B

BABA, s. This is the word usually applied in Anglo-Indian families, by both Europeans and natives, to the children—often in the plural form, bābā lōg (lōg = folk). The word is not used by the natives among themselves in the same way, at least not habitually: and it would seem as if our word baby had influenced the use. The word bābā is properly Turki = 'father'; sometimes used to a child as a term of endearment (or forming part of such a term, as in the P. Bābājān, 'Life of your Father'). Compare the Russian use of batushka. [Bābājī is a common form of address to a Faḳīr, usually a member of one of the Musulman sects. And hence it is used generally as a title of respect.]

[1685.—"A Letter from the Pettepolle Bobba."—Pringle, Diary, Fort St. Geo. iv. 92.]

1826.—"I reached the hut of a Gossein ... and reluctantly tapped at the wicket, calling, 'O Baba, O Maharaj.'"—Pandurang Hari [ed. 1873, i. 76].

[1880.—"While Sunny Baba is at large, and might at any time make a raid on Mamma, who is dozing over a novel on the spider chair near the mouth of the thermantidote, the Ayah and Bearer dare not leave their charge."—Aberigh-Mackay, Twenty-one Days, p. 94.]

BABAGOOREE, s. H. Bābāghūrī, the white agate (or chalcedony?) of Cambay. [For these stones see Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. i. 323: Tavernier, ed. Ball, i. 68.] It is apparently so called from the patron saint or martyr of the district containing the mines, under whose special protection the miners place themselves before descending into the shafts. Tradition alleges that he was a prince of the great Ghori dynasty, who was killed in a great battle in that region. But this prince will hardly be found in history.

1516.—"They also find in this town (Limadura in Guzerat) much chalcedony, which they call babagore. They make beads with it, and other things which they wear about them."—Barbosa, 67.

1554.—"In this country (Guzerat) is a profusion of Bābāghūrī and carnelians; but the best of these last are those coming from Yaman."—Sidi 'Ali Kapudān, in J.A.S.B. v. 463.

1590.—"By the command of his Majesty grain weights of bābāghūrī were made, which were used in weighing."—Āīn, i. 35, and note, p. 615 (Blochmann).

1818.—"On the summit stands the tomb ... of the titular saint of the country, Baba Ghor, to whom a devotion is paid more as a deity than as a saint...."—Copland, in Tr. Lit. Soc. Bo., i. 294.

1849.—Among ten kinds of carnelians specified in H. Briggs's Cities of Gujaráshtra we find "Bawa Gori Akik, a veined kind."—p. 183.

BABBS, n.p. This name is given to the I. of Perim, in the St. of Babelmandel, in the quotation from Ovington. It was probably English sea-slang only. [Mr Whiteway points out that this is clearly from albabo, the Port. form of the Ar. word. João de Castro in Roteiro (1541), p. 34, says: "This strait is called by the neighbouring people, as well as those who dwell on the shores of the Indian Ocean, Albabo, which in Arabic signifies 'gates.'"]

[1610.—"We attempting to work up to the Babe."—Danvers, Letters, i. 52.]

[1611.—"There is at the Babb a ship come from Swahell."—Ibid. i. 111.]

1690.—"The Babbs is a small island opening to the Red Sea.... Between this and the Main Land is a safe Passage...."—Ovington, 458.

[1769.—"Yet they made no estimation of the currents without the Babs"; (note), "This is the common sailors' phrase for the Straits of Babelmandel."—Bruce, Travels to discover the Source of the Nile, ed. 1790, Bk. i. cap. ii.]

BABER, BHABUR, s. H. bābar, bhābar. A name given to those districts of the N.W. Provinces which lie immediately under the Himālaya to the dry forest belt on the talus of the hills, at the lower edge of which the moisture comes to the surface and forms the wet forest belt called Tarāī. (See TERAI.) The following extract from the report of a lecture on Indian Forests is rather a happy example of the danger of "a little learning" to a reporter:

1877.—"Beyond that (the Tarāī) lay another district of about the same breadth, called in the native dialect the Bahadar. That in fact was a great filter-bed of sand and vegetation."—London Morning Paper of 26th May.

BABI-ROUSSA, s. Malay babi^[30] ('hog') rūsa ('stag'). The 'Stag-hog,' a remarkable animal of the swine genus (Sus babirussa, L.; Babirussa alfurus, F. Cuvier), found in the island of Bourou, and some others of the I. Archipelago, but nowhere on continental Asia. Yet it seems difficult to apply the description of Pliny below, or the name and drawing given by Cosmas, to any other animal. The 4-horned swine of Aelian is more probably the African Wart-hog, called accordingly by F. Cuvier Phacochoerus Aeliani.

c. A.D. 70.—"The wild bores of India have two bowing fangs or tuskes of a cubit length, growing out of their mouth, and as many out of their foreheads like calves hornes."—Pliny, viii. 52 (Holland's Tr. i. 231).

c. 250. "Λέγει δὲ Δίνων ἐν Αἰθιωπίᾳ γίνεσθαι ... ὕς τετράκερως."—Aelian, De Nat. Anim. xvii. 10.

c. 545.—"The Choirelaphus ('Hog-stag') I have both seen and eaten."—Cosmas Indicopleustes, in Cathay, &c., p. clxxv.

1555.—"There are hogs also with hornes, and parats which prattle much which they call noris (Lory)."—Galvano, Discoveries of the World, Hak. Soc. 120.

1658.—"Quadrupes hoc inusitatatae figurae monstrosis bestiis ascribunt Indi quod adversae speciei animalibus, Porco scilicet et Cervo, pronatum putent ... ita ut primo intuitu quatuor cornibus juxta se positis videatur armatum hoc animal Baby-Roussa."—Piso, App. to Bontius, p. 61.

[1869.—"The wild pig seems to be of a species peculiar to the island (Celebes); but a much more curious animal of this family is the Babirusa or Pig-deer, so named by the Malays from its long and slender legs, and curved tusks resembling horns. This extraordinary creature resembles a pig in general appearance, but it does not dig with its snout, as it feeds on fallen fruits.... Here again we have a resemblance to the Wart-hogs of Africa, whose upper canines grow outwards and curve up so as to form a transition from the usual mode of growth to that of the Babirusa. In other respects there seems no affinity between these animals, and the Babirusa stands completely isolated, having no resemblance to the pigs of any other part of the world."—Wallace, Malay Archip. (ed. 1890), p. 211, seqq.]

BABOO, s. Beng. and H. Bābū [Skt. vapra, 'a father']. Properly a term of respect attached to a name, like Master or Mr., and formerly in some parts of Hindustan applied to certain persons of distinction. Its application as a term of respect is now almost or altogether confined to Lower Bengal (though C. P. Brown states that it is also used in S. India for 'Sir, My lord, your Honour'). In Bengal and elsewhere, among Anglo-Indians, it is often used with a slight savour of disparagement, as characterizing a superficially cultivated, but too often effeminate, Bengali. And from the extensive employment of the class, to which the term was applied as a title, in the capacity of clerks in English offices, the word has come often to signify 'a native clerk who writes English.'

1781.—"I said.... From my youth to this day I am a servant to the English. I have never gone to any Rajahs or Bauboos nor will I go to them."—Depn. of Dooud Sing, Commandant. In Narr. of Insurn. at Banaras in 1781. Calc. 1782. Reprinted at Roorkee, 1853. App., p. 165.

1782.—"Cantoo Baboo" appears as a subscriber to a famine fund at Madras for 200 Sicca Rupees.—India Gazette, Oct. 12.

1791.

1803.—"... Calling on Mr. Neave I found there Baboo Dheep Narrain, brother to Oodit Narrain, Rajah at Benares."—Lord Valentia's Travels, i. 112.

1824.—"... the immense convent-like mansion of some of the more wealthy Baboos...."—Heber, i. 31, ed. 1844.

1834.—"The Baboo and other Tales, descriptive of Society in India."—Smith & Elder, London. (By Augustus Prinsep.)

1850.—"If instruction were sought for from them (the Mohammedan historians) we should no longer hear bombastic Baboos, enjoying under our Government the highest degree of personal liberty ... rave about patriotism, and the degradation of their present position."—Sir H. M. Elliot, Orig. Preface to Mahom. Historians of India, in Dowson's ed., I. xxii.

c. 1866.

1873.—"The pliable, plastic, receptive Baboo of Bengal eagerly avails himself of this system (of English education) partly from a servile wish to please the Sahib logue, and partly from a desire to obtain a Government appointment."—Fraser's Mag., August, 209.

[1880.—"English officers who have become de-Europeanised from long residence among undomesticated natives.... Such officials are what Lord Lytton calls White Baboos."—Aberigh-Mackay, Twenty-one Days, p. 104.]

N.B.—In Java and the further East bābū means a nurse or female servant (Javanese word).

BABOOL, s. H. babūl, babūr (though often mispronounced bābul, as in two quotations below); also called kīkar. A thorny mimosa common in most parts of India except the Malabar Coast; the Acacia arabica, Willd. The Bhils use the gum as food.

1666.—"L'eau de Vie de ce Païs ... qu'on y boit ordinairement, est faicte de jagre ou sucre noir, qu'on met dans l'eau avec de l'écorce de l'arbre Baboul, pour y donner quelque force, et ensuite on les distile ensemble."—Thevenot, v. 50.

1780.—"Price Current. Country Produce: Bable Trees, large, 5 pc. each tree."—Hickey's Bengal Gazette, April 29. [This is bāblā, the Bengali form of the word.]

1824.—"Rampoor is ... chiefly remarkable for the sort of fortification which surrounds it. This is a high thick hedge ... of bamboos ... faced on the outside by a formidable underwood of cactus and bâbool."—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 290.

1849.—"Look at that great tract from Deesa to the Hāla mountains. It is all sand; sometimes it has a little ragged clothing of bābul or milk-bush."—Dry Leaves from Young Egypt, 1.

BABOON, s. This, no doubt, comes to us through the Ital. babuino; but it is probable that the latter word is a corruption of Pers. maimūn ['the auspicious one'], and then applied by way of euphemism or irony to the baboon or monkey. It also occurs in Ital. under the more direct form of maimone in gatto-maimone, 'cat-monkey,' or rather 'monkey-cat.' [The N.E.D. leaves the origin of the word doubtful, and does not discuss this among other suggested derivations.]

BACANORE and BARCELORE, nn.pp. Two ports of Canara often coupled together in old narratives, but which have entirely disappeared from modern maps and books of navigation, insomuch that it is not quite easy to indicate their precise position. But it would seem that Bacanore, Malayāl. Vakkanūr, is the place called in Canarese Bārkūr, the Barcoor-pettah of some maps, in lat. 13° 28½′. This was the site of a very old and important city, "the capital of the Jain kings of Tulava ... and subsequently a stronghold of the Vijiyanagar Rajas."—Imp. Gazet. [Also see Stuart, Man. S. Canara, ii. 264.]

Also that Barcelore is a Port. corruption of Basrūr [the Canarese Basarūru, 'the town of the waved-leaf fig tree.' (Mad. Adm. Man. Gloss., s.v.).] It must have stood immediately below the 'Barsilur Peak' of the Admiralty charts, and was apparently identical with, or near to, the place called Seroor in Scott's Map of the Madras Presidency, in about lat. 13° 55′. [See Stuart, ibid. ii. 242. Seroor is perhaps the Shirūr of Mr Stuart (ibid. p. 243).]

c. 1330.—"Thence (from Hannaur) the traveller came to Bāsarūr, a small city...."—Abulfeda, in Gildemeister, 184.

c. 1343.—"The first town of Mulaibār that we visited was Abu-Sarūr, which is small, situated on a great estuary, and abounding in coco-nut trees.... Two days after our departure from that town we arrived at Fākanūr, which is large and situated on an estuary. One sees there an abundance of sugar-cane, such as has no equal in that country."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 77-78.

c. 1420.—"Duas praeterea ad maritimas urbes, alteram Pachamuriam ... nomine, xx diebus transiit."—Conti, in Poggius de Var. Fort. iv.

1501.—"Bacanut," for Bacanur, is named in Amerigo Vespucci's letter, giving an account of Da Gama's discoveries, first published by Baldelli Boni, Il Milione, pp. liii. seqq.

1516.—"Passing further forward ... along the coast, there are two little rivers on which stand two places, the one called Bacanor, and the other Bracalor, belonging to the kingdom of Narsyngua and the province of Tolinate (Tulu-nāḍa, Tuluva or S. Canara). And in them is much good rice grown round about these places, and this is loaded in many foreign ships and in many of Malabar...."—Barbosa, in Lisbon Coll. 294.

1548.—"The Port of the River of Barcalor pays 500 loads (of rice as tribute)."—Botelho, Tombo, 246.

1552.—"Having dispatched this vessel, he (V. da Gama) turned to follow his voyage, desiring to erect the padrão (votive pillar) of which we have spoken; and not finding a place that pleased him better, he erected one on certain islets joined (as it were) to the land, giving it the name of Sancta Maria, whence these islands are now called Saint Mary's Isles, standing between Bacanor and Baticalá, two notable places on that coast."—De Barros, I. iv. 11.

" "... the city Onor, capital of the kingdom, Baticalá, Bendor, Bracelor, Bacanor."—Ibid. I. ix. 1.

1726.—"In Barseloor or Basseloor have we still a factory ... a little south of Basseloor lies Baquanoor and the little River Vier."—Valentijn, v. (Malabar) 6.

1727.—"The next town to the Southward of Batacola [Batcul] is Barceloar, standing on the Banks of a broad River about 4 Miles from the Sea.... The Dutch have a Factory here, only to bring up Rice for their Garrisons.... Baccanoar and Molkey lie between Barceloar and Mangalore, both having the benefit of Rivers to export the large quantities of Rice that the Fields produce."—A. Hamilton, i. 284-5. [Molkey is Mulki, see Stuart, op. cit. ii. 259.]

1780.—"St Mary's Islands lie along the coast N. and S. as far as off the river of Bacanor, or Callianpoor, being about 6 leagues.... In lat. 13° 50′ N., 5 leagues from Bacanor, runs the river Barsalor."—Dunn's N. Directory, 5th ed. 105.

1814.—"Barcelore, now frequently called Cundapore."—Forbes, Or. Mem. iv. 109, also see 113; [2nd ed. II. 464].

BACKDORE, s. H. bāg-ḍor ('bridle-cord'); a halter or leading rein.

BACKSEE. Sea H. bāksī: nautical 'aback,' from which it has been formed (Roebuck).

BADEGA, n.p. The Tamil Vaḍagar, i.e. 'Northerners.' The name has at least two specific applications:

a. To the Telegu people who invaded the Tamil country from the kingdom of Vijayanagara (the Bisnaga or Narsinga of the Portuguese and old travellers) during the later Middle Ages, but especially in the 16th century. This word first occurs in the letters of St. Francis Xavier (1544), whose Parava converts on the Tinnevelly Coast were much oppressed by these people. The Badega language of Lucena, and other writers regarding that time, is the Telegu. The Badagas of St. Fr. Xavier's time were in fact the emissaries of the Nāyaka rulers of Madura, using violence to exact tribute for those rulers, whilst the Portuguese had conferred on the Paravas "the somewhat dangerous privilege of being Portuguese subjects."—See Caldwell, H. of Tinnevelly, 69 seqq.

1544.—"Ego ad Comorinum Promontorium contendo eòque naviculas deduco xx. cibariis onustas, ut miseris illis subveniam Neophytis, qui Bagadarum (read Badagarum) acerrimorum Christiani nominis hostium terrore perculsi, relictis vicis, in desertas insulas se abdiderunt."—S. F. Xav. Epistt. I. vi., ed. 1677.

1572.—"Gens est in regno Bisnagae quos Badagas vocant."—E. Acosta, 4 b.

1737.—"In eâ parte missionis Carnatensis in quâ Telougou, ut aiunt, lingua viget, seu inter Badagos, quinque annos versatus sum; neque quamdiu viguerunt vires ab illâ dilectissimâ et sanctissimâ Missione Pudecherium veni."—In Norbert, iii. 230.

1875.—"Mr C. P. Brown informs me that the early French missionaries in the Guntur country wrote a vocabulary 'de la langue Talenga, dite vulgairement le Badega."—Bp. Caldwell, Dravidian Grammar, Intr. p. 33.

b. To one of the races occupying the Nilgiri Hills, speaking an old Canarese dialect, and being apparently a Canarese colony, long separated from the parent stock.—(See Bp. Caldwell's Grammar, 2nd ed., pp. 34, 125, &c.) [The best recent account of this people is that by Mr Thurston in Bulletin of the Madras Museum, vol. ii. No. 1.] The name of these people is usually in English corrupted to Burghers.

BADGEER, s. P. bād-gīr, 'wind-catch.' An arrangement acting as a windsail to bring the wind down into a house; it is common in Persia and in Sind. [It is the Bādhanj of Arabia, and the Malkaf of Egypt (Burton, Ar. Nights, i. 237; Lane, Mod. Egypt, i. 23.]

1298.—"The heat is tremendous (at Hormus), and on that account the houses are built with ventilators (ventiers) to catch the wind. These ventilators are placed on the side from which the wind comes, and they bring the wind down into the house to cool it."—Marco Polo, ii. 450.

[1598.—A similar arrangement at the same place is described by Linschoten, i. 51, Hak. Soc.]

1682.—At Gamron (Gombroon) "most of the houses have a square tower which stands up far above the roof, and which in the upper part towards the four winds has ports and openings to admit air and catch the wind, which plays through these, and ventilates the whole house. In the heat of summer people lie at night at the bottom of these towers, so as to get good rest."—Nieuhof, Zee en Lant-Reize, ii. 79.

[1798.—"The air in it was continually refreshed and renewed by a cool-sail, made like a funnel, in the manner of M. du Hamel."—Stavorinus, Voyage, ii. 104.]

1817.

1872.—"... Badgirs or windcatchers. You see on every roof these diminutive screens of wattle and dab, forming acute angles with the hatches over which they project. Some are moveable, so as to be turned to the S.W. between March and the end of July, when the monsoon sets in from that quarter."—Burton's Sind Revisited, 254.

1881.—"A number of square turrets stick up all over the town; these are badgirs or ventilators, open sometimes to all the winds, sometimes only to one or two, and divided inside like the flues of a great chimney, either to catch the draught, or to carry it to the several rooms below."—Pioneer Mail, March 8th.

BADJOE, BAJOO, s. The Malay jacket (Mal. bājū) [of which many varieties are described by Dennys (Disc. Dict. p. 107)].

[c. 1610.—"The women (Portuguese) take their ease in their smocks or Bajus, which are more transparent and fine than the most delicate crape of those parts."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 112.]

1784.—"Over this they wear the badjoo, which resembles a morning gown, open at the neck, but fastened close at the wrist, and half-way up the arm."—Marsden, H. of Sumatra, 2nd ed. 44.

1878.—"The general Malay costume ... consists of an inner vest, having a collar to button tight round the neck, and the baju, or jacket, often of light coloured dimity, for undress."—McNair, 147.

1883.—"They wear above it a short-sleeved jacket, the baju, beautifully made, and often very tastefully decorated in fine needlework."—Miss Bird, Golden Chersonese, 139.

BAEL, s. H. bel, Mahr. bail, from Skt. vilva, the Tree and Fruit of Aegle marmelos (Correa), or 'Bengal Quince,' as it is sometimes called, after the name (Marmelos de Benguala) given it by Garcia de Orta, who first described the virtues of this fruit in the treatment of dysentery, &c. These are noticed also by P. Vincenzo Maria and others, and have always been familiar in India. Yet they do not appear to have attracted serious attention in Europe till about the year 1850. It is a small tree, a native of various parts of India. The dried fruit is now imported into England.—(See Hanbury and Flückiger, 116); [Watt, Econ. Dict. i. 117 seqq.]. The shelly rind of the bel is in the Punjab made into carved snuff-boxes for sale to the Afghans.

1563.—"And as I knew that it was called beli in Baçaim, I enquired of those native physicians which was its proper name, cirifole or beli, and they told me that cirifole [śriphala] was the physician's name for it."—Garcia De O., ff. 221 v., 222.

[1614.—"One jar of Byle at ru. 5 per maund."—Foster, Letters, iii. 41.]

1631.—Jac. Bontius describes the bel as malum cydonium (i.e. a quince), and speaks of its pulp as good for dysentery and the cholerae immanem orgasmum.—Lib. vi. cap. viii.

1672.—"The Bili plant grows to no greater height than that of a man [this is incorrect], all thorny ... the fruit in size and hardness, and nature of rind, resembles a pomegranate, dotted over the surface with little dark spots equally distributed.... With the fruit they make a decoction, which is a most efficacious remedy for dysenteries or fluxes, proceeding from excessive heat...."—P. Vincenzo, 353.

1879.—"... On this plain you will see a large bél-tree, and on it one big bél-fruit."—Miss Stokes, Indian Fairy Tales, 140.

BAFTA, s. A kind of calico, made especially at Baroch; from the Pers. bāfta, 'woven.' The old Baroch baftas seem to have been fine goods. Nothing is harder than to find intelligible explanations of the distinction between the numerous varieties of cotton stuffs formerly exported from India to Europe under a still greater variety of names; names and trade being generally alike obsolete. Baftas however survived in the Tariffs till recently. [Bafta is at present the name applied to a silk fabric. (See quotation from Yusuf Ali below.) In Bengal, Charpata and Noakhali in the Chittagong Division were also noted for their cotton baftas (Birdwood, Industr. Arts, 249).]

1598.—"There is made great store of Cotton Linnen of diuers sort ... Boffetas."—Linschoten, p. 18. [Hak. Soc. i. 60.]

[1605-6.—"Patta Kassa of the ffinest Totya, Baffa."—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 73. We have also "Black Baffatta."—Ibid. 74.]

[1610.—"Baffata, the corge Rs. 100."—Danvers, Letters, i. 72.]

1612.—"Baftas or white Callicos, from twentie to fortie Royals the corge."—Capt. Saris, in Purchas, i. 347.

1638.—"... tisserans qui y font cette sorte de toiles de cotton, que l'on appelle baftas, qui sont les plus fines de toutes celles qui se font dans la Prouince de Guzaratta."—Mandelslo, 128.

1653.—"Baftas est un nom Indien qui signifie des toiles fort serrées de cotton, lesquelles la pluspart viennent de Baroche, ville du Royaume de Guzerat, appartenant au Grand Mogol."—De la B. le Gouz, 515.

1665.—"The Baftas, or Calicuts painted red, blue, and black, are carried white to Agra and Amadabad, in regard those cities are nearest the places where the Indigo is made that is us'd in colouring."—Tavernier, (E. T.) p. 127; [ed. Ball, ii. 5].

1672.—"Broach Baftas, broad and narrow."—Fryer, 86.

1727.—"The Baroach Baftas are famous throughout all India, the country producing the best Cotton in the World."—A. Hamilton, i. 144.

1875.—In the Calcutta Tariff valuation of this year we find Piece Goods, Cotton:

[1900.—"Akin to the pot thāns is a fabric known as Bafta (literally woven), produced in Benares; body pure silk, with butis in kalabatun or cloth; ... used for angarkhas, kots, and women's paijamas (Musulmans)."—Yusuf Ali, Mon. on Silk Fabrics, 97.]

It is curious to find this word now current on Lake Nyanza. The burial of King Mtesa's mother is spoken of:

1883.—"The chiefs half filled the nicely-padded coffin with bufta (bleached calico) ... after that the corpse and then the coffin was filled up with more bufta...."—In Ch. Missy. Intelligencer, N.S., viii. p. 543.

BAHAR, s. Ar. bahār, Malayāl. bhāram, from Skt. bhāra, 'a load.' A weight used in large trading transactions; it varied much in different localities; and though the name is of Indian origin it was naturalised by the Arabs, and carried by them to the far East, being found in use, when the Portuguese arrived in those seas, at least as far as the Moluccas. In the Indian islands the bahār is generally reckoned as equal to 3 peculs (q.v.), or 400 avoirdupois. But there was a different bahār in use for different articles of merchandise; or, rather, each article had a special surplus allowance in weighing, which practically made a different bahār (see PICOTA). [Mr. Skeat says that it is now uniformly equal to 400 lbs. av. in the British dominions in the Malay Peninsula; but Klinkert gives it as the equivalent of 12 pikuls of Agar-agar; 6 of cinnamon; 3 of Tripang.]

1498.—"... and begged him to send to the King his Lord a bagar of cinnamon, and another of clove ... for sample" (a mostra).—Roteiro de V. da Gama, 78.

1506.—"In Cananor el suo Re si è zentil, e qui nasce zz. (i.e. zenzeri or 'ginger'); ma li zz. pochi e non cusi boni come quelli de Colcut, e suo peso si chiama baar, che sono K. (Cantari) 4 da Lisbona."—Relazione di Leonardo Ca' Masser, 26.

1510.—"If the merchandise about which they treat be spices, they deal by the bahar, which bahar weighs three of our cantari."—Varthema, p. 170.

1516.—"It (Malacca) has got such a quantity of gold, that the great merchants do not estimate their property, nor reckon otherwise than by bahars of gold, which are 4 quintals to each bahar."—Barbosa, 193.

1552.—"300 bahares of pepper."—Castanheda, ii. 301. Correa writes bares, as does also Couto.

1554.—"The baar of nuts (noz) contains 20 faraçolas, and 5 maunds more of picota; thus the baar, with its picota, contains 20½ faraçolas...."—A. Nunes, 6.

c. 1569.—"After this I saw one that would have given a barre of Pepper, which is two Quintals and a halfe, for a little Measure of water, and he could not have it."—C. Fredericke, in Hakl. ii. 358.

1598.—"Each Bhar of Sunda weigheth 330 catten of China."—Linschoten, 34: [Hak. Soc. i. 113].

1606.—"... their came in his company a Portugall Souldier, which brought a Warrant from the Capitaine to the Gouernor of Manillia, to trade with vs, and likewise to giue John Rogers, for his pains a Bahar of Cloues."—Middleton's Voyage, D. 2. b.

1613.—"Porque os naturaes na quelle tempo possuyão muytos bâres de ouro."—Godinho de Eredia, 4 v.

[1802.—"That at the proper season for gathering the pepper and for a Pallam weighing 13 rupees and 1½ Viessam 120 of which are equal to a Tulam or Maund weighing 1,732 rupees, calculating, at which standard for one barom or Candy the Sircar's price is Rs. 120."—Procl. at Malabar, in Logan, iii. 348. This makes the barom equal to 650 lbs.]

BAHAUDUR, s. H. Bahādur, 'a hero, or champion.' It is a title affixed commonly to the names of European officers in Indian documents, or when spoken of ceremoniously by natives (e.g. "Jones Ṣāhib Bahādur"), in which use it may be compared with "the gallant officer" of Parliamentary courtesy, or the Illustrissimo Signore of the Italians. It was conferred as a title of honour by the Great Mogul and by other native princes [while in Persia it was often applied to slaves (Burton, Ar. Nights, iii. 114)]. Thus it was particularly affected to the end of his life by Hyder Ali, to whom it had been given by the Raja of Mysore (see quotation from John Lindsay below [and Wilks, Mysoor, Madras reprint, i. 280]). Bahādur and Sirdār Bahādur are also the official titles of members of the 2nd and 1st classes respectively of the Order of British India, established for native officers of the army in 1837. [The title of Rāē Bahādur is also conferred upon Hindu civil officers.]

As conferred by the Court of Delhi the usual gradation of titles was (ascending):—1. Bahādur; 2. Bahādur Jang; 3. Bahādur ud-Daulah; 4. Bahādur ul-mulk. At Hyderabad they had also Bahādur ul-Umrā (Kirkpatrick, in Tippoo's Letters, 354). [Many such titles of Europeans will be found in North Indian N. & Q., i. 35, 143, 179; iv. 17.]

In Anglo-Indian colloquial parlance the word denotes a haughty or pompous personage, exercising his brief authority with a strong sense of his own importance; a don rather than a swaggerer. Thackeray, who derived from his Indian birth and connections a humorous felicity in the use of Anglo-Indian expressions, has not omitted this serviceable word. In that brilliant burlesque, the Memoirs of Major Gahagan, we have the Mahratta traitor Bobachee Bahauder. It is said also that Mr Canning's malicious wit bestowed on Sir John Malcolm, who was not less great as a talker than as a soldier and statesman, the title, not included in the Great Mogul's repertory, of Bahauder Jaw.^[32]

Bahādur is one of the terms which the hosts of Chingiz Khan brought with them from the Mongol Steppes. In the Mongol genealogies we find Yesugai Bahādur, the father of Chingiz, and many more. Subutai Bahādur, one of the great soldiers of the Mongol host, twice led it to the conquest of Southern Russia, twice to that of Northern China. In Sanang Setzen's poetical annals of the Mongols, as rendered by I. J. Schmidt, the word is written Baghatur, whence in Russian Bogatir still survives as a memento probably of the Tartar domination, meaning 'a hero or champion.' It occurs often in the old Russian epic ballads in this sense; and is also applied to Samson of the Bible. It occurs in a Russian chronicler as early as 1240, but in application to Mongol leaders. In Polish it is found as Bohatyr, and in Hungarian as Bátor,—this last being in fact the popular Mongol pronunciation of Baghatur. In Turki also this elision of the guttural extends to the spelling, and the word becomes Bātur, as we find it in the Dicts. of Vambéry and Pavet de Courteille. In Manchu also the word takes the form of Baturu, expressed in Chinese characters as Pa-tu-lu;^[33] the Kirghiz has it as Batyr; the Altai-Tataric as Paattyr, and the other dialects even as Magathyr. But the singular history of the word is not yet entirely told. Benfey has suggested that the word originated in Skt. bhaga-dhara ('happiness-possessing').^[34] But the late lamented Prof. A. Schiefner, who favoured us with a note on the subject, was strongly of opinion that the word was rather a corruption "through dissimulation of the consonant," of the Zend bagha-puthra 'Son of God,' and thus but another form of the famous term Faghfūr, by which the old Persians rendered the Chinese Tien-tsz ('Son of Heaven'), applying it to the Emperor of China.

1280-90.—In an eccentric Persian poem purposely stuffed with Mongol expressions, written by Purbahā Jāmī in praise of Arghūn Khān of Persia, of which Hammer has given a German translation, we have the following:—

c. 1400.—"I ordained that every Ameer who should reduce a Kingdom, or defeat an army, should be exalted by three things: by a title of honour, by the Tugh [Yak's tail standard], and by the Nakkára [great kettle drum]; and should be dignified by the title of Bahaudur."—Timour's Institutes, 283; see also 291-293.

1404.—"E elles le dixeron q̃ aquel era uno de los valiẽtes e Bahadures q'en el linage del Señor auia."—Clavijo, § lxxxix.

" "E el home q̃ este haze e mas vino beue dizen que es Bahadur, que dizen elles por homem rezio."—Do. § cxii.

1407.—"The Prince mounted, escorted by a troop of Bahadurs, who were always about his person."—Abdurrazāk's Hist. in Not. et Ext. xiv. 126.

1536.—(As a proper name.) "Itaq̃ ille potentissimus Rex Badur, Indiae universae terror, a quo nonulli regnũ Pori maximi quõdam regis teneri affirmant...."—Letter from John III. of Portugal to Pope Paul III.

Hardly any native name occurs more frequently in the Portuguese Hist. of India than this of Badur—viz. Bahādur Shāh, the warlike and powerful king of Guzerat (1526-37), killed in a fray which closed an interview with the Viceroy, Nuno da Cunha, at Diu.

1754.—"The Kirgeese Tartars ... are divided into three Hordas, under the Government of a Khan. That part which borders on the Russian dominions was under the authority of Jean Beek, whose name on all occasions was honoured with the title of Bater."—Hanway, i. 239. The name Jean Beek is probably Janibek, a name which one finds among the hordes as far back as the early part of the 14th century (see Ibn Batuta, ii. 397).

1759.—"From Shah Alum Bahadre, son of Alum Guire, the Great Mogul, and successor of the Empire, to Colonel Sabut Jung Bahadre" (i.e. Clive).—Letter in Long, p. 163.

We have said that the title Behauder (Bahādur) was one by which Hyder Ali of Mysore was commonly known in his day. Thus in the two next quotations:

1781.—"Sheikh Hussein upon the guard tells me that our army has beat the Behauder [i.e. Hyder Ali], and that peace was making. Another sepoy in the afternoon tells us that the Behauder had destroyed our army, and was besieging Madras."—Captivity of Hon. John Lindsay, in Lives of the Lindsays, iii. 296.

1800.—"One lac of Behaudry pagodas."—Wellington, i. 148.

1801.—"Thomas, who was much in liquor, now turned round to his sowars, and said—'Could any one have stopped Sahib Bahaudoor at this gate but one month ago?' 'No, no,' replied they; on which——"—Skinner, Mil. Mem. i. 236.

1872.—"... the word 'Bahádur' ... (at the Mogul's Court) ... was only used as an epithet. Ahmed Shah used it as a title and ordered his name to be read in the Friday prayer as 'Mujahid ud dín Muhammad Abú naçr Ahmad Sháh Bahádur. Hence also 'Kampaní Bahadur,' the name by which the E. I. Company is still known in India. The modern 'Khan Bahádur' is, in Bengal, by permission assumed by Muhammedan Deputy Magistrates, whilst Hindu Deputy Magistrates assume 'Rái Bahádur'; it stands, of course, for 'Khán-i-Bahádur,' 'the courageous Khán.' The compound, however, is a modern abnormal one; for 'Khán' was conferred by the Dihli Emperors, and so also 'Bahádur' and 'Bahádur Khán,' but not 'Khán Bahádur.'"—Prof. Blochmann, in Ind. Antiquary, i. 261.

1876.—"Reverencing at the same time bravery, dash, and boldness, and loving their freedom, they (the Kirghiz) were always ready to follow the standard of any batyr, or hero, ... who might appear on the stage."—Schuyler's Turkistan, i. 33.

1878.—"Peacock feathers for some of the subordinate officers, a yellow jacket for the successful general, and the bestowal of the Manchoo title of Baturu, or 'Brave,' on some of the most distinguished brigadiers, are probably all the honours which await the return of a triumphal army. The reward which fell to the share of 'Chinese Gordon' for the part he took in the suppression of the Taiping rebellion was a yellow jacket, and the title of Baturu has lately been bestowed on Mr Mesny for years of faithful service against the rebels in the province of Kweichow."—Saturday Rev., Aug. 10, p. 182.

" "There is nothing of the great bahawder about him."—Athenaeum, No. 2670, p. 851.

1879.—"This strictly prohibitive Proclamation is issued by the Provincial Administrative Board of Likim ... and Chang, Brevet-Provincial Judge, chief of the Foochow Likim Central Office, Taot'ai for special service, and Bat'uru with the title of 'Awe-inspiring Brave'"—Transl. of Proclamation against the cultivation of the Poppy in Foochow, July 1879.

BAHIRWUTTEEA, s. Guj. bāhirwatū. A species of outlawry in Guzerat; bāhirwatīā, the individual practising the offence. It consists "in the Rajpoots or Grassias making their ryots and dependants quit their native village, which is suffered to remain waste; the Grassia with his brethren then retires to some asylum, whence he may carry on his depredations with impunity. Being well acquainted with the country, and the redress of injuries being common cause with the members of every family, the Bahirwutteea has little to fear from those who are not in the immediate interest of his enemy, and he is in consequence enabled to commit very extensive mischief."—Col. Walker, quoted in Forbes, Rās Māla, 2nd ed., p. 254-5. Col. Walker derives the name from bāhir, 'out,' and wāt, 'a road.' [Tod, in a note to the passage quoted below, says "this term is a compound of bār (bāhir) and wuttan (wat̤an), literally ex patriâ."]

[1829.—"This petty chieftain, who enjoyed the distinctive epithet of outlaw (barwattia), was of the Sonigurra clan."...—Pers. Narr., in Annals of Raj. (Calcutta reprint), i. 724.]

The origin of most of the brigandage in Sicily is almost what is here described in Kattiwār.

BAIKREE, s. The Bombay name for the Barking-deer. It is Guzarātī bekṛī; and acc. to Jerdon and [Blandford, Mammalia, 533] Mahr. bekra or bekar, but this is not in Molesworth's Dict. [Forsyth (Highlands of C. I., p. 470) gives the Gond and Korku names as Bherki, which may be the original].

1879.—"Any one who has shot baikri on the spurs of the Ghats can tell how it is possible unerringly to mark down these little beasts, taking up their position for the day in the early dawn."—Overl. Times of India, Suppt. May 12, 7b.

BAJRA, s. H. bājrā and bājrī (Penicillaria spicata, Willden.). One of the tall millets forming a dry crop in many parts of India. Forbes calls it bahjeree (Or. Mem. ii. 406; [2nd ed. i. 167), and bajeree (i. 23)].

1844.—"The ground (at Maharajpore) was generally covered with bajree, full 5 or 6 feet high."—Lord Ellenborough, in Ind. Admin. 414.

BĀKIR-KHĀNĪ, s. P.—H. bāqir-khānī; a kind of cake almost exactly resembling pie-crust, said to owe its name to its inventor, Bākir Khān.

[1871.—"The best kind (of native cakes) are baka kanah and 'sheer mahl' (Sheer-maul)."—Riddell, Ind. Domest. Econ. 386.]

BALÁCHONG, BLACHONG, s. Malay balāchān; [acc. to Mr Skeat the standard Malay is blachan, in full belachan.] The characteristic condiment of the Indo-Chinese and Malayan races, composed of prawns, sardines, and other small fish, allowed to ferment in a heap, and then mashed up with salt. [Mr Skeat says that it is often, if not always, trodden out like grapes.] Marsden calls it 'a species of caviare,' which is hardly fair to caviare. It is the ngāpi (Ngapee) of the Burmese, and trāsi of the Javanese, and is probably, as Crawfurd says, the Roman garum. One of us, who has witnessed the process of preparing ngāpi on the island of Negrais, is almost disposed to agree with the Venetian Gasparo Balbi (1583), who says "he would rather smell a dead dog, to say nothing of eating it" (f. 125v). But when this experience is absent it may be more tolerable.

1688.—Dampier writes it Balachaun, ii. 28.

1727.—"Bankasay is famous for making Ballichang, a Sauce made of dried Shrimps, Cod-pepper, Salt, and a Sea-weed or Grass, all well mixed and beaten up to the Consistency of thick Mustard."—A. Hamilton, ii. 194. The same author, in speaking of Pegu, calls the like sauce Prock (44), which was probably the Talain name. It appears also in Sonnerat under the form Prox (ii. 305).

1784.—"Blachang ... is esteemed a great delicacy among the Malays, and is by them exported to the west of India.... It is a species of caviare, and is extremely offensive and disgusting to persons who are not accustomed to it."—Marsden's H. of Sumatra, 2nd ed. 57.

[1871.—Riddell (Ind. Domest. Econ. p. 227) gives a receipt for Ballachong, of which the basis is prawns, to which are added chillies, salt, garlic, tamarind juice, &c.]

1883.—"... blachang—a Malay preparation much relished by European lovers of decomposed cheese...."—Miss Bird, Golden Chersonese, 96.

BALAGHAUT, used as n.p.; P. bālā, 'above,' H. Mahr., &c., ghāt, 'a pass,'—the country 'above the passes,' i.e. above the passes over the range of mountains which we call the "Western Ghauts." The mistaken idea that ghāt means 'mountains' causes Forbes to give a nonsensical explanation, cited below. The expression may be illustrated by the old Scotch phrases regarding "below and above the Pass" of so and so, implying Lowlands and Highlands.

c. 1562.—"All these things were brought by the Moors, who traded in pepper which they brought from the hills where it grew, by land in Bisnega, and Balagate, and Cambay."—Correa, ed. Ld. Stanley, Hak. Soc. p. 344.

1563.—"R. Let us get on horseback and go for a ride; and as we go you shall tell me what is the meaning of Nizamosha (Nizamaluco), for you often speak to me of such a person.

"O. I will tell you now that he is King in the Bagalate (misprint for Balagate), whose father I have often attended medically, and the son himself sometimes. From him I have received from time to time more than 12,000 pardaos; and he offered me a salary of 40,000 pardaos if I would visit him for so many months every year, but I would not accept."—Garcia de Orta, f. 33v.

1598.—"This high land on the toppe is very flatte and good to build upon, called Balagatte."—Linschoten, 20; [Hak. Soc. i. 65; cf. i. 235].

" "Ballagate, that is to say, above the hill, for Balla is above, and Gate is a hill...."—Ibid. 49; [Hak. Soc. i. 169].

1614.—"The coast of Coromandel, Balagatt or Telingana."—Sainsbury, i. 301.

1666.—"Balagate est une des riches Provinces du Grand Mogol.... Elle est au midi de celle de Candich."—Thevenot, v. 216.

1673.—"... opening the ways to Baligaot, that Merchants might with safety bring down their Goods to Port."—Fryer, 78.

c. 1760.—"The Ball-a-gat Mountains, which are extremely high, and so called from Bal, mountain, and gatt, flat [!], because one part of them affords large and delicious plains on their summit, little known to Europeans."—Grose, i. 231.

This is nonsense, but the following are also absurd misdescriptions:—

1805.—"Bala Ghaut, the higher or upper Gaut or Ghaut, a range of mountains so called to distinguish them from the Payen Ghauts, the lower Ghauts or Passes."—Dict. of Words used in E. Indies, 28.

1813.—"In some parts this tract is called the Balla-Gaut, or high mountains; to distinguish them from the lower Gaut, nearer the sea."—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 206; [2nd ed. i. 119].

BALASORE, n.p. A town and district of Orissa; the site of one of the earliest English factories in the "Bay," established in 1642, and then an important seaport; supposed to be properly Bāleśvara, Skt. bāla, 'strong,' īśvara, 'lord,' perhaps with reference to Krishna. Another place of the same name in Madras, an isolated peak, 6762′ high, lat. 11° 41′ 43″, is said to take its name from the Asura Bana.

1676.—

1727.—"The Sea-shore of Balasore being very low, and the Depths of Water very gradual from the Strand, make Ships in Ballasore Road keep a good Distance from the Shore; for in 4 or 5 Fathoms, they ride 3 Leagues off."—A. Hamilton, i. 397.

BALASS, s. A kind of ruby, or rather a rose-red spinelle. This is not an Anglo-Indian word, but it is a word of Asiatic origin, occurring frequently in old travellers. It is a corruption of Balakhshī, a popular form of Badakhshī, because these rubies came from the famous mines on the Upper Oxus, in one of the districts subject to Badakhshān. [See Vambéry, Sketches, 255; Ball, Tavernier, i. 382 n.]

c. 1350.—"The mountains of Badakhshān have given their name to the Badakhshi ruby, vulgarly called al-Balakhsh."—Ibn Batuta, iii. 59, 394.

1404.—"Tenia (Tamerlan) vestido vna ropa et vn paño de seda raso sin lavores e ẽ la cabeça tenia vn sombrero blãco alto con un Balax en cima e con aljofar e piedras."—Clavijo, § cx.

1516.—"These balasses are found in Balaxayo, which is a kingdom of the mainland near Pegu and Bengal."—Barbosa, 213. This is very bad geography for Barbosa, who is usually accurate and judicious, but it is surpassed in much later days.

1581.—"I could never understand from whence those that be called Balassi come."—Caesar Fredericke, in Hakl. ii. 372.

[1598.—"The Ballayeses are likewise sold by weight."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. ii. 156.]

1611.—"Of Ballace Rubies little and great, good and bad, there are single two thousand pieces" (in Akbar's treasury).—Hawkins, in Purchas, i. 217.

[1616.—"Fair pearls, Ballast rubies."—Foster, Letters, iv. 243.]

1653.—"Les Royaumes de Pegou, d'où viennent les rubis balets."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, 126.

1673.—"The last sort is called a Ballace Ruby, which is not in so much esteem as the Spinell, because it is not so well coloured."—Fryer, 215.

1681.—"... ay ciertos balaxes, que llmana candidos, que son como los diamantes."—Martinez de la Puente, 12.

1689.—"... The Balace Ruby is supposed by some to have taken its name from Palatium, or Palace; ... the most probable Conjecture is that of Marcus Paulus Venetus, that it is borrow'd from the Country, where they are found in greatest Plentie...."—Ovington, 588.

BALCONY, s. Not an Anglo-Indian word, but sometimes regarded as of Oriental origin; a thing more than doubtful. The etymology alluded to by Mr. Schuyler and by the lamented William Gill in the quotations below, is not new, though we do not know who first suggested it. Neither do we know whether the word balagani, which Erman (Tr. in Siberia, E. T. i. 115) tells us is the name given to the wooden booths at the Nijnei Fair, be the same P. word or no. Wedgwood, Littré, [and the N.E.D.] connect balcony with the word which appears in English as balk, and with the Italian balco, 'a scaffolding' and the like, also used for 'a box' at the play. Balco, as well as palco, is a form occurring in early Italian. Thus Franc. da Buti, commenting on Dante (1385-87), says: "Balco è luogo alto doue si monta e scende." Hence naturally would be formed balcone, which we have in Giov. Villani, in Boccaccio and in Petrarch. Manuzzi (Vocabolario It.) defines balcone as = finestra (?).

It may be noted as to the modern pronunciation that whilst ordinary mortals (including among verse-writers Scott and Lockhart, Tennyson and Hood) accent the word as a dactyl (bālcŏny̆), the crême de la crême, if we are not mistaken, makes it, or did in the last generation make it, as Cowper does below, an amphibrach (bălcōny̆): "Xanthus his name with those of heavenly birth, But called Scamander by the sons of earth!" [According to the N.E.D. the present pronunciation, "which," said Sam. Rogers, "makes me sick," was established about 1825.]

c. 1348.—"E al continuo v'era pieno di belle donne a' balconi."—Giov. Villani, x. 132-4.

c. 1340-50.—

c. 1340-50.—

1645-52.—"When the King sits to do Justice, I observe that he comes into the Balcone that looks into the Piazza."—Tavernier, E. T. ii. 64; [ed. Ball, i. 152].

1667.—"And be it further enacted, That in the Front of all Houses, hereafter to be erected in any such Streets as by Act of Common Council shall be declared to be High Streets, Balconies Four Foot broad with Rails and Bars of Iron ... shall be placed...."—Act 19 Car. II., cap. 3, sect. 13. (Act for Rebuilding the City of London.)

1783.

1805.—

1833.—

1876.—"The houses (in Turkistan) are generally of but one story, though sometimes there is a small upper room called bala-khana (P. bala, upper, and khana, room) whence we get our balcony."—Schuyler's Turkistan, i. 120.

1880.—"Bālā khānă means 'upper house,' or 'upper place,' and is applied to the room built over the archway by which the chăppă khānă is entered, and from it, by the way, we got our word 'Balcony.'"—MS. Journal in Persia of Captain W. J. Gill, R.E.

BALOON, BALLOON, &c., s. A rowing vessel formerly used in various parts of the Indies, the basis of which was a large canoe, or 'dug-out.' There is a Mahr. word balyānw, a kind of barge, which is probably the original. [See Bombay Gazetteer, xiv. 26.]

1539.—"E embarcando-se ... partio, eo forão accompanhando dez ou doze balões ate a Ilha de Upe...."—Pinto, ch. xiv.

1634.—

1673.—"The President commanded his own Baloon (a Barge of State, of Two and Twenty Oars) to attend me."—Fryer, 70.

1755.—"The Burmas has now Eighty Ballongs, none of which as [sic] great Guns."—Letter from Capt. R. Jackson, in Dalrymple Or. Repert. i. 195.

1811.—"This is the simplest of all boats, and consists merely of the trunk of a tree hollowed out, to the extremities of which pieces of wood are applied, to represent a stern and prow; the two sides are boards joined by rottins or small bambous without nails; no iron whatsoever enters into their construction.... The Balaums are used in the district of Chittagong."—Solvyns, iii.

BALSORA, BUSSORA, &c., n.p. These old forms used to be familiar from their use in the popular version of the Arabian Nights after Galland. The place is the sea-port city of Basra at the mouth of the Shat-al-'Arab, or United Euphrates and Tigris. [Burton (Ar. Nights, x. 1) writes Bassorah.]

1298.—"There is also on the river as you go from Baudas to Kisi, a great city called Bastra surrounded by woods in which grow the best dates in the world."—Marco Polo, Bk. i. ch. 6.

c. 1580.—"Balsara, altrimente detta Bassora, è una città posta nell' Arabia, la quale al presente e signoreggiata dal Turco ... è città di gran negocio di spetiarie, di droghe, e altre merci che uengono di Ormus; è abondante di dattoli, risi, e grani."—Balbi, f. 32f.

[1598.—"The town of Balsora; also Bassora."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 45.]

1671.—

1747.—"He (the Prest. of Bombay) further advises us that they have wrote our Honble. Masters of the Loss of Madrass by way of Bussero, the 7th of November."—Ft. St. David Consn., 8th January 1746-7. MS. in India Office.

[Also see CONGO.]

BALTY, s. H. bāltī, 'a bucket,' [which Platts very improbably connects with Skt. vări, 'water'], is the Port. balde.

BÁLWAR, s. This is the native servant's form of 'barber,' shaped by the 'striving after meaning' as bālwār, for bālwālā, i.e. 'capillarius,' 'hair-man.' It often takes the further form bāl-būr, another factitious hybrid, shaped by P. būrīdan, 'to cut,' quasi 'hair-cutter.' But though now obsolete, there was also (see both Meninski and Vullers s.v.) a Persian word bărbăr, for a barber or surgeon, from which came this Turkish term "Le Berber-bachi, qui fait la barbe au Pacha," which we find (c. 1674) in the Appendix to the journal of Antoine Galland, pubd. at Paris, 1881 (ii. 190). It looks as if this must have been an early loan from Europe.

BAMBOO, s. Applied to many gigantic grasses, of which Bambusa arundinacea and B. vulgaris are the most commonly cultivated; but there are many other species of the same and allied genera in use; natives of tropical Asia, Africa, and America. This word, one of the commonest in Anglo-Indian daily use, and thoroughly naturalised in English, is of exceedingly obscure origin. According to Wilson it is Canarese bănbŭ [or as the Madras Admin. Man. (Gloss. s.v.) writes it, bombu, which is said to be "onomatopaeic from the crackling and explosions when they burn"]. Marsden inserts it in his dictionary as good Malay. Crawfurd says it is certainly used on the west coast of Sumatra as a native word, but that it is elsewhere unknown to the Malay languages. The usual Malay word is buluh. He thinks it more likely to have found its way into English from Sumatra than from Canara. But there is evidence enough of its familiarity among the Portuguese before the end of the 16th century to indicate the probability that we adopted the word, like so many others, through them. We believe that the correct Canarese word is baṇwu. In the 16th century the form in the Concan appears to have been mambu, or at least it was so represented by the Portuguese. Rumphius seems to suggest a quaint onomatopoeia: "vehementissimos edunt ictus et sonitus, quum incendio comburuntur, quando notum ejus nomen Bambu, Bambu, facile exauditur."—(Herb. Amb. iv. 17.) [Mr. Skeat writes: "Although buluh is the standard Malay, and bambu apparently introduced, I think bambu is the form used in the low Javanese vernacular, which is quite a different language from high Javanese. Even in low Javanese, however, it may be a borrowed word. It looks curiously like a trade corruption of the common Malay word samambu, which means the well-known 'Malacca cane,' both the bamboo and the Malacca cane being articles of export. Klinkert says that the samambu is a kind of rattan, which was used as a walking-stick, and which was called the Malacca cane by the English. This Malacca cane and the rattan 'bamboo cane' referred to by Sir H. Yule must surely be identical. The fuller Malay name is actually rotan samambu, which is given as the equivalent of Calamus Scipionum, Lour. by Mr. Ridley in his Plant List (J.R.A.S., July 1897).]

The term applied to ṭābāshīr (Tabasheer), a siliceous concretion in the bamboo, in our first quotation seems to show that bambu or mambu was one of the words which the Portuguese inherited from an earlier use by Persian or Arab traders. But we have not been successful in finding other proof of this. With reference to sakkar-mambu Ritter says: "That this drug (Tabashir), as a product of the bamboo-cane, is to this day known in India by the name of Sacar Mambu is a thing which no one needs to be told" (ix. 334). But in fact the name seems now entirely unknown.

It is possible that the Canarese word is a vernacular corruption, or development, of the Skt. vaṇśa [or vambha], from the former of which comes the H. bāṇs. Bamboo does not occur, so far as we can find, in any of the earlier 16th-century books, which employ canna or the like.

In England the term bamboo-cane is habitually applied to a kind of walking-stick, which is formed not from any bamboo but from a species of rattan. It may be noted that some 30 to 35 years ago there existed along the high road between Putney Station and West Hill a garden fence of bamboos of considerable extent; it often attracted the attention of one of the present writers.

1563.—"The people from whom it (tabashir) is got call it sacar-mambum ... because the canes of that plant are called by the Indians mambu."—Garcia, f. 194.

1578.—"Some of these (canes), especially in Malabar, are found so large that the people make use of them as boats (embarcaciones) not opening them out, but cutting one of the canes right across and using the natural knots to stop the ends, and so a couple of naked blacks go upon it ... each of them at his own end of the mambu [in orig. mãbu] (so they call it), being provided with two paddles, one in each hand ... and so upon a cane of this kind the folk pass across, and sitting with their legs clinging naked."—C. Acosta, Tractado, 296.

Again:

"... and many people on that river (of Cranganor) make use of these canes in place of boats, to be safe from the numerous Crocodiles or Caymoins (as they call them) which are in the river (which are in fact great and ferocious lizards)" [lagartos].—Ibid. 297.

These passages are curious as explaining, if they hardly justify, Ctesias, in what we have regarded as one of his greatest bounces, viz. his story of Indian canes big enough to be used as boats.

1586.—"All the houses are made of canes, which they call Bambos, and bee covered with Strawe."—Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 391.

1598.—"... a thicke reede as big as a man's legge, which is called Bambus."—Linschoten, 56; [Hak. Soc. i. 195].

1608.—"Iava multas producit arundines grossas, quas Manbu vocant."—Prima Pars Desc. Itin. Navalis in Indiam (Houtman's Voyage), p. 36.

c. 1610.—"Les Portugais et les Indiens ne se seruent point d'autres bastons pour porter leurs palanquins ou litieres. Ils l'appellent partout Bambou."—Pyrard, i. 237; [Hak. Soc. i. 329].

1615.—"These two kings (of Camboja and Siam) have neyther Horses, nor any fiery Instruments: but make use only of bowes, and a certaine kind of pike, made of a knottie wood like Canes, called Bambuc, which is exceeding strong, though pliant and supple for vse."—De Monfart, 33.

1621.—"These Forts will better appeare by the Draught thereof, herewith sent to your Worships, inclosed in a Bamboo."—Letter in Purchas, i. 699.

1623.—"Among the other trees there was an immense quantity of bambù, or very large Indian canes, and all clothed and covered with pretty green foliage that went creeping up them."—P. della Valle, ii. 640; [Hak. Soc. ii. 220].

c. 1666.—"Cette machine est suspendue à une longue barre que l'on appelle Pambou."—Thevenot, v. 162. (This spelling recurs throughout a chapter describing palankins, though elsewhere the traveller writes bambou.)

1673.—"A Bambo, which is a long hollow cane."—Fryer, 34.

1727.—"The City (Ava) tho' great and populous, is only built of Bambou canes."—A. Hamilton, ii. 47.

1855.—"When I speak of bamboo huts, I mean to say that post and walls, wall-plates and rafters, floor and thatch and the withes that bind them, are all of bamboo. In fact it might almost be said that among the Indo-Chinese nations the staff of life is a Bamboo. Scaffolding and ladders, landing-jetties, fishing apparatus, irrigation-wheels and scoops, oars, masts and yards, spears and arrows, hats and helmets, bow, bow-string and quiver, oil-cans, water-stoups and cooking-pots, pipe-sticks, conduits, clothes-boxes, pan-boxes, dinner-trays, pickles, preserves, and melodious musical instruments, torches, footballs, cordage, bellows, mats, paper, these are but a few of the articles that are made from the bamboo."—Yule, Mission to Ava, p. 153. To these may be added, from a cursory inspection of a collection in one of the museums at Kew, combs, mugs, sun-blinds, cages, grotesque carvings, brushes, fans, shirts, sails, teapots, pipes and harps.

Bamboos are sometimes popularly distinguished (after a native idiom) as male and female; the latter embracing all the common species with hollow stems, the former title being applied to a certain kind (in fact, a sp. of a distinct genus, Dendrocalamus strictus), which has a solid or nearly solid core, and is much used for bludgeons (see LATTEE) and spear-shafts. It is remarkable that this popular distinction by sex was known to Ctesias (c. B.C. 400) who says that the Indian reeds were divided into male and female, the male having no ἐντερώνην.

One of the present writers has seen (and partaken of) rice cooked in a joint of bamboo, among the Khyens, a hill-people of Arakan. And Mr Markham mentions the same practice as prevalent among the Chunchos and savage aborigines on the eastern slopes of the Andes (J. R. Geog. Soc. xxv. 155). An endeavour was made in Pegu in 1855 to procure the largest obtainable bamboo. It was a little over 10 inches in diameter. But Clusius states that he had seen two great specimens in the University at Leyden, 30 feet long and from 14 to 16 inches in diameter. And E. Haeckel, in his Visit to Ceylon (1882), speaks of bamboo-stems at Peridenia, "each from a foot to two feet thick." We can obtain no corroboration of anything approaching 2 feet.—[See Gray's note on Pyrard, Hak. Soc. i. 330.]

BAMÓ, n.p. Burm. Bha-maw, Shan Manmaw; in Chinese Sin-Kai, 'New-market.' A town on the upper Irawadi, where one of the chief routes from China abuts on that river; regarded as the early home of the Karens. [(McMahon, Karens of the Golden Cher., 103.)] The old Shan town of Bamó was on the Tapeng R., about 20 m. east of the Irawadi, and it is supposed that the English factory alluded to in the quotations was there.

[1684.—"A Settlement at Bammoo upon the confines of China."—Pringle, Madras Cons., iii. 102.]

1759.—"This branch seems formerly to have been driven from the Establishment at Prammoo."—Dalrymple, Or. Rep., i. 111.

BANANA, s. The fruit of Musa paradisaica, and M. sapientum of Linnaeus, but now reduced to one species under the latter name by R. Brown. This word is not used in India, though one hears it in the Straits Settlements. The word itself is said by De Orta to have come from Guinea; so also Pigafetta (see below). The matter will be more conveniently treated under PLANTAIN. Prof. Robertson Smith points out that the coincidence of this name with the Ar. banān, 'fingers or toes,' and banāna, 'a single finger or toe,' can hardly be accidental. The fruit, as we learn from Muḳaddasī, grew in Palestine before the Crusades; and that it is known in literature only as mauz would not prove that the fruit was not somewhere popularly known as 'fingers.' It is possible that the Arabs, through whom probably the fruit found its way to W. Africa, may have transmitted with it a name like this; though historical evidence is still to seek. [Mr. Skeat writes: "It is curious that in Norwegian and Danish (and I believe in Swedish), the exact Malay word pisang, which is unknown in England, is used. Prof. Skeat thinks this may be because we had adopted the word banana before the word pisang was brought to Europe at all."]

1563.—"The Arab calls these musa or amusa; there are chapters on the subject in Avicenna and Serapion, and they call them by this name, as does Rasis also. Moreover, in Guinea they have these figs, and call them bananas."—Garcia, 93v.

1598.—"Other fruits there are termed Banana, which we think to be the Muses of Egypt and Soria ... but here they cut them yearly, to the end they may bear the better."—Tr. of Pigafetta's Congo, in Harleian Coll. ii. 553 (also in Purchas, ii. 1008.)

c. 1610.—"Des bannes (marginal rubric Bannanes) que les Portugais appellent figues d'Inde, et aux Maldives Quella."—Pyrard de Laval, i. 85; [Hak. Soc. i. 113]. The Maldive word is here the same as H. kelā (Skt. kadala).

1673.—"Bonanoes, which are a sort of Plantain, though less, yet much more grateful."—Fryer, 40.

1686.—"The Bonano tree is exactly like the Plantain for shape and bigness, not easily distinguishable from it but by the Fruit, which is a great deal smaller."—Dampier, i. 316.

BANCHOOT, BETEECHOOT, ss. Terms of abuse, which we should hesitate to print if their odious meaning were not obscure "to the general." If it were known to the Englishmen who sometimes use the words, we believe there are few who would not shrink from such brutality. Somewhat similar in character seem the words which Saul in his rage flings at his noble son (1 Sam. xx. 30).

1638.—"L'on nous monstra à vne demy lieue de la ville vn sepulchre, qu'ils appellent Bety-chuit, c'est à dire la vergogne de la fille decouverte."—Mandelslo, Paris, 1659, 142. See also Valentijn, iv. 157.

There is a handsome tomb and mosque to the N. of Ahmedabad, erected by Hajji Malik Bahā-ud-dīn, a wazīr of Sultan Mohammed Bigara, in memory of his wife Bībī Achut or Achhūt; and probably the vile story to which the 17th-century travellers refer is founded only on a vulgar misrepresentation of this name.

1648.—"Bety-chuit; dat is (onder eerbredinge gesproocken) in onse tale te seggen, u Dochters Schaemelheyt."—Van Twist, 16.

1792.—"The officer (of Tippoo's troops) who led, on being challenged in Moors answered (Agari que logue), 'We belong to the advance'—the title of Lally's brigade, supposing the people he saw to be their own Europeans, whose uniform also is red; but soon discovering his mistake the commandant called out (Feringhy Banchoot!—chelow) 'they are the rascally English! Make off'; in which he set the corps a ready example."—Dirom's Narrative, 147.

BANCOCK, n.p. The modern capital of Siam, properly Bang-kok; see explanation by Bp. Pallegoix in quotation. It had been the site of forts erected on the ascent of the Menam to the old capital Ayuthia, by Constantine Phaulcon in 1675; here the modern city was established as the seat of government in 1767, after the capture of Ayuthia (see JUDEA) by the Burmese in that year. It is uncertain if the first quotation refer to Bancock.

1552.—"... and Bamplacot, which stands at the mouth of the Menam."—Barros, I. ix. 1.

1611.—"They had arrived in the Road of Syam the fifteenth of August, and cast Anchor at three fathome high water.... The Towne lyeth some thirtie leagues vp along the Riuer, whither they sent newes of their arrivall. The Sabander (see SHAHBUNDER) and the Governor of Mancock (a place scituated by the Riuer), came backe with the Messengers to receiue his Majesties Letters, but chiefly for the presents expected."—P. Williamson Floris, in Purchas, i. 321.

1727.—The Ship arrived at Bencock, a Castle about half-way up, where it is customary for all Ships to put their Guns ashore."—A. Hamilton, i. 363.

1850.—"Civitas regia tria habet nomina: ... ban măkōk, per contractionem Bangkōk, pagus oleastrorum, est nomen primitivum quod hodie etiam vulgo usurpatur."—Pallegoix, Gram. Linguae Thai., Bangkok, 1850, p. 167.

BANDANNA, s. This term is properly applied to the rich yellow or red silk handkerchief, with diamond spots left white by pressure applied to prevent their receiving the dye. The etymology may be gathered from Shakespear's Dict., which gives "Bāndhnū: 1. A mode of dyeing in which the cloth is tied in different places, to prevent the parts tied from receiving the dye;... 3. A kind of silk cloth." A class or caste in Guzerat who do this kind of preparation for dyeing are called Bandhārā (Drummond). [Such handkerchiefs are known in S. India as Pulicat handkerchiefs. Cloth dyed in this way is in Upper India known as Chūnrī. A full account of the process will be found in Journ. Ind. Art, ii. 63, and S. M. Hadi's Mon. on Dyes and Dyeing, p. 35.]

c. 1590.—"His Majesty improved this department in four ways.... Thirdly, in stuffs as ... Bándhnún, Chhínt, Alchah."—Āīn, i. 91.

1752.—"The Cossembazar merchants having fallen short in gurrahs, plain taffaties, ordinary bandannoes, and chappas."—In Long, 31.

1813.—"Bandannoes ... 800."—Milburn (List of Bengal Piece-goods, and no. to the ton), ii. 221.

1848.—"Mr Scape, lately admitted partner into the great Calcutta House of Fogle, Fake, and Cracksman ... taking Fake's place, who retired to a princely Park in Sussex (the Fogles have long been out of the firm, and Sir Horace Fogle is about to be raised to the peerage as Baron Bandanna), ... two years before it failed for a million, and plunged half the Indian public into misery and ruin."—Vanity Fair, ii. ch. 25.

1866.—"'Of course,' said Toogood, wiping his eyes with a large red bandana handkerchief. 'By all means, come along, Major.' The major had turned his face away, and he also was weeping."—Last Chronicle of Barset, ii. 362.

1875.—"In Calcutta Tariff Valuations: 'Piece goods silk: Bandanah Choppahs, per piece of 7 handkerchiefs ... score ... 115 Rs."

BANDAREE, s. Mahr. Bhanḍārī, the name of the caste or occupation. It is applied at Bombay to the class of people (of a low caste) who tend the coco-palm gardens in the island, and draw toddy, and who at one time formed a local militia. [It has no connection with the more common Bhândârî, 'a treasurer or storekeeper.']

1548.—"... certain duties collected from the bandarys who draw the toddy (sura) from the aldeas...."—S. Botelho, Tombo, 203.

1644.—"The people ... are all Christians, or at least the greater part of them consisting of artizans, carpenters, chaudaris (this word is manifestly a mistranscription of bandaris), whose business is to gather nuts from the coco-palms, and corumbis (see KOONBEE) who till the ground...."—Bocarro, MS.

1673.—"The President ... if he go abroad, the Bandarines and Moors under two Standards march before him."—Fryer, 68.

" "... besides 60 Field-pieces ready in their Carriages upon occasion to attend the Militia and Bandarines."—Ibid. 66.

c. 1760.—"There is also on the island kept up a sort of militia, composed of the land-tillers, and bandarees, whose living depends chiefly on the cultivation of the coco-nut trees."—Grose, i. 46.

1808.—"... whilst on the Brab trees the cast of Bhundarees paid a due for extracting the liquor."—Bombay Regulation, i. of 1808, sect. vi. para. 2.

1810.—"Her husband came home, laden with toddy for distilling. He is a bandari or toddy-gatherer."—Maria Graham, 26.

c. 1836.—"Of the Bhundarees the most remarkable usage is their fondness for a peculiar species of long trumpet, called Bhongalee, which, ever since the dominion of the Portuguese, they have had the privilege of carrying and blowing on certain State occasions."—R. Murphy, in Tr. Bo. Geog. Soc. i. 131.

1883.—"We have received a letter from one of the large Bhundarries in the city, pointing out that the tax on toddy trees is now Rs. 18 (? Rs. 1, 8 as.) per tapped toddy tree per annum, whereas in 1872 it was only Re. 1 per tree; ... he urges that the Bombay toddy-drawers are entitled to the privilege of practising their trade free of license, in consideration of the military services rendered by their ancestors in garrisoning Bombay town and island, when the Dutch fleet advanced towards it in 1670."—Times of India (Mail), July 17th.

BANDEJAH, s. Port. bandeja, 'a salver,' 'a tray to put presents on.' We have seen the word used only in the following passages:—

1621.—"We and the Hollanders went to vizet Semi Dono, and we carid hym a bottell of strong water, and an other of Spanish wine, with a great box (or bandeja) of sweet bread."—Cocks's Diary, ii. 143.

[1717.—"Received the Phirmaund (see FIRMAUN) from Captain Boddam in a bandaye couered with a rich piece of Atlass (see ATLAS)."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. ccclx.]

1747.—"Making a small Cott (see COT) and a rattan Bandijas for the Nabob.... (Pagodas) 4: 32: 21."—Acct. Expenses at Fort St. David, Jany., MS. Records in India Office.

c. 1760.—"(Betel) in large companies is brought in ready made up on Japan chargers, which they call from the Portuguese name, Bandejahs, something like our tea-boards."—Grose, i. 237.

1766.—"To Monurbad Dowla Nabob—

—Lord Clive's Durbar Charges, in Long, 433.

Bandeja appears in the Manilla Vocabular of Blumentritt as used there for the present of cakes and sweetmeats, tastefully packed in an elegant basket, and sent to the priest, from the wedding feast. It corresponds therefore to the Indian ḍāli (see DOLLY).

BANDEL, n.p. The name of the old Portuguese settlement in Bengal about a mile above Hoogly, where there still exists a monastery, said to be the oldest church in Bengal (see Imp. Gazeteer). The name is a Port. corruption of bandar, 'the wharf'; and in this shape the word was applied among the Portuguese to a variety of places. Thus in Correa, under 1541-42, we find mention of a port in the Red Sea, near the mouth, called Bandel dos Malemos ('of the Pilots'). Chittagong is called Bandel de Chatigão (e.g. in Bocarro, p. 444), corresponding to Bandar Chātgām in the Autobiog. of Jahāngīr (Elliot, vi. 326). [In the Diary of Sir T. Roe (see below) it is applied to Gombroon], and in the following passage the original no doubt runs Bandar-i-Hūghlī or Hūglī-Bandar.

[1616.—"To this Purpose took Bandell theyr foort on the Mayne."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. i. 129.]

1631.—"... these Europeans increased in number, and erected large substantial buildings, which they fortified with cannons, muskets, and other implements of war. In due course a considerable place grew up, which was known by the name of Port of Hūglī."—'Abdul Hamīd, in Elliot, vii. 32.

1753.—"... les établissements formés pour assurer leur commerce sont situés sur les bords de cette rivière. Celui des Portugais, qu'ils ont appelé Bandel, en adoptant le terme Persan de Bender, qui signifie port, est aujourd'hui reduit à peu de chose ... et il est presque contigu à Ugli en remontant."—D'Anville, Éclaircissemens, p. 64.

1782.—"There are five European factories within the space of 20 miles, on the opposite banks of the river Ganges in Bengal; Houghly, or Bandell, the Portuguese Presidency; Chinsura, the Dutch; Chandernagore, the French; Sirampore, the Danish; and Calcutta, the English."—Price's Observations, &c., p. 51. In Price's Tracts, i.

BANDICOOT, s. Corr. from the Telegu pandi-kokku, lit. 'pig-rat.' The name has spread all over India, as applied to the great rat called by naturalists Mus malabaricus (Shaw), Mus giganteus (Hardwicke), Mus bandicota (Bechstein), [Nesocia bandicota (Blanford, p. 425)]. The word is now used also in Queensland, [and is the origin of the name of the famous Bendigo gold-field (3 ser. N. & Q. ix. 97)].

c. 1330.—"In Lesser India there be some rats as big as foxes, and venomous exceedingly."—Friar Jordanus, Hak. Soc. 29.

c. 1343.—"They imprison in the dungeons (of Dwaigīr, i.e. Daulatābād) those who have been guilty of great crimes. There are in those dungeons enormous rats, bigger than cats. In fact, these latter animals run away from them, and can't stand against them, for they would get the worst of it. So they are only caught by stratagem. I have seen these rats at Dwaigīr, and much amazed I was!"—Ibn Batuta, iv. 47.

Fryer seems to exaggerate worse than the Moor:

1673.—"For Vermin, the strongest huge Rats as big as our Pigs, which burrow under the Houses, and are bold enough to venture on Poultry."—Fryer, 116.

The following surprisingly confounds two entirely different animals:

1789.—"The Bandicoot, or musk rat, is another troublesome animal, more indeed from its offensive smell than anything else."—Munro, Narrative, 32. See MUSK-RAT.

[1828.—"They be called Brandy-cutes."—Or. Sporting Mag. i. 128.]

1879.—"I shall never forget my first night here (on the Cocos Islands). As soon as the Sun had gone down, and the moon risen, thousands upon thousands of rats, in size equal to a bandicoot, appeared."—Pollok, Sport in B. Burmah, &c., ii. 14.

1880.—"They (wild dogs in Queensland) hunted Kangaroo when in numbers ... but usually preferred smaller and more easily obtained prey, as rats, bandicoots, and 'possums.'"—Blackwood's Mag., Jan., p. 65.

[1880.—"In England the Collector is to be found riding at anchor in the Bandicoot Club."—Aberigh-Mackay, Twenty-one Days, 87.]

BANDICOY, s. The colloquial name in S. India of the fruit of Hibiscus esculentus; Tamil veṇḍai-khāi, i.e. unripe fruit of the veṇḍai, called in H. bhenḍi. See BENDY.

BANDO! H. imperative bāndho, 'tie or make fast.' "This and probably other Indian words have been naturalised in the docks on the Thames frequented by Lascar crews. I have heard a London lighter-man, in the Victoria Docks, throw a rope ashore to another Londoner, calling out, Bando!"—(M.-Gen. Keatinge.)

BANDY, s. A carriage, bullock-carriage, buggy, or cart. This word is usual in both the S. and W. Presidencies, but is unknown in Bengal, and in the N.W.P. It is the Tamil vaṇḍi, Telug. baṇḍi, 'a cart or vehicle.' The word, as bendi, is also used in Java. [Mr Skeat writes—"Klinkert has Mal. bendi, 'a chaise or caleche,' but I have not heard the word in standard Malay, though Clifford and Swett. have bendu, 'a kind of sedan-chair carried by men,' and the commoner word tandu 'a sedan-chair or litter,' which I have heard in Selangor. Wilkinson says that kereta (i.e. kreta bendi) is used to signify any two-wheeled vehicle in Johor."]

1791.—"To be sold, an elegant new and fashionable Bandy, with copper panels, lined with Morocco leather."—Madras Courier, 29th Sept.

1800.—"No wheel-carriages can be used in Canara, not even a buffalo-bandy."—Letter of Sir T. Munro, in Life, i. 243.

1810.—"None but open carriages are used in Ceylon; we therefore went in bandies, or, in plain English, gigs."—Maria Graham, 88.

1826.—"Those persons who have not European coachmen have the horses of their ... 'bandies' or gigs, led by these men.... Gigs and hackeries all go here (in Ceylon) by the name of bandy."—Heber (ed. 1844), ii. 152.

1829.—"A mighty solemn old man, seated in an open bundy (read bandy) (as a gig with a head that has an opening behind is called) at Madras."—Mem. of Col. Mountain, 2nd ed. 84.

1860.—"Bullock bandies, covered with cajans met us."—Tennent's Ceylon, ii. 146.

1862.—"At Coimbatore I bought a bandy or country cart of the simplest construction."—Markham's Peru and India, 393.

BANG, BHANG, s. H. bhāng, the dried leaves and small stalks of hemp (i.e. Cannabis indica), used to cause intoxication, either by smoking, or when eaten mixed up into a sweetmeat (see MAJOON). Ḥashīsh of the Arabs is substantially the same; Birdwood says it "consists of the tender tops of the plants after flowering." [Bhang is usually derived from Skt. bhaṇga, 'breaking,' but Burton derives both it and the Ar. banj from the old Coptic Nibanj, "meaning a preparation of hemp; and here it is easy to recognise the Homeric Nepenthe."

"On the other hand, not a few apply the word to the henbane (hyoscyamus niger) so much used in mediæval Europe. The Kámús evidently means henbane, distinguishing it from Hashísh al haráfísh, 'rascal's grass,' i.e. the herb Pantagruelion.... The use of Bhang doubtless dates from the dawn of civilisation, whose earliest social pleasures would be inebriants. Herodotus (iv. c. 75) shows the Scythians burning the seeds (leaves and capsules) in worship and becoming drunk upon the fumes, as do the S. African Bushmen of the present day."—(Arab. Nights, i. 65.)]

1563.—"The great Sultan Badur told Martim Affonzo de Souza, for whom he had a great liking, and to whom he told all his secrets, that when in the night he had a desire to visit Portugal, and the Brazil, and Turkey, and Arabia, and Persia, all he had to do was to eat a little bangue...."—Garcia, f. 26.

1578.—"Bangue is a plant resembling hemp, or the Cannabis of the Latins ... the Arabs call this Bangue 'Axis'" (i.e. Ḥashīsh).—C. Acosta, 360-61.

1598.—"They have ... also many kinds of Drogues, as Amfion, or Opium, Camfora, Bangue and Sandall Wood."—Linschoten, 19; [Hak. Soc. i. 61; also see ii. 115].

1606.—"O mais de tẽpo estava cheo de bangue."—Gouvea, 93.

1638.—"Il se fit apporter vn petit cabinet d'or ... dont il tira deux layettes, et prit dans l'vne de l'offion, ou opium, et dans l'autre du bengi, qui est vne certaine drogue ou poudre, dont ils se seruent pour s'exciter à la luxure."—Mandelslo, Paris, 1659, 150.

1685.—"I have two sorts of the Bangue, which were sent from two several places of the East Indies; they both differ much from our Hemp, although they seem to differ most as to their magnitude."—Dr. Hans Sloane to Mr. Ray, in Ray's Correspondence, 1848, p. 160.

1673.—"Bang (a pleasant intoxicating Seed mixed with Milk)...."—Fryer, 91.

1711.—"Bang has likewise its Vertues attributed to it; for being used as Tea, it inebriates, or exhilarates them according to the Quantity they take."—Lockyer, 61.

1727.—"Before they engage in a Fight, they drink Bang, which is made of a Seed like Hemp-seed, that has an intoxicating Quality."—A. Hamilton, i. 131.

1763.—"Most of the troops, as is customary during the agitations of this festival, had eaten plentifully of bang...."—Orme, i. 194.

1784.—"... it does not appear that the use of bank, an intoxicating weed which resembles the hemp of Europe, ... is considered even by the most rigid (Hindoo) a breach of the law."—G. Forster, Journey, ed. 1808, ii. 291.

1789.—"A shop of Bang may be kept with a capital of no more than two shillings, or one rupee. It is only some mats stretched under some tree, where the Bangeras of the town, that is, the vilest of mankind, assemble to drink Bang."—Note on Seir Mutaqherin, iii. 308.

1868.—

BANGED—is also used as a participle, for 'stimulated by bang,' e.g. "banged up to the eyes."

BANGLE, s. H. bangṛī or bangrī. The original word properly means a ring of coloured glass worn on the wrist by women; [the chūrī of N. India;] but bangle is applied to any native ring-bracelet, and also to an anklet or ring of any kind worn on the ankle or leg. Indian silver bangles on the wrist have recently come into common use among English girls.

1803.—"To the cutwahl he gave a heavy pair of gold bangles, of which he considerably enhanced the value by putting them on his wrists with his own hands."—Journal of Sir J. Nicholls, in note to Wellington Despatches, ed. 1837, ii. 373.

1809.—"Bangles, or bracelets."—Maria Graham, 13.

1810.—"Some wear ... a stout silver ornament of the ring kind, called a bangle, or karrah [kaṛā] on either wrist."—Williamson, V. M. i. 305.

1826.—"I am paid with the silver bangles of my enemy, and his cash to boot."—Pandurang Hari, 27; [ed. 1873, i. 36].

1873.—"Year after year he found some excuse for coming up to Sirmoori—now a proposal for a tax on bangles, now a scheme for a new mode of Hindustani pronunciation."—The True Reformer, i. 24.

BANGUN, s.—See BRINJAUL.

BANGUR, s. Hind. bāngar. In Upper India this name is given to the higher parts of the plain country on which the towns stand—the older alluvium—in contradistinction to the khāḍar [Khādir] or lower alluvium immediately bordering the great rivers, and forming the limit of their inundation and modern divagations; the khāḍar having been cut out from the bāngar by the river. Medlicott spells bhāngar (Man. of Geol. of India, i. 404).

BANGY, BANGHY, &c. s. H. bahaṅgī, Mahr. baṅgī; Skt. vihaṅgamā, and vihaṅgikā.

a. A shoulder-yoke for carrying loads, the yoke or bangy resting on the shoulder, while the load is apportioned at either end in two equal weights, and generally hung by cords. The milkmaid's yoke is the nearest approach to a survival of the bangy-staff in England. Also such a yoke with its pair of baskets or boxes.—(See PITARRAH).

b. Hence a parcel post, carried originally in this way, was called bangy or dawk-bangy, even when the primitive mode of transport had long become obsolete. "A bangy parcel" is a parcel received or sent by such post.

a.—

1789.—

1803.—"We take with us indeed, in six banghys, sufficient changes of linen."—Ld. Valentia, i. 67.

1810.—"The bangy-wollah, that is the bearer who carries the bangy, supports the bamboo on his shoulder, so as to equipoise the baskets suspended at each end."—Williamson, V. M. i. 323.

[1843.—"I engaged eight bearers to carry my palankeen. Besides these I had four banghy-burdars, men who are each obliged to carry forty pound weight, in small wooden or tin boxes, called petarrahs."—Traveller's account, Carey, Good Old Days, ii. 91.]

b.—

c. 1844.—"I will forward with this by bhangy dâk a copy of Capt. Moresby's Survey of the Red Sea."—Sir G. Arthur, in Ind. Admin. of Lord Ellenborough, p. 221.

1873.—"The officers of his regiment ... subscribed to buy the young people a set of crockery, and a plated tea and coffee service (got up by dawk banghee ... at not much more than 200 per cent. in advance of the English price."—The True Reformer, i. 57.

BANJO, s. Though this is a West- and not East-Indian term, it may be worth while to introduce the following older form of the word:

1764.—

See also Davies, for example of banjore, [and N.E.D for banjer].

BANKSHALL, s. a. A warehouse. b. The office of a Harbour Master or other Port Authority. In the former sense the word is still used in S. India; in Bengal the latter is the only sense recognised, at least among Anglo-Indians; in Northern India the word is not in use. As the Calcutta office stands on the banks of the Hoogly, the name is, we believe, often accepted as having some indefinite reference to this position. And in a late work we find a positive and plausible, but entirely unfounded, explanation of this kind, which we quote below. In Java the word has a specific application to the open hall of audience, supported by wooden pillars without walls, which forms part of every princely residence. The word is used in Sea Hindustani, in the forms bansār, and bangsāl for a 'store-room' (Roebuck).

Bankshall is in fact one of the oldest of the words taken up by foreign traders in India. And its use not only by Correa (c. 1561) but by King John (1524), with the regularly-formed Portuguese plural of words in -al, shows how early it was adopted by the Portuguese. Indeed, Correa does not even explain it, as is his usual practice with Indian terms.

More than one serious etymology has been suggested:—(1). Crawfurd takes it to be the Malay word bangsal, defined by him in his Malay Dict. thus: "(J.) A shed; a storehouse; a workshop; a porch; a covered passage" (see J. Ind. Archip. iv. 182). [Mr Skeat adds that it also means in Malay 'half-husked paddy,' and 'fallen timber, of which the outer layer has rotted and only the core remains.'] But it is probable that the Malay word, though marked by Crawfurd ("J.") as Javanese in origin, is a corruption of one of the two following:

(2) Beng. baṇkaśāla, from Skt. baṇik or vaṇik, 'trade,' and śāla, 'a hall.' This is Wilson's etymology.

(3). Skt. bhāṇḍaśāla, Canar. bhaṇdaśāle, Malayāl. pāṇḍiśāla, Tam. paṇḍaśālai or paṇḍakaśālai, 'a storehouse or magazine.'

It is difficult to decide which of the two last is the original word; the prevalence of the second in S. India is an argument in its favour; and the substitution of g for ḍ would be in accordance with a phonetic practice of not uncommon occurrence.

a.—

c. 1345.—"For the bandar there is in every island (of the Maldives) a wooden building, which they call bajanṣār [evidently for banjaṣār, i.e. Arabic spelling for bangaṣār] where the Governor ... collects all the goods, and there sells or barters them."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 120.

[1520.—"Collected in his bamgasal" (in the Maldives).—Doc. da Torre do Tombo, p. 452.]

1524.—A grant from K. John to the City of Goa, says: "that henceforward even if no market rent in the city is collected from the bacacés, viz. those at which are sold honey, oil, butter, betre (i.e. betel), spices, and cloths, for permission to sell such things in the said bacacés, it is our pleasure that they shall sell them freely." A note says: "Apparently the word should be bacaçaes, or bancacaes, or bangaçaes, which then signified any place to sell things, but now particularly a wooden house."—Archiv. Portug. Or., Fasc. ii. 43.

1561.—"... in the bengaçaes, in which stand the goods ready for shipment."—Correa, Lendas, i. 2, 260.

1610.—The form and use of the word have led P. Teixeira into a curious confusion (as it would seem) when, speaking of foreigners at Ormus, he says: "hay muchos gentiles, Baneanes [see BANYAN], Bangasalys, y Cambayatys"—where the word in italics probably represents Bangalys, i.e. Bengālis (Rel. de Harmuz, 18).

c. 1610.—"Le facteur du Roy chrestien des Maldiues tenoit sa banquesalle ou plustost cellier, sur le bord de la mer en l'isle de Malé."—Pyrard de Laval, ed. 1679, i. 65; [Hak. Soc. i. 85; also see i. 267].

1613.—"The other settlement of Yler ... with houses of wood thatched extends ... to the fields of Tanjonpacer, where there is a bangasal or sentry's house without other defense."—Godinho de Eredia, 6.

1623.—"Bangsal, a shed (or barn), or often also a roof without walls to sit under, sheltered from the rain or sun."—Gaspar Willens, Vocabularium, &c., ins' Gravenhaage; repr. Batavia, 1706.

1734-5.—"Paid the Bankshall Merchants for the house poles, country reapers, &c., necessary for housebuilding."—In Wheeler, iii. 148.

1748.—"A little below the town of Wampo.... These people (compradores) build a house for each ship.... They are called by us banksalls. In these we deposit the rigging and yards of the vessel, chests, water-casks, and every thing that incommodes us aboard."—A Voyage to the E. Indies in 1747 and 1748 (1762), p. 294. It appears from this book (p. 118) that the place in Canton River was known as Banksall Island.

1750-52.—"One of the first things on arriving here (Canton River) is to procure a bancshall, that is, a great house, constructed of bamboo and mats ... in which the stores of the ship are laid up."—A Voyage, &c., by Olof Toreen ... in a series of letters to Dr Linnæus, Transl. by J. R. Forster (with Osbeck's Voyage), 1771.

1783.—"These people (Chulias, &c., from India, at Achin) ... on their arrival immediately build, by contract with the natives, houses of bamboo, like what in China at Wampo is called bankshall, very regular, on a convenient spot close to the river."—Forrest, V. to Mergui, 41.

1788.—"Banksauls—Storehouses for depositing ships' stores in, while the ships are unlading and refitting."—Indian Vocab. (Stockdale).

1813.—"The East India Company for seventy years had a large banksaul, or warehouse, at Mirzee, for the reception of the pepper and sandalwood purchased in the dominions of the Mysore Rajah."—Forbes, Or. Mem. iv. 109.

1817.—"The bāngsal or mendōpo is a large open hall, supported by a double row of pillars, and covered with shingles, the interior being richly decorated with paint and gilding."—Raffles, Java (2nd ed.), i. 93. The Javanese use, as in this passage, corresponds to the meaning given in Jansz, Javanese Dict.: "Bangsal, Vorstelijke Zitplaats" (Prince's Sitting-place).

b.—

[1614.—"The custom house or banksall at Masulpatam."—Foster, Letters, ii. 86.]

1623.—"And on the Place by the sea there was the Custom-house, which the Persians in their language call Benksal, a building of no great size, with some open outer porticoes."—P. della Valle, ii. 465.

1673.—"... Their Bank Solls, or Custom House Keys, where they land, are Two; but mean, and shut only with ordinary Gates at Night."—Fryer, 27.

1683.—"I came ashore in Capt. Goyer's Pinnace to ye Bankshall, about 7 miles from Ballasore."—Hedges, Diary, Feb. 2; [Hak. Soc. i. 65].

1687.—"The Mayor and Aldermen, etc., do humbly request the Honourable President and Council would please to grant and assign over to the Corporation the petty dues of Banksall Tolls."—In Wheeler, i. 207.

1727.—"Above it is the Dutch Bankshall, a Place where their Ships ride when they cannot get further up for the too swift Currents."—A. Hamilton, ii. 6.

1789.—"And that no one may plead ignorance of this order, it is hereby directed that it be placed constantly in view at the Bankshall in the English and country languages."—Procl. against Slave-Trading in Seton-Karr, ii. 5.

1878.—"The term 'Banksoll' has always been a puzzle to the English in India. It is borrowed from the Dutch. The 'Soll' is the Dutch or Danish 'Zoll,' the English 'Toll.' The Banksoll was then the place on the 'bank' where all tolls or duties were levied on landing goods."—Talboys Wheeler, Early Records of B. India, 196. (Quite erroneous, as already said; and Zoll is not Dutch.)

BANTAM, n.p. The province which forms the western extremity of Java, properly Bāntan. [Mr Skeat gives Bantan, Crawfurd, Bantân.] It formed an independent kingdom at the beginning of the 17th century, and then produced much pepper (no longer grown), which caused it to be greatly frequented by European traders. An English factory was established here in 1603, and continued till 1682, when the Dutch succeeded in expelling us as interlopers.

[1615.—"They were all valued in my invoice at Bantan."—Foster, Letters, iv. 93.]

1727.—"The only Product of Bantam is Pepper, wherein it abounds so much, that they can export 10,000 Tuns per annum."—A. Hamilton, ii. 127.

BANTAM FOWLS, s. According to Crawfurd, the dwarf poultry which we call by this name were imported from Japan, and received the name "not from the place that produced them, but from that where our voyagers first found them."—(Desc. Dict. s.v. Bantam). The following evidently in Pegu describes Bantams:

1586.—"They also eat certain cocks and hens called lorine, which are the size of a turtle-dove, and have feathered feet; but so pretty, that I never saw so pretty a bird. I brought a cock and hen with me as far as Chaul, and then, suspecting they might be taken from me, I gave them to the Capuchin fathers belonging to the Madre de Dios."—Balbi, f. 125v, 126.

1673.—"From Siam are brought hither little Champore Cocks with ruffled Feet, well armed with Spurs, which have a strutting Gate with them, the truest mettled in the World."—Fryer, 116.

[1703.—"Wilde cocks and hens ... much like the small sort called Champores, severall of which we have had brought us from Camboja."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. cccxxxiii.

This looks as if they came from Champa (q.v.).

(1) BANYAN, s. a. A Hindu trader, and especially of the Province of Guzerat, many of which class have for ages been settled in Arabian ports and known by this name; but the term is often applied by early travellers in Western India to persons of the Hindu religion generally. b. In Calcutta also it is (or perhaps rather was) specifically applied to the native brokers attached to houses of business, or to persons in the employment of a private gentleman doing analogous duties (now usually called sircar).

The word was adopted from Vāṇiya, a man of the trading caste (in Gujarāti vāṇiyo), and that comes from Skt. vaṇij, 'a merchant.' The terminal nasal may be a Portuguese addition (as in palanquin, mandarin, Bassein), or it may be taken from the plural form vāṇiyān. It is probable, however, that the Portuguese found the word already in use by the Arab traders. Sidi 'Ali, the Turkish Admiral, uses it in precisely the same form, applying it to the Hindus generally; and in the poem of Sassui and Panhu, the Sindian Romeo and Juliet, as given by Burton in his Sindh (p. 101), we have the form Wāniyān. P. F. Vincenzo Maria, who is quoted below absurdly alleges that the Portuguese called these Hindus of Guzerat Bagnani, because they were always washing themselves "... chiamati da Portughesi Bagnani, per la frequenza e superstitione, con quale si lauano piu volte il giorno" (251). See also Luillier below. The men of this class profess an extravagant respect for animal life; but after Stanley brought home Dr. Livingstone's letters they became notorious as chief promoters of slave-trade in Eastern Africa. A. K. Forbes speaks of the mediæval Wānias at the Court of Anhilwāra as "equally gallant in the field (with Rajputs), and wiser in council ... already in profession puritans of peace, but not yet drained enough of their fiery Kshatri blood."—(Rās Māla, i. 240; [ed. 1878, 184].)

Bunya is the form in which vāṇiya appears in the Anglo-Indian use of Bengal, with a different shade of meaning, and generally indicating a grain-dealer.

1516.—"There are three qualities of these Gentiles, that is to say, some are called Razbuts ... others are called Banians, and are merchants and traders."—Barbosa, 51.

1552.—"... Among whom came certain men who are called Baneanes of the same heathen of the Kingdom of Cambaia ... coming on board the ship of Vasco da Gama, and seeing in his cabin a pictorial image of Our Lady, to which our people did reverence, they also made adoration with much more fervency...."—Barros, Dec., I. liv. iv. cap. 6.