# Hobson-Jobson/G

G
GALEE, s. H. gālī, abuse; bad language.
GALLEECE, s. Domestic Hindustani gālīs, 'a pair of braces,' from the old-fashioned gallows, now obsolete, except in Scotland, [S. Ireland and U.S.,] where the form is gallowses.
GALLE, POINT DE, n.p. A rocky cape, covering a small harbour and a town with old fortifications, in the S.W. of Ceylon, familiar to all Anglo-Indians for many years as a coaling-place of mail-steamers. The Portuguese gave the town for crest a cock (Gallo), a legitimate pun. The serious derivations of the name are numerous. Pridham says that it is Galla, 'a Rock,' which is probable. But Chitty says it means 'a Pound,' and was so called according to the Malabars (i.e. Tamil people) from "... this part of the country having been anciently set aside by Ravana for the breeding of his cattle" (Ceylon Gazetteer, 1832, p. 92). Tennent again says it was called after a tribe, the page 360bGallas, inhabiting the neighbouring district (see ii. 105, &c.). [Prof. Childers (5 ser. Notes & Queries, iii. 155) writes: "In Sinhalese it is Gālla, the etymology of which is unknown; but in any case it can have nothing to do with 'rock,' the Sinhalese for which is gala with a short a and a single l."] Tennent has been entirely misled by Reinaud in supposing that Galle could be the Kala of the old Arab voyages to China, a port which certainly lay in the Malay seas. (See CALAY.)
1553.—"In which Island they (the Chinese), as the natives say, left a language which they call Chingálla, and the people themselves Chingállas, particularly those who dwell from Ponta de Gálle onwards, facing the south and east. For adjoining that point they founded a City called Tanabaré (see DONDERA HEAD), of which a large part still stands; and from being hard by that Cape of Gálle, the rest of the people, who dwelt from the middle of the Island upwards, called the inhabitants of this part Chingálla, and their language the same, as if they would say language or people of the Chins of Gálle."—Barros, III. ii. cap. 1. (This is, of course, all fanciful.)
[1554.—"He went to the port of Gabaliquama, which our people now call Porto de Gale."—Castanheda, ii. ch. 23.]
c. 1568.—"Il piotta s'ingannò per ciochè il Capo di Galli dell'Isola di Seilan butta assai in mare."—Cesare de' Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 396v.
1585.—"Dopo haver nauigato tre giorni senza veder terra, al primo di Maggio fummo in vista di Punta di Gallo, laquale è assai pericolosa da costeggiare."—G. Balbi, f. 19.
1661.—"Die Stadt Punto-Gale ist im Jahr 1640 vermittelst Gottes gnadigem Seegen durch die Tapferkeit des Commandanten Jacob Koster den Neiderländen zu teil geworden."—W. Schulze, 190.
GALLEGALLE, s. A mixture of lime and linseed oil, forming a kind of mortar impenetrable to water (Shakespear), Hind. galgal.
GALLEVAT, s. The name applied to a kind of galley, or war-boat with oars, of small draught of water, which continued to be employed on the west coast of India down to the latter half of the 18th century. The work quoted below under 1717 explains the galleywatts to be "large boats like Gravesend Tilt-boats; they carry about 6 Carvel-Guns and 60 men at small arms, and Oars; They sail with a Peak Sail like the Mizen of a Man-of-War, and row with 30 or 40 Oars.... They are principally used for landing Troops for a Descent...." (p. 22). The word is highly interesting from its genealogical tree; it is a descendant of the great historical and numerous family of the Galley (galley, galiot, galleon, galeass, galleida, galeoncino, &c.), and it is almost certainly the immediate parent of the hardly less historical Jolly-boat, which plays so important a part in British naval annals. [Prof. Skeat takes jolly-boat to be an English adaptation of Danish jolle, 'a yawl'; Mr. Foster remarks that jollyvatt as an English word, is at least as old as 1495-97 (Oppenheim, Naval Accounts and Inventories, Navy Rec. Soc. viii. 193) (Letters, iii. 296).] If this be true, which we can hardly doubt, we shall have three of the boats of the British man-of-war owing their names (quod minime reris!) to Indian originals, viz. the Cutter, the Dingy, and the Jolly-boat to catur, dingy and gallevat. This last derivation we take from Sir J. Campbell's Bombay Gazetteer (xiii. 417), a work that one can hardly mention without admiration. This writer, who states that a form of the same word, galbat, is now generally used by the natives in Bombay waters for large foreign vessels, such as English ships and steamers, is inclined to refer it to jalba, a word for a small boat used on the shores of the Red Sea (see Dozy and Eng., p. 276), which appears below in a quotation from Ibn Batuta, and which vessels were called by the early Portuguese geluas. Whether this word is the parent of galley and its derivatives, as Sir J. Campbell thinks, must be very doubtful, for galley is much older in European use than he seems to think, as the quotation from Asser shows. The word also occurs in Byzantine page 361bwriters of the 9th century, such as the Continuator of Theophanes quoted below, and the Emperor Leo. We shall find below the occurrence of galley as an Oriental word in the form jalia, which looks like an Arabized adoption from a Mediterranean tongue. The Turkish, too, still has ḳālyūn for a ship of the line, which is certainly an adoption from galeone. The origin of galley is a very obscure question. Amongst other suggestions mentioned by Diez (Etym. Worterb., 2nd ed. i. 198-199) is one from γαλεός, a shark, or from γαλεώτης, a sword-fish—the latter very suggestive of a galley with its aggressive beak; another is from γάλη, a word in Hesychius, which is the apparent origin of 'gallery.' It is possible that galeota, galiote, may have been taken directly from the shark or sword-fish, though in imitation of the galea already in use. For we shall see below that galiot was used for a pirate. [The N.E.D. gives the European synonymous words, and regards the ultimate etymology of galley as unknown.]
The word gallevat seems to come directly from the galeota of the Portuguese and other S. European nations, a kind of inferior galley with only one bank of oars, which appears under the form galion in Joinville, infra (not to be confounded with the galleons of a later period, which were larger vessels), and often in the 13th and 14th centuries as galeota, galiotes, &c. It is constantly mentioned as forming part of the Portuguese fleets in India. Bluteau defines galeota as "a small galley with one mast, and with 15 or 20 benches a side, and one oar to each bench."
a. Galley.
A.D. 877.—"Crescebat insuper diebus singulis perversorum numerus; adeo page 362aquidem, ut si triginta ex eis millia una die necarentur, alii succedebant numero duplicato. Tunc rex Aelfredus jussit cymbas et galeas, id est longas naves, fabricari per regnum, ut navali proelio hostibus adventantibus obviaret."—Asser, Annales Rer. Gest. Aelfredi Magni, ed. West, 1722, p. 29.
c. 1232.—"En cele navie de Genevois avoit soissante et dis galeis, mout bien armées; cheuetaine en estoient dui grant home de Gene...."—Guillaume de Tyr, Texte Français, ed. Paulin Paris, i. 393.
1243.—Under this year Matthew Paris puts into the mouth of the Archbishop of York a punning couplet which shows the difference of accent with which galea in its two senses was pronounced:
"In terris galeas, in aquis formido galeias: Inter eas et eas consulo cautus eas."
1249.—"Lors s'esmut notre galie, et alames bien une grant lieue avant que li uns ne parlast à l'autre.... Lors vint messires Phelippes de Monfort en un galion, et escria au roy: 'Sires, sires, parlés à vostre frere le conte de Poitiers, qui est en cel autre vessel.' Lors escria li roys: 'Alume, alume!'"—Joinville, ed. de Wailly, p. 212.
1517.—"At the Archinale ther (at Venice) we saw in makyng iiii$^{xx}$ (i.e. 80) new galyes and galye Bastards, and galye Sotyltes, besyd they that be in viage in the haven."—Torkington's Pilgrimage, p. 8.
b. Jalia.
1615.—"You must know that in 1605 there had come from the Reino (i.e. Portugal) one Sebastian Gonçalves Tibau ... of humble parentage, who betook himself to Bengal and commenced life as a soldier; and afterwards became a factor in cargoes of salt (which forms the chief traffic in those parts), and acquiring some capital in this business, with that he bought a jalia, a kind of vessel that is there used for fighting and trading at once."—Ibid. 431.
c. Jalba, Jeloa, &c.
1518.—"And Merocem, Captain of the fleet of the Grand Sultan, who was in Cambaya ... no sooner learned that Goa was taken ... than he gave up all hopes of bringing his mission to a fortunate termination, and obtained permission from the King of Cambaya to go to Judá ... and from that port set out for Suez in a shallop" (gelua).—Alboquerque, Hak. Soc. iii. 19.
1538.—"... before we arrived at the Island of Rocks, we discerned three vessels on the other side, that seemed to us to be Geloas, or Terradas, which are the names of the vessels of that country."—Pinto, in Cogan, p. 7.
[1611.—"Messengers will be sent along the coast to give warning of any jelba or ship approaching."—Danvers, Letters, i. 94.]
d. Galliot.
c. 1232.—"L'en leur demanda de quel terre; il respondirent de Flandres, de Hollande et de Frise; et ce estoit voirs que il avoient esté galiot et ulague de mer, bien huit anz; or s'estoient repenti et pour penitence venoient en pelerinage en Jerusalem."—Guill. de Tyr, as above, p. 117.
1337.—"... que elles doivent partir pour uenir au seruice du roy le jer J. de may l'an 337 au plus tart e doiuent couster les d. 40 galées pour quatre mois 144000 florins d'or, payez en partie par la compagnie des Bardes ... et 2000 autres florins pour viretons et 2 galiotes."—Contract with Genoese for Service of Philip of Valois, quoted by Jal, ii. 337.
1518.—"The Governor put on great pressure to embark the force, and started from Cochin the 20th September, 1518, with 17 sail, besides the Goa foists, taking 3 galleys (galés) and one galeota, two brigantines (bargantys), four caravels, and the rest round ships of small size."—Correa, ii. 539.
1548.—"... pera a gualveta em que ha d'andar o alcaide do maar."—S. Botelho, Tombo, 239.
page 363a1552.—"As soon as this news reached the Sublime Porte the Sandjak of Katif was ordered to send Murad-Beg to take command of the fleet, enjoining him to leave in the port of Bassora one or two ships, five galleys, and a galiot."—Sidi 'Ali, p. 48.
" "They (the Portuguese) had 4 ships as big as carracks, 3 ghurābs or great (rowing) vessels, 6 Portuguese caravels and 12 smaller ghurabs, i.e. galiots with oars."—Ibid. 67-68. Unfortunately the translator does not give the original Turkish word for galiot.
c. 1610.—"Es grandes Galeres il y peut deux et trois cens hommes de guerre, et en d'autres grandes Galiotes, qu'ils nomment Fregates, il y en peut cent...."—Pyrard de Laval, ii. 72; [Hak. Soc. ii. 118].
[1665.—"He gave a sufficient number of galiotes to escort them to sea."—Tavernier, ed. Ball, i. 193.]
e. Gallevat.
[1679.—"I know not how many Galwets."—In Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. clxxxiv.]
1717.—"Besides the Salamander Fire-ship, Terrible Bomb, six Galleywatts of 8 guns, and 60 men each, and 4 of 6 guns and 50 men each."—Authentic and Faithful History of that Arch-Pyrate Tulajee Angria (1756), p. 47.
c. 1760.—"Of these armed boats called Gallevats, the Company maintains also a competent number, for the service of their marine."—Grose, ii. 62.
1763.—"The Gallevats are large row-boats, built like the grab, but of smaller dimensions, the largest rarely exceeding 70 tons; they have two masts ... they have 40 or 50 stout oars, and may be rowed four miles an hour."—Orme, i. 409.
GAMBIER, s. The extract of a climbing shrub (Uncaria Gambier, Roxb.? Nauclea Gambier, Hunter; N.O. Rubiaceae) which is a native of the regions about the Straits of Malacca, and is much grown in plantations in Singapore and the neighbouring islands. The substance in chemical page 363bcomposition and qualities strongly resembles cutch (q.v.), and the names Catechu and Terra Japonica are applied to both. The plant is mentioned in Debry, 1601 (iii. 99), and by Rumphius, c. 1690 (v. 63), who describes its use in mastication with betel-nut; but there is no account of the catechu made from it, known to the authors of the Pharmacographia, before 1780. Crawfurd gives the name as Javanese, but Hanbury and Flückiger point out the resemblance to the Tamil name for catechu, Katta Kāmbu (Pharmacographia, 298 seqq.). [Mr. Skeat points out that the standard Malay name is gambir, of which the origin is uncertain, but that the English word is clearly derived from it.]
GANDA, s. This is the H. name for a rhinoceros, gainḍa, genḍa from Skt. gaṇḍa (giving also gaṇḍaka, gaṇḍānga, gajendra). The note on the passage in Barbosa by his Hak. Soc. editor is a marvel in the way of error. The following is from a story of Correa about a battle between "Bober Mirza" (i.e. Sultan Baber) and a certain King "Cacandar" (Sikandar?), in which I have been unable to trace even what events it misrepresents. But it keeps Fernan Mendez Pinto in countenance, as regards the latter's statement about the advance of the King of the Tartars against Peking with four score thousand rhinoceroses!
1516.—"The King (of Guzerat) sent a Ganda to the King of Portugal, because they told him that he would be pleased to see her."—Barbosa, 58.
GANTON, s. This is mentioned by some old voyagers as a weight or measure by which pepper was sold in the Malay Archipelago. It is presumably Malay gantang, defined by Crawfurd as "a dry measure, equal to about a gallon." [Klinkert has: "gantang, a measure of capacity 5 katis among the Malays; also a gold weight, formerly 6 suku, but later 1 bongkal, or 8 suku." Gantang-gantang is 'cartridge-case.']
[1615.—"... 1000 gantans of pepper."—Foster, Letters, iii. 168.]
GANZA, s. The name given by old travellers to the metal which in former days constituted the inferior currency of Pegu. According to some it was lead; others call it a mixt metal. Lead in rude lumps is still used in the bazars of Burma for small purchases. (Yule, Mission to Ava, 259.) The word is evidently Skt. kaṉsa, 'bell-metal,' whence Malay gangsa, which last is probably the word which travellers picked up.
" "... vn altra statua cosi fatta di Ganza; che è vn metallo di che fanno le lor monete, fatte di rame e di piombo mescolati insieme."—Cesare Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 394v.
c. 1567.—"The current money that is in this Citie, and throughout all this kingdom, is called Gansa or Ganza, which is made of copper and lead. It is not the money of the king, but every man may stampe it that will...."—Caesar Frederick, E.T., in Purchas, iii. 1717-18.
page 364b1726.—"Rough Peguan Gans (a brass mixt with lead)...."—Valentijn, Chor. 34.
GARCE, s. A cubic measure for rice, &c., in use on the Madras coast, as usual varying much in value. Buchanan (infra) treats it as a weight. The word is Tel. gārisa, gārise, Can. garasi, Tam. karisai. [In Chingleput salt is weighed by the Garce of 124 maunds, or nearly 5.152 tons (Crole, Man. 58); in Salem, 400 Markals (see MERCALL) are 185.2 cubic feet, or 18 quarters English (Le Fanu, Man. ii. 329); in Malabar, 120 Paras of 25 Macleod seers, or 10,800 lbs. (Logan, Man. ii. clxxix.). As a superficial measure in the N. Circars, it is the area which will produce one Garce of grain.]
1752.—"Grain Measures.
| 1 | Measure weighs about 26 | Measure weighs about 26 | Measure weighs about 26 | lb. 1 oz. | avd. |
| 8 | Do. is 1 Mercal | Do. is 1 Mercal | 21 | " | " |
| 3200 | Do. is 400 do., or | Do. is 400 do., or | Do. is 400 do., or |
| 1 | Garse | 8400 | " | " | " |
| Brooks, Weights and Measures, &c., p. 6. ||||||
1759.—"... a garce of rice...."—In Dalrymple, Or. Rep. i. 120.
1784.—"The day that advice was received ... (of peace with Tippoo) at Madras, the price of rice fell there from 115 to 80 pagodas the garce."—In Seton-Karr, i. 13.
1807.—"The proper native weights used in the Company's Jaghire are as follows: 10 Vara hun (Pagodas) = 1 Polam, 40 Polams = 1 Visay, 8 Visay (Vees) = 1 Manungu, 20 Manungus (Maunds) = 1 Baruays, 20 Baruays (Candies) = 1 Gursay, called by the English Garse. The Vara hun or Star Pagoda weighs 52¾ grains, therefore the Visay is nearly three pounds avoirdupois (see VISS); and the Garse is nearly 1265 lbs."—F. Buchanan, Mysore, &c., i. 6.
GARDEE, s. A name sometimes given, in 18th century, to native soldiers disciplined in European fashion, i.e. sepoys (q.v.). The Indian Vocabulary (1788) gives: "Gardee—a tribe inhabiting the provinces of Bijapore, &c., esteemed good foot soldiers." The word may be only a corruption of page 365a'guard,' but probably the origin assigned in the second quotation may be well founded; 'Guard' may have shaped the corruption of Gharbi. The old Bengal sepoys were commonly known in the N.W. as Purbias or Easterns (see POORUB). [Women in the Amazon corps at Hyderabad (Deccan), known as the Ẓafar Paltan, or 'Victorious Battalion,' were called gardunee (Gārdanī), the feminine form of Gārad or Guard.]
1786.—"... originally they (Sipahis) were commanded by Arabians, or those of their descendants born in the Canara and Concan or Western parts of India, where those foreigners style themselves Gharbies or Western. Moreover these corps were composed mostly of Arabs, Negroes, and Habissinians, all of which bear upon that coast the same name of Gharbi.... In time the word Gharbi was corrupted by both the French and Indians into that of Gardi, which is now the general name of Sipahies all over India save Bengal ... where they are stiled Talingas."—Note by Transl. of Seir Mutaqherin, ii. 93.
GARDENS, GARDEN-HOUSE, s. In the 18th century suburban villas at Madras and Calcutta were so called. 'Garden Reach' below Fort William took its name from these.
1685.—"The whole Council ... came to attend the President at the garden-house...."—Pringle, Diary, Fort St. Geo. 1st ser. iv. 115; in Wheeler, i. 139.
1747.—"In case of an Attack at the Garden House, if by a superior Force they should be oblig'd to retire, according to the orders and send a Horseman before them to advise of the Approach...."—Report of Council of War at Fort St. David, in India Office MS. Records.
1758.—"The guard of the redoubt retreated before them to the garden-house."—Orme, ii. 303.
" "Mahomed Isoof ... rode with a party of horse as far as Maskelyne's garden."—Ibid. iii. 425.
page 365b1772.—"The place of my residence at present is a garden-house of the Nabob, about 4 miles distant from Moorshedabad."—Teignmouth, Mem. i. 34.
1782.—"A body of Hyder's horse were at St. Thomas's Mount on the 29th ult. and Gen. Munro and Mr. Brodie with great difficulty escaped from the General's Gardens. They were pursued by Hyder's horse within a mile of the Black Town."—India Gazette, May 11.
1809.—"The gentlemen of the settlement live entirely in their garden-houses, as they very properly call them."—Ld. Valentia, i. 389.
1810.—"... Rural retreats called Garden-houses."—Williamson, V. M. i. 137.
GARRY, GHARRY, s. H. gāṛī, a cart or carriage. The word is used by Anglo-Indians, at least on the Bengal side, in both senses. Frequently the species is discriminated by a distinctive prefix, as palkee-garry (palankin carriage), sej-garry (chaise), rel-garry (railway carriage), &c. [The modern dawk-garry was in its original form called the "Equirotal Carriage," from the four wheels being of equal dimensions. The design is said to have been suggested by Lord Ellenborough. (See the account and drawing in Grant, Rural Life in Bengal, 3 seq.).]
1811.—The Gary is represented in Solvyns's engravings as a two-wheeled rath [see RUT] (i.e. the primitive native carriage, built like a light hackery) with two ponies.
1866.—"My husband was to have met us with a two-horse gharee."—Trevelyan, Dawk Bungalow, 384.
GAUM, GONG, s. A village, H. gāon, from Skt. grāma.
page 366aGAURIAN, adj. This is a convenient name which has been adopted of late years as a generic name for the existing Aryan languages of India, i.e. those which are radically sprung from, or cognate to, the Sanskrit. The name (according to Mr. E. L. Brandreth) was given by Prof. Hoernle; but it is in fact an adoption and adaptation of a term used by the Pundits of Northern India. They divide the colloquial languages of (civilised) India into the 5 Gauṛas and 5 Drāviras [see DRAVIDIAN]. The Gauṛas of the Pundits appear to be (1) Bengalee (Bangālī) which is the proper language of Gauḍa, or Northern Bengal, from which the name is taken (see GOUR c.), (2) Oṛiya, the language of Orissa, (3) Hindī, (4) Panjābī, (5) Sindhī; their Drāvira languages are (1) Telinga, (2) Karṇāṭaka (Canarese), (3) Marāṭhī, (4) Gurjara (Gujarātī), (5) Drāvira (Tamil). But of these last (3) and (4) are really to be classed with the Gauṛian group, so that the latter is to be considered as embracing 7 principal languages. Kashmīrī, Singhalese, and the languages or dialects of Assam, of Nepaul, and some others, have also been added to the list of this class.
The extraordinary analogies between the changes in grammar and phonology from Sanskrit in passing into those Gaurian languages, and the changes of Latin in passing into the Romance languages, analogies extending into minute details, have been treated by several scholars; and a very interesting view of the subject is given by Mr. Brandreth in vols. xi. and xii. of the J.R.A.S., N.S.
GAUTAMA, n.p. The surname, according to Buddhist legend, of the Sakya tribe from which the Buddha Sakya Muni sprang. It is a derivative from Gotama, a name of "one of the ancient Vedic bard-families" (Oldenberg). It is one of the most common names for Buddha among the Indo-Chinese nations. The Sommona-codom of many old narratives represents the Pali form of S'ramaṇa Gautama, "The Ascetic Gautama."
c. 1590.—See under Godavery passage from Āīn, where Gotam occurs.
1686.—"J'ai cru devoir expliquer toutes ces choses avant que de parler de Sommono-khodom (c'est ainsi que les Siamois appellent le Dieu qu'ils adorent à present)."—Voy. de Siam, Des Pères Jesuites, Paris, 1686, p. 397.
1687-88.—"Now tho' they say that several have attained to this Felicity (Nireupan, i.e. Nirvana) ... yet they honour only one alone, whom they esteem to have surpassed all the rest in Vertue. They call him Sommona-Codom; and they say that Codom was his Name, and that Sommona signifies in the Balie Tongue a Talapoin of the Woods."—Hist. Rel. of Siam, by De La Loubere, E.T. i. 130.
[1727.—"... inferior Gods, such as Somma Cuddom...."—A. Hamilton, ed. 1744, ii. 54.]
1782.—"Les Pegouins et les Bahmans.... Quant à leurs Dieux, ils en comptent sept principaux.... Cependant ils n'en adorent qu'un seul, qu'ils appellent Godeman...."—Sonnerat, ii. 299.
1800.—"Gotma, or Goutum, according to the Hindoos of India, or Gaudma among the inhabitants of the more eastern parts, is said to have been a philosopher ... he taught in the Indian schools, the heterodox religion and philosophy of Boodh. The image that represents Boodh is called Gautama, or Goutum...."—Symes, Embassy, 299.
GAVEE, s. Topsail. Nautical jargon from Port. gavea, the top. (Roebuck).
GAVIAL, s. This is a name adopted by zoologists for one of the alligators of the Ganges and other Indian rivers, Gavialis gangeticus, &c. It is the less dangerous of the Gangetic saurians, with long, slender, sub-cylindrical jaws expanding into a protuberance at the muzzle. The name must have originated in some error, probably a clerical one, for the true word is Hind. ghaṛiyāl, and gavial is nothing. The term (gariyālī) is used by Baber (p. 410), where the translator's note says: "The geriali is the round-mouthed crocodile," words which seem to indicate the magar page 367a(see MUGGUR) (Crocodilus biporcatus) not the ghaṛiyāl.
GAZAT, s. This is domestic Hind. for 'dessert.' (Panjab N. & Q. ii. 184).
GECKO, s. A kind of house lizard. The word is not now in Anglo-Indian use; it is a naturalist's word; and also is French. It was no doubt originally an onomatopoeia from the creature's reiterated utterance. Marcel Devic says the word is adopted from Malay gekok [gēkoq]. This we do not find in Crawfurd, who has tăké, tăkék, and goké, all evidently attempts to represent the utterance. In Burma the same, or a kindred lizard, is called tokté, in like imitation.
1711.—"Chaccos, as Cuckoos receive their Names from the Noise they make.... They are much like lizards, but larger. 'Tis said their Dung is so venomous," &c.—Lockyer, 84.
This is still a common belief. (See BISCOBRA).
GENTOO, s. and adj. This word is a corruption of the Portuguese Gentio, 'a gentile' or heathen, which they applied to the Hindus in contradistinction to the Moros or 'Moors,' i.e. Mahommedans. [See MOOR.] Both page 367bterms are now obsolete among English people, except perhaps that Gentoo still lingers at Madras in the sense b; for the terms Gentio and Gentoo were applied in two senses:
a. To the Hindūs generally. b. To the Telugu-speaking Hindūs of the Peninsula specially, and to their language.
The reason why the term became thus specifically applied to the Telugu people is probably because, when the Portuguese arrived, the Telugu monarchy of Vijayanagara, or Bijanagar (see BISNAGAR, NARSINGA) was dominant over great part of the Peninsula. The officials were chiefly of Telugu race, and thus the people of this race, as the most important section of the Hindūs, were par excellence the Gentiles, and their language the Gentile language. Besides these two specific senses, Gentio was sometimes used for heathen in general. Thus in F. M. Pinto: "A very famous Corsair who was called Hinimilau, a Chinese by nation, and who from a Gentio as he was, had a little time since turned Moor...."—Ch. L.
a.—
1563.—"... Among the Gentiles (Gentios) Rão is as much as to say 'King.'"—Garcia, f. 35b.
" "This ambergris is not so highly valued among the Moors, but it is highly prized among the Gentiles."—Ibid. f. 14.
1582.—"A gentile ... whose name was Canaca."—Castañeda, trans. by N. L., f. 31.
1588.—In a letter of this year to the Viceroy, the King (Philip II.) says he "understands the Gentios are much the best persons to whom to farm the alfandegas (customs, &c.), paying well and regularly, and it does not seem contrary to canon-law to farm to them, but on this he will consult the learned."—In Arch. Port. Orient. fasc. 3, 135.
c. 1610.—"Ils (les Portugais) exercent ordinairement de semblables cruautez lors qu'ils sortent en trouppe le long des costes, page 368abruslans et saccageans ces pauures Gentils qui ne desirent que leur bonne grace, et leur amitié mais ils n'en ont pas plus de pitié pour cela."—Mocquet, 349.
1630.—"... which Gentiles are of two sorts ... first the purer Gentiles ... or else the impure or vncleane Gentiles ... such are the husbandmen or inferior sort of people called the Coulees."—H. Lord, Display, &c., 85.
1673.—"The finest Dames of the Gentues disdained not to carry Water on their Heads."—Fryer, 116.
" "Gentues, the Portuguese idiom for Gentiles, are the Aborigines."—Ibid. 27.
1679.—In Fort St. Geo. Cons. of 29th January, the Black Town of Madras is called "the Gentue Town."—Notes and Exts., No. ii. 3.
1682.—"This morning a Gentoo sent by Bulchund, Governour of Hugly and Cassumbazar, made complaint to me that Mr. Charnock did shamefully—to y$^e$ great scandal of our Nation—keep a Gentoo woman of his kindred, which he has had these 19 years."—Hedges, Diary, Dec. 1.; [Hak. Soc. i. 52].
1683.—"The ceremony used by these Gentu's in their sicknesse is very strange; they bring y$^e$ sick person ... to y$^e$ brinke of y$^e$ River Ganges, on a Cott...."—Ibid. May 10; [Hak. Soc. i. 86].
In Stevens's Trans. of Faria y Sousa (1695) the Hindus are still called Gentiles. And it would seem that the English form Gentoo did not come into general use till late in the 17th century.
1767.—"In order to transact Business of any kind in this Countrey you must at least have a Smattering of the Language.... The original Language of this Countrey (or at least the earliest we know of) is the Bengala or Gentoo; this is commonly spoken in all parts of the Countrey. But the politest Language is the Moors or Mussulmans, and Persian."—MS. Letter of James Rennell.
1772.—"It is customary with the Gentoos, as soon as they have acquired a moderate fortune, to dig a pond."—Teignmouth, Mem. i. 36.
1774.—"When I landed (on Island of Bali) the natives, who are Gentoos, came on board in little canoes, with outriggers on each side."—Forrest, V. to N. Guinea, 169.
1776.—"A Code of Gentoo Laws or Ordinations of the Pundits. From a Persian Translation, made from the original written in the Shanskrit Language. London, Printed in the Year 1776."—(Title of Work by Nathaniel Brassey Halhed.)
1778.—"The peculiar patience of the Gentoos in Bengal, their affection to business, and the peculiar cheapness of all productions either of commerce or of necessity, had concurred to render the details of the revenue the most minute, voluminous, and complicated system of accounts which exist in the universe."—Orme, ii. 7 (Reprint).
page 368b1781.—"They (Syrian Christians of Travancore) acknowledged a Gentoo Sovereign, but they were governed even in temporal concerns by the bishop of Angamala."—Gibbon, ch. xlvii.
1784.—"Captain Francis Swain Ward, of the Madras Establishment, whose paintings and drawings of Gentoo Architecture, &c., are well known."—In Seton-Karr, i. 31.
1785.—"I found this large concourse (at Chandernagore) of people were gathered to see a Gentoo woman burn herself with her husband."—Ibid. i. 90.
" "The original inhabitants of India are called Gentoos."—Carraccioli's Life of Clive, i. 122.
1803.—"Peregrine. O mine is an accommodating palate, hostess. I have swallowed burgundy with the French, hollands with the Dutch, sherbet with a Turk, sloe-juice with an Englishman, and water with a simple Gentoo."—Colman's John Bull, i. sc. 1.
b.—
1673.—"Their Language they call generally Gentu ... the peculiar Name of their Speech is Telinga."—Fryer, 33.
1674.—"50 Pagodas gratuity to John Thomas ordered for good progress in the Gentu tongue, both speaking and writing."—Fort St. Geo. Cons., in Notes and Exts. No. i. 32.
[1681.—"He hath the Gentue language."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. cclxxxiv.]
1683.—"Thursday, 21st June.... The Hon. Company having sent us a Law with reference to the Natives ... it is ordered that the first be translated into Portuguese, Gentoo, Malabar, and Moors, and proclaimed solemnly by beat of drum."—Madras Consultation, in Wheeler, i. 314.
1719.—"Bills of sale wrote in Gentoo on Cajan leaves, which are entered in the Register kept by the Town Conicoply for that purpose."—Ibid. ii. 314.
1726.—"The proper vernacular here (Golconda) is the Gentoos (Jentiefs) or Telingaas."—Valentijn, Chor. 37.
1801.—"The Gentoo translation of the Regulations will answer for the Ceded Districts, for even ... the most Canarine part of them understand Gentoo."—Munro, in Life, i. 321.
1807.—"A Grammar of the Gentoo language, as it is understood and spoken by the Gentoo People, residing north and north-westward of Madras. By a Civil Servant under the Presidency of Fort St. George, many years resident in the Northern Circars. Madras. 1807."
page 369a1817.—The third grammar of the Telugu language, published in this year, is called a 'Gentoo Grammar.'
GHAUT, s. Hind. ghāt.
a. A landing-place; a path of descent to a river; the place of a ferry, &c. Also a quay or the like.
b. A path of descent from a mountain; a mountain pass; and hence
c., n.p. The mountain ranges parallel to the western and eastern coasts of the Peninsula, through which the ghāts or passes lead from the table-lands above down to the coast and lowlands. It is probable that foreigners hearing these tracts spoken of respectively as the country above and the country below the Ghāts (see BALAGHAUT) were led to regard the word Ghāts as a proper name of the mountain range itself, or (like De Barros below) as a word signifying range. And this is in analogy with many other cases of mountain nomenclature, where the name of a pass has been transferred to a mountain chain, or where the word for 'a pass' has been mistaken for a word for 'mountain range.' The proper sense of the word is well illustrated from Sir A. Wellesley, under b.
a.—
b.—
This passage illustrates how the transition from b to c occurred. The Ghāts here meant are not a range of mountains so called, but, as the context shows, the passes among the Vindhya and Sātpūra hills. Compare page 369bthe two following, in which 'down the ghauts' and 'down the passes' mean exactly the same thing, though to many people the former expression will suggest 'down through a range of mountains called the Ghauts.'
" "The enemy have fled northward, and are getting down the passes as fast as they can."—M. Elphinstone, in Life by Colebrooke, i. 71.
The following passage indicates that the great Sir Walter, with his usual sagacity, saw the true sense of the word in its geographical use, though misled by books to attribute to the (so-called) 'Eastern Ghauts' the character that belongs to the Western only.
c.—
1561.—"This Serra is called Gate."—Correa, Lendas, ii. 2, 56.
1563.—"The Cuncam, which is the land skirting the sea, up to a lofty range which they call Guate."—Garcia, f. 34b.
1572.—
"Da terra os Naturaes lhe chamam Gate, Do pe do qual pequena quantidade Se estende hũa fralda estreita, que combate Do mar a natural ferocidade...." Camões, vii. 22.
Englished by Burton:
"The country-people call this range the Ghaut, and from its foot-hills scanty breadth there be, whose seaward-sloping coast-plain long hath fought 'gainst Ocean's natural ferocity...."
1623.—"We commenced then to ascend the mountain-(range) which the people of the country call Gat, and which traverses in the middle the whole length of that part page 370aof India which projects into the sea, bathed on the east side by the Gulf of Bengal, and on the west by the Ocean, or Sea of Goa."—P. della Valle, ii. 32; [Hak. Soc. ii. 222].
1673.—"The Mountains here are one continued ridge ... and are all along called Gaot."—Fryer, 187.
1685.—"On les appelle, montagnes de Gatte, c'est comme qui diroit montagnes de montagnes, Gatte en langue du pays ne signifiant autre chose que montagne" (quite wrong).—Ribeyro, Ceylan, (Fr. Transl.), p. 4.
1727.—"The great Rains and Dews that fall from the Mountains of Gatti, which ly 25 or 30 leagues up in the Country."—A. Hamilton, i. 282; [ed. 1744, ii. 285].
1762.—"All the South part of India save the Mountains of Gate (a string of Hills in ye country) is level Land the Mould scarce so deep as in England.... As you make use of every expedient to drain the water from your tilled ground, so the Indians take care to keep it in theirs, and for this reason sow only in the level grounds."—MS. Letter of James Rennell, March 21.
GHEE, s. Boiled butter; the universal medium of cookery throughout India, supplying the place occupied by oil in Southern Europe, and more; [the samn of Arabia, the raughan of Persia]. The word is Hind. ghī, Skt. ghṛita. A short but explicit account of the mode of preparation will be found in the English Cyclopaedia (Arts and Sciences), s.v.; [and in fuller detail in Watt, Econ. Dict. iii. 491 seqq.].
1673.—"They will drink milk, and boil'd butter, which they call Ghe."—Fryer, 33.
1783.—"In most of the prisons [of Hyder 'Ali] it was the custom to celebrate particular days, when the funds admitted, with the luxury of plantain fritters, a draught of sherbet, and a convivial song. On one occasion the old Scotch ballad, 'My wife has ta'en the gee,' was admirably sung, and loudly encored.... It was reported to the Kelledar (see KILLADAR) that the prisoners said and sung throughout the night of nothing but ghee.... The Kelledar, certain that discoveries had been made regarding his malversations in that article of garrison store, determined to conciliate their secrecy by causing an abundant supply of this unaccustomed luxury to be thenceforth placed within the reach of their farthing purchases."—Wilks, Hist. Sketches, ii. 154.
page 370b1785.—"The revenues of the city of Decca ... amount annually to two kherore (see CRORE), proceeding from the customs and duties levied on ghee."—Carraccioli, L. of Clive, i. 172.
GHILZAI, n.p. One of the most famous of the tribes of Afghanistan, and probably the strongest, occupying the high plateau north of Kandahar, and extending (roundly speaking) eastward to the Sulimānī mountains, and north to the Kābul River. They were supreme in Afghanistan at the beginning of the 18th century, and for a time possessed the throne of Ispahan. The following paragraph occurs in the article Afghanistan, in the 9th ed. of the Encyc. Britan., 1874 (i. 235), written by one of the authors of this book:—
Nor has the writer since ever been able to go into it. But whilst he has never regarded the suggestion as more than a probable one, he has seen no reason to reject it. He may add that on starting the idea to Sir Henry Rawlinson (to whom it seemed new), a high authority on such a question, though he would not accept it, he made a candid remark to the effect that the Ghilzais had undoubtedly a very Turk-like aspect. A belief in this identity was, as we have recently noticed, entertained by the traveller Charles Masson, as is shown in a passage quoted below. And it has also been maintained by Surgeon-Major Bellew, in his Races of Afghanistan (1880), [who (p. 100) refers the name to Khilichī, a swordsman. The folk etymology of De Guignes and D'Herbelot is Kall, 'repose,' atz, 'hungry,' given to an officer by Ogouz Khān, who delayed on the road to kill game for his sick wife].
All the accounts of the Ghilzais indicate great differences between them page 371aand the other tribes of Afghanistan; whilst there seems nothing impossible, or even unlikely, in the partial assimilation of a Turki tribe in the course of centuries to the Afghans who surround them, and the consequent assumption of a quasi-Afghan genealogy. We do not find that Mr. Elphinstone makes any explicit reference to the question now before us. But two of the notes to his History (5th ed. p. 322 and 384) seem to indicate that it was in his mind. In the latter of these he says: "The Khiljis ... though Turks by descent ... had been so long settled among the Afghans that they had almost become identified with that people; but they probably mixed more with other nations, or at least with their Turki brethren, and would be more civilized than the generality of Afghan mountaineers." The learned and eminently judicious William Erskine was also inclined to accept the identity of the two tribes, doubting (but perhaps needlessly) whether the Khiliji had been really of Turki race. We have not been able to meet with any translated author who mentions both Khiliji and Ghilzai. In the following quotations all the earlier refer to Khiliji, and the later to Ghilzai. Attention may be called to the expressions in the quotation from Zīauddīn Barnī, as indicating some great difference between the Turk proper and the Khiliji even then. The language of Baber, again, so far as it goes, seems to indicate that by his time the Ghilzais were regarded as an Afghan clan.
c. 950.—"The Khalaj is a Turkī tribe, which in ancient times migrated into the country that lies between India and the parts of Sijistān beyond the Ghūr. They are a pastoral people and resemble the Turks in their natural characteristics, their dress and their language."—Istakhri, from De Goeje's text, p. 245.
c. 1030.—"The Afgháns and Khiljís having submitted to him (Sabaktigín), he admitted thousands of them ... into the ranks of his armies."—Al-'Utbi, in Elliot, ii. 24.
c. 1150.—"The Khilkhs (read Khilij) are people of Turk race, who, from an early date invaded this country (Dāwar, on the page 371bbanks of the Helmand), and whose dwellings are spread abroad to the north of India and on the borders of Ghaur and of Western Sijistān. They possess cattle, wealth, and the various products of husbandry; they all have the aspect of Turks, whether as regards features, dress, and customs, or as regards their arms and manner of making war. They are pacific people, doing and thinking no evil."—Edrisi, i. 457.
1289.—"At the same time Jalálu-d dín (Khilji), who was 'Ariz-i-mamálik (Muster-master-general), had gone to Bahárpúr, attended by a body of his relations and friends. Here he held a muster and inspection of the forces. He came of a race different from that of the Turks, so he had no confidence in them, nor would the Turks own him as belonging to the number of their friends.... The people high and low ... were all troubled by the ambition of the Khiljis, and were strongly opposed to Jalálu-d dín's obtaining the crown.... Sultán Jalálu-d dín Fíroz Khilji ascended the throne in the ... year 688 A.H.... The people of the city (of Delhi) had for 80 years been governed by sovereigns of Turk extraction, and were averse to the succession of the Khiljis ... they were struck with admiration and amazement at seeing the Khiljis occupying the throne of the Turks, and wondered how the throne had passed from the one to the other."—Ziáu-d-dín Barní, in Elliot, iii. 134-136.
14th cent.—The continuator of Rashíduddín enumerates among the tribes occupying the country which we now call Afghanistan, Ghūris, Herawis, Nigudaris, Sejzis, Khilij, Balūch and Afghāns. See Notices et Extraits, xiv. 494.
c. 1507.—"I set out from Kábul for the purpose of plundering and beating up the quarters of the Ghiljis ... a good farsang from the Ghilji camp, we observed a blackness, which was either owing to the Ghiljis being in motion, or to smoke. The young and inexperienced men of the army all set forward full speed; I followed them for two kos, shooting arrows at their horses, and at length checked their speed. When five or six thousand men set out on a pillaging party, it is extremely difficult to maintain discipline.... A minaret of skulls was erected of the heads of these Afghans."—Baber, pp. 220-221; see also p. 225.
[1753.—"The Cligis knowing that his troops must pass thro' their mountains, waited for them in the defiles, and successively defeated several bodies of Mahommed's army."—Hanway, Hist. Acc. iii. 24.]
1842.—"The Ghilji tribes occupy the principal portion of the country between Kándahár and Ghazní. They are, moreover, the most numerous of the Afghân tribes, and if united under a capable chief might ... become the most powerful.... They are brave and warlike, but have a sternness of disposition amounting to ferocity.... Some of the inferior Ghiljís are so violent in their intercourse with strangers that they can scarcely be considered in the page 372alight of human beings, while no language can describe the terrors of a transit through their country, or the indignities which have to be endured.... The Ghiljis, although considered, and calling themselves, Afghâns, and moreover employing the Pashto, or Afghân dialect, are undoubtedly a mixed race.
"The name is evidently a modification or corruption of Khaljí or Khilají, that of a great Turkí tribe mentioned by Sherífudín in his history of Taimúr...."—Ch. Masson, Narr. of various Journeys, &c., ii. 204, 206, 207.
1854.—"The Ghúri was succeeded by the Khilji dynasty; also said to be of Turki extraction, but which seems rather to have been of Afghán race; and it may be doubted if they are not of the Ghiljí Afgháns."—Erskine, Báber and Humáyun, i. 404.
1880.—"As a race the Ghilji mix little with their neighbours, and indeed differ in many respects, both as to internal government and domestic customs, from the other races of Afghanistan ... the great majority of the tribe are pastoral in their habits of life, and migrate with the seasons from the lowlands to the highlands with their families and flocks, and easily portable black hair tents. They never settle in the cities, nor do they engage in the ordinary handicraft trades, but they manufacture carpets, felts, &c., for domestic use, from the wool and hair of their cattle.... Physically they are a remarkably fine race ... but they are a very barbarous people, the pastoral class especially, and in their wars excessively savage and vindictive.
GHOUL, s. Ar. ghūl, P. ghōl. A goblin, ἔμπουσα, or man-devouring demon, especially haunting wildernesses.
c. 940.—"The Arabs relate many strange stories about the Ghūl and their transformations.... The Arabs allege that the two feet of the Ghūl are ass's feet.... These Ghūl appeared to travellers in the night, and at hours when one meets with no one on the road; the traveller taking them for some of their companions followed them, but the Ghūl led them astray, and caused them to lose their way."—Maṣ'ūdī, iii. 314 seqq. (There is much more after the copious and higgledy-piggledy Plinian fashion of this writer.)
page 372bc. 1420.—"In exitu deserti ... rem mirandam dicit contigisse. Nam cum circiter mediam noctem quiescentes magno murmure strepituque audito suspicarentur omnes, Arabes praedones ad se spoliandos venire ... viderunt plurimas equitum turmas transeuntium.... Plures qui id antea viderant, daemones (ghūls, no doubt) esse per desertum vagantes asseruere."—Nic. Conti, in Poggio, iv.
[GHURRA, s. Hind. ghaṛa, Skt. ghaṭa. A water-pot made of clay, of a spheroidal shape, known in S. India as the chatty.
GHURRY, GURREE, s. Hind. ghaṛī. A clepsydra or water-instrument for measuring time, consisting of a floating cup with a small hole in it, adjusted so that it fills and sinks in a fixed time; also the gong by which the time so indicated is struck. This latter is properly ghaṛiyāl. Hence also a clock or watch; also the 60th part of a day and night, equal therefore to 24 minutes, was in old Hindu custom the space of time indicated by the clepsydra just mentioned, and was called a ghaṛī. But in Anglo-Indian usage, the word is employed for 'an hour,' [or some indefinite period of time]. The water-instrument is sometimes called Pun-Ghurry (panghaṛī quasi pānī-ghaṛī); also the Sun-dial, Dhoop-Ghurry (dhūp, 'sunshine'); the hour-glass, Ret-Ghurry (ret, retā, 'sand').
[1526.—"Gheri." See under PUHUR.
[c. 1590.—An elaborate account of this method of measuring time will be found in Āīn, ed. Jarrett, iii. 15 seq.
[1616.—"About a guary after, the rest of my company arrived with the money."—Foster, Letters, iv. 343.]
page 373a1633.—"First they take a great Pot of Water ... and putting therein a little Pot (this lesser pot having a small hole in the bottome of it), the water issuing into it having filled it, then they strike on a great plate of brasse, or very fine metal, which stroak maketh a very great sound; this stroak or parcell of time they call a Goome, the small Pot being full they call a Gree, 8 grees make a Par, which Par (see PUHUR) is three hours by our accompt."—W. Bruton, in Hakl. v. 51.
1709.—"Or un gari est une de leurs heures, mais qui est bien petite en comparaison des nôtres; car elle n'est que de vingt-neuf minutes et environ quarante-trois secondes."(?)—Lettres Edif. xi. 233.
1785.—"We have fixed the Coss at 6,000 Guz, which distance must be travelled by the postmen in a Ghurry and a half.... If the letters are not delivered according to this rate ... you must flog the Hurkârehs belonging to you."—Tippoo's Letters, 215.
GINDY, s. The original of this word belongs to the Dravidian tongues; Malayāl. kiṇḍi; Tel. giṇḍi; Tam. kiṇṇi, from v. kiṇu, 'to be hollow'; and the original meaning is a basin or pot, as opposed to a flat dish. In Malabar the word is applied to a vessel resembling a coffee-pot without a handle, used to drink from. But in the Bombay dialect of H., and in Anglo-Indian usage, giṇḍi means a wash-hand basin of tinned copper, such as is in common use there (see under CHILLUMCHEE).
1582.—"After this the Capitaine Generall commanded to discharge theyr Shippes, which were taken, in the whiche was bound store of rich Merchaundize, and amongst the same these peeces following:
"Foure great Guyndes of silver...."—Castañeda, by N. L., f. 106.
1813.—"At the English tables two servants attend after dinner, with a gindey and ewer, of silver or white copper."—Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 397; [2nd ed. ii. 30; also i. 333].
GINGALL, JINJALL, s. H. janjāl, 'a swivel or wall-piece'; a word of uncertain origin. [It is a corruption page 373bof the Ar. jazā'il (see JUZAIL).] It is in use with Europeans in China also.
1829.—"The moment the picket heard them, they fired their long ginjalls, which kill a mile off."—Shipp's Mem. iii. 40.
GINGELI, GINGELLY, &c. s. The common trade name for the seed and oil of Sesamum indicum, v. orientale. There is a H. [not in Platts' Dict.] and Mahr. form jinjalī, but most probably this also is a trade name introduced by the Portuguese. The word appears to be Arabic al-juljulān, which was pronounced in Spain al-jonjolīn (Dozy and Engelmann, 146-7), whence Spanish aljonjoli, Italian giuggiolino, zerzelino, &c., Port. girgelim, zirzelim, &c., Fr. jugeoline, &c., in the Philippine Islands ajonjoli. The proper H. name is til. It is the σήσαμον of Dioscorides (ii. 121), and of Theophrastus (Hist. Plant. i. 11). [See Watt, Econ. Dict. VI. ii. 510 seqq.]
1552.—"There is a great amount of gergelim."—Castanheda, 24.
[1554.—"... oil of Jergelim and quoquo (Coco)."—Botelho, Tombo, 54.]
1599.—"... Oyle of Zezeline, which they make of a Seed, and it is very good to eate, or to fry fish withal."—C. Fredericke, ii. 358.
1606.—"They performed certain anointings of the whole body, when they baptized, with oil of coco-nut, or of gergelim."—Gouvea, f. 39.
c. 1610.—"I'achetay de ce poisson frit en l'huile de gerselin (petite semence comme nauete dont ils font huile) qui est de tres-mauvais goust."—Mocquet, 232.
[1638.—Mr. Whiteway notes that "in a letter of Amra Rodriguez to the King, of Nov. 30 (India Office MSS. Book of the Monssons, vol. iv.), he says: 'From Masulipatam to the furthest point of the Bay of Bengal runs the coast which we call that of Gergilim.' They got Gingeli thence, I suppose."]
c. 1661.—"La gente più bassa adopra un'altro olio di certo seme detto Telselin, che è una spezie del di setamo, ed è alquanto amarognolo."—Viag. del P. Gio. Grueber, in Thevenot, Voyages Divers.
page 374a1673.—"Dragmes de Soussamo ou graine de Georgeline."—App. to Journal d'Ant. Galland, ii. 206.
1675.—"Also much Oil of Sesamos or Jujoline is there expressed, and exported thence."—T. Heiden, Vervaerlyke Schipbreuk, 81.
1726.—"From Orixa are imported hither (Pulecat), with much profit, Paddy, also ... Gingeli-seed Oil...."—Valentijn, Chor. 14.
" "An evil people, gold, a drum, a wild horse, an ill conditioned woman, sugar-cane, Gergelim, a Bellale (or cultivator) without foresight—all these must be wrought sorely to make them of any good."—Native Apophthegms translated in Valentijn, v. (Ceylon) 390.
1727.—"The Men are bedaubed all over with red Earth, or Vermilion, and are continually squirting gingerly Oyl at one another."—A. Hamilton, i. 128; [ed. 1744, i. 130].
1807.—"The oil chiefly used here, both for food and unguent, is that of Sesamum, by the English called Gingeli, or sweet oil."—F. Buchanan, Mysore, &c. i. 8.
1874.—"We know not the origin of the word Gingeli, which Roxburgh remarks was (as it is now) in common use among Europeans."—Hanbury & Flückiger, 426.
1875.—"Oils, Jinjili or Til...."—Table of Customs Duties, imposed on Imports into B. India, up to 1875.
GINGER, s. The root of Zingiber officinale, Roxb. We get this word from the Arabic zānjabīl, Sp. agengibre (al-zānjabīl), Port. gingibre, Latin zingiber, Ital. zenzero, gengiovo, and many other old forms.
The Skt. name is sṛiñgavera, professedly connected with sṛiñga, 'a horn,' from the antler-like form of the root. But this is probably an introduced word shaped by this imaginary etymology. Though ginger is cultivated all over India, from the Himālaya to the extreme south, the best is grown in Malabar, and in the language page 374bof that province (Malayālam) green ginger is called inchi and inchi-ver, from inchi, 'root.' Inchi was probably in an earlier form of the language siñchi or chiñchi, as we find it in Canarese still sūnti, which is perhaps the true origin of the H. sonth for 'dry ginger,' [more usually connected with Skt. suṇṭhi, suṇṭh, 'to dry'].
It would appear that the Arabs, misled by the form of the name, attributed zānjabīl or zinjabīl, or ginger, to the coast of Zinj or Zanzibar; for it would seem to be ginger which some Arabic writers speak of as 'the plant of Zinj.' Thus a poet quoted by Kazwīnī enumerates among the products of India the shajr al-Zānij or Arbor Zingitana, along with shisham-wood, pepper, steel, &c. (see Gildemeister, 218). And Abulfeda says also: "At Melinda is found the plant of Zinj" (Geog. by Reinaud, i. 257). In Marino Sanudo's map of the world also (c. 1320) we find a rubric connecting Zinziber with Zinj. We do not indeed find ginger spoken of as a product of eastern continental Africa, though Barbosa says a large quantity was produced in Madagascar, and Varthema says the like of the Comoro Islands.
c. A.D. 70.—"This pepper of all kinds is most biting and sharpe.... The blacke is more kindly and pleasant.... Many have taken Ginger (which some call Zimbiperi and others Zingiberi) for the root of that tree; but it is not so, although in tast it somewhat resembleth pepper.... A pound of Ginger is commonly sold at Rome for 6 deniers...."—Pliny, by Ph. Holland, xii. 7.
c. 620-30.—"And therein shall they be given to drink a cup of wine, mixed with the water of Zenjebil...."—The Koran, ch. lxxvi. (by Sale).
c. 940.—"Andalusia possesses considerable silver and quicksilver mines.... They export from it also saffron, and roots of ginger (? 'arūḳ al-zanjabīl)."—Maṣ'ūdi, i. 367.
1298.—"Good ginger (gengibre) also grows here (at Coilum—see QUILON), and it is known by the same name of Coilumin, after the country."—Marco Polo, Bk. III. ch. 22.
page 375ac. 1343.—"Giengiovo si è di piu maniere, cioe belledi (see COUNTRY), e colombino, e micchino, e detti nomi portano per le contrade, onde sono nati ispezialmente il colombino e il micchino, che primieramente il belledi nasce in molte contrade dell'India, e il colombino nasce nel Isola del Colombo d'India, ed ha la scorza sua piana, e delicata, e cenerognola; e il micchino viene dalle contrade del Mecca ... e ragiona che il buono giengiovo dura buono 10 anni," &c.—Pegolotti, in Della Decima, iii. 361.
c. 1420.—"His in regionibus (Malabar) gingiber oritur, quod belledi (see COUNTRY), gebeli et neli vulgo appellatur. Radices sunt arborum duorum cubitorum altitudine, foliis magnis instar enulae (elecampane), duro cortice, veluti arundinum radices, quae fructum tegunt; ex eis extrahitur gingiber, quod immistum cineri, ad solemque expositum, triduo exsiccatur."—N. Conti, in Poggio.
1580.—In a list of drugs sold at Ormuz we find
Zenzeri da buli (presumably from Dabul.) Zen"eri mordaci Zen"eri Mecchini Zen"eri beledi Zenzero condito in giaga (preserved in Jaggery?) —Gasparo Balbi, f. 54.
GINGERLY, s. A coin mentioned as passing in Arabian ports by Milburn (i. 87, 91). Its country and proper name are doubtful. [The following quotations show that Gingerlee or Gergelin was a name for part of the E. coast of India, and Mr. Whiteway (see GINGELI) conjectures that it was so called because the oil was produced there.] But this throws no light on the gold coin of Milburn.
1701.—The Carte Marine depuis Suratte jusqu'au Detroit de Malaca, par le R. Père P. P. Tachard, shows the coast tract between Vesegapatam and Iagrenate as Gergelin.
1753.—"Some authors give the Coast between the points of Devi and Gaudewari, the name of the Coast of Gergelin. The Portuguese give the name of Gergelim to the plant which the Indians call Ellu, from which they extract a kind of oil."—D'Anville, 134.
page 375bGINGHAM, s. A kind of stuff, defined in the Draper's Dictionary as made from cotton yarn dyed before being woven. The Indian ginghams were apparently sometimes of cotton mixt with some other material. The origin of this word is obscure, and has been the subject of many suggestions. Though it has long passed into the English language, it is on the whole most probable that, like chintz and calico, the term was one originating in the Indian trade.
We find it hardly possible to accept the derivation, given by Littré, from "Guingamp, ville de Bretagne, où il y a des fabriques de tissus." This is also alleged, indeed, in the Encycl. Britannica, 8th ed., which states, under the name of Guingamp, that there are in that town manufactures of ginghams, to which the town gives its name. [So also in 9th ed.] We may observe that the productions of Guingamp, and of the Côtes-du-Nord generally, are of linen, a manufacture dating from the 15th century. If it could be shown that gingham was either originally applied to linen fabrics, or that the word occurs before the Indian trade began, we should be more willing to admit the French etymology as possible.
The Penny Cyclopaedia suggests a derivation from guingois, 'awry.' "The variegated, striped, and crossed patterns may have suggested the name."
'Civilis,' a correspondent of Notes and Queries (5 ser. ii. 366, iii. 30) assigns the word to an Indian term, ginghām, a stuff which he alleges to be in universal use by Hindu women, and a name which he constantly found, when in judicial employment in Upper India, to be used in inventories of stolen property and the like. He mentions also that in Sir G. Wilkinson's Egypt, the word is assigned to an Egyptian origin. The alleged Hind. word is unknown to us and to the dictionaries; if used as 'Civilis' believes, it was almost certainly borrowed from the English term.
It is likely enough that the word came from the Archipelago. Jansz's Javanese Dict. gives "ginggang, a sort of striped or chequered East Indian lijnwand," the last word being applied to cotton as well as linen stuffs, equivalent to French toile. The verb ginggang in Javanese is given as meaning page 376a'to separate, to go away,' but this seems to throw no light on the matter; nor can we connect the name with that of a place on the northern coast of Sumatra, a little E. of Acheen, which we have seen written Gingham (see Bennett's Wanderings, ii. 5, 6; also Elmore, Directory to India and China Seas, 1802, pp. 63-64). This place appears prominently as Gingion in a chart by W. Herbert, 1752. Finally, Bluteau gives the following:—"Guingam. So in some parts of the kingdom (Portugal) they call the excrement of the Silkworm, Bombicis excrementum. Guingão. A certain stuff which is made in the territories of the Mogul. Beirames, guingoens, Canequis, &c. (Godinho, Viagam da India, 44)." Wilson gives kinḍan as the Tamil equivalent of gingham, and perhaps intends to suggest that it is the original of this word. The Tamil Dict. gives "kinḍan, a kind of coarse cotton cloth, striped or chequered." [The Madras Gloss. gives Can. ginta, Tel. gintena, Tam. kinḍan, with the meaning of "double-thread texture." The N.E.D., following Scott, Malayan Words in English, 142 seq., accepts the Javanese derivation as given above: "Malay ginggang ... a striped or checkered cotton fabric known to Europeans in the East as 'gingham.' As an adjective, the word means, both in Malay and Javanese, where it seems to be original, 'striped.' The full expression is kāin ginggang, 'striped cloth' (Grashuis). The Tamil 'kinḍan, a kind of coarse cotton cloth, striped or chequered' (quoted in Yule), cannot be the source of the European forms, nor, I think, of the Malayan forms. It must be an independent word, or a perversion of the Malayan term." On the other hand, Prof. Skeat rejects the Eastern derivation on the ground that "no one explains the spelling. The right explanation is simply that gingham is an old English spelling of Guingamp. See the account of the 'towne of Gyngham' in the Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, iii. 357." (8th ser. Notes and Queries, iv. 386.)]
1602.—"With these toils they got to Arakan, and took possession of two islets which stood at the entrance, where they page 376bimmediately found on the beach two sacks of mouldy biscuit, and a box with some ginghams (guingões) in it."—De Couto, Dec. IV. liv. iv. cap. 10.
1615.—"Captain Cock is of opinion that the ginghams, both white and browne, which yow sent will prove a good commodity in the Kinge of Shashmahis cuntry, who is a Kinge of certaine of the most westermost ilandes of Japon ... and hath conquered the ilandes called The Leques."—Letter appd. to Cocks's Diary, ii. 272.
1648.—"The principal names (of the stuffs) are these: Gamiguins, Baftas, Chelas (see PIECE-GOODS), Assamanis (asmānīs? sky-blues), Madafoene, Beronis (see BEIRAMEE), Tricandias, Chittes (see CHINTZ), Langans (see LUNGOOTY?), Toffochillen (Tafṣīla, a gold stuff from Mecca; see ADATI, ALLEJA), Dotias (see DHOTY)."—Van Twist, 63.
1726.—In a list of cloths at Pulicat:
"Gekeperde Ginggangs (Twilled ginghams) Ditto Chialones (shaloons?)"—Valentijn, Chor. 14.
Also
"Bore (?) Gingganes driedraad."—v. 128.
1770.—"Une centaine de balles de mouchoirs, de pagnes, et de guingans, d'un très beau rouge, que les Malabares fabriquent à Gaffanapatam, où ils sont établis depuis très longtemps."—Raynal, Hist. Philos., ii. 15, quoted by Littré.
1781.—"The trade of Fort St. David's consists in longcloths of different colours, sallamporees, morees, dimities, Ginghams, and succatoons."—Carraccioli's L. of Clive, i. 5. [Mr. Whiteway points out that this is taken word for word from Hamilton, New Account (i. 355), who wrote 40 years before.]
" "Sadras est renommé par ses guingans, ses toiles peintes; et Paliacate par ses mouchoirs."—Sonnerat, i. 41.
1793.—"Even the gingham waistcoats, which striped or plain have so long stood their ground, must, I hear, ultimately give way to the stronger kerseymere (q.v.)."—Hugh Boyd, Indian Observer, 77.
GINGI, JINJEE, &c., n.p. Properly Chenji, [Shenji; and this from Tam. shingi, Skt. sṛingi, 'a hill']. A once celebrated hill-fortress in S. Arcot, 50 [44] m. N.E. of Cuddalore, 35 m. N.W. from Pondicherry, and at one time the seat of a Mahratta principality. It played an important part in the wars of the first three-quarters of the 18th century, and was held by the French from 1750 to 1761. The place is now entirely deserted.
1675.—"Approve the treaty with the Cawn [see KHAN] of Chengie."—Letter from Court to Fort St. Geo. In Notes and Exts., No. i. 5.
1680.—"Advice received ... that Santogee, a younger brother of Sevagee's, had seized upon Rougnaut Pundit, the Soobidar of Chengy Country, and put him in irons."—Ibid. No. iii. 44.
GINSENG, s. A medical root which has an extraordinary reputation in China as a restorative, and sells there at prices ranging from 6 to 400 dollars an ounce. The plant is Aralia Ginseng, Benth. (N.O. Araliaceae). The second word represents the Chinese name Jên-Shên. In the literary style the drug is called simply Shên. And possibly Jên, or 'Man,' has been prefixed on account of the forked radish, man-like aspect of the root. European practitioners do not recognise its alleged virtues. That which is most valued comes from Corea, but it grows also in Mongolia and Manchuria. A kind much less esteemed, the root of Panax quinquefolium, L., is imported into China from America. A very closely-allied plant occurs in the Himālaya, A. Pseudo-Ginseng, Benth. Ginseng is first mentioned by Alv. Semedo (Madrid, 1642). [See Ball, Things Chinese, 268 seq., where Dr. P. Smith seems to believe that it has some medicinal value.]
GIRAFFE, s. English, not Anglo-Indian. Fr. girafe, It. giraffa, Sp. and Port. girafa, old Sp. azorafa, and these from Ar. al-zarāfa, a cameleopard. The Pers. surnāpa, zurnāpa, seems to be a form curiously divergent of the same page 377bword, perhaps nearer the original. The older Italians sometimes make giraffa into seraph. It is not impossible that the latter word, in its biblical use, may be radically connected with giraffe.
The oldest mention of the animal is in the Septuagint version of Deut. xiv. 5, where the word zămăr, rendered in the English Bible 'chamois,' is translated καμηλοπαρδάλις; and so also in the Vulgate camelopardalus, [probably the 'wild goat' of the Targums, not the giraffe (Encycl. Bibl. i. 722)]. We quote some other ancient notices of the animal, before the introduction of the word before us:
c. A.D. 20.—"Camelleopards (καμηλοπαρδάλεις) are bred in these parts, but they do not in any respect resemble leopards, for their variegated skin is more like the streaked and spotted skin of fallow deer. The hinder quarters are so very much lower than the fore quarters, that it seems as if the animal sat upon its rump.... It is not, however, a wild animal, but rather like a domesticated beast; for it shows no sign of a savage disposition."—Strabo, Bk. XVI. iv. § 18, E.T. by Hamilton and Falconer.
c. A.D. 210.—Athenaeus, in the description which he quotes of the wonderful procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus at Alexandria, besides many other strange creatures, details 130 Ethiopic sheep, 20 of Eubœa, 12 white koloi, 26 Indian oxen, 8 Aethiopic, a huge white bear, 14 pardales and 16 panthers, 4 lynxes, 3 arkēloi, one camēlopardalis, 1 Ethiopic Rhinoceros.—Bk. V. cap. xxxii.
c. A.D. 520.—
"Ἔννεπέ μοι κἀκεῖνα, πολύθρος Μοῦσα λιγεῖα, μικτὰ φύσιν θηρῶν, διχόθεν κεκερασμένα, φῦλα, πάρδαλιν αἰολόνωτον ὁμοῦ ξυνήν τε κάμηλον. * * * * * * * *  Δειρή οἱ ταναὴ, στικτὸν δέμας, οὖατα βαιὰ, ψιλὸν ὕπερθε κάρη, δολιχοὶ πόδες εὐρέα ταρσὰ, κώλων δ' οὐκ ἴσα μέτρα, πόδες τ' οὐ πάμπαν ὁμοῖοι, ἀλλ' οἱ πρόσθεν ἔασιν ἀρείονες, ὑστάτιοι δὲ πολλὸν ὀλιζότεροι."—κ. τ. λ. Oppiani Cynegetica, iii. 461 seqq.
c. 380.—"These also presented gifts, among which besides other things a certain page 378aspecies of animal, of nature both extraordinary and wonderful. In size it was equal to a camel, but the surface of its skin marked with flower-like spots. Its hinder parts and the flanks were low, and like those of a lion, but the shoulders and forelegs and chest were much higher in proportion than the other limbs. The neck was slender, and in regard to the bulk of the rest of the body was like a swan's throat in its elongation. The head was in form like that of a camel, but in size more than twice that of a Libyan ostrich.... Its legs were not moved alternately, but by pairs, those on the right side being moved together, and those on the left together, first one side and then the other.... When this creature appeared the whole multitude was struck with astonishment, and its form suggesting a name, it got from the populace, from the most prominent features of its body, the improvised name of camelopardalis."—Heliodorus, Aethiopica, x. 27.
c. 940.—"The most common animal in those countries is the giraffe (Zarāfa) ... some consider its origin to be a variety of the camel; others say it is owing to a union of the camel with the panther: others in short that it is a particular and distinct species, like the horse, the ass, or the ox, and not the result of any cross-breed.... In Persian the giraffe is called Ushturgāo ('camel-cow'). It used to be sent as a present from Nubia to the kings of Persia, as in later days it was sent to the Arab princes, to the first khālifs of the house of 'Abbās, and to the Wālis of Misr.... The origin of the giraffe has given rise to numerous discussions. It has been noticed that the panther of Nubia attains a great size, whilst the camel of that country is of low stature, with short legs," &c., &c.—Maṣ'ūdī, iii. 3-5.
c. 1253.—"Entre les autres joiaus que il (le Vieil de la Montagne) envoia au Roy, li envoia un oliphant de cristal mout bien fait, et une beste que l'on appelle orafle, de cristal aussi."—Joinville, ed. de Wailly, 250.
1271.—"In the month of Jumada II. a female giraffe in the Castle of the Hill (at Cairo) gave birth to a young one, which was nursed by a cow."—Makrizi (by Quatremère), i. pt. 2, 106.
1298.—"Mais bien ont giraffes assez qui naissent en leur pays."—Marco Polo, Pauthier's ed., p. 701.
1336.—"Vidi in Kadro (Cairo) animal geraffan nomine, in anteriori parte multum elevatum, longissimum collum habens, ita ut de tecto domus communis altitudinis comedere possit. Retro ita demissum est ut dorsum ejus manu hominis tangi possit. Non est ferox animal, sed ad modum jumenti pacificum, colore albo et rubeo pellem habens ordinatissime decoratam."—Gul. de Boldensele, 248-249.
1384.—"Ora racconteremo della giraffa che bestia ella è. La giraffa è fatta quasi come lo struzzolo, salvo che l'imbusto suo non ha penne ('just like an ostrich, except that page 378bit has no feathers on its body'!) anzi ha lana branchissima ... ella è veramente a vedere una cosa molto contraffatta."—Simone Sigoli, V. al Monte Sinai, 182.
1404.—"When the ambassadors arrived in the city of Khoi, they found in it an ambassador, whom the Sultan of Babylon had sent to Timour Bey.... He had also with him 6 rare birds and a beast called jornufa ..." (then follows a very good description).—Clavijo, by Markham, pp. 86-87.
c. 1430.—"Item, I have also been in Lesser India, which is a fine Kingdom. The capital is called Dily. In this country are many elephants, and animals called surnasa (for surnafa), which is like a stag, but is a tall animal and has a long neck, 4 fathoms in length or longer."—Schiltberger, Hak. Soc. 47.
1471.—"After this was brought foorthe a giraffa, which they call Girnaffa, a beaste as long legged as a great horse, or rather more; but the hinder legges are halfe a foote shorter than the former," &c. (The Italian in Ramusio, ii. f. 102, has "vna Zirapha, la quale essi chiamano Zirnapha ouer Giraffa.")—Josafa Barbaro, in Venetians in Persia, Hak. Soc. 54.
GIRJA, s. This is a word for a Christian church, commonly used on the Bengal side of India, from Port. igreja, itself a corruption of ecclesia. Khāfī Khān (c. 1720) speaking of the Portuguese at Hoogly, says they called their places of worship Kalīsā (Elliot, vii. 211). No doubt Kalīsā, as well as igreja, is a form of ecclesia, but the superficial resemblance is small, so it may be suspected that the Musulman writer was speaking from book-knowledge only.
'Gir jā ghar! Gir jā ghar! Gir jā!'
(i.e.) 'Fall down, house! Fall down, house! Fall down!' or simply
page 379aThe word is also in use in the Indian Archipelago:
GOA, n.p. Properly Gowa, Gova, Mahr. Goven, [which the Madras Gloss. connects with Skt. go, 'a cow,' in the sense of the 'cowherd country']. The famous capital of the Portuguese dominions in India since its capture by Albuquerque in 1510. In earlier history and geography the place appears under the name of Sindābūr or Sandābūr (Sundāpūr?) (q.v.). Govā or Kuva was an ancient name of the southern Konkan (see in H. H. Wilson's Works, Vishnu Purana, ii. 164, note 20). We find the place called by the Turkish admiral Sidi 'Ali Gowai-Sandābūr, which may mean "Sandābūr of Gova."
1510 (but referring to some years earlier). "I departed from the city of Dabuli aforesaid, and went to another island which is about a mile distant from the mainland and is called Goga.... In this island there is a fortress near the sea, walled round after our manner, in which there is sometimes a captain who is called Savaiu, who has 400 mamelukes, he himself being also a mameluke."—Varthema, 115-116.
c. 1520.—"In the Island of Tissoury, in which is situated the city of Goa, there are 31 aldeas, and these are as follows...."—In Archiv. Port. Orient., fasc. 5.
c. 1554.—"At these words (addressed by the Vizir of Guzerat to a Portuguese Envoy) my wrath broke out, and I said: 'Malediction! You have found me with my fleet gone to wreck, but please God in his mercy, before long, under favour of the Pādshāh, you shall be driven not only from Hormuz, but from Diu and Gowa too!'"—Sidi 'Ali Kapudān, in J. Asiat. Ser. I. tom. ix. 70.
1602.—"The island of Goa is so old a place that one finds nothing in the writings of the Canaras (to whom it always belonged) page 379babout the beginning of its population. But we find that it was always so frequented by strangers that they used to have a proverbial saying: 'Let us go and take our ease among the cool shades of Goe moat,' which in the old language of the country means 'the cool fertile land.'"—Couto, IV. x. cap. 4.
GOA PLUM. The fruit of Parinarium excelsum, introduced at Goa from Mozambique, called by the Portuguese Matomba. "The fruit is almost pure brown sugar in a paste" (Birdwood, MS.).
GOA POTATO. Dioscorea aculeata (Birdwood, MS.).
GOA POWDER. This medicine, which in India is procured from Goa only, is invaluable in the virulent eczema of Bombay, and other skin diseases. In eczema it sometimes acts like magic, but smarts like the cutting of a knife. It is obtained from Andira Araroba (N.O. Leguminosae), a native (we believe) of S. America. The active principle is Chrysophanic acid (Commn. from Sir G. Birdwood).
GOA STONE. A factitious article which was in great repute for medical virtues in the 17th century. See quotation below from Mr. King. Sir G. Birdwood tells us it is still sold in the Bombay Bazar.
1690.—"The double excellence of this Stone (snake-stone) recommends its worth very highly ... and much excels the deservedly famed Gaspar Antoni, or Goa Stone."—Ovington, 262.
1711.—"Goa Stones or Pedra de Gasper Antonio, are made by the Jesuits here: They are from ¼ to 8 Ounces each; but the Sise makes no Difference in the Price: We bought 11 Ounces for 20 Rupees. They are often counterfeited, but 'tis an easie Matter for one who has seen the right Sort, to page 380adiscover it.... Manooch's Stones at Fort St. George come the nearest to them ... both Sorts are deservedly cried up for their Vertues."—Lockyer, 268.
1768-71.—"Their medicines are mostly such as are produced in the country. Amongst others, they make use of a kind of little artificial stone, that is manufactured at Goa, and possesses a strong aromatic scent. They give scrapings of this, in a little water mixed with sugar, to their patients."—Stavorinus, E.T. i. 454.
GOBANG, s. The game introduced some years ago from Japan. The name is a corr. of Chinese K'i-p'an, 'checker-board.'
GODAVERY, n.p. Skt. Godāvarī, 'giving kine.' Whether this name of northern etymology was a corruption of some indigenous name we know not. [The Dravidian name of the river is Goday (Tel. gode, 'limit'), of which the present name is possibly a corruption.] It is remarkable how the Godavery is ignored by writers and map-makers till a comparatively late period, with the notable exception of D. João de Castro, in a work, however, not published till 1843. Barros, in his trace of the coasts of the Indies (Dec. I. ix. cap. 1), mentions Gudavarij as a place adjoining a cape of the same name (which appears in some much later charts as C. Gordewar), but takes no notice of the great river, so far as we are aware, in any part of his history. Linschoten also speaks of the Punto de Guadovaryn, but not of the river. Nor does his map show the latter, though showing the Kistna distinctly. The small general map of page 380bIndia in "Cambridge's Acc. of the War in India," 1761, confounds the sources of the Godavery with those of the Mahanadi (of Orissa) and carries the latter on to combine with the western rivers of the Ganges Delta. This was evidently the prevailing view until Rennell published the first edition of his Memoir (1783), in which he writes:
In the neat map of "Regionum Choromandel, Golconda, et Orixa," which is in Baldaeus (1672), there is no indication of it whatever except as a short inlet from the sea called Gondewary.
GODDESS, s. An absurd corruption which used to be applied by our countrymen in the old settlements in the Malay countries to the young women of the land. It is Malay gādīs, 'a virgin.'
"And then how strange, at night opprest By toils, with songs you're lulled to rest; Of rural goddesses the guest, Delightful!" W. Marsden, in Memoirs, 14.
GODOWN, s. A warehouse for goods and stores; an outbuilding used for stores; a store-room. The word is in constant use in the Chinese ports as well as in India. The H. and Beng. gudām is apparently an adoption of the Anglo-Indian word, not its original. The word appears to have passed to the continent of India from the eastern settlements, where the Malay word gadong is used in the same sense of 'store-room,' but also in that of 'a house built of brick or stone.' Still the word appears to have come primarily from the South of India, where in Telugu giḍaṅgi, giḍḍangi, in Tamil kiḍaṅgu, signify 'a place where goods lie,' from kiḍu, 'to lie.' It appears in Singhalese also as gudāma. It is a fact that many common Malay and Javanese words are Tamil, or only to be explained by Tamil. Free intercourse between the Coromandel Coast and the Archipelago is very ancient, and when the Portuguese first appeared at Malacca they found there numerous settlers from S. India (see s.v. KLING). Bluteau gives the word as palavra da India, and explains it as a "logea page 381bquasi debaixo de chão" ("almost under ground"), but this is seldom the case.
[1552.—"At night secretly they cleared their Gudams, which are rooms almost under ground, for fear of fire."—Barros, Dec. II. Bk. vi. ch. 3.]
1552.—"... and ordered them to plunder many godowns (gudoes) in which there was such abundance of clove, nutmeg, mace, and sandal wood, that our people could not transport it all till they had called in the people of Malacca to complete its removal."—Castanheda, iii. 276-7.
1561.—"... Godowns (Gudões), which are strong houses of stone, having the lower part built with lime."—Correa, II. i. 236. (The last two quotations refer to events in 1511.)
1570.—"... but the merchants have all one house or Magazon, which house they call Godon, which is made of brickes."—Caesar Frederike, in Hakl.
1585.—"In the Palace of the King (at Pegu) are many magazines both of gold and of silver.... Sandalwood, and lign-aloes, and all such things, have their gottons (gottoni), which is as much as to say separate chambers."—Gasparo Balbi, f. 111.
[c. 1612.—"... if I did not he would take away from me the key of the gadong."—Danvers, Letters, i. 195.]
1613.—"As fortelezas e fortificações de Malayos ordinariamente erão aedifficios de matte entaypado, de que havia muytas casas e armenyas ou godoens que são aedifficios sobterraneos, em que os mercadores recolhem as roupas de Choromandel per il perigo de fogo."—Godinho de Eredia, 22.
1615.—"We paid Jno. Dono 70 taies or plate of bars in full payment of the fee symple of the gadonge over the way, to westward of English howse, whereof 100 taies was paid before."—Cocks's Diary, i. 39; [in i. 15 gedonge].
[ " "An old ruined brick house or godung."—Foster, Letters, iii. 109.
[ " "The same goods to be locked up in the gaddones."—Ibid. iii. 159.]
1634.—
"Virão das ruas as secretas minas * * * * *  Das abrazadas casas as ruinas, E das riquezas os gudões desertos." Malacca Conquistada, x. 61.
1680.—"Rent Rowle of Dwelling Houses, Goedowns, etc., within the Garrison in Christian Town."—In Wheeler, i. 253-4.
1683.—"I went to ye Bankshall to mark out and appoint a Plat of ground to build a Godown for ye Honble. Company's Salt Petre."—Hedges, Diary, March 5; [Hak. Soc. i. 67].
page 382a1696.—"Monday, 3rd August. The Choultry Justices having produced examinations taken by them concerning the murder of a child in the Black town, and the robbing of a godown within the walls:—it is ordered that the Judge-Advocate do cause a session to be held on Tuesday the 11th for the trial of the criminals."—Official Memorandum, in Wheeler, i. 303.
[1800.—"The cook-room and Zodoun at the Laul Baug are covered in."—Wellington, i. 66.]
1809.—"The Black Hole is now part of a godown or warehouse: it was filled with goods, and I could not see it."—Ld. Valentia, i. 237.
GOGLET, GUGLET. s. A water-bottle, usually earthenware, of globular body with a long neck, the same as what is called in Bengal more commonly a surāhī (see SERAI, b., KOOZA). This is the usual form now; the article described by Linschoten and Pyrard, with a sort of cullender mouth and pebbles shut inside, was somewhat different. Corrupted from the Port. gorgoleta, the name of such a vessel. The French have also in this sense gargoulette, and a word gargouille, our medieval gurgoyle; all derivations from gorga, garga, gorge, 'the throat,' found in all the Romance tongues. Tom Cringle shows that the word is used in the W. Indies.
1599.—In Debry, vii. 28, the word is written Gorgolane.
c. 1610.—"Il y a une pièce de terre fort delicate, et toute percée de petits trous façonnez, et au dedans y a de petites pierres qui ne peuvent sortir, c'est pour nettoyer le vase. Ils appellent cela gargoulette: l'eau n'en sorte que peu à la fois."—Pyrard de Laval, ii. 43; [Hak Soc. ii. 74, and see i. 329].
[1616.—"... 6 Gorgoletts."—Foster, Letters, iv. 198.]
1648.—"They all drink out of Gorgelanes, that is out of a Pot with a Spout, without setting the Mouth thereto."—T. Van Spilbergen's Voyage, 37.
c. 1670.—"Quand on est à la maison on a des Gourgoulettes ou aiguières d'une certaine pierre poreuse."—Bernier (ed. Amst.), ii. 214; [and comp. ed. Constable, 356].
1688.—"L'on donne à chacun de ceux que leur malheur conduit dans ces saintes page 382bprisons, un pot de terre plein d'eau pour se laver, un autre plus propre de ceux qu'on appelle Gurguleta, aussi plein d'eau pour boire."—Dellon, Rel. de l'Inquisition de Goa, 135.
c. 1690.—"The Siamese, Malays, and Macassar people have the art of making from the larger coco-nut shells most elegant drinking vessels, cups, and those other receptacles for water to drink called Gorgelette, which they set with silver, and which no doubt by the ignorant are supposed to be made of the precious Maldive cocos."—Rumphius, I. iii.
1698.—"The same way they have of cooling their Liquors, by a wet cloth wrapped about their Gurgulets and Jars, which are vessels made of a porous Kind of Earth."—Fryer, 47.
1726.—"However, they were much astonished that the water in the Gorgolets in that tremendous heat, especially out of doors, was found quite cold."—Valentijn, Choro. 59.
1766.—"I perfectly remember having said that it would not be amiss for General Carnac to have a man with a Goglet of water ready to pour on his head, whenever he should begin to grow warm in debate."—Lord Clive, Consn. Fort William, Jan. 29. In Long, 406.
1829.—"Dressing in a hurry, find the drunken bheesty ... has mistaken your boot for the goglet in which you carry your water on the line of march."—Shipp's Memoirs, ii. 149.
c. 1830.—"I was not long in finding a bottle of very tolerable rum, some salt junk, some biscuit, and a goglet, or porous earthen jar of water, with some capital cigars."—Tom Cringle, ed. 1863, 152.
1832.—"Murwan sent for a woman named Joada, and handing her some virulent poison folded up in a piece of paper, said, 'If you can throw this into Hussun's gugglet, he on drinking a mouthful or two of water will instantly bring up his liver piece-meal.'"—Herklots, Qanoon-e-Islam, 156.
GOGO, GOGA, n.p. A town on the inner or eastern shore of Kattywar Peninsula, formerly a seaport of some importance, with an anchorage sheltered by the Isle of Peram (the Beiram of the quotation from Ibn Batuta). Gogo appears in the Catalan map of 1375. Two of the extracts will show how this unhappy city used to suffer at the hands of the Portuguese. Gogo is now page 383asuperseded to a great extent by Bhaunagar, 8 m. distant.
c. 1343.—"We departed from Beiram and arrived next day at the city of Ḳūka, which is large, and possesses extensive bazars. We anchored 4 miles off because of the ebb tide."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 60.
1531.—"The Governor (Nuno da Cunha) ... took counsel to order a fleet to remain behind to make war upon Cambaya, leaving Antonio de Saldanha with 50 sail, to wit: 4 galeons, and the rest galleys and galeots, and rowing-vessels of the King's, with some private ones eager to remain, in the greed for prize. And in this fleet there stayed 1000 men with good will for the plunder before them, and many honoured gentlemen and captains. And running up the Gulf they came to a city called Goga, peopled by rich merchants; and the fleet entering by the river ravaged it by fire and sword, slaying much people...."—Correa, iii. 418.
[c. 1590.—"Ghogeh." See under SURATH.]
1602.—"... the city of Gogá, which was one of the largest and most opulent in traffic, wealth and power of all those of Cambaya.... This city lies almost at the head of the Gulf, on the western side, spreading over a level plain, and from certain ruins of buildings still visible, seems to have been in old times a very great place, and under the dominion of certain foreigners."—Couto, IV. vii. cap. 5.
1614.—"The passage across from Surrate to Goga is very short, and so the three fleets, starting at 4 in the morning, arrived there at nightfall.... The next day the Portuguese returned ashore to burn the city ... and entering the city they set fire to it in all quarters, and it began to blaze with such fury that there was burnt a great quantity of merchandize (fazendas de porte), which was a huge loss to the Moors.... After the burning of the city they abode there 3 days, both captains and soldiers content with the abundance of their booty, and the fleet stood for Dio, taking, besides the goods that were on board, many boats in tow laden with the same."—Bocarro, Decada, 333.
[c. 1660.—"A man on foot going by land to a small village named the Gauges, and from thence crossing the end of the Gulf, can go from Diu to Surat in four or five days...."—Tavernier, ed. Ball, ii. 37.]
GOGOLLA, GOGALA, n.p. This is still the name of a village on a peninsular sandy spit of the mainland, page 383bopposite to the island and fortress of Diu, and formerly itself a fort. It was known in the 16th century as the Villa dos Rumes, because Melique Az (Malik Ayāz, the Mahom. Governor), not much trusting the Rumes (i.e. the Turkish Mercenaries), "or willing that they should be within the Fortress, sent them to dwell there." (Barros, II. iii. cap. 5).
1538.—In Botelho, Tombo, 230, 239, we find "Alfandegua de Guogualaa."
GOLAH, s. Hind. golā (from gol, 'round'). A store-house for grain or salt; so called from the typical form of such store-houses in many parts of India, viz. a circular wall of mud with a conical roof. [One of the most famous of these is the Golā at Patna, completed in 1786, but never used.]
1810.—"The golah, or warehouse."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 343.
GOLD MOHUR FLOWER, s. Caesalpinia pulcherrima, Sw. The name is a corruption of the H. gulmor, which is not in the dictionaries, but is said to mean 'peacock-flower.'
GOLE, s. The main body of an army in array; a clustered body of troops; an irregular squadron of horsemen. P.—H. ghol; perhaps a confusion with the Arab. jaul (gaul), 'a troop': [but Platts connects it with Skt. kula, 'an assemblage'].
page 384a1803.—"When within reach, he fired a few rounds, on which I formed my men into two gholes.... Both gholes attempted to turn his flanks, but the men behaved ill, and we were repulsed."—Skinner, Mil. Mem. i. 298.
GOMASTA, GOMASHTAH, s. Hind. from Pers. gumāshtah, part. 'appointed, delegated.' A native agent or factor. In Madras the modern application is to a clerk for vernacular correspondence.
1762.—"You will direct the gentleman, Gomastahs, Muttasuddies (see MOOTSUDDY), and Moonshies, and other officers of the English Company to relinquish their farms, taalucs (see TALOOK), gunges, and golahs."—The Nabob to the Governor, in Van Sittart, i. 229.
1776.—"The Magistrate shall appoint some one person his gomastah or Agent in each Town."—Halhed's Code, 55.
1778.—"The Company determining if possible to restore their investment to the former condition ... sent gomastahs, or Gentoo factors in their own pay."—Orme, ed. 1803, ii. 57.
c. 1785.—"I wrote an order to my gomastah in the factory of Hughly."—Carraccioli's Life of Clive, iii. 448.
1817.—"The banyan hires a species of broker, called a Gomastah, at so much a month."—Mill's Hist. iii. 13.
GOMBROON, n.p. The old name in European documents of the place on the Persian Gulf now known as Bandar 'Abbās, or 'Abbāsī. The latter name was given to it when Shāh 'Abbās, after the capture and destruction of the island city of Hormuz, established a port there. The site which he selected was the little town of Gamrūn. This had been occupied by the Portuguese, who took it from the 'King of Lar' in 1612, but two years later it was taken by the Shāh. page 384bThe name is said (in the Geog. Magazine, i. 17) to be Turkish, meaning 'a Custom House.' The word alluded to is probably gumruḳ, which has that meaning, and which is again, through Low Greek, from the Latin commercium. But this etymology of the name seems hardly probable. That indicated in the extract from A. Hamilton below is from Pers. ḳamrūn, 'a shrimp,' or Port. camarão, meaning the same.
The first mention of Gombroon in the E. I. Papers seems to be in 1616, when Edmund Connok, the Company's chief agent in the Gulf, calls it "Gombraun, the best port in all Persia," and "that hopeful and glorious port of Gombroon" (Sainsbury, i. 484-5; [Foster, Letters, iv. 264]). There was an English factory here soon after the capture of Hormuz, and it continued to be maintained in 1759, when it was taken by the Comte d'Estaing. The factory was re-established, but ceased to exist a year or two after.
1614.—(The Captain-major) "under orders of Dom Luis da Gama returned to succour Comorão, but found the enemy's fleet already there and the fort surrendered.... News which was heard by Dom Luis da Gama and most of the people of Ormuz in such way as might be expected, some of the old folks of Ormuz prognosticating at once that in losing Comorão Ormuz itself would be lost before long, seeing that the former was like a barbican or outwork on which the rage of the Persian enemy spent itself, giving time to Ormuz to prepare against their coming thither."—Bocarro, Decada, 349.
1622.—"That evening, at two hours of the night, we started from below that fine tree, and after travelling about a league and a half ... we arrived here in Combrù, a place of decent size and population on the sea-shore, which the Persians now-a-days, laying aside as it were the old name, call the 'Port of Abbas,' because it was wrested from the Portuguese, who formerly possessed it, in the time of the present King Abbas."—P. della Valle, ii. 413; [in Hak. Soc. i. 3, he calls it Combu].
c. 1630.—"Gumbrown (or Gomroon, as some pronounce it) is by most Persians Κατ' ἐξοχὴν cald Bander or the Port Towne ... some (but I commend them not) write it Gamrou, others Gomrow, and other-some Cummeroon.... A Towne it is of no Antiquity, rising daily out of the ruines of late glorious (now most wretched) Ormus."—Sir T. Herbert, 121.
page 385a1673.—"The Sailors had stigmatized this place of its Excessive Heat, with this sarcastical Saying, That there was but an Inch-Deal between Gomberoon and Hell"—Fryer, 224.
Fryer in another place (marginal rubric, p. 331) says: "Gombroon ware, made of Earth, the best next China." Was this one of the sites of manufacture of the Persian porcelain now so highly prized? ["The main varieties of this Perso-Chinese ware are the following:—(1) A sort of semi-porcelain, called by English dealers, quite without reason, 'Gombroon ware,' which is pure white and semi-transparent, but, unlike Chinese porcelain, is soft and friable where not protected by the glaze."—Ency. Brit. 9th ed. xix. 621.]
1727.—"This Gombroon was formerly a Fishing Town, and when Shaw Abass began to build it, had its Appellation from the Portugueze, in Derision, because it was a good place for catching Prawns and Shrimps, which they call Camerong."—A. Hamilton, i. 92; [ed. 1744, i. 93].
GOMUTÍ, s. Malay gumuti [Scott gives gāmūti]. A substance resembling horsehair, and forming excellent cordage (the cabos negros of the Portuguese—Marre, Kata-Kata Malayou, p. 92), sometimes improperly called coir (q.v.), which is produced by a palm growing in the Archipelago, Arenga saccharifera, Labill. (Borassus Gomutus, Lour.). The tree also furnishes ḳalams or reed-pens for writing, and the material for the poisoned arrows used with the blow-tube. The name of the palm itself in Malay is anau. (See SAGWIRE.) There is a very interesting account of this palm in Rumphius, Herb. Amb., i. pl. xiii. Dampier speaks of the fibre thus:
GONG, s. This word appears to be Malay (or, according to Crawfurd, originally Javanese), gong or agong. ["The word gong is often said to be Chinese. Clifford and Swettenham so mark it; but no one seems to be able to point out the Chinese original" (Scott, Malayan Words in English, 53).] page 385bIts well-known application is to a disk of thin bell-metal, which when struck with a mallet, yields musical notes, and is used in the further east as a substitute for a bell. ["The name gong, agong, is considered to be imitative or suggestive of the sound which the instrument produces" (Scott, loc. cit. 51).] Marcel Devic says that the word exists in all the languages of the Archipelago; [for the variants see Scott, loc. cit.]. He defines it as meaning "instrument de musique aussi appelé tam-tam"; but see under TOM-TOM. The great drum, to which Dampier applies the name, was used like the metallic gong for striking the hour. Systems of gongs variously arranged form harmonious musical instruments among the Burmese, and still more elaborately among the Javanese.
The word is commonly applied by Anglo-Indians also to the H. ghanṭā (ganṭa, Dec.) or ghaṛī, a thicker metal disc, not musical, used in India for striking the hour (see GHURRY). The gong being used to strike the hour, we find the word applied by Fryer (like gurry) to the hour itself, or interval denoted.
1673.—"They have no Watches nor Hour-Glasses, but measure Time by the dropping of Water out of a Brass Bason, which holds a Ghong, or less than half an Hour; when they strike once distinctly, to tell them it's the First Ghong, which is renewed at the Second Ghong for Two, and so Three at the End of it till they come to Eight; when they strike on the Brass Vessel at their liberty to give notice the Pore (see PUHUR) is out, and at last strike One leisurely to tell them it is the First Pore."—Fryer, 186.
1686.—"In the Sultan's Mosque (at Mindanao) there is a great Drum with but one Head, called a Gong; which is instead of a Clock. This Gong is beaten at 12 a Clock, at 3, 6, and 9."—Dampier, i. 333.
1726.—"These gongs (gongen) are beaten very gently at the time when the Prince is going to make his appearance."—Valentijn, iv. 58.
1750-52.—"Besides these (in China) they have little drums, great and small kettle drums, gungungs or round brass basons like frying pans."—Olof Toreen, 248.
1817.—
"War music bursting out from time to time With gong and tymbalon's tremendous chime."—Lalla Rookh, Mokanna.
Tremendous sham poetry!
GOODRY, s. A quilt; H. gudṛī. [The gudṛī, as distinguished from the razāi (see ROZYE), is the bundle of rags on which Faḳīrs and the very poorest people sleep.]
c. 1610.—"Les matelats et les couvertures sont de soye ou de toille de coton façonnée à toutes sortes de figures et couleur. Ils appellent cela Gouldrins."—Pyrard de Laval, ii. 3; [Hak. Soc. ii. 4].
1653.—"Goudrin est vn terme Indou et Portugais, qui signifie des couuertures picquées de cotton."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 539.
GOOGUL, s. H. gugal, guggul, Skt. guggula, guggulu. The aromatic gum-resin of the Balsamodendron Mukul, Hooker (Amyris agallocha, Roxb.), the muḳl of the Arabs, and generally supposed to be the bdellium of the ancients. It is imported from the Beyla territory, west of Sind (see Bo. Govt. Selections (N.S.), No. xvii. p. 326).
GOOJUR, n.p. H. Gūjar, Skt. Gurjjara. The name of a great Hindu clan, very numerous in tribes and in population over nearly the whole of Northern India, from the Indus to Rohilkhand. In the Delhi territory and the Doab they were formerly notorious for thieving propensities, and are still much addicted to cattle-theft; and they are never such steady and industrious cultivators as the Jāts, among whose villages they are so largely interspersed. In the Punjab they are Mahommedans. Their page 386bextensive diffusion is illustrated by their having given name to Gujarāt (see GOOZERAT) as well as to Gujrāt and Gujrānwāla in the Punjab. And during the 18th century a great part of Sahāranpūr District in the Northern Doab was also called Gujrāt (see Elliot's Races, by Beames, i. 99 seqq.).
GOOLAIL, s. A pellet-bow. H. gulel, probably from Skt. guḍa, gula, the pellet used. [It is the Arabic Kaus-al-bandūk, by using which the unlucky Prince in the First Kalandar's Tale got into trouble with the Wazīr (Burton, Arab. Nights, i. 98).]
[c. 1590.—"From the general use of pellet bows which are fitted with bowstrings, sparrows are very scarce (in Kashmīr)."—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, ii. 351. In the original kamān-i-guroha, guroha, according to Steingass, Dict., being "a ball ... ball for a cannon, balista, or cross-bow."]
1600.—"O for a stone-bow to hit him in the eye."—Twelfth Night, ii. 5.
1611.—
"Children will shortly take him for a wall, And set their stone-bows in his forehead." Beaum. & Flet., A King and No King, V.
GOOLMAUL, GOOLMOOL, s. H. gol-māl, 'confusion, jumble'; gol-māl karnā, 'to make a mess.'
[GOOMTEE, n.p. A river of the N.W.P., rising in the Shāhjahānpur District, and flowing past the cities of Lucknow and Jaunpur, and joining the Ganges between Benares and page 387aGhāzipur. The popular derivation of the name, as in the quotation, is, as if Ghūmtī, from H. ghūmnā, 'to wind,' in allusion to its winding course. It is really from Skt. gomati, 'rich in cattle.'
GOONT, s. H. gūnṭh, gūṭh. A kind of pony of the N. Himālayas, strong but clumsy.
1609.—"On the further side of Ganges lyeth a very mighty Prince, called Raiaw Rodorow, holding a mountainous Countrey ... thence commeth much Muske, and heere is a great breed of a small kind of Horse, called Gunts, a true travelling scale-cliffe beast."—W. Finch, in Purchas, i. 438.
1831.—"In Cashmere I shall buy, without regard to price, the best ghounte in Tibet."—Jacquemont's Letters, E.T. i. 238.
GOORKA, GOORKALLY, n.p. H. Gurkhā, Gurkhālī. The name of the race now dominant in Nepāl, and taking their name from a town so called 53 miles W. of Khatmandu. [The name is usually derived from the Skt. go-raksha, 'cow-keeper.' For the early history see Wright, H. of Nepāl, 147]. They are probably the best soldiers of modern India, and several regiments of the Anglo-Indian army are recruited from the tribe.
page 387bGOOROO, s. H. gurū, Skt. guru; a spiritual teacher, a (Hindu) priest.
c. 1550.—"You should do as you are told by your parents and your Guru."—Rāmāyana of Tulsī Dās, by Growse (1878), 43.
[1567.—"Grous." See quotation under CASIS.]
1626.—"There was a famous Prophet of the Ethnikes, named Goru."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 520.
1700.—"... je suis fort surpris de voir à la porte ... le Pénitent au colier, qui demandoit à parler au Gourou."—Lettres Edif., x. 95.
1810.—"Persons of this class often keep little schools ... and then are designated gooroos; a term implying that kind of respect we entertain for pastors in general."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 317.
1822.—"The Adventures of the Gooroo Paramartan; a tale in the Tamul Language" (translated by B. Babington from the original of Padre Beschi, written about 1720-1730), London.
GOORUL, s. H. gūral, goral; the Himālayan chamois; Nemorhoedus Goral of Jerdon. [Cemas Goral of Blanford (Mammalia, 516).]
[GOORZEBURDAR, s. P. gurz-bardār, 'a mace-bearer.'
[1717.—"Everything being prepared for the Goorzeburdar's reception."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. ccclix.
page 388aGOOZERAT, GUZERAT, n.p. The name of a famous province in Western India, Skt. Gurjjara, Gurjjara-rāshtra, Prakrit passing into H. and Mahr. Gujarāt, Gujrāt, taking its name from the Gūjar (see GOOJUR) tribe. The name covers the British Districts of Surat, Broach, Kaira, Panch Mahals, and Ahmedābād, besides the territories of the Gaekwar (see GUICOWAR) of Baroda, and a multitude of native States. It is also often used as including the peninsula of Kāthiāwāṛ or Surāshtra, which alone embraces 180 petty States.
1298.—"Gozurat is a great Kingdom.... The people are the most desperate pirates in existence...."—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. ch. 26.
c. 1300.—"Guzerat, which is a large country, within which are Kambáy, Somnát, Kanken-Tána, and several other cities and towns."—Rashíduddín, in Elliot, i. 67.
1300.—"The Sultan despatched Ulugh Khán to Ma'bar and Gujarát for the destruction of the idol-temple of Somnát, on the 20th of Jumádá'-l awwal, 698 H...."—Amīr Khusrū, in Elliot, iii. 74.
[c. 1330.—"Juzrat." See under LAR.]
The name is sometimes used by the old writers for the people, and especially for the Hindu merchants or banyans (q.v.) of Guzerat. See Sainsbury, i. 445 and passim.
GOOZUL-KHANA, s. A bathroom; H. from Ar.—P. ghusl-khāna, of corresponding sense. The apartment so called was used by some of the Great Moghuls as a place of private audience.
" "The thirteenth, at night I went to the Gussell Chan, where is best opportunitie to doe business, and tooke with me the Italian, determining to walk no longer in darknesse, but to prooue the King...."—Ibid. p. 543; [in Hak. Soc. i. 202, Guzel-chan; in ii. 459, Gushel choes].
GOPURA, s. The meaning of the word in Skt. is 'city-gate,' go 'eye,' pura, 'city.' But in S. India the gopuram is that remarkable feature of architecture, peculiar to the Peninsula, the great pyramidal tower over the entrance-gate to the precinct of a temple. See Fergusson's Indian and Eastern Architecture, 325, &c. [The same feature has been reproduced in the great temple of the Seth at Brindāban, which is designed on a S. Indian model. (Growse, Mathura, 260).] This feature is not, in any of the S. Indian temples, older than the 15th or 16th cent., and was no doubt adopted for purposes of defence, as indeed the Śilpa-śāstra ('Books of Mechanical Arts') treatises imply. This fact may sufficiently dispose of the idea that the feature indicates an adoption of architecture from ancient Egypt.
GORA, s. H. gorā, 'fair-complexioned.' A white man; a European soldier; any European who is not a sahib (q.v.). Plural gorā-lōg, 'white people.'
GORAWALLAH, s. H. ghoṛā-wālā, ghoṛā, 'a horse.' A groom or horsekeeper; used at Bombay. On the Bengal side syce (q.v.) is always used, on the Madras side horsekeeper (q.v.).
page 389aGORAYT, s. H. goṛeṭ, goṛaiṭ, [which has been connected with Skt. ghur, 'to shout']; a village watchman and messenger, [in the N.W.P. usually of a lower grade than the chokidar, and not, like him, paid a cash wage, but remunerated by a piece of rent-free land; one of the village establishment, whose special duty it is to watch crops and harvested grain].
GORDOWER, GOORDORE, s. A kind of boat in Bengal, described by Ives as "a vessel pushed on by paddles." Etym. obscure. Ghuṛdauṛ is a horse-race, a race-course; sometimes used by natives to express any kind of open-air assemblage of Europeans for amusement. [The word is more probably a corr. of P. girdāwā, 'a patrol'; girdāwar, 'all around, a supervisor,' because such boats appear to be used in Bengal by officials on their tours of inspection.]
GOSAIN, GOSSYNE, &c. s. H. and Mahr. Gosāīn, Gosāī, Gosāvī, Gusā'īn, &c., from Skt. Goswāmī, 'Lord of Passions' (lit. 'Lord of cows'), i.e. one who is supposed to have subdued his passions and renounced the world. Applied in various parts of India to different kinds of persons not necessarily celibates, but professing a life of religious mendicancy, and including some who dwell together in convents under a superior, and others who engage in trade and hardly pretend to lead a religious life.
c. 1781.—"It was at this time in the hands of a Gosine, or Hindoo Religious."—Hodges, 112. (The use of this barbarism by Hodges is remarkable, common as it has become of late years.)
[1813.—"Unlike the generality of Hindoos, these Gosaings do not burn their dead...."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. i. 312-3; in i. 544 he writes Gosannee.]
page 389bGOSBECK, COSBEAGUE, s. A coin spoken of in Persia (at Gombroon and elsewhere). From the quotation from Fryer it appears that there was a Goss and a Gosbegi, corresponding to Herbert's double and single Cozbeg. Mr. Wollaston in his English-Persian Dict. App. p. 436, among "Moneys now current in Persia," gives "5 dínár = 1 ghāz; also a nominal money." The ghāz, then, is the name of a coin (though a coin no longer), and ghāz-begī was that worth 10 dīnārs. Marsden mentions a copper coin, called kazbegi = 50 (nominal) dīnārs, or about 3½d. (Numism. Orient., 456.) But the value in dīnārs seems to be in error. [Prof. Browne, who referred the matter to M. Husayn Kuli Khān, Secretary of the Persian Embassy in London, writes: "This gentleman states that he knows no word ghāzī-beg, or g̣āzī-beg, but that there was formerly a coin called ghāz, of which 5 went to the shāhī; but this is no longer used or spoken of." The ghāz was in use at any rate as late as the time of Hajji Baba; see below.]
c. 1630.—"The Abbasee is in our money sixteene pence; Larree ten pence; Mamoodee eight pence; Bistee two pence; double Cozbeg one penny; single Cozbeg one half-penny; Fluces are ten to a Cozbeg."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1638, p. 231.
1673.—"A Banyan that seemingly is not worth a Gosbeck (the lowest coin they have)."—Fryer, 113. See also p. 343.
" "10 cosbeagues is 1 Shahee; 4 Shahees is one Abassee or 16d."—Ibid. 211.
"Brass money with characters, Are a Goss, ten whereof compose a Shahee, A Gosbeege, five of which go to a Shahee." Ibid. 407.
1711.—"10 Coz, or Pice, a Copper Coin, are 1 Shahee."—Lockyer, 241.
1727.—"1 Shahee is ... 10 Gaaz or Cosbegs."—A. Hamilton, ii. 311; [ed. 1744].
1752.—"10 cozbaugues or Pice (a Copper Coin) are 1 Shatree" (read Shahee).—Brooks, p. 37. See also in Hanway, vol. i. p. 292, Kazbegie; [in ii. 21, Kazbekie].
page 390a[1824.—"But whatever profit arose either from these services, or from the spoils of my monkey, he alone was the gainer, for I never touched a ghauz of it."—Hajji Baba, 52 seq.]
GOSHA, adj. Used in some parts, as an Anglo-Indian technicality, to indicate that a woman was secluded, and cannot appear in public. It is short for P. gosha-nishīn, 'sitting in a corner'; and is much the same as parda-nishīn (see PURDAH).
GOUNG, s. Burm. gaung; a village head man. ["Under the Thoogyee were Rwa-goung, or heads of villages, who aided in the collection of the revenue and were to some extent police officials." (Gazetteer of Burma, i. 480.)]
a. GOUR, s. H. gāur, gāuri gāē, (but not in the dictionaries), [Platts gives gaur, Skt. gaura, 'white, yellowish, reddish, pale red']. The great wild ox, Gavaeus Gaurus, Jerd.; [Bos gaurus, Blanford (Mammalia), 484 seq.], the same as the Bison (q.v.). [The classical account of the animal will be found in Forsyth, Highlands of Central India, ed. 1889, pp. 109 seqq.]
b. GOUR, s. Properly Can. gauḍ, gauṛ, gauḍa. The head man of a village in the Canarese-speaking country; either as corresponding to patel, or to the Zemindar of Bengal. [See F. Buchanan, Mysore, i. 268; Rice, Mysore, i. 579.]
c. GOUR, n.p. Gauṛ, the name of a medieval capital of Bengal, which lay immediately south of the modern civil station of Malda, and the traces of which, with occasional Mahommedan buildings, extend over an immense area, page 390bchiefly covered with jungle. The name is a form of the ancient Gauḍa, meaning, it is believed, 'the country of sugar,' a name applied to a large part of Bengal, and specifically to the portion where those remains lie. It was the residence of a Hindu dynasty, the Senas, at the time of the early Mahommedan invasions, and was popularly known as Lakhnāotī; but the reigning king had transferred his seat to Nadiya (70 m. above Calcutta) before the actual conquest of Bengal in the last years of the 12th century. Gaur was afterwards the residence of several Mussulman dynasties. [See Ravenshaw, Gaur, its Ruins and Inscriptions, 1878.]
[1552.—"Caor." See under BURRAMPOOTER.]
1553.—"The chief city of the Kingdom (of Bengala) is called Gouro. It is situated on the banks of the Ganges, and is said to be 3 of our leagues in length, and to contain 200,000 inhabitants. On the one side it has the river for its defence, and on the landward faces a wall of great height ... the streets are so thronged with the concourse and traffic of people ... that they cannot force their way past ... a great part of the houses of this city are stately and well-wrought buildings."—Barros, IV. ix. cap. 1.
1586.—"From Patanaw I went to Tanda which is in the land of the Gouren. It hath in times past been a kingdom, but is now subdued by Zelabdin Echebar ..."—R. Fitch, in Hakluyt, ii. 389.
GOVERNOR'S STRAITS, n.p. This was the name applied by the Portuguese (Estreito do Gobernador) to the Straits of Singapore, i.e. the straits page 391asouth of that island (or New Strait). The reason of the name is given in our first quotation. The Governor in question was the Spaniard Dom João da Silva.
1727.—"Between the small Carimon and Tanjong-bellong on the Continent, is the entrance of the Streights of Sincapure before mentioned, and also into the Streights of Governadore, the largest and easiest Passage into the China Seas."—A. Hamilton, ii. 122.
1780.—"Directions for sailing from Malacca to Pulo Timoan through Governor's Straits, commonly called the Straits of Sincapour."—Dunn's N. Directory, 5th ed. p. 474. See also Lettres Edif., 1st ed. ii. 118.
GOW, GAOU, s. Dak. H. gau. An ancient measure of distance preserved in S. India and Ceylon. In the latter island, where the term still is in use, the gawwa is a measure of about 4 English miles. It is Pali gāvuta, one quarter of a yojana, and that again is the Skt. gavyūti with the same meaning. There is in Molesworth's Mahr. Dictionary, and in Wilson, a term gaukos (see COSS), 'a land measure' (for which read 'distance measure'), the distance at which the lowing of a cow may be heard. This is doubtless a form of the same term as that under consideration, but the explanation is probably modern and incorrect. The yojana with which the gau is correlated, appears etymologically to be 'a yoking,' viz. "the stage, or distance to be gone in one harnessing without unyoking" (Williams); and the lengths attributed to it are very various, oscillating from 2½ to 9 miles, and even to 8 krośas (see COSS). The last valuation of the yojana would correspond with that of the gau at ¼.
1623.—"From Garicota to Tumbre may be about a league and a half, for in that page 391bcountry distances are measured by gaù, and each gaù is about two leagues, and from Garicòta to Tumbre they said was not so much as a gaù of road."—P. della Valle, ii. 638; [Hak. Soc. ii. 230].
1676.—"They measure the distances of places in India by Gos and Costes. A Gos is about 4 of our common leagues, and a Coste is one league."—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 30; [ed. Ball, i. 47].
GRAB, s. This name, now almost obsolete, was applied to a kind of vessel which is constantly mentioned in the sea- and river-fights of India, from the arrival of the Portuguese down to near the end of the 18th century. That kind of etymology which works from inner consciousness would probably say: "This term has always been a puzzle to the English in India. The fact is that it was a kind of vessel much used by corsairs, who were said to grab all that passed the sea. Hence," &c. But the real derivation is different.
The Rev. Howard Malcom, in a glossary attached to his Travels, defines it as "a square-rigged Arab vessel, having a projecting stern (stem?) and no bowsprit; it has two masts." Probably the application of the term may have deviated variously in recent days. [See Bombay Gazetteer, xiii. pt. i. 348.] For thus again in Solvyns (Les Hindous, vol. i.) a grab is drawn and described as a ship with three masts, a sharp prow, and a bowsprit. But originally the word seems, beyond question, to have been an Arab name for a galley. The proper word is Arab. ghorāb, 'a raven,' though adopted into Mahratti and Konkani as gurāb. Jal says, quoting Reinaud, that ghorāb was the name given by the Moors to the true galley, and cites Hyde for the rationale of the name. We give Hyde's words below. Amari, in a work quoted below (p. 397), points out the analogous corvetta as perhaps a transfer of ghurāb:
The Latin contemporary version runs thus:
c. 1200.—Ghurāb, Cornix, Corvus, galea.
Galea, Ghurāb, Gharbān.—Vocabulista Arabico (from Riccardian Library), pubd. Florence, 1871, pp. 148, 404.
1343.—"Jalansi ... sent us off in company with his son, on board a vessel called al-'Ukairi, which is like a ghorāb, only more roomy. It has 60 oars, and when it engages is covered with a roof to protect the rowers from the darts and stone-shot."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 59.
1505.—In the Vocabulary of Pedro de Alcala, galera is interpreted in Arabic as gorâb.
1554.—In the narrative of Sidi 'Ali Kapudān, in describing an action that he fought with the Portuguese near the Persian Gulf, he says the enemy's fleet consisted of 4 barques as big as carracks (q.v.), 3 great ghurābs, 6 Karāwals (see CARAVEL) and 12 smaller ghurābs, or galliots (see GALLEVAT) with oars.—In J. As., ser. 1. tom. ix. 67-68.
[c. 1610.—"His royal galley called by them Ogate Gourabe (gourabe means 'galley,' and ogate 'royal')."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 312.]
1660.—"Jani Beg might attack us from the hills, the ghrábs from the river, and the men of Sihwān from the rear, so that we should be in a critical position."—Mohammed M'asum, in Elliot, i. 250. The word occurs in many pages of the same history.
[1679.—"My Selfe and Mr. Gapes Grob the stern most."—In Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. clxxxiv.]
1690.—"Galera ... ab Arabibus tam Asiaticis quam Africanis vocatur ... Ghorâb, i.e. Corvus, quasi piceâ nigredine, rostro extenso, et velis remisque sicut alis volans galera: unde et Vlacho Graece dicitur page 392bΜέλαινα."—Hyde, Note on Peritsol, in Synt. Dissertt. i. 97.
1673.—"Our Factors, having concerns in the cargo of the ships in this Road, loaded two Grobs and departed."—Fryer, 153.
1727.—"The Muskat War ... obliges them (the Portuguese) to keep an Armada of five or six Ships, besides small Frigates and Grabs of War."—A. Hamilton, i. 250; [ed. 1744, ii. 253].
1750-52.—"The ships which they make use of against their enemies are called goerabbs by the Dutch, and grabbs by the English, have 2 or 3 masts, and are built like our ships, with the same sort of rigging, only their prows are low and sharp as in gallies, that they may not only place some cannons in them, but likewise in case of emergency for a couple of oars, to push the grabb on in a calm."—Olof Toreen, Voyage, 205.
c. 1754.—"Our E. I. Company had here (Bombay) one ship of 40 guns, one of 20, one Grab of 18 guns, and several other vessels."—Ives, 43. Ives explains "Ketches, which they call grabs." This shows the meaning already changed, as no galley could carry 18 guns.
c. 1760.—"When the Derby, Captain Ansell, was so scandalously taken by a few of Angria's grabs."—Grose, i. 81.
1763.—"The grabs have rarely more than two masts, though some have three; those of three are about 300 tons burthen; but the others are not more than 150: they are built to draw very little water, being very broad in proportion to their length, narrowing, however, from the middle to the end, where instead of bows they have a prow, projecting like that of a Mediterranean galley."—Orme (reprint), i. 408-9.
1810.—"Here a fine English East Indiaman, there a grab, or a dow from Arabia."—Maria Graham, 142.
" "This Glab (sic) belongs to an Arab merchant of Muscat. The Nakhodah, an Abyssinian slave."—Elphinstone, in Life, i. 232.
[1820.—"We had scarce set sail when there came in a ghorab (a kind of boat) the Cotwal of Surat ..."—Trans. Lit. Soc. Bo. ii. 5.]
GRAM, s. This word is properly the Portuguese grão, i.e. 'grain,' but it has been specially appropriated to that kind of vetch (Cicer arietinum, L.) which is the most general grain- (rather pulse-) food of horses all over India, called in H. chanā. It is the Ital. cece, Fr. pois chiche, Eng. chick-pea or Egypt. pea, much used in France and S. page 393aEurope. This specific application of grão is also Portuguese, as appears from Bluteau. The word gram is in some parts of India applied to other kinds of pulse, and then this application of it is recognised by qualifying it as Bengal gram. (See remarks under CALAVANCE.) The plant exudes oxalate of potash, and to walk through a gram-field in a wet morning is destructive to shoe-leather. The natives collect the acid.
[1554.—(Describing Vijayanagar.) "There the food of horses and elephants consists of grãos, rice and other vegetables, cooked with jagra, which is palm-tree sugar, as there is no barley in that country."—Castanheda, Bk. ii. ch. 16.
[c. 1610.—"They give them also a certain grain like lentils."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 79.]
1702.—"... he confessing before us that their allowance three times a week is but a quart of rice and gram together for five men a day, but promises that for the future it shall be rectified."—In Wheeler, ii. 10.
1776.—"... Lentils, gram ... mustard seed."—Halhed's Code, p. 8 (pt. ii.).
1789.—"... Gram, a small kind of pulse, universally used instead of oats."—Munro's Narrative, 85.
1793.—"... gram, which it is not customary to give to bullocks in the Carnatic."—Dirom's Narrative, 97.
1804.—"The gram alone, for the four regiments with me, has in some months cost 50,000 pagodas."—Wellington, iii. 71.
GRAM-FED, adj. Properly the distinctive description of mutton and beef fattened upon gram, which used to be the pride of Bengal. But applied figuratively to any 'pampered creature.'
GRANDONIC. (See GRUNTHUM and SANSKRIT).
GRASS-CLOTH, s. This name is now generally applied to a kind of cambric from China made from the Chuma of the Chinese (Boehmaria nivea, Hooker, the Rhea, so much talked of now), and called by the Chinese sia-pu, or 'summer-cloth.' We find grass-cloths often spoken of by the 16th century travellers, and even later, as an export from Orissa and Bengal. They were probably made of Rhea or some kindred species, but we have not been able to determine this. Cloth and nets are made in the south from the Neilgherry nettle (Girardinia heterophylla, D. C.)
1585.—"Great store of the cloth which is made from Grasse, which they call yerua" (in Orissa).—R. Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 387.
[1598.—See under SAREE.
[c. 1610.—"Likewise is there plenty of silk, as well that of the silkworm as of the (silk) herb, which is of the brightest yellow colour, and brighter than silk itself."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 328.]
1627.—"Their manufactories (about Balasore) are of Cotton ... Silk, and Silk and Cotton Romals ...; and of Herba (a Sort of tough Grass) they make Ginghams, Pinascos, and several other Goods for Exportation."—A. Hamilton, i. 397; [ed. 1744].
GRASS-CUTTER, s. This is probably a corruption representing the H. ghāskhodā or ghāskāṭā, 'the digger, or cutter, of grass'; the title of a servant employed to collect grass for horses, one such being usually attached to each horse besides the syce or horse-keeper. In the north the grasscutter is a man; in the south the office is filled by the horsekeeper's wife. Ghāskaṭ is the form commonly used by Englishmen in Upper India speaking Hindustani; but ghasiyārā by those aspiring to purer language. The former term appears in Williamson's V. M. (1810) as gauskot (i. 186), the latter in Jacquemont's Correspondence as page 394agrassyara. No grasscutters are mentioned as attached to the stables of Akbar; only a money allowance for grass. The antiquity of the Madras arrangement is shown by a passage in Castanheda (1552): "... he gave him a horse, and a boy to attend to it, and a female slave to see to its fodder."—(ii. 58.)
1793.—"Every horse ... has two attendants, one who cleans and takes care of him, called the horse-keeper, and the other the grasscutter, who provides for his forage."—Dirom's Narr. 242.
1846.—"Every horse has a man and a maid to himself—the maid cuts grass for him; and every dog has a boy. I inquired whether the cat had any servants, but I found he was allowed to wait upon himself."—Letters from Madras, 37.
[1850.—"Then there are our servants ... four Saises and four Ghascuts ..."—Mrs. Mackenzie, Life in the Mission, ii. 253.]
[GRASSHOPPER FALLS, n.p. An Anglo-Indian corruption of the name of the great waterfall on the Sheravati River in the Shimoga District of Mysore, where the river plunges down in a succession of cascades, of which the principal is 890 feet in height. The proper name of the place is Gersoppa, or Gerusappe, which takes its name from the adjoining village; geru, Can., 'the marking nut plant' (semecarpus anacardium, L.), soppu, 'a leaf.' See Mr. Grey's note on P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. ii. 218.]
GRASS-WIDOW, s. This slang phrase is applied in India, with a shade of malignity, to ladies living apart from their husbands, especially as recreating at the Hill stations, whilst the husbands are at their duties in the plains.
We do not know the origin of the phrase. In the Slang Dictionary it is explained: "An unmarried mother; a deserted mistress." But no such opprobrious meanings attach to the Indian use. In Notes and Queries, 6th ser. viii. 414, will be found several communications on this phrase. [Also see ibid. x. 436, 526; xi. 178; 8th ser. page 394biv. 37, 75.] We learn from these that in Moor's Suffolk Words and Phrases, Grace-Widow occurs with the meaning of an unmarried mother. Corresponding to this, it is stated also, is the N.S. (?) or Low German gras-wedewe. The Swedish Gräsänka or -enka also is used for 'a low dissolute married woman living by herself.' In Belgium a woman of this description is called haecke-wedewe, from haecken, 'to feel strong desire' (to 'hanker'). And so it is suggested gräsenka is contracted from grädesenka, from gradig, 'esuriens' (greedy, in fact). In Danish Dict. graesenka is interpreted as a woman whose betrothed lover is dead. But the German Stroh-Wittwe, 'straw-widow' (which Flügel interprets as 'mock widow'), seems rather inconsistent with the suggestion that grass-widow is a corruption of the kind suggested. A friend mentions that the masc. Stroh-Wittwer is used in Germany for a man whose wife is absent, and who therefore dines at the eating-house with the young fellows. [The N.E.D. gives the two meanings: 1. An unmarried woman who has cohabited with one or more men; a discarded mistress; 2. A married woman whose husband is absent from her. "The etymological notion is obscure, but the parallel forms disprove the notion that the word is a 'corruption' of grace-widow. It has been suggested that in sense 1. grass (and G. stroh) may have been used with opposition to bed. Sense 2. may have arisen as an etymologizing interpretation of the compound after it had ceased to be generally understood; in Eng. it seems to have first appeared as Anglo-Indian." The French equivalent, Veuve de Malabar, was in allusion to Lemierre's tragedy, produced in 1770.]
1879.—The Indian newspaper's "typical official rises to a late breakfast—probably on herrings and soda-water—and dresses tastefully for his round of morning calls, the last on a grass-widow, with whom he has a tête-à-tête tiffin, where 'pegs' alternate with champagne."—Simla Letter in Times, Aug. 16.
page 395a1880.—"The Grass-widow in Nephelococcygia."—Sir Ali Baba, 169.
GRASSIA, s. Grās (said to mean 'a mouthful') is stated by Mr. Forbes in the Rās Mālā (p. 186) to have been in old times usually applied to alienations for religious objects; but its prevalent sense came to be the portion of land given for subsistence to cadets of chieftains' families. Afterwards the term grās was also used for the blackmail paid by a village to a turbulent neighbour as the price of his protection and forbearance, and in other like meanings. "Thus the title of grassia, originally an honourable one, and indicating its possessor to be a cadet of the ruling tribe, became at last as frequently a term of opprobrium, conveying the idea of a professional robber" (Ibid. Bk. iv. ch. 3); [ed. 1878, p. 568].
c. 1665.—"Nous nous trouvâmes au Village de Bilpar, dont les Habitans qu'on nomme Gratiates, sont presque tous Voleurs."—Thevenot, v. 42.
1808.—"The Grasias have been shewn to be of different Sects, Casts, or families, viz., 1st, Colees and their Collaterals; 2nd, Rajpoots; 3rd, Syed Mussulmans; 4th, Mole-Islams or modern Mahomedans. There are besides many others who enjoy the free usufruct of lands, and permanent emolument from villages, but those only who are of the four aforesaid warlike tribes seem entitled by prescriptive custom ... to be called Grassias."—Drummond, Illustrations.
1813.—"I confess I cannot now contemplate my extraordinary deliverance from the Gracia machinations without feelings more appropriate to solemn silence, than expression."—Forbes, Or. Mem. iii. 393; [conf. 2nd ed. ii. 357].
GRAVE-DIGGER. (See BEEJOO.)
GREEN-PIGEON. A variety of species belonging to the sub.-fam. Treroninae, and to genera Treron, Cricopus, Osmotreron, and Sphenocereus, bear this name. The three first following quotations show that these page 395bbirds had attracted the attention of the ancients.
c. A.D. 250.—"They bring also greenish (ὠχρὰς) pigeons which they say can never be tamed or domesticated."—Aelian, De Nat. Anim. xv. 14.
" "There are produced among the Indians ... pigeons of a pale green colour (χλωρόπτιλοι); any one seeing them for the first time, and not having any knowledge of ornithology, would say the bird was a parrot and not a pigeon. They have legs and bill in colour like the partridges of the Greeks."—Ibid. xvi. 2.
1673.—"Our usual diet was (besides Plenty of Fish) Water-Fowl, Peacocks, Green Pidgeons, Spotted Deer, Sabre, Wild Hogs, and sometimes Wild Cows."—Fryer, 176.
GREY PARTRIDGE. The common Anglo-Indian name of the Hind. tītar, common over a great part of India, Ortygornis Ponticeriana, Gmelin. "Its call is a peculiar loud shrill cry, and has, not unaptly, been compared to the word Pateela-pateela-pateela, quickly repeated but preceded by a single note, uttered two or three times, each time with a higher intonation, till it gets, as it were, the key-note of its call."—Jerdon, ii. 566.
GRIBLEE, s. A graplin or grapnel. Lascars' language (Roebuck).
GRIFFIN, GRIFF, s.; GRIFFISH, adj. One newly arrived in India, and unaccustomed to Indian ways and peculiarities; a Johnny Newcome. The origin of the phrase is unknown to us. There was an Admiral Griffin who commanded in the Indian seas from Nov. 1746 to June 1748, and was not very fortunate. Had his name to do with the origin of the term? The word seems to have been first used at Madras (see Boyd, below). [But also see the quotation from Beaumont & Fletcher, below.] Three references below indicate the parallel terms formerly used by the Portuguese at Goa, by the Dutch in the Archipelago, and by the English in Ceylon.
1794.—"As I am little better than an unfledged Griffin, according to the fashionable phrase here" (Madras).—Hugh Boyd, 177.
1807.—"It seems really strange to a griffin—the cant word for a European just arrived."—Ld. Minto, in India, 17.
1808.—"At the Inn I was tormented to death by the impertinent persevering of the black people; for every one is a beggar, as long as you are reckoned a griffin, or a new-comer."—Life of Leyden, 107.
1836.—"I often tire myself ... rather than wait for their dawdling; but Mrs. Staunton laughs at me and calls me a 'Griffin,' and says I must learn to have patience and save my strength."—Letters from Madras, 38.
" "... he was living with bad men, and saw that they thought him no better than themselves, but only more griffish...."—Ibid. 53.
1853.—"There were three more cadets on the same steamer, going up to that great griff depot, Oudapoor."—Oakfield, i. 38.
1853.—
"'Like drill?'
"'I don't dislike it much now: the goose-step was not lively.'
"'Ah, they don't give griffs half enough of it now-a-days; by Jove, Sir, when I was a griff'—and thereupon ..."—Ibid. i. 62.
The griffin at Goa also in the old days was called by a peculiar name. (See REINOL.)
page 396bHere orang barou is Malay orang-baharu, i.e. 'new man'; whilst Orang-lama, 'man of long since,' is applied to old colonials. In connection with these terms we extract the following:—
On this his editor notes:
GROUND, s. A measure of land used in the neighbourhood of Madras. [Also called Munny, Tam. manai.] (See under CAWNY.)
GRUFF, adj. Applied to bulky goods. Probably the Dutch grof, 'coarse.'
1750.—"... all which could be called Curtins, and some of the Bastions at Madrass, had Warehouses under them for the Reception of Naval Stores, and other gruff Goods from Europe, as well as Salt Petre from Bengal."—Letter to a Propr. of the E. I. Co., p. 52.
1759.—"Which by causing a great export of rice enhances the price of labour, and consequently of all other gruff, piece-goods and raw silk."—In Long, 171.
1765.—"... also foole sugar, lump jaggre, ginger, long pepper, and piply-mol ... articles that usually compose the gruff cargoes of our outward-bound shipping."—Holwell, Hist. Events, &c., i. 194.
page 397aGRUNTH, s. Panjābī Granth, from Skt. grantha, lit. 'a knot,' leaves tied together by a string. 'The Book,' i.e. the Scripture of the Sikhs, containing the hymns composed or compiled by their leaders from Nānak (1469-1539) onwards. The Granth has been translated by Dr. Trumpp, and published, at the expense of the Indian Government.
1798.—"A book entitled the Grunth ... is the only typical object which the Sicques have admitted into their places of worship."—G. Forster's Travels, i. 255.
1817.—"The fame of Nannak's book was diffused. He gave it a new name, Kirrunt."—Mill's Hist. ii. 377.
c. 1831.—"... Au centre du quel est le temple d'or où est gardé le Grant ou livre sacré des Sikes."—Jacquemont, Correspondance, ii. 166.
GRUNTHEE, s. Panj. granthī from granth (see GRUNTH). A sort of native chaplain attached to Sikh regiments. [The name Granthī appears among the Hindi mendicant castes of the Panjab in Mr. Maclagan's Census Rep., 1891, p. 300.]
GRUNTHUM, s. This (grantham) is a name, from the same Skt. word as the last, given in various odd forms to the Sanskrit language by various Europeans writing in S. India during the 16th and 17th centuries. The term properly applied to the character in which the Sanskrit books were written.
page 397b1646.—"Cette langue correspond à la nostre Latine, parceque les seules Lettrés l'apprennent; il se nomment Guirindans."—Barretto, Rel. de la Prov. de la Malabar, 257.
1727.—"... their four law-books, Sama Vedam, Urukku Vedam, Edirwarna Vedam, and Adir Vedam, which are all written in the Girandams, and are held in high esteem by the Bramins."—Valentijn, v. (Ceylon), 399.
" "Girandam (by others called Kerendum, and also Sanskrits) is the language of the Bramins and the learned."—Ibid. 386.
GUANA, IGUANA, s. This is not properly an Indian term, nor the name of an Indian species, but, as in many other cases, it has been applied by transfer from superficially resembling genera in the new Indies, to the old. The great lizards, sometimes called guanas in India, are apparently monitors. It must be observed, however, that approximating Indian names of lizards have helped the confusion. Thus the large monitor to which the name guana is often applied in India, is really called in Hindi goh (Skt. godhā), Singhalese goyā. The true iguana of America is described by Oviedo in the first quotation under the name of iuana. [The word is Span. iguana, from Carib iwana, written in early writers hiuana, igoana, iuanna or yuana. See N.E.D. and Stanf. Dict.]
c. 1550.—"We also used to catch some four-footed animals called iguane, resembling our lizards in shape ... the females are most delicate food."—Girolami Benzoni, p. 140.
1634.—"De Lacertae quâdam specie, Incolis Liguan. Est ... genus venenosissimum," &c.—Jac. Bontii, Lib. v. cap. 5. p. 57. (See GECKO.)
1673.—"Guiana, a Creature like a Crocodile, which Robbers use to lay hold on page 398aby their Tails, when they clamber Houses."—Fryer, 116.
1681.—Knox, in his Ceylon, speaks of two creatures resembling the Alligator—one called Kobbera guion, 5 or 6 feet long, and not eatable; the other called tolla guion, very like the former, but "which is eaten, and reckoned excellent meat ... and I suppose it is the same with that which in the W. Indies is called the guiana" (pp. 30, 31). The names are possibly Portuguese, and Kobbera guion may be Cobra-guana.
1704.—"The Guano is a sort of Creature, some of which are found on the land, some in the water ... stewed with a little Spice they make good Broth."—Funnel, in Dampier, iv. 51.
1711.—"Here are Monkeys, Gaunas, Lissards, large Snakes, and Alligators."—Lockyer, 47.
1780.—"They have here an amphibious animal called the guana, a species of the crocodile or alligator, of which soup is made equal to that of turtle. This I take upon hearsay, for it is to me of all others the most loathsome of animals, not less so than the toad."—Munro's Narrative, 36.
c. 1830.—"Had I known I was dining upon a guana, or large wood-lizard, I scarcely think I would have made so hearty a meal."—Tom Cringle (ed. 1863), 178.
1879.—"Captain Shaw asked the Imaum of one of the mosques of Malacca about alligator's eggs, a few days ago, and his reply was, that the young that went down to the sea became alligators, and those that came up the river became iguanas."—Miss Bird, Golden Chersonese, 200.
1881.—"The chief of Mudhol State belongs to the Bhonslá family.... The name, however, has been entirely superseded by the second designation of Ghorpade, which is said to have been acquired by one of the family who managed to scale a fort previously deemed impregnable, by fastening a cord around the body of a ghorpad or iguana."—Imperial Gazetteer, vi. 437.
1883.—"Who can look on that anachronism, an iguana (I mean the large monitor which Europeans in India generally call an iguana, sometimes a guano!) basking, four feet long, on a sunny bank ..."—Tribes on My Frontier, 36.
GUARDAFUI, CAPE, n.p. The eastern horn of Africa, pointing towards India. We have the name from the Portuguese, and it has been alleged to have been so called by them as page 398bmeaning, 'Take you heed!' (Gardez-vous, in fact.) But this is etymology of the species that so confidently derives 'Bombay' from Boa Bahia. Bruce, again (see below), gives dogmatically an interpretation which is equally unfounded. We must look to history, and not to the 'moral consciousness' of anybody. The country adjoining this horn of Africa, the Regio Aromatum of the ancients, seems to have been called by the Arabs Hafūn, a name which we find in the Periplus in the shape of Opōnē. This name Hafūn was applied to a town, no doubt the true Opōnē, which Barbosa (1516) mentions under the name of Afuni, and it still survives in those of two remarkable promontories, viz. the Peninsula of Rās Hafūn (the Chersonnesus of the Periplus, the Zingis of Ptolemy, the Cape d'Affui and d'Orfui of old maps and nautical directories), and the cape of Jard-Hafūn (or according to the Egyptian pronunciation, Gard-Hafūn), i.e. Guardafui. The nearest possible meaning of jard that we can find is 'a wide or spacious tract of land without herbage.' Sir R. Burton (Commentary on Camõens, iv. 489) interprets jard as = Bay, "from a break in the dreadful granite wall, lately provided by Egypt with a lighthouse." The last statement is unfortunately an error. The intended light seems as far off as ever. [There is still no lighthouse, and shipowners differ as to its advantage; see answer by Secretary of State, in House of Commons, Times, March 14, 1902.] We cannot judge of the ground of his interpretation of jard.
An attempt has been made to connect the name Hafūn with the Arabic af'a, 'pleasant odours.' It would then be the equivalent of the ancient Reg. Aromatum. This is tempting, but very questionable. We should have mentioned that Guardafui is the site of the mart and Promontory of the Spices described by the author of the Periplus as the furthest point and abrupt termination of the continent of Barbarice (or eastern Africa), towards the Orient (τὸ τῶν Ἀρωματών ἐμπόριον καὶ ἀκρωτήριον τελευταῖον τῆς βαρβαρικῆς ἠπείρου πρὸς ἀνατολὴν ἀποκόπον).
According to C. Müller our Guardafui is called by the natives Rās Aser; their Rās Jardafūn being a point some 12 page 399am. to the south, which on some charts is called Rās Shenarif, and which is also the Τάβαι of the Periplus (Geog. Gr. Minores, i. 263).
" "After passing this place (Afuni) the next after it is Cape Guardafun, where the coast ends, and trends so as to double towards the Red Sea."—Barbosa, 16.
c. 1530.—"This province, called of late Arabia, but which the ancients called Trogloditica, begins at the Red Sea and the country of the Abissines, and finishes at Magadasso ... others say it extends only to the Cape of Guardafuni."—Sommario de' Regni, in Ramusio, i. f. 325.
1553.—"Vicente Sodre, being despatched by the King, touched at the Island of Çocotora, where he took in water, and thence passed to the Cape of Guardafu, which is the most easterly land of Africa."—De Barros, I. vii. cap. 2.
1554.—"If you leave Dábúl at the end of the season, you direct yourselves W.S.W. till the pole is four inches and an eighth, from thence true west to Kardafún."—Sidi 'Ali Kapudān, The Mohit, in J. As. Soc. Ben., v. 464.
" "You find such whirlpools on the coasts of Kardafūn...."—The same, in his narrative, Journ. As. ser. 1. tom. ix. p. 77.
1572.—
"O Cabo vê já Aromata chamado, E agora Guardafú, dos moradores, Onde começa a boca do affamado Mar Roxo, que do fundo toma as cores." Camões, x. 97.
Englished by Burton:
"The Cape which Antients 'Aromatic' clepe behold, yclept by Moderns Guardafú; where opes the Red Sea mouth, so wide and deep, the Sea whose ruddy bed lends blushing hue."
1602.—"Eitor da Silveira set out, and without any mishap arrived at the Cape of Gardafui."—Couto, IV. i. 4.
1727.—"And having now travell'd along the Shore of the Continent, from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Guardafoy, I'll survey the Islands that lie in the Ethiopian Sea."—A. Hamilton, i. 15; [ed. 1744].
1790.—"The Portuguese, or Venetians, the first Christian traders in these parts, have called it Gardefui, which has no page 399bsignification in any language. But in that part of the country where it is situated, it is called Gardefan and means the Straits of Burial, the reason of which will be seen afterwards."—Bruce's Travels, i. 315.
GUAVA, s. This fruit (Psidium Guayava, L., Ord. Myrtaceae; Span. guayava, Fr. goyavier, [from Brazilian guayaba, Stanf. Dict.]), Guayabo pomifera Indica of Caspar Bauhin, Guayava of Joh. Bauhin, strangely appears by name in Elliot's translation from Amīr Khosrū, who flourished in the 13th century: "He who has placed only guavas and quinces in his throat, and has never eaten a plantain, will say it is like so much jujube" (iii. 556). This must be due to some ambiguous word carelessly rendered. The fruit and its name are alike American. It appears to be the guaiabo of Oviedo in his History of the Indies (we use the Italian version in Ramusio, iii. f. 141v). There is no mention of the guava in either De Orta or Acosta. Amrūd, which is the commonest Hindustani (Pers.) name for the guava, means properly 'a pear'; but the fruit is often called safarī ām, 'journey mango' (respecting which see under ANANAS). And this last term is sometimes vulgarly corrupted into supārī ām (areca-mango!). In the Deccan (according to Moodeen Sheriff) and all over Guzerat and the Central Provinces (as we are informed by M.-Gen. Keatinge), the fruit is called jām, Mahr. jamba, which is in Bengal the name of Syzigium jambolanum (see JAMOON), and in Guzerāti jāmrūd, which seems to be a factitious word in imitation of āmrūd.
The guava, though its claims are so inferior to those of the pine-apple (indeed except to stew, or make jelly, it is nobis judicibus, an utter impostor), [Sir Joseph Hooker annotates: "You never ate good ones!"] must have spread like that fruit with great rapidity. Both appear in Blochmann's transl. of the Āīn (i. 64) as served at Akbar's table; though when the guava page 400ais named among the fruits of Tūrān, doubts again arise as to the fruit intended, for the word used, amrūd, is ambiguous. In 1688 Dampier mentions guavas at Achin, and in Cochin China. The tree, like the custard-apple, has become wild in some parts of India. See Davidson, below.
1658.—There is a good cut of the guava, as guaiaba, in Piso, pp. 152-3.
1673.—"... flourish pleasant Tops of Plantains, Cocoes, Guiavas, a kind of Pear."—Fryer, 40.
1676.—"The N.W. part is full of Guaver Trees of the greatest variety, and their Fruit the largest and best tasted I have met with."—Dampier, ii. 107.
1685.—"The Guava ... when the Fruit is ripe, it is yellow, soft, and very pleasant. It bakes well as a Pear."—Ibid. i. 222.
c. 1750-60.—"Our guides too made us distinguish a number of goyava, and especially plumb-trees."—Grose, i. 20.
1764.—
"A wholesome fruit the ripened guava yields, Boast of the housewife." Grainger, Bk. i.
GUBBER, s. This is some kind of gold ducat or sequin; Milburn says 'a Dutch ducat.' It may have adopted this special meaning, but could hardly have held it at the date of our first quotation. The name is probably gabr (dīnār-i-gabr), implying its being of infidel origin.
1711.—"Rupees are the most current Coin; they have Venetians, Gubbers, Muggerbees, and Pagodas."—Lockyer, 201.
" "When a Parcel of Venetian Ducats are mixt with others the whole goes by the name of Chequeens at Surat, but when they are separated, one sort is called Venetians, and all the others Gubbers indifferently."—Ibid. 242.
page 400b1762.—"Gold and Silver Weights:
| | oz. | dwts. | grs. |
| 100 Venetian Ducats | 11 | 0 | 5 |
| 10 (100?) Gubbers | 10 | 17 | 12 | ." |
| Brooks, Weights and Measures. ||||
GUBBROW, v. To bully, to dumbfound, and perturb a person. Made from ghabrāo, the imperative of ghabrānā. The latter, though sometimes used transitively, is more usually neuter, 'to be dumbfounded and perturbed.'
GUDDA, s. A donkey, literal and metaphorical. H. gadhā: [Skt. gardabha, 'the roarer']. The coincidence of the Scotch cuddy has been attributed to a loan from H. through the gypsies, who were the chief owners of the animal in Scotland, where it is not common. On the other hand, this is ascribed to a nickname Cuddy (for Cuthbert), like the English Neddy, similarly applied. [So the N.E.D. with hesitation.] A Punjab proverbial phrase is gadōṅ khurkī, "Donkeys' rubbing" their sides together, a sort of 'claw me and I'll claw thee.'
GUDDY, GUDDEE, s. H. gaddī, Mahr. gādī. 'The Throne.' Properly it is a cushion, a throne in the Oriental sense, i.e. the seat of royalty, "a simple sheet, or mat, or carpet on the floor, with a large cushion or pillow at the head, against which the great man reclines" (Wilson). "To be placed on the guddee" is to succeed to the kingdom. The word is also used for the pad placed on an elephant's back.
GUDGE, s. P.—H. gaz, and corr. gaj; a Persian yard measure or thereabouts; but in India applied to measures of very varying lengths, from the hāth, or natural cubit, to the English yard. In the Āīn [ed. Jarrett, ii. 58 seqq.] Abu'l Faẓl details numerous gaz which had been in use under the Caliphs or in India, varying from 18 inches English (as calculated by page 401aJ. Prinsep) to 52⅛. The Ilāhī gaz of Akbar was intended to supersede all these as a standard; and as it was the basis of all records of land-measurements and rents in Upper India, the determination of its value was a subject of much importance when the revenue surveys were undertaken about 1824. The results of enquiry were very discrepant, however, and finally an arbitrary value of 33 inches was assumed. The bīghā (see BEEGAH), based on this, and containing 3600 square gaz = ⅝ of an acre, is the standard in the N.W.P., but statistics are now always rendered in acres. See Gladwin's Ayeen (1800) i. 302, seqq.; Prinsep's Useful Tables, ed. Thomas, 122; [Madras Administration Manual, ii. 505.]
1754.—"Some of the townsmen again demanded of me to open my bales, and sell them some pieces of cloth; but ... I rather chose to make several of them presents of 2¼ gaz of cloth, which is the measure they usually take for a coat."—Hanway, i. 125.
1768-71.—"A gess or goss is 2 cobidos, being at Chinsurah 2 feet and 10 inches Rhineland measure."—Stavorinus, E.T. i. 463.
GUICOWAR, n.p. Gāekwār, the title of the Mahratta kings of Guzerat, descended from Dāmāji and Pīlājī Gāekwār, who rose to distinction among Mahratta warriors in the second quarter of the 18th century. The word means 'Cowherd.'
GUINEA-CLOTHS, GUINEA-STUFFS, s. Apparently these were piece-goods bought in India to be used in the West African trade. [On the other hand, Sir G. Birdwood identifies them with gunny (Report on old Recs., 224). The manufacture page 401bstill goes on at Pondicherry.] These are presumably the Negros-tücher of Baldaeus (1672), p. 154.
1726.—We find in a list of cloths purchased by the Dutch Factory at Porto Novo, Guinees Lywaat, and Negros-Kleederen ('Guinea linens and Negro's clothing').—See Valentijn, Chorom. 9.
1813.—"The demand for Surat piece-goods has been much decreased in Europe ... and from the abolition of the slave trade, the demand for the African market has been much reduced.... Guinea stuffs, 4½ yards each (per ton) 1200 (pieces)."—Milburn, i. 289.
[GUINEA DEER, s. An old name for some species of Chevrotain, in the quotation probably the Tragulus meminna or Mouse Deer (Blanford, Mammalia, 555).
GUINEA-FOWL. There seems to have been, in the 16th century, some confusion between turkeys and Guinea-fowl. See however under TURKEY. The Guinea-fowl is the Meleagris of Aristotle and others, the Afra avis of Horace.
GUINEA-PIG, s. This was a nickname given to midshipmen or apprentices on board Indiamen in the 18th century, when the command of such a vessel was a sure fortune, and large fees were paid to the captain with whom the youngsters embarked. Admiral Smyth, in his Sailor's Handbook, 1867, defines: 'The younger midshipmen of an Indiaman.'
GUINEA-WORM, s. A parasitic worm (Filaria Medinensis) inhabiting the subcutaneous cellular tissue of man, frequently in the leg, varying from 6 inches to 12 feet in length, and common on the Pers. Gulf, in Upper Egypt, Guinea, &c. It is found page 402ain some parts of W. India. "I have known," writes M.-Gen. Keatinge, "villages where half the people were maimed by it after the rains. Matunga, the Head Quarters of the Bombay Artillery, was abandoned, in great measure, on account of this pest." [It is the disease most common in the Damoh District (C. P. Gazetteer, 176, Sleeman, Rambles, &c., ed. V. A. Smith, i. 94). It is the rāshta, reshta of Central Asia (Schuyler, Turkistan, i. 147; Wolff, Travels, ii. 407).] The reason of the name is shown by the quotation from Purchas respecting its prevalence in Guinea. The disease is graphically described by Agatharchides in the first quotation.
1600.—"The wormes in the legges and bodies trouble not euery one that goeth to those Countreys, but some are troubled with them and some are not"—(a full account of the disease follows).—Descn. of Guinea, in Purchas, ii. 963.
c. 1630.—"But for their water ... I may call it Aqua Mortis ... it ingenders small long worms in the legges of such as use to drink it ... by no potion, no unguent to be remedied: they have no other way to destroy them, save by rowling them about a pin or peg, not unlike the treble of Theorbo."—Sir T. Herbert, p. 128.
1664.—"... nor obliged to drink of those naughty waters ... full of nastiness of so many people and beasts ... that do cause such fevers, which are very hard to cure, and which breed also certain very dangerous worms in the legs ... they are commonly of the bigness and length of a small Vial-string ... and they must be drawn out little by little, from day to day, gently winding them about a little twig about the bigness of a needle, for fear of breaking them."—Bernier, E.T. 114; [ed. Constable, 355].
1676.—"Guinea Worms are very frequent in some Places of the West Indies ... I rather judge that they are generated by drinking bad water."—Dampier, ii. 89-90.
1712.—"Haec vita est Ormusiensium, imò civium totius littoris Persici, ut perpetuas in corpore calamitates ferant ex coeli intemperie: modo sudore diffluunt; modo vexantur furunculis; nunc cibi sunt, mox aquae inopes; saepè ventis urentibus, page 402bsemper sole torrente, squalent et quis omnia recenseat? Unum ex aerumnis gravioribus induco: nimirum Lumbricorum singulare genus, quod non in intestinis, sed in musculis per corporis ambitum natales invenit. Latini medici vermem illum nomine donant τοῦ δρακοντίου, s. Dracunculi.... Guineenses nigritae linguâ suâ ... vermes illos vocant Ickòn, ut produnt reduces ex aurifero illo Africae littore...."—Kaempfer, Amoen. Exot., 524-5. Kaempfer speculates as to why the old physicians called it dracunculus; but the name was evidently taken from the δρακόντιον of Agatharchides, quoted above.
1768.—"The less dangerous diseases which attack Europeans in Guinea are, the dry belly-ache, and a worm which breeds in the flesh.... Dr. Rouppe observes that the disease of the Guinea-worm is infectious."—Lind on Diseases of Hot Climates, pp. 53, 54.
1774.—See an account of this pest under the name of "le ver des nerfs (Vena Medinensis)," in Niebuhr, Desc. de l'Arabie, 117. The name given by Niebuhr is, as we learn from Kaempfer's remarks, 'araḳ Medīnī, the Medina nerve (rather than vein).
GUJPUTTY, n.p. (See COSPETIR.)
GUM-GUM, s. We had supposed this word to be an invention of the late Charles Dickens, but it seems to be a real Indian, or Anglo-Indian, word. The nearest approximation in Shakespear's Dict. is gamak, 'sound of the kettledrum.' But the word is perhaps a Malay plural of gong originally; see the quotation from Osbeck. [The quotations from Bowdich and Medley (from Scott, Malay Words, p. 53) perhaps indicate an African origin.]
[1731.—"One of the Hottentot Instruments of Musick is common to several Negro Nations, and is called both by Negroes and Hottentots, gom-gom ... is a Bow of Iron, or Olive Wood, strung with twisted Sheep-Gut or Sinews."—Medley, tr. Kolben's Cape of Good Hope, i. 271.]
page 403ac. 1750-60.—"A music far from delightful, consisting of little drums they call Gumgums, cymbals, and a sort of fife."—Grose, i. 139.
1768-71.—"They have a certain kind of musical instruments called gom-goms, consisting in hollow iron bowls, of various sizes and tones, upon which a man strikes with an iron or wooden stick ... not unlike a set of bells."—Stavorinus, E.T. i. 215. See also p. 65.
1771.—"At night we heard a sort of music, partly made by insects, and partly by the noise of the Gungung."—Osbeck, i. 185.
[1819.—"The gong-gongs and drums were beat all around us."—Bowdich, Mission to Ashantee, i. 7, 136.]
1836.—"'Did you ever hear a tom-tom, Sir?' sternly enquired the Captain....
'A what?' asked Hardy, rather taken aback.
'A tom-tom.'
'Never!'
'Nor a gum-gum?'
'Never!'
[GUNGE, s. Hind. ganj, 'a store, store-house, market.'
[1772.—"Gunge, a market principally for grain."—Verelst, View of Bengal, Gloss. s.v.
GUNJA, s. Hind. gānjhā, gānjā. The flowering or fruiting shoots of the female plant of Indian hemp (Cannabis sativa, L., formerly distinguished as C. indica), used as an intoxicant. (See BANG.)
GUNNY, GUNNY-BAG, s. From Skt. goṇi, 'a sack'; Hind. and Mahr. goṇ, goṇī, 'a sack, sacking.' The popular and trading name of the page 403bcoarse sacking and sacks made from the fibre of jute, much used in all Indian trade. Ṭāṭ is a common Hind. name for the stuff. [With this word Sir G. Birdwood identifies the forms found in the old records—"Guiny Stuffes (1671)," "Guynie stuffs," "Guinea stuffs," "Gunnys" (Rep. on Old Records, 26, 38, 39, 224); but see under GUINEA-CLOTHS.]
1693.—"Besides the aforenamed articles Goeny-sacks are collected at Palicol."—Havart (3), 14.
1711.—"When Sugar is pack'd in double Goneys, the outer Bag is always valued in Contract at 1 or 1½ Shahee."—Lockyer, 244.
1726.—In a list of goods procurable at Daatzerom: "Goeni-zakken (Gunny bags)."—Valentijn, Chor. 40.
1727.—"Sheldon ... put on board some rotten long Pepper, that he could dispose of in no other Way, and some damaged Gunnies, which are much used in Persia for embaling Goods, when they are good in their kind."—A. Hamilton, ii. 15; [ed. 1744].
1764.—"Baskets, Gunny bags, and dubbers ... Rs. 24."—In Long, 384.
1785.—"We enclose two parwanehs ... directing them each to despatch 1000 goonies of grain to that person of mighty degree."—Tippoo's Letters, 171.
GUNTA, s. Hind. ghanṭā, 'a bell or gong.' This is the common term for expressing an European hour in modern Hindūstānī. [See PANDY.]
GUP, s. Idle gossip. P.—H. gap, 'prattle, tattle.' The word is perhaps an importation from Tūrān. Vambéry gives Orient. Turki gep, geb, 'word, saying, talk'; which, however, Pavet de Courteille suggests to be a corruption from the Pers. guftan, 'to say'; of which, indeed, there is a form guptan. [So Platts, who also compares Skt. jalpa, which is the Bengali golpo, 'babble.'] See quotation from Schuyler showing the use in Turkistan. The word is perhaps best known in England through an unamiable account of society in S. page 404aIndia, published under the name of "Gup," in 1868.
GUREEBPURWUR, GURREEBNUWAUZ, ss. Ar.—P. Gharībpārwar, Gharībnawāz, used in Hind. as respectful terms of address, meaning respectively 'Provider of the Poor!' 'Cherisher of the Poor!'
1824.—"I was appealed to loudly by both parties, the soldiers calling on me as 'Ghureeb purwur,' the Goomashta, not to be outdone, exclaiming 'Donai, Lord Sahib! Donai! Rajah!'" (Read Dohāī and see DOAI).—Heber, i. 266. See also p. 279.
GURJAUT, n.p. The popular and official name of certain forest tracts at the back of Orissa. The word is a hybrid, being the Hind. gaṛh, 'a fort,' Persianised into a plural gaṛhjāt, in ignorance of which we have seen, in quasi-official documents, the use of a further English plural, Gurjauts or gaṛhjāts, which is like 'fortses.' [In the quotation below, the writer seems to think it a name of a class of people.] This manner of denominating such tracts from the isolated occupation by fortified posts seems to be very ancient in that part of India. We have in Ptolemy and the Periplus Dosarēnē or Dēsarēnē, apparently representing Skt. Daśāṛṇa, quasi daśan ṛiṇa, 'having Ten Forts,' which the lists of the Bṛhat Sanhitā shew us in this part of India (J. R. As. Soc., N.S., v. 83). The forest tract behind Orissa is called in page 404bthe grant of an Orissa king, Nava Koti, 'the Nine Forts' (J.A.S.B. xxxiii. 84); and we have, in this region, further in the interior, the province of Chattīsgaṛh, '36 Forts.'
GURRY.
a. A little fort; Hind. gaṛhī. Also Gurr, i.e. gaṛh, 'a fort.'
b. See GHURRY.
a.—
1786.—"... The Zemindars in 4 pergunnahs are so refractory as to have forfeited (read fortified) themselves in their gurries, and to refuse all payments of revenue."—Articles against W. Hastings, in Burke, vii. 59.
GUTTA PERCHA, s. This is the Malay name Gatah Pertja, i.e. 'Sap of the Percha,' Dichopsis Gutta, Benth. (Isonandra Gutta, Hooker; N.O. Sapotaceae). Dr. Oxley writes (J. Ind. Archip. i. 22) that percha is properly the name of a tree which produces a spurious article; the real gutta p. is produced by the túbau. [Mr. Maxwell (Ind. Ant. xvii. 358) points out that the proper reading is taban.] The product was first brought to notice in 1843 by Dr. Montgomery. It is collected by first ringing the tree and then felling it, and no doubt by this process the article will speedily become extinct. The history of G. P. is, however, far from well known. Several trees are known to contribute to the exported article; their juices being mixed together. [Mr. Scott (Malay Words, 55 seqq.) writes the word getah percha, or getah perchah, 'gum of percha,' and remarks that it has been otherwise explained as meaning 'gum of Sumatra,' "there being another word percha, a name of Sumatra, as well as a third word percha, 'a rag, a remnant.'" Mr. Maxwell (loc. cit.) writes: "It is still uncertain whether there is a page 405agutta-producing tree called Percha by the Malays. My experience is that they give the name of Perchah to that kind of getah taban which hardens into strips in boiling. These are stuck together and made into balls for export."]
GUZZY, s. Pers. and Hind. gazī; perhaps from its having been woven of a gaz (see GUDGE) in breadth. A very poor kind of cotton cloth.
1784.—"It is suggested that the following articles may be proper to compose the first adventure (to Tibet): ... Guzzie, or coarse Cotton Cloths, and Otterskins...."—In Seton-Karr, i. 4.
GWALIOR, n.p. Hind. Gwālīār. A very famous rock-fortress of Upper India, rising suddenly and picturesquely out of a plain (or shallow valley rather) to a height of 300 feet, 65 m. south of Agra, in lat. 26° 13′. Gwalior may be traced back, in Gen. Cunningham's opinion, to the 3rd century of our era. It was the seat page 405bof several ancient Hindu dynasties, and from the time of the early Mahommedan sovereigns of Delhi down to the reign of Aurangzīb it was used as a state-prison. Early in the 18th century it fell into the possession of the Mahratta family of Sindhia, whose residence was established to the south of the fortress, in what was originally a camp, but has long been a city known by the original title of Lashkar (camp). The older city lies below the northern foot of the rock. Gwalior has been three times taken by British arms: (1) escaladed by a force under the command of Major Popham in 1780, a very daring feat; (2) by a regular attack under Gen. White in 1805; (3) most gallantly in June 1858, by a party of the 25th Bombay N. I. under Lieutenants Rose and Waller, in which the former officer fell. After the two first captures the fortress was restored to the Sindhia family. From 1858 it was retained in our hands, but in December 1885 it was formally restored to the Mahārājā Sindhia.
The name of the fortress, according to Gen. Cunningham (Archaeol. Survey, ii. 335), is derived from a small Hindū shrine within it dedicated to the hermit Gwāli or Gwāli-pā, after whom the fortress received the name of Gwāli-āwar, contracted into Gwāliār.
1196.—The royal army marched "towards Gālewār, and invested that fort, which is the pearl of the necklace of the castles of Hind, the summit of which the nimble-footed wind from below cannot reach, and on the bastions of which the clouds have never cast their shade...."—Hasan Nizāmī, in Elliot, ii. 227.
c. 1340.—"The castle of Gālyūr, of which we have been speaking, is on the top of a high hill, and appears, so to speak, as if it were itself cut out of the rock. There is no other hill adjoining; it contains reservoirs page 406aof water, and some 20 wells walled round are attached to it: on the walls are mounted mangonels and catapults. The fortress is ascended by a wide road, traversed by elephants and horses. Near the castle-gate is the figure of an elephant carved in stone, and surmounted by a figure of the driver. Seeing it from a distance one has no doubt about its being a real elephant. At the foot of the fortress is a fine city, entirely built of white stone, mosques and houses alike; there is no timber to be seen in it, except that of the gates."—Ibn Batuta, ii. 193.
1526.—"I entered Guâliâr by the Hâtipûl gate.... They call an elephant hâti, and a gate pûl. On the outside of this gate is the figure of an elephant, having two elephant drivers on it...."—Baber, p. 383.
[c. 1590.—"Gualiar is a famous fort, in which are many stately buildings, and there is a stone elephant over the gate. The air and water of this place are both esteemed good. It has always been celebrated for fine singers and beautiful women...."—Ayeen, Gladwin, ed. 1800, ii. 38; ed. Jarrett, ii. 181.]
1610.—"The 31 to Gwalere, 6 c., a pleasant Citie with a Castle.... On the West side of the Castle, which is a steep craggy cliffe of 6 c. compasse at least (divers say eleven).... From hence to the top, leads a narrow stone cawsey, walled on both sides; in the way are three gates to be passed, all exceeding strong, with Courts of guard to each. At the top of all, at the entrance of the last gate, standeth a mightie Elephant of stone very curiously wrought...."—Finch, in Purchas, i. 426-7.
1616.—"23. Gwalier, the chief City so called, where the Mogol hath a very rich Treasury of Gold and Silver kept in this City, within an exceeding strong Castle, wherein the King's Prisoners are likewise kept. The Castle is continually guarded by a very strong Company of Armed Souldiers."—Terry, ed. 1665, p. 356.
[" "Kualiar," in Sir T. Roe's List, Hak. Soc. ii. 539.]
c. 1665.—"For to shut them up in Goualeor, which is a Fortress where the Princes are ordinarily kept close, and which is held impregnable, it being situated upon an inaccessible Rock, and having within itself good water, and provision enough for a Garison; that was not an easie thing."—Bernier, E.T. 5; [ed. Constable, 14].
GYAUL (properly GAYĀL), [Skt. go, 'an ox'], s. A large animal (Gavaeus frontalis, Jerd., Bos f. Blanford, Mammalia, 487) of the ox tribe, found wild in various forest tracts to the east of India. It is domesticated by the Mishmis of the Assam valley, and other tribes as far south as Chittagong. In Assam it is called Mithan.
1824.—"In the park several uncommon animals are kept. Among them the Ghyal, an animal of which I had not, to my recollection, read any account, though the name was not unknown to me. It is a very noble creature, of the ox or buffalo kind, with immensely large horns...."—Heber, i. 34.
1866-67.—"I was awakened by an extraordinary noise, something between a bull's bellow and a railway whistle. What was it? We started to our feet, and Fuzlah and I were looking to our arms when Adupah said, 'It is only the guyal calling; Sahib! Look, the dawn is just breaking, and they are opening the village gates for the beasts to go out to pasture.'
GYELONG, s. A Buddhist priest in Tibet. Tib. dGe-sLong, i.e. 'beggar of virtue,' i.e. a bhikshu or mendicant friar (see under BUXEE); but latterly a priest who has received the highest orders. See Jaeschke, p. 86.
GYM-KHANA, s. This word is quite modern, and was unknown 40 years ago. The first use that we can trace is (on the authority of Major John Trotter) at Rūrkī in 1861, when a gymkhana was instituted there. It is a factitious word, invented, we believe, in the Bombay Presidency, and probably based upon gend-khāna ('ball-house'), the name usually given page 407ain Hind. to an English racket-court. It is applied to a place of public resort at a station, where the needful facilities for athletics and games of sorts are provided, including (when that was in fashion) a skating-rink, a lawn-tennis ground, and so forth. The gym may have been simply a corruption of gend shaped by gymnastics, [of which the English public school short form gym passed into Anglo-Indian jargon]. The word is also applied to a meeting for such sports; and in this sense it has travelled already as far as Malta, and has since become common among Englishmen abroad. [The suggestion that the word originated in the P.—H. jamā'at-khana, 'a place of assemblage,' is not probable.]
1879.—"Mr. A—— F—— can always be depended on for epigram, but not for accuracy. In his letters from Burma he talks of the Gymkhana at Rangoon as a sort of establissement [sic] where people have pleasant little dinners. In the 'Oriental Arcadia,' which Mr. F—— tells us is flavoured with naughtiness, people may do strange things, but they do not dine at Gymkhanas."—Ibid. July 2.
1881.—"R. E. Gymkhana at Malta, for Polo and other Ponies, 20th June, 1881."—Heading in Royal Engineer Journal, Aug. 1, p. 159.
GYNEE, s. H. gainī. A very diminutive kind of cow bred in Bengal. It is, when well cared for, a beautiful creature, is not more than 3 feet high, and affords excellent meat. It is mentioned by Aelian:
c. 1590.—"There is also a species of oxen called gaini, small like gūt (see GOONT) horses, but very beautiful."—Āīn, i. 149.
[1829.—"... I found that the said tiger had feasted on a more delicious morsel,—a nice little Ghinee, a small cow."—Mem. of John Shipp, iii. 132.]
* ↑ Galeon is here the galliot of later days. See above.
* ↑ "A kind of boat," is all that Crawfurd tells.—Malay Dict. s.v. ["Banting, a native sailing-vessel with two masts"—Williamson, Malay Dict.: "Bantieng, soort van boot met twee masten"—Van Eysinga, Malay-Dutch Dict.]
* ↑ There is no justification for this word in the Latin.
* ↑ "Rheede says: 'Etiam in sylvis et desertis reperitur' (Hort. Mal. xi. 10). But I am not aware of any botanist having found it wild. I suspect that no one has looked for it."—Sir J. D. Hooker.
* ↑ Gebeli, Ar. "of the hills." Neli is also read dely, probably for d'Ely (see DELY, MOUNT). The Ely ginger is mentioned by Barbosa (p. 220).
* ↑ From Amari's Italian version.
* ↑ The two companies which escaladed were led by Captain Bruce, a brother of the Abyssinian traveller. "It is said that the spot was pointed out to Popham by a cowherd, and that the whole of the attacking party were supplied with grass shoes to prevent them from slipping on the ledges of rock. There is a story also that the cost of these grass-shoes was deducted from Popham's pay, when he was about to leave India as a major-general, nearly a quarter of a century afterwards."—Cunningham, Arch. Surv. ii. 340.