C (continued 7)

The question of origin is perhaps further perplexed by the use of quatre as a Spanish term in the West Indies (see Tom Cringle below). A Spanish lady tells us that catre, or catre de tigera ("scissors-cot") is applied to a bedstead with X-trestles. Catre is also common Portuguese for a wooden bedstead, and is found as such in a dictionary of 1611. These forms, however, we shall hold to be of Indian origin; unless it can be shown that they are older in Spain and Portugal than the 16th century. The form quatre has a curious analogy (probably accidental) to chārpāī.

1553.—"The Camarij (Zamorin) who was at the end of a house, placed on a bedstead, which they call catle...."—De Barros, Dec. I. liv. iv. cap. viii.

1557.—"The king commanded his men to furnish a tent on that spot, where the interview was to take place, all carpeted inside with very rich tapestries, and fitted with a sofa (catle) covered over with a silken cloth."—Alboquerque, Hak. Soc. ii. 204.

1566.—"The king was set on a catel (the name of a kind of field bedstead) covered with a cloth of white silk and gold...."—Damian de Goës, Chron. del R. Dom Emanuel, 48.

1600.—"He retired to the hospital of the sick and poor, and there had his cell, the walls of which were of coarse palm-mats. Inside there was a little table, and on it a crucifix of the wood of St. Thomé, covered with a cloth, and a breviary. There was also a catre of coir, with a stone for pillow; and this completes the inventory of the furniture of that house."—Lucena, V. do P. F. Xavier, 199.

[1613.—"Here hired a catele and 4 men to have carried me to Agra."—Danvers, Letters, i. 277.

[1634.—"The better sort sleepe upon cots, or Beds two foot high, matted or done with girth-web."—Sir T. Herbert, Trav. 149. N.E.D.]

1648.—"Indian bedsteads or Cadels."—Van Twist, 64.

1673.—"... where did sit the King in State on a Cott or Bed."—Fryer, 18.

1678.—"Upon being thus abused the said Serjeant Waterhouse commanded the corporal Edward Short, to tie Savage down on his cot."—In Wheeler, i. 106.

1685.—"I hired 12 stout fellows ... to carry me as far as Lar in my cott (Palankeen fashion)...."—Hedges, Diary, July 29; [Hak. Soc. i. 203].

1688.—"In the East Indies, at Fort St. George, also Men take their Cotts or little Field-Beds and put them into the Yards, and go to sleep in the Air."—Dampier's Voyages, ii. Pt. iii.

1690.—"... the Cot or Bed that was by ...."—Ovington, 211.

1711.—In Canton Price Current: "Bamboo Cotts for Servants each ... 1 mace."—Lockyer, 150.

1768-71.—"We here found the body of the deceased, lying upon a kadel, or couch."—Stavorinus, E.T., i. 442.

1794.—"Notice is hereby given that sealed proposals will be received ... for supplying ... the different General Hospitals with clothing, cotts, and bedding."—In Seton-Karr, ii. 115.

1824.—"I found three of the party insisted upon accompanying me the first stage, and had despatched their camp-cots."—Seely, Ellora, ch. iii.

c. 1830.—"After being ... furnished with food and raiment, we retired to our quatres, a most primitive sort of couch, with a piece of canvas stretched over it."—Tom Cringle's Log, ed. 1863, p. 100.

1872.—"As Badan was too poor to have a khāt, that is, a wooden bedstead with tester frames and mosquito curtains."—Govinda Samanta, i. 140.

COTAMALUCO, n.p. The title by which the Portuguese called the kings of the Golconda Dynasty, founded, like the other Mahommedan kingdoms of S. India, on the breaking up of the Bāhmani kingdom of the Deccan. It was a corruption of Ḳuṭb-ul-Mulk, the designation of the founder, retained as the style of the dynasty by Mahommedans as well as Portuguese (see extract from Akbar-nāma under IDALCAN).

1543.—"When Idalcan heard this reply he was in great fear ... and by night made his escape with some in whom he trusted (very few they were), and fled in secret, leaving his family and his wives, and went to the territories of the Izam Maluco (see NIZAMALUCO), his neighbour and friend ... and made matrimonial ties with the Izam Maluco, marrying his daughter, on which they arranged together; and there also came into this concert the Madremaluco, and Cotamaluco, and the Verido, who are other great princes, marching with Izam Maluco, and connected with him by marriage."—Correa, iv. 313 seq.

1553.—"The Captains of the Kingdom of the Decan added to their proper names other honorary ones which they affected more, one calling himself Iniza Malmulco, which is as much as to say 'Spear of the State,' Cota Malmulco, i.e. 'Fortress of the State,' Adelchan, 'Lord of Justice'; and we, corrupting these names, call them Nizamaluco, Cotamaluco, and Hidalchan."—Barros, IV. iv. 16; [and see Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 172]. These same explanations are given by Garcia de Orta (Colloquios, f. 36v), but of course the two first are quite wrong. Iniza Malmulco, as Barros here writes it, is Ar. An-Niẓām ul Mulk, "The Administrator of the State," not from P. neza, "a spear." Cotamaluco is Ḳuṭb-ul-Mulk, Ar. "the Pivot (or Pole-star) of the State," not from H. koṭā, "a fort."

COTIA, s. A fast-sailing vessel, with two masts and lateen sails, employed on the Malabar coast. Koṭṭiya is used in Malayāl.; [the Madras Gloss. writes the word kotyeh, and says that it comes from Ceylon;] yet the word hardly appears to be Indian. Bluteau however appears to give it as such (iii. 590).

1552.—"Among the little islands of Goa he embarked on board his fleet, which consisted of about a dozen cotias, taking with him a good company of soldiers."—Castanheda, iii. 25. See also pp. 47, 48, 228, &c.

c. 1580.—"In the gulf of Naguná ... I saw some Cutiás."—Primor e Honra, &c., f. 73.

1602.—"... embarking his property on certain Cotias, which he kept for that purpose."—Couto, Dec. IV. liv. i. cap. viii.

COTTA, s. H. kaṭṭhā. A small land-measure in use in Bengal and Bahar, being the twentieth part of a Bengal bīghā (see BEEGAH), and containing eighty square yards.

[1767.—"The measurement of land in Bengal is thus estimated: 16 Gundas make 1 Cotta; 20 Cottas, 1 Bega, or about 16,000 square feet."—Verelst, View of Bengal, 221, note.]

1784.—"... An upper roomed House standing upon about 5 cottahs of ground...."—Seton-Karr, i. 34.

COTTON, s. We do not seem to be able to carry this familiar word further back than the Ar. ḳuṭn, ḳuṭun, or ḳuṭunn, having the same meaning, whence Prov. coton, Port. cotão, It. cotone, Germ. Kattun. The Sp. keeps the Ar. article, algodon, whence old Fr. auqueton and hoqueton, a coat quilted with cotton. It is only by an odd coincidence that Pliny adduces a like-sounding word in his account of the arbores lanigerae: "ferunt mali cotonei amplitudine cucurbitas, quae maturitate ruptae ostendunt lanuginis pilas, ex quibus vestes pretioso linteo faciunt"—xii. 10 (21). [On the use and cultivation of cotton in the ancient world, see the authorities collected by Frazer, Pausanias, iii. 470, seqq.]

[1830.—"The dress of the great is on the Persian model; it consists of a shirt of kuttaun (a kind of linen of a wide texture, the best of which is imported from Aleppo, and the common sort from Persia)...."—Elphinstone's Caubul, i. 351.]

COTTON-TREE, SILK. (See SEEMUL.)

COTWAL, CUTWAUL, s. A police-officer; superintendent of police; native town magistrate. P. kotwāl, 'a seneschal, a commandant of a castle or fort.' This looks as if it had been first taken from an Indian word, koṭwālā; [Skt. koṭha- or koshṭha pālā 'castle-porter']; but some doubt arises whether it may not have been a Turki term. In Turki it is written kotāul, kotāwal, and seems to be regarded by both Vambéry and Pavet de Courteille as a genuine Turki word. V. defines it as: "Ketaul, garde de forteresse, chef de la garnison; nom d'un tribu d'Ozbegs;" P. "kotāwal, kotāwāl, gardien d'une citadelle." There are many Turki words of analogous form, as ḳarāwal, 'a vidette,' baḳāwal, 'a table-steward,' yasāwal, 'a chamberlain,' tangāwal, 'a patrol,' &c. In modern Bokhara Kataul is a title conferred on a person who superintends the Amir's buildings (Khanikoff, 241). On the whole it seems probable that the title was originally Turki, but was shaped by Indian associations.

[The duties of the Kotwāl, as head of the police, are exhaustively laid down in the Āīn (Jarrett, ii. 41). Amongst other rules: "He shall amputate the hand of any who is the pot-companion of an executioner, and the finger of such as converse with his family."] The office of Kotwāl in Western and Southern India, technically speaking, ceased about 1862, when the new police system (under Act, India, V. of 1861, and corresponding local Acts) was introduced. In Bengal the term has been long obsolete. [It is still in use in the N.W.P. to designate the chief police officer of one of the larger cities or cantonments.]

c. 1040.—"Bu-Ali Kotwal (of Ghazni) returned from the Khilj expedition, having adjusted matters."—Baihaki, in Elliot, ii. 151.

1406-7.—"They fortified the city of Astarābād, where Abul Leïth was placed with the rank of Kotwal."—Abdurrazāk, in Not. et Extr. xiv. 123.

1553.—"The message of the Camorij arriving, Vasco da Gama landed with a dozen followers, and was received by a noble person whom they called Catual...."—Barros, Dec. I. liv. iv. ch. viii.

1572.—

By Burton:

also the plural:

1616.—Roe has Cutwall passim; [e.g. Hak. Soc. i. 90. &c.].

1727.—"Mr. Boucher being bred a Druggist in his youth, presently knew the Poison, and carried it to the Cautwaul or Sheriff, and showed it."—A. Hamilton, ii. 199. [In ed. 1744, ii. 199, cautwal].

1763.—"The Catwal is the judge and executor of justice in criminal cases."—Orme (ed. 1803), i. 26.

1812.—"... an officer retained from the former system, denominated cutwal, to whom the general police of the city and regulation of the market was entrusted."—Fifth Report, 44.

1847.—"The Kutwal ... seems to have done his duty resolutely and to the best of his judgment."—G. O. by Sir C. Napier, 121.

[1880.—"The son of the Raja's Kotwal was the prince's great friend."—Miss Stokes, Indian Fairy Tales, 209.]

COUNSILLEE, s. This is the title by which the natives in Calcutta generally designate English barristers. It is the same use as the Irish one of Counsellor, and a corruption of that word.

COUNTRY, adj. This term is used colloquially, and in trade, as an adjective to distinguish articles produced in India (generally with a sub-indication of disparagement), from such as are imported, and especially imported from Europe. Indeed Europe (q.v.) was, and still occasionally is, used as the contrary adjective. Thus, 'country harness' is opposed to 'Europe harness'; 'country-born' people are persons of European descent, but born in India; 'country horses' are Indian-bred in distinction from Arabs, Walers (q.v.), English horses, and even from 'stud-breds,' which are horses reared in India, but from foreign sires; 'country ships' are those which are owned in Indian ports, though often officered by Europeans; country bottled beer is beer imported from England in cask and bottled in India; ['country-wound' silk is that reeled in the crude native fashion]. The term, as well as the H. desī, of which country is a translation, is also especially used for things grown or made in India as substitutes for certain foreign articles. Thus the Cicca disticha in Bombay gardens is called 'Country gooseberry'; Convolvulus batatas, or sweet potato, is sometimes called the 'country potato.' It was, equally with our quotidian root which has stolen its name, a foreigner in India, but was introduced and familiarised at a much earlier date. Thus again desī bādām, or 'country almond,' is applied in Bengal to the nut of the Terminalia Catappa. On desī, which is applied, among other things, to silk, the great Ritter (dormitans Homerus) makes the odd remark that desī is just Seide reversed! But it would be equally apposite to remark that Trigon-ometry is just Country-ometry reversed!

Possibly the idiom may have been taken up from the Portuguese, who also use it, e.g. 'açafrao da terra,' 'country saffron,' i.e. safflower, otherwise called bastard saffron, the term being sometimes applied to turmeric. But the source of the idiom is general, as the use of desī shows. Moreover the Arabic baladī, having the same literal meaning, is applied in a manner strictly analogous, including the note of disparagement, insomuch that it has been naturalised in Spanish as indicating 'of little or no value.' Illustrations of the mercantile use of beledi (i.e. baladī) will be found in a note to Marco Polo, 2nd ed. ii. 370. For the Spanish use we may quote the Dict. of Cobarruvias (1611): "Baladi, the thing which is produced at less cost, and is of small duration and profit." (See also Dozy and Engelmann, 232 seq.)

1516.—"Beledyn ginger grows at a distance of two or three leagues all round the city of Calicut.... In Bengal there is also much ginger of the country (Gengivre Beledi)."—Barbosa, 221 seq.

[1530.—"I at once sent some of these country men (homeens valadis) to the Thanas."—Alboquerque, Cartas, p. 148.]

1582.—"The Nayres maye not take anye Countrie women, and they also doe not marrie."—Castañeda, (by N. L.), f. 36.

[1608.—"The Country here are at dissension among themselves."—Danvers, Letters, i. 20.]

1619.—"The twelfth in the morning Master Methwold came from Messalipatam in one of the Countrey Boats."—Pring, in Purchas, i. 638.

1685.—"The inhabitants of the Gentoo Town, all in arms, bringing with them also elephants, kettle-drums, and all the Country music."—Wheeler, i. 140.

1747.—"It is resolved and ordered that a Serjeant with two Troopers and a Party of Country Horse, to be sent to Markisnah Puram to patroll...."—Ft. St. David Council of War, Dec. 25. MS. Records in India Office.

1752.—"Captain Clive did not despair ... and at ten at night sent one Shawlum, a serjeant who spoke the country languages, with a few sepoys to reconnoitre."—Orme, i. 211 (ed. 1803).

1769.—"I supped last night at a Country Captain's; where I saw for the first time a specimen of the Indian taste."—Teignmouth, Mem. i. 15.

1775.—"The Moors in what is called Country ships in East India, have also their chearing songs; at work in hoisting, or in their boats a rowing."—Forrest, V. to N. Guinea, 305.

1793.—"The jolting springs of country-made carriages, or the grunts of country-made carriers, commonly called palankeen-boys."—Hugh Boyd, 146.

1809.—"The Rajah had a drawing of it made for me, on a scale, by a country Draftsman of great merit."—Ld. Valentia, i. 356.

" "... split country peas...."—Maria Graham, 25.

1817.—"Since the conquest (of Java) a very extensive trade has been carried on by the English in country ships."—Raffles, H. of Java, i. 210.

[1882.—"There was a country-born European living in a room in the bungalow."—Sanderson, Thirteen Years, 256.]

COUNTRY-CAPTAIN, s. This is in Bengal the name of a peculiar dry kind of curry, often served as a breakfast dish. We can only conjecture that it was a favourite dish at the table of the skippers of 'country ships,' who were themselves called 'country captains,' as in our first quotation. In Madras the term is applied to a spatchcock dressed with onions and curry stuff, which is probably the original form. [Riddell says: "Country-captain.—Cut a fowl in pieces; shred an onion small and fry it brown in butter; sprinkle the fowl with fine salt and curry powder and fry it brown; then put it into a stewpan with a pint of soup; stew it slowly down to a half and serve it with rice" (Ind. Dom. Econ. 176).]

1792.—"But now, Sir, a Country Captain is not to be known from an ordinary man, or a Christian, by any certain mark whatever."—Madras Courier, April 26.

c. 1825.—"The local name for their business was the 'Country Trade,' the ships were 'Country Ships,' and the masters of them 'Country Captains.' Some of my readers may recall a dish which was often placed before us when dining on board these vessels at Whampoa, viz. 'Country Captain.'—The Fankwae at Canton (1882), p. 33.

COURSE, s. The drive usually frequented by European gentlemen and ladies at an Indian station.

1853.—"It was curious to Oakfield to be back on the Ferozepore course, after a six months' interval, which seemed like years. How much had happened in these six months!"—Oakfield, ii. 124.

COURTALLUM, n.p. The name of a town in Tinnevelly [used as an European sanatorium (Stuart, Man. of Tinnevelly, 96)]; written in vernacular Kuttālam. We do not know its etymology. [The Madras Gloss. gives Trikūtāchala, Skt., the 'Three-peaked Mountain.']

COVENANTED SERVANTS. This term is specially applied to the regular Civil Service of India, whose members used to enter into a formal covenant with the East India Company, and do now with the Secretary of State for India. Many other classes of servants now go out to India under a variety of contracts and covenants, but the term in question continues to be appropriated as before. [See CIVILIAN.]

1757.—"There being a great scarcity of covenanted servants in Calcutta, we have entertained Mr. Hewitt as a monthly writer ... and beg to recommend him to be covenanted upon this Establishment."—Letter in Long, 112.

COVID, s. Formerly in use as the name of a measure, varying much locally in value, in European settlements not only in India but in China, &c. The word is a corruption, probably an Indo-Portuguese form, of the Port. covado, a cubit or ell.

[1612.—"A long covad within 1 inch of our English yard, wherewith they measure cloth, the short covad is for silks, and containeth just as the Portuguese covad."—Danvers, Letters, i. 241.

[1616.—"Clothes of gould: ... were worth 100 rupies a cobde."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. i. 203.

[1617.—Cloth "here affoorded at a rupie and two in a cobdee vnder ours."—Ibid. ii. 409.]

1672.—"Measures of Surat are only two; the Lesser and the Greater Coveld [probably misprint for Coveed], the former of 27 inches English, the latter of 36 inches English."—Fryer, 206.

1720.—"Item. I leave 200 pagodas for a tomb to be erected in the burial place in form as follows. Four large pillars, each to be six covids high, and six covids distance one from the other; the top to be arched, and on each pillar a cherubim; and on the top of the arch the effigy of Justice."—Testament of Charles Davers, Merchant, in Wheeler, ii. 338.

[1726.—"Cobidos." See quotation under LOONGHEE.]

c. 1760.—According to Grose the covid at Surat was 1 yard English [the greater coveed of Fryer], at Madras ½ a yard; but he says also: "At Bengal the same as at Surat and Madras."

1794.—"To be sold, on very reasonable terms, About 3000 covits of 2-inch Calicut Planks."—Bombay Courier, July 19.

The measure has long been forgotten under this name in Bengal, though used under the native name hāth. From Milburn (i. 334, 341, &c.) it seems to have survived on the West Coast in the early part of last century, and possibly may still linger.

[1612.—"½ corge of pintados of 4 hastas the piece."—Danvers, Letters, i. 232.]

COVIL, s. Tam. kō-v-il, 'God-house,' a Hindu temple; and also (in Malabar) a palace, [also in the form Colghum, for Kovilagam]. In colloquial use in S. India and Ceylon. In S. India it is used, especially among the French, for 'a church'; also among the uneducated English.

[1796.—"I promise to use my utmost endeavours to procure for this Raja the colghum of Pychi for his residence...."—Treaty, in Logan, Malabar, iii. 254.]

COWCOLLY, n.p. The name of a well-known lighthouse and landmark at the entrance of the Hoogly, in Midnapur District. Properly, according to Hunter, Geonkhālī. In Thornton's English Pilot (pt. iii. p. 7, of 1711) this place is called Cockoly.

COW-ITCH, s. The irritating hairs on the pod of the common Indian climbing herb Mucuna pruriens, D.C., N. O. Leguminosae, and the plant itself. Both pods and roots are used in native practice. The name is doubtless the Hind. kewānch (Skt. kapi-kachchhu), modified in Hobson-Jobson fashion, by the 'striving after meaning.'

[1773.—"Cow-itch. This is the down found on the outside of a pod, which is about the size and thickness of a man's little finger, and of the shape of an Italian S."—Ives, 494.]

COWLE, s. A lease, or grant in writing; a safe-conduct, amnesty, or in fact any written engagement. The Emperor Sigismund gave Cowle to John Huss—and broke it. The word is Ar. ḳaul, 'word, promise, agreement,' and it has become technical in the Indian vernaculars, owing to the prevalence of Mahommedan Law.

[1611.—"We desired to have a cowl of the Shahbunder to send some persons aland."—Danvers, Letters, i. 133.

[1613.—"Procured a cowl for such ships as should come."—Foster, Letters, ii. 17.]

1680.—"A Cowle granted by the Right Worshipful Streynsham Master, Esq., Agent and Governour for affairs of the Honorable East India Company in ffort St. George at Chinapatnam, by and with the advice of his Councell to all the Pegu Ruby Marchants...."—Fort St. George Cons. Feb. 23, in Notes and Extracts, No. iii. p. 10.

1688.—"The President has by private correspondence procured a Cowle for renting the Town and customs of S. Thomé."—Wheeler, i. 176.

1758.—"The Nawaub ... having mounted some large guns on that hill ... sent to the Killadar a Kowl-nama, or a summons and terms for his surrender."—H. of Hydur Naik, 123.

1780.—"This Caoul was confirmed by another King of Gingy ... of the Bramin Caste."—Dunn, New Directory, 140.

Sir A. Wellesley often uses the word in his Indian letters. Thus:

1800.—"One tandah of brinjarries ... has sent to me for cowle...."—Wellington Desp. (ed. 1837), i. 59.

1804.—"On my arrival in the neighbourhood of the pettah I offered cowle to the inhabitants."—Ibid. ii. 193.

COWRY, s. Hind. kauṛī (kauḍī), Mahr. kavaḍī, Skt. kaparda, kapardika. The small white shell, Cypraea moneta, current as money extensively in parts of S. Asia and of Africa.

By far the most ancient mention of shell currency comes from Chinese literature. It is mentioned in the famous "Tribute of Yü" (or Yü-Kung); in the Shu-King (about the 14th cent. B.C.); and in the "Book of Poetry" (Shi-King), in an ode of the 10th cent. B.C. The Chinese seem to have adopted the use from the aborigines in the East and South; and they extended the system to tortoise-shell, and to other shells, the cowry remaining the unit. In 338 B.C., the King of Tsin, the supply of shells failing, suppressed the cowry currency, and issued copper coin, already adopted in other States of China. The usurper Wang Mang, who ruled A.D. 9-23, tried to revive the old systems, and issued rules instituting, in addition to the metallic money, ten classes of tortoise-shell and five of smaller shells, the value of all based on the cowry, which was worth 3 cash.^[94] [Cowries were part of the tribute paid by the aborigines of Puanit to Metesouphis I. (Maspero, Dawn of Civ., p. 427).]

The currency of cowries in India does not seem to be alluded to by any Greek or Latin author. It is mentioned by Maṣ'ūdī (c. 943), and their use for small change in the Indo-Chinese countries is repeatedly spoken of by Marco Polo, who calls them pourcelaines, the name by which this kind of shell was known in Italy (porcellane) and France. When the Mahommedans conquered Bengal, early in the 13th century, they found the ordinary currency composed exclusively of cowries, and in some remote districts this continued to the beginning of the last century. Thus, up to 1801, the whole revenue of the Silhet District, amounting then to Rs. 250,000, was collected in these shells, but by 1813 the whole was realised in specie. Interesting details in connection with this subject are given by the Hon. Robert Lindsay, who was one of the early Collectors of Silhet (Lives of the Lindsays, iii. 170).

The Sanskrit vocabulary called Trikāṇḍaśesha (iii. 3, 206) makes 20 kapardika (or kauṛīs) = ¼ paṇa; and this value seems to have been pretty constant. The cowry table given by Mr. Lindsay at Silhet, circa 1778, exactly agrees with that given by Milburn as in Calcutta use in the beginning of last century, and up to 1854 or thereabouts it continued to be the same:

This gives about 5120 cowries to the Rupee. We have not met with any denomination of currency in actual use below the cowry, but it will be seen that, in a quotation from Mrs. Parkes, two such are indicated. It is, however, Hindu idiosyncracy to indulge in imaginary submultiples as well as imaginary multiples. (See a parallel under LACK).

In Bastar, a secluded inland State between Orissa and the Godavery, in 1870, the following was the prevailing table of cowry currency, according to Sir W. Hunter's Gazetteer:

Here we may remark that both the paṇ in Bengal, and the dugānī in this secluded Bastar, were originally the names of pieces of money, though now in the respective localities they represent only certain quantities of cowries. (For paṇ, see under FANAM; and as regards dugānī, see Thomas's Patan Kings of Delhī, pp. 218 seq.). ["Up to 1865 bee-a or cowries were in use in Siam; the value of these was so small that from 800 to 1500 went to a fuang (7½ cents.)."—Hallett, A Thousand Miles on an Elephant, p. 164. Mr. Gray has an interesting note on cowries in his ed. of Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 236 seqq.]

Cowries were at one time imported into England in considerable quantities for use in the African slave-trade. "For this purpose," says Milburn, "they should be small, clean, and white, with a beautiful gloss" (i. 273). The duty on this importation was £53, 16s. 3d. per cent. on the sale value, with ⅓ added for war-tax. In 1803, 1418 cwt. were sold at the E. I. auctions, fetching £3,626; but after that few were sold at all. In the height of slave-trade, the great mart for cowries was at Amsterdam, where there were spacious warehouses for them (see the Voyage, &c., quoted 1747).

c. A.D. 943.—"Trading affairs are carried on with cowries (al-wada'), which are the money of the country."—Maṣ'ūdī, i. 385.

c. 1020.—"These isles are divided into two classes, according to the nature of their chief products. The one are called Dewa-Kauḍha, 'the Isles of the Cowries,' because of the Cowries that they collect on the branches of coco-trees planted in the sea."—Albirūnī, in J. As., Ser. IV. tom. iv. 266.

c. 1240.—"It has been narrated on this wise that as in that country (Bengal), the kauṛi [shell] is current in place of silver, the least gift he used to bestow was a lak of kauṛis. The Almighty mitigate his punishment [in hell]!"—Ṭabaḳāt-i-Nāṣiri, by Raverty, 555 seq.

c. 1350.—"The money of the Islanders (of the Maldives) consists of cowries (al-wada'). They so style creatures which they collect in the sea, and bury in holes dug on the shore. The flesh wastes away, and only a white shell remains. 100 of these shells are called siyāh, and 700 fāl; 12,000 they call kutta; and 100,000 bustū. Bargains are made with these cowries at the rate of 4 bustū for a gold dīnār. [This would be about 40,000 for a rupee.] Sometimes the rate falls, and 12 bustū are exchanged for a gold dīnār. The islanders barter them to the people of Bengal for rice, for they also form the currency in use in that country.... These cowries serve also for barter with the negroes in their own land. I have seen them sold at Mālī and Gūgū [on the Niger] at the rate of 1150 for a gold dīnār."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 122.

c. 1420.—"A man on whom I could rely assured me that he saw the people of one of the chief towns of the Said employ as currency, in the purchase of low-priced articles of provision, kaudas, which in Egypt are known as wada, just as people in Egypt use fals."—Makrizi, S. de Sacy, Chrest. Arabe, 2nd ed. i. 252.

[1510.—Mr. Whiteway writes: "In an abstract of an unpublished letter of Alboquerque which was written about 1510, and abstracted in the following year, occurs this sentence:—'The merchandize which they carry from Cairo consists of snails (caracoes) of the Twelve Thousand Islands.' He is speaking of the internal caravan-trade of Africa, and these snails must be cowries."]

1554.—At the Maldives: "Cowries 12,000 make one cota; and 4½ cotas of average size weigh one quintal; the big ones something more."—A. Nunes, 35.

" "In these isles ... are certain white little shells which they call cauris."—Castanheda, iv. 7.

1561.—"Which vessels (Gundras, or palm-wood boats from the Maldives) come loaded with coir and caury, which are certain little white shells found among the Islands in such abundance that whole vessels are laden with them, and which make a great trade in Bengala, where they are current as money."—Correa, I. i. 341.

1586.—"In Bengal are current those little shells that are found in the islands of Maldiva, called here courim, and in Portugal Buzio."—Sassetti, in De Gubernatis, 205.

[c. 1590.—"Four kos from this is a well, into which if the bone of any animal be thrown it petrifies, like a cowrie shell, only smaller."—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, ii. 229.]

c. 1610.—"Les marchandises qu'ils portent le plus souvent sont ces petites coquilles des Maldives, dont ils chargent tous les ans grand nombre de nauires. Ceux des Maldives les appellent Boly, et les autres Indiens Caury."—Pyrard de Laval, i. 517; see also p. 165; [Hak. Soc. i. 438; also comp. i. 78, 157, 228, 236, 240, 250, 299; Boly is Singh. bella, a cowry].

c. 1664.—"... lastly, it (Indostan) wants those little Sea-cockles of the Maldives, which serve for common Coyne in Bengale, and in some other places...."—Bernier, E.T. 63; [ed. Constable, 204].

[c. 1665.—"The other small money consists of shells called Cowries, which have the edges inverted, and they are not found in any other part of the world save only the Maldive Islands.... Close to the sea they give up to 80 for the paisa, and that diminishes as you leave the sea, on account of carriage; so that at Agra you receive but 50 or 55 for the paisa."—Tavernier, ed. Ball, i. 27 seq.]

1672.—"Cowreys, like sea-shells, come from Siam, and the Philippine Islands."—Fryer, 86.

1683.—"The Ship Britannia—from the Maldiva Islands, arrived before the Factory ... at their first going ashore, their first salutation from the natives was a shower of Stones and Arrows, whereby 6 of their Men were wounded, which made them immediately return on board, and by ye mouths of their Guns forced them to a complyance, and permission to load what Cowries they would at Markett Price; so that in a few days time they sett sayle from thence for Surrat with above 60 Tunn of Cowryes."—Hedges, Diary, July 1; [Hak. Soc. i. 96].

1705.—"... Coris, qui sont des petits coquillages."—Luillier, 245.

1727.—"The Couries are caught by putting Branches of Cocoa-nut trees with their Leaves on, into the Sea, and in five or six Months the little Shell-fish stick to those leaves in Clusters, which they take off, and digging Pits in the Sand, put them in and cover them up, and leave them two or three Years in the Pit, that the Fish may putrefy, and then they take them out of the Pit, and barter them for Rice, Butter, and Cloth, which Shipping bring from Ballasore in Orisa near Bengal, in which Countries Couries pass for Money from 2500 to 3000 for a Rupee, or half a Crown English."—A. Hamilton [ed. 1744], i. 349.

1747.—"Formerly 12,000 weight of these cowries would purchase a cargo of five or six hundred Negroes: but those lucrative times are now no more; and the Negroes now set such a value on their countrymen, that there is no such thing as having a cargo under 12 or 14 tuns of cowries.

"As payments of this kind of specie are attended with some intricacy, the Negroes, though so simple as to sell one another for shells, have contrived a kind of copper vessel, holding exactly 108 pounds, which is a great dispatch to business."—A Voyage to the Id. of Ceylon on board a Dutch Indiaman in the year 1747, &c. &c. Written by a Dutch Gentleman. Transl. &c. London, 1754, pp. 21 seq.

1749.—"The only Trade they deal in is Cowries (or Blackamoor's Teeth as they call them in England), the King's sole Property, which the sea throws up in great abundance."—The Boscawen's Voyage to Bombay, by Philalethes (1750), p. 52.

1753.—"Our Hon'ble Masters having expressly directed ten tons of couries to be laden in each of their ships homeward bound, we ordered the Secretary to prepare a protest against Captain Cooke for refusing to take any on board the Admiral Vernon."—In Long, 41.

1762.—"The trade of the salt and butty wood in the Chucla of Sillett, has for a long time been granted to me, in consideration of which I pay a yearly rent of 40,000 caouns^[95] of cowries...."—Native Letter to Nabob, in Van Sittart, i. 203.

1770.—"... millions of millions of lires, pounds, rupees, and cowries."—H. Walpole's Letters, v. 421.

1780.—"We are informed that a Copper Coinage is now on the Carpet ... it will be of the greatest utility to the Public, and will totally abolish the trade of Cowries, which for a long time has formed so extensive a field for deception and fraud. A greviance (sic) the poor has long groan'd under."—Hicky's Bengal Gazette, April 29.

1786.—In a Calcutta Gazette the rates of payment at Pultah Ferry are stated in Rupees, Annas, Puns, and Gundas (i.e. of Cowries, see above).—In Seton-Karr, i. 140.

1791.—"Notice is hereby given, that on or before the 1st November next, sealed proposals of Contract for the remittance in Dacca of the cowries received on account of the Revenues of Sylhet ... will be received at the Office of the Secretary to the Board of Revenue.... All persons who may deliver in proposals, are desired to specify the rates per cowan or cowans of cowries (see kāhan above) at which they will engage to make the remittance proposed."—In Seton-Karr, ii. 53.

1803.—"I will continue to pay, without demur, to the said Government, as my annual peshkush or tribute, 12,000 kahuns of cowries in three instalments, as specified herein below."—Treaty Engagement by the Rajah of Kitta Keonghur, a Tributary subordinate to Cuttack, 16th December, 1803.

1833.—"May 1st. Notice was given in the Supreme Court that Messrs. Gould and Campbell would pay a dividend at the rate of nine gundahs, one cowrie, one cawg, and eighteen teel, in every sicca rupee, on and after the 1st of June. A curious dividend, not quite a farthing in the rupee!"^[96]—The Pilgrim (by Fanny Parkes), i. 273.

c. 1865.—"Strip him stark naked, and cast him upon a desert island, and he would manage to play heads and tails for cowries with the sea-gulls, if land-gulls were not to be found."—Zelda's Fortune, ch. iv.

1883.—"Johnnie found a lovely cowrie two inches long, like mottled tortoise-shell, walking on a rock, with its red fleshy body covering half its shell, like a jacket trimmed with chenille fringe."—Letter (of Miss North's) from Seychelle Islands, in Pall Mall Gazette, Jan. 21, 1884.

COWRY, s. Used in S. India for the yoke to carry burdens, the Bangy (q.v.) of N. India. In Tamil, &c., kāvaḍi, [kāvu, 'to carry on the shoulder,' tadi, 'pole'].

[1853.—"Cowrie baskets ... a circular ratan basket, with a conical top, covered with green oil-cloth, and secured by a brass padlock."—Campbell, Old Forest Ranger, 3rd ed. 178.]

COWTAILS, s. The name formerly in ordinary use for what we now more euphoniously call chowries (q.v.).

c. 1664.—"These Elephants have then also ... certain Cow-tails of the great Tibet, white and very dear, hanging at their Ears like great Mustachoes...."—Bernier, E.T., 84; [ed. Constable, 261].

1665.—"Now that this King of the Great Tibet knows, that Aureng-Zebe is at Kachemire, and threatens him with War, he hath sent to him an Ambassador, with Presents of the Countrey, as Chrystal, and those dear White Cow-tails...."—Ibid. 135; [ed. Constable, 422].

1774.—"To send one or more pair of the cattle which bear what are called cowtails."—Warren Hastings, Instruction to Bogle, in Markham's Tibet, 8.

" "There are plenty of cowtailed cows (!), but the weather is too hot for them to go to Bengal."—Bogle, ibid. 52. 'Cowtailed cows' seem analogous to the 'dismounted mounted infantry' of whom we have recently heard in the Suakin campaign.

1784.—In a 'List of Imports probable from Tibet,' we find "Cow Tails."—In Seton-Karr, i. 4.

" "From the northern mountains are imported a number of articles of commerce.... The principal ... are ... musk, cowtails, honey...."—Gladwin's Ayeen Akbery (ed. 1800) ii. 17; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 172].

CRAN, s. Pers. krān. A modern Persian silver coin, worth about a franc, being the tenth part of a Tomaun.

1880.—"A couple of mules came clattering into the courtyard, driven by one muleteer. Each mule carried 2 heavy sacks ... which jingled pleasantly as they were placed on the ground. The sacks were afterwards opened in my presence, and contained no less than 35,000 silver krans. The one muleteer without guard had brought them across the mountains, 170 miles or so, from Tehran."—MS. Letter from Col. Bateman-Champain, R.E.

[1891.—"I on my arrival took my servants' accounts in tomauns and kerans, afterwards in kerans and shaies, and at last in kerans and puls."—Wills, Land of the Lion, 63.]

CRANCHEE, s. Beng. H. karānchī. This appears peculiar to Calcutta, [but the word is also used in N. India]. A kind of ricketty and sordid carriage resembling, as Bp. Heber says below, the skeleton of an old English hackney-coach of 1800-35 (which no doubt was the model), drawn by wretched ponies, harnessed with rope, and standing for native hire in various parts of the city.

1823.—"... a considerable number of 'caranchies,' or native carriages, each drawn by two horses, and looking like the skeletons of hackney coaches in our own country."—Heber, i. 28 (ed. 1844).

1834.—"As Lady Wroughton guided her horse through the crowd to the right, a kuranchy, or hackney-coach, suddenly passed her at full speed."—The Baboo, i. 228.

CRANGANORE, n.p. Properly (according to Dr. Gundert), Koḍuṅrīlūr, more generally Koduṅgalūr; [the Madras Gloss. gives Mal. Kotannallūr, kota, 'west,' kovil, 'palace,' ūr, 'village']. An ancient city and port of Malabar, identical with the Mūyiri-kkoḍu of an ancient copper-plate inscription,^[97] with the Μουζιρὶς of Ptolemy's Tables and the Periplus, and with the Muziris primum emporium Indiae of Pliny (Bk. vi. cap. 23 or 26) [see Logan, Malabar, i. 80]. "The traditions of Jews, Christians, Brahmans, and of the Kérala Ulpatti (legendary History of Malabar) agree in making Kodungalūr the residence of the Perumāls (ancient sovereigns of Malabar), and the first resort of Western shipping" (Dr. Gundert in Madras Journal, vol. xiii. p. 120). It was apparently the earliest settlement of Jew and Christian immigrants. It is prominent in all the earlier narratives of the 16th century, especially in connection with the Malabar Christians; and it was the site of one of the seven churches alleged in the legends of the latter to have been founded by St. Thomas.^[98] Cranganor was already in decay when the Portuguese arrived. They eventually established themselves there with a strong fort (1523), which the Dutch took from them in 1662. This fort was dismantled by Tippoo's troops in 1790, and there is now hardly a trace left of it. In Baldaeus (Malabar und Coromandel, p. 109, Germ. ed.) there are several good views of Cranganore as it stood in the 17th century. [See SHINKALI.]

c. 774. A.D.—"We have given as eternal possession to Iravi Corttan, the lord of the town, the brokerage and due customs ... namely within the river-mouth of Codangalur."—Copper Charter, see Madr. Journ. xiii. And for the date of the inscription, Burnell, in Ind. Antiq. iii. 315.

(Before 1500, see as in above quotation, p. 334.).—"I Erveh Barmen ... sitting this day in Canganúr...." (Madras Journal, xiii. pt. ii. p. 12). This is from an old Hebrew translation of the 8th century copper-grant to the Jews, in which the Tamil has "The king ... Sri Bhaskara Ravi Varman ... on the day when he was pleased to sit in Muyiri-kódu...."—thus identifying Muyiri or Muziris with Cranganore, an identification afterwards verified by tradition ascertained on the spot by Dr. Burnell.

1498.—"Quorongoliz belongs to the Christians, and the king is a Christian; it is 3 days distant from Calecut by sea with fair wind; this king could muster 4,000 fighting men; here is much pepper...."—Roteiro de Vasco da Gama, 108.

1503.—"Nostra autem regio in qua Christiani commorantur Malabar appellatur, habetque xx circiter urbes, quarum tres celebres sunt et firmæ, Carongoly, Palor, et Colom, et aliæ illis proximæ sunt."—Letter of Nestorian Bishops on mission to India, in Assemani, iii. 594.

1516.—"... a place called Crongolor, belonging to the King of Calicut ... there live in it Gentiles, Moors, Indians, and Jews, and Christians of the doctrine of St. Thomas."—Barbosa, 154.

c. 1535.—"Crancanor fu antichamente honorata, e buon porto, tien molte genti ... la città e grande, ed honorata con grã traffico, auãti che si facesse Cochin, cõ la venuta di Portoghesi, nobile."—Sommario de' Regni, &c. Ramusio, i. f. 332v.

1554.—"Item ... paid for the maintenance of the boys in the College, which is kept in Cranguanor, by charter of the King our Lord, annually 100 000 reis...."—S. Botelho, Tombo, &c., 27.

c. 1570.—"... prior to the introduction of Islamism into this country, a party of Jews and Christians had found their way to a city of Malabar called Cadungaloor."—Tohfat-ul-Mujahideen, 47.

1572.—

1614.—"The Great Samorine's Deputy came aboord ... and ... earnestly persuaded vs to stay a day or two, till he might send to the Samorine, then at Crangelor, besieging a Castle of the Portugals."—Peyton, in Purchas, i. 531.

c. 1806.—"In like manner the Jews of Kranghír (Cranganore), observing the weakness of the Sámuri ... made a great many Mahomedans drink the cup of martyrdom...."—Muhabbat Khán (writing of events in 16th century), in Elliot, viii. 388.

CRANNY, s. In Bengal commonly used for a clerk writing English, and thence vulgarly applied generically to the East Indians, or half-caste class, from among whom English copyists are chiefly recruited. The original is Hind. karānī, kirānī, which Wilson derives from Skt. karan, 'a doer.' Karaṇa is also the name of one of the (so-called) mixt castes of the Hindus, sprung from a Sudra mother and Vaisya father, or (according to some) from a pure Kshatriya mother by a father of degraded Kshatriya origin. The occupation of the members of this mixt caste is that of writers and accountants; [see Risley, Tribes and Castes of Bengal, i. 424 seqq.].

The word was probably at one time applied by natives to the junior members of the Covenanted Civil Service—"Writers," as they were designated. See the quotations from the "Seir Mutaqherin" and from Hugh Boyd. And in our own remembrance the "Writers' Buildings" in Calcutta, where those young gentlemen were at one time quartered (a range of apartments which has now been transfigured into a splendid series of public offices, but, wisely, has been kept to its old name), was known to the natives as Karānī kī Bārik.

c. 1350.—"They have the custom that when a ship arrives from India or elsewhere, the slaves of the Sultan ... carry with them complete suits ... for the Rabban or skipper, and for the kirānī, who is the ship's clerk."—Ibn Batuta, ii. 198.

" "The second day after our arrival at the port of Kailūkari, the princess escorted the nakhodāh (or skipper), the kirānī, or clerk...."—Ibid. iv. 250.

c. 1590.—"The Karrání is a writer who keeps the accounts of the ship, and serves out the water to the passengers."—Āīn (Blochmann), i. 280.

c. 1610.—"Le Secretaire s'apelle carans...."—Pyrard de Laval, i. 152; [Hak. Soc. i. 214].

[1611.—"Doubt you not but it is too true, howsoever the Cranny flatters you with better hopes."—Danvers, Letters, i. 117, and see also i. 190.

[1684.—"Ye Noceda and Cranee."—Pringle, Diary of Ft. St. George, iii. 111.]

c. 1781.—"The gentlemen likewise, other than the Military, who are in high offices and employments, have amongst themselves degrees of service and work, which have not come minutely to my knowledge; but the whole of them collectively are called Carranis."—Seir Mutaqherin, ii. 543.

1793.—"But, as Gay has it, example gains where precept fails. As an encouragement therefore to my brother crannies, I will offer an instance or two, which are remembered as good Company's jokes."—Hugh Boyd, The Indian Observer, 42.

1810.—"The Cranny, or clerk, may be either a native Armenian, a native Portuguese, or a Bengallee."—Williamson, V. M. i. 209.

1834.—"Nazir, see bail taken for 2000 rupees. The Crany will write your evidence, Captain Forrester."—The Baboo, i. 311.

It is curious to find this word explained by an old French writer, in almost the modern application to East Indians. This shows that the word was used at Goa in something of its Hindu sense of one of mixt blood.

1653.—"Les karanes sont engendrez d'vn Mestis, et d'vne Indienne, lesquels sont oliaustres. Ce mot de Karanes vient a mon advis de Kara, qui signifie en Turq la terre, ou bien la couleur noire, comme si l'on vouloit dire par karanes les enfans du païs, ou bien les noirs: ils ont les mesmes aduantages dans leur professions que les autres Mestis."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 226. Compare in M. Polo, Bk. I., ch. 18, his statement about the Caraonas, and note thereon.

CRAPE, s. This is no Oriental word, though crape comes from China. It is the French crêpe, i.e. crespe, Lat. crispus, meaning frizzed or minutely curled. As the word is given in a 16th century quotation by Littré, it is probable that the name was first applied to a European texture. [Its use in English dates from 1633, according to the N.E.D.]

CREASE, CRIS, &c., s. A kind of dagger, which is the characteristic weapon of the Malay nations; from the Javanese name of the weapon, adopted in Malay, krīs, kirīs, or kres (see Favre, Dict. Javanais-Français, 137b, Crawfurd's Malay Dict. s.v., Jansz, Javaansch-Nederl. Woordenboek, 202). The word has been generalised, and is often applied to analogous weapons of other nations, as 'an Arab crease,' &c. It seems probable that the H. word kirich, applied to a straight sword, and now almost specifically to a sword of European make, is identical with the Malay word krīs. See the form of the latter word in Barbosa, almost exactly kirich. Perhaps Turki kīlīch is the original. [Platts gives Skt. kṛiti, 'a sort of knife or dagger.'] If Reinaud is right in his translation of the Arab Relations of the 9th and 10th centuries, in correcting a reading, otherwise unintelligible, to khrī, we shall have a very early adoption of this word by Western travellers. It occurs, however, in a passage relating to Ceylon.

c. 910.—"Formerly it was common enough to see in this island a man of the country walk into the market grasping in his hand a khrī, i.e. a dagger peculiar to the country, of admirable make, and sharpened to the finest edge. The man would lay hands on the wealthiest of the merchants that he found, take him by the throat, brandish his dagger before his eyes, and finally drag him outside of the town...."—Relation, &c., par Reinaud, p. 156; and see Arabic text, p. 120, near bottom.

It is curious to find the cris adopted by Alboquerque as a piece of state costume. When he received the ambassadors of Sheikh Ismael, i.e. the Shāh of Persia, Ismael Sūfī, at Ormuz, we read:

1515.—"For their reception there was prepared a dais of three steps ... which was covered with carpets, and the Governor seated thereon in a decorated chair, arrayed in a tunic and surcoat of black damask, with his collar, and his golden cris, as I described before, and with his big, long snow-white beard; and at the back of the dais the captains and gentlemen, handsomely attired, with their swords girt, and behind them their pages with lances and targets, and all uncovered."—Correa, ii. 423.

The portrait of Alboquerque in the 1st vol. of Mr. Birch's Translation of the Commentaries, realises the snow-white beard, tunic, and black surcoat, but the cris is missing. [The Malay Creese is referred to in iii. 85.]

1516.—"They are girt with belts, and carry daggers in their waists, wrought with rich inlaid work, these they call querix."—Barbosa, 193.

1552.—"And the quartermaster ran up to the top, and thence beheld the son of Timuta raja to be standing over the Captain Major with a cris half drawn."—Castanheda, ii. 363.

1572.—

By Burton:

1580.—A vocabulary of "Wordes of the naturall language of Iaua" in the voyage of Sir Fr. Drake, has Cricke, 'a dagger.'—Hakl. iv. 246.

[1584.—"Crise." See quotation under A MUCK.]

1586-88.—"The custom is that whenever the King (of Java) doth die ... the wives of the said King ... every one with a dagger in her hand (which dagger they call a crese, and is as sharp as a razor) stab themselves to the heart."—Cavendish, in Hakl. iv. 337.

1591.—"Furthermore I enjoin and order in the name of our said Lord ... that no servant go armed whether it be with staves or daggers, or crisses."—Procl. of Viceroy Mathias d'Alboquerque in Archiv. Port. Oriental, fasc. 3, p. 325.

1598.—"In the Western part of the Island (Sumatra) is Manancabo where they make Poinyards, which in India are called Cryses, which are very well accounted and esteemed of."—Linschoten, 33; [with some slight differences of reading, Hak. Soc. i. 110].

1602.—"... Chinesische Dolchen, so sie Cris nennen."—Hulsius, i. 33.

c. 1610.—"Ceux-là ont d'ordinaire à leur costé vn poignard ondé qui s'apelle cris, et qui vient d'Achen en Sumatra, de Iaua, et de la Chine."—Pyrard de Laval, i. 121; [Hak. Soc. i. 164]; also see ii. 101; [ii. 162, 170].

1634.—"Malayos crises, Arabes alfanges."—Malaca Conquistada, ix. 32.

1686.—"The Cresset is a small thing like a Baggonet which they always wear in War or Peace, at Work or Play, from the greatest of them to the poorest or meanest person."—Dampier, i. 337.

1690.—"And as the Japanners ... rip up their Bowels with a Cric...."—Ovington, 173.

1727.—"A Page of twelve Years of Age ... (said) that he would shew him the Way to die, and with that he took a Cress, and ran himself through the body."—A. Hamilton, ii. 99; [ed. 1744, ii. 98].

1770.—"The people never go without a poniard which they call cris."—Raynal (tr. 1777), i. 97.

c. 1850-60.—"They (the English) chew hashish, cut themselves with poisoned creases ... taste every poison, buy every secret."—Emerson, English Traits [ed. 1866, ii. 59].

The Portuguese also formed a word crisada, a blow with a cris (see Castanheda, iii. 379). And in English we find a verb to 'crease'; see in Purchas, i. 532, and this:

1604.—"This Boyhog we tortured not, because of his confession, but crysed him."—Scot's Discourse of Iava, in Purchas, i. 175.

[1704.—"At which our people ... were most of them creezed."—Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. cccxxxvii.]

Also in Braddel's Abstract of the Sijara Malayu:

"He was in consequence creased at the shop of a sweetmeat seller, his blood flowed on the ground, but his body disappeared miraculously."—Sijara Malayu, in J. Ind. Arch. v. 318.

CREDERE, DEL. An old mercantile term.

1813.—"Del credere, or guaranteeing the responsibility of persons to whom goods were sold—commission ¾ per cent."—Milburn, i. 235.

CREOLE, s. This word is never used by the English in India, though the mistake is sometimes made in England of supposing it to be an Anglo-Indian term. The original, so far as we can learn, is Span. criollo, a word of uncertain etymology, whence the French créole, a person of European blood but colonial birth. See Skeat, who concludes that criollo is a negro corruption of criadillo, dim. of criado, and is = 'little nursling.' Criados, criadas, according to Pyrard de Laval, [Hak. Soc. ii. 89 seq.] were used at Goa for male and female servants. And see the passage quoted under NEELAM from Correa, where the words 'apparel and servants' are in the original 'todo o fato e criados.'

1782.—"Mr. Macintosh being the son of a Scotch Planter by a French Creole, of one of the West India Islands, is as swarthy and ill-looking a man as is to be seen on the Portugueze Walk on the Royal Exchange."—Price's Observations, &c. in Price's Tracts, i. 9.

CROCODILE, s. This word is seldom used in India; alligator (q.v.) being the term almost invariably employed.

c. 1328.—"There be also coquodriles, which are vulgarly called calcatix [Lat. calcatrix, 'a cockatrice'].... These animals be like lizards, and have a tail stretched over all like unto a lizard's," &c.—Friar Jordanus, p. 19.

1590.—"One Crocodile was so huge and greedy that he devoured an Alibamba, that is a chained company of eight or nine slaves; but the indigestible Iron paid him his wages, and murthered the murtherer."—Andrew Battel (West Africa), in Purchas, ii. 985.

[1870.—"... I have been compelled to amputate the limbs of persons seized by crocodiles (Mugger).... The Alligator (gharial) sometimes devours children...."—Chevers, Med. Jurispr. in India, 366 seq.].

CRORE, s. One hundred lakhs, i.e. 10,000,000. Thus a crore of rupees was for many years almost the exact equivalent of a million sterling. It had once been a good deal more, and has now been for some years a good deal less. The H. is karoṛ, Skt. koṭi.

c. 1315.—"Kales Dewar, the ruler of Ma'bar, enjoyed a highly prosperous life.... His coffers were replete with wealth, insomuch that in the city of Mardī (Madura) there were 1200 crores of gold deposited, every crore being equal to a thousand laks, and every lak to one hundred thousand dinārs."—Wassāf, in Elliot, iii. 52. N.B.—The reading of the word crore is however doubtful here (see note by Elliot in loco). In any case the value of crore is misstated by Wassāf.

c. 1343.—"They told me that a certain Hindu farmed the revenue of the city and its territories (Daulatābād) for 17 karōr ... as for the karōr it is equivalent to 100 laks, and the lak to 100,000 dīnārs."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 49.

c. 1350.—"In the course of three years he had misappropriated about a kror of tankas from the revenue."—Ziā-uddīn-Barnī, in Elliot, iii. 247.

c. 1590.—"Zealous and upright men were put in charge of the revenues, each over one Krōr of dams." (These, it appears, were called krōris.)—Āīn-i-Akbari, i. 13.

1609.—"The King's yeerely Income of his Crowne Land is fiftie Crou of Rupias, every Crou is an hundred Leckes, and every Lecke is an hundred thousand Rupias."—Hawkins, in Purchas, i. 216.

1628.—"The revenue of all the territories under the Emperors of Delhi amounts, according to the Royal registers, to six arbs and thirty krors of dāms. One arb is equal to a hundred krors (a kror being ten millions) and a hundred Krors of dāms are equivalent to two krors and fifty lacs of rupees."—Muhammad Sharīf Hanafi, in Elliot, vii. 138.

1690.—"The Nabob or Governour of Bengal was reputed to have left behind him at his Death, twenty Courous of Roupies: A kourou is an hundred thousand lacks."—Ovington, 189.

1757.—"In consideration of the losses which the English Company have sustained ... I will give them one crore of rupees."—Orme, ii. 162 (ed. 1803).

c. 1785.—"The revenues of the city of Decca, once the capital of Bengal, at a low estimation amount annually to two kherore."—Carraccioli's Life of Clive, i. 172.

1797.—"An Englishman, for H. E.'s amusement, introduced the elegant European diversion of a race in sacks by old women: the Nabob was delighted beyond measure, and declared that though he had spent a crore of rupees ... in procuring amusement, he had never found one so pleasing to him."—Teignmouth, Mem. i. 407.

1879.—

[CRORI, s. "The possessor or collector of a kror, or ten millions, of any given kind of money; it was especially applied as an official designation, under the Mohammedan government, to a collector of revenue to the extent of a kror of dāms, or 250,000 rupees, who was also at various times invested with the general superintendence of the lands in his district, and the charge of the police." (Wilson.)

[c. 1590.—See quotation under CRORE.

[1675.—"Nor does this exempt them from pishcashing the Nabob's Crewry or Governour."—Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. ccxxxix.]

[CROTCHEY, KURACHEE,> properly Karāchi, the sea-port and chief town of the province of Sind, which is a creation of the British rule, no town appearing to have existed on the site before 1725. In As Suyūti's History of the Caliphs (E.T. p. 229) the capture of Kīrakh or Kīraj is mentioned. Sir H. M. Elliot thinks that this place was probably situated in if not named from Kachh. Jarrett (Āīn, ii. 344, note) supposes this to be Karāchi, which Elliot identified with the Krokala of Arrian. Here, according to Curtius, dwelt the Arabioi or Arabitai. The harbour of Karāchi was possibly the Porus Alexandri, where Nearchus was detained by the monsoon for twenty-four days (see McCrindle, Ancient India, 167, 262).

[1812.—"From Crotchey to Cape Monze the people call themselves Balouches."—Morier, Journey through Persia, p. 5.

[1839.—"... spices of all kinds, which are carried from Bombay ... to Koratchee or other ports in Sind."—Elphinstone's Caubul, i. 384.]

CROW-PHEASANT, s. The popular Anglo-Indian name of a somewhat ignoble bird (Fam. Cuculidae), common all over the plains of India, in Burma, and the Islands, viz. Centropus rufipennis, Illiger. It is held in India to give omens.

1878.—"The crow-pheasant stalks past with his chestnut wings drooping by his side."—Phil. Robinson, In My Indian Garden, 7.

1883.—"There is that ungainly object the coucal, crow-pheasant, jungle-crow, or whatever else you like to call the miscellaneous thing, as it clambers through a creeper-laden bush or spreads its reddish-bay wings and makes a slow voyage to the next tree. To judge by its appearance only it might be a crow developing for a peacock, but its voice seems to have been borrowed from a black-faced monkey."—Tribes on my Frontier, 155.

CUBEB, s. The fruit of the Piper Cubeba, a climbing shrub of the Malay region. [Its Hind. name kabāb chīnī marks its importation from the East by Chinese merchants.] The word and the articles were well known in Europe in the Middle Ages, the former being taken directly from the Arab. kabābah. It was used as a spice like other peppers, though less common. The importation into Europe had become infinitesimal, when it revived in last century, owing to the medicinal power of the article having become known to our medical officers during the British occupation of Java (1811-15). Several particulars of interest will be found in Hanbury and Flückiger's Pharmacog. 526, and in the notes to Marco Polo, ii. 380.

c. 943.—"The territories of this Prince (the Maharaja of the Isles) produce all sorts of spices and aromatics.... The exports are camphor, lign-aloes, clove, sandal-wood, betel-nut, nutmeg, cardamom, cubeb (al-kabābah)...."—Maṣ'ūdi, i. 341 seq.

13th cent.—

1298.—"This Island (Java) is of surpassing wealth, producing black pepper, nutmegs, spikenard, galingale, cubebs, cloves...."—Marco Polo, ii. 254.

c. 1328.—"There too (in Jaua) are produced cubebs, and nutmegs, and mace, and all the other finest spices except pepper."—Friar Jordanus, 31.

c. 1340.—"The following are sold by the pound. Raw silk; saffron; clove-stalks and cloves; cubebs; lign-aloes...."—Pegolotti, in Cathay, &c., p. 305.

" "Cubebs are of two kinds, i.e. domestic and wild, and both should be entire and light, and of good smell; and the domestic are known from the wild in this way, that the former are a little more brown than the wild; also the domestic are round, whilst the wild have the lower part a little flattened underneath like flattened buttons."—Pegolotti, in Cathay, &c.; in orig. 374 seq.

c. 1390.—"Take fresh pork, seethe it, chop it small, and grind it well; put to it hard yolks of eggs, well mixed together, with dried currants, powder of cinnamon, and maces, cubebs, and cloves whole."—Recipe in Wright's Domestic Manners, 350.

1563.—"R. Let us talk of cubebs; although, according to Sepulveda, we seldom use them alone, and only in compounds.

"O. 'Tis not so in India; on the contrary they are much used by the Moors soaked in wine ... and in their native region, which is Java, they are habitually used for coldness of stomach; you may believe me they hold them for a very great medicine."—Garcia, f. 80-80v.

1572.—"The Indian physicians use Cubebs as cordials for the stomach...."—Acosta, p. 138.

1612.—"Cubebs, the pound ... xvi. s."—Rates and Valuatioun (Scotland).

1874.—"In a list of drugs to be sold in the ... city of Ulm, A.D. 1596, cubebs are mentioned ... the price for half an ounce being 8 kreuzers."—Hanb. & Flück. 527.

CUBEER BURR, n.p. This was a famous banyan-tree on an island of the Nerbudda, some 12 m. N.E. of Baroch, and a favourite resort of the English there in the 18th century. It is described by Forbes in his Or. Mem. i. 28; [2nd ed. i. 16, and in Pandurang Hari, ed. 1873, ii. 137 seqq.]. Forbes says that it was thus called by the Hindus in memory of a favourite saint (no doubt Kabīr). Possibly, however, the name was merely the Ar. kabīr, 'great,' given by some Mahommedan, and misinterpreted into an allusion to the sectarian leader.

[1623.—"On an other side of the city, but out of the circuit of the houses, in an open place, is seen a great and fair tree, of that kind which I saw in the sea coasts of Persia, near Ormuz, called there Lul, but here Ber."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 35. Mr. Grey identifies this with the CUBEER BURR.]

1818.—"The popular tradition among the Hindus is that a man of great sanctity named Kubeer, having cleaned his teeth, as is practised in India, with a piece of stick, stuck it into the ground, that it took root, and became what it now is."—Copland, in Tr. Lit. Soc. Bo. i. 290.

CUCUYA, CUCUYADA, s. A cry of alarm or warning; Malayāl. kūkkuya, 'to cry out'; not used by English, but found among Portuguese writers, who formed cucuyada from the native word, as they did Crisada from kris (see CREASE). See Correa, Lendas, ii. 2. 926. See also quotation from Tennent, under COSS, and compare Australian cooey.

1525.—"On this immediately some of his Nairs who accompanied him, desired to smite the Portuguese who were going through the streets; but the Regedor would not permit it; and the Caimal approaching the King's palace, without entering to speak to the King, ordered those cries of theirs to be made which they call cucuyadas, and in a few minutes there gathered together more than 2000 Nairs with their arms...."—Correa, ii. 926.

1543.—"At the house of the pagod there was a high enclosure-wall of stone, where the Governor collected all his people, and those of the country came trooping with bows and arrows and a few matchlocks, raising great cries and cucuyadas, such as they employ to call each other to war, just like cranes when they are going to take wing."—Ibid. iv. 327.

CUDDALORE, n.p. A place on the marine backwater 16 m. S. of Pondicherry, famous in the early Anglo-Indian history of Coromandel. It was settled by the Company in 1682-3, and Fort St. David's was erected there soon after. Probably the correct name is Kaḍal-ūr, 'Sea-Town.' [The Madras Gloss. gives Tam. kūḍal, 'junction,' ūr, 'village,' because it stands on the confluence of the Kadilam and Paravanar Rivers.]

[1773.—"Fort St. David is ... built on a rising ground, about a mile from the Black-Town, which is called Cuddalore."—Ives, p. 18.]

CUDDAPAH, n.p. Tel. kaḍapa, ['threshold,' said to take its name from the fact that it is situated at the opening of the pass which leads to the holy town of Tripatty (Gribble, Man. of Cuddapah, p. 3); others connect it with Skt. kṛipa, 'pity,' and the Skt. name is Kripanagara]. A chief town and district of the Madras Presidency. It is always written Kurpah in Kirkpatrick's Translation of Tippoo's Letters, [and see Wilks, Mysore, ed. 1869, i. 303]. It has been suggested as possible that it is the ΚΑΡΙΓΗ (for ΚΑΡΙΠΗ) of Ptolemy's Tables. [Kurpah indigo is quoted on the London market.]

1768.—"The chiefs of Shanoor and Kirpa also followed the same path."—H. of Hydur Naik, 189.

CUDDOO, s. A generic name for pumpkins, [but usually applied to the musk-melon, cucurbita moschata (Watt, Econ. Dict. ii. 640)]. Hind. Kaddū.

[1870.—"Pumpkin, Red and White—Hind. Kuddoo. This vegetable grows in great abundance in all parts of the Deccan."—Riddell, Ind. Dom. Econ. 568.]

CUDDY, s. The public or captain's cabin of an Indiaman or other passenger ship. We have not been able to trace the origin satisfactorily. It must, however, be the same with the Dutch and Germ. kajute, which has the same signification. This is also the Scandinavian languages, Sw. in kajuta, Dan. kahyt, and Grimm quotes kajute, "Casteria," from a vocabulary of Saxon words used in the first half of 15th century. It is perhaps originally the same with the Fr. cahute, 'a hovel,' which Littré quotes from 12th century as quahute. Ducange has L. Latin cahua, 'casa, tugurium,' but a little doubtfully. [Burton (Ar. Nights, xi. 169) gives P. kadah, 'a room,' and compares Cumra. The N.E.D. leaves the question doubtful.]

1726.—"Neither will they go into any ship's Cayuyt so long as they see any one in the Skipper's cabin or on the half-deck."—Valentijn, Chorom. (and Pegu), 134.

1769.—"It was his (the Captain's) invariable practice on Sunday to let down a canvas curtain at one end of the cuddy ... and to read the church service,—a duty which he considered a complete clearance of the sins of the preceding week."—Life of Lord Teignmouth, i. 12.

1848.—"The youngsters among the passengers, young Chaffers of the 150th, and poor little Ricketts, coming home after his third fever, used to draw out Sedley at the cuddy-table, and make him tell prodigious stories about himself and his exploits against tigers and Napoleon."—Vanity Fair, ed. 1867, ii. 255.

CULGEE, s. A jewelled plume surmounting the sirpesh or aigrette upon the turban. Shakespear gives kalghī as a Turki word. [Platts gives kalghā, kalghī, and refers it to Skt. kalaśa, 'a spire.']

c. 1514.—"In this manner the people of Bârân catch great numbers of herons. The Kilki-saj ['Plumes worn on the cap or turban on great occasions.' Also see Punjab Trade Report, App., p. ccxv.] are of the heron's feathers."—Baber, 154.

1715.—"John Surman received a vest and Culgee set with precious stones."—Wheeler, ii. 246.

1759.—"To present to Omed Roy, viz.:—

—Expenses of Nabob's Entertainment. In Long, 193.

1786.—"Three Kulgies, three Surpaishes (see Sirpech), and three Puduks (?) [padak, H. 'a badge, a flat piece of gold, a neck ornament'] of the value of 36,320 rupees have been despatched to you in a casket."—Tippoo's Letters, 263.

[1892.—Of a Banjara ox—"Over the beast's forehead is a shaped frontlet of cotton cloth bordered with patterns in colour with pieces of mirror sewn in, and crowned by a kalgi or aigrette of peacock feather tips."—L. Kipling, Beast and Man in India, 147.

[The word was also applied to a rich silk cloth imported from India.

[1714.—In a list of goods belonging to sub-governors of the South Sea C.—"A pair of culgee window curtains."—2 ser. Notes & Q. VI. 244.]

CULMUREEA, KOORMUREEA, s. Nautical H. kalmarīya, 'a calm,' taken direct from Port. calmaria (Roebuck).

CULSEY, s. According to the quotation a weight of about a candy (q.v.). We have traced the word, which is rare, also in Prinsep's Tables (ed. Thomas, p. 115), as a measure in Bhūj, kalsī. And we find R. Drummond gives it: "Kulsee or Culsy (Guz.). A weight of sixteen maunds" (the Guzerat maunds are about 40 lbs., therefore kalsi = about 640 lbs.). [The word is probably Skt. kalaśi, 'a water jar,' and hence a grain measure. The Madras Gloss. gives Can. kalasi as a measure of capacity holding 14 Seers.]

1813.—"So plentiful are mangos ... that during my residence in Guzerat they were sold in the public markets for one rupee the culsey; or 600 pounds in English weight."—Forbes, Orient. Mem. i. 30; [2d. ed. i. 20].

CUMBLY, CUMLY, CUMMUL, s. A blanket; a coarse woollen cloth. Skt. kambala, appearing in the vernaculars in slightly varying forms, e.g. H. kamlī. Our first quotation shows a curious attempt to connect this word with the Arab. ḥammāl, 'a porter' (see HUMMAUL), and with the camel's hair of John Baptist's raiment. The word is introduced into Portuguese as cambolim, 'a cloak.'

c. 1350.—"It is customary to make of those fibres wet-weather mantles for those rustics whom they call camalls,^[99] whose business it is to carry burdens, and also to carry men and women on their shoulders in palankins (lecticis).... A garment, such as I mean, of this camall cloth (and not camel cloth) I wore till I got to Florence.... No doubt the raiment of John the Baptist was of that kind. For, as regards camel's hair, it is, next to silk, the softest stuff in the world, and never could have been meant...."—John Marignolli, in Cathay, 366.

1606.—"We wear nothing more frequently than those cambolins."—Gouvea, f. 132.

[c. 1610.—"Of it they make also good store of cloaks and capes, called by the Indians Mansaus, and by the Portuguese 'Ormus cambalis.'"—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 240.]

1673.—"Leaving off to wonder at the natives quivering and quaking after Sunset wrapping themselves in a combly or Hair-Cloth."—Fryer, 54.

1690.—"Camlees, which are a sort of Hair Coat made in Persia...."—Ovington, 455.

1718.—"But as a body called the Cammul-poshes, or blanket wearers, were going to join Qhandaoran, their commander, they fell in with a body of troops of Mahratta horse, who forbade their going further."—Seir Mutaqherin, i. 143.

1781.—"One comley as a covering ... 4 fanams, 6 dubs, 0 cash."—Prison Expenses of Hon. J. Lindsay, Lives of Lindsays, iii.

1798.—"... a large black Kummul, or blanket."—G. Forster, Travels, i. 194.

1800.—"One of the old gentlemen, observing that I looked very hard at his cumly, was alarmed lest I should think he possessed numerous flocks of sheep."—Letter of Sir T. Munro, in Life, i. 281.

1813.—Forbes has cameleens.—Or. Mem. i. 195; [2d. ed. i. 108].

CUMMERBUND, s. A girdle. H. from P. kamar-band, i.e. 'loin-band.' Such an article of dress is habitually worn by domestic servants, peons, and irregular troops; but any waist-belt is so termed.

[1534.—"And tying on a cummerbund (camarabando) of yellow silk."—Correa, iii. 588. Camarabandes in Dalboquerque, Comm., Hak. Soc. iv. 104.]

1552.—"The Governor arriving at Goa received there a present of a rich cloth of Persia which is called comarbãdos, being of gold and silk."—Castanheda, iii. 396.

1616.—"The nobleman of Xaxma sent to have a sample of gallie pottes, jugges, podingers, lookinglasses, table bookes, chint bramport, and combarbands, with the prices."—Cocks's Diary, i. 147.

1638.—"Ils serrent la veste d'vne ceinture, qu'ils appellent Commerbant."—Mandelslo, 223.

1648.—"In the middle they have a well adjusted girdle, called a Commerbant."—Van Twist, 55.

1727.—"They have also a fine Turband, embroidered Shoes, and a Dagger of Value, stuck into a fine Cummerband, or Sash."—A. Hamilton, i. 229; [ed. 1744, ii. 233].

1810.—"They generally have the turbans and cummer-bunds of the same colour, by way of livery."—Williamson, V. M. i. 274.

[1826.—"My white coat was loose, for want of a kumberbund."—Pandurang Hari, ed. 1873, i. 275.]

1880.—"... The Punjab seems to have found out Manchester. A meeting of native merchants at Umritsur ... describes the effects of a shower of rain on the English-made turbans and Kummerbunds as if their heads and loins were enveloped by layers of starch."—Pioneer Mail, June 17.

CUMQUOT, s. The fruit of Citrus japonica, a miniature orange, often sent in jars of preserved fruits, from China. Kumkwat is the Canton pronunciation of kin-kü, 'gold orange,' the Chinese name of the fruit.

CUMRA, s. H. kamrā, from Port. camara; a chamber, a cabin. [In Upper India the drawing-room is the gol kamrā, so called because one end of it is usually semi-circular.]

CUMRUNGA, s. See CARAMBOLA.

CUMSHAW, s. Chin. Pigeon-English for bucksheesh (q.v.), or a present of any kind. According to Giles it is the Amoy pron. (kam-siā) of two characters signifying 'grateful thanks.' Bp. Moule suggests kan-siu (or Cantonese) kăm-sau, 'thank-gift.'

1879.—"... they pressed upon us, blocking out the light, uttering discordant cries, and clamouring with one voice, Kum-sha, i.e. backsheesh, looking more like demons than living men."—Miss Bird's Golden Chersonese, 70.

1882.—"As the ship got under weigh, the Compradore's cumshas, according to 'olo custom,' were brought on board ... dried lychee, Nankin dates ... baskets of oranges, and preserved ginger."—The Fankwae, 103.

CUNCHUNEE, s. H. kanchanī. A dancing-girl. According to Shakespear, this is the feminine of a caste, Kanchan, whose women are dancers. But there is doubt as to this: [see Crooke, Tribes and Castes, N.W.P. iv. 364, for the Kanchan caste.] Kanchan is 'gold'; also a yellow pigment, which the women may have used; see quot. from Bernier. [See DANCING-GIRL.]

[c. 1590.—"The Kanjari; the men of this class play the Pakhāwaj, the Rabāb, and the Tāla, while the women sing and dance. His Majesty calls them Kanchanis."—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, iii. 257.]

c. 1660.—"But there is one thing which seems to me a little too extravagant ... the publick Women, I mean not those of the Bazar, but those more retired and considerable ones that go to the great marriages at the houses of the Omrahs and Mansebdars to sing and dance, those that are called Kenchen, as if you should say the guilded the blossoming ones...."—Bernier, E.T. 88; [ed. Constable, 273 seq.].

c. 1661.—"On regala dans le Serrail, toutes ces Dames Etrangères, de festins et des dances des Quenchenies, qui sont des femmes et des filles d'une Caste de ce nom, qui n'ont point d'autre profession que celle de la danse."—Thevenot, v. 151.

1689.—"And here the Dancing Wenches, or Quenchenies, entertain you, if you please."—Ovington, 257.

1799.—"In the evening the Canchanis ... have exhibited before the Prince and court."—Diary in Life of Colebrooke, 153.

1810.—"The dancing-women are of different kinds ... the Meeraseens never perform before assemblies of men.... The Kunchenee are of an opposite stamp; they dance and sing for the amusement of the male sex."—Williamson, V. M. i. 386.

CURIA MURIA, n.p. The name of a group of islands off the S.E. coast of Arabia (Kharyān Maryān, of Edrisi).

1527.—"Thus as they sailed, the ship got lost upon the shore of Fartaque in (the region of) Curia Muria; and having swum ashore they got along in company of the Moors by land to Calayata, and thence on to Ormuz."—Correa, iii. 562; see also i. 366.

c. 1535.—"Dopo Adem è Fartaque, e le isole Curia, Muria...."—Sommario de' Regni, in Ramusio, f. 325.

1540.—"We letted not to discover the Isles of Curia, Muria, and Avedalcuria (in orig. Abedalcuria)."—Mendez Pinto, E.T. p. 4.

[1553.—See quotation under ROSALGAT.]

1554.—"... it is necessary to come forth between Súkara and the islands Khúr or Múria (Khōr Mōriyā)."—The Mohit, in Jour. As. Soc. Beng. v. 459.

[1833.—"The next place to Saugra is Koorya Moorya Bay, which is extensive, and has good soundings throughout; the islands are named Jibly, Hallanny, Soda, and Haskee."—Owen, Narr. i. 348.]

1834.—"The next place to Saugra is Koorya Moorya Bay."—J. R. Geog. Soc. ii. 208.

CURNUM, s. Tel. karaṇamu; a village accountant, a town-clerk. Acc. to Wilson from Skt. karaṇa; (see CRANNY). [It corresponds to the Tam. kanakan (see CONICOPOLY).]

1827.—"Very little care has been taken to preserve the survey accounts. Those of several villages are not to be found. Of the remainder only a small share is in the Collector's cutcherry, and the rest is in the hands of curnums, written on cadjans."—Minute by Sir T. Munro, in Arbuthnot, i. 285.

CUROUNDA, s. H. karaundā. A small plum-like fruit, which makes good jelly and tarts, and which the natives pickle. It is borne by Carissa carandas, L., a shrub common in many parts of India (N.O. Apocynaceae).

[1870.—Riddell gives a receipt for kurunder jelly, Ind. Dom. Econ. 338.]

[CURRIG JEMA, adj. A corr. of H. khārij jama, "separated or detached from the rental of the State, as lands exempt from rent, or of which the revenue has been assigned to individuals or institutions" (Wilson).

[1687.—"... that whenever they have a mind to build Factorys, satisfying for the land where it was Currig Jema, that is over measure, not entred in the King's books, or paying the usuall and accustomed Rent, no Government should molest them."—Yule, Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. lxiii.]

CURRUMSHAW HILLS, n.p. This name appears in Rennell's Bengal Atlas, applied to hills in the Gaya district. It is ingeniously supposed by F. Buchanan to have been a mistake of the geographer's, in taking Karna-Chaupār ('Karna's place of meeting or teaching'), the name of an ancient ruin on the hills in question, for Karnachau Pahār (Pahār = Hill).—(Eastern India, i. 4).

CURRY, s. In the East the staple food consists of some cereal, either (as in N. India) in the form of flour baked into unleavened cakes, or boiled in the grain, as rice is. Such food having little taste, some small quantity of a much more savoury preparation is added as a relish, or 'kitchen,' to use the phrase of our forefathers. And this is in fact the proper office of curry in native diet. It consists of meat, fish, fruit, or vegetables, cooked with a quantity of bruised spices and turmeric [see MUSSALLA]; and a little of this gives a flavour to a large mess of rice. The word is Tam. kari, i.e. 'sauce'; [kari, v. 'to eat by biting']. The Canarese form karil was that adopted by the Portuguese, and is still in use at Goa. It is remarkable in how many countries a similar dish is habitual; pilāo [see PILLAU] is the analogous mess in Persia, and kuskussu in Algeria; in Egypt a dish well known as ruzz mufalfal [Lane, Mod. Egypt., ed. 1871, i. 185], or "peppered rice." In England the proportions of rice and "kitchen" are usually reversed, so that the latter is made to constitute the bulk of the dish.

The oldest indication of the Indian cuisine in this kind, though not a very precise one, is cited by Athenaeus from Megasthenes: "Among the Indians, at a banquet, a table is set before each individual ... and on the table is placed a golden dish on which they throw, first of all, boiled rice ... and then they add many sorts of meat dressed after the Indian fashion" (Athen., by Yonge, iv. 39). The earliest precise mention of curry is in the Mahavanso (c. A.D. 477), where it is said of Kassapo that "he partook of rice dressed in butter, with its full accompaniment of curries." This is Turnour's translation, the original Pali being sūpa.

It is possible, however, that the kind of curry used by Europeans and Mahommedans is not of purely Indian origin, but has come down from the spiced cookery of medieval Europe and Western Asia. The medieval spiced dishes in question were even coloured like curry. Turmeric, indeed, called by Garcia de Orta, Indian saffron, was yet unknown in Europe, but it was represented by saffron and sandalwood. A notable incident occurs in the old English poem of King Richard, wherein the Lion-heart feasts on the head of a Saracen—

Moreover, there is hardly room for doubt that capsicum or red pepper (see CHILLY) was introduced into India by the Portuguese (see Hanbury and Flückiger, 407); and this spice constitutes the most important ingredient in modern curries. The Sanskrit books of cookery, which cannot be of any considerable antiquity, contain many recipes for curry without this ingredient. A recipe for curry (caril) is given, according to Bluteau, in the Portuguese Arte de Cozinha, p. 101. This must be of the 17th century.

It should be added that kari was, among the people of S. India, the name of only one form of 'kitchen' for rice, viz. of that in consistency resembling broth, as several of the earlier quotations indicate. Europeans have applied it to all the savoury concoctions of analogous spicy character eaten with rice. These may be divided into three classes—viz. (1), that just noticed; (2), that in the form of a stew of meat, fish or vegetables; (3), that called by Europeans 'dry curry.' These form the successive courses of a Hindu meal in S. India, and have in the vernaculars several discriminating names.

In Java the Dutch, in their employment of curry, keep much nearer to the original Hindu practice. At a breakfast, it is common to hand round with the rice a dish divided into many sectoral spaces, each of which contains a different kind of curry, more or less liquid.

According to the Fankwae at Canton (1882), the word is used at the Chinese ports (we presume in talking with Chinese servants) in the form kāārle (p. 62).

1502.—"Then the Captain-major commanded them to cut off the hands and ears of all the crews, and put all that into one of the small vessels, into which he ordered them to put the friar, also without ears or nose or hands, which he ordered to be strung round his neck with a palm-leaf for the King, on which he told him to have a curry (caril) made to eat of what his friar brought him."—Correa, Three Voyages, Hak. Soc. 331. The "Friar" was a Brahman, in the dress of a friar, to whom the odious ruffian Vasco da Gama had given a safe-conduct.

1563.—"They made dishes of fowl and flesh, which they call caril."—Garcia, f. 68.

c. 1580.—"The victual of these (renegade soldiers) is like that of the barbarous people; that of Moors all bringe [birinj, 'rice']; that of Gentoos rice-carril."—Primor e Honra, &c., f. 9v.

1598.—"Most of their fish is eaten with rice, which they seeth in broth, which they put upon the rice, and is somewhat soure, as if it were sodden in gooseberries, or unripe grapes, but it tasteth well, and is called Carriel [v.l. Carriil], which is their daily meat."—Linschoten, 88; [Hak. Soc. ii. 11]. This is a good description of the ordinary tamarind curry of S. India.

1606.—"Their ordinary food is boiled rice with many varieties of certain soups which they pour upon it, and which in those parts are commonly called caril."—Gouvea, 61b.

1608-1610.—"... me disoit qu'il y auoit plus de 40 ans, qu'il estoit esclaue, et auoit gagné bon argent à celuy qui le possedoit; et toute fois qu'il ne luy donnoit pour tout viure qu'vne mesure de riz cru par iour sans autre chose ... et quelquefois deux baseruques, qui sont quelque deux deniers (see BUDGROOK), pour auoir du Caril à mettre auec le riz."—Mocquet, Voyages, 337.

1623.—"In India they give the name of caril to certain messes made with butter, with the kernel of the coco-nut (in place of which might be used in our part of the world milk of almonds) ... with spiceries of every kind, among the rest cardamom and ginger ... with vegetables, fruits, and a thousand other condiments of sorts; ... and the Christians, who eat everything, put in also flesh or fish of every kind, and sometimes eggs ... with all which things they make a kind of broth in the fashion of our guazzetti (or hotch-potches) ... and this broth with all the said condiments in it they pour over a good quantity of rice boiled simply with water and salt, and the whole makes a most savoury and substantial mess."—P. della Valle, ii. 709; [Hak. Soc. ii. 328.]

1681.—"Most sorts of these delicious Fruits they gather before they be ripe, and boyl them to make Carrees, to use the Portuguese word, that is somewhat to eat with and relish their Rice."—Knox, p. 12. This perhaps indicates that the English curry is formed from the Port. caris, plural of caril.

c. 1690.—"Curcuma in Indiâ tam ad cibum quam ad medecinam adhibetur, Indi enim ... adeo ipsi adsueti sunt ut cum cunctis admiscent condimentis et piscibus, praesertim autem isti quod karri ipsis vocatur."—Rumphius, Pars Vta. p. 166.

c. 1759-60.—"The currees are infinitely various, being a sort of fricacees to eat with rice, made of any animals or vegetables."—Grose, i. 150.

1781.—"To-day have curry and rice for my dinner, and plenty of it as C——, my messmate, has got the gripes, and cannot eat his share."—Hon. J. Lindsay's Imprisonment, in Lives of Lindsays, iii. 296.

1794-97.—

This shows that curry was not a domesticated dish in England at the date of publication. It also is a sample of what the wit was that ran through so many editions!

c. 1830.—"J'ai substitué le lait à l'eau pour boisson ... c'est une sorte de contre-poison pour l'essence de feu que forme la sauce enragée de mon sempiternel cari."—Jacquemont, Correspondance, i. 196.

1848.—"Now we have seen how Mrs. Sedley had prepared a fine curry for her son."—Vanity Fair, ch. iv.

1860.—"... Vegetables, and especially farinaceous food, are especially to be commended. The latter is indeed rendered attractive by the unrivalled excellence of the Singhalese in the preparation of innumerable curries, each tempered by the delicate creamy juice expressed from the flesh of the cocoa-nut, after it has been reduced to a pulp."—Tennent's Ceylon, i. 77. N.B. Tennent is misled in supposing (i. 437) that chillies are mentioned in the Mahavanso. The word is maricha, which simply means "pepper," and which Turnour has translated erroneously (p. 158).

1874.—"The craving of the day is for quasi-intellectual food, not less highly peppered than the curries which gratify the faded stomach of a returned Nabob."—Blackwood's Magazine, Oct. 434.

The Dutch use the word as Kerrie or Karrie; and Kari à l'Indienne has a place in French cartes.

CURRY-STUFF, s. Onions, chillies, &c.; the usual material for preparing curry, otherwise mussalla (q.v.), represented in England by the preparations called curry-powder and curry-paste.

1860.—"... with plots of esculents and curry-stuffs of every variety, onions, chillies, yams, cassavas, and sweet potatoes."—Tennent's Ceylon, i. 463.

CUSBAH, s. Ar.—H. ḳaṣba, ḳaṣaba; the chief place of a pergunnah (q.v.).

1548.—"And the caçabe of Tanaa is rented at 4450 pardaos."—S. Botelho, Tombo, 150.

[c. 1590.—"In the fortieth year of his Majesty's reign, his dominions consisted of one hundred and five Sircars, sub-divided into two thousand seven hundred and thirty-seven kusbahs."—Ayeen, tr. Gladwin, ii. 1; Jarrett, ii. 115.]

1644.—"On the land side are the houses of the Vazador (?) or Possessor of the Casabe, which is as much as to say the town or aldea of Mombaym (Bombay). This town of Mombaym is a small and scattered affair."—Bocarro, MS. fol. 227.

c. 1844-45.—"In the centre of the large Cusbah of Streevygoontum exists an old mud fort, or rather wall of about 20 feet high, surrounding some 120 houses of a body of people calling themselves Kotie Vellalas,—that is 'Fort Vellalas.' Within this wall no police officer, warrant or Peon ever enters.... The females are said to be kept in a state of great degradation and ignorance. They never pass without the walls alive; when dead they are carried out by night in sacks."—Report by Mr. E. B. Thomas, Collector of Tinnevelly, quoted in Lord Stanhope's Miscellanies, 2nd Series, 1872, p. 132.

CUSCUSS, CUSS, s. Pers.—H. k̲h̲ask̲h̲as. The roots of a grass [called in N. India senṭhā or tīn,] which abounds in the drier parts of India, Anatherum muricatum (Beauv.), Andropogon muricatus (Retz), used in India during the hot dry winds to make screens, which are kept constantly wet, in the window openings, and the fragrant evaporation from which greatly cools the house (see TATTY). This device seems to be ascribed by Abul Faẓl to the invention of Akbar. These roots are well known in France by the name vetyver, which is the Tam. name veṭṭivēru, 'the root which is dug up.' In some of the N. Indian vernaculars khaskhas is 'a poppy-head'; [but this is a different word, Skt. khaskhasa, and compare P. k̲h̲ashk̲h̲ash].

c. 1590.—"But they (the Hindus) were notorious for the want of cold water, the intolerable heat of their climate.... His Majesty remedied all these evils and defects. He taught them how to cool water by the help of saltpetre.... He ordered mats to be woven of a cold odoriferous root called Khuss ... and when wetted with water on the outside, those within enjoy a pleasant cool air in the height of summer."—Ayeen (Gladwin, 1800), ii. 196; [ed. Jarrett, iii. 9].

1663.—"Kas kanays." See quotation under TATTY.

1810.—"The Kuss-Kuss ... when fresh, is rather fragrant, though the scent is somewhat terraceous."—Williamson, V. M. i. 235.

1824.—"We have tried to keep our rooms cool with 'tatties,' which are mats formed of the Kuskos, a peculiar sweet-scented grass...."—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 59.

It is curious that the coarse grass which covers the more naked parts of the Islands of the Indian Archipelago appears to be called kusu-kusu (Wallace, 2nd ed. ii. 74). But we know not if there is any community of origin in these names.

[1832.—"The sirrakee (sirkī) and sainturh (senṭhā) are two specimens of one genus of jungle grass, the roots of which are called secundah (sirkanda) or khus-khus."—Mrs. Meer Hasan Ali, Observations, &c., ii. 208.]

In the sense of poppy-seed or poppy-head, this word is P.; De Orta says Ar.; [see above.]

1563.—"... at Cambaiete, seeing in the market that they were selling poppy-heads big enough to fill a canada, and also some no bigger than ours, and asking the name, I was told that it was caxcax (cashcash)—and that in fact is the name in Arabic—and they told me that of these poppies was made opium (amfião), cuts being made in the poppy-head, so that the opium exudes."—Garcia De Orta, f. 155.

1621.—"The 24th of April public proclamation was made in Ispahan by the King's order ... that on pain of death, no one should drink cocnur, which is a liquor made from the husk of the capsule of opium, called by them khash-khash."—P. della Valle, ii. 209; [cocnur is P. koknār].

CUSPADORE, s. An old term for a spittoon. Port. cuspadeira, from cuspir, [Lat. conspuere], to spit. Cuspidor would be properly qui multum spuit.

[1554.—Speaking of the greatness of the Sultan of Bengal, he says to illustrate it—"From the camphor which goes with his spittle when he spits into his gold spittoon (cospidor) his chamberlain has an income of 2000 cruzados."—Castanheda, Bk. iv. ch. 83.]

1672.—"Here maintain themselves three of the most powerful lords and Naiks of this kingdom, who are subject to the Crown of Velour, and pay it tribute of many hundred Pagodas ... viz. Vitipa-naik of Madura, the King's Cuspidoor-bearer, 200 Pagodas, Cristapa-naik of Chengier, the King's Betel-server, 200 pagodas, the Naik of Tanjouwer, the King's Warder and Umbrella carrier, 400 Pagodas...."—Baldaeus, Germ. ed. 153.

1735.—In a list of silver plate we have "5 cuspadores."—Wheeler, iii. 139.

1775.—"Before each person was placed a large brass salver, a black earthen pot of water, and a brass cuspadore."—Forrest, V. to N. Guinea, &c. (at Magindanao), 235.

[1900.—"The royal cuspadore" is mentioned among the regalia at Selangor, and a "cuspadore" (ketor) is part of the marriage appliances.—Skeat, Malay Magic, 26, 374.]

CUSTARD-APPLE, s. The name in India of a fruit (Anona squamosa, L.) originally introduced from S. America, but which spread over India during the 16th century. Its commonest name in Hindustan is sharīfa, i.e. 'noble'; but it is also called Sītap'hal, i.e. 'the Fruit of Sītā,' whilst another Anona ('bullock's heart,' A. reticulata, L., the custard-apple of the W. Indies, where both names are applied to it) is called in the south by the name of her husband Rāma. And the Sītap'hal and Rāmp'hal have become the subject of Hindu legends (see Forbes, Or. Mem. iii. 410). The fruit is called in Chinese Fan-li-chi, i.e. foreign leechee.

A curious controversy has arisen from time to time as to whether this fruit and its congeners were really imported from the New World, or were indigenous in India. They are not mentioned among Indian fruits by Baber (c. A.D. 1530), but the translation of the Āīn (c. 1590) by Prof. Blochmann contains among the "Sweet Fruits of Hindustan," Custard-apple (p. 66). On referring to the original, however, the word is sadāp'hal (fructus perennis), a Hind. term for which Shakespear gives many applications, not one of them the anona. The bel is one (Aegle marmelos), and seems as probable as any (see BAEL). The custard-apple is not mentioned by Garcia de Orta (1563), Linschoten (1597), or even by P. della Valle (1624). It is not in Bontius (1631), nor in Piso's commentary on Bontius (1658), but is described as an American product in the West Indian part of Piso's book, under the Brazilian name Araticu. Two species are described as common by P. Vincenzo Maria, whose book was published in 1672. Both the custard-apple and the sweet-sop are fruits now generally diffused in India; but of their having been imported from the New World, the name Anona, which we find in Oviedo to have been the native West Indian name of one of the species, and which in various corrupted shapes is applied to them over different parts of the East, is an indication. Crawfurd, it is true, in his Malay Dictionary explains nona or buah- ("fruit") nona in its application to the custard-apple as fructus virginalis, from nona, the term applied in the Malay countries (like missy in India) to an unmarried European lady. But in the face of the American word this becomes out of the question.

It is, however, a fact that among the Bharhut sculptures, among the carvings dug up at Muttra by General Cunningham, and among the copies from wall-paintings at Ajanta (as pointed out by Sir G. Birdwood in 1874, (see Athenaeum, 26th October), [Bombay Gazetteer, xii. 490]) there is a fruit represented which is certainly very like a custard-apple (though an abnormally big one), and not very like anything else yet pointed out. General Cunningham is convinced that it is a custard-apple, and urges in corroboration of his view that the Portuguese in introducing the fruit (which he does not deny) were merely bringing coals to Newcastle; that he has found extensive tracts in various parts of India covered with the wild custard-apple; and also that this fruit bears an indigenous Hindi name, ātā or āt, from the Sanskrit ātṛipya.