C (continued 6)

" "... will be sold by Public Auction ... all that Brick Dwelling-house, Godowns, and Compound."—Ibid., April 21.

1788.—"Compound—The court-yard belonging to a house. A corrupt word."—The Indian Vocabulary, London, Stockdale.

1793.—"To be sold by Public Outcry ... the House, Out Houses, and Compound," &c.—Bombay Courier, Nov. 2.

1810.—"The houses (at Madras) are usually surrounded by a field or compound, with a few trees or shrubs, but it is with incredible pains that flowers or fruit are raised."—Maria Graham, 124.

" "When I entered the great gates, and looked around for my palankeen ... and when I beheld the beauty and extent of the compound ... I thought that I was no longer in the world that I had left in the East."—An Account of Bengal, and of a Visit to Government House (at Calcutta) by Ibrahim the son of Candu the Merchant, ibid. p. 198. This is a Malay narrative translated by Dr. Leyden. Very probably the word translated compound was kampung, but that cannot be ascertained.

1811.—"Major Yule's attack was equally spirited, but after routing the enemy's force at Campong Malayo, and killing many of them, he found the bridge on fire, and was unable to penetrate further."—Sir S. Auchmuty's Report of the Capture of Fort Cornelis.

c. 1817.—"When they got into the compound, they saw all the ladies and gentlemen in the verandah waiting."—Mrs. Sherwood's Stories, ed. 1863, p. 6.

1824.—"He then proceeded to the rear compound of the house, returned, and said, 'It is a tiger, sir.'"—Seely, Wonders of Ellora, ch. i.

" "... The large and handsome edifices of Garden Reach, each standing by itself in a little woody lawn (a 'compound' they call it here, by an easy corruption from the Portuguese word campaña ...)."—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 28.

1848.—"Lady O'Dowd, too, had gone to her bed in the nuptial chamber, on the ground floor, and had tucked her mosquito curtains round her fair form, when the guard at the gates of the commanding officer's compound beheld Major Dobbin, in the moonlight, rushing towards the house with a swift step."—Vanity Fair, ed. 1867, ii. 93.

1860.—"Even amongst the English, the number of Portuguese terms in daily use is remarkable. The grounds attached to a house are its 'compound,' campinho."—Emerson Tennent, Ceylon, ii. 70.

[1869.—"I obtained the use of a good-sized house in the Campong Sirani (or Christian village)."—Wallace, Malay Archip., ed. 1890, p. 256.]

We have found this word singularly transformed in a passage extracted from a modern novel:

1877.—"When the Rebellion broke out at other stations in India, I left our own compost."—Sat. Review, Feb. 3, p. 148.

A little learning is a dangerous thing!

The following shows the adoption of the word in West Africa.

1880.—From West Afr. Mission, Port Lokkoh, Mr. A. Burchaell writes: "Every evening we go out visiting and preaching the Gospel to our Timneh friends in their compounds."—Proceedings of C. M. Society for 1878-9, p. 14.

COMPRADORE, COMPODORE, &c., s. Port. comprador, 'purchaser,' from comprar, 'to purchase.' This word was formerly in use in Bengal, where it is now quite obsolete; but it is perhaps still remembered in Madras, and it is common in China. In Madras the compradore is (or was) a kind of house-steward, who keeps the household accounts, and purchases necessaries. In China he is much the same as a Butler (q.v.). A new building was to be erected on the Bund at Shanghai, and Sir T. Wade was asked his opinion as to what style of architecture should be adopted. He at once said that for Shanghai, a great Chinese commercial centre, it ought to be Compradoric!

1533.—"Antonio da Silva kept his own counsel about the (threat of) war, because during the delay caused by the exchange of messages, he was all the time buying and selling by means of his compradores."—Correa, iii. 562.

1615.—"I understand that yesterday the Hollanders cut a slave of theirs a-peeces for theft, per order of justice, and thrust their comprador (or cats buyer) out of dores for a lecherous knave...."—Cocks's Diary, i. 19.

1711.—"Every Factory had formerly a Compradore, whose Business it was to buy in Provisions and other Necessarys. But the Hoppos have made them all such Knaves...."—Lockyer, 108.

[1748.—"Compradores." See quotation under BANKSHALL.]

1754.—"Compidore. The office of this servant is to go to market and bring home small things, such as fruit, &c."—Ives, 50.

1760-1810.—"All river-pilots and ships' Compradores must be registered at the office of the Tung-che at Macao."—'Eight Regulations,' from the Fankwae at Canton (1882), p. 28.

1782.—"Le Comprador est celui qui fournit généralement tout ce dont on a besoin, excepté les objets de cargaison; il y en a un pour chaque Nation: il approvisionne la loge, et tient sous lui plusieurs commis chargés de la fourniture des vaisseaux."—Sonnerat (ed. 1782), ii. 236.

1785.—"Compudour ... Sicca Rs. 3."—In Seton-Karr, i. 107 (Table of Wages).

1810.—"The Compadore, or Kurz-burdar, or Butler-Konnah-Sircar, are all designations for the same individual, who acts as purveyor.... This servant may be considered as appertaining to the order of sircars, of which he should possess all the cunning."—Williamson, V. M. i. 270.

See SIRCAR. The obsolete term Kurz-burdar above represents Kharach-bardār "in charge of (daily) expenditure."

1840.—"About 10 days ago ... the Chinese, having kidnapped our Compendor, Parties were sent out to endeavour to recover him."—Mem. Col. Mountain, 164.

1876.—"We speak chiefly of the educated classes, and not of 'boys' and compradores, who learn in a short time both to touch their caps, and wipe their noses in their masters' pocket-handkerchiefs."—Giles, Chinese Sketches, [p. 15].

1876.—

1882.—"The most important Chinese within the Factory was the Compradore ... all Chinese employed in any factory, whether as his own 'pursers,' or in the capacity of servants, cooks, or coolies, were the Compradore's own people."—The Fankwae, p. 53.

CONBALINGUA, s. The common pumpkin, [cucurbita pepo. The word comes from the Malayāl., Tel. or Can. kumbalam; kumbalanu, the pumpkin].

1510.—"I saw another kind of fruit which resembled a pumpkin in colour, is two spans in length, and has more than three fingers of pulp ... and it is a very curious thing, and it is called Comolanga, and grows on the ground like melons."—Varthema, 161.

[1554.—"Conbalinguas." See quotation under BRINJAUL.]

[c. 1610.—Couto gives a tradition of the origin of the kingdom of Pegu, from a fisherman who was born of a certain flower; "they also say that his wife was born of a Combalenga, which is an apple (pomo) very common in India of which they make several kinds of preserve, so cold that it is used in place of sugar of roses; and they are of the size and fashion of large melons; and there are some so large that it would be as much as a lad could do to lift one by himself. This apple the Pegús call Sapua."—Dec. xii. liv. v. cap. iii.]

c. 1690.—"In Indiae insulis quaedam quoque Cucurbitae et Cucumeris reperiuntur species ab Europaeis diversae ... harumque nobilissima est Comolinga, quae maxima est species Indicarum cucurbitarum."—Rumphius, Herb. Amb. v. 395.

CONCAN, n.p. Skt. konkaṇa, [Tam. konkaṇam], the former in the Pauranic lists the name of a people; Hind. Konkan and Kokan. The low country of Western India between the Ghauts and the sea, extending, roughly speaking, from Goa northward to Guzerat. But the modern Commissionership, or Civil Division, embraces also North Canara (south of Goa). In medieval writings we find frequently, by a common Asiatic fashion of coupling names, Kokan- or Konkan-Tana; Tana having been a chief place and port of Konkan.

c. 70 A.D.—The Cocondae of Pliny are perhaps the Konkaṇas.

404.—"In the south are Ceylon (Lankâ) ... Konkan ..." &c.—Bṛhat Saṅhita, in J.R.A.S., N.S. v. 83.

c. 1300.—"Beyond Guzerat are Konkan and Tána; beyond them the country of Malíbár."—Rashīduddīn, in Elliot, i. 68.

c. 1335.—"When he heard of the Sultan's death he fled to a Kafir prince called Burabra, who lived in the inaccessible mountains between Daulatabad and Kūkan-Tāna."—Ibn Batuta, iii. 335.

c. 1350.—In the Portulano Mediceo in the Laurentian Library we have 'Cocintana,' and in the Catalan Map of 1375 'Cocintaya.'

1553.—"And as from the Ghauts (Gate) to the Sea, on the west of the Decan, all that strip is called Concan, so also from the Ghauts to the Sea, on the West of Canara (leaving out those forty and six leagues just spoken of, which are also parts of this same Canara), that strip which extends to Cape Comorin ... is called Malabar...."—Barros, I. ix. 1.

[1563.—"Cuncam." See quotation under GHAUT.]

1726.—"The kingdom of this Prince is commonly called Visiapoer, after its capital, ... but it is properly called Cunkan."—Valentijn, iv. (Suratte), 243; [also see under DECCAN].

c. 1732.—"Goa, in the Adel Sháhi Kokan."—Khāfī Khān, in Elliot, vii. 211.

1804.—"I have received your letter of the 28th, upon the subject of the landing of 3 French officers in the Konkan; and I have taken measures to have them arrested."—Wellington, iii. 33.

1813.—"... Concan or Cokun ..."—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 189; [2nd ed. i. 102].

1819.—Mr. W. Erskine, in his Account of Elephanta, writes Kokan.—Tr. Lit. Soc. Bomb., i. 249.

CONFIRMED, p. Applied to an officer whose hold of an appointment is made permanent. In the Bengal Presidency the popular term is pucka; (q.v.); (also see CUTCHA).

[1805.—"It appears not unlikely that the Government and the Company may confirm Sir G. Barlow in the station to which he has succeeded...."—In L. of Colebrooke, 223.]

1886.—"... one Marsden, who has paid his addresses to my daughter—a young man in the Public Works, who (would you believe it, Mr. Cholmondeley?) has not even been confirmed.

"Cholm. The young heathen!"—Trevelyan, The Dawk Bungalow, p. 220.

CONGEE, s. In use all over India for the water in which rice has been boiled. The article being used as one of invalid diet, the word is sometimes applied to such slops generally. Congee also forms the usual starch of Indian washermen. [A conjee-cap was a sort of starched night-cap, and Mr. Draper, the husband of Sterne's Eliza, had it put on by Mrs. Draper's rival when he took his afternoon nap. (Douglas, Glimpses of Old Bombay, pp. 86, 201.)] It is from the Tamil kanjī, 'boilings.' Congee is known to Horace, though reckoned, it would seem, so costly a remedy that the miser patient would as lief die as be plundered to the extent implied in its use:

c. A.D. 70.—(Indi) "maxime quidem oryza gaudent, ex qua tisanam conficiunt quam reliqui mortales ex hordeo."—Pliny, xviii. § 13.

1563.—"They give him to drink the water squeezed out of rice with pepper and cummin (which they call canje)."—Garcia, f. 76b.

1578.—"... Canju, which is the water from the boiling of rice, keeping it first for some hours till it becomes acid...."—Acosta, Tractado, 56.

1631.—"Potus quotidianus itaque sit decoctum oryzae quod Candgie Indi vocant."—Jac. Bontii, Lib. II. cap. iii.

1672.—"... la cangia, ordinaria colatione degl' Indiani ... quale colano del riso mal cotto."—P. Vinc. Maria, 3rd ed., 379.

1673.—"They have ... a great smooth Stone on which they beat their Cloaths till clean; and if for Family use, starch them with Congee."—Fryer, 200.

1680.—"Le dejeûné des noirs est ordinairement du Cangé, qui est une eau de ris epaisse."—Dellon, Inquisition at Goa, 136.

1796.—"Cagni, boiled rice water, which the Europeans call Cangi, is given free of all expenses, in order that the traveller may quench his thirst with a cooling and wholesome beverage."—P. Paulinus, Voyage, p. 70.

"Can't drink as it is hot, and can't throw away as it is Kanji."—Ceylon Proverb, Ind. Ant. i. 59.

CONGEE-HOUSE, CONJEE-HOUSE, s. The 'cells' (or temporary lock-up) of a regiment in India; so called from the traditionary regimen of the inmates; [in N. India commonly applied to a cattle-pound].

1835.—"All men confined for drunkenness should, if possible, be confined by themselves in the Congee-House, till sober."—G. O., quoted in Mawson's Records of the Indian Command of Sir C. Napier, 101 note.

CONGEVERAM, n.p. An ancient and holy city of S. India, 46 m. S.W. of Madras. It is called Kachchi in Tamil literature, and Kachchipuram is probably represented by the modern name. [The Madras Gloss. gives the indigenous name as Cutchy (Kachchi), meaning 'the heart-leaved moon-seed plant,' tinospera cordifolia, from which the Skt. name Kanchipura, 'shining city,' is corrupted.]

c. 1030.—See Kanchi in Al-Birūnī, under MALABAR.

1531.—"Some of them said that the whole history of the Holy House (of St. Thomas) was written in the house of the Pagoda which is called Camjeverão, twenty leagues distant from the Holy House, of which I will tell you hereafter...."—Correa, iii. 424.

1680.—"Upon a report that Podela Lingapa had put a stop to all the Dutch business of Policat under his government, the agent sent Braminy spys to Conjee Voram and to Policat."—Ft. St. Geo. Cons. Aug. 30. In Notes and Exts. No. iii. 32.

CONGO-BUNDER, CONG, n.p. Kung bandar; a port formerly of some consequence and trade, on the north shore of the Persian Gulf, about 100 m. west of Gombroon. The Portuguese had a factory here for a good many years after their expulsion from Ormus, and under treaty with Persia, made in 1625, had a right of pearl-fishing at Bahrein and a claim to half of the customs of Cong. These claims seem to have been gradually disregarded, and to have had no effect after about 1670, though the Portuguese would appear to have still kept up some pretext of monopoly of rights there in 1677 (see Chardin, ed. 1735, i. 348, and Bruce's Annals of the E.I.C., iii. 393). Some confusion is created by the circumstance that there is another place on the same coast, called Kongūn, which possessed a good many vessels up to 1859, when it was destroyed by a neighbouring chief (see Stiffe's P. Gulf Pilot, 128). And this place is indicated by A. Hamilton (below) as the great mart for Bahrein pearls, which Fryer and others assign to what is evidently Cong.

1652.—"Near to the place where the Euphrates falls from Balsara [see BALSORA] into the Sea, there is a little Island, where the Barques generally come to an Anchor.... There we stay'd four days, whence to Bandar-Congo it is 14 days Sail.... This place would be a far better habitation for the Merchants than Ormus, where it is very unwholsom and dangerous to live. But that which hinders the Trade from Bandar-Congo is, because the Road to Lar is so bad.... The 30th, we hir'd a Vessel for Bander-Abassi, and after 3 or 4 hours Sailing we put into a Village ... in the Island of Keckmishe" (see KISHM).—Tavernier, E.T. i. 94.

1653.—"Congue est vne petite ville fort agreable sur le sein Persique à trois journées du Bandar Abbassi tirant à l'Ouest dominée par le Schah ... les Portugais y ont vn Feitour (see FACTOR) qui prend la moitié de la Doüane, et donne la permission aux barques de nauiger, en luy payant vn certain droit, parceque toutes ces mers sont tributaires de la generalité de Mascati, qui est à l'entrée du sein Persique.... Cette ville est peuplée d'Arabes, de Parsis et d'Indous qui ont leur Pagodes et leur Saincts hors la ville."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 284.

1677.—"A Voyage to Congo for Pearl.—Two days after our Arrival at Gombroon, I went to Congo.... At noon we came to Bassatu (see BASSADORE), an old ruined Town of the Portugals, fronting Congo.... Congo is something better built than Gombroon, and has some small Advantage of the Air" (Then goes off about pearls).—Fryer, 320.

1683.—"One Haggerston taken by ye said President into his Service, was run away with a considerable quantity of Gold and Pearle, to ye amount of 30,000 Rupees, intrusted to him at Bussera (see BALSORA) and Cong, to bring to Surrat, to save Freight and Custom."—Hedges, Diary, i. 96 seq.

1685.—"May 27.—This afternoon it pleased God to bring us in safety to Cong Road. I went ashore immediately to Mr. Brough's house (Supra Cargo of ye Siam Merchant), and lay there all night."—Ibid. i. 202.

1727.—"Congoun stands on the South side of a large River, and makes a pretty good figure in Trade; for most of the Pearl that are caught at Bareen, on the Arabian Side, are brought hither for a Market, and many fine Horses are sent thence to India, where they generally sell well.... The next maritim town, down the Gulf, is Cong, where the Portuguese lately had a Factory, but of no great Figure in Trade, tho' that Town has a small Trade with Banyans and Moors from India." (Here the first place is Kongun, the second one Kung).—A. Hamilton, i. 92 seq.; [ed. 1744].

CONICOPOLY, s. Literally 'Account-Man,' from Tam. kanakka, 'account' or 'writing,' and piḷḷai, 'child' or 'person.' ["The Kanakar are usually addressed as 'Pillay,' a title of respect common to them and the agricultural and shepherd castes" (Madras Man. ii. 229).] In Madras, a native clerk or writer, [in particular a shipping clerk. The corresponding Tel. term is Curnum].

1544.—"Duc eò tecum ... domesticos tuos; pueros et aliquem Conacapulam qui norit scribere, cujus manu exaratas relinquere posses in quovis loco precationes a Pueris et aliis Catechumenis ediscendas."—Scti. Franc. Xavier, Epist., pp. 160 seq.

1584.—"So you must appoint in each village or station fitting teachers and Canacopoly, as we have already arranged, and these must assemble the children every day at a certain time and place, and teach and drive into them the elements of reading and religion."—Ditto, in Coleridge's L. of him, ii. 24.

1578.—"At Tanor in Malabar I was acquainted with a Nayre Canacopola, a writer in the Camara del Rey at Tanor ... who every day used to eat to the weight of 5 drachms (of opium), which he would take in my presence."—Acosta, Tractado, 415.

c. 1580.—"One came who worked as a clerk, and said he was a poor canaquapolle, who had nothing to give."—Primor e Honra, &c., f. 94.

1672.—"Xaverius set everywhere teachers called Canacappels."—Baldaeus, Ceylon, 377.

1680.—"The Governour, accompanyed with the Councell and severall Persons of the factory, attended by six files of Soldyers, the Company's Peons, 300 of the Washers, the Pedda Naigue, the Cancoply of the Towne and of the grounds, went the circuit of Madras ground, which was described by the Cancoply of the grounds, and lyes so intermixed with others (as is customary in these Countrys) that 'tis impossible to be knowne to any others, therefore every Village has a Cancoply and a Parryar, who are imployed in this office, which goes from Father to Son for ever."—Ft. St. Geo. Consn. Sept. 21. In Notes and Exts., No. iii. 34.

1718.—"Besides this we maintain seven Kanakappel, or Malabarick writers."—Propagation of the Gospel in the East, Pt. ii. 55.

1726.—"The Conakapules (commonly called Kannekappels) are writers."—Valentijn, Choro. 88.

[1749.—"Canacapula," in Logan, Malabar, iii. 52.

[1750.—"Conicoplas," ibid. iii. 150.

[1773.—"Conucopola. He keeps your accounts, pays the rest of the servants their wages, and assists the Dubash in buying and selling. At Bengal he is called secretary...."—Ives, 49.]

CONSOO-HOUSE, n.p. At Canton this was a range of buildings adjoining the foreign Factories, called also the 'Council Hall' of the foreign Factories. It was the property of the body of Hong merchants, and was the place of meeting of these merchants among themselves, or with the chiefs of the Foreign houses, when there was need for such conference (see Fankwae, p. 23). The name is probably a corruption of 'Council.' Bp. Moule, however, says: "The name is likely to have come from kung-su, the public hall, where a kung-sz', a 'public company,' or guild, meets."

CONSUMAH, KHANSAMA, s. P. Khānsāmān; 'a house-steward.' In Anglo-Indian households in the Bengal Presidency, this is the title of the chief table servant and provider, now always a Mahommedan. [See BUTLER.] The literal meaning of the word is 'Master of the household gear'; it is not connected with khwān, 'a tray,' as Wilson suggests. The analogous word Mīr-sāmān occurs in Elliot, vii. 153. The Anglo-Indian form Consumer seems to have been not uncommon in the 18th century, probably with a spice of intention. From tables quoted in Long, 182, and in Seton-Karr, i. 95, 107, we see that the wages of a "Consumah, Christian, Moor, or Gentoo," were at Calcutta, in 1759, 5 rupees a month, and in 1785, 8 to 10 rupees.

[1609.—"Emersee Nooherdee being called by the Cauncamma."—Danvers, Letters, i. 24.]

c. 1664.—"Some time after ... she chose for her Kane-saman, that is, her Steward, a certain Persian called Nazerkan, who was a young Omrah, the handsomest and most accomplished of the whole Court."—Bernier, E.T., p. 4; [ed. Constable, p. 13].

1712.—"They were brought by a great circuit on the River to the Chansamma or Steward (Dispenser) of the aforesaid Mahal."—Valentijn, iv. (Suratte) 288.

1759.—"Dustuck or Order, under the Chan Sumaun, or Steward's Seal, for the Honourable Company's holding the King's [i.e. the Great Mogul's] fleet."

* * * * *

"At the back of this is the seal of Zecah al Doulat Tidaudin Caun Bahadour, who is Caun Samaun, or Steward to his Majesty, whose prerogative it is to grant this Order."—R. Owen Cambridge, pp. 231 seq.

1788.—"After some deliberation I asked the Khansaman, what quantity was remaining of the clothes that had been brought from Iran to camp for sale, who answered that there were 15,000 jackets, and 12,000 pairs of long drawers."—Mem. of Khojeh Abdulkurreem, tr. by Gladwin, 55.

1810.—"The Kansamah may be classed with the house-steward, and butler; both of which offices appear to unite in this servant."—Williamson, V. M., i. 199.

1831.—"I have taught my khansama to make very light iced punch."—Jacquemont, Letters, E.T., ii. 104.

COOCH AZO, or AZO simply, n.p. Koch Hājo, a Hindu kingdom on the banks of the Brahmaputra R., to the E. of Koch Bihār, annexed by Jahāngīr's troops in 1637. See Blochmann in J.A.S.B. xli. pt. i. 53, and xlii. pt. i. 235. In Valentijn's map of Bengal (made c. 1660) we have Cos Assam with Azo as capital, and T'Ryk van Asoe, a good way south and east of Silhet.

1753.—"Ceste rivière (Brahmapoutra), en remontant, conduit à Rangamati et à Azoo, qui font la frontière de l'état du Mogol. Azoo est une forteresse que l'Emir Jemla, sous le règne d'Aorengzèbe, reprit sur le roi d'Asham, comme une dependance de Bengale."—D'Anville, p. 62.

COOCH BEHAR, n.p. Koch Bihār, a native tributary State on the N.E. of Bengal, adjoining Bhotan and the Province of Assam. The first part of the name is taken from that of a tribe, the Koch, apparently a forest race who founded this State about the 15th century, and in the following century obtained dominion of considerable extent. They still form the majority of the population, but, as usual in such circumstances, give themselves a Hindu pedigree, under the name of Rājbansi. [See Risley, Tribes and Castes of Bengal, i. 491 seqq.] The site of the ancient monarchy of Kāmrūp is believed to have been in Koch Bihār, within the limits of which there are the remains of more than one ancient city. The second part of the name is no doubt due to the memory of some important Vihara, or Buddhist Monastery, but we have not found information on the subject. [Possibly the ruins at Kamatapur, for which see Buchanan Hamilton, Eastern India, iii. 426 seqq.]

1585.—"I went from Bengala into the countrey of Couche, which lieth 25 dayes iourny Northwards from Tanda."—R. Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 397.

c. 1596.—"To the north of Bengal is the province of Coach, the Chief of which commands 1,000 horse, and 100,000 foot. Kamroop, which is also called Kamroo and Kamtah (see COMOTAY) makes a part of his dominions."—Ayeen (by Gladwin), ed. 1800, ii. 3; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 117].

1726.—"Cos Bhaar is a Kingdom of itself, the King of which is sometimes subject to the Great Mogol, and sometimes throws his yoke off."—Valentijn, v. 159.

1774.—"The country about Bahar is low. Two kos beyond Bahar we entered a thicket ... frogs, watery insects and dank air ... 2 miles farther on we crossed the river which separates the Kuch Bahar country from that of the Deb Rajah, in sal canoes...."—Bogle, in Markham's Tibet, &c., 14 seq.

(But Mr. Markham spoils all the original spelling. We may be sure Bogle did not write kos, nor "Kuch Bahar," as Mr. M. makes him do.)

1791.—"The late Mr. George Bogle ... travelled by way of Coos-Beyhar, Tassasudon, and Paridrong, to Chanmanning the then residence of the Lama."—Rennell (3rd ed.), 301.

COOJA, s. P. kūza; an earthenware water-vessel (not long-necked, like the ṣurāḥī—see SERAI). It is a word used at Bombay chiefly, [but is not uncommon among Mahommedans in N. India].

[1611.—"One sack of cusher to make coho."—Danvers, Letters, i. 128.

[1871.—"Many parts of India are celebrated for their coojahs or guglets, but the finest are brought from Bussorah, being light, thin, and porous, made from a whitish clay."—Riddell, Indian Domestic Economy, 7th ed., p. 362.]

1883.—"They (tree-frogs) would perch pleasantly on the edge of the water cooja, or on the rim of a tumbler."—Tribes on my Frontier, 118.

COOK-ROOM, s. Kitchen; in Anglo-Indian establishments always detached from the house.

1758.—"We will not in future admit of any expenses being defrayed by the Company either under the head of cook-rooms, gardens, or other expenses whatever."—The Court's Letter, March 3, in Long, 130.

1878.—"I was one day watching an old female monkey who had a young one by her side to whom she was giving small bits of a piece of bread which she had evidently just received from my cook-room."—Life in the Mofussil, ii. 44.

COOLCURNEE, s. This is the title of the village accountant and writer in some of the central and western parts of India. Mahr. kuḷkaraṇī, apparently from kuḷa, 'tribe,' and karaṇa, writer, &c., the patwārī of N. India (see under CRANNY, CURNUM). [Kula "in the revenue language of the S. appears to be applied especially to families, or individual heads of families, paying revenue" (Wilson).]

c. 1590.—"... in this Soobah (Berar) ... a chowdry they call Deysmuck; a Canoongou with them is Deyspandeh; a Mokuddem ... they style Putiel; and a Putwaree they name Kulkurnee."—Gladwin's Ayeen Akbery, ii. 57; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 228].

[1826.—"You potails, coolcunnies, &c., will no doubt ... contrive to reap tolerable harvests."—Pandurang Hari, ed. 1873, ii. 47.]

COOLICOY, s. A Malay term, properly kulit-kayu, 'skin-wood,' explained in the quotation:

1784.—"The coolitcayo or coolicoy.... This is a bark procured from some particular trees. (It is used for matting the sides of houses, and by Europeans as dunnage in pepper cargoes.)"—Marsden's H. of Sumatra, 2nd ed. 51.

COOLIN, adj. A class of Brāhmans of Bengal Proper, who make extraordinary claims to purity of caste and exclusiveness. Beng. kulīnas, from Skt. kula, 'a caste or family,' kulīna, 'belonging to a noble family.' They are much sought in marriage for the daughters of Brāhmans of less exalted pretensions, and often take many brides for the sake of the presents they receive. The system is one of the greatest abuses in Bengali Hinduism. [Risley, Tribes and Castes of Bengal, i. 146 seqq.]

1820.—"Some inferior Koolēēnŭs marry many wives; I have heard of persons having 120; many have 15 or 20, and others 40 and 50 each. Numbers procure a subsistence by this excessive polygamy...."—Ward, i. 81.

COOLUNG, COOLEN, and in W. India CULLUM, s. Properly the great grey crane (Grus cinerea), H. kulang (said by the dictionaries to be Persian, but Jerdon gives Mahr. kallam, and Tel. kulangi, kolangi, which seem against the Persian origin), [and Platts seems to connect it with Skt. kurankara, the Indian crane, Ardea Sibirica (Williams)]. Great companies of these are common in many parts of India, especially on the sands of the less frequented rivers; and their clanging, trumpet-like call is often heard as they pass high overhead at night.

The name, in the form Coolen, is often misapplied to the Demoiselle Crane (Anthropoides virgo, L.), which is one of the best of Indian birds for the table (see Jerdon, ed. 1877, ii. 667, and last quotation below). The true Coolung, though inferior, is tolerably good eating. This bird, which is now quite unknown in Scotland, was in the 15th century not uncommon there, and was a favourite dish at great entertainments (see Accts. of L. H. Treasurer of Scotland, i. ccv.).

1698.—"Peculiarly Brand-geese, Colum, and Serass, a species of the former."—Fryer, 117.

c. 1809.—"Large flocks of a crane called Kolong, and of another called Saros (Ardea Antigone—see CYRUS), frequent this district in winter.... They come from the north in the beginning of the cold season, and retire when the heats commence."—Buchanan's Rungpoor, in Eastern India, iii. 579.

1813.—"Peacocks, partridges, quails, doves, and green-pigeons supplied our table, and with the addition of two stately birds, called the Sahras and cullum, added much to the animated beauty of the country."—Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 29; [2nd ed. i. 331].

1883.—"Not being so green as I was, I let the tempting herd of antelopes pass, but the kullum I cannot resist. They are feeding in thousands at the other end of a large field, and to reach them it will only be necessary to crawl round behind the hedge for a quarter of a mile or so. But what will one not do with roast kullum looming in the vista of the future?"—Tribes on my Frontier, p. 162.

"*** N.B.—I have applied the word kullum, as everybody does, to the demoiselle crane, which, however, is not properly the kullum but the Koonja."—Ibid. p. 171.

COOLY, s. A hired labourer, or burden-carrier; and, in modern days especially, a labourer induced to emigrate from India, or from China, to labour in the plantations of Mauritius, Réunion, or the West Indies, sometimes under circumstances, especially in French colonies, which have brought the cooly's condition very near to slavery. In Upper India the term has frequently a specific application to the lower class of labourer who carries earth, bricks, &c., as distinguished from the skilled workman, and even from the digger.

The original of the word appears to have been a nomen gentile, the name (Kolī) of a race or caste in Western India, who have long performed such offices as have been mentioned, and whose savagery, filth, and general degradation attracted much attention in former times, [see Hamilton, Descr. of Hindostan (1820), i. 609]. The application of the word would thus be analogous to that which has rendered the name of a Slav, captured and made a bondservant, the word for such a bondservant in many European tongues. According to Dr. H. V. Carter the Kolīs proper are a true hill-people, whose especial locality lies in the Western Ghāts, and in the northern extension of that range, between 18° and 24° N. lat. They exist in large numbers in Guzerat, and in the Konkan, and in the adjoining districts of the Deccan, but not beyond these limits (see Ind. Antiquary, ii. 154). [But they are possibly kinsfolk of the Kols, an important Dravidian race in Bengal and the N.W.P. (see Risley, T. and C. of Bengal, ii. 101; Crooke, T. C. of N.W.P. iii. 294).] In the Rās Mālā [ed. 1878, p. 78 seqq.] the Koolies are spoken of as a tribe who lived long near the Indus, but who were removed to the country of the Null (the Nal, a brackish lake some 40 m. S.W. of Ahmedabad) by the goddess Hinglāj.

Though this explanation of the general use of the term Cooly is the most probable, the matter is perplexed by other facts which it is difficult to trace to the same origin. Thus in S. India there is a Tamil and Can. word kūli in common use, signifying 'hire' or 'wages,' which Wilson indeed regards as the true origin of Cooly. [Oppert (Orig. Inhab. of Bharatavarsa, p. 131) adopts the same view, and disputing the connection of Cooly with Koli or Kol, regards the word as equivalent to 'hired servant' and originating in the English Factories on the E. coast.] Also in both Oriental and Osmanli Turkish kol is a word for a slave, whilst in the latter also kūleh means 'a male slave, a bondsman' (Redhouse). Khol is in Tibetan also a word for a servant or slave (Note from A. Schiefner; see also Jäschke's Tibetan Dict., 1881, p. 59). But with this the Indian term seems to have no connection. The familiar use of Cooly has extended to the Straits Settlements, Java, and China, as well as to all tropical and sub-tropical colonies, whether English or foreign.

In the quotations following, those in which the race is distinctly intended are marked with an *.

*1548.—"And for the duty from the Colés who fish at the sea-stakes and on the river of Bacaim...."—S. Botelho, Tombo, 155.

*1553.—"Soltan Badur ... ordered those pagans to be seized, and if they would not become Moors, to be flayed alive, saying that was all the black-mail the Collijs should get from Champanel."—Barros, Dec. IV. liv. v. cap. 7.

*1563.—"These Colles ... live by robbing and thieving at this day."—Garcia, f. 34.

*1584.—"I attacked and laid waste nearly fifty villages of the Kolís and Grassias, and I built forts in seven different places to keep these people in check."—Ṭabaḳāt-i-Akbarī, in Elliot, v. 447.

*1598.—"Others that yet dwell within the countrie called Colles: which Colles ... doe yet live by robbing and stealing...."—Linschoten, ch. xxvii.; [Hak. Soc. i. 166].

*1616.—"Those who inhabit the country villages are called Coolees; these till the ground and breed up cattle."—Terry, in Purchas; [ed. 1777, p. 180].

*"The people called Collees or Quillees."—In Purchas, i. 436.

1630.—"The husbandmen or inferior sort of people called the Coulies."—Lord's Display, &c., ch. xiii.

1638.—"He lent us horses to ride on, and Cowlers (which are Porters) to carry our goods."—W. Bruton, in Hakl. v. 49.

In this form there was perhaps an indefinite suggestion of the cowl-staff used in carrying heavy loads.

1644.—"In these lands of Damam the people who dwell there as His Majesty's Vassals are heathen, whom they call Collis, and all the Padres make great complaints that the owners of the aldeas do not look with favour on the conversion of these heathen Collis, nor do they consent to their being made Christians, lest there thus may be hindrance to the greater service which is rendered by them when they remain heathen."—Bocarro (Port. MS.).

*1659.—"To relate how I got away from those Robbers, the Koullis ... how we became good Friends by the means of my Profession of Physick ... I must not insist upon to describe."—Bernier, E.T., p. 30; [ed. Constable, 91].

*c. 1666.—"Nous rencontrâmes quantité de Colys, qui sont gens d'une Caste ou tribut des Gentils, qui n'ont point d'habitation arrêtée, mais qui vont de village en village et portent avec eux tout leur ménage."—Thevenot, v. 21.

*1673.—"The Inhabitants of Ramnagur are the Salvages called Coolies...."—Fryer, 161.

" "Coolies, Frasses, and Holencores, are the Dregs of the People."—Ibid. 194.

1680.—"... It is therefore ordered forthwith that the drum be beat to call all coolies, carpenters...."—Official Memo. in Wheeler, i. 129.

*c. 1703.—"The Imperial officers ... sent ... ten or twelve sardārs, with 13,000 or 14,000 horse, and 7,000 or 8,000 trained Kolís of that country."—Khāfī Khān, in Elliot, vii. 375.

1711.—"The better sort of people travel in Palankeens, carry'd by six or eight Cooleys, whose Hire, if they go not far from Town, is threepence a Day each."—Lockyer, 26.

1726.—"Coeli's. Bearers of all sorts of Burdens, goods, Andols (see ANDOR) and Palankins...."—Valentijn, vol. v., Names, &c., 2.

*1727.—"Goga ... has had some Mud Wall Fortifications, which still defend them from the Insults of their Neighbours the Coulies."—A. Hamilton, i. 141; [ed. 1744, i. 142].

1755.—"The Families of the Coolies sent to the Negrais complain that Mr. Brook has paid to the Head Cooley what money those who died there left behind them."—In Long, 54.

1785.—"... the officers were obliged to have their baggage transported upon men's heads over an extent of upwards of 800 miles, at the rate of 5l. per month for every couley or porter employed."—Carraccioli's L. of Clive, i. 243 seq.

1789.—"If you should ask a common cooly or porter, what cast he is of, he will answer, the same as Master, pariar-cast."—Munro's Narrative, 29.

1791.—"... deux relais de vigoreux coulis, ou porteurs, de quatre hommes chacun...."—B. de St. Pierre, La Chaumière Indienne, 15.

[1798.—"The Resident hopes all distinctions between the Cooley and Portuguese inhabitants will be laid aside."—Procl. in Logan, Malabar, iii. 302.]

*1813.—"Gudgerah, a large populous town surrounded by a wall, to protect it from the depredations of the Coolees, who are a very insolent set among the numerous and probably indigenous tribes of freebooters, and robbers in this part of India."—Forbes, Orient. Mem. iii. 63; [2nd ed. ii. 160; also see i. 146].

1817.—"These (Chinese) emigrants are usually employed as coolees or labourers on their first arrival (in Java)."—Raffles, H. of Java, i. 205.

*1820.—"In the profession of thieving the Koolees may be said to act con amore. A Koolee of this order, meeting a defenceless person in a lane about dusk, would no more think of allowing him to pass unplundered than a Frenchman would a woman without bowing to her; it may be considered a point of honour of the caste."—Tr. Lit. Soc. Bo. iii. 335.

*1825.—"The head man of the village said he was a Kholee, the name of a degenerate race of Rajpoots in Guzerat, who from the low occupations in which they are generally employed have (under the corrupt name of Coolie) given a name, probably through the medium of the Portuguese, to bearers of burdens all over India."—Heber, ed. 1844, ii. 92.

1867.—"Bien que de race différente les Coolies et les Chinois sont comportés à peu-près de même."—Quatrefages, Rapport sur le Progrès de l'Anthropologie, 219.

1871.—"I have hopes for the Coolies in British Guiana, but it will be more sure and certain when the immigration system is based on better laws."—Jenkins, The Coolie.

1873.—"The appellant, the Hon. Julian Pauncefote, is the Attorney-General for the Colony (Hong Kong) and the respondent Hwoka-Sing is a Coolie or labourer, and a native of China."—Report of Case before Jud. Com. of Privy Council.

" "A man (Col. Gordon) who had wrought such wonders with means so modest as a levy of Coolies ... needed, we may be sure, only to be put to the highest test to show how just those were who had marked him out in his Crimean days as a youth whose extraordinary genius for war could not be surpassed in the army that lay before Sebastopol."—Sat. Review, Aug. 16, 203.

1875.—"A long row of cottages, evidently pattern-built ... announced the presence of Coolies, Indian or Chinese."—Palgrave, Dutch Guiana, ch. i.

The word Cooly has passed into English thieves' jargon in the sense of 'a soldier' (v. Slang Dict.).

COOMKEE, adj., used as sub. This is a derivative from P. kumak, 'aid,' and must have been widely diffused in India, for we find it specialised in different senses in the extreme West and East, besides having in both the general sense of 'auxiliary.'

[(a) In the Moghul army the term is used for auxiliary troops.

[c. 1590.—"Some troops are levied occasionally to strengthen the munsubs, and they are called Kummeky (or auxiliaries)."—Gladwin, Ayeen Akbery, ed. 1800, i. 188; in Blochmann, i. 232, Kumakis.

[1858.—"The great landholders despise them (the ordinary levies) but respect the Komukee corps...."—Sleeman, Journey through Oudh, i. 30.]

(b) Kumakī, in N. and S. Canara, is applied to a defined portion of forest, from which the proprietor of the village or estate has the privilege of supplying himself with wood for house-building, &c. (except from the reserved kinds of wood), with leaves and twigs for manure, fodder, &c. (See COOMRY). [The system is described by Sturrock, Man. S. Canara, i. 16, 224 seqq.]

(c). Koomkee, in Bengal, is the technical name of the female elephant used as a decoy in capturing a male.

1807.—"When an elephant is in a proper state to be removed from the Keddah, he is conducted either by koomkies (i.e. decoy females) or by tame males."—Williamson, Oriental Field Sports, folio ed., p. 30.

[1873.—"It was an interesting sight to see the captive led in between two khoonkies or tame elephants."—Cooper, Mishmee Hills, 88.

[1882.—"Attached to each elephant hunting party there must be a number of tame elephants, or Koonkies, to deal with the wild elephants when captured."—Sanderson, Thirteen Years, 70.]

COOMRY, s. [Can. kumari, from Mahr. kumbarī, 'a hill slope of poor soil.'] Kumari cultivation is the S. Indian (especially in Canara), [Sturrock, S. Canara Man. i. 17], appellation of that system pursued by hill-people in many parts of India and its frontiers, in which a certain tract of forest is cut down and burnt, and the ground planted with crops for one or two seasons, after which a new site is similarly treated. This system has many names in different regions; in the east of Bengal it it known as jhūm (see JHOOM); in Burma as tounggyan; [in parts of the N.W.P. dahya, Skt. daha, 'burning'; ponam in Malabar; ponacaud in Salem]. We find kumried as a quasi-English participle in a document quoted by the High Court, Bombay, in a judgment dated 27th January, 1879, p. 227.

1883.—"Kumaki (Coomkee) and Kumari privileges stand on a very different platform. The former are perfectly reasonable, and worthy of a civilised country.... As for Kumari privileges, they cannot be defended before the tribunal of reason as being really good for the country, but old custom is old custom, and often commands the respect of a wise government even when it is indefensible."—Mr. Grant Duff's Reply to an Address at Mangalore, 15th October.

COONOOR, n.p. A hill-station in the Neilgherries. Kuṇṇur, 'Hill-Town.' [The Madras Gloss. gives Can. Kunnūru, Skt. kunna, 'small,' Can. ūru, 'village.']

COORG, n.p. A small hill State on the west of the table-land of Mysore, in which lies the source of the Cauvery, and which was annexed to the British Government, in consequence of cruel misgovernment in 1834. The name is a corruption of Kŏḍagu, of which Gundert says: "perhaps from koḍu, 'steep,' or Tamil kaḍaga, 'west.'" [For various other speculations on the derivation, see Oppert, Original Inhabit., 162 seqq. The Madras Gloss. seems to refer it to Skt. kroḍadeśa, 'hog-land,' from "the tradition that the inhabitants had nails on hands and feet like a boar."] Coorg is also used for a native of the country, in which case it stands for Kŏḍaga.

COORSY, s. H.—from Ar.—kursī [which is used for the stand on which the Koran is laid]. It is the word usually employed in Western India for 'a chair,' and is in the Bengal Presidency a more dignified term than chaukī (see CHOKY). Kursī is the Arabic form, borrowed from the Aramaic, in which the emphatic state is kursĕyā. But in Hebrew the word possesses a more original form with ss for rs (kisse, the usual word in the O. T. for 'a throne'). The original sense appears to be 'a covered seat.'

1781.—"It happened, at this time, that the Nawaub was seated on his koorsi, or chair, in a garden, beneath a banyan tree."—Hist. of Hydur Naik, 452.

COOSUMBA, s. H. kusum, kusumbha, Safflower, q.v. But the name is applied in Rajputana and Guzerat to the tincture of opium, which is used freely by Rājputs and others in those territories; also (according to Shakespear) to an infusion of Bang (q.v.).

[1823.—"Several of the Rajpoot Princes West of the Chumbul seldom hold a Durbar without presenting a mixture of liquid opium, or, as it is termed, 'kusoombah,' to all present. The minister washes his hands in a vessel placed before the Rawul, after which some liquid opium is poured into the palm of his right hand. The first in rank who may be present then approaches and drinks the liquid."—Malcolm, Mem. of Central India, 2d ed. ii. 146, note.]

COOTUB, THE, n.p. The Ḳuṭb Minār, near Delhi, one of the most remarkable of Indian architectural antiquities, is commonly so called by Europeans. It forms the minaret of the Great Mosque, now long in ruins, which Ḳuṭb-uddīn Ībak founded A.D. 1191, immediately after the capture of Delhi, and which was built out of the materials of numerous Hindu temples, as is still manifest. According to the elaborate investigation of Gen. A. Cunningham [Arch. Rep. i. 189 seqq.], the magnificent Minār was begun by Ḳuṭb-uddīn Ībak about 1200, and completed by his successor Shamsuddīn Iyaltimish about 1220. The tower has undergone, in its upper part, various restorations. The height as it now stands is 238 feet 1 inch. The traditional name of the tower no doubt had reference to the name of its founder, but also there may have been a reference to the contemporary Saint, Ḳuṭb-uddīn Ūshī, whose tomb is close by; and perhaps also to the meaning of the name Ḳuṭb-uddīn, 'The Pole or Axle of the Faith,' as appropriate to such a structure.

c. 1330.—"Attached to the mosque (of Delhi) is a tower for the call to prayer which has no equal in the whole world. It is built of red stone, with about 360 steps. It is not square, but has a great number of angles, is very massive at the base, and very lofty, equalling the Pharos of Alexandria."—Abulfeda, in Gildemeister, 190.

c. 1340.—"In the northern court of the mosque stands the minaret (al-ṣauma'a), which is without a parallel in all the countries of Islām.... It is of surpassing height; the pinnacle is of milk-white marble, and the globes which decorate it are of pure gold. The aperture of the staircase is so wide that elephants can ascend, and a person on whom I could rely told me that when the minaret was a-building, he saw an elephant ascend to the very top with a load of stones."—Ibn Batuta, iii. 151.

The latter half of the last quotation is fiction.

1663.—"At two Leagues off the City on Agra's side, in a place by the Mahumetans called Koja Kotubeddine, there is a very ancient Edifice which hath been a Temple of Idols...."—Bernier, E.T. 91.

It is evident from this that Bernier had not then visited the Ḳuṭb. [Constable in his tr. reads "Koia Kotub-eddine," by which he understands Koh-i-Ḳuṭab-uddīn, the hill or eminence of the Saint, p. 283.]

1825.—"I will only observe that the Cuttab Minar ... is really the finest tower I have ever seen, and must, when its spire was complete, have been still more beautiful."—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 308.

COPECK, s. This is a Russian coin, 1⁄100 of a ruble. The degeneration of coin denominations is often so great that we may suspect this name to preserve that of the dīnār Kopekī often mentioned in the histories of Timur and his family. Kopek is in Turki, 'dog,' and Charmoy explains the term as equivalent to Abū-kalb, 'Father of a dog,' formerly applied in Egypt to Dutch crowns (Löwenthaler) bearing a lion. There could not be Dutch coins in Timur's time, but some other Frank coin bearing a lion may have been so called, probably Venetian. A Polish coin with a lion on it was called by a like name (see Macarius, quoted below, p. 169). Another etymology of kopek suggested (in Chaudoir, Aperçu des Monnaies Russes) is from Russ. kopié, kopyé, a pike, many old Russian coins representing the Prince on horseback with a spear. [This is accepted by the N.E.D.] Kopeks are mentioned in the reign of Vassili III., about the middle of the 15th century, but only because regularly established in the coinage c. 1536. [See TANGA.]

1390.—(Timour resolved) "to visit the venerated tomb of Sheikh Maslahat ... and with that intent proceeded to Tāshkand ... he there distributed as alms to worthy objects, 10,000 dīnārs kopakī...."—Sharīfuddīn, in Extracts by M. Charmoy, Mem. Acad. St. P., vi. S., tome iii. p. 363, also note, p. 135.

1535.—"It was on this that the Grand Duchess Helena, mother of Ivan Vassilievitch, and regent in his minority, ordered, in 1535, that these new Dengui should be melted down and new ones struck, at the rate of 300 dengui, or 3 Roubles of Moscow à la grivenka, in Kopeks.... From that time accounts continued to be kept in Roubles, Kopeks, and Dengui."—Chaudoir, Aperçu.

c. 1655.—"The pension in lieu of provisions was, for our Lord the Patriarch 25 copecks daily."—Travels of the Patriarch Macarius, Or. Tr. Fund, i. 281.

1783.—"The Copeck of Russia, a copper coin, in name and apparently in value, is the same which was current in Tartary during the reign of Timur."—Forster's Journey, ed. 1808, ii. 332.

COPPERSMITH, s. Popular name both in H. (tambayat) and English of the crimson-breasted barbet (Xantholaema indica, Latham). See the quotation from Jerdon.

1862.—"It has a remarkably loud note, which sounds like took-took-took, and this it generally utters when seated on the top of some tree, nodding its head at each call, first to one side and then to another.... This sound and the motion of its head, accompanying it, have given origin to the name of 'Coppersmith.'..."—Jerdon, ed. 1877, i. 316.

1879.—

1883.—"For the same reason mynas seek the tope, and the 'blue jay,' so-called, and the little green coppersmith hooting ventriloquistically."—Tribes on my Frontier, 154.

COPRAH, s. The dried kernel of the coco-nut, much used for the expression of its oil, and exported largely from the Malabar ports. The Portuguese probably took the word from the Malayāl. koppara, which is, however, apparently borrowed from the H. khoprā, of the same meaning. The latter is connected by some with khapnā, 'to dry up.' Shakespear however, more probably, connects khoprā, as well as khoprī, 'a skull, a shell,' and khappar, 'a skull,' with Skt. kharpara, having also the meaning of 'skull.' Compare with this a derivation which we have suggested (s.v.) as possible of coco from old Fr. and Span. coque, coco, 'a shell'; and with the slang use of coco there mentioned.

1563.—"And they also dry these cocos ... and these dried ones they call copra, and they carry them to Ormuz, and to the Balaghat."—Garcia, Colloq. f. 68b.

1578.—"The kernel of these cocos is dried in the sun, and is called copra.... From this same copra oil is made in presses, as we make it from olives."—Acosta, 104.

1584.—"Chopra, from Cochin and Malabar...."—Barret, in Hakl. ii. 413.

1598.—"The other Oyle is prest out of the dried Cocus, which is called Copra...."—Linschoten, 101. See also (1602), Couto, Dec. I. liv. iv. cap. 8; (1606) Gouvea, f. 62b; [(1610) Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 384 (reading kuppara for suppara);] (c. 1690) Rumphius, Herb. Amb. i. 7.

1727.—"That tree (coco-nut) produceth ... Copera, or the Kernels of the Nut dried, and out of these Kernels there is a very clear Oil exprest."—A. Hamilton, i. 307; [ed. 1744, i. 308].

1860.—"The ordinary estimate is that one thousand full-grown nuts of Jaffna will yield 525 pounds of Copra when dried, which in turn will produce 25 gallons of cocoa-nut oil."—Tennent, Ceylon, ii. 531.

1878.—It appears from Lady Brassey's Voyage in the Sunbeam (5th ed. 248) that this word is naturalised in Tahiti.

1883.—"I suppose there are but few English people outside the trade who know what copra is; I will therefore explain:—it is the white pith of the ripe cocoa-nut cut into strips and dried in the sun. This is brought to the trader (at New Britain) in baskets varying from 3 to 20 lbs. in weight; the payment ... was a thimbleful of beads for each pound of copra.... The nut is full of oil, and on reaching Europe the copra is crushed in mills, and the oil pressed from it ... half the oil sold as 'olive-oil' is really from the cocoa-nut."—Wilfred Powell, Wanderings in a Wild Country, p. 37.

CORAL-TREE, s. Erythrina indica, Lam., so called from the rich scarlet colour of its flowers.

[1860.—"There are ... two or three species of the genus Erythrina or Coral Tree. A small species of Erythrina, with reddish flowers, is famous in Buddhist mythology as the tree around which the Devas dance till they are intoxicated in Sudra's (? Indra's) heaven." Mason's Burmah, p. 531.—McMahon, Karens of the Golden Chersonese, p. 11.]

CORCOPALI, s. This is the name of a fruit described by Varthema, Acosta, and other old writers, the identity of which has been the subject of much conjecture. It is in reality the Garcinia indica, Choisy (N. O. Guttiferae), a tree of the Concan and Canara, which belongs to the same genus as the mangosteen, and as the tree affording the gamboge (see CAMBOJA) of commerce. It produces an agreeable, acid, purple fruit, which the Portuguese call brindões. From the seeds a fatty oil is drawn, known as kokun butter. The name in Malayāl. is koḍukka, and this possibly, with the addition of puli, 'acid,' gave rise to the name before us. It is stated in the English Cyclopaedia (Nat. Hist. s.v. Garcinia) that in Travancore the fruit is called by the natives gharka pulli, and in Ceylon goraka. Forbes Watson's 'List of Indian Productions' gives as synonyms of the Garcinia cambogia tree 'karka-puliemaram?' Tam.; 'kurka-pulie,' Mal.; and 'goraka-gass,' Ceyl. [The Madras Gloss. calls it Mate mangosteen, a ship term meaning 'cook-room mangosteen'; Can. murginahuli, 'twisted tamarind'; Mal. punampuli, 'stiff tamarind.'] The Cyclopædia also contains some interesting particulars regarding the uses in Ceylon of the goraka. But this Ceylon tree is a different species (G. Gambogia, Desrous). Notwithstanding its name it does not produce gamboge; its gum being insoluble in water. A figure of G. indica is given in Beddome's Flora Sylvatica, pl. lxxxv. [A full account of Kokam butter will be found in Watt, Econ. Dict. iii. 467 seqq.]

1510.—"Another fruit is found here fashioned like a melon, and it has divisions after that manner, and when it is cut, three or four grains which look like grapes, or birdcherries, are found inside. The tree which bears this fruit is of the height of a quince tree, and forms its leaves in the same manner. This fruit is called Corcopal; it is extremely good for eating, and excellent as a medicine."—Varthema (transl. modified from), Hak. Soc. 167.

1578.—"Carcapuli is a great tree, both lofty and thick; its fruit is in size and aspect like an orange without a rind, all divided in lobes...."—Acosta, Tractado, 357.

(This author gives a tolerable cut of the fruit; there is an inferior plate in Debry, iv. No. xvii.).

1672.—"The plant Carcapuli is peculiar to Malabar.... The ripe fruit is used as ordinary food; the unripe is cut in pieces and dried in the sun, and is then used all the year round to mix in dishes, along with tamarind, having an excellent flavour, of a tempered acidity, and of a very agreeable and refreshing odour. The form is nearly round, of the size of an apple, divided into eight equal lobes of a yellow colour, fragrant and beautiful, and with another little fruitlet attached to the extremity, which is perfectly round," &c., &c.—P. Vincenzo Maria, 356.

CORGE, COORGE, &c., s. A mercantile term for 'a score.' The word is in use among the trading Arabs and others, as well as in India. It is established in Portuguese use apparently, but the Portuguese word is almost certainly of Indian origin, and this is expressly asserted in some Portuguese Dictionaries (e.g. Lacerda's, Lisbon, 1871). Koṛī is used exactly in the same way by natives all over Upper India. Indeed, the vulgar there in numeration habitually say do koṛī, tīn koṛī, for 40, 60, and so forth. The first of our quotations shows the word in a form very closely allied to this, and explaining the transition. Wilson gives Telugu khorjam, "a bale or lot of 20 pieces, commonly called a corge." [The Madras Gloss. gives Can. korji, Tel. khorjam, as meaning either a measure of capacity, about 44 maunds, or a Madras town cloth measure of 20 pieces.] But, unless a root can be traced, this may easily be a corruption of the trade-word. Littré explains corge or courge as "Paquet de toile de coton des Indes"; and Marcel Devic says: "C'est vraisemblablement l'Arabe khordj"—which means a saddlebag, a portmanteau. Both the definition and the etymology seem to miss the essential meaning of corge, which is that of a score, and not that of a packet or bundle, unless by accident.

1510.—"If they be stuffs, they deal by curia, and in like manner if they be jewels. By a curia is understood twenty."—Varthema, 170.

1525.—"A corjá dos quotonyas grandes vale (250) tamgas."—Lembrança, das Cousas da India, 48.

1554.—"The nut and mace when gathered were bartered by the natives for common kinds of cloth, and for each korja of these ... they gave a bahar of mace ... and seven bahars of the nut."—Castanheda, vi. 8.

[1605-6.—"Note the cody or corge is a bondell or set nomber of 20 pieces."—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 80.]

1612.—"White callicos from twentie to fortie Royals the Corge (a Corge being twentie pieces), a great quantitie."—Capt. Saris, in Purchas, i. 347.

1612-13.—"They returning brought doune the Mustraes of everie sort, and the prices demanded for them per Corge."—Dounton, in Purchas, i. 299.

1615.—

1622.—Adam Denton ... admits that he made "90 corge of Pintadoes" in their house at Patani, but not at their charge.—Sainsbury, iii. 42.

1644.—"To the Friars of St. Francis for their regular yearly allowance, a cow every week, 24 candies of wheat, 15 sacks of rice girasol, 2 sacks of sugar, half a candy of sero (qu. sevo, 'tallow,' 'grease,'?) ½ candy of coco-nut oil, 6 maunds of butter, 4 corjas of cotton stuffs, and 25,920 rés for dispensary medicines (mezinhas de bottica)."—Bocarro, MS. f. 217.

c. 1670.—"The Chites ... which are made at Lahor ... are sold by Corges, every Corge consisting of twenty pieces...."—Tavernier, On the Commodities of the Domns. of the Great Mogul, &c., E.T. p. 58; [ed. Ball, ii. 5].

1747.—"Another Sett of Madrass Painters ... being examined regarding what Goods were Remaining in their hands upon the Loss of Madrass, they acknowledge to have had 15 Corge of Chints then under their Performance, and which they acquaint us is all safe ... but as they have lost all their Wax and Colours, they request an Advance of 300 Pagodas for the Purchase of more...."—Consns. Fort St. David, Aug. 13. MS. Records in India Office.

c. 1760.—"At Madras ... 1 gorge is 22 pieces."—Grose, i. 284.

" "No washerman to demand for 1 corge of pieces more than 7 pun of cowries."—In Long, 239.

1784.—In a Calcutta Lottery-list of prizes we find "55 corge of Pearls."—In Seton-Karr, i. 33.

[c. 1809.—"To one korj or 20 pieces of Tunzebs ... 50 rs."—Buchanan Hamilton, Eastern India, i. 398.]

1810.—"I recollect about 29 years back, when marching from Berhampore to Cawnpore with a detachment of European recruits, seeing several coarges (of sheep) bought for their use, at 3 and 3½ rupees! at the latter rate 6 sheep were purchased for a rupee ... five pence each."—Williamson, V. M. i. 293.

1813.—"Corge is 22 at Judda."—Milburn, i. 93.

CORINGA, n.p. Koringa; probably a corruption of Kalinga [see KLING]. [The Madras Gloss. gives the Tel. korangi, 'small cardamoms.'] The name of a seaport in Godāvari Dist. on the northern side of the Delta. ["The only place between Calcutta and Trincomalee where large vessels used to be docked."—Morris, Godavery Man., p. 40.]

CORLE, s. Singh. kōrale, a district.

1726.—"A Coraal is an overseer of a Corle or District...."—Valentijn, Names of Native Officers in the Villages of Ceylon, 1.

CORNAC, s. This word is used, by French writers especially, as an Indian word, and as the equivalent of Mahout (q.v.), or driver of the elephant. Littré defines: "Nom qu'on donne dans les Indes au conducteur d'un éléphant," &c., &c., adding: "Etym. Sanskrit karnikin, éléphant." "Dans les Indes" is happily vague, and the etymology worthless. Bluteau gives Cornâca, but no etymology. In Singhalese Kūrawa = 'Elephant Stud.' (It is not in the Singhalese Dict., but it is in the official Glossary of Terms, &c.), and our friend Dr. Rost suggests Kūrawa-nāyaka, 'Chief of the Kūrawa' as a probable origin. This is confirmed by the form Cournakea in Valentijn, and by another title which he gives as used for the head of the Elephant Stable at Matura, viz. Gaginaicke (Names, &c., p. 11), i.e. Gaji-nāyaka, from Gaja, 'an elephant.' [The N.E.D. remarks that some authorities give for the first part of the word Skt. kari, 'elephant.']

1672.—"There is a certain season of the year when the old elephant discharges an oil at the two sides of the head, and at that season they become like mad creatures, and often break the neck of their carnac or driver."—Baldaeus, Germ. ed. 422. (See MUST.)

1685.—"O cornaca q̃ estava de baixo delle tinha hum laço que metia em hũa das mãos ao bravo."—Ribeiro, f. 49b.

1712.—"The aforesaid author (P. Fr. Gaspar de S. Bernardino in his Itinerary), relates that in the said city (Goa), he saw three Elephants adorned with jewels, adoring the most Holy Sacrament at the Sè Gate on the Octave of Easter, on which day in India they make the procession of Corpus Domini, because of the calm weather. I doubt not that the Cornacas of these animals had taught them to perform these acts of apparent adoration. But at the same time there appears to be Religion and Piety innate in the Elephant."^[84]—In Bluteau, s.v. Elephante.

1726.—"After that (at Mongeer) one goes over a great walled area, and again through a gate, which is adorned on either side with a great stone elephant with a Carnak on it."—Valentijn, v. 167.

" "Cournakeas, who stable the new-caught elephants, and tend them."—Valentijn, Names, &c., 5 (in vol. v.).

1727.—"As he was one Morning going to the River to be washed, with his Carnack or Rider on his Back, he chanced to put his Trunk in at the Taylor's Window."—A. Hamilton, ii. 110; [ed. 1744, ii. 109]. This is the only instance of English use that we know (except Mr. Carl Bock's; and he is not an Englishman, though his book is in English). It is the famous story of the Elephant's revenge on the Tailor.

[1831.—"With the same judgment an elephant will task his strength, without human direction. 'I have seen,' says M. D'Obsonville, 'two occupied in beating down a wall which their cornacs (keepers) had desired them to do....'"—Library of Entertaining Knowledge, Quadrupeds, ii. 157.]

1884.—"The carnac, or driver, was quite unable to control the beast, which roared and trumpeted with indignation."—C. Bock, Temples and Elephants, p. 22.

COROMANDEL, n.p. A name which has been long applied by Europeans to the Northern Tamil Country, or (more comprehensively) to the eastern coast of the Peninsula of India from Pt. Calimere northward to the mouth of the Kistna, sometimes to Orissa. It corresponds pretty nearly to the Maabar of Marco Polo and the Mahommedan writers of his age, though that is defined more accurately as from C. Comorin to Nellore.

Much that is fanciful has been written on the origin of this name. Tod makes it Kūrū-mandala, the Realm of the Kūrūs (Trans. R. As. Soc. iii. 157). Bp. Caldwell, in the first edition of his Dravidian Grammar, suggested that European traders might have taken this familiar name from that of Karumaṇal ('black sand'), the name of a small village on the coast north of Madras, which is habitually pronounced and written Coromandel by European residents at Madras. [The same suggestion was made earlier (see Wilks, Hist. Sketches, ed. 1869, i. 5, note)]. The learned author, in his second edition, has given up this suggestion, and has accepted that to which we adhere. But Mr. C. P. Brown, the eminent Telugu scholar, in repeating the former suggestion, ventures positively to assert: "The earliest Portuguese sailors pronounced this Coromandel, and called the whole coast by this name, which was unknown to the Hindus";^[85] a passage containing in three lines several errors. Again, a writer in the Ind. Antiquary (i. 380) speaks of this supposed origin of the name as "pretty generally accepted," and proceeds to give an imaginative explanation of how it was propagated. These etymologies are founded on a corrupted form of the name, and the same remark would apply to Khara-maṇḍalam, the 'hot country,' which Bp. Caldwell mentions as one of the names given, in Telugu, to the eastern coast. Padre Paolino gives the name more accurately as Ciola (i.e. Chola) maṇḍalam, but his explanation of it as meaning the Country of Cholam (or juwārī—Sorghum vulgare, Pers.) is erroneous. An absurd etymology is given by Teixeira (Relacion de Harmuz, 28; 1610). He writes: "Choromãdel or Choro Bãdel, i.e. Rice Port, because of the great export of rice from thence." He apparently compounds H. chaul, chāwal, 'cooked rice' (!) and bandel, i.e. bandar (q.v.) 'harbour.' This is a very good type of the way etymologies are made by some people, and then confidently repeated.

The name is in fact Chôṛamaṇḍala, the Realm of Chôṛa; this being the Tamil form of the very ancient title of the Tamil Kings who reigned at Tanjore. This correct explanation of the name was already given by D'Anville (see Éclaircissemens, p. 117), and by W. Hamilton in 1820 (ii. 405), by Ritter, quoting him in 1836 (Erdkunde, vi. 296); by the late M. Reinaud in 1845 (Relation, &c., i. lxxxvi.); and by Sir Walter Elliot in 1869 (J. Ethnol. Soc. N.S. i. 117). And the name occurs in the forms Cholamaṇḍalam or Solamaṇḍalam on the great Temple inscription of Tanjore (11th century), and in an inscription of A.D. 1101 at a temple dedicated to Varāhasvāmi near the Seven Pagodas. We have other quite analogous names in early inscriptions, e.g. Īlamaṇḍalam (Ceylon), Cheramaṇḍalam, Tondaimaṇḍalam, &c.

Chola, as the name of a Tamil people and of their royal dynasty appears as Choḍa in one of Asoka's inscriptions, and in the Telugu inscriptions of the Chālukya dynasty. Nor can we doubt that the same name is represented by Σῶρα of Ptolemy who reigned at Ἀρκατοῦ (Arcot), Σώρ-ναξ who reigned at Ὄρθουρα (Wariūr), and the Σῶραι νομάδες who dwelt inland from the site of Madras.^[86]

The word Soli, as applied to the Tanjore country, occurs in Marco Polo (Bk. iii. ch. 20), showing that Chola in some form was used in his day. Indeed Soli is used in Ceylon.^[87] And although the Choromandel of Baldaeus and other Dutch writers is, as pronounced in their language, ambiguous or erroneous, Valentijn (1726) calls the country Sjola, and defines it as extending from Negapatam to Orissa, saying that it derived its name from a certain kingdom, and adding that mandalam is 'kingdom.'^[88] So that this respectable writer had already distinctly indicated the true etymology of Coromandel.

Some old documents in Valentijn speak of the 'old city of Coromandel.' It is not absolutely clear what place was so called (probably by the Arabs in their fashion of calling a chief town by the name of the country), but the indications point almost certainly to Negapatam.^[89]

The oldest European mention of the name is, we believe, in the Roteiro de Vasco da Gama, where it appears as Chomandarla. The short Italian narrative of Hieronymo da Sto. Stefano is, however, perhaps earlier still, and he curiously enough gives the name in exactly the modern form "Coromandel," though perhaps his C had originally a cedilla (Ramusio, i. f. 345v.). These instances suffice to show that the name was not given by the Portuguese. Da Gama and his companions knew the east coast only by hearsay, and no doubt derived their information chiefly from Mahommedan traders, through their "Moorish" interpreter. That the name was in familiar Mahommedan use at a later date may be seen from Rowlandson's Translation of the Tohfat-ul-Mujāhidīn, where we find it stated that the Franks had built fortresses "at Meelapoor (i.e. Mailapur or San Tomé) and Nagapatam, and other ports of Solmundul," showing that the name was used by them just as we use it (p. 153). Again (p. 154) this writer says that the Mahommedans of Malabar were cut off from extra-Indian trade, and limited "to the ports of Guzerat, the Concan, Solmondul, and the countries about Kaeel." At page 160 of the same work we have mention of "Coromandel and other parts," but we do not know how this is written in the original Arabic. Varthema (1510) has Ciormandel, i.e. Chormandel, but which Eden in his translation (1577, which probably affords the earliest English occurrence of the name) deforms into Cyromandel (f. 396b). [Albuquerque in his Cartas (see p. 135 for a letter of 1513) has Choromandell passim.] Barbosa has in the Portuguese edition of the Lisbon Academy, Charamandel; in the Span. MS. translated by Lord Stanley of Alderley, Cholmendel and Cholmender. D'Alboquerque's Commentaries (1557), Mendez Pinto (c. 1550) and Barros (1553) have Choromandel, and Garcia De Orta (1563) Charamandel. The ambiguity of the ch, soft in Portuguese and Spanish, but hard in Italian, seems to have led early to the corrupt form Coromandel, which we find in Parkes's Mendoza (1589), and Coromandyll, among other spellings, in the English version of Castanheda (1582). Cesare Federici has in the Italian (1587) Chiaramandel (probably pronounced soft in the Venetian manner), and the translation of 1599 has Coromandel. This form thenceforward generally prevails in English books, but not without exceptions. A Madras document of 1672 in Wheeler has Cormandell, and so have the early Bengal records in the India Office; Dampier (1689) has Coromondel (i. 509); Lockyer (1711) has "the Coast of Cormandel"; A. Hamilton (1727) Chormondel (i. 349); ed. 1744, i. 351; and a paper of about 1759, published by Dalrymple, has "Choromandel Coast" (Orient. Repert. i. 120-121). The poet Thomson has Cormandel:

The Portuguese appear to have adhered in the main to the correcter form Choromandel: e.g. Archivio Port. Oriental, fasc. 3, p. 480, and passim. A Protestant Missionary Catechism, printed at Tranquebar in 1713 for the use of Portuguese schools in India has: "na costa dos Malabaros que se chama Cormandel." Bernier has "la côte de Koromandel" (Amst. ed. ii. 322). W. Hamilton says it is written Choramandel in the Madras Records until 1779, which is substantially correct. In the MS. "List of Persons in the Service of the Rt. Honble. E. I. Company in Fort St. George and other places on the Coast of Choromandell," preserved in the Indian Office, that spelling continues down to 1778. In that year it is changed to Coromandel. In the French translation of Ibn Batuta (iv. 142) we find Coromandel, but this is only the perverse and misleading manner of Frenchmen, who make Julius Caesar cross from "France" to "England." The word is Ma'bar in the original. [Alboquerque (Comm. Hak. Soc. i. 41) speaks of a violent squall under the name of vara de Coromandel.]

CORPORAL FORBES, s. A soldier's grimly jesting name for Cholera Morbus.

1829.—"We are all pretty well, only the regiment is sickly, and a great quantity are in hospital with the Corporal Forbes, which carries them away before they have time to die, or say who comes there."—In Shipp's Memoirs, ii. 218.

CORRAL, s. An enclosure as used in Ceylon for the capture of wild elephants, corresponding to the Keddah of Bengal. The word is Sp. corral, 'a court,' &c., Port. curral, 'a cattle-pen, a paddock.' The Americans have the same word, direct from the Spanish, in common use for a cattle-pen; and they have formed a verb 'to corral,' i.e. to enclose in a pen, to pen. The word kraal applied to native camps and villages at the Cape of Good Hope appears to be the same word introduced there by the Dutch. The word corral is explained by Bluteau: "A receptacle for any kind of cattle, with railings round it and no roof, in which respect it differs from Corte, which is a building with a roof." Also he states that the word is used especially in churches for septum nobilium feminarum, a pen for ladies.

c. 1270.—"When morning came, and I rose and had heard mass, I proclaimed a council to be held in the open space (corral) between my house and that of Montaragon."—Chron. of James of Aragon, tr. by Foster, i. 65.

1404.—"And this mosque and these chapels were very rich, and very finely wrought with gold and azure, and enamelled tiles (azulejos); and within there was a great corral, with trees and tanks of water."—Clavijo, § cv. Comp. Markham, 123.

1672.—"About Mature they catch the Elephants with Coraals" (Coralen, but sing. Coraal).—Baldaeus, Ceylon, 168.

1860.—In Emerson Tennent's Ceylon, Bk. VIII. ch. iv. the corral is fully described.

1880.—"A few hundred pounds expended in houses, and the erection of coralls in the neighbourhood of a permanent stream will form a basis of operations." (In Colorado.)—Fortnightly Rev., Jan., 125.

CORUNDUM, s. This is described by Dana under the species Sapphire, as including the grey and darker coloured opaque crystallised specimens. The word appears to be Indian. Shakespear gives Hind. kuranḍ, Dakh. kurund. Littré attributes the origin to Skt. kuruvinda, which Williams gives as the name of several plants, but also as 'a ruby.' In Telugu we have kuruvindam, and in Tamil kurundam for the substance in present question; the last is probably the direct origin of the term.

c. 1666.—"Cet emeri blanc se trouve par pierres dans un lieu particulier du Roiaume, et s'apelle Corind en langue Telengui."—Thevenot, v. 297.

COSMIN, n.p. This name is given by many travellers in the 16th and 17th centuries to a port on the western side of the Irawadi Delta, which must have been near Bassein, if not identical with it. Till quite recently this was all that could be said on the subject, but Prof. Forchhammer of Rangoon has now identified the name as a corruption of the classical name formerly borne by Bassein, viz. Kusima or Kusumanagara, a city founded about the beginning of the 5th century. Kusima-maṇḍala was the western province of the Delta Kingdom which we know as Pegu. The Burmese corrupted the name of Kusuma into Kusmein and Kothein, and Alompra after his conquest of Pegu in the middle of the 18th century, changed it to Bathein. So the facts are stated substantially by Forchhammer (see Notes on Early Hist. and Geog. of Br. Burma, No. 2, p. 12); though familiar and constant use of the word Persaim, which appears to be a form of Bassein, in the English writings of 1750-60, published by Dalrymple (Or. Repertory, passim), seems hardly consistent with this statement of the origin of Bassein. [Col. Temple (Ind. Ant. xxii. 19 seqq.; J. R. A. S. 1893, p. 885) disputes the above explanation. According to him the account of the change of name by Alompra is false history; the change from initial p to k is not isolated, and the word Bassein itself does not date beyond 1780.]

The last publication in which Cosmin appears is the "Draught of the River Irrawaddy or Irabatty," made in 1796, by Ensign T. Wood of the Bengal Engineers, which accompanies Symes's Account (London, 1800). This shows both Cosmin, and Persaim or Bassein, some 30 or 40 miles apart. But the former was probably taken from an older chart, and from no actual knowledge.

c. 1165.—"Two ships arrived at the harbour Kusuma in Aramana, and took in battle and laid waste country from the port Sapattota, over which Kurttipurapam was governor."—J.A.S. Bengal, vol. xli. pt. i. p. 198.

1516.—"Anrique Leme set sail right well equipped, with 60 Portuguese. And pursuing his voyage he captured a junk belonging to Pegu merchants, which he carried off towards Martaban, in order to send it with a cargo of rice to Malaca, and so make a great profit. But on reaching the coast he could not make the port of Martaban, and had to make the mouth of the River of Pegu.... Twenty leagues from the bar there is another city called Cosmim, in which merchants buy and sell and do business...."—Correa, ii. 474.

1545.—"... and 17 persons only out of 83 who were on board, being saved in the boat, made their way for 5 days along the coast; intending to put into the river of Cosmim, in the kingdom of Pegu, there to embark for India (i.e. Goa) in the king's lacker ship...."—F. M. Pinto, ch. cxlvii.

1554.—"Cosmym ... the currency is the same in this port that is used in Peguu, for this is a seaport by which one goes to Peguu."—A. Nunez, 38.

1566.—"In a few days they put into Cosmi, a port of Pegu, where presently they gave out the news, and then all the Talapoins came in haste, and the people who were dwelling there."—Couto, Dec. viii. cap. 13.

c. 1570.—"They go it vp the riuer in foure daies ... with the flood, to a City called Cosmin ... whither the Customer of Pegu comes to take the note or markes of euery man.... Nowe from Cosmin to the citie Pegu ... it is all plaine and a goodly Country, and in 8 dayes you may make your voyage."—Cæsar Frederike, in Hakl. ii. 366-7.

1585.—"So the 5th October we came to Cosmi, the territory of which, from side to side is full of woods, frequented by parrots, tigers, boars, apes, and other like creatures."—G. Balbi, f. 94.

1587.—"We entered the barre of Negrais, which is a braue barre, and hath 4 fadomes water where it hath least. Three dayes after we came to Cosmin, which is a very pretie towne, and standeth very pleasantly, very well furnished with all things ... the houses are all high built, set vpon great high postes ... for feare of the Tygers, which be very many."—R. Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 390.

1613.—"The Portuguese proceeded without putting down their arms to attack the Banha Dela's (position), and destroyed it entirely, burning his factory and compelling him to flee to the kingdom of Prom, so that there now remained in the whole realm of Pegu only the Banho of Cosmim (a place adjoining Negrais) calling himself vassal of the King of Arracan."—Bocarro, 132.

COSPETIR, n.p. This is a name which used greatly to perplex us on the 16th and 17th century maps of India, e.g. in Blaeu's Atlas (c. 1650), appearing generally to the west of the Ganges Delta. Considering how the geographical names of different ages and different regions sometimes get mixed up in old maps, we at one time tried to trace it to the Κασπάτυρος of Herodotus, which was certainly going far afield! The difficulty was solved by the sagacity of the deeply-lamented Prof. Blochmann, who has pointed out (J. As. Soc. Beng., xlii. pt. i. 224) that Cospetir represents the Bengali genitive of Gajpati, 'Lord of Elephants,' the traditional title of the Kings of Orissa. The title Gajpati was that one of the Four Great Kings who, according to Buddhist legend, divided the earth among them in times when there was no Chakravartti, or Universal Monarch (see CHUCKERBUTTY). Gajapati rules the South; Aśvapati (Lord of Horses) the North; Chhatrapati (Lord of the Umbrella) the West; Narapati (Lord of Men) the East. In later days these titles were variously appropriated (see Lassen, ii. 27 seq.). And Akbar, as will be seen below, adopted these names, with others of his own devising, for the suits of his pack of cards. There is a Raja Gajpati, a chief Zamindar of the country north of Patna, who is often mentioned in the wars of Akbar (see Elliot, v. 399 and passim, vi. 55, &c.) who is of course not to be confounded with the Orissa Prince.

c. 700 (?).—"In times when there was no Chakravartti King ... Chen-pu (Samba-dvīpa) was divided among four lords. The southern was the Lord of Elephants (Gajapati), &c...."—Introd. to Si-yu-ki (in Pèlerins Bouddh.), ii. lxxv.

1553.—"On the other or western side, over against the Kingdom of Orixa, the Bengalis (os Bengalos) hold the Kingdom of Cospetir, whose plains at the time of the risings of the Ganges are flooded after the fashion of those of the River Nile."—Barros, Dec. IV. ix. cap. I.

This and the next passage compared show that Barros was not aware that Cospetir and Gajpati were the same.

" "Of this realm of Bengala, and of other four realms its neighbours, the Gentoos and Moors of those parts say that God has given to each its peculiar gift: to Bengala infantry numberless; to the Kingdom of Orixa elephants; to that of Bisnaga men most skilful in the use of sword and shield; to the Kingdom of Dely multitudes of cities and towns; and to Cou a vast number of horses. And so naming them in this order they give them these other names, viz.: Espaty, Gaspaty, Noropaty, Buapaty, and Coapaty."—Barros, ibid. [These titles appear to be Aśvapati, "Lord of Horses"; Gajapati; Narapati, "Lord of Men"; Bhūpati, "Lord of Earth"; Gopati, "Lord of Cattle."]

c. 1590.—"His Majesty (Akbar) plays with the following suits of cards. 1st. Ashwapati, the lord of horses. The highest card represents a King on horseback, resembling the King of Dihli.... 2nd. Gajpati, the King whose power lies in the number of his elephants, as the ruler of Oṛisah.... 3rd. Narpati, a King whose power lies in his infantry, as is the case with the rulers of Bijápúr," &c.—Āīn, i. 306.

c. 1590.—"Orissa contains one hundred and twenty-nine brick forts, subject to the command of Gujeputty."—Ayeen (by Gladwin), ed. 1800, ii. 11; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 126].

1753.—"Herodote fait aussi mention d'une ville de Caspatyrus située vers le haut du fleuve Indus, ce que Mercator a cru correspondre à une denomination qui existe dans la Géographie moderne, sans altération marquée, savoir Cospetir. La notion qu'on a de Cospetir se tire de l'historien Portugais Jean de Barros ... la situation n'est plus celle qui convient à Caspatyrus."—D'Anville, 4 seq.

COSS, s. The most usual popular measure of distance in India, but like the mile in Europe, and indeed like the mile within the British Islands up to a recent date, varying much in different localities.

The Skt. word is krośa, which also is a measure of distance, but originally signified 'a call,' hence the distance at which a man's call can be heard.^[90]

In the Pali vocabulary called Abhidhānappadīpīkā, which is of the 12th century, the word appears in the form koss; and nearly this, kos, is the ordinary Hindi. Kuroh is a Persian form of the word, which is often found in Mahommedan authors and in early travellers. These latter (English) often write course. It is a notable circumstance that, according to Wrangell, the Yakuts of N. Siberia reckon distance by kiosses (a word which, considering the Russian way of writing Turkish and Persian words, must be identical with kos). With them this measure is "indicated by the time necessary to cook a piece of meat." Kioss is = to about 5 versts, or 1⅔ miles, in hilly or marshy country, but on plain ground to 7 versts, or 2⅓ miles.^[91] The Yakuts are a Turk people, and their language is a Turki dialect. The suggestion arises whether the form kos may not have come with the Mongols into India, and modified the previous krośa? But this is met by the existence of the word kos in Pali, as mentioned above.

In ancient Indian measurement, or estimation, 4 krośas went to the yojana. Sir H. M. Elliot deduced from distances in the route of the Chinese pilgrim Fa-hian that the yojana of his age was as nearly as possible 7 miles. Cunningham makes it 7½ or 8, Fergusson 6; but taking Elliot's estimate as a mean, the ancient kos would be 1¾ miles.

The kos as laid down in the Āīn [ed. Jarrett, iii. 414] was of 5000 gaz [see GUDGE]. The official decision of the British Government has assigned the length of Akbar's Ilāhī gaz as 33 inches, and this would make Akbar's kos = 2 m. 4 f. 183⅓ yards. Actual measurement of road distances between 5 pair of Akbar's kos-minārs,^[92] near Delhi, gave a mean of 2 m. 4 f. 158 yards.

In the greater part of the Bengal Presidency the estimated kos is about 2 miles, but it is much less as you approach the N.W. In the upper part of the Doab, it is, with fair accuracy, 1¼ miles. In Bundelkhand again it is nearly 3 m. (Carnegy), or, according to Beames, even 4 m. [In Madras it is 2¼ m., and in Mysore the Sultānī kos is about 4 m.] Reference may be made on this subject to Mr. Thomas's ed. of Prinsep's Essays, ii. 129; and to Mr. Beames's ed. of Elliot's Glossary ("The Races of the N.-W. Provinces," ii. 194). The latter editor remarks that in several parts of the country there are two kinds of kos, a pakkā and a kachchā kos, a double system which pervades all the weights and measures of India; and which has prevailed also in many other parts of the world [see PUCKA].

c. 500.—"A gavyūtih (or league—see GOW) is two krosas."—Amarakosha, ii. 2, 18.

c. 600.—"The descendant of Kukulstha (i.e. Rāma) having gone half a krośa...."—Raghuvamsā, xiii. 79.

c. 1340.—"As for the mile it is called among the Indians al-Kurūh."—Ibn Batuta, iii. 95.

" "The Sultan gave orders to assign me a certain number of villages.... They were at a distance of 16 Kurūhs from Dihli."—Ibn Batuta, 388.

c. 1470.—"The Sultan sent ten viziers to encounter him at a distance of ten Kors (a kor is equal to 10 versts)...."—Ath. Nikitin, 26, in India in the XVth Cent.

" "From Chivil to Jooneer it is 20 Kors; from Jooneer to Beder 40; from Beder to Kulongher, 9 Kors; from Beder to Koluberg, 9."—Ibid. p. 12.

1528.—"I directed Chikmâk Beg, by a writing under the royal hand and seal, to measure the distance from Agra to Kâbul; that at every nine kos he should raise a minâr or turret, twelve gez in height, on the top of which he was to construct a pavilion...."—Baber, 393.

1537.—"... that the King of Portugal should hold for himself and all his descendants, from this day forth for aye, the Port of the City of Mangualor (in Guzerat) with all its privileges, revenues, and jurisdiction, with 2½ coucees round about...."—Treaty in S. Botelho, Tombo, 225.

c. 1550.—"Being all unmanned by their love of Raghoba, they had gone but two Kos by the close of day, then scanning land and water they halted."—Rāmāyana of Tulsī Dās, by Growse, 1878, p. 119.

[1604.—"At the rate of four coss (Coces) the league by the calculation of the Moors."—Couto, Dec. XII., Bk. I. cap. 4.]

1616.—"The three and twentieth arrived at Adsmeere, 219 Courses from Brampoore, 418 English miles, the Courses being longer than towards the Sea."—Sir T. Roe, in Purchas, i. 541; [Hak. Soc. i. 105].

" "The length of these forenamed Provinces is North-West to South-East, at the least 1000 Courses, every Indian Course being two English miles."—Terry, in Purchas, ii. 1468.

1623.—"The distance by road to the said city they called seven cos, or corū, which is all one; and every cos or corū is half a ferseng or league of Persia, so that it will answer to a little less than two Italian [English] miles."—P. della Valle, ii. 504; [Hak. Soc. i. 23].

1648.—"... which two Coss are equivalent to a Dutch mile."—Van Twist, Gen. Beschrijv. 2.

1666.—"... une cosse qui est la mesure des Indes pour l'espace des lieux, est environ d'une demi-lieue."—Thevenot, v. 12.

COSSACK, s. It is most probable that this Russian term for the military tribes of various descent on what was the S. frontier of the Empire has come originally from ḳazzāḳ, a word of obscure origin, but which from its adoption in Central Asia we may venture to call Turki. [Schuyler, Turkistan, i. 8.] It appears in Pavet de Courteille's Dict. Turk-Oriental as "vagabond; aventurier ...; onagre que ses compagnons chassent loin d'eux." But in India it became common in the sense of 'a predatory horseman' and freebooter.

1366.—"On receipt of this bad news I was much dispirited, and formed to myself three plans; 1st. That I should turn Cossack, and never pass 24 hours in one place, and plunder all that came to hand."—Mem. of Timūr, tr. by Stewart, p. 111.

[1609.—In a Letter from the Company to the factors at Bantam mention is made of one "Sophony Cosuke," or as he is also styled in the Court Minutes "the Russe."—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 288.]

1618.—"Cossacks (Cosacchi) ... you should know, is not the name of a nation, but of a collection of people of various countries and sects (though most of them Christians) who without wives or children, and without horses, acknowledge obedience to no prince; but dwelling far from cities in fastnesses among the woods or mountains, or rivers ... live by the booty of their swords ... employ themselves in perpetual inroads and cruisings by land and sea to the detriment of their nearest enemies, i.e. of the Turks and other Mahometans.... As I have heard from them, they promise themselves one day the capture of Constantinople, saying that Fate has reserved for them the liberation of that country, and that they have clear prophecies to that effect."—P. della Valle, i. 614 seq.

c. 1752.—"His kuzzaks ... were likewise appointed to surround and plunder the camp of the French...."—Hist. of Hydur Naik, tr. by Miles, p. 36.

1813.—"By the bye, how do Clarke's friends the Cossacks, who seem to be a band of Circassians and other Sarmatians, come to be called by a name which seems to belong to a great Toorkee tribe on the banks of the Jaxartes? Kuzzauk is used about Delhi for a highwayman. Can it be (as I have heard) an Arabic Mobaligh (exaggeration) from kizk (plunder) applied to all predatory tribes?"—Elphinstone, in Life, i. 264.

1819.—"Some dashing leader may ... gather a predatory band round his standard, which, composed as it would be of desperate adventurers, and commanded by a professional Kuzzauk, might still give us an infinite deal of trouble."—Ibid. ii. 68.

c. 1823.—"The term Cossack is used because it is the one by which the Mahrattas describe their own species of warfare. In their language the word Cossâkee (borrowed like many more of their terms from the Moghuls) means predatory."—Malcolm, Central India, 3d ed. i. 69.

COSSID, s. A courier or running messenger; Arab. ḳāṣid.

1682.—"I received letters by a Cossid from Mr. Johnson and Mr. Catchpoole, dated ye 18th instant from Muxoodavad, Bulchund's residence."—Hedges, Diary, Dec. 20th; [Hak. Soc. i. 58].

[1687.—"Haveing detained the Cossetts 4 or 5 Daies."—Ibid. ii. lxix.]

1690.—"Therefore December the 2d. in the evening, word was brought by the Broker to our President, of a Cosset's Arrival with Letters from Court to the Vacinavish, injoyning our immediate Release."—Ovington, 416.

1748.—"The Tappies [ḍâk runners] on the road to Ganjam being grown so exceedingly indolent that he has called them in, being convinced that our packets may be forwarded much faster by Cassids [mounted postmen^[93]]."—In Long, p. 3.

c. 1759.—"For the performance of this arduous ... duty, which required so much care and caution, intelligencers of talent, and Kasids or messengers, who from head to foot were eyes and ears ... were stationed in every quarter of the country."—H. of Hydur Naik, 126.

1803.—"I wish that you would open a communication by means of cossids with the officer commanding a detachment of British troops in the fort of Songhur."—Wellington, ii. 159.

COSSIMBAZAR, n.p. Properly Kāsimbāzār. A town no longer existing, which closely adjoined the city of Murshīdābād, but preceded the latter. It was the site of one of the most important factories of the East India Company in their mercantile days, and was indeed a chief centre of all foreign trade in Bengal during the 17th century. ["In 1658 the Company established a factory at Cossimbazaar, 'Castle Bazaar.'"—(Birdwood Rep. on Old Rec. 219.)] Fryer (1673) calls it Castle Buzzar (p. 38).

1665.—"That evening I arrived at Casen-Basar, where I was welcom'd by Menheir Arnold van Wachtendonk, Director of all Holland-Factories in Bengal."—Tavernier, E.T., ii. 56; [ed. Ball, i. 131. Bernier (E.T. p. 141; ed. Constable, 440) has Kassem-Bazar; in the map, p. 454, Kasembazar.]

1676.—"Kassembasar, a Village in the Kingdom of Bengala, sends abroad every year two and twenty thousand Bales of Silk; every Bale weighing a hunder'd pound."—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 126; [Ball, ed. ii. 2].

[1678.—"Cassumbazar." See quotation under DADNY.]

COSSYA, n.p. More properly Kāsia, but now officially Khāsi; in the language of the people themselves kī-Kāsī, the first syllable being a prefix denoting the plural. The name of a hill people of Mongoloïd character, occupying the mountains immediately north of Silhet in Eastern Bengal. Many circumstances in relation to this people are of high interest, such as their practice, down to our own day, of erecting rude stone monuments of the menhir and dolmen kind, their law of succession in the female line, &c. Shillong, the modern seat of administration of the Province of Assam, and lying midway between the proper valley of Assam and the plain of Silhet, both of which are comprehended in that government, is in the Kāsia country, at a height of 4,900 feet above the sea. The Kāsias seem to be the people encountered near Silhet by Ibn Batuta as mentioned in the quotation:

c. 1346.—"The people of these mountains resemble Turks (i.e. Tartars), and are very strong labourers, so that a slave of their race is worth several of another nation."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 216. [See KHASYA.]

1780.—"The first thing that struck my observation on entering the arena was the similarity of the dresses worn by the different tribes of Cusseahs or native Tartars, all dressed and armed agreeable to the custom of the country or mountain from whence they came."—Hon. R. Lindsay, in Lives of the Lindsays, iii. 182.

1789.—"We understand the Cossyahs who inhabit the hills to the north-westward of Sylhet, have committed some very daring acts of violence."—In Seton-Karr, ii. 218.

1790.—"Agreed and ordered, that the Trade of Sylhet ... be declared entirely free to all the natives ... under the following Regulations:—1st. That they shall not supply the Cossyahs or other Hill-people with Arms, Ammunition or other articles of Military store...."—In Seton-Karr, ii. 31.

COSTUS. (See PUTCHOCK.)

COT, s. A light bedstead. There is a little difficulty about the true origin of this word. It is universal as a sea-term, and in the South of India. In Northern India its place has been very generally taken by charpoy (q.v.), and cot, though well understood, is not in such prevalent European use as it formerly was, except as applied to barrack furniture, and among soldiers and their families. Words with this last characteristic have very frequently been introduced from the south. There are, however, both in north and south, vernacular words which may have led to the adoption of the term cot in their respective localities. In the north we have H. khāṭ and khaṭwā, both used in this sense, the latter also in Sanskrit; in the south, Tam. and Malayāl. kaṭṭil, a form adopted by the Portuguese. The quotations show, however, no Anglo-Indian use of the word in any form but cot.