M (continued 5)
Reading edition
c. 1343.—"Preserved Mirabolans (mirabolani conditi) should be big and black, and the envelope over the nut tender to the tooth; and the bigger and blacker and tenderer to the tooth (like candied walnuts), the better they are.... Some people say that in India they are candied when unripe (acerbe), just as we candy[181] the unripe tender walnuts, and that when they are candied in this way they have no nut within, but are all through tender like our walnut-comfits. But if this is really done, anyhow none reach us except those with a nut inside, and often very hard nuts too. They should be kept in brown earthen pots glazed, in a syrop made of cassia fistula[182] and honey or sugar; and they should remain always in the syrop, for they form a moist preserve and are not fit to use dry."—Pegolotti, p. 377.
c. 1343.—(At Alexandria) "are sold by the ten mans (mene, see MAUND), ... amomum, mirobalans of every kind, camphor, castor...."—Ibid. 57.
1487.—"... Vasi grandi di confectione, mirobolani e gengiovo."—Letter on presents sent by the Sultan to L. de' Medici, in Roscoe's Lorenzo, ed. 1825, ii. 372.
1505.—(In Calicut) "li nasce mirabolani, emblici e chebali, li quali valeno ducati do' el baar (see BAHAR.)"—Lionardo Ca' Masser, p. 27.
1552.—"La campagne de Iericho est entournée de mõtaignes de tous costez: poignant laquelle, et du costé de midy est la mer morte.... Les arbres qui portent le Licion, naissent en ceste plaine, et aussi les arbres qui portent les Myrobalans Citrins, du noyau desquels les habitants font de l'huille."[183]—P. Belon, Observations, ed. 1554, f. 144.
1560.—"Mais pource que le Ben, que les Grecz appellent Balanus Myrepsica, m'a fait souvenir des Myrabolans des Arabes, dont y en a cinq especes: et que d'ailleurs, on en vse ordinairement en Medecine, encores que les anciens Grecz n'en ayent fait aucune mention: il m'a semblé bon d'en toucher mot: car i'eusse fait grand tort à ces Commentaires de les priuer d'vn fruict si requis en Medecine. Il y a donques cinq especes de Myrabolans."—Matthioli, Com. on Dioscorides, old Fr. Tr. p. 394.
1610.—
"Kastril. How know you? Subtle. By inspection on her forehead; And subtlety of lips, which must be tasted Often, to make a judgment. [Kisses her again.] 'Slight, she melts Like a Myrabolane."—The Alchemist, iv. 1.
[c. 1665.—"Among other fruits, they preserve (in Bengal) large citrons ... small Mirobolans, which are excellent...."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 438.]
1672.—"Speaking of the Glans Unguentaria, otherwise call'd Balanus Mirepsica or Ben Arabum, a very rare Tree, yielding a most fragrant and highly esteem'd Oyl; he is very particular in describing the extraordinary care he used in cultivating such as were sent to him in Holland."—Notice of a Work by Abraham Munting, M.D., in Philosoph. Trans. ix. 249.
MYSORE, n.p. Tam. Maisūr, Can. Maisūru. The city which was the capital of the Hindu kingdom, taking its name, and which last was founded in 1610 by a local chief on the decay of the Vijayanagar (see BISNAGAR, NARSINGA) dynasty. C. P. Brown gives the etym. as Maisi-ūr, Maisi being the name of a local goddess like Pomona or Flora; ūr, 'town, village.' It is however usually said to be a corruption of Mahish-āsura, the buffalo demon slain by the goddess Durga or Kali. [Rice (Mysore, i. 1) gives Can. Maisa, from Skt. Mahisha, and ūru, 'town.']
[1696.—"Nabob Zulphecar Cawn is gone into the Mizore country after the Mahratta army...."—Letter in Wilks, Hist. Sketches, Madras reprint, i. 60.]
MYSORE THORN. The Caesalpinia sepiaria, Roxb. It is armed with short, sharp, recurved prickles; and is much used as a fence in the Deccan. Hyder Ali planted it round his strongholds in Mysore, and hence it is often called "Hyder's Thorn," Haidar kā jhār.
[1857.—"What may be termed the underwood consisted of milk bushes, prickly pears, mysore thorn, intermingled in wild confusion...."—Lady Falkland, Chow-chow, 2nd ed. i. 300.]