M (continued 3)

[1813.—"After the girls are betrothed, the ends of the fingers and nails are dyed red, with a preparation from the Mendey, or hinna shrub."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. i. 55; also see i. 22.]

c. 1817.—"... his house and garden might be known from a thousand others by their extraordinary neatness. His garden was full of trees, and was well fenced round with a ditch and mindey hedge."—Mrs. Sherwood's Stories, ed. 1873, p. 71.

MERCÁLL, MARCÁL, s. Tam. marakkāl, a grain measure in use in the Madras Presidency, and formerly varying much in different localities, though the most usual was = 12 sers of grain. [Also known as toom.] Its standard is fixed since 1846 at 800 cubic inches, and = 1⁄400 of a garce (q.v.).

1554.—(Negapatam) "Of ghee (mamteiga) and oil, one mercar is = 2½ canadas" (a Portuguese measure of about 3 pints).—A. Nunez, 36.

1803.—"... take care to put on each bullock full six mercalls or 72 seers."—Wellington Desp., ed. 1837, ii. 85.

MERGUI, n.p. The name by which we know the most southern district of Lower Burma with its town; annexed with the rest of what used to be called the "Tenasserim Provinces" after the war of 1824-26. The name is probably of Siamese origin; the town is called by the Burmese Beit (Sir A. Phayre).

1568.—"Tenasari la quale è Città delle regioni del regno di Sion, posta infra terra due o tre maree sopra vn gran fiume ... ed oue il fiume entra in mare e vna villa chiamata Mergi, nel porto della quale ogn' anno si caricano alcune navi di verzino (see BRAZIL-wood and SAPPAN-wood), di nipa (q.v.), di belzuin (see BENJAMIN), e qualche poco di garofalo, macis, noci...."—Ces. Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 327v.

[1684-5.—"A Country Vessel belonging to Mr. Thomas Lucas arriv'd in this Road from Merge."—Pringle, Diary, Ft. St. Geo., 1st ser. iv. 19.

[1727.—"Merjee." See under TENASSERIM.]

MILK-BUSH, MILK-HEDGE, s. Euphorbia Tirucalli, L., often used for hedges on the Coromandel coast. It abounds in acrid milky juices.

c. 1590.—"They enclose their fields and gardens with hedges of the zekoom (zaḳḳum) tree, which is a strong defence against cattle, and makes the country almost impenetrable by an army."—Ayeen, ed. Gladwin, ii. 68; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 239].

[1773.—"Milky Hedge. This is rather a shrub, which they plant for hedges on the coast of Coromandel...."—Ives, 462.]

1780.—"Thorn hedges are sometimes placed in gardens, but in the fields the milk bush is most commonly used ... when squeezed emitting a whitish juice like milk, that is deemed a deadly poison.... A horse will have his head and eyes prodigiously swelled from standing for some time under the shade of a milk hedge."—Munro's Narr. 80.

1879.—

c. 1886.—"The milk-hedge forms a very distinctive feature in the landscape of many parts of Guzerat. Twigs of the plant thrown into running water kill the fish, and are extensively used for that purpose. Also charcoal from the stems is considered the best for making gunpowder."—M.-Gen. R. H. Keatinge.

MINCOPIE, n.p. This term is attributed in books to the Andaman islanders as their distinctive name for their own race. It originated with a vocabulary given by Lieut. Colebrooke in vol. iv. of the Asiatic Researches, and was certainly founded on some misconception. Nor has the possible origin of the mistake been ascertained. [Mr. Man (Proc. Anthrop. Institute, xii. 71) suggests that it may have been a corruption of the words min kaich! 'Come here!']

MINICOY, n.p. Minikai; [Logan (Malabar, i. 2) gives the name as Menakāyat, which the Madras Gloss. derives from Mal. min, 'fish,' kayam, 'deep pool.' The natives call it Maliku (note by Mr. Gray on the passage from Pyrard quoted below).] An island intermediate between the Maldive and the Laccadive group. Politically it belongs to the latter, being the property of the Ali Raja of Cannanore, but the people and their language are Maldivian. The population in 1871 was 2800. One-sixth of the adults had perished in a cyclone in 1867. A lighthouse was in 1883 erected on the island. This is probably the island intended for Mulkee in that ill-edited book the E.T. of Tuhfat al-Mujāhidīn. [Mr. Logan identifies it with the "female island" of Marco Polo. (Malabar, i. 287.)]

[c. 1610.—"... a little island named Malicut."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 322.]

MISCALL, s. Ar. mis̤ḳāl (mithḳāl, properly). An Arabian weight, originally that of the Roman aureus and the gold dīnār; about 73 grs.

c. 1340.—"The prince, violently enraged, caused this officer to be put in prison, and confiscated his goods, which amounted to 437,000,000 mithkals of gold. This anecdote serves to attest at once the severity of the sovereign and the extreme wealth of the country."—Shihābuddīn, in Not. et Ext., xiii. 192.

1502.—"Upon which the King (of Sofala) showed himself much pleased ... and gave them as a present for the Captain-Major a mass of strings of small golden beads which they call pingo, weighing 1000 maticals, every matical being worth 500 reis, and gave for the King another that weighed 3000 maticals...."—Correa, i. 274.

MISREE, s. Sugar candy. Miṣrī, 'Egyptian,' from Miṣr, Egypt, the Mizraim of the Hebrews, showing the original source of supply. [We find the Miṣrī or 'sugar of Egypt' in the Arabian Nights (Burton, xi. 396).] (See under SUGAR.)

1810.—"The sugar-candy made in India, where it is known by the name of miscery, bears a price suited to its quality.... It is usually made in small conical pots, whence it concretes into masses, weighing from 3 to 6 lbs. each."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 134.

MISSAL, s. Hind. from Ar. mis̤l, meaning 'similitude.' The body of documents in a particular case before a court. [The word is also used in its original sense of a 'clan.']

[1861.—"The martial spirit of the Sikhs thus aroused ... formed itself into clans or confederacies called Misls...."—Cave-Brown, Punjab and Delhi, i. 368.]

MOBED, s. P. mūbid, a title of Parsee Priests. It is a corruption of the Pehlevi magô-pat, 'Lord Magus.'

[1815.—"The rites ordained by the chief Mobuds are still observed."—Malcolm, H. of Persia, ed. 1829, i. 499.]

MOCUDDUM, s. Hind. from Ar. muḳaddam, 'praepositus,' a head-man. The technical applications are many; e.g. to the headman of a village, responsible for the realisation of the revenue (see LUMBERDAR); to the local head of a caste (see CHOWDRY); to the head man of a body of peons or of a gang of labourers (see MATE), &c. &c. (See further detail in Wilson). Cobarruvias (Tesoro de la Lengua Castellana, 1611) gives Almocaden, "Capitan de Infanteria."

c. 1347.—"... The princess invited ... the tandail (see TINDAL) or mukaddam of the crew, and the sipāhsālār or mukaddam of the archers."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 250.^[164]

1538.—"O Mocadão da mazmorra q̃ era o carcereiro d'aquella prisão, tanto q̃ os vio mortos, deu logo rebate disso ao Guazil da justiça...."—Pinto, cap. vi.

" "The Jaylor, which in their language is called Mocadan, repairing in the morning to us, and finding our two companions dead, goes away in all haste therewith to acquaint the Gauzil, which is as the Judg with us."—Cogan's Transl., p. 8.

1554.—"E a hum naique, com seys piães (peons) e hum mocadão, com seys tochas, hum bóy de sombreiro, dous mainatos," &c.—Botelho, Tombo, 57.

1567.—"... furthermore that no infidel shall serve as scrivener, shroff (xarrafo) mocadam (mocadão), naique (see NAIK), peon (pião), parpatrim (see PARBUTTY), collector of dues, corregidor, interpreter, procurator or solicitor in court, nor in any other office or charge in which he can in any way hold authority over Christians."—Decree of the Sacred Council of Goa, Dec. 27. In Arch. Port. Orient. fascic. 4.

[1598.—"... a chief Boteson ... which they call Mocadon."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 267.

[c. 1610.—"They call these Lascarys and their captain Moncadon."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 117.

[1615.—"The Generall dwelt with the Makadow of Swally."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. i. 45; comp. Danvers, Letters, i. 234.]

1644.—"Each vessel carries forty mariners and two mocadons."—Bocarro, MS.

1672.—"Il Mucadamo, cosi chiamano li Padroni di queste barche."—P. Vincenz. Maria, 3rd ed. 459.

1680.—"For the better keeping the Boatmen in order, resolved to appoint Black Tom Muckadum or Master of the Boatmen, being Christian as he is, his wages being paid at 70 fanams per mensem."—Fort St. Geo. Consn., Dec. 23, in Notes and Exts. No. iii. p. 42.

1870.—"This headman was called the Mokaddam in the more Northern and Eastern provinces."—Systems of Land Tenure (Cobden Club), 163.

MOCCUDDAMA, s. Hind. from Ar. muḳaddama, 'a piece of business,' but especially 'a suit at law.'

MODELLIAR, MODLIAR, s. Used in the Tamil districts of Ceylon (and formerly on the Continent) for a native head-man. It is also a caste title, assumed by certain Tamil people who styled themselves Śudras (an honourable assumption in the South). Tam. mudaliyār, muthaliyār, an honorific pl. from mudali, muthali, 'a chief.'

c. 1350.—"When I was staying at Columbum (see QUILON) with those Christian chiefs who are called Modilial, and are the owners of the pepper, one morning there came to me ..."—John de Marignolli, in Cathay, &c., ii. 381.

1522.—"And in opening this foundation they found about a cubit below a grave made of brickwork, white-washed within, as if newly made, in which they found part of the bones of the King who was converted by the holy Apostle, who the natives said they heard was called Tani (Tami) mudolyar, meaning in their tongue 'Thomas Servant of God.'"—Correa, ii. 726.

1544.—"... apud Praefectum locis illis quem Mudeliarem vulgo nuncupant."—S. Fr. Xaverii Epistolae, 129.

1607.—"On the part of Dom Fernando Modeliar, a native of Ceylon, I have received a petition stating his services."—Letter of K. Philip III. in L. das Monções, 135.

1616.—"These entered the Kingdom of Candy ... and had an encounter with the enemy at Matalé, where they cut off five-and-thirty heads of their people and took certain araches and modiliares who are chiefs among them, and who had ... deserted and gone over to the enemy as is the way of the Chingalas."—Bocarro, 495.

1648.—"The 5 August followed from Candy the Modeliar, or Great Captain ... in order to inspect the ships."—Van Spilbergen's Voyage, 33.

1685.—"The Modeliares ... and other great men among them put on a shirt and doublet, which those of low caste may not wear."—Ribeiro, f. 46.

1708.—"Mon Révérend Père. Vous êtes tellement accoûtumé à vous mêler des affaires de la Compagnie, que non obstant la prière que je vous ai réitérée plusieurs fois de nous laisser en repos, je ne suis pas étonné si vous prenez parti dans l'affaire de Lazaro ci-devant courtier et Modeliar de la Compagnie."—Norbert, Mémoires, i. 274.

1726.—"Modelyaar. This is the same as Captain."—Valentijn (Ceylon), Names of Officers, &c., 9.

1810.—"We ... arrived at Barbareen about two o'clock, where we found that the provident Modeliar had erected a beautiful rest-house for us, and prepared an excellent collation."—Maria Graham, 98.

MOFUSSIL, s., also used adjectively, "The provinces,"—the country stations and districts, as contra-distinguished from 'the Presidency'; or, relatively, the rural localities of a district as contra-distinguished from the sudder or chief station, which is the residence of the district authorities. Thus if, in Calcutta, one talks of the Mofussil, he means anywhere in Bengal out of Calcutta; if one at Benares talks of going into the Mofussil, he means going anywhere in the Benares division or district (as the case might be) out of the city and station of Benares. And so over India. The word (Hind. from Ar.) mufaṣṣal means properly 'separate, detailed, particular,' and hence 'provincial,' as mufaṣṣal 'adālat, a 'provincial court of justice.' This indicates the way in which the word came to have the meaning attached to it.

About 1845 a clever, free-and-easy newspaper, under the name of The Mofussilite, was started at Meerut, by Mr. John Lang, author of Too Clever by Half, &c., and endured for many years.

1781.—"... a gentleman lately arrived from the Moussel" (plainly a misprint).—Hicky's Bengal Gazette, March 31.

" "A gentleman in the Mofussil, Mr. P., fell out of his chaise and broke his leg...."—Ibid., June 30.

1810.—"Either in the Presidency or in the Mofussil...."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 499.

1836.—"... the Mofussil newspapers which I have seen, though generally disposed to cavil at all the acts of the Government, have often spoken favourably of the measure."—T. B. Macaulay, in Life, &c. i. 399.

MOGUL, n.p. This name should properly mean a person of the great nomad race of Mongols, called in Persia, &c., Mughals; but in India it has come, in connection with the nominally Mongol, though essentially rather Turk, family of Baber, to be applied to all foreign Mahommedans from the countries on the W. and N.W. of India, except the Pathāns. In fact these people themselves make a sharp distinction between the Mughal Irānī, of Pers. origin (who is a Shīah), and the M. Tūrānī of Turk origin (who is a Sunni). Beg is the characteristic affix of the Mughal's name, as Khān is of the Pathān's. Among the Mahommedans of S. India the Moguls or Mughals constitute a strongly marked caste. [They are also clearly distinguished in the Punjab and N.W.P.] In the quotation from Baber below, the name still retains its original application. The passage illustrates the tone in which Baber always speaks of his kindred of the Steppe, much as Lord Clyde used sometimes to speak of "confounded Scotchmen."

In Port. writers Mogol or Mogor is often used for "Hindostān," or the territory of the Great Mogul.

1247.—"Terra quaedam est in partibus orientis ... quae Mongal nominatur. Haec terra quondam populos quatuor habuit: unus Yeka Mongal, id est magni Mongali...."—Joannis de Plano Carpini, Hist. Mongalorum, 645.

1253.—"Dicit nobis supradictus Coiac.... 'Nolite dicere quod dominus noster sit christianus. Non est christianus, sed Moal'; quia enim nomen christianitatis videtur eis nomen cujusdem gentis ... volentes nomen suum, hoc est Moal, exaltare super omne nomen, nec volunt vocari Tartari."—Itin. Willielmi de Rubruk, 259.

1298.—"... Mungul, a name sometimes applied to the Tartars."—Marco Polo, i. 276 (2nd ed.).

c. 1300.—"Ipsi verò dicunt se descendisse de Gog et Magog. Vnde ipsi dicuntur Mogoli, quasi corrupto vocabulo Magogoli."—Ricoldus de Monte Crucis, in Per. Quatuor, p. 118.

c. 1308.—"Ὁ δὲ Νογᾶς ... ὃς ἅμα πλείσταις δυνάμεσιν ἐξ ὁμογενῶν Τοχάρων, οὕς αὐτοι Μουγουλίους λέγουσι, ἔξαποσταλεις ἐκ τῶν κατὰ τὰς Κασπίας ἀρχόντων τοῦ γένους οὕς Κάνιδας στομάζουσιν."—Georg. Pachymeres, de Mich. Palaeol., lib. v.

c. 1340.—"In the first place from Tana to Gintarchan may be 25 days with an ox-waggon, and from 10 to 12 days with a horse-waggon. On the road you will find plenty of Moccols, that is to say of armed troopers."—Pegolotti, on the Land Route to Cathay, in Cathay, &c., ii. 287.

1404.—"And the territory of this empire of Samarkand is called the territory of Mogalia, and the language thereof is called Mugalia, and they don't understand this language on this side of the River (the Oxus) ... for the character which is used by those of Samarkand beyond the river is not understood or read by those on this side the river; and they call that character Mongali, and the Emperor keeps by him certain scribes who can read and write this Mogali character."—Clavijo, § ciii. (Comp. Markham, 119-120.)

c. 1500.—"The Moghul troops, which had come to my assistance, did not attempt to fight, but instead of fighting, betook themselves to dismounting and plundering my own people. Nor is this a solitary instance; such is the uniform practice of these wretches the Moghuls; if they defeat the enemy they instantly seize the booty; if they are defeated, they plunder and dismount their own allies, and betide what may, carry off the spoil."—Baber, 93.

1534.—"And whilst Badur was there in the hills engaged with his pleasures and luxury, there came to him a messenger from the King of the Mogores of the kingdom of Dely, called Bobor Mirza."—Correa, iii. 571.

1536.—"Dicti Mogores vel à populis Persarum Mogoribus, vel quod nunc Turkae à Persis Mogores appellantur."—Letter from K. John III. to Pope Paul III.

1555.—"Tartaria, otherwyse called Mongal, As Vincentius wryteth, is in that parte of the earthe, where the Easte and the northe joine together."—W. Watreman, Fardle of Faciouns.

1563.—"This Kingdom of Dely is very far inland, for the northern part of it marches with the territory of Coraçone (Khorasan).... The Mogores, whom we call Tartars, conquered it more than 30 years ago...."—Garcia, f. 34.

[c. 1590.—"In his time (Naṣiru'ddīn Maḥmūd) the Mughals entered the Panjab ..."—Āīn. ed. Jarrett, ii. 304.

[c. 1610.—"The greatest ships come from the coast of Persia, Arabia, Mogor."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 258.

[1636.—India "containeth many Provinces and Realmes, as Cambaiar, Delli, Decan, Bishagar, Malabar, Narsingar, Orixa, Bengala, Sanga, Mogores, Tipura, Gourous, Ava, Pegua, Aurea Chersonesus, Sina, Camboia, and Campaa."—T. Blundevil, Description and use of Plancius his Mappe, in Eight Treatises, ed. 1626, p. 547.]

c. 1650.—"Now shall I tell how the royal house arose in the land of the Monghol.... And the Ruler (Chingiz Khan) said, ... 'I will that this people Bèdè, resembling a precious crystal, which even to the completion of my enterprise hath shown the greatest fidelity in every peril, shall take the name of Köke (Blue) Monghol...."—Sanang Setzen, by Schmidt, pp. 57 and 71.

1741.—"Ao mesmo tempo que a paz se ajusterou entre os referidos generaes Mogor e Marata."—Bosquejo das Possessões Portug. na Oriente—Documentos Comprovativos, iii. 21 (Lisbon 1853).

1764.—"Whatever Moguls, whether Oranies or Tooranies, come to offer their services should be received on the aforesaid terms."—Paper of Articles sent to Major Munro by the Nawab, in Long, 360.

c. 1773.—"... the news-writers of Rai Droog frequently wrote to the Nawaub ... that the besieged Naik ... had attacked the batteries of the besiegers, and had killed a great number of the Moghuls."—H. of Hydur, 317.

1781.—"Wanted an European or Mogul Coachman that can drive four Horses in hand."—India Gazette, June 30.

1800.—"I pushed forward the whole of the Mahratta and Mogul cavalry in one body...."—Sir A. Wellesley to Munro, Munro's Life, i. 268.

1803.—"The Mogul horse do not appear very active; otherwise they ought certainly to keep the pindarries at a greater distance."—Wellington, ii. 281.

In these last two quotations the term is applied distinctively to Hyderabad troops.

1855.—"The Moguls and others, who at the present day settle in the country, intermarrying with these people (Burmese Mahommedans) speedily sink into the same practical heterodoxies."—Yule, Mission to Ava, 151.

MOGUL, THE GREAT, n.p. Sometimes 'The Mogul' simply. The name by which the Kings of Delhi of the House of Timur were popularly styled, first by the Portuguese (o grão Mogor) and after them by Europeans generally. It was analogous to the Sophy (q.v.), as applied to the Kings of Persia, or to the 'Great Turk' applied to the Sultan of Turkey. Indeed the latter phrase was probably the model of the present one. As noticed under the preceding article, MOGOL, MOGOR, and also Mogolistan are applied among old writers to the dominions of the Great Mogul. We have found no native idiom precisely suggesting the latter title; but Mughal is thus used in the Araish-i-Mahfil below, and Mogolistan must have been in some native use, for it is a form that Europeans would not have invented. (See quotations from Thevenot here and under MOHWA.)

c. 1563.—"Ma già dodici anni il gran Magol Re Moro d'Agra et del Deli ... si è impatronito di tutto il Regno de Cambaia."—V. di Messer Cesare Federici, in Ramusio, iii.

1572.—

By Burton:

[1609.—"When you shall repair to the Greate Magull."—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 325.

[1612.—"Hecchabar (Akbar) the last deceased Emperor of Hindustan, the father of the present Great Mogul."—Danvers, Letters, i. 163.]

1615.—"Nam praeter Magnum Mogor cui hodie potissima illius pars subjecta est; qui tum quidem Mahometicae religioni deditus erat, quamuis eam modo cane et angue peius detestetur, vix scio an illius alius rex Mahometana sacra coleret."—Jarric, i. 58.

" "... prosecuting my travaile by land, I entered the confines of the great Mogor...."—De Monfart, 15.

1616.—"It (Chitor) is in the country of one Rama, a Prince newly subdued by the Mogul."—Sir T. Roe. [In Hak. Soc. (i. 102) for "the Mogul" the reading is "this King."]

" "The Seuerall Kingdomes and Prouinces subject to the Great Mogoll Sha Selin Gehangier."—Idem. in Purchas, i. 578.

" "... the base cowardice of which people hath made The Great Mogul sometimes use this proverb, that one Portuguese would beat three of his people ... and he would further add that one Englishman would beat three Portuguese. The truth is that those Portuguese, especially those born in those Indian colonies, ... are a very low poor-spirited people...."—Terry, ed. 1777, 153.

[ " "... a copy of the articles granted by the Great Mogoll may partly serve for precedent."—Foster, Letters, iv. 222.]

1623.—"The people are partly Gentile and partly Mahometan, but they live mingled together, and in harmony, because the Great Mogul, to whom Guzerat is now subject ... although he is a Mahometan (yet not altogether that, as they say) makes no difference in his states between one kind of people and the other."—P. della Valle, ii. 510; [Hak. Soc. i. 30, where Mr. Grey reads "Gran Moghel"].

1644.—"The King of the inland country, on the confines of this island and fortress of Dlu, is the Mogor, the greatest Prince in all the East."—Bocarro, MS.

1653.—"Mogol est vn terme des Indes qui signifie blanc, et quand nous disons le grand Mogol, que les Indiens appellent Schah Geanne Roy du monde, c'est qu'il est effectiuement blanc ... nous l'appellons grand Blanc ou grand Mogol, comme nous appellons le Roy des Ottomans grand Turq."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, pp. 549-550.

" "This Prince, having taken them all, made fourscore and two of them abjure their faith, who served him in his wars against the Great Mogor, and were every one of them miserably slain in that expedition."—Cogan's Pinto, p. 25. The expression is not in Pinto's original, where it is Rey dos Mogores (cap. xx.).

c. 1663.—"Since it is the custom of Asia never to approach Great Persons with Empty Hands, when I had the Honour to kiss the Vest of the Great Mogol Aureng Zebe, I presented him with Eight Roupees ..."—Bernier, E.T. p. 62; [ed. Constable, 200].

1665.—

c. 1665.—"L'Empire du Grand-Mogol, qu'on nomme particulierement le Mogolistan, est le plus étendu et le plus puissant des Roiaumes des Indes.... Le Grand-Mogol vient en ligne directe de Tamerlan, dont les descendants qui se sont établis aux Indes, se sont fait appeller Mogols...."—Thevenot, v. 9.

1672.—"In these beasts the Great Mogul takes his pleasure, and on a stately Elephant he rides in person to the arena where they fight."—Baldaeus (Germ. ed.), 21.

1673.—"It is the Flower of their Emperor's Titles to be called the Great Mogul, Burrore (read Burrow, see Fryer's Index) Mogul Podeshar, who ... is at present Auren Zeeb."—Fryer, 195.

1716.—"Gram Mogol. Is as much as to say 'Head and king of the Circumcised,' for Mogol in the language of that country signifies circumcised" (!)—Bluteau, s.v.

1727.—"Having made what observations I could, of the Empire of Persia, I'll travel along the Seacoast towards Industan, or the Great Mogul's Empire."—A. Hamilton, i. 115, [ed. 1744].

1780.—"There are now six or seven fellows in the tent, gravely disputing whether Hyder is, or is not, the person commonly called in Europe the Great Mogul."—Letter of T. Munro, in Life, i. 27.

1783.—"The first potentate sold by the Company for money, was the Great Mogul—the descendant of Tamerlane."—Burke, Speech on Fox's E.I. Bill, iii. 458.

1786.—"That Shah Allum, the prince commonly called the Great Mogul, or, by eminence, the King, is or lately was in possession of the ancient capital of Hindostan...."—Art. of Charge against Hastings, in Burke, vii. 189.

1807.—"L'Hindoustan est depuis quelque temps dominé par une multitude de petits souverains, qui s'arrachent l'un l'autre leurs possessions. Aucun d'eux ne reconnait comme il faut l'autorité légitime du Mogol, si ce n'est cependant Messieurs les Anglais, lesquels n'ont pas cessé d'être soumis à son obéissance; en sort qu'actuellement, c'est à dire en 1222 (1807) ils reconnaissent l'autorité suprême d'Akbar Schah, fils de Schah Alam."—Afsos, Araish-i-Mahfil, quoted by Garcin de Tassy, Rel. Mus. 90.

MOGUL BREECHES, s. Apparently an early name for what we call long-drawers or pyjamas (qq.v.).

1625.—"... let him have his shirt on and his Mogul breeches; here are women in the house."—Beaumont & Fletcher, The Fair Maid of the Inn, iv. 2.

In a picture by Vandyke of William 1st Earl of Denbigh, belonging to the Duke of Hamilton, and exhibited at Edinburgh in July 1883, the subject is represented as out shooting, in a red striped shirt and pyjamas, no doubt the "Mogul breeches" of the period.

MOHUR, GOLD, s. The official name of the chief gold coin of British India, Hind. from Pers. muhr, a (metallic) seal, and thence a gold coin. It seems possible that the word is taken from mihr, 'the sun,' as one of the secondary meanings of that word is 'a golden circlet on the top of an umbrella, or the like' (Vullers). [Platts, on the contrary, identifies it with Skt. mudrā, 'a seal.']

The term muhr, as applied to a coin, appears to have been popular only and quasi-generic, not precise. But that to which it has been most usually applied, at least in recent centuries, is a coin which has always been in use since the foundation of the Mahommedan Empire in Hindustan by the Ghūrī Kings of Ghazni and their freedmen, circa A.D. 1200, tending to a standard weight of 100 ratis (see RUTTEE) of pure gold, or about 175 grains, thus equalling in weight, and probably intended then to equal ten times in value, the silver coin which has for more than three centuries been called Rupee.

There is good ground for regarding this as the theory of the system.^[165] But the gold coins, especially, have deviated from the theory considerably; a deviation which seems to have commenced with the violent innovations of Sultan Mahommed Tughlak (1325-1351), who raised the gold coin to 200 grains, and diminished the silver coin to 140 grains, a change which may have been connected with the enormous influx of gold into Upper India, from the plunder of the immemorial accumulations of the Peninsula in the first quarter of the 14th century. After this the coin again settled down in approximation to the old weight, insomuch that, on taking the weight of 46 different mohurs from the lists given in Prinsep's Tables, the average of pure gold is 167.22 grains.^[166]

The first gold mohur struck by the Company's Government was issued in 1766, and declared to be a legal tender for 14 sicca rupees. The full weight of this coin was 179.66 grs., containing 149.72 grs. of gold. But it was impossible to render it current at the rate fixed; it was called in, and in 1769 a new mohur was issued to pass as legal tender for 16 sicca rupees. The weight of this was 190.773 grs. (according to Regn. of 1793, 190.894), and it contained 190.086 grs. of gold. Regulation xxxv. of 1793 declared these gold mohurs to be a legal tender in all public and private transactions. Regn. xiv. of 1818 declared, among other things, that "it has been thought advisable to make a slight deduction in the intrinsic value of the gold mohur to be coined at this Presidency (Fort William), in order to raise the value of fine gold to fine silver, from the present rates of 1 to 14.861 to that of 1 to 15. The gold mohur will still continue to pass current at the rate of 16 rupees." The new gold mohur was to weigh 204.710 grs., containing fine gold 187.651 grs. Once more Act xvii. of 1835 declared that the only gold coin to be coined at Indian mints should be (with proportionate subdivisions) a gold mohur or "15 rupee piece" of the weight of 180 grs. troy, containing 165 grs. of pure gold; and declared also that no gold coin should thenceforward be a legal tender of payment in any of the territories of the E.I. Company. There has been since then no substantive change.

A friend (W. Simpson, the accomplished artist) was told in India that gold mohur was a corruption of gol, ('round') mohr, indicating a distinction from the square mohurs of some of the Delhi Kings. But this we take to be purely fanciful.

1690.—"The Gold Moor, or Gold Roupie, is valued generally at 14 of Silver; and the Silver Roupie at Two Shillings Three Pence."—Ovington, 219.

1726.—"There is here only also a State mint where gold Moors, silver Ropyes, Peysen and other money are struck."—Valentijn, v. 166.

1758.—"80,000 rupees, and 4000 gold mohurs, equivalent to 60,000 rupees, were the military chest for immediate expenses."—Orme, ed. 1803, ii. 364.

[1776.—"Thank you a thousand times for your present of a parcel of morahs."—Mrs. P. Francis, to her husband, in Francis Letters, i. 286.]

1779.—"I then took hold of his hand: then he (Francis) took out gold mohurs: and offered to give them to me: I refused them; he said 'Take that (offering both his hands to me), 'twill make you great men, and I will give you 100 gold mohurs more.'"—Evidence of Rambux Jemadar, on Trial of Grand v. Francis, quoted in Echoes of Old Calcutta, 228.

1785.—"Malver, hairdresser from Europe, proposes himself to the ladies of the settlement to dress Hair daily, at two gold mohurs per month, in the latest fashion with gauze flowers, &c. He will also instruct the slaves at a moderate price."^[167]—In Seton-Karr, i. 119.

1797.—"Notwithstanding he (the Nabob) was repeatedly told that I would accept nothing, he had prepared 5 lacs of rupees and 8000 gold Mohurs for me, of which I was to have 4 lacs, my attendants one, and your Ladyship the gold."—Letter in Mem. of Lord Teignmouth, i. 410.

1809.—"I instantly presented to her a nazur (see NUZZER) of nineteen gold mohurs in a white handkerchief."—Lord Valentia, i. 100.

1811.—"Some of his fellow passengers ... offered to bet with him sixty gold mohurs."—Morton's Life of Leyden, 83.

1829.—"I heard that a private of the Company's Foot Artillery passed the very noses of the prize-agents, with 500 gold mohurs (sterling 1000l.) in his hat or cap."—John Shipp, ii. 226.

[c. 1847.—"The widow is vexed out of patience, because her daughter Maria has got a place beside Cambric, the penniless curate, and not by Colonel Goldmore, the rich widower from India."—Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ed. 1879, p. 71.]

MOHURRER, MOHRER, &c., s. A writer in a native language. Ar. muḥarrir, 'an elegant, correct writer.' The word occurs in Grose (c. 1760) as 'Mooreis, writers.'

[1765.—"This is not only the custom of the heads, but is followed by every petty Mohooree in each office."—Verelst, View of Bengal, App. 217.]

MOHURRUM, s. Ar. Muḥarram ('sacer'), properly the name of the 1st month of the Mahommedan lunar year. But in India the term is applied to the period of fasting and public mourning observed during that month in commemoration of the death of Hassan and of his brother Husain (A.D. 669 and 680) and which terminates in the ceremonies of the 'Ashūrā-a, commonly however known in India as "the Mohurrum." For a full account of these ceremonies see Herklots, Qanoon-e-Islam, 2nd ed. 98-148. [Perry, Miracle Play of Hasan and Husain.] And see in this book HOBSON-JOBSON.

1869.—"Fête du Martyre de Huçain.... On la nomme généralement Muharram du nom du mois ... et plus spécialement Dahâ, mot persan dérivé de dah 'dix,' ... les dénominations viennent de ce que la fête de Huçain dure dix jours."—Garcin de Tassy, Rel. Mus. p. 31.

MOHWA, MHOWA, MOWA, s. Hind. &c. mahuā, mahwā, Skt. madhūka, the large oak-like tree Bassia latifolia,^[168] Roxb. (N. O. Sapotaceae), also the flower of this tree from which a spirit is distilled and the spirit itself. It is said that the Mahwā flower is now largely exported to France for the manufacture of liqueurs. The tree, in groups, or singly, is common all over Central India in the lower lands, and, more sparsely, in the Gangetic provinces. "It abounds in Guzerat. When the flowers are falling the Hill-men camp under the trees to collect them. And it is a common practice to sit perched on one of the trees in order to shoot the large deer which come to feed on the fallen mhowa. The timber is strong and durable." (M.-Gen. R. H. Keatinge).

c. 1665.—"Les bornes du Mogolistan et de Golconde sont plantées à environ un lieue et demie de Calvar. Ce sont des arbres qu'on appelle Mahoua; ils marquent la dernière terre du Mogol."—Thevenot, v. 200.

1810.—"... the number of shops where Toddy, Mowah, Pariah Arrack, &c., are served out, absolutely incalculable."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 153.

1814.—"The Mowah ... attains the size of an English oak ... and from the beauty of its foliage, makes a conspicuous appearance in the landscape."—Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 452; [2nd ed. ii. 261, reading Mawah].

1871.—"The flower ... possesses considerable substance, and a sweet but sickly taste and smell. It is a favourite article of food with all the wild tribes, and the lower classes of Hindus; but its main use is in the distillation of ardent spirits, most of what is consumed being Mhowa. The spirit, when well made, and mellowed by age, is by no means of despicable quality, resembling in some degree Irish whisky. The luscious flowers are no less a favourite food of the brute creation than of man...."—Forsyth, Highlands of C. India, 75.

MOLE-ISLAM, n.p. The title applied to a certain class of rustic Mahommedans or quasi-Mahommedans in Guzerat, said to have been forcibly converted in the time of the famous Sultan Mahmūd Bigarra, Butler's "Prince of Cambay." We are ignorant of the true orthography or meaning of the term. [In the E. Panjab the descendants of Jats forcibly converted to Islam are known as Mūla, or 'unfortunate' (Ibbetson, Punjab Ethnography, p. 142). The word is derived from the nakshatra or lunar asterism of Mūl, to be born in which is considered specially unlucky.]

[1808.—"Mole-Islams." See under GRASSIA.]

MOLEY, s. A kind of (so-called wet) curry used in the Madras Presidency, a large amount of coco-nut being one of the ingredients. The word is a corruption of 'Malay'; the dish being simply a bad imitation of one used by the Malays.

[1885.—"Regarding the Ceylon curry.... It is known by some as the 'Malay curry,' and it is closely allied to the moli of the Tamils of Southern India." Then follows the recipe.—Wyvern, Culinary Jottings, 5th ed., 299.]

MOLLY, or (better) MALLEE, s. Hind. mālī, Skt. mālika, 'a garland-maker,' or a member of the caste which furnishes gardeners. We sometimes have heard a lady from the Bengal Presidency speak of the daily homage of "the Molly with his dolly," viz. of the mālī with his dālī.

1759.—In a Calcutta wages tariff of this year we find—

MOLUCCAS, n.p. The 'Spice Islands,' strictly speaking the five Clove Islands, lying to the west of Gilolo, and by name Ternate (Tarnāti), Tidore (Tidori), Mortir, Makian, and Bachian. [See Mr. Gray's note on Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 166.] But the application of the name has been extended to all the islands under Dutch rule, between Celebes and N. Guinea. There is a Dutch governor residing at Amboyna, and the islands are divided into 4 residencies, viz. Amboyna, Banda, Ternate and Manado. The origin of the name Molucca, or Maluco as the Portuguese called it, is not recorded; but it must have been that by which the islands were known to the native traders at the time of the Portuguese discoveries. The early accounts often dwell on the fact that each island (at least three of them) had a king of its own. Possibly they got the (Ar.) name of Jazīrat-al-Mulūk, 'The Isles of the Kings.'

Valentijn probably entertained the same view of the derivation. He begins his account of the islands by saying:

"There are many who have written of the Moluccos and of their Kings, but we have hitherto met with no writer who has given an exact view of the subject" (Deel, i. Mol. 3).

And on the next page he says:

"For what reason they have been called Moluccos we shall not here say; for we shall do this circumstantially when we shall speak of the Molukse Kings and their customs."

But we have been unable to find the fulfilment of this intention, though probably it exists in that continent of a work somewhere. We have also seen a paper by a writer who draws much from the quarry of Valentijn. This is an article by Dr. Van Muschenbroek in the Proceedings of the International Congress of Geog. at Venice in 1881 (ii. pp. 596, seqq.), in which he traces the name to the same origin. He appears to imply that the chiefs were known among themselves as Molokos, and that this term was substituted for the indigenous Kolano, or King. "Ce nom, ce titre restèrent, et furent même peu à peu employés, non seulement pour les chefs, mais aussi pour l'état même. A la longue les îles et les états des Molokos devinrent les îles et les états Molokos." There is a good deal that is questionable, however, in this writer's deductions and etymologies. [Mr. Skeat remarks: "The islands appear to be mentioned in the Chinese history of the Tang dynasty (618-696) as Mi-li-ku, and if this be so the name is perhaps too old to be Arab."]

c. 1430.—"Has (Javas) ultra xv dierum cursu duae reperiuntur insulae, orientem versus. Altera Sandai appellatur, in qua nuces muscatae et maces; altera Bandam nomine, in qua sola gariofali producuntur."—N. Conti, in Poggius.

1501.—The earliest mention of these islands by this name, that we know, is in a letter of Amerigo Vespucci (quoted under CANHAMEIRA), who in 1501, among the places heard of by Cabral's fleet, mentions the Maluche Islands.

1510.—"We disembarked in the island of Monoch, which is much smaller than Bandan; but the people are worse.... Here the cloves grow, and in many other neighbouring islands, but they are small and uninhabited."—Varthema, 246.

1514.—"Further on is Timor, whence comes sandalwood, both the white and the red; and further on still are the Maluc, whence come the cloves. The bark of these trees I am sending you; an excellent thing it is; and so are the flowers."—Letter of Giovanni da Empoli, in Archivio Stor. Ital., p. 81.

1515.—"From Malacca ships and junks are come with a great quantity of spice, cloves, mace, nut (meg), sandalwood, and other rich things. They have discovered the five Islands of Cloves; two Portuguese are lords of them, and rule the land with the rod. 'Tis a land of much meat, oranges, lemons, and clove-trees, which grow there of their own accord, just as trees in the woods with us.... God be praised for such favour, and such grand things!"—Another letter of do., ibid. pp. 85-86.

1516.—"Beyond these islands, 25 leagues towards the north-east, there are five islands, one before the other, which are called the islands of Maluco, in which all the cloves grow.... Their Kings are Moors, and the first of them is called Bachan, the second Maquian, the third is called Motil, the fourth Tidory, and the fifth Ternaty ... every year the people of Malaca and Java come to these islands to ship cloves...."—Barbosa, 201-202.

1518.—"And it was the monsoon for Maluco, dom Aleixo despatched dom Tristram de Meneses thither, to establish the trade in clove, carrying letters from the King of Portugal, and presents for the Kings of the isles of Ternate and Tidore where the clove grows."—Correa, ii. 552.

1521.—"Wednesday the 6th of November ... we discovered four other rather high islands at a distance of 14 leagues towards the east. The pilot who had remained with us told us these were the Maluco islands, for which we gave thanks to God, and to comfort ourselves we discharged all our artillery ... since we had passed 27 months all but two days always in search of Maluco."—Pigafetta, Voyage of Magellan, Hak. Soc. 124.

1553.—"We know by our voyages that this part is occupied by sea and by land cut up into many thousand islands, these together, sea and islands, embracing a great part of the circuit of the Earth ... and in the midst of this great multitude of islands are those called Maluco.... (These) five islands called Maluco ... stand all within sight of one another embracing a distance of 25 leagues ... we do not call them Maluco because they have no other names; and we call them five because in that number the clove grows naturally.... Moreover we call them in combination Maluco, as here among us we speak of the Canaries, the Terceiras, the Cabo-Verde islands, including under these names many islands each of which has a name of its own."—Barros, III. v. 5.

" "... li molti viaggi dalla città di Lisbona, e dal mar rosso a Calicut, et insino alle Molucche, done nascono le spezierie."—G. B. Ramusio, Pref. sopra il Libro del Magn. M. Marco Polo.

1665.—

MONE, n.p. Mōn or Mūn, the name by which the people who formerly occupied Pegu, and whom we call Talaing, called themselves. See TALAING.

MONEGAR, s. The title of the headman of a village in the Tamil country; the same as pāṭīl (see PATEL) in the Deccan, &c. The word is Tamil maṇi yakkāran, 'an overseer,' maniyam, 'superintendence.'

1707.—"Ego Petrus Manicaren, id est Villarum Inspector...."—In Norbert, Mem. i. 390, note.

1717.—"Towns and villages are governed by inferior Officers ... maniakarer (Mayors or Bailiffs) who hear the complaints."—Phillips, Account, &c., 83.

1800.—"In each Hobly, for every thousand Pagodas (335l. 15s. 10¼d.) rent that he pays, there is also a Munegar, or a Tahsildar (see TAHSEELDAR) as he is called by the Mussulmans."—Buchanan's Mysore, &c., i. 276.

MONKEY-BREAD TREE, s. The Baobab, Adansonia digitata, L. "a fantastic-looking tree with immense elephantine stem and small twisted branches, laden in the rains with large white flowers; found all along the coast of Western India, but whether introduced by the Mahommedans from Africa, or by ocean-currents wafting its large light fruit, full of seed, across from shore to shore, is a nice speculation. A sailor once picked up a large seedy fruit in the Indian Ocean off Bombay, and brought it to me. It was very rotten, but I planted the seeds. It turned out to be Kigelia pinnata of E. Africa, and propagated so rapidly that in a few years I introduced it all over the Bombay Presidency. The Baobab however is generally found most abundant about the old ports frequented by the early Mahommedan traders." (Sir G. Birdwood, MS.) We may add that it occurs sparsely about Allahabad, where it was introduced apparently in the Mogul time; and in the Gangetic valley as far E. as Calcutta, but always planted. There are, or were, noble specimens in the Botanic Gardens at Calcutta, and in Mr. Arthur Grote's garden at Alipūr. [See Watt, Econ. Dict. i. 105.]

MONSOON, s. The name given to the periodical winds of the Indian seas, and of the seasons which they affect and characterize. The original word is the Ar. mausim, 'season,' which the Portuguese corrupted into monção, and our people into monsoon. Dictionaries (except Dr. Badger's) do not apparently give the Arabic word mausim the technical sense of monsoon. But there can be no doubt that it had that sense among the Arab pilots from whom the Portuguese adopted the word. This is shown by the quotations from the Turkish Admiral Sidi 'Ali. "The rationale of the term is well put in the Beirūt Moḥīt, which says: 'Mausim is used of anything that comes round but once a year, like the festivals. In Lebanon the mausim is the season of working with the silk,'—which is the important season there, as the season of navigation is in Yemen." (W. R. S.)

The Spaniards in America would seem to have a word for season in analogous use for a recurring wind, as may be gathered from Tom Cringle.^[169] The Venetian, Leonardo Ca' Masser (below) calls the monsoons li tempi. And the quotation from Garcia De Orta shows that in his time the Portuguese sometimes used the word for season without any apparent reference to the wind. Though monção is general with the Portuguese writers of the 16th century, the historian Diogo de Couto always writes moução, and it is possible that the n came in, as in some other cases, by a habitual misreading of the written u for n. Linschoten in Dutch (1596) has monssoyn and monssoen (p. 8; [Hak. Soc. i. 33]). It thus appears probable that we get our monsoon from the Dutch. The latter in modern times seem to have commonly adopted the French form mousson. [Prof. Skeat traces our monsoon from Ital. monsone.] We see below (Ces. Feder.) that Monsoon was used as synonymous with "the half year," and so it is still in S. India.

1505.—"De qui passano el colfo de Colocut che sono leghe 800 de pacizo (? passeggio): aspettano li tempi che sono nel principio dell'Autuno, e con le cole fatte (?) passano."—Leonardo di Ca' Masser, 26.

[1512.—"... because the mauçam for both the voyages is at one and the same time."—Albuquerque, Cartas, p. 30.]

1553.—"... and the more, because the voyage from that region of Malaca had to be made by the prevailing wind, which they call monção, which was now near its end. If they should lose eight days they would have to wait at least three months for the return of the time to make the voyage."—Barros, Dec. II. liv. ii. cap. iv.

1554.—"The principal winds are four, according to the Arabs, ... but the pilots call them by names taken from the rising and setting of certain stars, and assign them certain limits within which they begin or attain their greatest strength, and cease. These winds, limited by space and time, are called Mausim."—The Mohit, by Sidi 'Ali Kapudān, in J. As. Soc. Beng. iii. 548.

" "Be it known that the ancient masters of navigation have fixed the time of the monsoon (in orig. doubtless mausim), that is to say, the time of voyages at sea, according to the year of Yazdajird, and that the pilots of recent times follow their steps...." (Much detail on the monsoons follows.)—Ibid.

1563.—"The season (monção) for these (i.e. mangoes) in the earlier localities we have in April, but in the other later ones in May and June; and sometimes they come as a rodolho (as we call it in our own country) in October and November."—Garcia, f. 134v.

1568.—"Come s'arriua in vna città la prima cosa si piglia vna casa a fitto, ò per mesi ò per anno, seconda che si disegnà di starui, e nel Pegù è costume di pigliarla per Moson, cioè per sei mesi."—Ces. Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 394.

1585-6.—"But the other goods which come by sea have their fixed season, which here they call Monzão."—Sassetti, in De Gubernatis, p. 204.

1599.—"Ora nell' anno 1599, essendo venuta la Mansone a proposito, si messero alla vela due navi Portoghesi, le quali eran venute dalla città di Goa in Amacao (see MACAO)."—Carletti, ii. 206.

c. 1610.—"Ces Monssons ou Muessons sont vents qui changent pour l'Esté ou pour l'Hyver de six mois en six mois."—Pyrard de Laval, i. 199; see also ii. 110; [Hak. Soc. i. 280; in i. 257 Monsons; in ii. 175, 235, Muesons].

[1615.—"I departed for Bantam having the time of the year and the opportunity of the Monethsone."—Foster, Letters, iii. 268.

[ " "The Monthsone will else be spent."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. i. 36.]

1616.—"... quos Lusitani patriâ voce Moncam indigetant."—Jarric, i. 46.

" Sir T. Roe writes Monson.

1627.—"Of Corea hee was also told that there are many bogges, for which cause they have Waggons with broad wheeles, to keepe them from sinking, and obseruing the Monson or season of the wind ... they have sayles fitted to these waggons, and so make their Voyages on land."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 602.

1634.—

1644.—"The winds that blow at Diu from the commencement of the change of season in September are sea-breezes, blowing from time to time from the S., S.W., or N.W., with no certain Monsam wind, and at that time one can row across to Dio with great facility."—Bocarro, MS.

c. 1665.—"... and it would be true to say, that the sun advancing towards one Pole, causeth on that side two great regular currents, viz., that of the Sea, and that of the Air which maketh the Mounson-wind, as he causeth two opposite ones, when he returns towards the other Pole."—Bernier, E.T. 139-40; [ed. Constable, 436; see also 109].

1673.—"The northern Monsoons (if I may so say, being the name imposed by the first Observers, i.e. Motiones) lasting hither."—Fryer, 10.

" "A constellation by the Portugals called Rabodel Elephanto (see ELEPHANTA, b.) known by the breaking up of the Munsoons, which is the last Flory this Season makes."—Ibid. 48. He has also Mossoons or Monsoons, 46.

1690.—"Two Mussouns are the Age of a Man."—Bombay Proverb in Ovington's Voyage, 142.

[ " "Mussoans." See under ELEPHANTA, b.]

1696.—"We thought it most advisable to remain here, till the next Mossoon."—Bowyear, in Dalrymple, i. 87.

1783.—"From the Malay word moossin, which signifies season."—Forrest, V. to Mergui, 95.

" "Their prey is lodged in England; and the cries of India are given to seas and winds, to be blown about, in every breaking up of the monsoon, over a remote and unhearing ocean."—Burke's Speech on Fox's E.I. Bill, in Works, iii. 468.

[MOOBAREK, adj. Ar. mubārak, 'blessed, happy'; as an interjection, 'Welcome!' 'Congratulations to you!'

[1617.—"... a present ... is called Mombareck, good Newes, or good Successe."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. ii. 413.

[1812.—"Bombareek ... which by sailors is also called Bombay Rock, is derived originally from 'moobarek,' 'happy, fortunate.'"—Morier, Journey through Persia, 6.]

MOOCHULKA, s. Hind. muchalkā or muchalka. A written obligation or bond. For technical uses see Wilson. The word is apparently Turki or Mongol.

c. 1267.—"Five days thereafter judgment was held on Husamuddin the astrologer, who had executed a muchilkai that the death of the Khalif would be the calamity of the world."—Hammer's Golden Horde, 166.

c. 1280.—"When he (Kubilai Kaan) approached his 70th year, he desired to raise in his own lifetime, his son Chimkin to be his representative and declared successor.... The chiefs ... represented ... that though the measure ... was not in accordance with the Yasa and customs of the world-conquering hero Chinghiz Kaan, yet they would grant a muchilka in favour of Chimkin's Kaanship."—Wassáf's History, Germ. by Hammer, 46.

c. 1360.—"He shall in all divisions and districts execute muchilkas to lay no burden on the subjects by extraordinary imposts, and irregular exaction of supplies."—Form of the Warrant of a Territorial Governor under the Mongols, in the above, App. p. 468.

1818.—"You were present at the India Board when Lord B—— told me that I should have 10,000 pagodas per annum, and all my expenses paid.... I never thought of taking a muchalka from Lord B——, because I certainly never suspected that my expenses would ... have been restricted to 500 pagodas, a sum which hardly pays my servants and equipage."—Munro to Malcolm, in Munro's Life, &c., iii. 257.

MOOCHY, s. One who works in leather, either as shoemaker or saddler. It is the name of a low caste, Hind. mochī. The name and caste are also found in S. India, Telug. muchche. These, too, are workers in leather, but also are employed in painting, gilding, and upholsterer's work, &c.

[1815.—"Cow-stealing ... is also practised by ... the Mootshee or Shoemaker cast."—Tytler, Considerations, i. 103.]

MOOKTEAR, s. Properly Hind. from Ar. mukhtār, 'chosen,' but corruptly mukhtyār. An authorised agent; an attorney. Mukhtyār-nāma, 'a power of attorney.'

1866.—"I wish he had been under the scaffolding when the roof of that new Cutcherry he is building fell in, and killed two mookhtars."—The Dawk Bungalow (by G. O. Trevelyan), in Fraser's Mag. lxxiii. p. 218.

1878.—"These were the mookhtyars, or Criminal Court attorneys, teaching the witnesses what to say in their respective cases, and suggesting answers to all possible questions, the whole thing having been previously rehearsed at the mookhtyar's house."—Life in the Mofussil, f. 90.

1885.—"The wily Bengali muktears, or attorneys, were the bane of the Hill Tracts, and I never relaxed in my efforts to banish them from the country."—Lt.-Col. T. Lewin, A Fly on the Wheel, p. 336.

MOOLLAH, s. Hind. mullā, corr. from Ar. maulā, a der. from wilā, 'propinquity.' This is the legal bond which still connects a former owner with his manumitted slave; and in virtue of this bond the patron and client are both called maulā. The idea of patronage is in the other senses; and the word comes to mean eventually 'a learned man, a teacher, a doctor of the Law.' In India it is used in these senses, and for a man who reads the Ḳorān in a house for 40 days after a death. When oaths were administered on the Ḳorān, the servitor who held the book was called Mullā Ḳorānī. Mullā is also in India the usual Mussulman term for 'a schoolmaster.'

1616.—"Their Moolaas employ much of their time like Scriueners to doe businesse for others."—Terry, in Purchas, ii. 1476.

[1617.—"He had shewed it to his Mulaies."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. ii. 417.]

1638.—"While the Body is let down into the grave, the kindred mutter certain Prayers between their Teeth, and that done all the company returns to the house of the deceased, where the Mollas continue their Prayers for his Soul, for the space of two or three days...."—Mandelslo, E.T. 63.

1673.—"At funerals, the Mullahs or Priests make Orations or Sermons, after a Lesson read out of the Alchoran."—Fryer, 94.

1680.—"The old Mulla having been discharged for misconduct, another by name Cozzee (see CAZEE) Mahmud entertained on a salary of 5 Pagodas per mensem, his duties consisting of the business of writing letters, &c., in Persian, besides teaching the Persian language to such of the Company's servants as shall desire to learn it."—Ft. St. Geo. Consn. March 11. Notes and Exts. No. iii. p. 12; [also see Pringle, Diary, Ft. St. Geo., 1st ser. ii. 2, with note].

1763.—"The Mulla in Indostan superintends the practice, and punishes the breach of religious duties."—Orme, reprint, i. 26.

1809.—"The British Government have, with their usual liberality, continued the allowance for the Moolahs to read the Koran."—Ld. Valentia, i. 423.

[1842.—See the classical account of the Moollahs of Kabul in Elphinstone's Caubul, ed. 1842, i. 281 seqq.]

1879.—"... struck down by a fanatical crowd impelled by a fierce Moola."—Sat. Rev. No. 1251, p. 484.

MOOLVEE, s. Popular Hind. mulvī, Ar. maulavī, from same root as mullā (see MOOLLAH). A Judge, Doctor of the Law, &c. It is a usual prefix to the names of learned men and professors of law and literature. (See LAW-OFFICER.)

1784.—

MOONAUL, s. Hind. munāl or monāl (it seems to be in no dictionary); [Platts gives "Munāl (dialec.)"]. The Lopophorus Impeyanus, most splendid perhaps of all game-birds, rivalling the brilliancy of hue, and the metallic lustre of the humming-birds on the scale of the turkey. "This splendid pheasant is found throughout the whole extent of the Himalayas, from the hills bordering Afghanistan as far east as Sikkim, and probably also to Bootan" (Jerdon). "In the autumnal and winter months numbers are generally collected in the same quarter of the forest, though often so widely scattered that each bird appears to be alone" (Ibid.). Can this last circumstance point to the etymology of the name as connected with Skt. muni, 'an eremite'?

It was pointed out in a note on Marco Polo (1st ed. i. 246, 2nd ed. i. 272), that the extract which is given below from Aelian undoubtedly refers to the Munāl. We have recently found that this indication had been anticipated by G. Cuvier, in a note on Pliny (tom. vii. p. 409 of ed. Ajasson de Grandsagne, Paris, 1830). It appears from Jerdon that Monaul is popularly applied by Europeans at Darjeeling to the Sikkim horned pheasant Ceriornis satyra, otherwise sometimes called 'Argus Pheasant' (q.v.).

c. A.D. 350.—"Cocks too are produced there of a kind bigger than any others. These have a crest, but instead of being red like the crest of our cocks, this is variegated like a coronet of flowers. The tail-feathers moreover are not arched, or bent into a curve (like a cock's), but flattened out. And this tail they trail after them as a peacock does, unless when they erect it, and set it up. And the plumage of these Indian cocks is golden, and dark blue, and of the hue of the emerald."—De Nat. Animal. xvi. 2.

MOON BLINDNESS. This affection of the eyes is commonly believed to be produced by sleeping exposed to the full light of the moon. There is great difference of opinion as to the facts, some quoting experience as incontrovertible, others regarding the thing merely as a vulgar prejudice, without substantial foundation. Some remarks will be found in Collingwood's Rambles of a Naturalist, pp. 308-10. The present writer has in the East twice suffered from a peculiar affection of the eyes and face, after being in sleep exposed to a bright moon, but he would hardly have used the term moon-blindness.

MOONG, MOONGO, s. Or. 'green-gram'; Hind. mūng, [Skt. mudga]. A kind of vetch (Phaseolus Mungo, L.) in very common use over India; according to Garcia the mesce (māsh?) of Avicenna. Garcia also says that it was popularly recommended as a diet for fever in the Deccan; [and is still recommended for this purpose by native physicians (Watt, Econ. Dict. vi. pt. i. 191)].

c. 1336.—"The munj again is a kind of māsh, but its grains are oblong and the colour is light green. Munj is cooked along with rice, and eaten with butter. This is what they call Kichrī (see KEDGEREE), and it is the diet on which one breakfasts daily."—Ibn Batuta, iii. 131.

1557.—"The people were obliged to bring hay, and corn, and mungo, which is a certain species of seed that they feed horses with."—Albuquerque, Hak. Soc. ii. 132.

1563.—"Servant-maid.—That girl that you brought from the Deccan asks me for mungo, and says that in her country they give it them to eat, husked and boiled. Shall I give it her?

"Orta.—Give it her since she wishes it; but bread and a boiled chicken would be better. For she comes from a country where they eat bread, and not rice."—Garcia, f. 145.

[1611.—"... for 25 maunds Moong, 28 m. 09 p."—Danvers, Letters, i. 141.]

MOONGA, MOOGA, s. Beng. mūgā. A kind of wild silk, the produce of Antheraea assama, collected and manufactured in Assam. ["Its Assamese name is said to be derived from the amber munga, 'coral' colour of the silk, and is frequently used to denote silk in general" (B. C. Allen, Mono. on the Silk Cloths of Assam, 1899, p. 10).] The quotations in elucidation of this word may claim some peculiar interest. That from Purchas is a modern illustration of the legends which reached the Roman Empire in classic times, of the growth of silk in the Seric jungles ("velleraque ut foliis depectunt tenuia Seres"); whilst that from Robert Lindsay may possibly throw light on the statements in the Periplus regarding an overland importation of silk from Thin into Gangetic India.

1626.—"... Moga which is made of the bark of a certaine tree."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 1005.

c. 1676.—"The kingdom of Asem is one of the best countries of all Asia.... There is a sort of Silk that is found under the trees, which is spun by a Creature like our Silk-worms, but rounder, and which lives all the year long under the trees. The Silks which are made of this Silk glist'n very much, but they fret presently."—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 187-8; [ed. Ball, ii. 281].

1680.—"The Floretta yarn or Muckta examined and priced.... The Agent informed 'that 'twas called Arundee, made neither with cotton nor silke, but of a kind of Herba spun by a worme that feeds upon the leaves of a stalke or tree called Arundee which bears a round prickly berry, of which oyle is made; vast quantitys of this cloth is made in the country about Goora Ghaut beyond Seripore Mercha; where the wormes are kept as silke wormes here; twill never come white, but will take any colour'" &c.—Ft. St. Geo. Agent on Tour, Consn., Nov. 19. In Notes and Exts., No. iii. p. 58. Araṇḍī or reṇḍī is the castor-oil plant, and this must be the Attacus ricini, Jones, called in H. Arrindi, Arrindiaria (?) and in Bengali Eri, Eria, Erindy, according to Forbes Watson's Nomenclature, No. 8002, p. 371. [For full details see Allen, Mono. pp. 5, seqq.].

1763.—"No duties have ever yet been paid on Lacks, Mugga-dooties, and other goods brought from Assam."—In Van Sittart, i. 249.

c. 1778.—"... Silks of a coarse quality, called Moonga dutties, are also brought from the frontiers of China for the Malay trade."—Hon. R. Lindsay, in Lives of the Lindsays, iii. 174.

MOONSHEE, s. Ar. munshi, but written in Hind. munshī. The verb insha, of which the Ar. word is the participle, means 'to educate' a youth, as well as 'to compose' a written document. Hence 'a secretary, a reader, an interpreter, a writer.' It is commonly applied by Europeans specifically to a native teacher of languages, especially of Arabic, Persian, and Urdū, though the application to a native amanuensis in those tongues, and to any respectable, well-educated native gentleman is also common. The word probably became tolerably familiar in Europe through a book of instruction in Persian bearing the name (viz. "The Persian Moonshee, by F. Gladwyn," 1st ed. s.a., but published in Calcutta about 1790-1800).

1777.—"Moonshi. A writer or secretary."—Halhed, Code, 17.

1782.-"The young gentlemen exercise themselves in translating ... they reason and dispute with their munchees (tutors) in Persian and Moors...."—Price's Tracts, i. 89.

1785.—"Your letter, requiring our authority for engaging in your service a Mûnshy, for the purpose of making out passports, and writing letters, has been received."—Tippoo's Letters, 67.

" "A lasting friendship was formed between the pupil and his Moonshee.... The Moonshee, who had become wealthy, afforded him yet more substantial evidence of his recollection, by earnestly requesting him, when on the point of leaving India, to accept a sum amounting to £1600, on the plea that the latter (i.e. Shore) had saved little."—Mem. of Lord Teignmouth, i. 32-33.

1814.—"They presented me with an address they had just composed in the Hindoo language, translated into Persian by the Durbar munsee."—Forbes, Or. Mem. iii. 365; [2nd ed. ii. 344].

1817.—"Its authenticity was fully proved by ... and a Persian Moonshee who translated."—Mill, Hist. v. 127.

1828.—"... the great Moonshi of State himself had applied the whole of his genius to selecting such flowers of language as would not fail to diffuse joy, when exhibited in those dark and dank regions of the north."—Hajji Baba in England, i. 39.

1867.—"When the Mirza grew up, he fell among English, and ended by carrying his rupees as a Moonshee, or a language-master, to that infidel people."—Select Writings of Viscount Strangford, i. 265.

MOONSIFF, s. Hind. from Ar. munṣif, 'one who does justice' (inṣāf), a judge. In British India it is the title of a native civil judge of the lowest grade. This office was first established in 1793.

1812.—"... munsifs, or native justices."—Fifth Report, p. 32.

[1852.—"'I wonder, Mr. Deputy, if Providence had made you a Moonsiff, instead of a Deputy Collector, whether you would have been more lenient in your strictures upon our system of civil justice?'"—Raikes, Notes on the N.W. Provinces, 155.]

MOOR, MOORMAN, s. (and adj. MOORISH). A Mahommedan; and so from the habitual use of the term (Mouro), by the Portuguese in India, particularly a Mahommedan inhabitant of India.

In the Middle Ages, to Europe generally, the Mahommedans were known as the Saracens. This is the word always used by Joinville, and by Marco Polo. Ibn Batuta also mentions the fact in a curious passage (ii. 425-6). At a later day, when the fear of the Ottoman had made itself felt in Europe, the word Turk was that which identified itself with the Moslem, and thus we have in the Collect for Good Friday,—"Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics." But to the Spaniards and Portuguese, whose contact was with the Musulmans of Mauritania who had passed over and conquered the Peninsula, all Mahommedans were Moors. So the Mahommedans whom the Portuguese met with on their voyages to India, on what coast soever, were alike styled Mouros; and from the Portuguese the use of this term, as synonymous with Mahommedan, passed to Hollanders and Englishmen.

The word then, as used by the Portuguese discoverers, referred to religion, and implied no nationality. It is plain indeed from many passages that the Moors of Calicut and Cochin were in the beginning of the 16th century people of mixt race, just as the Moplahs (q.v.) are now. The Arab, or Arabo-African occupants of Mozambique and Melinda, the Sumālis of Magadoxo, the Arabs and Persians of Kalhāt and Ormuz, the Boras of Guzerat, are all Mouros to the Portuguese writers, though the more intelligent among these are quite conscious of the impropriety of the term. The Moors of the Malabar coast were middlemen, who had adopted a profession of Islam for their own convenience, and in order to minister for their own profit to the constant traffic of merchants from Ormuz and the Arabian ports. Similar influences still affect the boatmen of the same coast, among whom it has become a sort of custom in certain families, that different members should profess respectively Mahommedanism, Hinduism, and Christianity.

The use of the word Moor for Mahommedan died out pretty well among educated Europeans in the Bengal Presidency in the beginning of the last century, or even earlier, but probably held its ground a good deal longer among the British soldiery, whilst the adjective Moorish will be found in our quotations nearly as late as 1840. In Ceylon, the Straits, and the Dutch Colonies, the term Moorman for a Musalman is still in common use. Indeed the word is still employed by the servants of Madras officers in speaking of Mahommedans, or of a certain class of these. Moro is still applied at Manilla to the Musulman Malays.

1498.—"... the Moors never came to the house when this trading went on, and we became aware that they wished us ill, insomuch that when any of us went ashore, in order to annoy us they would spit on the ground, and say 'Portugal, Portugal.'"—Roteiro de V. da Gama, p. 75.

" "For you must know, gentlemen, that from the moment you put into port here (Calecut) you caused disturbance of mind to the Moors of this city, who are numerous and very powerful in the country."—Correa, Hak. Soc. 166.

1499.—"We reached a very large island called Sumatra, where pepper grows in considerable quantities.... The Chief is a Moor, but speaking a different language."—Santo Stefano, in India in the XVth Cent. [7].

1505.—"Adì 28 zugno vene in Venetia insieme co Sier Alvixe de Boni un sclav moro el qual portorono i spagnoli da la insula spagniola."—MS. in Museo Civico at Venice. Here the term Moor is applied to a native of Hispaniola!

1513.—"Hanc (Malaccam) rex Maurus gubernabat."—Emanuelis Regis Epistola, f. 1.

1553.—"And for the hatred in which they hold them, and for their abhorrence of the name of Frangue, they call in reproach the Christians of our parts of the world Frangues (see FIRINGHEE), just as we improperly call them again Moors."—Barros, IV. iv. 16.

c. 1560.—"When we lay at Fuquien, we did see certain Moores, who knew so little of their secte that they could say nothing else but that Mahomet was a Moore, my father was a Moore, and I am a Moore."—Reports of the Province of China, done into English by R. Willes, in Hakl. ii. 557.

1563.—"And as to what you say of Ludovico Vartomano, I have spoken both here and in Portugal, with people who knew him here in India, and they told me that he went about here in the garb of a Moor, and that he came back among us doing penance for his sins; and that the man never went further than Calecut and Cochin, nor indeed did we at that time navigate those seas that we now navigate."—Garcia, f. 30.

1569.—"... always whereas I have spoken of Gentiles is to be understood Idolaters, and whereas I speak of Moores, I mean Mahomets secte."—Caesar Frederike, in Hakl. ii. 359.

1610.—"The King was fled for feare of the King of Makasar, who ... would force the King to turne Moore, for he is a Gentile."—Midleton, in Purchas, i. 239.

1611.—"Les Mores du pay faisoiẽt courir le bruict, que les notres avoient esté battus."—Wytfliet, H. des Indes, iii. 9.

1648.—"King Jangier (Jehāngīr) used to make use of a reproach: That one Portugees was better than three Moors, and one Hollander or Englishman better than two Portugees."—Van Twist, 59.

c. 1665.—"Il y en a de Mores et de Gentils Raspoutes (see RAJPOOT) parce que je savois qu'ils servent mieux que les Mores qui sont superbes, et ne veulent pas qu'on se plaigne d'eux, quelque sotise ou quelque tromperie qu'ils fassent."—Thevenot, v. 217.

1673.—"Their Crew were all Moors (by which Word hereafter must be meant those of the Mahometan faith) apparell'd all in white."—Fryer, p. 24.

" "They are a Shame to our Sailors, who can hardly ever work without horrid Oaths and hideous Cursing and Imprecations; and these Moormen, on the contrary, never set their Hands to any Labour, but that they sing a Psalm or Prayer, and conclude at every joint Application of it, 'Allah, Allah,' invoking the Name of God."—Ibid. pp. 55-56.

1685.—"We putt out a peece of a Red Ancient to appear like a Moor's Vessel: not judging it safe to be known to be English; Our nation having lately gott an ill name by abusing ye Inhabitants of these Islands: but no boat would come neer us ..." (in the Maldives).—Hedges, Diary, March 9; [Hak. Soc. i. 190].

1688.—"Lascars, who are Moors of India."—Dampier, ii. 57.

1689.—"The place where they went ashore was a Town of the Moors: Which name our Seamen give to all the Subjects of the great Mogul, but especially his Mahometan Subjects; calling the Idolators, Gentous or Rashboots (see RAJPOOT)."—Dampier, i. 507.

1747.—"We had the Misfortune to be reduced to almost inevitable Danger, for as our Success chiefly depended on the assistance of the Moors, We were soon brought to the utmost Extremity by being abandoned by them."—Letter from Ft. St. Geo. to the Court, May 2 (India Office MS. Records).

1752.—"His successor Mr. Godehue ... even permitted him (Dupleix) to continue the exhibition of those marks of Moorish dignity, which both Murzafa-jing and Sallabad-jing had permitted him to display."—Orme, i. 367.

1757.—In Ives, writing in this year, we constantly find the terms Moormen and Moorish, applied to the forces against which Clive and Watson were acting on the Hoogly.

1763.—"From these origins, time has formed in India a mighty nation of near ten millions of Mahomedans, whom Europeans call Moors."—Orme, ed. 1803, i. 24.

1770.—"Before the Europeans doubled the Cape of Good Hope, the Moors, who were the only maritime people of India, sailed from Surat and Bengal to Malacca."—Raynal (tr. 1777), i. 210.

1781.—"Mr. Hicky thinks it a Duty incumbent on him to inform his friends in particular, and the Public in General, that an attempt was made to Assassinate him last Thursday Morning between the Hours of One and two o'Clock, by two armed Europeans aided and assisted by a Moorman...."—Hicky's Bengal Gazette, April 7.

1784.—"Lieutenants Speediman and Rutledge ... were bound, circumcised, and clothed in Moorish garments."—In Seton-Karr, i. 15.

1797.—"Under the head of castes entitled to a favourable term, I believe you comprehend Brahmans, Moormen, merchants, and almost every man who does not belong to the Sudra or cultivating caste...."—Minute of Sir T. Munro, in Arbuthnot, i. 17.

1807.—"The rest of the inhabitants, who are Moors, and the richer Gentoos, are dressed in various degrees and fashions."—Ld. Minto in India, p. 17.

1829.—"I told my Moorman, as they call the Mussulmans here, just now to ask the drum-major when the mail for the Pradwan (?) was to be made up."—Mem. of Col. Mountain, 2nd ed. p. 80.

1839.—"As I came out of the gate I met some young Moorish dandies on horseback; one of them was evidently a 'crack-rider,' and began to show off."—Letters from Madras, p. 290.

MOORA, s. Sea Hind. mūrā, from Port. amura, Ital. mura; a tack (Roebuck).

MOORAH, s. A measure used in the sale of paddy at Bombay and in Guzerat. The true form of this word is doubtful. From Molesworth's Mahr. Dict. it would seem that muḍā and mudī are properly cases of rice-straw bound together to contain certain quantities of grain, the former larger and the latter smaller. Hence it would be a vague and varying measure. But there is a land measure of the same name. See Wilson, s.v. Múdi. [The Madras Gloss. gives mooda, Mal. mūta, from mūtu, 'to cover,' "a fastening package; especially the packages in a circular form, like a Dutch cheese, fastened with wisps of straw, in which rice is made up in Malabar and Canara." The mooda is said to be 1 cubic foot and 1,116 cubic inches, and equal to 3 Kulsies (see CULSEY).]

1554.—"(At Baçaim) the Mura of batee (see BATTA) contains 3 candis (see CANDY), which (batee) is rice in the husk, and after it is stript it amounts to a candy and a half, and something more."—A. Nunes, p. 30.

[1611.—"I send your worship by the bearer 10 moraes of rice."—Danvers, Letters, i. 116.]

1813.—

MOORPUNKY, s. Corr. of Mor-pankhī, 'peacock-tailed,' or 'peacock-winged'; the name given to certain state pleasure-boats on the Gangetic rivers, now only (if at all) surviving at Murshīdābād. They are a good deal like the Burmese 'war-boats;' see cut in Mission to Ava (Major Phayre's), p. 4. [A similar boat was the Feelchehra (Hind. fīl-chehra, 'elephant-faced'). In a letter of 1784 Warren Hastings writes: "I intend to finish my voyage to-morrow in the feelchehra" (Busteed, Echoes, 3rd ed. 291).]

1767.—"Charges Dewanny, viz.:—

"A few moorpungkeys and beauleahs (see BOLIAH) for the service of Mahomed Reza Khan, and on the service at the city some are absolutely necessary ... 25,000 : 0 : 0."—Dacca Accounts, in Long, 524.

1780.—"Another boat ... very curiously constructed, the Moor-punky: these are very long and narrow, sometimes extending to upwards of 100 feet in length, and not more than 8 feet in breadth; they are always paddled, sometimes by 40 men, and are steered by a large paddle from the stern, which rises in the shape of a peacock, a snake, or some other animal."—Hodges, 40.

[1785.—"... moor-punkees, or peacock-boats, which are made as much as possible to resemble the peacock."—Diary, in Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. ii. 450.]

MOORS, THE, s. The Hindustani language was in the 18th century commonly thus styled. The idiom is a curious old English one for the denomination of a language, of which 'broad Scots' is perhaps a type, and which we find exemplified in 'Malabars' (see MALABAR) for Tamil, whilst we have also met with Bengals for Bengālī, with Indostans for Urdū, and with Turks for Turkish. The term Moors is probably now entirely obsolete, but down to 1830, at least, some old officers of the Royal army and some old Madras civilians would occasionally use the term as synonymous with what the former would also call 'the black language.' [Moors for Urdū was certainly in use among the old European pensioners at Chunār as late as 1892.]

The following is a transcript of the title-page of Hadley's Grammar, the earliest English Grammar of Hindustani:^[171]

"Grammatical Remarks | on the | Practical and Vulgar Dialect | Of the | Indostan Language | commonly called Moors | with a Vocabulary | English and Moors. The Spelling according to | The Persian Orthography | Wherein are | References between Words resembling each other in | Sound and different in Significations | with Literal Translations and Explanations of the Com- | pounded Words and Circumlocutory Expressions | For the more easy attaining the Idiom of the Language | The whole calculated for

The Common Practice in Bengal.

By Capt. George Hadley. London: Printed for T. Cadell in the Strand. MDCCLXXII."

Captain Hadley's orthography is on a detestable system. He writes chookerau, chookeree, for chhokrā, chhokrī ('boy, girl'); dolchinney for dāl-chīnī ('cinnamon'), &c. His etymological ideas also are loose. Thus he gives shrimps = chînghra mutchee, 'fish with legs and claws,' as if the word was from chang (Pers.), 'a hook or claw.' Bāgḍor, 'a halter,' or as he writes, baug-doore, he derives from dūr, 'distance,' instead of ḍor, 'a rope.' He has no knowledge of the instrumental case with terminal ne, and he does not seem to be aware that ham and tum (hum and toom, as he writes) are in reality plurals ('we' and 'you'). The grammar is altogether of a very primitive and tentative character, and far behind that of the R. C. Missionaries, which is referred to s.v. Hindostanee. We have not seen that of Schulz (1745) mentioned under the same.

1752.—"The Centinel was sitting at the top of the gate, singing a Moorish song."—Orme, ed. 1803, i. 272.

1767.—"In order to transact Business of any kind in this Countrey, you must at least have a smattering of the Language for few of the Inhabitants (except in great Towns) speak English. The original Language, of this Countrey (or at least the earliest we know of) is the Bengala or Gentoo.... But the politest Language is the Moors or Mussulmans and Persian.... The only Language that I know anything of is the Bengala, and that I do not speak perfectly, for you may remember that I had a very poor knack at learning Languages."—MS. Letter of James Rennell, March 10.

1779.—"C. What language did Mr. Francis speak?

W. (Meerum Kitmutgar). The same as I do, in broken Moors."—Trial of Grand v. Philip Francis, quoted in Echoes of Old Calcutta, 226.

1783.—"Moors, by not being written, bars all close application."—Letter in Life of Colebrooke, 13.

" "The language called 'Moors' has a written character differing both from the Sanskrit and Bengalee character, it is called Nagree, which means 'writing.'"—Letter in Mem. of Ld. Teignmouth, i. 104.

1784.—

1788.—"Wants Employment. A young man who has been some years in Bengal, used to common accounts, understands Bengallies, Moors, Portuguese...."—In Seton-Karr, i. 286.

1789.—"... sometimes slept half an hour, sometimes not, and then wrote or talked Persian or Moors till sunset, when I went to parade."—Letter of Sir T. Munro, i. 76.

1802.—"All business is transacted in a barbarous mixture of Moors, Mahratta, and Gentoo."—Sir T. Munro, in Life, i. 333.

1803.—"Conceive what society there will be when people speak what they don't think, in Moors."—M. Elphinstone, in Life, i. 108.

1804.—"She had a Moorish woman interpreter, and as I heard her give orders to her interpreter in the Moorish language ... I must consider the conversation of the first authority."—Wellington, iii. 290.

" "The Stranger's Guide to the Hindoostanic, or Grand Popular Language of India, improperly called Moorish; by J. Borthwick Gilchrist: Calcutta."

MOORUM, s. A word used in Western India for gravel, &c., especially as used in road-metal. The word appears to be Mahratti. Molesworth gives "murūm, a fissile kind of stone, probably decayed Trap." [Murukallu is the Tel. name for Laterite. (Also see CABOOK.)]

[1875.—"There are few places where Morram, or decomposed granite, is not to be found."—Gribble, Cuddapah, 247.

[1883.—"Underneath is Morambu, a good filtering medium."—Le Fanu, Salem, ii. 43.]

MOOTSUDDY, s. A native accountant. Hind. mutaṣaddī from Ar. mutaṣaddi.

1683.—"Cossadass ye Chief Secretary, Mutsuddies, and ye Nabobs Chief Eunuch will be paid all their money beforehand."—Hedges, Diary, Jan. 6; [Hak. Soc. i. 61].

[1762.—"Muttasuddies." See under GOMASTA.]

1785.—"This representation has caused us the utmost surprise. Whenever the Mutsuddies belonging to your department cease to yield you proper obedience, you must give them a severe flogging."—Tippoo's Letters, p. 2.

" "Old age has certainly made havock on your understanding, otherwise you would have known that the Mutusuddies here are not the proper persons to determine the market prices there."—Ibid. p. 118.

[1809.—"The regular battalions have also been riotous, and confined their Mootusudee, the officer who keeps their accounts, and transacts the public business on the part of the commandant."—Broughton, Letters, ed. 1892, p. 135.]

MOPLAH, s. Malayāl. māppila. The usual application of this word is to the indigenous Mahommedans of Malabar; but it is also applied to the indigenous (so-called) Syrian Christians of Cochin and Travancore. In Morton's Life of Leyden the word in the latter application is curiously misprinted as madilla. The derivation of the word is very obscure. Wilson gives mā-pilla, 'mother's son,' "as sprung from the intercourse of foreign colonists, who were persons unknown, with Malabar women." Nelson, as quoted below interprets the word as 'bridegroom' (it should however rather be 'son-in-law').^[172] Dr. Badger suggests that it is from the Arabic verb falaḥa, and means 'a cultivator' (compare the fellah of Egypt), whilst Mr. C. P. Brown expresses his conviction that it was a Tamil mispronunciation of the Arabic mu'abbar, 'from over the water.' No one of these greatly commends itself. [Mr. Logan (Malabar, ii. ccviii.) and the Madras Glossary derive it from Mal. ma, Skt. māha, 'great,' and Mal. piḷḷa, 'a child.' Dr. Gundert's view is that Māpiḷḷa was an honorary title given to colonists from the W., perhaps at first only to their representatives.]

1516.—"In all this country of Malabar there are a great quantity of Moors, who are of the same language and colour as the Gentiles of the country.... They call these Moors Mapulers; they carry on nearly all the trade of the seaports."—Barbosa, 146.

1767.—"Ali Raja, the Chief of Cananore, who was a Muhammadan, and of the tribe called Mapilla, rejoiced at the success and conquests of a Muhammadan Chief."—H. of Hydur, p. 184.

1782.—"... les Maplets reçurent les coutumes et les superstitions des Gentils, sous l'empire des quels ils vivoient. C'est pour se conformer aux usages des Malabars, que les enfans des Maplets n'héritent point de leurs pères, mais des frères de leurs mères."—Sonnerat, i. 193.

1787.—

1800.—"We are not in the most thriving condition in this country. Polegars, nairs, and moplas in arms on all sides of us."—Wellington, i. 43.

1813.—"At one period the Moplahs created great commotion in Travancore, and towards the end of the 17th century massacred the chief of Anjengo, and all the English gentlemen belonging to the settlement, when on a public visit to the Queen of Attinga."—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 402; [2nd ed. i. 259].

1868.—"I may add in concluding my notice that the Kallans alone of all the castes of Madura call the Mahometans 'māpilleis' or bridegrooms (Moplahs)."—Nelson's Madura, Pt. ii. 55.

MORA, s. Hind. moṛhā. A stool (tabouret); a footstool. In common colloquial use.

[1795.—"The old man, whose attention had been chiefly attracted by a Ramnaghur morah, of which he was desirous to know the construction, ... departed."—Capt. Blunt, in Asiat. Res., vii. 92.

[1843.—"Whilst seated on a round stool, or mondah, in the thanna, ... I entered into conversation with the thannadar...."—Davidson, Travels in Upper India, i. 127.]

MORCHAL, s. A fan, or a fly-whisk, made of peacock's feathers. Hind. morch'hal.

1673.—"All the heat of the Day they idle it under some shady Tree, at night they come in troops, armed with a great Pole, a Mirchal or Peacock's Tail, and a Wallet."—Fryer, 95.

1690.—(The heat) "makes us Employ our Peons in Fanning of us with Murchals made of Peacock's Feathers, four or five Foot long, in the time of our Entertainments, and when we take our Repose."—Ovington, 335.

[1826.—"They (Gosseins) are clothed in a ragged mantle, and carry a long pole, and a mirchal, or peacock's tail."—Pandurang Hari, ed. 1873, i. 76.]

MORT-DE-CHIEN, s. A name for cholera, in use, more or less, up to the end of the 18th century, and the former prevalence of which has tended probably to the extraordinary and baseless notion that epidemic cholera never existed in India till the governorship of the Marquis of Hastings. The word in this form is really a corruption of the Portuguese mordexim, shaped by a fanciful French etymology. The Portuguese word again represents the Konkani and Mahratti moḍachī, moḍshī, or moḍwashī, 'cholera,' from a Mahr. verb moḍnen, 'to break up, to sink' (as under infirmities, in fact 'to collapse'). The Guzaratī appears to be moṛchi or moṛachi.

[1504.—Writing of this year Correa mentions the prevalence of the disease in the Samorin's army, but he gives it no name. "Besides other illness there was one almost sudden, which caused such a pain in the belly that a man hardly survived 8 hours of it."—Correa, i. 489.]

1543.—Correa's description is so striking that we give it almost at length: "This winter they had in Goa a mortal distemper which the natives call morxy, and attacking persons of every quality, from the smallest infant at the breast to the old man of fourscore, and also domestic animals and fowls, so that it affected every living thing, male and female. And this malady attacked people without any cause that could be assigned, falling upon sick and sound alike, on the fat and the lean; and nothing in the world was a safeguard against it. And this malady attacked the stomach, caused as some experts affirmed by chill; though later it was maintained that no cause whatever could be discovered. The malady was so powerful and so evil that it immediately produced the symptoms of strong poison; e.g., vomiting, constant desire for water, with drying of the stomach; and cramps that contracted the hams and the soles of the feet, with such pains that the patient seemed dead, with the eyes broken and the nails of the fingers and toes black and crumpled. And for this malady our physicians never found any cure; and the patient was carried off in one day, or at the most in a day and night; insomuch that not ten in a hundred recovered, and those who did recover were such as were healed in haste with medicines of little importance known to the natives. So great was the mortality this season that the bells were tolling all day ... insomuch that the governor forbade the tolling of the church bells, not to frighten the people ... and when a man died in the hospital of this malady of morexy the Governor ordered all the experts to come together and open the body. But they found nothing wrong except that the paunch was shrunk up like a hen's gizzard, and wrinkled like a piece of scorched leather...."—Correa, iv. 288-289.

1563.—"Page.—Don Jeronymo sends to beg that you will go and visit his brother immediately, for though this is not the time of day for visits, delay would be dangerous, and he will be very thankful that you come at once.

"Orta.—What is the matter with the patient, and how long has he been ill?

"Page.—He has got morxi; and he has been ill two hours.

"Orta.—I will follow you.

"Ruano.—Is this the disease that kills so quickly, and that few recover from? Tell me how it is called by our people, and by the natives, and the symptoms of it, and the treatment you use in it.

"Orta.—Our name for the disease is Collerica passio; and the Indians call it morxi; whence again by corruption we call it mordexi.... It is sharper here than in our own part of the world, for usually it kills in four and twenty hours. And I have seen some cases where the patient did not live more than ten hours. The most that it lasts is four days; but as there is no rule without an exception, I once saw a man with great constancy of virtue who lived twenty days continually throwing up ("curginosa"?) ... bile, and died at last. Let us go and see this sick man; and as for the symptoms you will yourself see what a thing it is."—Garcia, ff. 74v, 75.

1578.—"There is another thing which is useless called by them canarin, which the Canarin Brahman physicians usually employ for the collerica passio sickness, which they call morxi; which sickness is so sharp that it kills in fourteen hours or less."—Acosta, Tractado, 27.

1598.—"There reigneth a sicknesse called Mordexijn which stealeth uppon men, and handleth them in such sorte, that it weakeneth a man, and maketh him cast out all that he hath in his bodie, and many times his life withall."—Linschoten, 67; [Hak. Soc. i. 235; Morxi in ii. 22].

1599.—"The disease which in India is called Mordicin. This is a species of Colic, which comes on in those countries with such force and vehemence that it kills in a few hours; and there is no remedy discovered. It causes evacuations by stool or vomit, and makes one burst with pain. But there is a herb proper for the cure, which bears the same name of mordescin."—Carletti, 227.

1602.—"In those islets (off Aracan) they found bad and brackish water, and certain beans like ours both green and dry, of which they ate some, and in the same moment this gave them a kind of dysentery, which in India they corruptly call mordexim, which ought to be morxis, and which the Arabs call sachaiza (Ar. hayẓat), which is what Rasis calls sahida, a disease which kills in 24 hours. Its action is immediately to produce a sunken and slender pulse, with cold sweat, great inward fire, and excessive thirst, the eyes sunken, great vomitings, and in fact it leaves the natural power so collapsed (derribada) that the patient seems like a dead man."—Couto, Dec. IV. liv. iv. cap. 10.

c. 1610.—"Il regne entre eux vne autre maladie qui vient a l'improviste, ils la nomment Mordesin, et vient auec grande douleur des testes, et vomissement, et crient fort, et le plus souvent en meurent."—Pyrard de Laval, ii. 19; [Hak. Soc. ii. 13].

1631.—"Pulvis ejus (Calumbac) ad scrup. unius pondus sumptus cholerae prodest, quam Mordexi incolae vocant."—Jac. Bontii, lib. iv. p. 43.

1638.—"... celles qui y regnent le plus, sont celles qu'ils appellent Mordexin, qui tue subitement."—Mandelslo, 265.

1648.—See also the (questionable) Voyages Fameux du Sieur Victor le Blanc, 76.

c. 1665.—"Les Portugais appellent Mordechin les quatre sortes de Coliques qu'on souffre dans les Indes ou elles sont frequentes ... ceux qui ont la quatrième soufrent les trois maux ensemble, à savoir le vomissement, le flux de ventre, les extremes douleurs, et je crois que cette derniere est le Colera-Morbus."—Thevenot, v. 324.

1673.—"They apply Cauteries most unmercifully in a Mordisheen, called so by the Portugals, being a Vomiting with Looseness."—Fryer, 114.

[1674.—"The disease called Mordechi generally commences with a violent fever, accompanied by tremblings, horrors and vomitings; these symptoms are generally followed by delirium and death." He prescribes a hot iron applied to the soles of the feet. He attributes the disease to indigestion, and remarks bitterly that at least the prisoners of the Inquisition were safe from this disease.—Dellon, Relation de l'Inquisition de Goa, ii. ch. 71.]

1690.—"The Mordechine is another Disease ... which is a violent Vomiting and Looseness."—Ovington, 350.

c. 1690.—Rumphius, speaking of the Jack-fruit (q.v.): "Non nisi vacuo stomacho edendus est, alias enim ... plerumque oritur Passio Cholerica, Portugallis Mordexi dicta."—Herb. Amb., i. 106.

1702.—"Cette grande indigestion qu'on appelle aux Indes Mordechin, et que quelques uns de nos Français ont appellée Mort-de-Chien."—Lettres Edif., xi. 156.

Bluteau (s.v.) says Mordexim is properly a failure of digestion which is very perilous in those parts, unless the native remedy be used. This is to apply a thin rod, like a spit, and heated, under the heel, till the patient screams with pain, and then to slap the same part with the sole of a shoe, &c.

1705.—"Ce mal s'appelle mort-de-chien."—Luillier, 113.

The following is an example of literal translation, as far as we know, unique:

1716.—"The extraordinary distempers of this country (I. of Bourbon) are the Cholick, and what they call the Dog's Disease, which is cured by burning the heel of the patient with a hot iron."—Acct. of the I. of Bourbon, in La Roque's Voyage to Arabia the Happy, &c., E.T. London, 1726, p. 155.

1727.—"... the Mordexin (which seizes one suddenly with such oppression and palpitation that he thinks he is going to die on the spot)."—Valentijn, v. (Malabar) 5.

c. 1760.—"There is likewise known, on the Malabar coast chiefly, a most violent disorder they call the Mordechin; which seizes the patient with such fury of purging, vomiting, and tormina of the intestines, that it will often carry him off in 30 hours."—Grose, i. 250.

1768.—"This (cholera morbus) in the East Indies, where it is very frequent and fatal, is called Mort-de-chien."—Lind, Essay on Diseases incidental to Hot Climates, 248.

1778.—In the Vocabulary of the Portuguese Grammatica Indostana, we find Mordechim, as a Portuguese word, rendered in Hind. by the word badazmi, i.e. bad-haẓmī, 'dyspepsia' (p. 99). The most common modern Hind. term for cholera is Arab. haiẓah. The latter word is given by Garcia de Orta in the form hachaiza, and in the quotation from Couto as sachaiza (?). Jahāngīr speaks of one of his nobles as dying in the Deccan, of haiẓah, in A.D. 1615 (see note to Elliot, vi. 346). It is, however, perhaps not to be assumed that haiẓah always means cholera. Thus Macpherson mentions that a violent epidemic, which raged in the Camp of Aurangzīb at Bījapur in 1689, is called so. But in the history of Khāfi Khān (Elliot, vii. 337) the general phrases ta'ūn and wabā are used in reference to this disease, whilst the description is that of bubonic plague.