This place (Tranquebar) is altogether inhabited by Malabarian Heathens."—Propn. of the Gospel in the East, Pt. i. (3rd ed.), p. 18.
" "Two distinct languages are necessarily required; one is the Damulian, commonly called Malabarick."—Ibid. Pt. iii. 33.
1734.—"Magnopere commendantes zelum, ac studium Missionariorum, qui libros sacram Ecclesiae Catholicae doctrinam, rerumque sacrarum monumenta continentes, pro Indorum Christi fidelium eruditione in linguam Malabaricam seu Tamulicam transtulere."—Brief of Pope Clement XII., in Norbert, ii. 432-3. These words are adopted from Card. Tournon's decree of 1704 (see ibid. i. 173).
c. 1760.—"Such was the ardent zeal of M. Ziegenbalg that in less than a year he attained a perfect knowledge of the Malabarian tongue.... He composed also a Malabarian dictionary of 20,000 words."—Grose, i. 261.
1782.—"Les habitans de la côte de Coromandel sont appellés Tamouls; les Européens les nomment improprement Malabars."—Sonnerat, i. 47.
1801.—"From Niliseram to the Chandergerry River no language is understood but the Malabars of the Coast."—Sir T. Munro, in Life, i. 322.
In the following passage the word Malabars is misapplied still further, though by a writer usually most accurate and intelligent:
1810.—"The language spoken at Madras is the Talinga, here called Malabars."—Maria Graham, 128.
1860.—"The term 'Malabar' is used throughout the following pages in the comprehensive sense in which it is applied in the Singhalese Chronicles to the continental invaders of Ceylon; but it must be observed that the adventurers in these expeditions, who are styled in the Mahawanso 'damilos,' or Tamils, came not only from ... 'Malabar,' but also from all parts of the Peninsula as far north as Cuttack and Orissa."—Tennent's Ceylon, i. 353.
MALABAR-CREEPER, s. Argyreia malabarica, Choisy.
[MALABAR EARS, s. The seed vessels of a tree which Ives calls Codaga palli.
1773.—"From their shape they are called Malabar-Ears, on account of the resemblance they bear to the ears of the women of the Malabar coast, which from the large slit made in them and the great weight of ornamental rings put into them, are rendered very large, and so long that sometimes they touch the very shoulders."—Ives, 465.
MALABAR HILL, n.p. This favourite site of villas on Bombay Island is stated by Mr. Whitworth to have acquired its name from the fact that the Malabar pirates, who haunted this coast, used to lie behind it.
[1674.—"On the other side of the great Inlet, to the Sea, is a great Point abutting against Old Woman's Island, and is called Malabar-Hill ... the remains of a stupendous Pagod, near a Tank of Fresh Water, which the Malabars visited it mostly for."—Fryer, 68 seq.]
[MALABAR OIL, s. "The ambiguous term 'Malabar Oil' is applied to a mixture of the oil obtained from the livers of several kinds of fishes frequenting the Malabar Coast of India and the neighbourhood of Karachi."—Watt, Econ. Dict. v. 113.]
MALABAR RITES. This was a name given to certain heathen and superstitious practices which the Jesuits of the Madura, Carnatic, and Mysore Missions permitted to their converts, in spite of repeated prohibitions by the Popes. And though these practices were finally condemned {542b}by the Legate Cardinal de Tournon in 1704, they still subsist, more or less, among native Catholic Christians, and especially those belonging to the (so-called) Goa Churches. These practices are generally alleged to have arisen under Father de' Nobili ("Robertus de Nobilibus"), who came to Madura about 1606. There can be no doubt that the aim of this famous Jesuit was to present Christianity to the people under the form, as it were, of a Hindu translation!
The nature of the practices of which we speak may be gathered from the following particulars of their prohibition. In 1623 Pope Gregory XV., by a constitution dated 31st January, condemned the following:—1. The investiture of Brahmans and certain other castes with the sacred thread, through the agency of Hindu priests, and with Hindu ceremonies. For these Christian ceremonies were to be substituted; and the thread was to be regarded as only a civil badge. 2. The ornamental use of sandalwood paste was permitted, but not its superstitious use, e.g., in mixture with cowdung ashes, &c., for ceremonial purification. 3. Bathing as a ceremonial purification. 4. The observance of caste, and the refusal of high-caste Christians to mix with low-caste Christians in the churches was disapproved.
The quarrels between Capuchins and Jesuits later in the 17th century again brought the Malabar Rites into notice, and Cardinal de Tournon was sent on his unlucky mission to determine these matters finally. His decree (June 23, 1704) prohibited:—1. A mutilated form of baptism, in which were omitted certain ceremonies offensive to Hindus, specifically the use of 'saliva, sal, et insufflatio.' 2. The use of Pagan names. 3. The Hinduizing of Christian terms by translation. 4. Deferring the baptism of children. 5. Infant marriages. 6. The use of the Hindu tali (see TALEE). 7. Hindu usages at marriages. 8. Augury at marriages, by means of a coco-nut. 9. The exclusion of women from churches during certain periods. 10. Ceremonies on a girl's attainment of puberty. 11. The making distinctions between Pariahs and others. 12. The assistance of Christian musicians at heathen ceremonies. 13. The use {543a}of ceremonial washings and bathings. 14. The use of cowdung-ashes. 15. The reading and use of Hindu books.
With regard to No. 11 it may be observed that in South India the distinction of castes still subsists, and the only Christian Mission in that quarter which has really succeeded in abolishing caste is that of the Basel Society.
MALABATHRUM, s. There can be very little doubt that this classical export from India was the dried leaf of various species of Cinnamomum, which leaf was known in Skt. as tamāla-pattra. Some who wrote soon after the Portuguese discoveries took, perhaps not unnaturally, the pān or betel-leaf for the malabathrum of the ancients; and this was maintained by Dean Vincent in his well-known work on the Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients, justifying this in part by the Ar. name of the betel, tambūl, which is taken from Skt. tāmbūla, betel; tāmbūla-pattra, betel-leaf. The tamāla-pattra, however, the produce of certain wild spp. of Cinnamomum, obtained both in the hills of Eastern Bengal and in the forests of Southern India, is still valued in India as a medicine and aromatic, though in no such degree as in ancient times, and it is usually known in domestic economy as tejpāt, or corruptly tezpāt, i.e. 'pungent leaf.' The leaf was in the Arabic Materia Medica under the name of sādhaj or sādhajī Hindī, as was till recently in the English Pharmacopœia as Folium indicum, which will still be found in Italian drug-shops. The matter is treated, with his usual lucidity and abundance of local knowledge, in the Colloquios of Garcia de Orta, of which we give a short extract. This was evidently unknown to Dean Vincent, as he repeats the very errors which Garcia dissipates. Garcia also notes that confusion of Malabathrum and Folium indicum with spikenard, which is traceable in Pliny as well as among the Arab pharmacologists. The ancients did no doubt apply the name Malabathrum to some other substance, an unguent or solid extract. Rheede, we may notice, mentions that in his time in Malabar, oils in high medical estimation were made from both leaves and root of the "wild cinnamon" of that coast, and that from {543b}the root of the same tree a camphor was extracted, having several of the properties of real camphor and more fragrance. (See a note by one of the present writers in Cathay, &c., pp. cxlv.-xlvi.) The name Cinnamon is properly confined to the tree of Ceylon (C. Zeylanicum). The other Cinnamoma are properly Cassia barks.
c. A.D. 70.—"We are beholden to Syria for Malabathrum. This is a tree that beareth leaves rolled up round together, and seeming to the eie withered. Out of which there is drawn and pressed an Oile for perfumers to use.... And yet there commeth a better kind thereof from India.... The rellish thereof ought to resemble Nardus at the tongue end. The perfume or smell that ... the leafe yeeldeth when it is boiled in wine, passeth all others. It is straunge and monstrous which is observed in the price; for it hath risen from one denier to three hundred a pound."—Pliny, xii. 26, in Ph. Holland.
c. A.D. 90.—"... Getting rid of the fibrous parts, they take the leaves and double them up into little balls, which they stitch through with the fibres of the withes. And these they divide into three classes.... And thus originate the three qualities of Malabathrum, which the people who have prepared them carry to India for sale."—Periplus, near the end. [Also see Yule, Intro. Gill, River of Golden Sand, ed. 1883, p. 89.]
1563.—"R. I remember well that in speaking of betel you told me that it was not folium indu, a piece of information of great value to me; for the physicians who put themselves forward as having learned much from these parts, assert that they are the same; and what is more, the modern writers ... call betel in their works tembul, and say that the Moors give it this name....
"O. That the two things are different as I told you is clear, for Avicenna treats them in two different chapters, viz., in 259, which treats of folium indu, and in 707, which treats of tambul ... and the folium indu is called by the Indians Tamalapatra, which the Greeks and Latins corrupted into Malabathrum," &c.—Garcia, ff. 95v, 96.
c. 1690.—"Hoc Tembul seu Sirium, licet vulgatissimum in India sit folium, distinguendum est a Folio Indo seu Malabathro, Arabibus Cadegi Hindi, in Pharmacopoeis, et Indis, Tamala-patra et folio Indo dicto,... A nostra autem natione intellexi Malabathrum nihil aliud esse quam folium canellae, seu cinnamomi sylvestris."—Rumphius, v. 337.
c. 1760.—"... quand l'on considère que les Indiens appellent notre feuille Indienne tamalapatra on croit d'apercevoir que le mot Grec μαλάβατρον en a été anciennement dérivé."—(Diderot) Encyclopédie, xx. 846.
1837.—(Malatroon is given in Arabic works of Materia Medica as the Greek of Sādhaj, and tuj and tej-pat as the Hindi synonymes). "By the latter names may be obtained everywhere in the bazars of India, the leaves of Cinn. Tamala and of Cinn. albiflorum."—Royle, Essay on Antiq. of Hindoo Medicine, 85.
MALACCA, n.p. The city which gives its name to the Peninsula and the Straits of Malacca, and which was the seat of a considerable Malay monarchy till its capture by the Portuguese under D'Alboquerque in 1511. One naturally supposes some etymological connection between Malay and Malacca. And such a connection is put forward by De Barros and D'Alboquerque (see below, and also under MALAY). The latter also mentions an alternative suggestion for the origin of the name of the city, which evidently refers to the Ar. mulāḳāt, 'a meeting.' This last, though it appears also in the Sijara Malayu, may be totally rejected. Crawfurd is positive that the place was called from the word malaka, the Malay name of the Phyllanthus emblica, or emblic Myrobalan (q.v.), "a tree said to be abundant in that locality"; and this, it will be seen below, is given by Godinho de Eredia as the etymology. Malaka again seems to be a corruption of the Skt. amlaka, from amla, 'acid.' [Mr. Skeat writes: "There can be no doubt that Crawfurd is right, and that the place was named from the tree. The suggested connection between Malayu and Malaka appears impossible to me, and, I think, would do so to any one acquainted with the laws of the language. I have seen the Malaka tree myself and eaten its fruit. Ridley in his Botanical Lists has laka-laka and malaka which he identifies as Phyllanthus emblica, L. and P. pectinatus Hooker (Euphorbiaceae). The two species are hardly distinct, but the latter is the commoner form. The fact is that the place, as is so often the case among the Malays, must have taken its name from the Sungei Malaka, or Malaka River."]
1416.—"There was no King but only a chief, the country belonging to Siam.... {544b}In the year 1409, the imperial envoy Cheng Ho brought an order from the emperor and gave to the chief two silver seals, ... he erected a stone and raised the place to a city, after which the land was called the Kingdom of Malacca (Moa-la-ka).... Tin is found in the mountains ... it is cast into small blocks weighing 1 catti 8 taels ... ten pieces are bound together with rattan and form a small bundle, whilst 40 pieces make a large bundle. In all their trading ... they use these pieces of tin instead of money."—Chinese Annals, in Groenveldt, p. 123.
1498.—"Melequa ... is 40 days from Qualecut with a fair wind ... hence proceeds all the clove, and it is worth there 9 crusados for a bahar (q.v.), and likewise nutmeg other 9 crusados the bahar; and there is much porcelain and much silk, and much tin, of which they make money, but the money is of large size and little value, so that it takes 3 farazalas (see Frazala) of it to make a crusado. Here too are many large parrots all red like fire."—Roteiro de V. da Gama, 110-111.
1510.—"When we had arrived at the city of Melacha, we were immediately presented to the Sultan, who is a Moor ... I believe that more ships arrive here than in any other place in the world...."—Varthema, 224.
1511.—"This Paremiçura gave the name of Malaca to the new colony, because in the language of Java, when a man of Palimbão flees away they call him Malayo.... Others say that it was called Malaca because of the number of people who came there from one part and the other in so short a space of time, for the word Malaca also signifies to meet.... Of these two opinions let each one accept that which he thinks to be the best, for this is the truth of the matter."—Commentaries of Alboquerque, E.T. by Birch, iii. 76-77.
1516.—"The said Kingdom of Ansyane (see Siam) throws out a great point of land into the sea, which makes there a cape, where the sea returns again towards China to the north; in this promontory is a small kingdom in which there is a large city called Malaca."—Barbosa, 191.
1553.—"A son of Paramisora called Xaquem Darxa, (i.e. Sikandar Shāh) ... to form the town of Malaca, to which he gave that name in memory of the banishment of his father, because in his vernacular tongue (Javanese) this was as much as to say 'banished,' and hence the people are called Malaios."—De Barros, II. vi. 1.
" "That which he (Alboquerque) regretted most of all that was lost on that vessel, was two lions cast in iron, a first-rate work, and most natural, which the King of China had sent to the King of Malaca, and which King Mahamed had kept, as an honourable possession, at the gate of his Palace, whence Affonso Alboquerque carried them off, as the principal item of his triumph on the capture of the city."—Ibid. II. vii. 1.
1572.—
"Nem tu menos fugir poderás deste
Postoque rica, e postoque assentada
Là no gremio da Aurora, onde nasceste,
Opulenta Malaca nomeada!
Assettas venenosas, que fizeste,
Os crises, com que j'á te vejo armada,
Malaios namorados, Jaos valentes,
Todos farás ao Luso obedientes."
Camões, x. 44.
By Burton:
"Nor shalt thou 'scape the fate to fall his prize,
albeit so wealthy, and so strong thy site
there on Aurora's bosom, whence thy rise,
thou Home of Opulence, Malacca hight!
The poysoned arrows which thine art supplies,
the Krises thirsting, as I see, for fight,
th' enamoured Malay-men, the Javan braves,
all of the Lusian shall become the slaves."
1612.—"The Arabs call it Malakat, from collecting all merchants."—Sijara Malayu, in J. Ind. Arch. v. 322.
1613.—"Malaca significa Mirabolanos, fructa de hua arvore, plantada ao longo de hum ribeiro chamado Aerlele."—Godinho de Eredia, f. 4.
MALADOO, s. Chicken maladoo is an article in the Anglo-Indian menu. It looks like a corruption from the French cuisine, but of what? [Maladoo or Manadoo, a lady informs me, is cold meat, such as chicken or mutton, cut into slices, or pounded up and re-cooked in batter. The Port. malhado, 'beaten-up,' has been suggested as a possible origin for the word.]
MALAY, n.p. This is in the Malay language an adjective, Malāyu; thus orang Malāyu, 'a Malay'; tāna [tānah] Malāyu, 'the Malay country'; bahāsa [bhāsa] Malāyu, 'the Malay language.'
In Javanese the word malāyu signifies 'to run away,' and the proper name has traditionally been derived from this, in reference to the alleged foundation of Malacca by Javanese fugitives; but we can hardly attach importance to this. It may be worthy at least of consideration whether the name was not of foreign, i.e. of S. Indian origin, and connected with the Malāya of the Peninsula (see under MALABAR). [Mr. Skeat writes: "The tradition given me by Javanese in the Malay States was that the name was applied to Javanese refugees, who peopled the S. of Sumatra. Whatever be the original meaning of the word, it is probable that it started its {545b}life-history as a river-name in the S. of Sumatra, and thence became applied to the district through which the river ran, and so to the people who lived there; after which it spread with the Malay dialect until it included not only many allied, but also many foreign, tribes; all Malay-speaking tribes being eventually called Malays without regard to racial origin. A most important passage in this connection is to be found in Leyden's Tr. of the 'Malay Annals' (1821), p. 20, in which direct reference to such a river is made: 'There is a country in the land of Andalás named Paralembang, which is at present denominated Palembang, the raja of which was denominated Damang Lebar Dawn (chieftain Broad-leaf), who derived his origin from Raja Sulan (Chulan?), whose great-grandson he was. The name of its river Muartatang, into which falls another river named Sungey Malayu, near the source of which is a mountain named the mountain Sagantang Maha Miru.' Here Palembang is the name of a well-known Sumatran State, often described as the original home of the Malay race. In standard Malay 'Damang Lebar Dawn' would be 'Dĕmang Lebar Daun.' Raja Chulan is probably some mythical Indian king, the story being evidently derived from Indian traditions. 'Muartatang' may be a mistake for Muar Tenang, which is a place one heard of in the Peninsula, though I do not know for certain where it is. 'Sungey Malayu' simply means 'River Malayu.' 'Sagantang Maha Miru' is, I think, a mistake for Sa-guntang Maha Miru, which is the name used in the Peninsula for the sacred central mountain of the world on which the episode related in the Annals occurred" (see Skeat, Malay Magic, p. 2).]
It is a remarkable circumstance, which has been noted by Crawfurd, that a name which appears on Ptolemy's Tables as on the coast of the Golden Chersonese, and which must be located somewhere about Maulmain, is Μαλεοῦ Κῶλον, words which in Javanese (Malāyu-Kulon) would signify "Malays of the West." After this the next (possible) occurrence of the name in literature is in the Geography of Edrisi, who describes Malai as a great island in the eastern {546a}seas, or rather as occupying the position of the Lemuria of Mr. Sclater, for (in partial accommodation to the Ptolemaic theory of the Indian Sea) it stretched eastward nearly from the coast of Zinj, i.e. of Eastern Africa, to the vicinity of China. Thus it must be uncertain without further accounts whether it is an adumbration of the great Malay islands (as is on the whole probable) or of the Island of the Malagashes (Madagascar), if it is either. We then come to Marco Polo, and after him there is, we believe, no mention of the Malay name till the Portuguese entered the seas of the Archipelago.
[A.D. 690.—Mr. Skeat notes: "I Tsing speaks of the 'Molo-yu country,' i.e. the district W. or N.W. of Palembang in Sumatra."]
c. 1150.—"The Isle of Malai is very great.... The people devote themselves to very profitable trade; and there are found here elephants, rhinoceroses, and various aromatics and spices, such as clove, cinnamon, nard ... and nutmeg. In the mountains are mines of gold, of excellent quality ... the people also have windmills."—Edrisi, by Jaubert, i. 945.
c. 1273.—A Chinese notice records under this year that tribute was sent from Siam to the Emperor. "The Siamese had long been at war with the Maliyi, or Maliurh, but both nations laid aside their feud and submitted to China."—Notice by Sir T. Wade, in Bowring's Siam, i. 72.
c. 1292.—"You come to an Island which forms a kingdom, and is called Malaiur. The people have a king of their own, and a peculiar language. The city is a fine and noble one, and there is a great trade carried on there. All kinds of spicery are to be found there."—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. ch. 8.
c. 1539.—"... as soon as he had delivered to him the letter, it was translated into the Portugal out of the Malayan tongue wherein it was written."—Pinto, E.T. p. 15.
1548.—"... having made a breach in the wall twelve fathom wide, he assaulted it with 10,000 strangers, Turks, Abyssins, Moors, Malauares, Achems, Jaos, and Malayos."—Ibid. p. 279.
1553.—"And so these Gentiles like the Moors who inhabit the sea-coasts of the Island (Sumatra), although they have each their peculiar language, almost all can speak the Malay of Malacca as being the most general language of those parts."—Barros, III. v. 1.
" "Everything with them is to be a gentleman; and this has such prevalence in those parts that you will never find a native Malay, however poor he may be, who will set his hand to lift a thing of his own or anybody else's; every service must be done by slaves."—Ibid. II. vi. 1.
1610.—"I cannot imagine what the Hollanders meane, to suffer these Malaysians, Chinesians, and Moores of these countries, and to assist them in their free trade thorow all the Indies, and forbid it their owne seruants, countrymen, and Brethern, upon paine of death and losse of goods."—Peter Williamson Floris, in Purchas, i. 321.
[Mr. Skeat writes: "The word Malaya is now often applied by English writers to the Peninsula as a whole, and from this the term Malaysia as a term of wider application (i.e. to the Archipelago) has been coined (see quotation of 1610 above). The former is very frequently miswritten by English writers as 'Malay,' a barbarism which has even found place on the title-page of a book—'Travel and Sport in Burma, Siam and Malay, by John Bradley, London, 1876.'"]
MALAYĀLAM. This is the name applied to one of the cultivated Dravidian languages, the closest in its relation to the Tamil. It is spoken along the Malabar coast, on the Western side of the Ghauts (or Malāya mountains), from the Chandragiri River on the North, near Mangalore (entering the sea in 12° 29′), beyond which the language is, for a limited distance, Tulu, and then Canarese, to Trevandrum on the South (lat. 8° 29′), where Tamil begins to supersede it. Tamil, however, also intertwines with Malayālam all along Malabar. The term Malayālam properly applies to territory, not language, and might be rendered "Mountain region" [See under MALABAR, and Logan, Man. of Malabar, i. 90.]
MALDIVES, MALDIVE ISLDS., n.p. The proper form of this name appears to be Male-dīva; not, as the estimable Garcia de Orta says, Nale-dīva; whilst the etymology which he gives is certainly wrong, hard as it may be to say what is the right one. The people of the islands formerly designated themselves and their country by a form of the word for 'island' which we have in the Skt. dvīpa and the Pali dīpo. We find this reflected in the Divi of Ammianus, and in the Dīva and Dība-jāt (Pers. plural) of old Arab geographers, whilst it survives in letters of the 18th century addressed to the Ceylon {547a}Government (Dutch) by the Sultan of the Isles, who calls his kingdom Divehi Rajjé, and his people Divehe mīhun. Something like the modern form first appears in Ibn Batuta. He, it will be seen, in his admirable account of these islands, calls them, as it were, Mahal-dives, and says they were so called from the chief group Mahal, which was the residence of the Sultan, indicating a connection with Mahal, 'a palace.' This form of the name looks like a foreign 'striving after meaning.' But Pyrard de Laval, the author of the most complete account in existence, also says that the name of the islands was taken from Malé, that on which the King resided. Bishop Caldwell has suggested that these islands were the dives, or islands, of Malé, as Malebār (see MALABAR) was the coast-tract or continent, of Malé. It is, however, not impossible that the true etymology was from mālā, 'a garland or necklace,' of which their configuration is highly suggestive. [The Madras Gloss. gives Malayāl. māl, 'black,' and dvīpa, 'island,' from the dark soil. For a full account of early notices of the Maldives, see Mr. Gray's note on Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 423 seqq.] Milburn (Or. Commmerce, i. 335) says: "This island was (these islands were) discovered by the Portuguese in 1507." Let us see!
 Marcellinus, xxii. 3.
c. 545.—"And round about it (Sielediba or Taprobane, i.e. Ceylon) there are a number of small islands, in all of which you find fresh water and coco-nuts. And these are almost all set close to one another."—Cosmas, in Cathay, &c., clxxvii.
851.—"Between this Sea (of Horkand) and the Sea called Lāravi there is a great number of isles; their number, indeed, it is said, amounts to 1,900; ... the distance from island to island is 2, 3, or 4 parasangs. They are all inhabited, and all produce coco-palms.... The last of these islands is Serendīb, in the Sea of Horkand; it is the chief of all; they give the islands the name of Dībajāt" (i.e. Dības).—Relation, &c., tr. by Reinaud, i. 4-5.
c. 1030.—"The special name of Dīva is given to islands which are formed in the sea, and which appear above water in the form of accumulations of sand; these sands continually augment, spread, and unite, {547b}till they present a firm aspect ... these islands are divided into two classes, according to the nature of their staple product. Those of one class are called Dīva-Kūzah (or the Cowry Divahs), because of the cowries which are gathered from coco-branches planted in the sea. The others are called Dīva-Kanbar, from the word kanbar (see COIR), which is the name of the twine made from coco-fibres, with which vessels are stitched."—Al-Birūnī, in Reinaud, Fragmens, 124.
1150.—See also Edrisi, in Jaubert's Transl. i. 68. But the translator prints a bad reading, Raibiḥāt, for Dībajāt.
c. 1343.—"Ten days after embarking at Calecut we arrived at the Islands called Dhībat-al-Mahal.... These islands are reckoned among the wonders of the World; there are some 2000 of them. Groups of a hundred, or not quite so many, of these islands are found clustered into a ring, and each cluster has an entrance like a harbour-mouth, and it is only there that ships can enter.... Most of the trees that grow on these islands are coco-palms.... They are divided into regions or groups ... among which are distinguished ... 3o Mahal, the group which gives a name to the whole, and which is the residence of the Sultans."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 110 seqq.
1442.—Abdurrazzak also calls them "the isles of Dīva-Mahal."—In Not. et Exts. xiv. 429.
1503.—"But Dom Vasco ... said that things must go on as they were to India, and there he would inquire into the truth. And so arriving in the Gulf (golfão) where the storm befel them, all were separated, and that vessel which steered badly, parted company with the fleet, and found itself at one of the first islands of Maldiva, at which they stopped some days enjoying themselves. For the island abounded in provisions, and the men indulged to excess in eating cocos, and fish, and in drinking bad stagnant water, and in disorders with women; so that many died."—Correa, i. 347.
[1512.—"Mafamede Maçay with two ships put into the Maldive islands (ilhas de Maldiva)."—Albuquerque, Cartas, p. 30.]
1563.—"R. Though it be somewhat to interrupt the business in hand,—why is that chain of islands called 'Islands of Maldiva'?
"O. In this matter of the nomenclature of lands and seas and kingdoms, many of our people make gerat mistakes even in regard to our own lands; how then can you expect that one can give you the rationale of etymologies of names in foreign tongues? But, nevertheless, I will tell you what I have heard say. And that is that the right name is not Maldiva, but Nalediva; for nale in Malabar means 'four,' and diva 'island,' so that in the Malabar tongue the name is as much as to say 'Four Isles.'... And in the same way we call a certain island that is 12 leagues from Goa Angediva (see ANCHEDIVA), because there are five in the group, and so the name in Malabar {548a}means 'Five Isles,' for ange is 'five.' But these derivations rest on common report, I don't detail them to you as demonstrable facts."—Garcia, Colloquios, f. 11.
1572.—"Nas ilhas de Maldiva." (See COCO-DE-MER.)
c. 1610.—"Ce Royaume en leur langage s'appelle Malé-ragué, Royaume de Malé, et des autres peuples de l'Inde il s'appelle Malé-divar, et les peuples diues ... L'Isle principale, comme j'ay dit, s'appelle Malé, qui donne le nom à tout le reste des autres; car le mot Diues signifie vn nombre de petites isles amassées."—Pyrard de Laval, i. 63, 68, ed. 1679. [Hak. Soc. i. 83, 177.]
1683.—"Mr. Beard sent up his Couries, which he had received from ye Mauldivas, to be put off and passed by Mr. Charnock at Cassumbazar."—Hedges, Diary, Oct. 2; [Hak. Soc. i. 122].
MALUM, s. In a ship with English officers and native crew, the mate is called mālum sāhib. The word is Ar. mu'allim, literally 'the Instructor,' and is properly applied to the pilot or sailing-master. The word may be compared, thus used, with our 'master' in the Navy. In regard to the first quotation we may observe that Nākhuda (see NACODA) is, rather than Mu'allim, 'the captain'; though its proper meaning is the owner of the ship; the two capacities of owner and skipper being doubtless often combined. The distinction of Mu'allim from Nākhuda accounts for the former title being assigned to the mate.
1497.—"And he sent 20 cruzados in gold, and 20 testoons in silver for the Malemos, who were the pilots, for of these coins he would give each month whatever he (the Sheikh) should direct."—Correa, i. 38 (E.T. by Ld. Stanley of Alderley, 88). On this passage the Translator says: "The word is perhaps the Arabic for an instructor, a word in general use all over Africa." It is curious that his varied experience should have failed to recognise the habitual marine use of the term.
1541.—"Meanwhile he sent three caturs (q.v.) to the Port of the Malems (Porto dos Malemos) in order to get some pilot.... In this Port of the Bandel of the Malems the ships of the Moors take pilots when they enter the Straits, and when they return they leave them here again."[159]—Correa, iv. 168.
1553.—"... among whom (at Melinda) came a Moor, a Guzarate by nation, called Malem Cana, who, as much for the satisfaction he had in conversing with our people, as to please the King, who was inquiring for a pilot to give them, agreed to accompany them."—Barros, I. iv. 6.
c. 1590.—"Mu'allim or Captain. He must be acquainted with the depths and shallow places of the Ocean, and must know astronomy. It is he who guides the ship to her destination, and prevents her falling into dangers."—Āīn, ed. Blochmann, i. 280.
[1887.—"The second class, or Malumis, are sailors."—Logan, Malabar, ii. ccxcv.]
MAMIRAN, MAMIRA, s. A medicine from old times of much repute in the East, especially for eye-diseases, and imported from Himalayan and Trans-Himalayan regions. It is a popular native drug in the Punjab bazars, where it is still known as mamīra, also as pīlīārī. It seems probable that the name is applied to bitter roots of kindred properties but of more than one specific origin. Hanbury and Flückiger describe it as the rhizome of Coptis Teeta, Wallich, tīta being the name of the drug in the Mishmi country at the head of the Assam Valley, from which it is imported into Bengal. But Stewart states explicitly that the mamīra of the Punjab bazars is now "known to be" mostly, if not entirely, derived from Thalictrum foliosum D.C., a tall plant which is common throughout the temperate Himālaya (5000 to 8000 feet) and on the Kasia Hills, and is exported from Kumaun under the name of Momiri. [See Watt, Econ. Dict. vi. pt. iv. 42 seq.] "The Mamira of the old Arab writers was identified with Χελιδόνιον μέγα, by which, however, Löw (Aram. Pflanzennamen, p. 220) says they understood curcuma longa." W.R.S.
c. A.D. 600-700.—"Μαμιράς, οἷον ῥιζίον τι πόας ἐστὶν ἔχον ὥσπερ κονδύλους πυκνοὺς, ὄπος οὐλας τε καὶ λευκώματα λεπτύνειν πεπιστεύεται, δηλονότι ῥυπτικῆς ὑπάρχον δυνάμεως."—Pauli Aeginetae Medici, Libri vii., Basileae 1538. Lib. vii. cap. iii. sect. 12 (p. 246).
c. 1020.—"Memirem quid est? Est lignum sicut nodi declinans ad nigredinem ... {549a}mundificat albuginem in oculis, et acuit visum: quum ex eo fit collyrium et abstergit humiditatem grossam...." &c.—Avicennae Opera, Venet. 1564, p. 345 (lib. ii. tractat. ii.).
The glossary of Arabic terms by Andreas de Alpago of Belluno, attached to various early editions of Avicenna, gives the following interpretation: "Memirem est radix nodosa, non multum grossa, citrini coloris, sicut curcuma; minor tamen est et subtilior, et asportatur ex Indiâ, et apud physicos orientales est valde nota, et usitatur in passionibus oculi."
c. 1100.—"Memiram Arabibus, χελιδόνιον μέγα Graecis," &c.—Io. Serapionis de Simpl. Medicam. Historia, Lib. iv. cap. lxxvi. (ed. Ven. 1552, f. 106).
c. 1200.—"Some maintain that this plant ('urūk al-ṣábaghīn) is the small kurkum (turmeric), and others that it is mamīrān.... The kurkum is brought to us from India.... The mamīrān is imported from China, and has the same properties as kurkum."—Ibn Baithar, ii. 186-188.
c. 1550.—"But they have a much greater appreciation of another little root which grows in the mountains of Succuir (i.e. Suchau in Shensi), where the rhubarb grows, and which they call Mambroni-Chini (i.e. Mamīrān-i-Chīnī). This is extremely dear, and is used in most of their ailments, but especially when the eyes are affected. They grind it on a stone with rose water, and anoint the eyes with it. The result is wonderfully beneficial."—Hajji Mahommed's Account of Cathay, in Ramusio, ii. f. 15v.
c. 1573.—(At Aleppo). "Mamiranitchini, good for eyes as they say."—Rauwolff, in Ray's 2nd ed. p. 114.
Also the following we borrow from Dozy's Suppl. aux Dictt. Arabes:—
1582.—"Mehr haben ihre Krämer kleine würtzelein zu verkaufen mamirani tchini genennet, in gebresten der Augen, wie sie fürgeben ganz dienslich; diese seind gelblecht wie die Curcuma umb ein zimlichs lenger, auch dünner und knopffet das solche unseren weisz wurtzlen sehr ehnlich, und wol für das rechte mamiran mögen gehalten werden, dessen sonderlich Rhases an mehr orten gedencket."—Rauwolff, Aigentliehe Beschreibung der Raisz, 126.
c. 1665.—"These caravans brought back Musk, China-wood, Rubarb, and Mamiron, which last is a small root exceeding good for ill eyes."—Bernier, E.T. 136; [ed. Constable, 426].
1862.—"Imports from Yarkand and Changthan, through Leh to the Punjab ... Mamiran-i-Chini (a yellow root, medicine for the eyes) ..."—Punjaub Trade Report, App. xxiv. p. ccxxxiii.
MAMLUTDAR, s. P.—H. mu'āmalatdār (from Ar. mu'āmala, 'affairs, business'), and in Mahr. māmlatdār. Chiefly used in Western India. {549b}Formerly it was the designation, under various native governments, of the chief civil officer of a district, and is now in the Bombay Presidency the title of a native civil officer in charge of a Talook, corresponding nearly to the Tahseeldar of a pergunna in the Bengal Presidency, but of a status somewhat more important.
[1826.—"I now proceeded to the Maamulut-dar, or farmer of the district...."—Pandurang Hari, ed. 1873, i. 42.]
MAMOOL, s.; MAMOOLEE, adj. Custom, Customary. Ar.—H. ma'mūl. The literal meaning is 'practised,' and then 'established, customary.' Ma'mūl is, in short, 'precedent,' by which all Orientals set as much store as English lawyers, e.g. "And Laban said, It must not so be done in our country (lit. It is not so done in our place) to give the younger before the firstborn."—Genesis xxix. 26.
MAMOOTY, MAMOTY, MOMATTY, s. A digging tool of the form usual all over India, i.e. not in the shape of a spade, but in that of a hoe, with the helve at an acute angle with the blade. [See FOWRA.] The word is of S. Indian origin, Tamil manvĕtti, 'earth-cutter'; and its vernacular use is confined to the Tamil regions, but it has long been an established term in the list of ordnance stores all over India, and thus has a certain prevalence in Anglo-Indian use beyond these limits.
[1782.—"He marched ... with two battalions of sepoys ... who were ordered to make a show of entrenching themselves with mamuties...."—Letter of Ld. Macartney, in Forrest, Selections, iii. 855.]
[1852.—"... by means of a mometty or hatchet, which he ran and borrowed from a husbandman ... this fellow dug ... a reservoir...."—Neale, Narrative of Residence in Siam, 138.]
MANCHUA, s. A large cargo-boat, with a single mast and a square sail, much used on the Malabar coast. This is the Portuguese form; the original Malayālam word is manji, [manchi, Skt. maṇcha, 'a cot,' so called apparently from its raised platform for cargo,] and nowadays a nearer approach to this, manjee, &c., is usual.
c. 1512.—"So he made ready two manchuas, and one night got into the house of the King, and stole from him the most {550a}beautiful woman that he had, and, along with her, jewels and a quantity of money."—Correa, i. 281.
1525.—"Quatro lancharas (q.v.) grandes e seis qualaluzes (see CALALUZ) e manchuas que se remam muyto."—Lembrança das Cousas de India, p. 8.
1552.—"Manchuas que sam navios de remo."—Castanheda, ii. 362.
c. 1610.—"Il a vne petite Galiote, qu'ils appellent Manchouës, fort bien couverte ... et faut huit ou neuf hommes seulement pour la mener."—Pyrard de Laval, ii. 26; [Hak. Soc. ii. 42].
[1623.—"... boats which they call Maneive, going with 20 or 24 Oars."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. ii. 211; Mancina in ii. 217.
[1679.—"I commanded the shibbars and manchuas to keepe a little ahead of me."—Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. clxxxiv.]
1682.—"Ex hujusmodi arboribus excavatis naviculas Indi conficiunt, quas Mansjoas appellant, quarum nonullae longitudine 80, latitudine 9 pedum mensuram superant."—Rheede, Hort. Malabar, iii. 27.
[1736.—"All ships and vessels ... as well as the munchuas appertaining to the Company's officers."—Treaty, in Logan, Malabar, ii. 31.
MANDADORE, s. Port. mandador, 'one who commands.'
1673.—"Each of which Tribes have a Mandadore or Superintendent."—Fryer, 67.
MANDALAY, MANDALÉ, n.p. The capital of the King of Burmah, founded in 1860, 7 miles north of the preceding capital Amarapura, and between 2 and 3 miles from the left bank of the Irawadi. The name was taken from that of a conical isolated hill, rising high above the alluvial plain of the Irawadi, and crowned by a gilt pagoda. The name of the hill (and now of the city at its base) probably represents Mandara, the sacred mountain which in Hindu mythology served the gods as a churning-staff at the churning of the sea. The hill appears as Mandiye-taung in Major Grant Allan's Map of the Environs of Amarapura (1855), published in the Narrative of Major Phayre's Mission, but the name does not occur in the Narrative itself.
[1860.—See the account of Mandelay in Mason, Burmah, 14 seqq.]
1861.—"Next morning the son of my friendly host accompanied me to the Mandalay Hill, on which there stands in a gilt chapel the image of Shwesayatta, pointing down with outstretched finger to the Palace {550b}of Mandalay, interpreted as the divine command there to build a city ... on the other side where the hill falls in an abrupt precipice, sits a gigantic Buddha gazing in motionless meditation on the mountains opposite. There are here some caves in the hard rock, built up with bricks and whitewashed, which are inhabited by eremites...."—Bastian's Travels (German), ii. 89-90.
MANDARIN, s. Port. Mandarij, Mandarim. Wedgwood explains and derives the word thus: "A Chinese officer, a name first made known to us by the Portuguese, and like the Indian caste, erroneously supposed to be a native term. From Portuguese mandar, to hold authority, command, govern, &c." So also T. Hyde in the quotation below. Except as regards the word having been first made known to us by the Portuguese, this is an old and persistent mistake. What sort of form would mandarij be as a derivative from mandar? The Portuguese might have applied to Eastern officials some such word as mandador, which a preceding article (see MANDADORE) shows that they did apply in certain cases. But the parallel to the assumed origin of mandarin from mandar would be that English voyagers on visiting China, or some other country in the far East, should have invented, as a title for the officials of that country, a new and abnormal derivation from 'order,' and called them orderumbos.
The word is really a slight corruption of Hind. (from Skt.) mantri, 'a counsellor, a Minister of State,' for which it was indeed the proper old pre-Mahommedan term in India. It has been adopted, and specially affected in various Indo-Chinese countries, and particularly by the Malays, among whom it is habitually applied to the highest class of public officers (see Crawfurd's Malay Dict. s.v. [and Klinkert, who writes manteri, colloquially mentri]). Yet Crawfurd himself, strange to say, adopts the current explanation as from the Portuguese (see J. Ind. Archip. iv. 189). [Klinkert adopts the Skt. derivation.] It is, no doubt, probable that the instinctive "striving after meaning" may have shaped the corruption of mantri into a semblance of mandar. Marsden is still more oddly perverse, videns meliora, deteriora secutus, when he says: "The officers next in rank to the Sultan are Mantree, {551a}which some apprehend to be a corruption of the word Mandarin, a title of distinction among the Chinese" (H. of Sumatra, 2nd ed. 285). Ritter adopts the etymology from mandar, apparently after A. W. Schlegel.[160] The true etymon is pointed out in Notes and Queries in China and Japan, iii. 12, and by one of the present writers in Ocean Highways for Sept. 1872, p. 186. Several of the quotations below will show that the earlier applications of the title have no reference to China at all, but to officers of state, not only in the Malay countries, but in Continental India. We may add that mantri (see MUNTREE) is still much in vogue among the less barbarous Hill Races on the Eastern frontier of Bengal (e.g. among the Kasias (see COSSYA) as a denomination for their petty dignitaries under the chief. Gibbon was perhaps aware of the true origin of mandarin; see below.
c. A.D. 400 (?).—"The King desirous of trying cases must enter the assembly composed in manner, together with Brahmans who know the Vedas, and mantrins (or counsellors)."—Manu, viii. 1.
[1522.—"... and for this purpose he sent one of his chief mandarins (mandarim)."—India Office MSS. in an Agreement made by the Portuguese with the "Rey de Sunda," this Sunda being that of the Straits.]
1524.—(At the Moluccas) "and they cut off the heads of all the dead Moors, and indeed fought with one another for these, because whoever brought in seven heads of enemies, they made him a knight, and called him manderym, which is their name for Knight."—Correa, ii. 808.
c. 1540.—"... the which corsairs had their own dealings with the Mandarins of those ports, to whom they used to give many and heavy bribes to allow them to sell on shore what they plundered on the sea."—Pinto, cap. 1.
1552.—(At Malacca) "whence subsist the King and the Prince with their mandarins, who are the gentlemen."—Castanheda, iii. 207.
" (In China). "There are among them degrees of honour, and according to their degrees of honour is their service; gentlemen (fidalgos) whom they call mandarins ride on horseback, and when they pass along the streets the common people make way for them."—Ibid. iv. 57.
1553.—"Proceeding ashore in two or three boats dressed with flags and with a {551b}grand blare of trumpets (this was at Malacca in 1508-9).... Jeronymo Teixeira was received by many Mandarijs of the King, these being the most noble class of the city."—De Barros, Dec. II. liv. iv. cap. 3.
" "And he being already known to the Mandarijs (at Chittagong, in Bengal), and held to be a man profitable to the country, because of the heavy amounts of duty that he paid, he was regarded like a native."—Ibid. Dec. IV. liv. ix. cap. 2.
" "And from these Cellates and native Malays come all the Mandarins, who are now the gentlemen (fidalgos) of Malaca."—Ibid. II. vi. 1.
1598.—"They are called ... Mandorijns, and are always borne in the streetes, sitting in chariots which are hanged about with Curtaines of Silke, covered with Clothes of Gold and Silver, and are much given to banketing, eating and drinking, and making good cheare, as also the whole land of China."—Linschoten, 39; [Hak. Soc. i. 135].
1610.—"The Mandorins (officious officers) would have interverted the king's command for their own covetousnesse" (at Siam).—Peter Williamson Floris, in Purchas, i. 322.
1612.—"Shah Indra Brama fled in like manner to Malacca, where they were graciously received by the King, Mansur Shah, who had the Prince converted to Islamism, and appointed him to be a Mantor."—Sijara Malayu, in J. Ind. Arch. v. 730.
c. 1663.—"Domandò il Signor Carlo se mandarino è voce Chinese. Disse esser Portoghese, e che in Chinese si chiamano Quoan, che signifia signoreggiare, comandare, gobernare."—Viaggio del P. Gio. Grueber, in Thevenot, Divers Voyages.
1682.—In the Kingdome of Patane (on E. coast of Malay Peninsula) "The King's counsellors are called Mentary."—Nieuhof, Zee en Lant-Reize, ii. 64.
c. 1690.—"Mandarinorum autem nomine intelliguntur omnis generis officiarii, qui a mandando appellantur mandarini linguâ Lusitanicâ, quae unica Europaea est in oris Chinensibus obtinens."—T. Hyde, De Ludis Orientalibus, in Syntagmata, Oxon. 1767, ii. 266.
1719.—"... one of the Mandarins, a kind of viceroy or principal magistrate in the province where they reside."—Robinson Crusoe, Pt. ii.
1726.—"Mantrís. Councillors. These give rede and deed in things of moment, and otherwise are in the Government next to the King...." (in Ceylon).—Valentijn, Names, &c., 6.
1727.—"Every province or city (Burma) has a Mandereen or Deputy residing at Court, which is generally in the City of Ava, the present Metropolis."—A. Hamilton, ii. 43, [ed. 1744, ii. 42].
1774.—"... presented to each of the Batchian Manteries as well as the two officers a scarlet coat."—Forrest, V. to N. Guinea, p. 100.
1788.—"... Some words notoriously corrupt are fixed, and as it were naturalized in the vulgar tongue ... and we are pleased to blend the three Chinese monosyllables Con-fû-tzee in the respectable name of Confucius, or even to adopt the Portuguese corruption of Mandarin."—Gibbon, Preface to his 4th volume.
1879.—"The Mentrí, the Malay Governor of Larut ... was powerless to restore order."—Miss Bird, Golden Chersonese, 267.
Used as an adjective:
[c. 1848.—"The mandarin-boat, or 'Smug-boat,' as it is often called by the natives, is the most elegant thing that floats."—Berncastle, Voyage to China, ii. 71.
[1878.—"The Cho-Ka-Shun, or boats in which the Mandarins travel, are not unlike large floating caravans."—Gray, China, ii. 270.]
MANDARIN LANGUAGE, s. The language spoken by the official and literary class in China, as opposed to local dialects. In Chinese it is called Kuan-Hua. It is substantially the language of the people of the northern and middle zones of China, extending to Yun-nan. It is not to be confounded with the literary style which is used in books. [See Ball, Things Chinese, 169 seq.]
1674.—"The Language ... is called Quenhra (hua), or the Language of Mandarines, because as they spread their command they introduced it, and it is used throughout all the Empire, as Latin in Europe. It is very barren, and as it has more Letters far than any other, so it has fewer words."—Faria y Sousa, E.T. ii. 468.
MANGALORE, n.p. The only place now well known by this name is (a) Mangaḷ-ūr, a port on the coast of Southern Canara and chief town of that district, in lat. 12° 51′ N. In Mīr Husain Ali's Life of Haidar it is called "Gorial Bunder," perhaps a corr. of Kandiāl, which is said in the Imp. Gaz. to be the modern native name. [There is a place called Gurupura close by; see Madras Gloss. s.v. Goorpore.] The name in this form is found in an inscription of the 11th century, whatever may have been its original form and etymology. [The present name is said to be taken from the temple of Mangalā Devī.] But the name in approximate forms (from mañgala, 'gladness') is common in India. One other port (b) on the coast of Peninsular Guzerat was formerly well known, now commonly called Mungrole. And {552b}another place of the name (c) Manglavar in the valley of Swat, north of Peshāwar, is mentioned by Hwen T'sang as a city of Gandhāra. It is probably the same that appears in Skt. literature (see Williams, s.v. Mangala) as the capital of Udyāna.
a. Mangalore of Canara.
c. 150.—"Μεταξὺ δὲ τοῦ Ψευδοστόμου καὶ τοῦ Βάριος πόλεις αἵδε· Μαγγάνουρ."—Ptolemy, VII. i. 86.
c. 545.—"And the most notable places of trade are these ... and then the five ports of Malé from which pepper is exported, to wit, Parti, Mangaruth...."—Cosmas, in Cathay, &c. clxxvii.
[c. 1300.—"Manjarur." See under SHINKALI.]
c. 1343.—"Quitting Fākanūr (see BACANORE) we arrived after three days at the city of Manjarūr, which is large and situated on an estuary.... It is here that most of the merchants of Fars and Yemen land; pepper and ginger are very abundant."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 79-80.
1442.—"After having passed the port of Bendinaneh (see PANDARANI) situated on the coast of Melibar, (he) reached the port of Mangalor, which forms the frontier of the kingdom of Bidjanagar...."—Abdurrazzāk, in India in the XVth Cent., 20.
1516.—"There is another large river towards the south, along the sea-shore, where there is a very large town, peopled by Moors and Gentiles, of the kingdom of Narsinga, called Mangalor.... They also ship there much rice in Moorish ships for Aden, also pepper, which thenceforward the earth begins to produce."—Barbosa, 83.
1727.—"The Fields here bear two Crops of Corn yearly in the Plains; and the higher Grounds produce Pepper, Bettle-nut, Sandalwood, Iron and Steel, which make Mangulore a Place of pretty good Trade."—A. Hamilton, i. 285, [ed. 1744].
b. Mangalor or Mungrole in Guzerat.
c. 150.—
"Συραστρηνῆς ...
Συράστρα κώμη
Μοηόγλωσσοη εμποριον ..."
Ptolemy, VII. i. 3.
1516.—"... there is another town of commerce, which has a very good port, and is called Surati Mangalor, where also many ships of Malabar touch."—Barbosa, 59.
1536.—"... for there was come another catur with letters, in which the Captain of Diu urgently called for help; telling how the King (of Cambay) had equipped large squadrons in the Ports of the Gulf ... alleging ... that he was sending them to Mangalor to join others in an expedition against Sinde ... and that all this was false, for he was really sending them in the expectation that the Rumis would come to {553a}Mangalor next September...."—Correa, iv. 701.
1648.—This place is called Mangerol by Van Twist, p. 13.
1727.—"The next maritime town is Mangaroul. It admits of Trade, and affords coarse Callicoes, white and died, Wheat, Pulse, and Butter for export."—A. Hamilton, i. 136, [ed. 1744].
c. Manglavar in Swat.
c. 630.—"Le royaume de Ou-tchang-na (Oudyâna) a environ 5000 li de tour ... on compte 4 ou 5 villes fortifiées. La pluspart des rois de ce pays ont pris pour capitale la ville de Moung-kie-li (Moungali).... La population est fort nombreuse."—Hwen T'sang, in Pèl. Bouddh. ii. 131-2.
1858.—"Mongkieli se retrouve dans Manglavor (in Sanskrit Mañgala-poura) ... ville située près de la rive gauche de la rivière de Svat, et qui a été longtemps, au rapport des indigènes, la capitale du pays."—Vivien de St. Martin, Ibid. iii. 314-315.
MANGELIN, s. A small weight, corresponding in a general way to a carat (q.v.), used in the S. of India and in Ceylon for weighing precious stones. The word is Telegu maṇjāḷi; in Tamil maṇjāḍi, [from Skt. manju, 'beautiful']; the seed of the Adenanthera pavonina (Compare RUTTEE). On the origin of this weight see Sir W. Elliot's Coins of S. India. The maṇjāḍi seed was used as a measure of weight from very early times. A parcel of 50 taken at random gave an average weight of 4.13 grs. Three parcels of 10 each, selected by eye as large, gave average 5.02 and 5.03 (op. cit. p. 47).
1516.—Diamonds "... sell by a weight which is called a Mangiar, which is equal to 2 tare and ⅔, and 2 tare make a carat of good weight, and 4 tare weigh one fanam."—Barbosa, in Ramusio, i. f. 321v.
1554.—(In Ceylon) "A calamja contains 20 mamgelins, each mamgelim 8 grains of rice; a Portugues of gold weighs 8 calamjas and 2 mangelins."—A. Nunez, 35.
1584.—"There is another sort of weight called Mangiallino, which is 5 graines of Venice weight, and therewith they weigh diamants and other jewels."—Barret, in Hakl. ii. 409.
1611.—"Quem não sabe a grandeza das minas de finissimos diamantes do Reyno de Bisnaga, donde cada dia, e cada hora se tiram peças de tamanho de hum ovo, e muitas de sessenta e oitenta mangelins."—Couto, Dialogo do Soldato Pratico, 154.
1665.—"Le poids principal des Diamans est le mangelin; il pèse cinq grains et trois cinquièmes."—Thevenot, v. 293.
1676.—"At the mine of Raolconda they weigh by Mangelins, a Mangelin being one {553b}Carat and three quarters, that is 7 grains.... At the Mine of Soumelpore in Bengal they weigh by Rati's (see RUTTEE), and the Rati is ⅞ of a Carat, or 3½ grains. In the Kingdoms of Golconda and Visapour, they make use of Mangelins, but a Mangelin in those parts is not above 1 carat and ⅜. The Portugals in Goa make use of the same Weights in Goa; but a Mangelin there is not above 5 grains."—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 141; [ed. Ball, ii. 87, and see ii. 433.]
MANGO, s. The royal fruit of the Mangifera indica, when of good quality is one of the richest and best fruits in the world. The original of the word is Tamil mān-kāy or mān-gāy, i.e. mān fruit (the tree being māmarum, 'mān-tree'). The Portuguese formed from this manga, which we have adopted as mango. The tree is wild in the forests of various parts of India; but the fruit of the wild tree is uneatable.
The word has sometimes been supposed to be Malay; but it was in fact introduced into the Archipelago, along with the fruit itself, from S. India. Rumphius (Herb. Amboyn. i. 95) traces its then recent introduction into the islands, and says that it is called (Malaicè) "mangka, vel vulgo Manga et Mapelaam." This last word is only the Tamil Māpaḷam, i.e. 'mān fruit' again. The close approximation of the Malay mangka to the Portuguese form might suggest that the latter name was derived from Malacca. But we see manga already used by Varthema, who, according to Garcia, never really went beyond Malabar. [Mr. Skeat writes: "The modern standard Malay word is mangga, from which the Port. form was probably taken. The other Malay form quoted from Rumphius is in standard Malay mapĕlam, with mĕpĕlam, hĕmpĕlam, ampĕlam, and 'pĕlam or 'plam as variants. The Javanese is pĕlĕm."]
The word has been taken to Madagascar, apparently by the Malayan colonists, whose language has left so large an impression there, in the precise shape mangka. Had the fruit been an Arab importation it is improbable that the name would have been introduced in that form.
The N. Indian names are Ām and Amba, and variations of these we find in several of the older European writers. Thus Fr. Jordanus, who had been in the Konkan, and appreciated the progenitors of the Goa and {554a}Bombay Mango (c. 1328), calls the fruit Aniba. Some 30 years later John de' Marignolli calls the tree "amburan, having a fruit of excellent fragrance and flavour, somewhat like a peach" (Cathay, &c., ii. 362). Garcia de Orta shows how early the Bombay fruit was prized. He seems to have been the owner of the parent tree. The Skt. name is Amra, and this we find in Hwen T'sang (c. 645) phoneticised as 'An-mo-lo.
The mango is probably the fruit alluded to by Theophrastus as having caused dysentery in the army of Alexander. (See the passage s.v. JACK).
c. 1328.—"Est etiam alia arbor quae fructus facit ad modum pruni, grosissimos, qui vocantur Aniba. Hi sunt fructus ita dulces et amabiles, quod ore tenus exprimi hoc minimè possit."—Fr. Jordanus, in Rec. de Voyages, &c., iv. 42.
c. 1334.—"The mango tree ('anba) resembles an orange-tree, but is larger and more leafy; no other tree gives so much shade, but this shade is unwholesome, and whoever sleeps under it gets fever."—Ibn Batuta, iii. 125. At ii. 185 he writes 'anbā. [The same charge is made against the tamarind; see Burton, Ar. Nights, iii. 81.]
c. 1349.—"They have also another tree called Amburan, having a fruit of excellent fragrance and flavour, somewhat like a peach."—John de' Marignolli, in Cathay, &c., 362.
1510.—"Another fruit is also found here, which is called Amba, the stem of which is called Manga," &c.—Varthema, 160-161.
c. 1526.—"Of the vegetable productions peculiar to Hindustân one is the mango (ambeh).... Such mangoes as are good are excellent...." &c.—Baber, 324.
1563.—"O. Boy! go and see what two vessels those are coming in—you see them from the varanda here—and they seem but small ones.
"Servant. I will bring you word presently.
* * * * *
"S. Sir! it is Simon Toscano, your tenant in Bombay, and he brings this hamper of mangas for you to make a present to the Governor, and says that when he has moored the boat he will come here to stop.
"O. He couldn't have come more à propos. I have a manga-tree (mangueira) in that island of mine which is remarkable for both its two crops, one at this time of year, the other at the end of May, and much as the other crop excels this in quality for fragrance and flavour, this is just as remarkable for coming out of season. But come, let us taste them before His Excellency. Boy! take out six mangas."—Garcia, ff. 134v, 135. This author also mentions that the mangas of Ormuz were the most {554b}celebrated; also certain mangas of Guzerat, not large, but of surpassing fragrance and flavour, and having a very small stone. Those of Balaghat were both excellent and big; the Doctor had seen two that weighed 4 arratel and a half (41⁄5 lbs.); and those of Bengal, Pegu, and Malacca were also good.
[1569.—"There is much fruit that comes from Arabia and Persia, which they call mangoes (mangas), which is very good fruit."—Cronica dos Reys Dormuz, translated from the Arabic in 1569.]
c. 1590.—"The Mangoe (Anba).... This fruit is unrivalled in colour, smell, and taste; and some of the gourmands of Túrán and Irán place it above musk melons and grapes.... If a half-ripe mango, together with its stalk to a length of about two fingers, be taken from the tree, and the broken end of its stalk be closed with warm wax, and kept in butter or honey, the fruit will retain its taste for two or three months."—Āīn, ed. Blochmann, i. 67-68.
[1614.—"Two jars of Manges at rupees 4½."—Foster, Letters, iii. 41.
[1615.—"George Durois sent in a present of two pottes of Mangeas."—Cocks's Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 79.]
" "There is another very licquorish fruit called Amangues growing on trees, and it is as bigge as a great quince, with a very great stone in it."—De Monfart, 20.
1622.—P. della Valle describes the tree and fruit at Miná (Minao) near Hormuz, under the name of Amba, as an exotic introduced from India. Afterwards at Goa he speaks of it as "manga or amba."—ii. pp. 313-14, and 581; [Hak. Soc. i. 40].
1631.—"Alibi vero commemorat mangae speciem fortis admodum odoris, Terebinthinam scilicet, et Piceae arboris lacrymam redolentes, quas propterea nostri stinkers appellant."—Piso on Bontius, Hist. Nat. p. 95.
[1663.—"Ambas, or Mangues, are in season during two months in summer, and are plentiful and cheap; but those grown at Delhi are indifferent. The best come from Bengale, Golkonda, and Goa, and these are indeed excellent. I do not know any sweet-meat more agreeable."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 249.]
1673.—Of the Goa Mango,[161] Fryer says justly: "When ripe, the Apples of the Hesperides are but Fables to them; for Taste, the Nectarine, Peach, and Apricot fall short...."—p. 182.
1679.—"Mango and saio (see SOY), two sorts of sauces brought from the East Indies."—Locke's Journal, in Ld. King's Life, 1830, i. 249.
1727.—"The Goa mango is reckoned the largest and most delicious to the taste of any in the world, and I may add, the wholesomest and best tasted of any Fruit in the World."—A. Hamilton, i. 255, [ed. 1744, i. 258].
1883.—"... the unsophisticated ryot ... conceives that cultivation could only emasculate the pronounced flavour and firm fibrous texture of that prince of fruits, the wild mango, likest a ball of tow soaked in turpentine."—Tribes on My Frontier, 149.
The name has been carried with the fruit to Mauritius and the West Indies. Among many greater services to India the late Sir Proby Cautley diffused largely in Upper India the delicious fruit of the Bombay mango, previously rare there, by creating and encouraging groves of grafts on the banks of the Ganges and Jumna canals. It is especially true of this fruit (as Sultan Baber indicates) that excellence depends on the variety. The common mango is coarse and strong of turpentine. Of this only an evanescent suggestion remains to give peculiarity to the finer varieties. [A useful account of these varieties, by Mr. Maries, will be found in Watt, Econ. Dict. v. 148 seqq.]
MANGO-BIRD, s. The popular Anglo-Indian name of the beautiful golden oriole (Oriolus aureus, Jerdon). Its "loud mellow whistle" from the mango-groves and other gardens, which it affects, is associated in Upper India with the invasion of the hot weather.
1878.—"The mango-bird glances through the groves, and in the early morning announces his beautiful but unwelcome presence with his merle melody."—Ph. Robinson, In My Indian Garden, 59.
MANGO-FISH, s. The familiar name of an excellent fish (Polynemus Visua of Buchanan, P. paradiseus of Day), in flavour somewhat resembling the smelt, but, according to Dr. Mason, nearly related to the mullets. It appears in the Calcutta market early in the hot season, and is much prized, especially when in roe. The Hindustani name is tapsī or tapassī, 'an ascetic,' or 'penitent,' but we do not know the rationale of the name. Buchanan says that it is owing to the long fibres (or free rays), proceeding from near the head, which lead the natives to associate it with penitents who are forbidden to shave. [Dr. {555b}Grierson writes: "What the connection of the fish with a hermit was I never could ascertain, unless it was that like wandering Fakīrs, they disappear directly the rains begin. Compare the uposatha of the Buddhists." But tapasya means 'produced by heat,' and is applied to the month Phāgun (Feb.-March) when the fish appears; and this may be the origin of the name.]
1781.—"The Board of Trusties Assemble on Tuesday at the New Tavern, where the Committee meet to eat Mangoe Fish for the benefit of the Subscribers and on other special affairs."—Hickey's Bengal Gazette, March 3.
[1820.—"... the mangoe fish (so named from its appearing during the mangoe season).... By the natives they are named the Tapaswi (penitent) fish, (abbreviated by Europeans to Tipsy) from their resembling a class of religious penitents, who ought never to shave."—Hamilton, Des. of Hindostan, i. 58.]
MANGO-SHOWERS, s. Used in Madras for showers which fall in March and April, when the mangoes begin to ripen.
MANGO-TRICK. One of the most famous tricks of Indian jugglers, in which they plant a mango-stone, and show at brief intervals the tree shooting above ground, and successively producing leaves, flowers, and fruit. It has often been described, but the description given by the Emperor Jahāngīr in his Autobiography certainly surpasses all in its demand on our belief.
c. 1610.—"... Khaun-e-Jehaun, one of the nobles present, observed that if they spoke truly he should wish them to produce for his conviction a mulberry-tree. The men arose without hesitation, and having in ten separate spots set some seed in the ground, they recited among themselves ... when instantly a plant was seen springing from each of the ten places, and each proved the tree required by Khaun-e-Jehaun. In the same manner they produced a mango, an apple-tree, a cypress, a pine-apple, a fig-tree, an almond, a walnut ... open to the observation of all present, the trees were perceived gradually and slowly springing from the earth, to the height of one or perhaps of two cubits.... Then making a sort of procession round the trees as they stood ... in a moment there appeared on the respective trees a sweet mango without the rind, an almond fresh and ripe, a large fig of the most delicious kind ... the fruit being pulled in my presence, and every one {556a}present was allowed to taste it. This, however, was not all; before the trees were removed there appeared among the foliage birds of such surpassing beauty, in colour and shape, and melody and song, as the world never saw before.... At the close of the operation, the foliage, as in autumn, was seen to put on its variegated tints, and the trees gradually disappeared into the earth...."—Mem. of the Emp. Jehanguier, tr. by Major D. Price, pp. 96-97.
c. 1650.—"Then they thrust a piece of stick into the ground, and ask'd the Company what Fruit they would have. One told them he would have Mengues; then one of the Mountebanks hiding himself in the middle of a Sheet, stoopt to the ground five or six times one after another. I was so curious to go upstairs, and look out of a window, to see if I could spy what the Mountebank did, and perceived that after he had cut himself under the armpits with a Razor, he rubb'd the stick with his Blood. After the two first times that he rais'd himself, the stick seemed to the very eye to grow. The third time there sprung out branches with young buds. The fourth time the tree was covered with leaves; and the fifth time it bore flowers.... The English Minister protested that he could not give his consent that any Christian should be Spectator of such delusions. So that as soon as he saw that these Mountebanks had of a dry stick, in less than half-an-hour, made a Tree four or five foot high, that bare leaves and flowers as in the Spring-time: he went about to break it, protesting that he would not give the Communion to any person that should stay any longer to see those things."—Tavernier, Travels made English, by J.P., ii. 36; [ed. Ball, i. 67, seq.].
1667.—"When two of these Jauguis (see JOGEE) that are eminent, do meet, and you stir them up on the point and power of their knowledge or Jauguisme, you shall see them do such tricks out of spight to one another, that I know not if Simon Magus could have outdone them. For they divine what one thinketh, make the Branch of a Tree blossome and bear fruit in less than an hour, hatch eggs in their bosome in less than half a quarter of an hour, and bring forth such birds as you demand.... I mean, if what is said of them is true.... For, as for me, I am with all my curiosity none of those happy Men, that are present at, and see these great feats."—Bernier, E.T. 103; [ed. Constable, 321].
1673.—"Others presented a Mock-Creation of a Mango-Tree, arising from the Stone in a short space (which they did in Hugger-Mugger, being very careful to avoid being discovered) with Fruit Green and Ripe; so that a Man must stretch his Fancy, to imagine it Witchcraft; though the common Sort think no less."—Fryer, 192.
1690.—"Others are said to raise a Mango-Tree, with ripe Fruit upon its Branches, in the space of one or two Hours. To confirm which Relation, it was affirmed confidently {556b}to me, that a Gentleman who had pluckt one of these Mangoes, fell sick upon it, and was never well as long as he kept it 'till he consulted a Bramin for his Health, who prescrib'd his only Remedy would be the restoring of the Mango, by which he was restor'd to his Health again."—Ovington, 258-259.
1726.—"They have some also who will show you the kernel of a mango-fruit, or may be only a twig, and ask if you will see the fruit or this stick planted, and in a short time see a tree grow from it and bear fruit: after they have got their answer the jugglers (Koorde-danssers) wrap themselves in a blanket, stick the twig into the ground, and then put a basket over them (&c. &c.).
"There are some who have prevailed on these jugglers by much money to let them see how they have accomplished this.
"These have revealed that the jugglers made a hole in their bodies under the armpits, and rubbed the twig with the blood from it, and every time that they stuck it in the ground they wetted it, and in this way they clearly saw it to grow and to come to the perfection before described.
"This is asserted by a certain writer who has seen it. But this can't move me to believe it!"—Valentijn, v. (Chorom.) 53.
Our own experience does not go beyond Dr. Fryer's, and the hugger-mugger performance that he disparages. But many others have testified to more remarkable skill. We once heard a traveller of note relate with much spirit such an exhibition as witnessed in the Deccan. The narrator, then a young officer, determined with a comrade, at all hazards of fair play or foul, to solve the mystery. In the middle of the trick one suddenly seized the conjuror, whilst the other uncovered and snatched at the mango-plant. But lo! it came from the earth with a root, and the mystery was darker than ever! We tell the tale as it was told.
It would seem that the trick was not unknown in European conjuring of the 16th or 17th centuries, e.g.
1657.—"... trium horarum spatio arbusculam veram spitamae longitudine e mensâ facere enasci, ut et alias arbores frondiferas et fructiferas."—Magia Universalis, of P. Gaspar Schottus e Soc. Jes., Herbipoli, 1657, i. 32.
MANGOSTEEN, s. From Malay manggusta (Crawfurd), or manggistan (Favre), in Javanese Manggis. [Mr. Skeat writes: "The modern standard Malay form used in the W. coast of the Peninsula is manggis, as in Javanese, the forms manggusta and manggistan never being heard there. The Siamese {557a}form maangkhut given in M‘Farland's Siamese Grammar is probably from the Malay manggusta. It was very interesting to me to find that some distinct trace of this word was still preserved in the name of this fruit at Patani-Kelantan on the E. coast, where it was called bawah 'seta (or 'setar), i.e. the 'setar fruit,' as well as occasionally mestar or mesetar, clearly a corruption of some such old form as manggistar."] This delicious fruit is known throughout the Archipelago, and in Siam, by modifications of the same name; the delicious fruit of the Garcinia Mangostana (Nat. Ord. Guttiferae). It is strictly a tropical fruit, and, in fact, near the coast does not bear fruit further north than lat. 14°. It is a native of the Malay Peninsula and the adjoining islands.
1563.—"R. They have bragged much to me of a fruit which they call mangostans; let us hear what you have to say of these.
"O. What I have heard of the mangostan is that 'tis one of the most delicious fruits that they have in these regions...."—Garcia, f. 151v.
1598.—"There are yet other fruites, as ... Mangostaine [in Hak. Soc. Mangestains] ... but because they are of small account I thinke it not requisite to write severallie of them."—Linschoten, 96; [Hak. Soc. ii. 34].
1631.—
"Cedant Hesperii longe hinc, mala aurea, fructus,
Ambrosiâ pascit Mangostan et nectare divos——
... Inter omnes Indiae fructus longe sapidissimus."
Jac. Bontii, lib. vi. cap. 28, p. 115.
1645.—"Il s'y trouue de plus vne espece de fruit propre du terroir de Malaque, qu'ils nomment Mangostans."—Cardim, Rel. de la Prov. de Japon, 162.
[1662.—"The Mangosthan is a Fruit growing by the Highwayes in Java, upon bushes, like our Sloes."—Mandelslo, tr. Davies, Bk. ii. 121 (Stanf. Dict.).]
1727.—"The Mangostane is a delicious Fruit, almost in the Shape of an Apple, the Skin is thick and red, being dried it is a good Astringent. The Kernels (if I may so call them) are like Cloves of Garlick, of a very agreeable Taste, but very cold."—A. Hamilton, ii. 80 [ed. 1744].
MANGROVE, s. The sea-loving genera Rhizophora and Avicennia derive this name, which applies to both, from some happy accident, but from which of two sources may be doubtful. For while the former genus is, according to {557b}Crawfurd, called by the Malays manggi-manggi, a term which he supposes to be the origin of the English name, we see from Oviedo that one or other was called mangle in S. America, and in this, which is certainly the origin of the French manglier, we should be disposed also to seek the derivation of the English word. Both genera are universal in the tropical tidal estuaries of both Old World and New. Prof. Sayce, by an amusing slip, or oversight probably of somebody else's slip, quotes from Humboldt that "maize, mangle, hammock, canoe, tobacco, are all derived through the medium of the Spanish from the Haytian mahiz, mangle, hamaca, canoa, and tabaco." It is, of course, the French and not the English mangle that is here in question. [Mr. Skeat observes: "I believe the old English as well as French form was mangle, in which case Prof. Sayce would be perfectly right. Mangrove is probably mangle-grove. The Malay manggi-manggi is given by Klinkert, and is certainly on account of the reduplication, native. But I never heard it in the Peninsula, where mangrove is always called bakau."] The mangrove abounds on nearly all the coasts of further India, and also on the sea margin of the Ganges Delta, in the backwaters of S. Malabar, and less luxuriantly on the Indus mouths.
1535.—"Of the Tree called Mangle.... These trees grow in places of mire, and on the shores of the sea, and of the rivers, and streams, and torrents that run into the sea. They are trees very strange to see ... they grow together in vast numbers, and many of their branches seem to turn down and change into roots ... and these plant themselves in the ground like stems, so that the tree looks as if it had many legs joining one to the other."—Oviedo, in Ramusio, iii. f. 145v.
" "So coming to the coast, embarked in a great Canoa with some 30 Indians, and 5 Christians, whom he took with him, and coasted along amid solitary places and islets, passing sometimes into the sea itself for 4 or 5 leagues,—among certain trees, lofty, dense and green, which grow in the very sea-water, and which they call mangle."—Ibid. f. 224.
1553.—"... by advice of a Moorish pilot, who promised to take the people by night to a place where water could be got ... and either because the Moor desired to land many times on the shore by which he was conducting them, seeking to get away from the hands of those whom he was conducting, or because he was {558a}really perplext by its being night, and in the middle of a great growth of mangrove (mangues) he never succeeded in finding the wells of which he spoke."—Barros, I. iv. 4.
c. 1830.—"'Smite my timbers, do the trees bear shellfish?' The tide in the Gulf of Mexico does not ebb and flow above two feet except in the springs, and the ends of the drooping branches of the mangrove trees that here cover the shore, are clustered, within the wash of the water, with a small well-flavoured oyster."—Tom Cringle, ed. 1863, 119.
MANILLA-MAN, s. This term is applied to natives of the Philippines, who are often employed on shipboard, and especially furnish the quartermasters (Seacunny, q.v.) in Lascar crews on the China voyage. But Manilla-man seems also, from Wilson, to be used in S. India as a hybrid from Telug. manelā vādu, 'an itinerant dealer in coral and gems'; perhaps in this sense, as he says, from Skt. maṇi, 'a jewel,' but with some blending also of the Port. manilha, 'a bracelet.' (Compare COBRA-MANILLA.)
MANJEE, s. The master, or steersman, of a boat or any native river-craft; Hind. mānjhī, Beng. mājī and mājhī, [all from Skt. madhya, 'one who stands in the middle']. The word is also a title borne by the head men among the Pahāris or Hill-people of Rājmahal (Wilson), [and as equivalent for Majhwār, the name of an important Dravidian tribe on the borders of the N.W. Provinces and Chota Nāgpur].
1683.—"We were forced to track our boat till 4 in the Afternoon, when we saw a great black cloud arise out of ye North with much lightning and thunder, which made our Mangee or Steerman advise us to fasten our boat in some Creeke."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 88.
[1706.—"Manjee." See under HARRY.]
1781.—"This is to give notice that the principal Gaut Mangies of Calcutta have entered into engagements at the Police Office to supply all Persons that apply there with Boats and Budgerows, and to give security for the Dandies."—India Gazette, Feb. 17.
1784.—"Mr. Austin and his head bearer, who were both in the room of the budgerow, are the only persons known to be drowned. The manjee and dandees have not appeared."—In Seton-Karr, i. 25.
1810.—"Their manjies will not fail to take every advantage of whatever distress, {558b}or difficulty, the passenger may labour under."—Williamson, V. M. i. 148.
For the Pahari use, see Long's Selections, p. 561.
[1864.—"The Khond chiefs of villages and Mootas are termed Maji instead of Mulliko as in Goomsur, or Khonro as in Boad...."—Campbell, Wild Tribes of Khondistan, 120.]
MANNICKJORE, s. Hind. mānikjoṛ; the white-necked stork (Ciconia leucocephala, Gmelin); sometimes, according to Jerdon, called in Bengal the 'Beef-steak bird,' because palatable when cooked in that fashion. "The name of Manikjor means the companion of Manik, a Saint, and some Mussulmans in consequence abstain from eating it" (Jerdon). [Platts derives it from mānik, 'a ruby.']