# Hobson-Jobson/H

H
HACKERY, s. In the Bengal Presidency this word is now applied only to the common native bullock-cart used in the slow draught of goods and materials. But formerly in Bengal, as still in Western India and Ceylon, the word was applied to lighter carriages (drawn by bullocks) for personal transport. In Broughton's Letters from a Mahratta Camp (p. 156; [ed. 1892, p. 117]) the word is used for what in Upper India is commonly called an ekka (q.v.), or light native pony-carriage; but this is an exceptional application. Though the word is used by Englishmen almost universally in India, it is unknown to natives, or if known is regarded as an English term; and its origin is exceedingly obscure. The word seems to have originated on the west side of India, where we find it in our earliest quotations. It is probably one of those numerous words which were long in use, and undergoing corruption by illiterate soldiers and sailors, before they appeared in any kind of literature. Wilson suggests a probable Portuguese origin, e.g. from acarretar, 'to convey in a cart.' It is possible that the mere Portuguese article and noun 'a carreta' might have produced the Anglo-Indian hackery. Thus in Correa, under 1513, we have a description of the Surat hackeries; "and the carriages (as carretas) in which he and the Portuguese travelled, were elaborately wrought, and furnished with silk hangings, covering them from the sun; and these carriages (as carretas) run so smoothly (the country consisting of level plains) that the people travelling in them sleep as tranquilly as on the ground" (ii. 369).
But it is almost certain that the origin of the word is the H. chhakra, 'a two-wheeled cart'; and it may be noted that in old Singhalese chakka, page 408a'a cart-wheel,' takes the forms haka and saka (see Kuhn, On Oldest Aryan Elements of Singhalese, translated by D. Ferguson in Indian Ant. xii. 64). [But this can have no connection with chhakra, which represents Skt. śakaṭa, 'a waggon.']
1690.—"Their Hackeries likewise, which are a kind of Coach, with two Wheels, are all drawn by Oxen."—Ovington, 254.
1711.—"The Streets (at Surat) are wide and commodious; otherwise the Hackerys, which are very common, would be an Inconveniency. These are a sort of Coaches drawn by a Pair of Oxen."—Lockyer, 259.
1742.—"The bridges are much worn, and out of repair, by the number of Hackaries and other carriages which are continually passing over them."—In Wheeler, iii. 262.
1756.—"The 11th of July the Nawab arrived in the city, and with him Bundoo Sing, to whose house we were removed that afternoon in a hackery."—Holwell, in Wheeler's Early Records, 249.
c. 1760.—"The hackrees are a conveyance drawn by oxen, which would at first give an idea of slowness that they do not deserve ... they are open on three sides, covered a-top, and are made to hold two people sitting cross-legged."—Grose, i. 155-156.
1780.—"A hackery is a small covered carriage upon two wheels drawn by bullocks, and used generally for the female part of the family."—Hodges, Travels, 5.
c. 1790.—"Quant aux palankins et hakkaries (voitures à deux roues), on les passe sur une double sangarie" (see JANGAR).—Haafner, ii. 173.
1793.—"To be sold by Public Auction ... a new Fashioned Hackery."—Bombay Courier, April 13.
1798.—"At half-past six o'clock we each got into a hackeray."—Stavorinus, tr. by Wilcocks, iii. 295.
1811.—Solvyns draws and describes the Hackery in the modern Bengal sense.
" "Il y a cependant quelques endroits où l'on se sert de charettes couvertes à deux roues, appelées hickeris, devant lesquelles on attèle des bœufs, et qui servent à voyager."—Editor of Haafner, Voyages, ii. 3.
1813.—"Travelling in a light hackaree, at the rate of five miles an hour."—Forbes, Or. Mem. iii. 376; [2nd ed. ii. 352; in i. 150, hackeries, ii. 253, hackarees]. Forbes's engraving represents such an ox-carriage as would be called in Bengal a bailī (see BYLEE).
1829.—"The genuine vehicle of the country is the hackery. This is a sort of wee page 408btent, covered more or less with tinsel and scarlet, and bells and gilding, and placed upon a clumsy two-wheeled carriage with a pole that seems to be also a kind of boot, as it is at least a foot deep. This is drawn by a pair of white bullocks."—Mem. of Col. Mountain, 2nd ed., 84.
[HADDY, s. A grade of troops in the Mogul service. According to Prof. Blochmann (Āīn, i. 20, note) they corresponded to our "Warranted officers." "Most clerks of the Imperial offices, the painters of the Court, the foremen in Akbar's workshops, &c., belonged to this corps. They were called Aḥadīs, or single men, because they stood under Akbar's immediate orders." And Mr. Irvine writes: "Midway between the nobles or leaders (mansabdārs) with the horsemen under them (tābīnān) on the one hand, and the Aḥshām (see EYSHAM), or infantry, artillery, and artificers on the other, stood the Aḥadī, or gentleman trooper. The word is literally 'single' or 'alone' (A. aḥad, 'one'). It is easy to see why this name was applied to them; they offered their services singly, they did not attach themselves to any chief, thus forming a class apart from the tābīnān; but as they were horsemen, they stood equally apart from the specialised services included under the remaining head of Aḥshām." (J. R. As. Soc., July 1896, p. 545.)
[1616.—"The Prince's Haddy ... betrayed me."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. ii. 383.
[1617.—"A Haddey of horse sent down to see it effected."—Ibid. ii. 450.
HADGEE, s. Ar. Ḥājj, a pilgrim to Mecca; from ḥajj, the pilgrimage, or visit to a venerated spot. Hence Hājjī and Hājī used colloquially in Persian and Turkish. Prof. Robertson Smith writes: "There is current confusion about the word ḥājj. It is originally the participle of ḥajj, 'he went on the ḥajj.' But in modern use ḥājij is used as part., and ḥājj is the page 409atitle given to one who has made the pilgrimage. When this is prefixed to a name, the double j cannot be pronounced without inserting a short vowel and the a is shortened; thus you say 'el-Hajjĕ Soleimān,' or the like. The incorrect form Hājjī is however used by Turks and Persians."
[c. 1610.—"Those who have been to Arabia ... are called Agy."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 165.
[c. 1665.—"Aureng-Zebe once observed perhaps by way of joke, that Sultan Sujah was become at last an Agy or pilgrim."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 113.
[1673.—"Hodge, a Pilgrimage to Mecca." (See under A MUCK.)
[1683.—"Hodgee Sophee Caun." See under FIRMAUN.]
1765.—"Hodgee acquired this title from his having in his early years made a pilgrimage to Hodge (or the tomb of Mahommed at Mecca)."—Holwell, Hist. Events, &c., i. 59.
HÁKIM, s. H. from Ar. ḥākim, 'a judge, a ruler, a master'; 'the authority.' The same Ar. root ḥakm, 'bridling, restraining, judging,' supplies a variety of words occurring in this Glossary, viz. Ḥākim (as here); Ḥakīm (see HUCKEEM); Ḥukm (see HOOKUM); Ḥikmat (see HICKMAT).
1698.—"Hackum, a Governor."—Fryer's Index Explanatory.
c. 1861.—
"Then comes a settlement Hakim, to teach me to plough and weed— I sowed the cotton he gave me—but first I boiled the seed...." Sir A. C. Lyall, The Old Pindaree.
HALÁLCORE, s. Lit. Ar.—P. ḥalāl-khor, 'one who eats what is lawful,' [ḥalāl being the technical Mahommedan phrase for the slaying of an animal to be used for food according to the proper ritual], applied euphemistically to a person of very low caste, a sweeper or scavenger, implying 'to whom all is lawful food.' page 409bGenerally used as synonymous with bungy (q.v.). [According to Prof. Blochmann, "Ḥalālkhūr, i.e. one who eats that which the ceremonial law allows, is a euphemism for ḥarāmkhūr, one who eats forbidden things, as pork, &c. The word ḥalālkhūr is still in use among educated Muhammadans; but it is doubtful whether (as stated in the Āīn) it was Akbar's invention." (Āīn, i. 139 note.)]
1638.—"... sont obligez de se purifier depuis la teste i'usqu'aux pieds si quelqu'vn de ces gens qu'ils appellent Alchores, leur a touché."—Mandelslo, Paris, 1659, 219.
1665.—"Ceux qui ne parlent que Persan dans les Indes, les appellent Halalcour, c'est à dire celui qui se donne la liberté de manger de tout ce qu'il lui plait, ou, selon quelques uns, celui qui mange ce qu'il a légitimement gagné. Et ceux qui approuvent cette dernière explication, disent qu'autrefois Halalcours s'appellent Haramcours, mangeurs de Viande defenduës."—Thevenot, v. 190.
1673.—"That they should be accounted the Offscum of the People, and as base as the Holencores (whom they account so, because they defile themselves by eating anything)."—Fryer, 28; [and see under BOY, b].
1690.—"The Halalchors ... are another Sort of Indians at Suratt, the most contemptible, but extremely necessary to be there."—Ovington, 382.
1763.—"And now I must mention the Hallachores, whom I cannot call a Tribe, being rather the refuse of all the Tribes. These are a set of poor unhappy wretches, destined to misery from their birth...."—Reflexions, &c., by Luke Scrafton, Esq., 7-8. It was probably in this passage that Burns (see below) picked up the word.
1783.—"That no Hollocore, Derah, or Chandala caste, shall upon any consideration come out of their houses after 9 o'clock in the morning, lest they should taint the air, or touch the superior Hindoos in the streets."—Mahratta Proclamation at Baroch, in Forbes, Or. Mem. iv. 232.
1786.—"When all my schoolfellows and youthful compeers (those misguided few excepted who joined, to use a Gentoo phrase, the hallachores of the human race) were striking off with eager hope and earnest intent, in some one or other of the many paths of a busy life, I was 'standing idle in the market-place.'"—Letter of Robert Burns, in A. Cunningham's ed. of Works and Life, vi. 63.
page 410a1788.—The Indian Vocabulary also gives Hallachore.
HALÁLLCUR. V. used in the imperative for infinitive, as is common in the Anglo-Indian use of H. verbs, being Ar.—H. ḥalāl-kar, 'make lawful,' i.e. put (an animal) to death in the manner prescribed to Mahommedans, when it is to be used for food.
HALF-CASTE, s. A person of mixt European and Indian blood. (See MUSTEES; EURASIAN.)
1793.—"They (the Mahratta Infantry) are commanded by half-cast people of Portuguese and French extraction, who draw off the attention of the spectators from the bad clothing of their men, by the profusion of antiquated lace bestowed on their own."—Dirom, Narrative, ii.
1809.—"The Padre, who is a half-cast Portuguese, informed me that he had three districts under him."—Ld. Valentia, i. 329.
1828.—"An invalid sergeant ... came, attended by his wife, a very pretty young half-caste."—Heber, i. 298.
HANGER, s. The word in this form is not in Anglo-Indian use, but (with the Scotch whinger, Old Eng. whinyard, Fr. cangiar, &c., other forms of the same) may be noted here as a corruption of the Arab. khanjar, 'a dagger or short falchion.' This (vulg. cunjur) is the Indian form. [According to the N.E.D. though 'hanger' has sometimes been employed to translate khanjar (probably with a notion of etymological page 410bidentity) there is no connection between the words.] The khanjar in India is a large double-edged dagger with a very broad base and a slight curve. [See drawings in Egerton, Handbook of Indian Arms, pl. X. Nos. 504, 505, &c.]
1601.—"The other day I happened to enter into some discourse of a hanger, which I assure you, both for fashion and workmanship was most peremptory beautiful and gentlemanlike...."—B. Jonson, Every Man in His Humour, i. 4.
[c. 1610.—"The islanders also bore their arms, viz., alfanges (al-khanjar) or scimitars."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 43.]
1653.—"Gangeard est en Turq, Persan et Indistanni vn poignard courbé."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 539.
1672.—"... il s'estoit emporté contre elle jusqu'à un tel excès qu'il luy avoit porté quelques coups de Cangiar dans les mamelles...."—Journal d'Ant. Galland, i. 177.
1673.—"... handjar de diamants...."—App. to do. ii. 189.
1676.—
"His pistol next he cock'd anew And out his nutbrown whinyard drew." Hudibras, Canto iii.
1684.—"The Souldiers do not wear Hangers or Scimitars like the Persians, but broad Swords like the Switzers...."—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 65; [ed. Ball, i. 157].
1712.—"His Excy ... was presented by the Emperor with a Hindoostany Candjer, or dagger, set with fine stones."—Valentijn, iv. (Suratte), 286.
[1717.—"The 23rd ultimo, John Surman received from his Majesty a horse and a Cunger...."—In Wheeler, Early Records, 183.]
1781.—"I fancy myself now one of the most formidable men in Europe; a blunderbuss for Joe, a pair of double barrels to stick in my belt, and a cut and thrust hanger with a little pistol in the hilt, to hang by my side."—Lord Minto, in Life, i. 56.
" "Lost out of a buggy on the Road between Barnagur and Calcutta, a steel mounted Hanger with a single guard."—Hicky's Bengal Gazette, June 30.
page 411aHANSALERI, s. Table-servant's Hind. for 'horse-radish'! "A curious corruption, and apparently influenced by saleri, 'celery'"; (Mr. M. L. Dames, in Panjab N. and Q. ii. 184).
HANSIL, s. A hawser, from the English (Roebuck).
HANSPEEK, USPUCK, &c., s. Sea Hind. Aspak. A handspike, from the English.
HARAKIRI, s. This, the native name of the Japanese rite of suicide committed as a point of honour or substitute for judicial execution, has long been interpreted as "happy despatch," but what the origin of this curious error is we do not know. [The N.E.D. s.v. dispatch, says that it is humorous.] The real meaning is realistic in the extreme, viz., hara, 'belly,' kiri, 'to cut.'
[1615.—"His mother cut her own belly."—Foster, Letters, iv. 45.]
1616.—"Here we had news how Galsa Same was to passe this way to morrow to goe to a church near Miaco, called Coye; som say to cut his bellie, others say to be shaved a prist and to remeane theare the rest of his dais."—Cocks's Diary, i. 164.
1617.—"The King demanded 800 tais from Shosque Dono, or else to cut his belly, whoe, not having it to pay, did it."—Ibid. 337, see also ii. 202.
HARAMZADA, s. A scoundrel; literally 'misbegotten'; a common term of abuse. It is Ar.—P. ḥarām-zāda, 'son of the unlawful.' Ḥarām is from a root signifying sacer (see under HAREM), and which appears as Hebrew in the sense of 'devoting to destruction,' and of 'a ban.' Thus in Numbers xxi. 3: "They utterly destroyed them and their cities; and he called the name of the place Hormah." [See Encycl. Bibl. i. 468; ii. 2110.]
page 411bHAREM, s. Ar. ḥaram, ḥarīm, i.e. sacer, applied to the women of the family and their apartment. This word is not now commonly used in India, zenana (q.v.) being the common word for 'the women of the family,' or their apartments.
1623.—"Non so come sciah Selim ebbe notizia di lei e s'innamorò. Volle condurla nel suo haram o gynaeceo, e tenerla quivi appresso di sè come una delle altre concubine; ma questa donna (Nurmahal) che era sopra modo astuta ... ricusò."—P. della Valle, ii. 525; [Hak. Soc. i. 53].
1630.—"This Duke here and in other seralios (or Harams as the Persians term them) has above 300 concubines."—Herbert, 139.
1676.—"In the midst of the large Gallery is a Nich in the Wall, into which the King descends out of his Haram by a private pair of Stairs."—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 49; [ed. Ball, i. 101].
1726.—"On the Ganges also lies a noble fortress, with the Palace of the old Emperor of Hindostan, with his Hharaam or women's apartment...."—Valentijn, v. 168.
[1727.—"The King ... took his Wife into his own Harran or Seraglio...."—A. Hamilton, ed. 1744, i. 171.
HARRY, s. This word is quite obsolete. Wilson gives Hāṛī as Beng. 'A servant of the lowest class, a sweeper.' [The word means 'a collector of bones,' Skt. haḍḍa, 'a bone'; for the caste, see Risley, Tribes of Bengal, i. 314 seqq.] M.-Gen. Keatinge remarks that they are the goldsmiths of Assam; they are village watchmen in Bengal. (See under PYKE.) In two of the quotations below, Harry is applied to a woman, in one case employed to carry water. A female servant of this description is not now known among English families in Bengal.
| "2 Tendells (see TINDAL) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 Hummummee | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| page 412a*     *     *     *     * ||||
| 4 Manjees | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 Dandees (see DANDY) | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 Harrys | 9 | 8 | 0 |
List of Men's Names, &c., immediately in the Service of the Honble. the Vnited Compy. in their Factory of Fort William, Bengall, November, 1706" (MS. in India Office).
c. 1753.—Among the expenses of the Mayor's Court at Calcutta we find: "A harry ... Rs. 1."—Long, 43.
c. 1754.—"A Harry or water-wench...." (at Madras).—Ives, 50.
[" "Harries are the same at Bengal, as Frosts (see FARASH) are at Bombay. Their women do all the drudgery at your houses, and the men carry your Palanquin."—Ibid. 26.]
" In a tariff of wages recommended by the "Zemindars of Calcutta," we have: "Harry-woman to a Family ... 2 Rs."—In Seton-Karr, i. 95.
1768-71.—"Every house has likewise ... a harry-maid or matarani (see MATRANEE) who carries out the dirt; and a great number of slaves, both male and female."—Stavorinus, i. 523.
1781.—
| "2 Harries or Sweepers | 6 Rs. |
| 2 Beesties | 8 Rs. | " |
Establishment ... under the Chief Magistrate of Banaris, in Appendix to Narr. of Insurrection there, Calcutta, 1782.
HATTY, s. Hind. hāthī, the most common word for an elephant; from Skt. hasta, 'the hand,' and hastī, 'the elephant,' come the Hind. words hāth and hāthī, with the same meanings. The analogy of the elephant's trunk to the hand presents itself to Pliny:
and to Tennyson:
"... camels knelt Unbidden, and the brutes of mountain back That carry kings in castles, bow'd black knees Of homage, ringing with their serpent hands, To make her smile, her golden ankle-bells." Merlin and Vivien.
HATTYCHOOK, s. Hind. hāthīchak, servant's and gardener's Hind. for the globe artichoke; [the Jerusalem artichoke is hāthīpīch]. This is worth producing, because our word (artichoke) is itself the corruption of an Oriental word thus carried back to the East in a mangled form.
HAUT, s.
a. Hind. hāth, (the hand or forearm, and thence) 'a cubit,' from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger; a measure of 18 inches, and sometimes more.
b. Hind. hāṭ, Skt. haṭṭa, 'a market held on certain days.'
HAVILDAR, s. Hind. ḥavildār. A sepoy non-commissioned officer, corresponding to a sergeant, and wearing the chevrons of a sergeant. This dating from about the middle of the 18th century is the only modern use of the term in that form. It is a corruption of Pers. ḥawāladār, or ḥawāldār, 'one holding an office of trust'; and in this form it had, in other times, a variety of applications to different charges and subordinate officers. Thus among the Mahrattas the commandant of a fort was so styled; whilst in page 413aEastern Bengal the term was, and perhaps still is, applied to the holder of a ḥawāla, an intermediate tenure between those of zemindar and ryot.
1673.—"We landed at about Nine in the Morning, and were civilly treated by the Customer in his Choultry, till the Havildar could be acquainted of my arrival."—Fryer, 123.
[1680.—"Avaldar." See under JUNCAMEER.]
1696.—"... the havildar of St. Thomé and Pulecat."—Wheeler, i. 308.
[1763.—"Three avaldars (avaldares) or receivers."—India Office MSS. Conselho, Ultramarino, vol. i.
[1773.—"One or two Hircars, one Havildah, and a company of sepoys...."—Ives, 67.]
HAVILDAR'S GUARD, s. There is a common way of cooking the fry of fresh-water fish (a little larger than whitebait) as a breakfast dish, by frying them in rows of a dozen or so, spitted on a small skewer. On the Bombay side this dish is known by the whimsical name in question.
HAZREE, s. This word is commonly used in Anglo-Indian households in the Bengal Presidency for 'breakfast.' It is not clear how it got this meaning. [The earlier sense was religious, as below.] It is properly ḥāẓirī, 'muster,' from the Ar. ḥāẓir, 'ready or present.' (See CHOTA-HAZRY.)
HENDRY KENDRY, n.p. Two islands off the coast of the Concan, about 7 m. south of the entrance to Bombay Harbour, and now belonging page 413bto Kolāba District. The names, according to Ph. Anderson, are Haneri and Khaneri; in the Admy. chart they are Oonari, and Khundari. They are also variously written (the one) Hundry, Ondera, Hunarey, Henery, and (the other) Kundra, Cundry, Cunarey, Kenery. The real names are given in the Bombay Gazetteer as Underi and Khanderi. Both islands were piratically occupied as late as the beginning of the 19th century. Khanderi passed to us in 1818 as part of the Peshwa's territory; Underi lapsed in 1840. [Sir G. Birdwood (Rep. on Old Records, 83), describing the "Consultations" of 1679, writes: "At page 69, notice of 'Sevagee' fortifying 'Hendry Kendry,' the twin islets, now called Henery (i.e. Vondarī, 'Mouse-like,' Kenery (i.e. Khandarī), i.e. 'Sacred to Khandaroo.'" The former is thus derived from Skt. undaru, unduru, 'a rat'; the latter from Mahr. Khanḍerāv, 'Lord of the Sword,' a form of Siva.]
1681.—"Although we have formerly wrote you that we will have no war for Hendry Kendry, yet all war is so contrary to our constitution, as well as our interest, that we cannot too often inculcate to you our aversion thereunto."—Court of Directors to Surat, quoted in Anderson's Western India, p. 175.
1727.—"... four Leagues south of Bombay, are two small Islands Undra, and Cundra. The first has a Fortress belonging to the Sedee, and the other is fortified by the Sevajee, and is now in the Hands of Connajee Angria."—A. Hamilton, i. 243; [ed. 1744].
HERBED, s. A Parsee priest, not specially engaged in priestly duties. Pers. hirbad, from Pahlavi aêrpat.
HICKMAT, s. Ar.—H. ḥikmat; an ingenious device or contrivance. (See under HAKIM.)
HIDGELEE, n.p. The tract so called was under native rule a chakla, or district, of Orissa, and under our rule formerly a zilla of Bengal; but now it is a part of the Midnapūr Zilla, of which it constitutes the S.E. portion, viz. the low coast lands on the west side of the Hoogly estuary, and below the junction of the Rūpnārāyan. The name is properly Hijilī; but it has gone through many strange phases in European records.
1586.—"An haven which is called Angeli in the Country of Orixa."—Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 389.
1686.—"Chanock, on the 15th December (1686) ... burned and destroyed all the magazines of salt, and granaries of rice, which he found in the way between Hughley and the island of Ingelee."—Orme (reprint), ii. 12.
1726.—"Hingeli."—Valentijn, v. 158.
1727.—... inhabited by Fishers, as are also Ingellie and Kidgerie (see KEDGEREE), two neighbouring Islands on the West Side of the Mouth of the Ganges."—A. Hamilton, i. 275; [ed. 1744, ii. 2].
1758.—In apprehension of a French Fleet the Select Committee at Fort William recommend: "That the pagoda at Ingelie should be washed black, the great tree at the place cut down, and the buoys removed."—In Long, 153.
HILSA, s. Hind. hilsā, Skt. ilīśa, illiśa; a rich and savoury fish of the shad kind (Clupea ilisha, Day), called in books the 'sable-fish' (a name, from the Port. savel, quite obsolete in India) and on the Indus pulla (palla). The large shad which of late has been commonly sold by London fishmongers in the beginning of summer, is very near the hilsa, but not so rich. The page 414bhilsa is a sea-fish, ascending the river to spawn, and is taken as high as Delhi on the Jumna, as high as Mandalay on the Irawadi (Day). It is also taken in the Guzerat rivers, though not in the short and shallow streams of the Concan, nor in the Deccan rivers, from which it seems to be excluded by the rocky obstructions. It is the special fish of Sind under the name of palla, and monopolizes the name of fish, just as salmon does on the Scotch rivers (Dr. Macdonald's Acct. of Bombay Fisheries, 1883).
1613.—"Na quella costa marittima occidental de Viontana (Ujong-Tana, Malay Peninsula) habitavão Saletes pescadores que não tinhão outro tratto ... salvo de sua pescarya de saveis, donde so aproveitarão das ovas chamado Turabos passados por salmeura."—Eredia de Godinho, 22. [On this Mr. Skeat points out that "Saletes pescadores" must mean "Fishermen of the Straits" (Mal. selat, "straits"); and when he calls them "Turabos" he is trying to reproduce the Malay name of this fish, terubok (pron. trubo).]
1810.—"The hilsah (or sable-fish) seems to be midway between a mackerel and a salmon."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 154-5.
1813.—Forbes calls it the sable or salmon-fish, and says "it a little resembles the European fish (salmon) from which it is named."—Or. Mem. i. 53; [2nd ed. i. 36].
HIMALÝA, n.p. This is the common pronunciation of the name of the great range
"Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds,"
properly Himālăya, 'the Abode of Snow'; also called Himavat, 'the Snowy'; Himagiri and Himaśaila; Himādri, Himakūta, &c., from various forms of which the ancients made Imaus, Emōdus, &c. Pliny had got somewhere the true meaning of the name: "... a montibus Hemodis, quorum promontorium Imaus vocatur nivosum significante ..." (vi. 17). We do not know how far back the use of the modern name is to be found. [The references in early Hindu literature are collected by Atkinson page 415a(Himalayan Gazetteer, ii. 273 seqq.).] We do not find it in Baber, who gives Siwālak as the Indian name of the mountains (see SIWALIK). The oldest occurrence we know of is in the Āīn, which gives in the Geographical Tables, under the Third Climate, Koh-i-Himālah (orig. ii. 36); [ed. Jarrett, iii. 69]). This is disguised in Gladwin's version by a wrong reading into Kerdehmaleh (ed. 1800, ii. 367). This form (Himmaleh) is used by Major Rennell, but hardly as if it was yet a familiar term. In Elphinstone's Letters Himāleh or some other spelling of that form is always used (see below). When we get to Bishop Heber we find Himalaya, the established English form.
HINDEE, s. This is the Pers. adjective form from Hind, 'India,' and illustration of its use for a native of India will be found under HINDOO. By Europeans it is most commonly used for those dialects of Hindustani speech which are less modified by P. vocables than the usual Hindustani, and which are spoken by the rural population of the N.W. Provinces and its outskirts. The earliest literary work in Hindi is the great poem of Chand Bardai (c. 1200), which records the deeds of Prithirāja, the last Hindu sovereign of Delhi. [On this literature see Dr. G. A. Grierson, The Modern Vernacular Literature of Hindustān, in J.A.S.B. Part I., 1888.] The term Hinduwī appears to have been formerly used, in the Madras Presidency, for the Marāṭhī language. (See a note in Sir A. Arbuthnot's ed. of Munro's Minutes, i. 133.)
page 415bHINDKĪ, HINDEKĪ, n.p. This modification of the name is applied to people of Indian descent, but converted to Islam, on the Peshawar frontier, and scattered over other parts of Afghanistan. They do the banking business, and hold a large part of the trade in their hands.
HINDOO, n.p. P. Hindū. A person of Indian religion and race. This is a term derived from the use of the Mahommedan conquerors (see under INDIA). The word in this form is Persian; Hindī is that used in Arabic, e.g.
In the following quotation from a writer in Persian observe the distinction made between Hindū and Hindī:
1563.—"... moreover if people of Arabia or Persia would ask of the men of this country whether they are Moors or Gentoos, they ask in these words: 'Art thou Mosalman or Indu?'"—Garcia, f. 137b.
Hindu is often used on the Peshawar frontier as synonymous with bunya (see under BANYAN). A soldier (of the tribes) will say: 'I am going to the Hindu,' i.e. to the bunya of the company.
HINDOO KOOSH, n.p. Hindū-Kūsh; a term applied by our geographers to the whole of the Alpine range which separates the basins of the Kabul River and the Helmand from that of the Oxus. It is, as Rennell points out, properly that part of the range immediately north of Kabul, the Caucasus of the historians of Alexander, who crossed and recrossed it somewhere not far from the page 416alongitude of that city. The real origin of the name is not known; [the most plausible explanation is perhaps that it is a corruption of Indicus Caucasus]. It is, as far as we know, first used in literature by Ibn Batuta, and the explanation of the name which he gives, however doubtful, is still popular. The name has been by some later writers modified into Hindu Koh (mountain), but this is factitious, and throws no light on the origin of the name.
1504.—"The country of Kâbul is very strong, and of difficult access.... Between Balkh, Kundez, and Badakshân on the one side, and Kâbul on the other, is interposed the mountain of Hindû-kûsh, the passes over which are seven in number."—Baber, p. 139.
1548.—"From this place marched, and entered the mountains called Hindū-Kush."—Mem. of Emp. Humayun, 89.
" "It was therefore determined to invade Badakhshan.... The Emperor, passing over the heel of the Hindū-Kush, encamped at Shergirán."—Tabakāt-i-Akbarī, in Elliot, v. 223.
1753.—"Les montagnes qui donnent naissance à l'Indus, et à plusieurs des rivières qu'il reçoit, se nomment Hendou Kesh, et c'est l'histoire de Timur qui m'instruit de cette denomination. Elle est composée du nom d'Hendou ou Hind, qui désigne l'Inde ... et de kush ou kesh ... que je remarque être propre à diverses montagnes."—D'Anville, p. 16.
1793.—"The term Hindoo-Kho, or Hindoo-Kush, is not applied to the ridge throughout its full extent; but seems confined to that part of it which forms the N.W. boundary of Cabul; and this is the Indian Caucasus of Alexander."—Rennell, Mem. 3rd ed. 150.
1817.—
"... those Who dwell beyond the everlasting snows Of Hindoo Koosh, in stormy freedom bred."—Mokanna.
HINDOSTAN, n.p. Pers. Hindūstān. (a) 'The country of the Hindūs,' India. In modern native parlance this word indicates distinctively (b) India north of the Nerbudda, and exclusive of Bengal and Behar. The latter provinces are regarded as pūrb (see POORUB), and all south of the Nerbudda as Dakhan (see DECCAN). But the word is used in older page 416bMahommedan authors just as it is used in English school-books and atlases, viz. as (a) the equivalent of India Proper. Thus Baber says of Hindustān: "On the East, the South, and the West it is bounded by the Ocean" (310).
a.—
1563.—"... and common usage in Persia, and Coraçone, and Arabia, and Turkey, calls this country Industam ... for istām is as much as to say 'region,' and indu 'India.'"—Garcia, f. 137b.
1663.—"And thus it came to pass that the Persians called it Indostan."—Faria y Sousa, i. 33.
1665.—"La derniere parti est la plus connüe: c'est celle que l'on appelle Indostan, et dont les bornes naturelles au Couchant et au Levant, sont le Gange et l'Indus."—Thevenot, v. 9.
1672.—"It has been from old time divided into two parts, i.e. the Eastern, which is India beyond the Ganges, and the Western India within the Ganges, now called Indostan."—Baldaeus, 1.
1770.—"By Indostan is properly meant a country lying between two celebrated rivers, the Indus and the Ganges.... A ridge of mountains runs across this long tract from north to south, and dividing it into two equal parts, extends as far as Cape Comorin."—Raynal (tr.), i. 34.
b.—
In the following stanza of the good bishop's the application is apparently the same; but the accentuation is excruciating—'Hindóstan,' as if rhyming to 'Boston.'
"Then on! then on! where duty leads, My course be onward still, O'er broad Hindostan's sultry meads, Or bleak Almora's hill."—Ibid. 113.
page 417aHINDOSTANEE, s. Hindūstānī, properly an adjective, but used substantively in two senses, viz. (a) a native of Hindustān, and (b) (Hindūstānī zabān) 'the language of that country,' but in fact the language of the Mahommedans of Upper India, and eventually of the Mahommedans of the Deccan, developed out of the Hindi dialect of the Doab chiefly, and of the territory round Agra and Delhi, with a mixture of Persian vocables and phrases, and a readiness to adopt other foreign words. It is also called Oordoo, i.e. the language of the Urdū ('Horde') or Camp. This language was for a long time a kind of Mahommedan lingua franca over all India, and still possesses that character over a large part of the country, and among certain classes. Even in Madras, where it least prevails, it is still recognised in native regiments as the language of intercourse between officers and men. Old-fashioned Anglo-Indians used to call it the Moors (q.v.).
a.—
b.—
1673.—"The Language at Court is Persian, that commonly spoke is Indostan (for which they have no proper Character, the written Language being called Banyan), which is a mixture of Persian and Sclavonian, as are all the dialects of India."—Fryer, 201. This intelligent traveller's reference to Sclavonian is remarkable, and shows a notable perspicacity, which would have delighted the late Lord Strangford, had he noticed the passage.
1677.—In Court's letter of 12th Dec. to Ft. St. Geo. they renew the offer of a reward of £20, for proficiency in the Gentoo or Indostan languages, and sanction a reward of £10 each for proficiency in the Persian language, "and that fit persons to teach the said language be entertained."—Notes and Exts., No. i. 22.
page 417b1685.—"... so applyed myself to a Portuguese mariner who spoke Indostan (ye current language of all these Islands) [Maldives]."—Hedges, Diary, March 9; [Hak. Soc. i. 191].
1697.—"Questions addressed to Khodja Movaad, Ambassador from Abyssinia.
4.—"What language he, in his audience made use of?
"The Hindustani language (Hindoestanze taal), which the late Hon. Paulus de Roo, then Secretary of their Excellencies the High Government of Batavia, interpreted."—Valentijn, iv. 327.
[1699.—"He is expert in the Hindorstand or Moores Language."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. cclxvii.]
1726.—"The language here is Hindustans or Moors (so 'tis called there), though he who can't speak any Arabic and Persian passes for an ignoramus."—Valentijn, Chor. i. 37.
1727.—"This Persian ... and I, were discoursing one Day of my Affairs in the Industan Language, which is the established Language spoken in the Mogul's large Dominions."—A. Hamilton, ii. 183; [ed. 1744, ii. 182].
1745.—"Benjamini Schulzii Missionarii Evangelici, Grammatica Hindostanica ... Edidit, et de suscipiendâ barbaricarum linguarum culturâ praefatus est D. Jo. Henr. Callenberg, Halae Saxoniae."—Title from Catalogue of M. Garcin de Tassy's Books, 1879. This is the earliest we have heard of.
1763.—"Two of the Council of Pondicherry went to the camp, one of them was well versed in the Indostan and Persic languages, which are the only tongues used in the Courts of the Mahomedan Princes."—Orme, i. 144 (ed. 1803).
1772.—"Manuscripts have indeed been handed about, ill spelt, with a confused mixture of Persian, Indostans, and Bengals."—Preface to Hadley's Grammar, xi. (See under MOORS.)
1777.—"Alphabetum Brammhanicum seu Indostanum."—Romae.
1778.—"Grammatica Indostana—A mais Vulgar—Que se practica no Imperio do gram Mogol—Offerecida—Aos muitos Reverendos—Padres Missionarios—Do dito Imperio. Em Roma MDCCLXXVIII—Na Estamperia da Sagrada Congregação—de Propaganda Fide."—(Title transcribed.) There is a reprint of this (apparently) of 1865, in the Catalogue of Garcin de Tassy's books.
c. 1830.—"Cet ignoble patois d'Hindoustani, qui ne servira jamais à rien quand je serai retourné en Europe, est difficile."—V. Jacquemont, Correspondance, i. 95.
1844.—"Hd. Quarters, Kurrachee, 12th February, 1844. The Governor unfortunately does not understand Hindoostanee, nor Persian, nor Mahratta, nor any other eastern dialect. He therefore will feel particularly obliged to Collectors, page 418asub-Collectors, and officers writing the proceedings of Courts-Martial, and all Staff Officers, to indite their various papers in English, larded with as small a portion of the to him unknown tongues as they conveniently can, instead of those he generally receives—namely, papers written in Hindostanee larded with occasional words in English.
"Any Indent made for English Dictionaries shall be duly attended to, if such be in the stores at Kurrachee; if not, gentlemen who have forgotten the vulgar tongue are requested to procure the requisite assistance from England."—GG. OO., by Sir Charles Napier, 85.
[Compare the following:
[1617.—(In answer to a letter from the Court not now extant). "Wee have forbidden the severall Factoryes from wrighting words in this languadge and refrayned itt our selues, though in bookes of Coppies wee feare there are many which by wante of tyme for perusall wee cannot rectifie or expresse."—Surat Factors to Court, February 26, 1617. (I.O. Records: O. C., No. 450.)]
1856.—
"... they sound strange As Hindostanee to an Ind-born man Accustomed many years to English speech." E. B. Browning, Aurora Leigh.
HING, s. Asafoetida. Skt. hingu, Hind. hīng, Dakh. hīngu. A repulsively smelling gum-resin which forms a favourite Hindu condiment, and is used also by Europeans in Western and Southern India as an ingredient in certain cakes eaten with curry. (See POPPER-CAKE). This product affords a curious example of the uncertainty which sometimes besets the origin of drugs which are the objects even of a large traffic. Hanbury and Flückiger, whilst describing Falconer's Narthex Asafoetida (Ferula Narthex, Boiss.) and Scorodosma foetidum, Bunge; (F. asafoetida, Boiss.) two umbelliferous plants, both cited as the source of this drug, say that neither has been proved to furnish the asafoetida of commerce. Yet the plant producing it has been described and drawn by Kaempfer, who saw the gum-resin collected in the Persian Province of Lāristān (near the eastern shore of the P. Gulf); and in recent years (1857) Surgeon-Major Bellew has described the collection of the drug near Kandahar. Asafoetida has been identified with the σίλφιον or laserpitium of the ancients. The substance is probably yielded not only by the species mentioned above, but by other allied plants, e.g. Ferula page 418bJaeschkiana, Vatke, of Kashmīr and Turkistan. The hing of the Bombay market is the produce of F. alliacea, Boiss. [See Watt, Econ. Dict. iii. 328 seqq.]
1563.—"A Portuguese in Bisnagar had a horse of great value, but which exhibited a deal of flatulence, and on that account the King would not buy it. The Portuguese cured it by giving it this ymgu mixt with flour: the King then bought it, finding it thoroughly well, and asked him how he had cured it. When the man said it was with ymgu, the King replied: ''Tis nothing then to marvel at, for you have given it to eat the food of the gods' (or, as the poets say, nectar). Whereupon the Portuguese made answer sotto voce and in Portuguese: 'Better call it the food of the devils!'"—Garcia, f. 21b. The Germans do worse than this Portuguese, for they call the drug Teufels dreck, i.e. diaboli non cibus sed stercus!
1586.—"I went from Agra to Satagam (see CHITTAGONG) in Bengale in the companie of one hundred and four score Boates, laden with Salt, Opium, Hinge, Lead, Carpets, and divers other commodities down the River Jemena."—R. Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 386.
1611.—"In the Kingdom of Gujarat and Cambaya, the natives put in all their food Ingu, which is Assafetida."—Teixeira, Relaciones, 29.
1631.—"... ut totas aedas foetore replerent, qui insuetis vix tolerandus esset. Quod Javani et Malaii et caeteri Indiarum incolae negabant se quicquam odoratius naribus unquam percepisse. Apud hos Hin his succus nominatur."—Jac. Bontii, lib. iv. p. 41.
1638.—"Le Hingh, que nos droguistes et apoticaires appellent Assa foetida, vient la plus part de Perse, mais celle que la Province d'Vtrad (?) produit dans les Indes est bien meilleur."—Mandelslo, 230.
1673.—"In this Country Assa Foetida is gathered at a place called Descoon; some deliver it to be the Juice of a Cane or Reed inspissated; others, of a Tree wounded: It differs much from the stinking Stuff called Hing, it being of the Province of Carmania; this latter is that the Indians perfume themselves with, mixing it in all their Pulse, and make it up in Wafers to correct the Windiness of their Food."—Fryer, 239.
1689.—"The Natives at Suratt are much taken with Assa Foetida, which they call Hin, and mix a little with the Cakes that they eat."—Ovington, 397.
1712.—"... substantiam obtinet ponderosam, instar rapae solidam candidissimamque, plenam succi pinguis, albissimi, page 419afoetidissimi, porraceo odore nares horridé ferientis; qui ex eâ collectus, Persis Indisque Hingh, Europaeis Asa foetida appellatur."—Eng. Kaempfer Amoen. Exotic. 537.
1726.—"Hing or Assa Foetida, otherwise called Devil's-dung (Duivelsdrek)."—Valentijn, iv. 146.
HIRAVA, n.p. Malayāl. Iraya. The name of a very low caste in Malabar. [The Iraya form one section of the Cherumar, and are of slightly higher social standing than the Pulayar (see POLEA). "Their name is derived from the fact that they are allowed to come only as far as the eaves (ira) of their employers' houses." (Logan, Malabar, i. 148.)]
[HIRRAWEN, s. The Musulman pilgrim dress; a corruption of the Ar. iḥrām. Burton writes: "Al-Iḥrām, literally meaning 'prohibition' or 'making unlawful,' equivalent to our 'mortification,' is applied to the ceremony of the toilette, and also to the dress itself. The vulgar pronounce the word 'herām,' or 'l'ehrām.' It is opposed to ihlāl, 'making lawful,' or 'returning to laical life.' The further from Mecca it is assumed, provided that it be during the three months of Hajj, the greater is the religious merit of the pilgrim; consequently some come from India and Egypt in the dangerous attire" (Pilgrimage, ed. 1893, ii. 138, note).
HOBSON-JOBSON, s. A native festal excitement; a tamāsha (see page 419bTUMASHA); but especially the Moharram ceremonies. This phrase may be taken as a typical one of the most highly assimilated class of Anglo-Indian argot, and we have ventured to borrow from it a concise alternative title for this Glossary. It is peculiar to the British soldier and his surroundings, with whom it probably originated, and with whom it is by no means obsolete, as we once supposed. My friend Major John Trotter tells me that he has repeatedly heard it used by British soldiers in the Punjab; and has heard it also from a regimental Moonshee. It is in fact an Anglo-Saxon version of the wailings of the Mahommedans as they beat their breasts in the procession of the Moharram—"Yā Hasan! Yā Hosain!" It is to be remembered that these observances are in India by no means confined to Shī'as. Except at Lucknow and Murshīdābād, the great majority of Mahommedans in that country are professed Sunnis. Yet here is a statement of the facts from an unexceptionable authority:
We find no literary quotation to exemplify the phrase as it stands. [But see those from the Orient. Sporting Mag. and Nineteenth Century below.] Those which follow show it in the process of evolution:
page 420ac. 1630.—"Nine dayes they wander up and downe (shaving all that while neither head nor beard, nor seeming joyfull), incessantly calling out Hussan, Huṣsan! in a melancholy note, so long, so fiercely, that many can neither howle longer, nor for a month's space recover their voices."—Sir T. Herbert, 261.
1653.—"... ils dressent dans les rues des Sepulchres de pierres, qu'ils couronnent de Lampes ardentes, et les soirs ils y vont dancer et sauter crians Hussan, Houssain, Houssain, Hassan...."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 144.
c. 1665.—"... ainsi j'eus tout le loisir dont j'eus besoin pour y voir celebrer la Fête de Hussein Fils d'Aly.... Les Mores de Golconde le celebrent avec encore beaucoup plus de folies qu'en Perse ... d'autres font des dances en rond, tenant des épées nües la pointe en haut, qu'ils touchent les unes contre les autres, en criant de toute leur force Hussein."—Thevenot, v. 320.
1673.—"About this time the Moors solemnize the Exequies of Hosseen Gosseen, a time of ten days Mourning for two Unfortunate Champions of theirs."—Fryer, p. 108.
" "On the Days of their Feasts and Jubilees, Gladiators were approved and licensed; but feeling afterwards the Evils that attended that Liberty, which was chiefly used in their Hossy Gossy, any private Grudge being then openly revenged: it never was forbid, but it passed into an Edict by the following King, that it should be lawfull to Kill any found with Naked Swords in that Solemnity."—Ibid. 357.
[1710.—"And they sing around them Saucem Saucem."—Oriente Conquistado, vol. ii.; Conquista, i. Div. 2, sec. 59.]
1720.—"Under these promising circumstances the time came round for the Mussulman feast called Hossein Jossen ... better known as the Mohurrum."—In Wheeler, ii. 347.
1726.—"In their month Moharram they have a season of mourning for the two brothers Hassan and Hossein.... They name this mourning-time in Arabic Ashur, or the 10 days; but the Hollanders call it Jaksom Baksom."—Valentijn, Choro. 107.
1763.—"It was the 14th of November, and the festival which commemorates the murder of the brothers Hassein and Jassein happened to fall out at this time."—Orme, i. 193.
[1773.—"The Moors likewise are not without their feasts and processions ... particularly of their Hassan Hassan...."—Ives, 28.
[1829.—"Them paper boxes are purty looking consarns, but then the folks makes sich a noise, firing and troompeting and shouting Hobson Jobson, Hobson Jobson."—Oriental Sporting Mag., reprint 1873, i. 129.
[1830.—"The ceremony of Husen Hasen ... here passes by almost without notice."—Raffles, Hist. Java, 2nd ed. ii. 4.]
page 420b1832.—"... they kindle fires in these pits every evening during the festival; and the ignorant, old as well as young, amuse themselves in fencing across them with sticks or swords; or only in running and playing round them, calling out, Ya Allee! Ya Allee! ... Shah Hussun! Shah Hussun! ... Shah Hosein! Shah Hosein! ... Doolha! Doolha! (bridegroom! ...); Haee dost! Haee dost! (alas, friend! ...); Ruheeo! Ruheeo! (Stay! Stay!). Every two of these words are repeated probably a hundred times over as loud as they can bawl out."—Jaffur Shureef, Qanoon-e-Islam, tr. by Herklots, p. 173.
1883.—"... a long procession ... followed and preceded by the volunteer mourners and breast-beaters shouting their cry of Hous-s-e-i-n H-as-san Houss-e-i-n H-a-s-san, and a simultaneous blow is struck vigorously by hundreds of heavy hands on the bare breasts at the last syllable of each name."—Wills' Modern Persia, 282.
HODGETT, s. This is used among the English in Turkey and Egypt for a title-deed of land. It is Arabic ḥujjat, 'evidence.' Hojat, perhaps a corruption of the same word, is used in Western India for an account current between landlord and tenant. [Molesworth, Mahr. Dict., gives "Hujjat, Ar., a Government acknowledgment or receipt."]
[HOG-BEAR, s. Another name for the sloth-bear, Melursus ursinus (Blanford, Mammalia, 201). The word does not appear in the N.E.D.
HOG-DEER, s. The Anglo-Indian popular name of the Axis porcinus, Jerd.; [Cervus porcinus (Blanford, Mammalia, 549)], the Pārā of Hindustan. The name is nearly the same as that which Cosmas (c. 545) applies to an animal (Χοιρέλαφος) which he draws (see under BABI-ROUSSA), but the two have no other relation. The Hog-deer is abundant in the grassy openings of forests throughout the Gangetic valley and further east. "It runs with its head low, and in a somewhat ungainly page 421amanner; hence its popular appellation."—Jerdon, Mammals, 263.
HOG-PLUM, s. The austere fruit of the amrā (Hind.), Spondias mangifera, Pers. (Ord. Terebinthaceae), is sometimes so called; also called the wild mango. It is used in curries, pickles, and tarts. It is a native of various parts of India, and is cultivated in many tropical climates.
HOKCHEW, HOKSIEU, AUCHEO, etc., n.p. These are forms which the names of the great Chinese port of Fuh-chau, the capital of Fuh-kien, takes in many old works. They, in fact, imitate the pronunciation in the Fuh-kien dialect, which is Hok-chiu; Fuh-kien similarly being called Hoh-kien.
HOME. In Anglo-Indian and colonial speech this means England.
So also in the West Indies:
page 421bHONG, s. The Chinese word is hang, meaning 'a row or rank'; a house of business; at Canton a warehouse, a factory, and particularly applied to the establishments of the European nations ("Foreign Hongs"), and to those of the so-called "Hong-Merchants." These were a body of merchants who had the monopoly of trade with foreigners, in return for which privilege they became security for the good behaviour of the foreigners, and for their payment of dues. The guild of these merchants was called 'The Hong.' The monopoly seems to have been first established about 1720-30, and it was terminated under the Treaty of Nanking, in 1842. The Hong merchants are of course not mentioned in Lockyer (1711), nor by A. Hamilton (in China previous to and after 1700, pubd. 1727). The latter uses the word, however, and the rudiments of the institution may be traced not only in this narrative, but in that of Ibn Batuta.
1727.—"When I arrived at Canton the Hapoa (see HOPPO) ordered me lodgings for myself, my Men, and Cargo, in (a) Haung or Inn belonging to one of his Merchants ... and when I went abroad, I had always some Servants belonging to the Haung to follow me at a Distance."—A. Hamilton, ii. 227; [ed. 1744].
1782.—"... l'Opeou (see HOPPO) ... s'embarque en grande ceremonie dans une galère pavoisée, emmenant ordinairement avec lui trois ou quatre Hanistes."—Sonnerat, ii. 236.
" "... Les loges Européennes s'appellent hams."—Ibid. 245.
1783.—"It is stated indeed that a monopolizing Company in Canton, called the Cohong, had reduced commerce there to a desperate state."—Report of Com. on Affairs of India, Burke, vi. 461.
1797.—"A Society of Hong, or united merchants, who are answerable for one another, both to the Government and the foreign nations."—Sir G. Staunton, Embassy to China, ii. 565.
page 422aCohong is, we believe, though speaking with diffidence, an exogamous union between the Latin co- and the Chinese hong. [Mr. G. T. Gardner confirms this explanation, and writes: "The term used in Canton itself is invariable: 'The Thirteen Hong,' or 'The Thirteen Firms'; and as these thirteen firms formed an association that had at one time the monopoly of the foreign trade, and as they were collectively responsible to the Chinese Government for the conduct of the trade, and to the foreign merchants for goods supplied to any one of the firms, some collective expression was required to denote the co-operation of the Thirteen Firms, and the word Cohang, I presume, was found most expressive."]
HONG-BOAT, s. A kind of sampan (q.v.) or boat, with a small wooden house in the middle, used by foreigners at Canton. "A public passenger-boat (all over China, I believe) is called Hang-chwen, where chwen is generically 'vessel,' and hang is perhaps used in the sense of 'plying regularly.' Boats built for this purpose, used as private boats by merchants and others, probably gave the English name Hong-boat to those used by our countrymen at Canton" (Note by Bp. Moule).
HONG KONG, n.p. The name of this flourishing settlement is hiang-kiang, 'fragrant waterway' (Bp. Moule).
HONORE, ONORE, n.p. Honāvar, a town and port of Canara, of ancient standing and long of piratical repute. The etymology is unknown to us (see what Barbosa gives as the native name below). [A place of the same name in the Bellary District is said to be Can. Honnūru, honnu, 'gold,' ūru, 'village.'] Vincent has supposed it to be the Νάουρα of the Periplus, "the first part of the pepper-country Λιμυρικὴ,"—for which read Διμυρικὴ, the page 422bTamil country or Malabar. But this can hardly be accepted, for Honore is less than 5000 stadia from Barygaza, instead of being 7000 as it ought to be by the Periplus, nor is it in the Tamil region. The true Νάουρα must have been Cannanore, or Pudopatana, a little south of the last. [The Madras Gloss. explains Νάουρα as the country of the Nairs.] The long defence of Honore by Captain Torriano, of the Bombay Artillery, against the forces of Tippoo, in 1783-1784, is one of the most noble records of the Indian army. (See an account of it in Forbes, Or. Mem. iv. 109 seqq.; [2nd ed. ii. 455 seqq.]).
1516.—"... there is another river on which stands a good town called Honor; the inhabitants use the language of the country, and the Malabars call it Ponou-aram (or Ponaram, in Ramusio); here the Malabars carry on much traffic.... In this town of Onor are two Gentoo corsairs patronised by the Lord of the Land, one called Timoja and the other Raogy, each of whom has 5 or 6 very big ships with large and well-armed crews."—Barbosa, Lisbon ed. 291.
HOOGLY, HOOGHLEY, n.p. Properly Hūglī, [and said to take its name from Beng. hoglā, 'the elephant grass' (Typha angustifolia)]: a town on the right bank of the Western Delta Branch of the Ganges, that which has long been known from this place as the Hoogly River, and on which Calcutta also stands, on the other bank, and 25 miles nearer the sea. Hoogly was one of the first places occupied page 423aby Europeans in the interior of Bengal; first by the Portuguese in the first half of the 16th century. An English factory was established here in 1640; and it was for some time their chief settlement in Bengal. In 1688 a quarrel with the Nawab led to armed action, and the English abandoned Hoogly; but on the arrangement of peace they settled at Chatānatī (Chuttanutty), now Calcutta.
1616.—"After the force of dom Francisco de Menezes arrived at Sundiva as we have related, there came a few days later to the same island 3 sanguicels, right well equipped with arms and soldiers, at the charges of Manuel Viegas, a householder and resident of Ogolim, or Porto Pequeno, where dwelt in Bengala many Portuguese, 80 leagues up the Ganges, in the territory of the Mogor, under his ill faith that every hour threatened their destruction."—Bocarro, Decada, 476.
c. 1632.—"Under the rule of the Bengális a party of Frank merchants ... came trading to Sátgánw (see PORTO PEQUENO); one kos above that place they occupied some ground on the bank of the estuary.... In course of time, through the ignorance and negligence of the rulers of Bengal, these Europeans increased in number, and erected substantial buildings, which they fortified.... In due course a considerable place grew up, which was known by the name of the Port of Húglí.... These proceedings had come to the notice of the Emperor (Sháh Jehán), and he resolved to put an end to them," &c.—'Abdul Ḥamīd Lāhorī, in Elliot, vii. 31-32.
1644.—"The other important voyage which used to be made from Cochim was that to Bengalla, when the port and town of Ugolim were still standing, and much more when we had the Porto Grande (q.v.) and the town of Diangâ; this used to be made by so many ships that often in one monsoon there came 30 or more from Bengalla to Cochim, all laden with rice, sugar, lac, iron, salt-petre, and many kinds of cloths both of grass and cotton, ghee (manteyga), long pepper, a great quantity of wax, besides wheat and many things besides, such as quilts and rich bedding; so that every ship brought a capital of more than 20,000 xerafins. But since these two possessions were lost, and the two ports were closed, there go barely one or two vessels to Orixa."—Bocarro, MS., f. 315.
1665.—"O Rey de Arracão nos tomou a fortaleza de Sirião em Pegù; O grão Mogor a cidade do Golim em Bengala."—P. Manoel Godinho, Relação, &c.
page 423bc. 1666.—"The rest they kept for their service to make Rowers of them; and such Christians as they were themselves, bringing them up to robbing and killing; or else they sold them to the Portugueses of Goa, Ceilan, St. Thomas, and others, and even to those that were remaining in Bengall at Ogouli, who were come thither to settle themselves there by favour of Jehan-Guyre, the Grandfather of Aureng-Zebe...."—Bernier, E.T. 54; [ed. Constable, 176].
1727.—"Hughly is a Town of large Extent, but ill built. It reaches about 2 Miles along the River's Side, from the Chinchura before mentioned to the Bandel, a Colony formerly settled by the Portuguese, but the Mogul's Fouzdaar governs both at present."—A. Hamilton, ii. 19; [ed. 1744].
HOOGLY RIVER, n.p. See preceding. The stream to which we give this name is formed by the combination of the delta branches of the Ganges, viz., the Baugheruttee, Jalinghee, and Matabanga (Bhāgirathī, Jalangī, and Mātābhāngā), known as the Nuddeea (Nadiyā) Rivers.
HOOKA, s. Hind. from Arab. ḥuḳḳah, properly 'a round casket.' The Indian pipe for smoking through water, the elaborated hubble-bubble (q.v.). That which is smoked in the hooka is a curious compound of tobacco, spice, molasses, fruit, &c. [See Baden-Powell, Panjab Products, i. 290.] In 1840 the hooka was still very common at Calcutta dinner-tables, as well as regimental mess-tables, and its bubble-bubble-bubble was heard from various quarters before the cloth was removed—as was customary in those days. Going back further some twelve or fifteen years it was not very uncommon to see the use of the hooka kept up by old Indians after their return to Europe; one such at least, in the recollection of the elder of the present writers in his childhood, being a lady who continued its use in Scotland for several years. When the second of the present writers landed first at Madras, in 1860, there were perhaps half-a-dozen Europeans at the Presidency who still used the hooka; there is not one now (c. 1878). A few gentlemen at Hyderabad are said still to keep it up. [Mrs. Mackenzie writing in 1850 page 424asays: "There was a dinner party in the evening (at Agra), mostly civilians, as I quickly discovered by their huqas. I have never seen the huqa smoked save at Delhi and Agra, except by a very old general officer at Calcutta." (Life in the Mission, ii. 196). In 1837 Miss Eden says: "the aides-de-camp and doctor get their newspapers and hookahs in a cluster on their side of the street." (Up the Country, i. 70). The rules for the Calcutta Subscription Dances in 1792 provide: "That hookers be not admitted to the ball room during any part of the night. But hookers might be admitted to the supper rooms, to the card rooms, to the boxes in the theatre, and to each side of the assembly room, between the large pillars and the walls."—Carey, Good Old Days, i. 98.] "In former days it was a dire offence to step over another person's hooka-carpet and hooka-snake. Men who did so intentionally were called out." (M.-Gen. Keatinge).
1782.—"When he observes that the gentlemen introduce their hookas and smoak in the company of ladies, why did he not add that the mixture of sweet-scented Persian tobacco, sweet herbs, coarse sugar, spice, etc., which they inhale ... comes through clean water, and is so very pleasant, that many ladies take the tube, and draw a little of the smoak into their mouths."—Price's Tracts, vol. i. p. 78.
1783.—"For my part, in thirty years' residence, I never could find out one single luxury of the East, so much talked of here, except sitting in an arm-chair, smoaking a hooka, drinking cool water (when I could get it), and wearing clean linen."—(Jos. Price), Some Observations on a late Publication, &c., 79.
1789.—"When the cloth is removed, all the servants except the hookerbedar retire, and make way for the sea breeze to circulate, which is very refreshing to the Company, whilst they drink their wine, and smoke the hooker, a machine not easily described...."—Munro's Narrative, 53.
1828.—"Every one was hushed, but the noise of that wind ... and the occasional bubbling of my own hookah, which had just been furnished with another chillum."—The Kuzzilbash, i. 2.
c. 1849.—See Sir C. Napier, quoted under GRAM-FED.
c. 1858.—
"Son houka bigarré d'arabesques fleuries." Leconte de Lisle, Poèmes Barbares.
page 424b1872.—"... in the background the carcase of a boar with a cluster of villagers sitting by it, passing a hookah of primitive form round, for each to take a pull in turn."—A True Reformer, ch. i.
HOOKA-BURDAR, s. Hind. from Pers. huḳḳa-bardār, 'hooka-bearer'; the servant whose duty it was to attend to his master's hooka, and who considered that duty sufficient to occupy his time. See Williamson, V.M. i. 220.
1789.—"Hookerbedar." (See under HOOKA.)
HOOKUM, s. An order; Ar.—H. ḥukm. (See under HAKIM.)
HOOLUCK, s. Beng. hūlak? The word is not in the Dicts., [but it is possibly connected with ulūk, Skt. ulūka, 'an owl,' both bird and animal taking their name from their wailing note]. The black gibbon (Hylobates hoolook, Jerd.; [Blanford, Mammalia, 5]), not unfrequently tamed on our E. frontier, and from its gentle engaging ways, and plaintive cries, often becoming a great pet. In the forests of the Kasia Hills, when there was neither sound nor sign of a living creature, by calling out hoo! hoo! one sometimes could wake a clamour in response from the hoolucks, as if hundreds had suddenly started to life, each shouting hoo! hoo! hoo! at the top of his voice.
page 425a1868.—"Our only captive this time was a huluq monkey, a shy little beast, and very rarely seen or caught. They have black fur with white breasts, and go about usually in pairs, swinging from branch to branch with incredible agility, and making the forest resound with their strange cachinatory cry...."—T. Lewin, A Fly on the Wheel, 374.
HOOLY, s. Hind. holī (Skt. holākā), [perhaps from the sound made in singing]. The spring festival, held at the approach of the vernal equinox, during the 10 days preceding the full moon of the month P'hālguṇa. It is a sort of carnival in honour of Kṛishna and the milkmaids. Passers-by are chaffed, and pelted with red powder, or drenched with yellow liquids from squirts. Songs, mostly obscene, are sung in praise of Kṛishna, and dances performed round fires. In Bengal the feast is called ḍol jātrā, or 'Swing-cradle festival.' [On the idea underlying the rite, see Frazer, Golden Bough, 2nd ed. iii. 306 seq.]
[1671.—"In Feb. or March they have a feast the Romanists call Carnival, the Indians Whoolye."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. cccxiv.]
1673.—"... their Hooly, which is at their other Seed-Time."—Fryer, 180.
1727.—"One (Feast) they kept on Sight of a New Moon in February, exceeded the rest in ridiculous Actions and Expense; and this they called the Feast of Wooly, who was ... a fierce fellow in a War with some Giants that infested Sindy...."—A. Hamilton, i. 128; [ed. 1744, i. 129].
1808.—"I have delivered your message to Mr. H. about April day, but he says he understands the learned to place the Hooly as according with May day, and he believes they have no occasion in India to set apart a particular day in the year for the page 425bmanufacture...."—Letter from Mrs. Halhed to W. Hastings, in Cal. Review, xxvi. 93.
HOON, s. A gold Pagoda (coin), q.v. Hind. hūn, "perhaps from Canar. honnu (gold)"—Wilson. [See Rice, Mysore, i. 801.]
HOONDY, s. Hind. hunḍī, hunḍavī; Mahr. and Guj. huṇḍī. A bill of exchange in a native language.
HOONIMAUN, s. The great ape; also called Lungoor.
HOOWA. A peculiar call (hūwa) used by the Singhalese, and thence applied to the distance over which this call can be heard. Compare the Australian coo-ee.
HOPPER, s. A colloquial term in S. India for cakes (usually of rice-flour), somewhat resembling the wheaten chupatties (q.v.) of Upper India. It is the Tamil appam, [from appu, 'to clap with the hand.' In Bombay the form used is ap.]
1606.—"Great dishes of apas."—Gouvea, f. 48v.
1672.—"These cakes are called Apen by the Malabars."—Baldaeus, Afgoderye (Dutch ed.), 39.
c. 1690.—"Ex iis (the chestnuts of the Jack fruit) in sole siccatis farinam, ex eaque placentas, apas dictas, conficiunt."—Rheede, iii.
1707.—"Those who bake oppers without permission will be subject to severe penalty."—Thesavaleme (Tamil Laws of Jaffna), 700.
[1826.—"He sat down beside me, and shared between us his coarse brown aps."—Pandurang Hari, ed. 1873, i. 81.]
HOPPO, s. The Chinese Superintendent of Customs at Canton. Giles says: "The term is said to be a corruption of Hoo poo, the Board of Revenue, with which office the Hoppo, or Collector of duties, is in direct communication." Dr. Williams gives a different account (see below). Neither affords much satisfaction. [The N.E.D. accepts the account given in the quotation from Williams.]
1727.—"I have staid about a Week, and found no Merchants come near me, which made me suspect, that there were some underhand dealings between the Hapoa and his Chaps, to my Prejudice."—A. Hamilton, ii. 228; [ed. 1744, ii. 227]. (See also under HONG.)
1743.—"... just as he (Mr. Anson) was ready to embark, the Hoppo or Chinese Custom-house officer of Macao refused to grant a permit to the boat."—Anson's Voyage, 9th ed. 1756, p. 355.
1750-52.—"The hoppo, happa, or first inspector of customs ... came to see us to-day."—Osbeck, i. 359.
1782.—"La charge d'Opeou répond à celle d'intendant de province."—Sonnerat, ii. 236.
1797.—"... the Hoppo or mandarine more immediately connected with Europeans."—Sir G. Staunton, i. 239.
1842 (?).—"The term hoppo is confined to Canton, and is a corruption of the term hoi-po-sho, the name of the officer who has control over the boats on the river, strangely applied to the Collector of Customs by foreigners."—Wells Williams, Chinese Commercial Guide, 221.
page 426b[1878.—"The second board or tribunal is named hoopoo, and to it is entrusted the care and keeping of the imperial revenue."—Gray, China, i. 19.]
HORSE-KEEPER, s. An old provincial English term, used in the Madras Presidency and in Ceylon, for 'groom.' The usual corresponding words are, in N. India, syce (q.v.), and in Bombay ghorāwālā (see GORAWALLAH).
1609.—"Watermen, Lackeyes, Horse-keepers."—Hawkins, in Purchas, i. 216.
1673.—"On St. George's Day I was commanded by the Honourable Gerald Aungier ... to embarque on a Bombaim Boat ... waited on by two of the Governor's servants ... an Horsekeeper...."—Fryer, 123.
1698.—"... followed by his boy ... and his horsekeeper."—In Wheeler, i. 300.
1829.—"In my English buggy, with lamps lighted and an English sort of a nag, I might almost have fancied myself in England, but for the black horse-keeper alongside of me."—Mem. of Col. Mountain, 87.
HORSE-RADISH TREE, s. This is a common name, in both N. and S. India, for the tree called in Hind. sahajnā; Moringa pterygosperma, Gaertn., Hyperanthera Moringa, Vahl. (N. O. Moringaceae), in Skt. sobhānjana. Sir G. Birdwood says: "A marvellous tree botanically, as no one knows in what order to put it; it has links with so many; and it is evidently a 'head-centre' in the progressive development of forms." The name is given because the scraped root is used in place of horse-radish, which it closely resembles in flavour. In S. India the same plant is called the Drumstick-tree (q.v.), from the shape of the long slender fruit, which is used as a vegetable, or in curry, or made into a native pickle page 427a"most nauseous to Europeans" (Punjab Plants). It is a native of N.W. India, and also extensively cultivated in India and other tropical countries, and is used also for many purposes in the native pharmacopœia. [See MYROBALAN.]
HOSBOLHOOKUM, &c. Properly (Ar. used in Hind.) ḥasb-ul-ḥukm, literally 'according to order'; these words forming the initial formula of a document issued by officers of State on royal authority, and thence applied as the title of such a document.
" "... the other given in the 10th year of Oranzeeb, for the English to pay 2 per cent. at Surat, which the Mogul interpreted by his order, and Husbull Hookum (id est, a word of command by word of mouth) to his Devan in Bengall, that the English were to pay 2 per cent. custom at Surat, and in all other his dominions to be custom free."—Ft. St. Geo. Consns., 17th Dec., in Notes and Exts., Pt. I. pp. 97-98.
1702.—"The Nabob told me that the great God knows that he had ever a hearty respect for the English ... saying, here is the Hosbulhocum, which the king has sent me to seize Factories and all their effects."—In Wheeler, i. 387.
1727.—"The Phirmaund is presented (by the Goosberdaar (Goorzburdar), or Hosbalhouckain, or, in English, the King's Messenger) and the Governor of the Province or City makes a short speech."—A. Hamilton, i. 230; [ed. 1744, i. 233].
1757.—"This Treaty was conceived in the following Terms. I. Whatever Rights and Privileges the King had granted the English Company, in their Phirmaund, and the Hushulhoorums (sic), sent from Delly, shall not be disputed."—Mem. of the Revolution in Bengal, pp. 21-22.
1759.—"Housbul-hookum (under the great seal of the Nabob Vizier, Ulmah Maleck, Nizam al Mulack Bahadour). Be peace unto the high and renowned Mr. John Spencer ..."—In Cambridge's Acct. of the War, &c., 229.
1761.—"A grant signed by the Mogul is called a Phirmaund (farmān). By the Mogul's Son, a Nushawn (nishān). By the Nabob a Perwanna (parwāna). By the Vizier, a Housebul-hookum."—Ibid. 226.
HOT-WINDS, s. This may almost be termed the name of one of the seasons of the year in Upper India, when the hot dry westerly winds prevail, and such aids to coolness as the tatty and thermantidote (q.v.) are brought into use. May is the typical month of such winds.
HOWDAH, vulg. HOWDER, &c., s. Hind. modified from Ar. haudaj. A great chair or framed seat carried by an elephant. The original Arabic word haudaj is applied to litters carried by camels.
A popular rhyme which was applied in India successively to Warren Hastings' escape from Benares in 1781, and to Col. Monson's retreat from Malwa in 1804, and which was perhaps much older than either, runs:
"Ghoṛe par hauda, hāthī par jīn Jaldī bhāg-gāyā { Warren Hastīn! { Kornail Munsīn!"
which may be rendered with some anachronism in expression:
"Horses with howdahs, and elephants saddled Off helter skelter the Sahibs skedaddled."
1831.—
"And when they talked of Elephants, And riding in my Howder, (So it was called by all my aunts) I prouder grew and prouder." H. M. Parker, in Bengal Annual, 119.
page 428a1856.—
"But she, the gallant lady, holding fast With one soft arm the jewelled howdah's side, Still with the other circles tight the babe Sore smitten by a cruel shaft ..." The Banyan Tree, a Poem.
HUBBA, s. A grain; a jot or tittle. Ar. ḥabba.
HUBBLE-BUBBLE, s. An onomatopoeia applied to the hooka in its rudimentary form, as used by the masses in India. Tobacco, or a mixture containing tobacco amongst other things, is placed with embers in a terra-cotta chillum (q.v.), from which a reed carries the smoke into a coconut shell half full of water, and the smoke is drawn through a hole in the side, generally without any kind of mouth-piece, making a bubbling or gurgling sound. An elaborate description is given in Terry's Voyage (see below), and another in Govinda Samanta, i. 29 (1872).
c. 1630.—"Tobacco is of great account here; not strong (as our men love), but weake and leafie; suckt out of long canes call'd hubble-bubbles ..."—Sir. T. Herbert, 28.
1673.—"Coming back I found my troublesome Comrade very merry, and packing up his Household Stuff, his Bang bowl, and Hubble-bubble, to go along with me."—Fryer, 127.
page 428b1673.—"... bolstered up with embroidered Cushions, smoaking out of a silver Hubble-bubble."—Fryer, 131.
1697.—"... Yesterday the King's Dewan, and this day the King's Buxee ... arrived ... to each of whom sent two bottles of Rose-water, and a glass Hubble-bubble, with a compliment."—In Wheeler, i. 318.
c. 1760.—See Grose, i. 146.
1811.—"Cette manière de fumer est extrêmement commune ... on la nomme Hubbel de Bubbel."—Solvyns, tom. iii.
HUBSHEE, n.p. Ar. Ḥabashī, P. Ḥabshī, 'an Abyssinian,' an Ethiopian, a negro. The name is often specifically applied to the chief of Jinjīra on the western coast, who is the descendant of an Abyssinian family.
[c. 1346.—"Habshis." See under COLOMBO.]
1553.—"At this time, among certain Moors, who came to sell provisions to the ships, had come three Abeshis (Abexijs) of the country of the Prester John ..."—Barros, I. iv. 4.
[1612.—"Sent away the Thomas towards the Habash coast."—Danvers, Letters, i. 166; "The Habesh shore."—Ibid. i. 131.
[c. 1661.—"... on my way to Gonder, the capital of Habech, or Kingdom of Ethiopia."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 2.]
1673.—"Cowis Cawn, an Hobsy or Arabian Coffery (Caffer)."—Fryer, 147.
1681.—"Habessini ... nunc passim nominantur; vocabulo ab Arabibus indito, quibus Habesh colluviem vel mixturam gentium denotat."—Ludolphi, Hist. Aethiop. lib. i. c. i.
1750-60.—"The Moors are also fond of having Abyssinian slaves known in India by the name of Hobshy Coffrees."—Grose, i. 148.
1789.—"In India Negroes, Habissinians, Nobis (i.e. Nubians) &c. &c. are promiscuously called Habashies or Habissians, although the two latter are no negroes; and the Nobies and Habashes differ greatly from one another."—Note to Seir Mutaqherin, iii. 36.
[1813.—"... the master of a family adopts a slave, frequently a Haffshee Abyssinian, of the darkest hue, for his heir."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. ii. 473.]
1884.—"One of my Tibetan ponies had short curly brown hair, and was called both by my servants, and by Dr. Campbell, 'a Hubshee.'
HUCK. Properly Ar. haḳḳ. A just right; a lawful claim; a perquisite claimable by established usage.
HUCKEEM, s. Ar.—H. ḥakīm; a physician. (See note under HAKIM.)
1673.—"My Attendance is engaged, and a Million of Promises, could I restore him to his Health, laid down from his Wives, Children, and Relations, who all (with the Citizens, as I could hear going along) pray to God that the Hackin Fringi, the Frank Doctor, might kill him ..."—Fryer, 312.
HULLIA, s. Canarese Holeya; the same as Polea (pulayan) (q.v.), equivalent to Pariah (q.v.). ["Holeyas field-labourers and agrestic serfs of S. Canara; Pulayan being the Malayālam and Paraiyan the Tamil form of the same word. Brahmans derive it from hole, 'pollution'; others from hola, 'land' or 'soil,' as being thought to be autochthones" (Sturrock, Man. of S. Canara, i. 173). The last derivation is accepted in the Madras Gloss. For an illustration of these people, see Richter, Man. of Coorg, 112.]
HULWA, s. Ar. ḥalwā and ḥalāwa is generic for sweetmeat, and the word is in use from Constantinople to Calcutta. In H. the word represents a particular class, of which the page 429bingredients are milk, sugar, almond paste, and ghee flavoured with cardamom. "The best at Bombay is imported from Muskat" (Birdwood).
1673.—"... the Widow once a Moon (to) go to the Grave with her Acquaintance to repeat the doleful Dirge, after which she bestows Holway, a kind of Sacramental Wafer; and entreats their Prayers for the Soul of the Departed."—Fryer, 94.
HUMMAUL, s. Ar. ḥammāl, a porter. The use of the word in India is confined to the west, and there now commonly indicates a palankin-bearer. The word still survives in parts of Sicily in the form camallu = It. 'facchino,' a relic of the Saracenic occupation. In Andalusia alhamel now means a man who lets out a baggage horse; and the word is also used in Morocco in the same way (Dozy).
1554.—"To the Xabandar (see SHABUNDER) (at Ormuz) for the vessels employed in discharging stores, and for the amals who serve in the custom-house."—S. Botelho, Tombo, 103.
1691.—"His honour was carried by the Amaals, i.e. the Palankyn bearers 12 in number, sitting in his Palankyn."—Valentijn, v. 266.
1711.—"Hamalage, or Cooley-hire, at 1 coz (see GOSBECK) for every maund Tabrees."—Tariff in Lockyer, 243.
1750-60.—"The Hamauls or porters, who make a livelihood of carrying goods to and from the warehouses."—Grose, i. 120.
1809.—"The palankeen-bearers are here called hamauls (a word signifying carrier) ... these people come chiefly from the Mahratta country, and are of the coombie or agricultural caste."—Maria Graham, 2.
page 430a1813.—For Hamauls at Bussora, see Milburn, i. 126.
1840.—"The hamals groaned under the weight of their precious load, the Apostle of the Ganges" (Dr. Duff to wit).—Smith's Life of Dr. John Wilson, 1878, p. 282.
HUMMING-BIRD, s. This name is popularly applied in some parts of India to the sun-birds (sub-fam. Nectarininae).
HUMP, s. 'Calcutta humps' are the salted humps of Indian oxen exported from that city. (See under BUFFALO.)
HURCARRA, HIRCARA, &c., s. Hind. harkārā, 'a messenger, a courier; an emissary, a spy' (Wilson). The etymology, according to the same authority, is har, 'every,' kār, 'business.' The word became very familiar in the Gilchristian spelling Hurkaru, from the existence of a Calcutta newspaper bearing that title (Bengal Hurkaru, generally enunciated by non-Indians as Hurkĕroó), for the first 60 years of last century, or thereabouts.
1748.—"The city of Dacca is in the utmost confusion on account of ... advices of a large force of Mahrattas coming by way of the Sunderbunds, and that they were advanced as far as Sundra Col, when first descried by their Hurcurrahs."—In Long, 4.
1757.—"I beg you to send me a good alcara who understands the Portuguese language."—Letter in Ives, 159.
" "Hircars or Spies."—Ibid. 161; [and comp. 67].
1761.—"The head Harcar returned, and told me this as well as several other secrets very useful to me, which I got from him by dint of money and some rum."—Letter of Capt. Martin White, in Long, 260.
[1772.—"Hercarras." (See under DALOYET.)]
1780.—"One day upon the march a Hircarrah came up and delivered him a letter from Colonel Baillie."—Letter of T. Munro, in Life, i. 26.
page 430b1803.—"The hircarras reported the enemy to be at Bokerdun."—Letter of A. Wellesley, ibid. 348.
c. 1810.—"We were met at the entrance of Tippoo's dominions by four hircarrahs, or soldiers, whom the Sultan sent as a guard to conduct us safely."—Miss Edgeworth, Lame Jervas. Miss Edgeworth has oddly misused the word here.
HURTAUL, s. Hind. from Skt. haritalaka, hartāl, haritāl, yellow arsenic, orpiment.
HUZĀRA, n.p. This name has two quite distinct uses.
(a.) Pers. Hazāra. It is used as a generic name for a number of tribes occupying some of the wildest parts of Afghanistan, chiefly N.W. and S.W. of Kabul. These tribes are in no respect Afghan, but are in fact most or all of them Mongol in features, and some of them also in language. The term at one time appears to have been used more generally for a variety of the wilder clans in the higher hill countries of Afghanistan and the Oxus basin, much as in Scotland of a century and a half ago they spoke of "the clans." It appears to be merely from the Pers. hazār, 1000. The regiments, so to speak, of the Mongol hosts of Chinghiz and his immediate successors were called hazāras, and if we accept the belief that the Hazāras of Afghanistan were predatory bands of those hosts who settled in that region (in favour of which there is a good deal to be said), this name is intelligible. If so, its application to the non-Mongol people of Wakhān, &c., must have been a later transfer. [See the discussion by Bellew, who points out that "amongst themselves this people never use the term Hazārah as their national appellation, and yet they have no name for their people as a nation. page 431aThey are only known amongst themselves by the names of their principal tribes and the clans subordinate to them respectively." (Races of Afghanistan, 114.)]
c. 1505.—Kabul "on the west has the mountain districts, in which are situated Karnûd and Ghûr. This mountainous tract is at present occupied and inhabited by the Hazâra and Nukderi tribes."—Baber, p. 136.
1508.—"Mirza Ababeker, the ruler and tyrant of Káshghar, had seized all the Upper Hazáras of Badakhshán."—Erskine's Baber and Humáyun, i. 287. "Hazáraját báládest. The upper districts in Badakhshán were called Hazáras." Erskine's note. He is using the Tarīkh Rashīdī. But is not the word Hazáras here, 'the clans,' used elliptically for the highland districts occupied by them?
(b.) A mountain district in the extreme N.W. of the Punjab, of which Abbottābād, called after its founder, General James Abbott, is the British head-quarter. The name of this region apparently has nothing to do with Hazāras in the tribal sense, but is probably a survival of the ancient name of a territory in this quarter, called in Sanskrit Abhisāra, and figuring in Ptolemy, Arrian and Curtius as the kingdom of King Abisarēs. [See M‘Crindle, Invasion of India, 69.]
HUZOOR, s. Ar. ḥuẓūr, 'the presence'; used by natives as a respectful way of talking of or to exalted personages, to or of their master, or occasionally of any European gentleman in presence of another European. [The allied words ḥaẓrat and ḥuẓūrī are used in kindred senses as in the examples.]
[1813.—"The Mahratta cavalry are divided into several classes: the Husserat, or page 431bhousehold troops called the kassey-pagah, are reckoned very superior to the ordinary horse...."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. i. 344.
[1824.—"The employment of that singular description of officers called Huzooriah, or servants of the presence, by the Mahratta princes of Central India, has been borrowed from the usages of the Poona court. Huzooriahs are personal attendants of the chief, generally of his own tribe, and are usually of respectable parentage; a great proportion are hereditary followers of the family of the prince they serve.... They are the usual envoys to subjects on occasions of importance.... Their appearance supersedes all other authority, and disobedience to the orders they convey is termed an act of rebellion."—Malcolm, Central India, 2nd ed. i. 536 seq.
HYSON. (See under TEA.)
* ↑ I.e. ḥamāmī, a bath attendant. Compare the Hummums in Covent Garden.
* ↑ Hemāchal and Hemakūt also occur in the Āīn (see Gladwin, ii. 342, 343; [ed. Jarrett, iii. 30, 31]). Karāchal is the name used by Ibn Batuta in the 14th century, and by Al-Birūni 300 years earlier. 17th century writers often call the Himālaya the "Mountains of Nuggur-Cote" (q.v.). [Mr. Tawney writes: "We have in Ṛig Veda (x. 121) ime himavanto parvatāḥ, 'these snowy mountains,' spoken of as abiding by the might of Prajāpati. In the Bhagavadgītā, an episode of the Mahābhārata, Kṛishṇa says that he is 'the Himālaya among stable things,' and the word Himālaya is found in the Kumāra Sambhava of Kālidāsa, about the date of which opinions differ. Perhaps the Greek Ιμαος is himavat; Ἠμωδὸς, himādri."]