M

MĀ-BĀP, s. 'Āp mā-bāp hai khudāwand!' 'You, my Lord, are my mother and father!' This is an address from a native, seeking assistance, or begging release from a penalty, or reluctant to obey an order, which the young ṣāhib hears at first with astonishment, but soon as a matter of course.

MABAR, n.p. The name given in the Middle Ages by the Arabs to that coast of India which we call Coromandel. The word is Ar. ma'bar, 'the ferry or crossing-place.' It is not clear how the name came to be applied, whether because the Arab vessels habitually touched at its ports, or because it was the place of crossing to Ceylon, or lastly whether it was not an attempt to give meaning to some native name. [The Madras Gloss. says it was so called because it was the place of crossing from Madura to Ceylon; also see Logan, Malabar, i. 280.] We know no occurrence of the term earlier than that which we give from Abdallatīf.

c. 1203.—"I saw in the hands of an Indian trader very beautiful mats, finely woven and painted on both sides with most pleasing colours.... The merchant told me ... that these mats were woven of the Indian plantain ... and that they sold in Mabar for two dinars apiece."—Abd-Allatīf, Relation de l'Egypte, p. 31.

1279-86.—In M. Pauthier's notes on Marco Polo very curious notices are extracted from Chinese official annals regarding the communications, in the time of Kublai Kaan, between that Emperor and Indian States, including Ma-pa-'rh.—(See pp. 600-605).

c. 1292.—"When you leave the Island of Seilan and sail westward about 60 miles, you come to the great province of Maabar, which is styled India the Greater: it is the best of all the Indies, and is on the mainland."—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. ch. 16.

c. 1300.—"The merchants export from Ma'bar silken stuffs, aromatic roots; large pearls are brought from the sea. The productions of this country are carried to 'Irák, Khorásán, Syria, Russia and Europe."—Rashīduddīn, in Elliot, i. 69.

1303.—"In the beginning of this year (703 H.), the Maliki-'Azam, Takiú-d-dín ... departed from the country of Hind to the passage (ma'bar) of corruption. The King of Ma'bar was anxious to obtain his property and wealth, but Malik Mu'azzam Siráju-d-dín, son of the deceased, having secured his goodwill, by the payment of 200,000 dínárs, not only obtained the wealth, but rank also of his father."—Wassáf, in Elliot, iii. 45.

1310.—"The country of Ma'bar, which is so distant from Dehli that a man travelling with all expedition could only reach it after a journey of 12 months, there the arrow of any holy warrior had not yet reached."—Amír Khusrú, in Elliot, iii. 85.

c. 1330.—"The third part (of India) is Ma'bar, which begins some three or four days journey to the eastward of Kaulam; this territory lies to the east of Malabar.... It is stated that the territory Ma'bar begins at the Cape Kumhari, a name which applies both to a mountain and a city.... Biyyardāwal is the residence of the Prince of Ma'bar, for whom horses are imported from foreign countries."—Abulfeda, in Gildemeister, p. 185. We regret to see that M. Guyard, in his welcome completion of Reinaud's translation of Abulfeda, absolutely, in some places, substitutes "Coromandel" for "Ma'bar." It is French fashion, but a bad one.

c. 1498.—"Zo deser stat Kangera anlenden alle Kouffschyff die in den landen zo doyn hauen, ind lijcht in eyner provincie Moabar genant."—Pilgerfahrt des Ritters Arnold von Harff (a fiction-monger), p. 140.

1753.—"Selon cet autorité le pays du continent qui fait face à l'île de Ceilan est Maabar, ou le grande Inde: et cette interpretation de Marc-Pol est autant plus juste, que maha est un terme Indien, et propre même à quelques langues Scythiques ou Tartares, pour signifier grand. Ainsi, Maabar signifie la grande region."—D'Anville, p. 105. The great Geographer is wrong!

MACAO, n.p.

a. The name applied by the Portuguese to the small peninsula and the city built on it, near the mouth of Canton River, which they have occupied since 1557. The place is called by the Chinese Ngao-măn (Ngao, 'bay or inlet,' Măn, 'gate'). The Portuguese name is alleged to be taken from A-mā-ngao, 'the Bay of Ama,' i.e. of the Mother, the so-called 'Queen of Heaven,' a patroness of seamen. And indeed Amacao is an old form often met with.

c. 1567.—"Hanno i Portoghesi fatta vna picciola cittáde in vna Isola vicina a' i liti della China chiamato Machao ... ma i datii sono del Rè della China, e vanno a pagarli a Canton, bellissima cittáde, e di grande importanza, distante da Machao due giorni e mezzo."—Cesare de' Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 391.

c. 1570.—"On the fifth day of our voyage it pleased God that we arrived at ... Lampacau, where at that time the Portugals exercised their commerce with the Chineses, which continued till the year 1557, when the Mandarins of Canton, at the request of the Merchants of that Country, gave us the port of Macao, where the trade now is; of which place (that was but a desart Iland before) our countrymen made a very goodly plantation, wherein there were houses worth three or four thousand Duckats, together with a Cathedral Church...."—Pinto, in Cogan, p. 315.

1584.—"There was in Machao a religious man of the order of the barefoote friars of S. Francis, who vnderstanding the great and good desire of this king, did sende him by certaine Portugal merchants ... a cloth whereon was painted the day of iudgement and hell, and that by an excellent workman."—Mendoza, ii. 394.

1585.—"They came to Amacao, in Iuly, 1585. At the same time it seasonably hapned that Linsilan was commanded from the court to procure of the Strangers at Amacao, certaine goodly feathers for the King."—From the Jesuit Accounts, in Purchas, iii. 330.

1599 ... —"Amacao." See under MONSOON.

1602.—"Being come, as heretofore I wrote your Worship, to Macao a city of the Portugals, adjoyning to the firme Land of China, where there is a Colledge of our Company."—Letter from Diego de Pantoia, in Purchas, iii. 350.

[1611.—"There came a Jesuit from a place called Langasack (see LANGASAQUE), which place the Carrack of Amakau yearly was wont to come."—Danvers, Letters, i. 146.]

1615.—"He adviseth me that 4 juncks are arrived at Langasaque from Chanchew, which with this ship from Amacau, will cause all matters to be sould chepe."—Cocks's Diary, i. 35.

[ " "... carried them prisoners aboard the great ship of Amacan."—Foster, Letters, iv. 46.]

1625.—"That course continued divers yeeres till the Chinois growing lesse fearefull, granted them in the greater Iland a little Peninsula to dwell in. In that place was an Idoll, which still remained to be seene, called Ama, whence the Peninsula was called Amacao, that is Amas Bay."—Purchas, iii. 319.

b. MACAO, MACCAO, was also the name of a place on the Pegu River which was the port of the city so called in the day of its greatness. A village of the name still exists at the spot.

1554.—"The baar (see BAHAR) of Macao contains 120 biças, each biça 100 ticals (q.v.) ..."—A. Nunes, p. 39.

1568.—"Si fa commodamente il viaggio sino a Maccao distante da Pegu dodeci miglia, e qui si sbarca."—Ces. Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 395.

1587.—"From Cirion we went to Macao, &c."—R. Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 391. (See DELING).

1599.—"The King of Arracan is now ending his business at the Town of Macao, carrying thence the Silver which the King of Tangu had left, exceeding three millions."—N. Pimenta, in Purchas, iii. 1748.

MACAREO, s. A term applied by old voyagers to the phenomenon of the bore, or great tidal wave as seen especially in the Gulf of Cambay, and in the Sitang Estuary in Pegu. The word is used by them as if it were an Oriental word. At one time we were disposed to think it might be the Skt. word makara, which is applied to a mythological sea-monster, and to the Zodiacal sign Capricorn. This might easily have had a mythological association with the furious phenomenon in question, and several of the names given to it in various parts of the world seem due to associations of a similar kind. Thus the old English word Oegir or Eagre for the bore on the Severn, which occurs in Drayton, "seems to be a reminiscence of the old Scandinavian deity Oegir, the god of the stormy sea."^[153] [This theory is rejected by N.E.D. s.v. Eagre.] One of the Hindi names for the phenomenon is Menḍhā, 'The Ram'; whilst in modern Guzerat, according to R. Drummond, the natives call it ghoṛā, "likening it to the war horse, or a squadron of them."^[154] But nothing could illustrate the naturalness of such a figure as makara, applied to the bore, better than the following paragraph in the review-article just quoted (p. 401), which was evidently penned without any allusion to or suggestion of such an origin of the name, and which indeed makes no reference to the Indian name, but only to the French names of which we shall presently speak:

"Compared with what it used to be, if old descriptions may be trusted, the Mascaret is now stripped of its terrors. It resembles the great nature-force which used to ravage the valley of the Seine, like one of the mythical dragons which, as legends tell, laid whole districts waste, about as much as a lion confined in a cage resembles the free monarch of the African wilderness."

Take also the following:

1885.—"Here at his mouth Father Meghna is 20 miles broad, with islands on his breast as large as English counties, and a great tidal bore which made a daily and ever-varying excitement.... In deep water, it passed merely as a large rolling billow; but in the shallows it rushed along, roaring like a crested and devouring monster, before which no small craft could live."—Lt.-Col. T. Lewin, A Fly on the Wheel, 161-162.

But unfortunately we can find no evidence of the designation of the phenomenon in India by the name of makara or the like; whilst both mascaret (as indicated in the quotation just made) and macrée are found in French as terms for the bore. Both terms appear to belong properly to the Garonne, though mascaret has of late began on the Seine to supplant the old term barre, which is evidently the same as our bore. [The N.E.D. suggests O. N. bára, 'wave.'] Littré can suggest no etymology for mascaret; he mentions a whimsical one which connects the word with a place on the Garrone called St. Macaire, but only to reject it. There would be no impossibility in the transfer of an Indian word of this kind to France, any more than in the other alternative of the transfer of a French term to India in such a way that in the 16th century visitors to that country should have regarded it as an indigenous word, if we had but evidence of its Indian existence. The date of Littré's earliest quotation, which we borrow below, is also unfavourable to the probability of transplantation from India. There remains the possibility that the word is Basque. The Saturday Reviewer already quoted says that he could find nothing approaching to Mascaret in a Basque French Dict., but this hardly seems final.

The vast rapidity of the flood-tide in the Gulf of Cambay is mentioned by Maṣ'ūdī, who witnessed it in the year H. 303 (A.D. 915) i. 255; also less precisely by Ibn Batuta (iv. 60). There is a paper on it in the Bo. Govt. Selections, N.S. No. xxvi., from which it appears that the bore wave reaches a velocity of 10½ knots. [See also Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd. ed. i. 313.]

1553.—"In which time there came hither (to Diu) a concourse of many vessels from the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and all the coast of Arabia and India, so that the places within the Gulf of Cambaya, which had become rich and noble by trade, were by this port undone. And this because it stood outside of the Macareos of the Gulf of Cambaya, which were the cause of the loss of many ships."—Barros, II. ii. cap. 9.

1568.—"These Sholds (G. of Cambay) are an hundred and foure-score miles about in a straight or gulfe, which they call Macareo (Maccareo in orig.) which is as much as to say a race of a Tide."—Master C. Frederick, Hakl. ii. 342; [and comp. ii. 362].

1583.—"And having sailed until the 23d of the said month, we found ourselves in the neighbourhood of the Macareo (of Martaban) which is the most marvellous thing that ever was heard of in the way of tides, and high waters.... The water in the channel rises to the height of a high tree, and then the boat is set to face it, waiting for the fury of the tide, which comes on with such violence that the noise is that of a great earthquake, insomuch that the boat is soused from stem to stern, and carried by that impulse swiftly up the channel."—Gasparo Balbi, ff. 91v, 92.

1613.—"The Macareo of waves is a disturbance of the sea, like water boiling, in which the sea casts up its waves in foam. For the space of an Italian mile, and within that distance only, this boiling and foaming occurs, whilst all the rest of the sea is smooth and waveless as a pond.... And the stories of the Malays assert that it is caused by souls that are passing the Ocean from one region to another, or going in cafilas from the Golden Chersonesus ... to the river Ganges."—Godinho de Eredia, f. 41v. [See Skeat, Malay Magic, 10 seq.]

1644.—"... thence to the Gulf of Cambaya with the impetuosity of the currents which are called Macareo, of whose fury strange things are told, insomuch that a stone thrown with force from the hand even in the first speed of its projection does not move more swiftly than those waters run."—Bocarro, MS.

1727.—"A Body of Waters comes rolling in on the Sand, whose Front is above two Fathoms high, and whatever Body lies in its Way it overturns, and no Ship can evade its Force, but in a Moment is overturned, this violent Boer the Natives called a Mackrea."—A. Hamilton, ii. 33; [ed. 1744, ii. 32].

1811.—Solvyns uses the word Macrée as French for 'Bore,' and in English describes his print as "... the representation of a phenomenon of Nature, the Macrée or tide, at the mouth of the river Ougly."—Les Hindous, iii.

MACASSAR, n.p. In Malay Mangkasar, properly the name of a people of Celebes (q.v.), but now the name of a Dutch seaport and seat of Government on the W. coast of the S.W. peninsula of that spider-like island. The last quotation refers to a time when we occupied the place, an episode of Anglo-Indian history almost forgotten.

[1605-6.—"A description of the Iland Selebes or Makasser."—Birdwood, Letter Book, 77.

[1610.—"Selebes or Makassar, wherein are spent and uttered these wares following."—Danvers, Letters, i. 71.

[1664-5.—"... and anon to Gresham College, where, among other good discourse, there was tried the great poyson of Maccassa upon a dogg, but it had no effect all the time we sat there."—Pepys, Diary, March 15; ed. Wheatley, iv. 372.]

1816.—"Letters from Macassar of the 20th and 27th of June (1815), communicate the melancholy intelligence of the death of Lieut. T. C. Jackson, of the 1st Regt. of Native Bengal Infantry, and Assistant Resident of Macassar, during an attack on a fortified village, dependent on the dethroned Raja of Boni."—As. Journal, i. 297.

MACE, s.

a. The crimson net-like mantle, which envelops the hard outer shell of the nutmeg, when separated and dried constitutes the mace of commerce. Hanbury and Flückiger are satisfied that the attempt to identify the Macir, Macer, &c., of Pliny and other ancients with mace is a mistake, as indeed the sagacious Garcia also pointed out, and Chr. Acosta still more precisely. The name does not seem to be mentioned by Maṣ'ūdī; it is not in the list of aromatics, 25 in number, which he details (i. 367). It is mentioned by Edrisi, who wrote c. 1150, and whose information generally was of much older date, though we do not know what word he uses. The fact that nutmeg and mace are the product of one plant seems to have led to the fiction that clove and cinnamon also came from that same plant. It is, however, true that a kind of aromatic bark was known in the Arab pharmacopœia of the Middle Ages under the name of ḳirfat-al-ḳaranful or 'bark of clove,' which may have been either a cause of the mistake or a part of it. The mistake in question, in one form or another, prevailed for centuries. One of the authors of this book was asked many years ago by a respectable Mahommedan of Delhi if it were not the case that cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg were the produce of one tree. The prevalence of the mistake in Europe is shown by the fact that it is contradicted in a work of the 16th century (Bodaei, Comment. in Theophrastum, 992); and by the quotation from Funnel.

The name mace may have come from the Ar. basbāsa, possibly in some confusion with the ancient macir. [See Skeat, Concise Dict. who gives F. macis, which was confused with M. F. macer, probably Lat. macer, macir, doubtless of Eastern origin.]

c. 1150.—"On its shores (i.e. of the sea of Ṣanf or Champa), are the dominions of a King called Mihrāj, who possesses a great number of populous and fertile islands, covered with fields and pastures, and producing ivory, camphor, nutmeg, mace, clove, aloeswood, cardamom, cubeb, &c."—Edrisi, i. 89; see also 51.

c. 1347.—"The fruit of the clove is the nutmeg, which we know as the scented nut. The flower which grows upon it is the mace (basbāsa). And this is what I have seen with my own eyes."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 243.

c. 1370.—"A gret Yle and great Contree, that men clepen Java.... There growen alle manere of Spicerie more plentyfous liche than in any other contree, as of Gyngevere, Clowegylofres, Canelle, Zedewalle, Notemuges, and Maces. And wytethe wel, that the Notemuge bereth the Maces. For righte as the Note of the Haselle hath an Husk withouten, that the Note is closed in, til it be ripe, and after falleth out; righte so it is of the Notemuge and of the Maces."—Sir John Maundeville, ed. 1866, p. 187-188. This is a remarkable passage for it is interpolated by Maundeville, from superior information, in what he is borrowing from Odoric. The comparison to the hazel-nut husk is just that used by Hanbury & Flückiger (Pharmacographia, 1st ed. 456).

c. 1430.—"Has (insulas Java) ultra xv dierum cursu duae reperiuntur insulae, orientem versus. Altera Sandai appellata, in quâ nuces muscatae et maces, altera Bandam nomine, in quâ solâ gariofali producuntur."—Conti, in Poggius, De Var. Fortunae.

1514.—"The tree that produces the nut (meg) and macis is all one. By this ship I send you a sample of them in the green state."—Letter of Giov. da Empoli, in Archiv. Stor. Ital. 81.

1563.—"It is a very beautiful fruit, and pleasant to the taste; and you must know that when the nut is ripe it swells, and the first cover bursts as do the husks of our chestnuts, and shows the maça, of a bright vermilion like fine grain (i.e. coccus); it is the most beautiful sight in the world when the trees are loaded with it, and sometimes the mace splits off, and that is why the nutmegs often come without the mace."—Garcia, f. 129v-130.

[1602-3.—"In yo^r Provision you shall make in Nutmeggs and Mace haue you a greate care to receiue such as be good."—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 36; also see 67.]

1705.—"It is the commonly received opinion that Cloves, Nutmegs, Mace, and Cinnamon all grow upon one tree; but it is a great mistake."—Funnel, in Dampier, iv. 179.

MACE, s.

b. Jav. and Malay mās. [Mr. Skeat writes: "Mās is really short for amās or emās, one of those curious forms with prefixed a, as in the case of abada, which are probably native, but may have been influenced by Portuguese."] A weight used in Sumatra, being, according to Crawfurd, 1-16th of a Malay tael (q.v.), or about 40 grains (but see below). Mace is also the name of a small gold coin of Achīn, weighing 9 grs. and worth about 1s. 1d. And mace was adopted in the language of European traders in China to denominate the tenth part of the Chinese liang or tael of silver; the 100th part of the same value being denominated in like manner candareen (q.v.). The word is originally Skt. māsha, 'a bean,' and then 'a particular weight of gold' (comp. CARAT, RUTTEE).

1539.—"... by intervention of this thirdsman whom the Moor employed as broker they agreed on my price with the merchant at seven mazes of gold, which in our money makes a 1400 reys, at the rate of a half cruzado the maz."—Pinto, cap. xxv. Cogan has, "the fishermen sold me to the merchant for seven mazes of gold, which amounts in our money to seventeen shillings and sixpence."—p. 31.

1554.—"The weight with which they weigh (at Malaca) gold, musk, seed-pearl, coral, calambuco ... consists of cates which contain 20 tael, each tael 16 mazes, each maz 20 cumduryns. Also one paual 4 mazes, one maz 4 cupões (see KOBANG), one cupão 5 cumduryns (see CANDAREEN)."—A. Nunez, 39.

1598.—"Likewise a Tael of Malacca is 16 Mases."—Linschoten, 44; [Hak. Soc. i. 149].

1599.—"Bezar sive Bazar (i.e. Bezoar, q.v.) per Masas venditur."—De Bry, ii. 64.

1625.—"I have also sent by Master Tomkins of their coine (Achin) ... that is of gold named a Mas, and is ninepence halfpenie neerest."—Capt. T. Davis, in Purchas, i. 117.

1813.—"Milburn gives the following table of weights used at Achin, but it is quite inconsistent with the statements of Crawfurd and Linschoten above.

Milburn, ii. 329. [Mr. Skeat notes that here "copang" is Malay kupang; tale, tali; bancal, bongkal.]

MACHEEN, MAHACHEEN, n.p. This name, Mahā-chīna, "Great China," is one by which China was known in India in the early centuries of our era, and the term is still to be heard in India in the same sense in which Al-Birūnī uses it, saying that all beyond the great mountains (Himālaya) is Mahā-chīn. But "in later times the majority, not knowing the meaning of the expression, seem to have used it pleonastically coupled with Chīn, to denote the same thing, Chīn and Māchīn, a phrase having some analogy to the way Sind and Hind was used to express all India, but a stronger one to Gog and Magog, as applied to the northern nations of Asia." And eventually Chīn was discovered to be the eldest son of Japhet, and Māchīn his grandson; which is much the same as saying that Britain was the eldest son of Brut the Trojan, and Great Britain his grandson! (Cathay and the Way Thither, p. cxix.).

In the days of the Mongol supremacy in China, when Chinese affairs were for a time more distinctly conceived in Western Asia, and the name of Manzi as denoting Southern China, unconquered by the Mongols till 1275, was current in the West, it would appear that this name was confounded with Māchīn, and the latter thus acquired a specific but erroneous application. One author of the 16th century also (quoted by Klaproth, J. As. Soc. ser. 2, tom. i. 115) distinguishes Chīn and Māchīn as N. and S. China, but this distinction seems never to have been entertained by the Hindus. Ibn Batuta sometimes distinguishes Ṣīn (i.e. Chīn) as South China from Khitāi (see CATHAY) as North China. In times when intimacy with China had again ceased, the double name seems to have recovered its old vagueness as a rotund way of saying China, and had no more plurality of sense than in modern parlance Sodor and Man. But then comes an occasional new application of Māchīn to Indo-China, as in Conti (followed by Fra Mauro). An exceptional application, arising from the Arab habit of applying the name of a country to the capital or the chief port frequented by them, arose in the Middle Ages, through which Canton became known in the West as the city of Māchīn, or in Persian translation Chīnkalān, i.e. Great Chīn.

Mahāchīna as applied to China:

636.—"'In what country exists the kingdom of the Great Thang?' asked the king (Sīlāditya of Kanauj), 'how far is it from this?'

"'It is situated,' replied he (Hwen T'sang), 'to the N.E. of this kingdom, and is distant several ten-thousands of li. It is the country which the Indian people call Mahāchīna.'"—Pèl. Bouddh. ii. 254-255.

c. 641.—"Mohochintan." See quotation under CHINA.

c. 1030.—"Some other mountains are called Harmakút, in which the Ganges has its source. These are impassable from the side of the cold regions, and beyond them lies Māchīn."—Al-Birūnī, in Elliot, i. 46.

1501.—In the Letter of Amerigo Vespucci on the Portuguese discoveries, written from C. Verde, 4th June, we find mention among other new regions of Marchin. Published in Baldelli Boni's Il Milione, p. ciii.

c. 1590.—"Adjoining to Asham is Tibet, bordering upon Khatai, which is properly Mahacheen, vulgarly called Macheen. The capital of Khatai is Khan Baleegh, 4 days' journey from the sea."—Ayeen, by Gladwin, ed. 1800, ii. 4; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 118].

[c. 1665.—"... you told me ... that Persia, Usbec, Kachguer, Tartary, and Catay, Pegu, Siam, China and Matchine (in orig. Tchine et Matchine) trembled at the name of the Kings of the Indies."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 155 seq.]

Applied to Southern China.

c. 1300.—"Khatāi is bounded on one side by the country of Māchīn, which the Chinese call Manzi.... In the Indian language S. China is called Mahā-chīn, i.e. 'Great China,' and hence we derive the word Manzi."—Rashīd-uddīn, in H. des Mongols (Quatremère), xci.-xciii.

c. 1348.—"It was the Kaam's orders that we should proceed through Manzi, which was formerly known as India Maxima" (by which he indicates Mahā-Chīnā, see below, in last quotation).—John Marignolli, in Cathay, p. 354.

Applied to Indo-China:

c. 1430.—"Ea provincia (Ava)—Macinum incolae dicunt— ... referta est elephantis."—Conti, in Poggius, De Var. Fortunae.

Chin and Machin:

c. 1320.—"The curiosities of Chín and Machín, and the beautiful products of Hind and Sind."—Wassāf, in Elliot, iii. 32.

c. 1440.—"Poi si retrova in quella istessa provincia di Zagatai Sanmarcant città grandissima e ben popolata, por la qual vanno e vengono tutti quelli di Cini e Macini e del Cataio, o mercanti o viandanti che siano."—Barbaro, in Ramusio, ii. f. 106v.

c. 1442.—"The merchants of the 7 climates from Egypt ... from the whole of the realms of Chīn and Māchīn, and from the city of Khānbālik, steer their course to this port."--Abdurrazāk, in Notices et Extraits, xiv. 429.

[1503.—"Sin and Masin." See under JAVA.]

Mahāchīn or Chīn Kalān, for Canton.

c. 1030.—In Sprenger's extracts from Al-Birūnī we have "Sharghūd, in Chinese Sanfū. This is Great China (Māhāṣīn)."—Post und Reise-routen des Orients, 90.

c. 1300.—"This canal extends for a distance of 40 days' navigation from Khānbāligh to Khingsaī and Zaitūn, the ports frequented by the ships that come from India, and from the city of Māchīn."—Rashīd-uddin, in Cathay, &c., 259-260.

c. 1332.—"... after I had sailed eastward over the Ocean Sea for many days I came to that noble province Manzi.... The first city to which I came in this country was called Cens-Kalan, and 'tis a city as big as three Venices."—Odoric, in Cathay, &c., 103-105.

c. 1347.—"In the evening we stopped at another village, and so on till we arrived at Sīn-Kalān, which is the city of Ṣīn-ul-Ṣīn ... one of the greatest of cities, and one of those that has the finest of bazaars. One of the largest of these is the porcelain bazaar, and from it china-ware is exported to the other cities of China, to India, and to Yemen."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 272.

c. 1349.—"The first of these is called Manzi, the greatest and noblest province in the world, having no paragon in beauty, pleasantness, and extent. In it is that noble city of Campsay, besides Zayton, Cynkalan, and many other cities."—John Marignolli, in Cathay, &c., 373.

MĀCHIS, s. This is recent Hind. for 'lucifer matches.' An older and purer phrase for sulphur-matches is dīwā-, dīyā-salāī.

MADAPOLLAM, n.p. This term, applying to a particular kind of cotton cloth, and which often occurs in prices current, is taken from the name of a place on the Southern Delta-branch of the Godavery, properly Mādhavapalam, [Tel. Mādhavayya-pālemu, 'fortified village of Mādhava']. This was till 1833 [according to the Madras Gloss. 1827] the seat of one of the Company's Commercial Agencies, which was the chief of three in that Delta; the other two being Bunder Malunka and Injeram. Madapollam is now a staple export from England to India; it is a finer kind of white piece-goods, intermediate between calico and muslin.

[1610.—"Madafunum is chequered, somewhat fine and well requested in Pryaman."—Danvers, Letters, i. 74.]

1673.—"The English for that cause (the unhealthiness of Masulipatam), only at the time of shipping, remove to Medopollon, where they have a wholesome Seat Forty Miles more North."—Fryer, 35.

[1684-85.—"Mr. Benj^a Northey having brought up Musters of the Madapoll^m Cloth, Itt is thought convenient that the same be taken of him...."—Pringle, Diary Ft. St. Geo. 1st ser. iv. 49.]

c. 1840.—"Pierrette eût de jolies chemises en Madapolam."—Balzac, Pierrette.

1879.—"... liveliness seems to be the unfailing characteristic of autographs, fans, Cremona fiddles, Louis Quatorze snuff-boxes, and the like, however sluggish pig-iron and Madapollams may be."—Sat. Review, Jan. 11, p. 45.

MADRAFAXAO, s. This appears in old Portuguese works as the name of a gold coin of Guzerat; perhaps representing Muẓaffar-shāhī. There were several kings of Guzerat of this name. The one in question was probably Muẓaffar-Shah II. (1511-1525), of whose coinage Thomas mentions a gold piece of 185 grs. (Pathán Kings, 353).

1554.—"There also come to this city Madrafaxaos, which are a money of Cambaya, which vary greatly in price; some are of 24 tangas of 60 reis the tanga, others of 23, 22, 21, and other prices according to time and value."—A. Nunez, 32.

MADRAS, n.p. This alternative name of the place, officially called by its founders Fort St. George, first appears about the middle of the 17th century. Its origin has been much debated, but with little result. One derivation, backed by a fictitious legend, derives the name from an imaginary Christian fisherman called Madarasen; but this may be pronounced philologically impossible, as well as otherwise unworthy of serious regard.^[155] Lassen makes the name to be a corruption of Manda-rājya, 'Realm of the Stupid!' No one will suspect the illustrious author of the Indische Alterthumskunde to be guilty of a joke; but it does look as if some malign Bengalee had suggested to him this gibe against the "Benighted"! It is indeed curious and true that, in Bengal, sepoys and the like always speak of the Southern Presidency as Mandrāj. In fact, however, all the earlier mentions of the name are in the form of Madraspatanam, 'the city of the Madras,' whatever the Madras may have been. The earliest maps show Madraspatanam as the Mahommedan settlement corresponding to the present Triplicane and Royapettah. The word is therefore probably of Mahommedan origin; and having got so far we need not hesitate to identify it with Madrasa, 'a college.' The Portuguese wrote this Madaraza (see Faria y Sousa, Africa Portuguesa, 1681, p. 6); and the European name probably came from them, close neighbours as they were to Fort St. George, at Mylapore or San Thomé. That there was such a Madrasa in existence is established by the quotation from Hamilton, who was there about the end of the 17th century.^[156] Fryer's Map (1698, but illustrating 1672-73) represents the Governor's House as a building of Mahommedan architecture, with a dome. This may have been the Madrasa itself. Lockyer also (1711) speaks of a "College," of which the building was "very ancient"; formerly a hospital, and then used apparently as a residence for young writers. But it is not clear whether the name "College" was not given on this last account. [The Madras Admin. Man. says: "The origin of this name has been much discussed. Madrissa, a Mahommedan school, has been suggested, which considering the date at which the name is first found seems fanciful. Manda is in Sanscrit 'slow.' Mandarāz was a king of the lunar race. The place was probably called after this king" (ii. 91). The Madras Gloss. again writes: "Hind. Madrās, Can. Madarāsu, from Tel. Mandaradzu, name of a local Telegu Royer," or ruler. The whole question has been discussed by Mr. Pringle (Diary Ft. St. Geo., 1st ser. i. 106 seqq.). He points out that while the earliest quotation given below is dated 1653, the name, in the form Madrazpatam, is used by the President and Council of Surat in a letter dated 29th December, 1640 (I. O. Records, O. C. No. 1764); "and the context makes it pretty certain that Francis Day or some other of the factors at the new Settlement must have previously made use of it in reference to the place, or 'rather,' as the Surat letter says, 'plot of ground' offered to him. It is no doubt just possible that in the course of the negotiations Day heard or caught up the name from the Portuguese, who were at the time in friendly relations with the English; but the probabilities are certainly in the opposite direction. The nayak from whom the plot was obtained must almost certainly have supplied the name, or what Francis Day conceived to be the name. Again, as regards Hamilton's mention of a 'college,' Sir H. Yule's remark certainly goes too far. Hamilton writes, 'There is a very Good Hospital in the Town, and the Company's Horse-stables are neat, but the old College where a good many Gentlemen Factors are obliged to lodge, is ill-kept in repair.' This remark taken together with that made by Lockyer ... affords proof, indeed, that there was a building known to the English as the 'College.' But it does not follow that this, or any, building was distinctively known to Musulmans as the 'madrasa.' The 'old College' of Hamilton may have been the successor of a Musulman 'madrasa' of some size and consequence, and if this was so the argument for the derivation would be strengthened. It is however equally possible that some old buildings within the plot of territory acquired by Day, which had never been a 'madrasa,' was turned to use as a College or place where the young writers should live and receive instruction; and in this case the argument, so far as it rests on a mention of 'a College' by Hamilton and Lockyer, is entirely destroyed. Next as regards the probability that the first part of 'Madraspatanam' is 'of Mahommedan origin.' Sir H. Yule does not mention that date of the maps in which Madraspatanam is shown 'as the Mahommedan settlement corresponding to the present Triplicane and Royapettah'; but in Fryer's map, which represents the fort as he saw it in 1672, the name 'Madirass'—to which is added 'the Indian Town with flat houses'—is entered as the designation of the collection of houses on the north side of the English town, and the next makes it evident that in the year in question the name of Madras was applied chiefly to the crowded collection of houses styled in turn the 'Heathen,' the 'Malabar,' and the 'Black' town. This consideration does not necessarily disprove the supposed Musulman origin of 'Madras,' but it undoubtedly weakens the chain of Sir H. Yule's argument." Mr. Pringle ends by saying: "On the whole it is not unfair to say that the chief argument in favour of the derivation adopted by Sir H. Yule is of a negative kind. There are fatal objections to whatever other derivations have been suggested, but if the mongrel character of the compound 'Madrasa-patanam' is disregarded, there is no fatal objection to the derivation from 'madrasa.'... If however that derivation is to stand, it must not rest upon such accidental coincidences as the use of the word 'College' by writers whose knowledge of Madras was derived from visits made from 30 to 50 years after the foundation of the colony."]

1653.—"Estant desbarquez le R. P. Zenon reçut lettres de Madraspatan de la detention du Rev. P. Ephraim de Neuers par l'Inquisition de Portugal, pour avoir presché a Madraspatan que les Catholiques qui foüetoient et trampoient dans des puys les images de Sainct Antoine de Pade, et de la Vierge Marie, estoient impies, et que les Indous à tout le moins honorent ce qu'ils estiment Sainct...."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, 244.

c. 1665.—"Le Roi de Golconde a de grands Revenus.... Les Douanes des marchandises qui passent sur ses Terres, et celles des Ports de Masulipatan et de Madrespatan, lui rapportent beaucoup."—Thevenot, v. 306.

1672.—"... following upon Madraspatan, otherwise called Chinnepatan, where the English have a Fort called St. George, chiefly garrisoned by Toepasses and Mistices; from this place they annually send forth their ships, as also from Suratte."—Baldaeus, Germ. ed. 152.

1673.—"Let us now pass the Pale to the Heathen Town, only parted by a wide Parrade, which is used for a Buzzar, or Mercate-place. Maderas then divides itself into divers long streets, and they are checquered by as many transverse. It enjoys some Choultries for Places of Justice; one Exchange; one Pagod...."—Fryer, 38-39.

1726.—"The Town or Place, anciently called Chinapatnam, now called Madraspatnam, and Fort St. George."—Letters Patent, in Charters of E.I. Company, 368-9.

1727.—"Fort St. George or Maderass, or as the Natives call it, China Patam, is a Colony and City belonging to the English East India Company, situated in one of the most incommodious Places I ever saw.... There is a very good Hospital in the Town, and the Company's Horse-Stables are neat, but the Old College, where a great many Gentlemen Factors are obliged to lodge, is kept in ill Repair."—A. Hamilton, i. 364, [ed. 1744, ii. 182]. (Also see CHINAPATAM.)

MADRAS, s. This name is applied to large bright-coloured handkerchiefs, of silk warp and cotton woof, which were formerly exported from Madras, and much used by the negroes in the W. Indies as head-dresses. The word is preserved in French, but is now obsolete in England.

c. 1830.—"... We found President Petion, the black Washington, sitting on a very old ragged sofa, amidst a confused mass of papers, dressed in a blue military undress frock, white trowsers, and the everlasting Madras handkerchief bound round his brows."—Tom Cringle, ed. 1863, p. 425.

1846.—"Et Madame se manifesta! C'était une de ces vieilles dévinées par Adrien Brauwer dans ses sorcières pour le Sabbat ... coiffée d'un Madras, faisant encore papillottes avec les imprimés, que recevait gratuitement son maître."—Balzac, Le Cousin Pons, ch. xviii.

MADREMALUCO, n.p. The name given by the Portuguese to the Mahommedan dynasty of Berar, called 'Imād-shāhī. The Portuguese name represents the title of the founder 'Imād-ul-Mulk, ('Pillar of the State'), otherwise Fath Ullah 'Imād Shāh. The dynasty was the most obscure of those founded upon the dissolution of the Bāhmani monarchy in the Deccan. (See COTAMALUCO, IDALCAN, MELIQUE VERIDO, NIZAMALUCO, SABAIO.) It began about 1484, and in 1572 was merged in the kingdom of Ahmednagar. There is another Madremaluco (or 'Imād-ul-Mulk) much spoken of in Portuguese histories, who was an important personage in Guzerat, and put to death with his own hand the king Sikandar Shāh (1526) (Barros, IV. v. 3; Correa, ii. 272, 344, &c.; Couto, Decs. v. and vi. passim).

[1543.—See under COTAMALUCO.]

1553.—"The Madre Maluco was married to a sister of the Hidalchan (see IDALCAN), and the latter treated this brother-in-law of his, and Meleque Verido as if they were his vassals, especially the latter."—Barros, IV. vii. 1.

1563.—"The Imademaluco or Madremaluco, as we corruptly style him, was a Circassian (Cherques) by nation, and had originally been a Christian, and died in 1546.... Imad is as much as to say 'prop,' and thus the other (of these princes) was called Imadmaluco, or 'Prop of the Kingdom.'..."—Garcia, f. 36v.

Neither the chronology of De Orta here, nor the statement of Imād-ul-Mulk's Circassian origin, agree with those of Firishta. The latter says that Fath-Ullah 'Imād Shāh was descended from the heathen of Bijanagar (iii. 485).

MADURA, n.p., properly Madurei, Tam. Mathurai. This is still the name of a district in S. India, and of a city which appears in the Tables of Ptolemy as "Μόδουρα βασίλειον Πανδιόνος." The name is generally supposed to be the same as that of Mathurā, the holy and much more ancient city of Northern India, from which the name was adopted (see MUTTRA), but modified after Tamil pronunciation.^[157] [On the other hand, a writer in J. R. As. Soc. (xiv. 578, n. 3) derives Madura from the Dravidian Madur in the sense of 'Old Town,' and suggests that the northern Mathura may be an offshoot from it.] Madura was, from a date, at least as early as the Christian era, the seat of the Pāṇḍya sovereigns. These, according to Tamil tradition, as stated by Bp. Caldwell, had previously held their residence at Kolkei on the Tamraparni, the Κόλχοι of Ptolemy. (See Caldwell, pp. 16, 95, 101). The name of Madura, probably as adopted from the holier northern Muttra, seems to have been a favourite among the Eastern settlements under Hindu influence. Thus we have Matura in Ceylon; the city and island of Madura adjoining Java; and a town of the same name (Madura) in Burma, not far north of Mandalé, Madeya of the maps.

A.D. c. 70-80.—"Alius utilior portus gentis Neacyndon qui vocatur Becare. Ibi regnabat Pandion, longe ab emporio mediterraneo distante oppido quod vocatur Modura."—Pliny, vi. 26.

[c. 1315.—"Mardi." See CRORE.]

c. 1347.—"The Sultan stopped a month at Fattan, and then departed for his capital. I stayed 15 days after his departure, and then started for his residence, which was at Mutra, a great city with wide streets.... I found there a pest raging of which people died in brief space ... when I went out I saw only the dead and dying."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 200-1.

1311.—"... the royal canopy moved from Bírdhúl ... and 5 days afterwards they arrived at the city of Mathra ... the dwelling-place of the brother of the Ráí Sundar Pándya. They found the city empty, for the Ráí had fled with the Ránís, but had left two or three elephants in the temple of Jagnár (Jaganāth)."—Amír Khusrú, in Elliot, iii. 91.

MADURA FOOT, s. A fungoidal disease of the foot, apparently incurable except by amputation, which occurs in the Madura district, and especially in places where the 'Black soil' prevails. Medical authorities have not yet decided on the causes or precise nature of the disease. See Nelson, Madura, Pt. i. pp. 91-94; [Gribble, Cuddapah, 193].

MAGADOXO, n.p. This is the Portuguese representation, which has passed into general European use, of Makdashau, the name of a town and State on the Somālī coast in E. Africa, now subject to Zanzibar. It has been shown by one of the present writers that Marco Polo, in his chapter on Madagascar, has made some confusion between Magadoxo and that island, mixing up particulars relating to both. It is possible that the name of Madagascar was really given from Makdashau, as Sir R. Burton supposes; but he does not give any authority for his statement that the name of Madagascar "came from Makdishú (Magadoxo) ... whose Sheikh invaded it" (Comment. on Camões, ii. 520). [Owen (Narrative, i. 357) writes the name Mukdeesha, and Boteler (Narrative, ii. 215) says it is pronounced by the Arabs Mākŏdĭsha. The name is said to be Magaad-el-Shata, "Harbour of the Sheep," and the first syllable has been identified with that of Maqdala and is said to mean "door" in some of the Galla dialects (Notes & Queries, 9 ser. ii. 193, 310. Also see Mr. Gray's note on Pyrard, Hak. Soc. i. 29, and Dr. Burnell on Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 19.]

c. 1330.—"On departing from Zaila, we sailed on the sea for 15 days, and then arrived at Maḳdashau, a town of great size. The inhabitants possess a great number of camels, and of these they slaughter (for food) several hundreds every day."—Ibn Batuta, ii. 181.

1498.—"And we found ourselves before a great city with houses of several stories, and in the midst of the city certain great palaces; and about it a wall with four towers; and this city stood close upon the sea, and the Moors call it Magadoxó. And when we were come well abreast of it, we discharged many bombards (at it), and kept on our way along the coast with a fine wind on the poop."—Roteiro, 102.

1505.—"And the Viceroy (Don Francisco D'Almeida) made sail, ordering the course to be made for Magadaxo, which he had instructions also to make tributary. But the pilots objected saying that they would miss the season for crossing to India, as it was already the 26th of August...."—Correa, i. 560.

1514.—"... The most of them are Moors such as inhabit the city of Zofalla ... and these people continue to be found in Mazambic, Melinda, Mogodecio, Marachilue (read Brava Chilve, i.e. Brava and Quiloa), and Mombazza; which are all walled cities on the main land, with houses and streets like our own; except Mazambich."—Letter of Giov. da Empoli, in Archiv. Stor. Ital.

1516.—"Further on towards the Red Sea there is another very large and beautiful town called Magadoxo, belonging to the Moors, and it has a King over it, and is a place of great trade and merchandise."—Barbosa, 16.

1532.—"... and after they had passed Cape Guardafu, Dom Estevão was going along in such depression that he was like to die of grief, on arriving at Magadoxo, they stopped to water. And the King of the country, hearing that there had come a son of the Count Admiral, of whom all had ample knowledge as being the first to discover and navigate on that coast, came to the shore to see him, and made great offers of all that he could require."—Couto, IV. viii. 2.

1727.—"Magadoxa, or as the Portuguese call it, Magadocia, is a pretty large City, about 2 or 3 Miles from the Sea, from whence it has a very fine Aspect, being adorn'd with many high Steeples and Mosques."—A. Hamilton, i. 12-13, [ed. 1744].

MAGAZINE, s. This word is, of course, not Anglo-Indian, but may find a place here because of its origin from Ar. makhāzin, plur. of al-makhzan, whence Sp. almacen, almagacen, magacen, Port. almazem, armazem, Ital. magazzino, Fr. magazin.

c. 1340.—"The Sultan ... made him a grant of the whole city of Sīrī and all its houses with the gardens and fields of the treasury (makhzan) adjacent to the city (of Delhi)."—Ibn Batuta, iii. 262.

1539.—"A que Pero de Faria respondea, que lhe desse elle commissão per mandar nos almazẽs, et que logo proveria no socorro que entendia ser necessario."—Pinto, cap. xxi.

MAHÁJUN, s. Hind. from Skt. mahā-jan, 'great person.' A banker and merchant. In Southern and Western India the vernacular word has various other applications which are given in Wilson.

[1813.—"Mahajen, Mahajanum, a great person, a merchant."—Gloss. to 5th Rep. s.v.]

c. 1861.—

1885.—"The Mahajun hospitably entertains his victim, and speeds his homeward departure, giving no word or sign of his business till the time for appeal has gone by, and the decree is made absolute. Then the storm bursts on the head of the luckless hill-man, who finds himself loaded with an overwhelming debt, which he has never incurred, and can never hope to discharge; and so he practically becomes the Mahajun's slave for the rest of his natural life."—Lt.-Col. T. Lewin, A Fly on the Wheel, 339.

MAHANNAH, s. (See MEEANA.)

MAHÉ, n.p. Properly Māyēl̤i. [According to the Madras Gloss. the Mal. name is Mayyazhi, mai, 'black,' azhi, 'river mouth'; but the title is from the French Mahé, being one of the names of Labourdonnais.] A small settlement on the Malabar coast, 4 m. S.E. of Tellicherry, where the French established a factory for the sake of the pepper trade in 1722, and which they still retain. It is not now of any importance.

MAHI, n.p. The name of a considerable river flowing into the upper part of the Gulf of Cambay. ["The height of its banks, and the fierceness of its floods; the deep gullies through which the traveller has to pass on his way to the river, and perhaps, above all, the bad name of the tribes on its banks, explain the proverb: 'When the Mahi is crossed, there is comfort'" (Imp. Gazetteer, s.v.).]

c. A.D. 80-90.—"Next comes another gulf ... extending also to the north, at the mouth of which is an island called Baiōnēs (Perim), and at the innermost extremity a great river called Maïs."—Periplus, ch. 42.

MAHOUT, s. The driver and tender of an elephant. Hind. mahā-wat, from Skt. mahā-mātra, 'great in measure,' a high officer, &c., so applied. The Skt. term occurs in this sense in the Mahābhārata (e.g. iv. 1761, &c.). The Mahout is mentioned in the 1st Book of Maccabees as 'the Indian.' It is remarkable that we find what is apparently mahā-mātra, in the sense of a high officer in Hesychius:

"Μαμάτραι, οἱ στρατηγοὶ παρ' Ἰνδοῖς."—Hesych. s.v.

c. 1590.—"Mast elephants (see MUST). There are five and a half servants to each, viz., first a Mahawat, who sits on the neck of the animal and directs its movements.... He gets 200 dáms per month.... Secondly a Bhói, who sits behind, upon the rump of the elephant, and assists in battle, and in quickening the speed of the animal; but he often performs the duties of the Mahawat.... Thirdly the Met'hs (see MATE).... A Met'h fetches fodder, and assists in caparisoning the elephant...."—Āīn, ed. Blochmann, i. 125.

1648.—"... and Mahouts for the elephants...."—Van Twist, 56.

1826.—"I will now pass over the term of my infancy, which was employed in learning to read and write—my preceptor being a mahouhut, or elephant-driver—and will take up my adventures."—Pandurang Hari, 21; [ed. 1873, i. 28].

1848.—"Then he described a tiger hunt, and the manner in which the Mahout of his elephant had been pulled off his seat by one of the infuriate animals."—Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. iv.

MAHRATTA, n.p. Hind. Marhaṭā, Marhaṭṭā, Marhāṭā (Marhaṭī, Marahṭī, Marhaiṭī), and Marāṭhā. The name of a famous Hindu race, from the old Skt. name of their country, Mahā-rāshṭra, 'Magna Regio.' [On the other hand H. A. Acworth (Ballads of the Marathas, Intro. vi.) derives the word from a tribal name Raṭhī or Raṭhā, 'chariot fighters,' from raṭh, 'a chariot,' thus Mahā-Raṭhā means 'Great Warrior.' This was transferred to the country and finally Sanskritised into Mahā-rāshṭra. Again some authorities (Wilson, Indian Caste, ii. 48; Baden-Powell, J. R. As. Soc., 1897, p. 249, note) prefer to derive the word from the Mhār or Mahār, a once numerous and dominant race. And see the discussion in the Bombay Gazetteer, I. pt. ii. 143 seq.]

c. 550.—"The planet (Saturn's) motion in Açleshâ causes affliction to aquatic animals or products, and snakes ... in Pûrva Phalgunî to vendors of liquors, women of the town, damsels, and the Mahrattas...."—Bṛhat Saṇhitā, tr. by Kern, J.R. As. Soc. 2nd ser. v. 64.

640.—"De là il prit la direction du Nord-Ouest, traversa une vaste forêt, et ... il arriva au royaume de Mo-ho-la-to (Mahārāshṭra)...."—Pèl. Bouddh. i. 202; [Bombay Gazetteer, I. pt. ii. 353].

c. 1030.—"De Dhar, en se dirigeant vers le midi, jusqu'à la rivière de Nymyah on comte 7 parasanges; de là à Mahrat-dessa 18 paras."—Albirúni, in Reinaud's Fragmens, 109.

c. 1294-5.—"Alá-ud-dín marched to Elichpúr, and thence to Ghati-lajaura ... the people of that country had never heard of the Mussulmans; the Mahratta land had never been punished by their armies; no Mussulman King or Prince had penetrated so far."—Zía-ud-dín Barní, in Elliot, iii. 150.

c. 1328.—"In this Greater India are twelve idolatrous Kings, and more.... There is also the Kingdom of Maratha which is very great."—Friar Jordanus, 41.

1673.—"They tell their tale in Moratty; by Profession they are Gentues."—Fryer, 174.

1747.—"Agreed on the arrival of these Ships that We take Five Hundred (500) Peons more into our Service, that the 50 Moratta Horses be augmented to 100 as We found them very usefull in the last Skirmish...."—Consn. at Ft. St. David, Jan. 6 (MS. Record in India Office).

1748.—"That upon his hearing the Mirattoes had taken Tanner's Fort ..."—In Long, p. 5.

c. 1760.—"... those dangerous and powerful neighbors the Morattoes; who being now masters of the contiguous island of Salsette ..."—Grose, ii. 44.

" "The name of Morattoes, or Marattas, is, I have reason to think, a derivation in their country-language, or by corruption, from Mar-Rajah."—Ibid. ii. 75.

1765.—"These united princes and people are those which are known by the general name of Maharattors; a word compounded of Rattor and Maahah; the first being the name of a particular Raazpoot (or Rajpoot) tribe; and the latter, signifying great or mighty (as explained by Mr. Fraser)...."—Holwell, Hist. Events, &c., i. 105.

c. 1769.—Under a mezzotint portrait: "The Right Honble George Lord Pigot, Baron Pigot of Patshul in the Kingdom of Ireland, President and Governor of and for all the Affairs of the United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies, on the Coast of Choromandel, and Orixa, and of the Chingee and Moratta Countries, &c., &c., &c."

c. 1842.—

The following is in the true Hobson-Jobson manner:

[1859.—"This term Marhatta or Mârhutta, is derived from the mode of warfare adopted by these men. Mar means to strike, and hutna, to get out of the way, i.e. those who struck a blow suddenly and at once retreated out of harm's way."—H. Dundas Robertson, District Duties during the Revolt in 1857, p. 104, note.]

MAHRATTA DITCH, n.p. An excavation made in 1742, as described in the extract from Orme, on the landward sides of Calcutta, to protect the settlement from the Mahratta bands. Hence the term, or for shortness 'The Ditch' simply, as a disparaging name for Calcutta (see DITCHER). The line of the Ditch corresponded nearly with the outside of the existing Circular Road, except at the S.E. and S., where the work was never executed. [There is an excavation known by the same name at Madras excavated in 1780. (Murray, Handbook, 1859, p. 43).]

1742.—"In the year 1742 the Indian inhabitants of the Colony requested and obtained permission to dig a ditch at their own expense, round the Company's bounds, from the northern parts of Sootanatty to the southern part of Govindpore. In six months three miles were finished: when the inhabitants ... discontinued the work, which from the occasion was called the Morattoe ditch."—Orme, ed. 1803, ii. 45.

1757.—"That the Bounds of Calcutta are to extend the whole Circle of Ditch dug upon the Invasion of the Marattes; also 600 yards without it, for an Esplanade."—Articles of Agreement sent by Colonel Clive (previous to the Treaty with the Nabob of May 14). In Memoirs of the Revolution in Bengal, 1760, p. 89.

1782.—"To the Proprietors and Occupiers of Houses and other Tenements within the Mahratta Entrenchment."—India Gazette, Aug. 10.

[1840.—"Less than a hundred years ago, it was thought necessary to fortify Calcutta against the horsemen of Berar, and the name of the Mahratta Ditch still preserves the memory of the danger."—Macaulay, Essay on Clive.]

1872.—"The Calcutta cockney, who glories in the Mahratta Ditch...."—Govinda Samanta, i. 25.

MAHSEER, MASEER, MASAL, &c. Hind. mahāsir, mahāser, mahāsaulā, s. The name is applied to perhaps more than one of the larger species of Barbus (N.O. Cyprinidae), but especially to B. Mosul of Buchanan, B. Tor, Day, B. megalepis, McLelland, found in the larger Himālayan rivers, and also in the greater perennial rivers of Madras and Bombay. It grows at its largest, to about the size of the biggest salmon, and more. It affords also the highest sport to Indian anglers; and from these circumstances has sometimes been called, misleadingly, the 'Indian salmon.' The origin of the name Mahseer, and its proper spelling, are very doubtful. It may be Skt. mahā-śiras, 'big-head,' or mahā-śalka, 'large-scaled.' The latter is most probable, for the scales are so large that Buchanan mentions that playing cards were made from them at Dacca. Mr. H. S. Thomas suggests mahā-āsya, 'great mouth.' [The word does not appear in the ordinary dicts.; on the whole, perhaps the derivation from mahā-śiras is most probable.]

c. 1809.—"The Masal of the Kosi is a very large fish, which many people think still better than the Rohu, and compare it to the salmon."—Buchanan, Eastern India, iii. 194.

1822.—"Mahasaula and Tora, variously altered and corrupted, and with various additions may be considered as genuine appellations, amongst the natives for these fishes, all of which frequent large rivers."—F. Buchanan Hamilton, Fishes of the Ganges, 304.

1873.—"In my own opinion and that of others whom I have met, the Mahseer shows more sport for its size than a salmon."—H. S. Thomas, The Rod in India, p. 9.

MAINATO, s. Tam. Mal. Mainātta, a washerman or dhoby (q.v.).

1516.—"There is another sect of Gentiles which they call Mainatos, whose business it is to wash the clothes of the Kings, Bramins, and Naires; and by this they get their living; and neither they nor their sons can take up any other business."—Barbosa, Lisbon ed., 334.

c. 1542.—"In this inclosure do likewise remain all the Landresses, by them called Maynates, which wash the linnen of the City (Pequin), who, as we were told, are above an hundred thousand."—Pinto, in Cogan, p. 133. The original (cap. cv.) has todos os mainatos, whose sex Cogan has changed.

1554.—"And the farm (renda) of mainatos, which farm prohibits any one from washing clothes, which is the work of a mainato, except by arrangement with the farmer (Rendeiro)...."—Tombo, &c., 53.

[1598.—"There are some among them that do nothing els but wash cloathes: ... they are called Maynattos."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 260.

[c. 1610.—"These folk (the washermen) are called Menates."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 71.]

1644.—(Expenses of Daman) "For two maynatos, three water boys (bois de agoa), one sombreyro boy, and 4 torch bearers for the said Captain, at 1 xerafim each a month, comes in the year to 36,000 rés or x^ns. 00120.0.00."—Bocarro, MS. f. 181.

MAISTRY, MISTRY, sometimes even MYSTERY, s. Hind. mistrī. This word, a corruption of the Portuguese mestre, has spread into the vernaculars all over India, and is in constant Anglo-Indian use. Properly 'a foreman,' 'a master-workman'; but used also, at least in Upper India, for any artizan, as rāj-mistrī (properly Pers. rāz), 'a mason or bricklayer,' lohār-mistrī, 'a blacksmith,' &c. The proper use of the word, as noted above, corresponds precisely to the definition of the Portuguese word, as applied to artizans in Bluteau: "Artifice que sabe bem o seu officio. Peritus artifex.... Opifex, alienorum operum inspector." In W. and S. India maistry, as used in the household, generally means the cook, or the tailor. (See CALEEFA.)

Mastèr (Мастеръ) is also the Russian term for a skilled workman, and has given rise to several derived adjectives. There is too a similar word in modern Greek, μαγίστωρ.

1404.—"And in these (chambers) there were works of gold and azure and of many other colours, made in the most marvellous way; insomuch that even in Paris whence come the subtle maestros, it would be reckoned beautiful to see."—Clavijo, § cv. (Comp. Markham, p. 125).

1524.—"And the Viceroy (D. Vasco da Gama) sent to seize in the river of the Culymutys four newly-built caturs, and fetched them to Cochin. These were built very light for fast rowing, and were greatly admired. But he ordered them to be burned, saying that he intended to show the Moors that we knew how to build better caturs than they did; and he sent for Mestre Vyne the Genoese, whom he had brought to build galleys, and asked him if he could build boats that would row faster than the Malabar paraos (see PROW). He answered: 'Sir, I'll build you brigantines fast enough to catch a mosquito....'"—Correa, ii. 830.

[1548.—"He ordered to be collected in the smithies of the dockyard as many smiths as could be had, for he had many misteres."—Ibid. iv. 663.]

1554.—"To the mestrè of the smith's shop (ferraria) 30,000 reis of salary and 600 reis for maintenance" (see BATTA).—S. Botelho, Tombo, 65.

1800.—"... I have not yet been able to remedy the mischief done in my absence, as we have the advantage here of the assistance of some Madras dubashes and maistries" (ironical).—Wellington, i. 67.

1883.—"... My mind goes back to my ancient Goanese cook. He was only a maistry, or more vulgarly a bobberjee (see BOBACHEE), yet his sonorous name recalled the conquest of Mexico, or the doubling of the Cape."—Tribes on My Frontier, 35.

[1900.—"Mystery very sick, Mem Sahib, very sick all the night."—Temple Bar, April.]

MAJOON, s. Hind. from Ar. ma'jūn, lit. 'kneaded,' and thence what old medical books call 'an electuary' (i.e. a compound of medicines kneaded with syrup into a soft mass), but especially applied to an intoxicating confection of hemp leaves, &c., sold in the bazar. [Burton, Ar. Nights, iii. 159.] In the Deccan the form is ma'jūm. Moodeen Sheriff, in his Suppt. to the Pharmac. of India, writes maghjūn. "The chief ingredients in making it are ganja (or hemp) leaves, milk, ghee, poppy-seeds, flowers of the thorn-apple (see DATURA), the powder of nux vomica, and sugar" (Qanoon-e-Islam, Gloss. lxxxiii).

1519.—"Next morning I halted ... and indulging myself with a maajûn, made them throw into the water the liquor used for intoxicating fishes, and caught a few fish."—Baber, 272.

1563.—"And this they make up into an electuary, with sugar, and with the things above-mentioned, and this they call maju."—Garcia, f. 27v.

1781.—"Our ill-favoured guard brought in a dose of majum each, and obliged us to eat it ... a little after sunset the surgeon came, and with him 30 or 40 Caffres, who seized us, and held us fast till the operation (circumcision) was performed."—Soldier's letter quoted in Hon. John Lindsay's Journal of Captivity in Mysore, Lives of Lindsays, iii. 293.

1874.—"... it (Bhang) is made up with flour and various additions into a sweetmeat or majum of a green colour."—Hanbury and Flückiger, 493.

MALABAR, n.p.

a. The name of the sea-board country which the Arabs called the 'Pepper-Coast,' the ancient Kerala of the Hindus, the Λιμύρικη, or rather Διμύρικη, of the Greeks (see TAMIL), is not in form indigenous, but was applied, apparently, first by the Arab or Arabo-Persian mariners of the Gulf. The substantive part of the name, Malai, or the like, is doubtless indigenous; it is the Dravadian term for 'mountain' in the Sanskritized form Malaya, which is applied specifically to the southern portion of the Western Ghauts, and from which is taken the indigenous term Malayālam, distinguishing that branch of the Dravidian language in the tract which we call Malabar. This name—Male or Malai, Malīah, &c.,—we find in the earlier post-classic notices of India; whilst in the great Temple-Inscription of Tanjore (11th century) we find the region in question called Malai-nāḍu (nāḍu, 'country'). The affix bār appears attached to it first (so far as we are aware) in the Geography of Edrisi (c. 1150). This (Persian?) termination, bār, whatever be its origin, and whether or no it be connected either with the Ar. barr, 'a continent,' on the one hand, or with the Skt. vāra, 'a region, a slope,' on the other, was most assuredly applied by the navigators of the Gulf to other regions which they visited besides Western India. Thus we have Zangī-bār (mod. Zanzibar), 'the country of the Blacks'; Kalāh-bār, denoting apparently the coast of the Malay Peninsula; and even according to the dictionaries, Hindū-bār for India. In the Arabic work which affords the second of these examples (Relation, &c., tr. by Reinaud, i. 17) it is expressly explained: "The word bār serves to indicate that which is both a coast and a kingdom." It will be seen from the quotations below that in the Middle Ages, even after the establishment of the use of this termination, the exact form of the name as given by foreign travellers and writers, varies considerably. But, from the time of the Portuguese discovery of the Cape route, Malavar, or Malabar, as we have it now, is the persistent form. [Mr. Logan (Manual, i. 1) remarks that the name is not in use in the district itself except among foreigners and English-speaking natives; the ordinary name is Malayālam or Malāyam, 'the Hill Country.']

c. 545.—"The imports to Taprobane are silk, aloeswood, cloves, sandalwood.... These again are passed on from Sielediba to the marts on this side, such as Μαλὲ, where the pepper is grown.... And the most notable places of trade are these, Sindu ... and then the five marts of Μαλὲ, from which the pepper is exported, viz., Parti, Mangaruth, Salopatana, Nalopatana, and Pudopatana."—Cosmas, Bk. xi. In Cathay, &c., p. clxxviii.

c. 645.—"To the south this kingdom is near the sea. There rise the mountains called Mo-la-ye (Malaya), with their precipitous sides, and their lofty summits, their dark valleys and their deep ravines. On these mountains grows the white sandalwood."—Hwen T'sang, in Julien, iii. 122.

851.—"From this place (Maskat) ships sail for India, and run for Kaulam-Malai; the distance from Maskat to Kaulam-Malai is a month's sail with a moderate wind."—Relation, &c., tr. by Reinaud, i. 15. The same work at p. 15 uses the expression "Country of Pepper" (Balad-ul-falfal).

890.—"From Sindán to Malí is five days' journey; in the latter pepper is to be found, also the bamboo."—Ibn Khurdádba, in Elliot, i. 15.

c. 1030.—"You enter then on the country of Lárán, in which is Jaimúr (see under CHOUL), then Maliah, then Kánchí, then Dravira (see DRAVIDIAN)."—Al-Birúni, in Reinaud, Fragmens, 121.

c. 1150.—"Fandarina (see PANDARANI) is a town built at the mouth of a river which comes from Maníbár, where vessels from India and Sind cast anchor."—Idrisi, in Elliot, i. 90.

c. 1200.—"Hari sports here in the delightful spring ... when the breeze from Malaya is fragrant from passing over the charming lavanga" (cloves).—Gīta Govinda.

1270.—"Malibar is a large country of India, with many cities, in which pepper is produced."—Kazwīnī, in Gildemeister, 214.

1293.—"You can sail (upon that sea) between these islands and Ormes, and (from Ormes) to those parts which are called (Minibar), is a distance of 2,000 miles, in a direction between south and south-east; then 300 miles between east and south-east from Minibar to Maabar" (see MABAR).—Letter of Fr. John of Montecorvino, in Cathay, i. 215.

1298.—"Melibar is a great kingdom lying towards the west.... There is in this kingdom a great quantity of pepper."—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. ch. 25.

c. 1300.—"Beyond Guzerat are Kankan (see CONCAN) and Tāna; beyond them the country of Malíbár, which from the boundary of Karoha to Kúlam (probably from Gheriah to Quilon) is 300 parasangs in length."—Rashíduddín, in Elliot, i. 68.

c. 1320.—"A certain traveller states that India is divided into three parts, of which the first, which is also the most westerly, is that on the confines of Kerman and Sind, and is called Gūzerāt; the second Manībār, or the Land of Pepper, east of Gūzerāt."—Abulfeda, in Gildemeister, 184.

c. 1322.—"And now that ye may know how pepper is got, let me tell you that it groweth in a certain empire, whereunto I came to land, the name whereof is Minibar."—Friar Odoric, in Cathay, &c., 74.

c. 1343.—"After 3 days we arrived in the country of the Mulaibār, which is the country of Pepper. It stretches in length a distance of two months' march along the sea-shore."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 71.

c. 1348-49.—"We embarked on board certain junks from Lower India, which is called Minubar."—John de' Marignolli, in Cathay, 356.

c. 1420-30.—"... Departing thence he ... arrived at a noble city called Coloen.... This province is called Melibaria, and they collect in it the ginger called by the natives colombi, pepper, brazil-wood, and the cinnamon, called canella grossa."—Conti, corrected from Jones's tr. in India in XVth Cent. 17-18.

c. 1442.—"The coast which includes Calicut with some neighbouring ports, and which extends as far as (Kael), a place situated opposite to the Island of Serendib ... bears the general name of Melībār."—Abdurrazzāk, ibid. 19.

1459.—Fra Mauro's great Map has Milibar.

1514.—"In the region of India called Melibar, which province begins at Goa, and extends to Cape Comedis (Comorin)...."—Letter of Giov. da Empoli, 79. It is remarkable to find this Florentine using this old form in 1514.

1516.—"And after that the Moors of Meca discovered India, and began to navigate near it, which was 610 years ago, they used to touch at this country of Malabar on account of the pepper which is found there."—Barbosa, 102.

1553.—"We shall hereafter describe particularly the position of this city of Calecut, and of the country of Malauar in which it stands."—Barros, Dec. I. iv. c. 6. In the following chapter he writes Malabar.

1554.—"From Diu to the Islands of Dib. Steer first S.S.E., the pole being made by five inches, side towards the land in the direction of E.S.E. and S.E. by E. till you see the mountains of Moníbár."—The Mohit, in J. As. Soc. Ben. v. 461.

1572.—

By Burton:

Since De Barros Malabar occurs almost universally.

[1623.—"... Mahabar Pirates...."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 121.]

1877.—The form Malibar is used in a letter from Athanasius Peter III., "Patriarch of the Syrians of Antioch" to the Marquis of Salisbury, dated Cairo, July 18.

MALABAR, n.p.

b. This word, through circumstances which have been fully elucidated by Bishop Caldwell in his Comparative Grammar (2nd ed. 10-12), from which we give an extract below,^[158] was applied by the Portuguese not only to the language and people of the country thus called, but also to the Tamil language and the people speaking Tamil. In the quotations following, those under A apply, or may apply, to the proper people or language of Malabar (see MALAYALAM); those under B are instances of the misapplication to Tamil, a misapplication which was general (see e.g. in Orme, passim) down to the beginning of the last century, and which still holds among the more ignorant Europeans and Eurasians in S. India and Ceylon.

(A.)

1552.—"A lingua dos Gentios de Canara e Malabar."—Castanheda, ii. 78.

1572.—

[By Aubertin:

1582.—"They asked of the Malabars which went with him what he was?"—Castañeda, (tr. by N. L.) f. 37v.

1602.—"We came to anchor in the Roade of Achen ... where we found sixteene or eighteene saile of shippes of diuers Nations, some Goserats, some of Bengala, some of Calecut, called Malabares, some Pegues, and some Patanyes."—Sir J. Lancaster, in Purchas, i. 153.

1606.—In Gouvea (Synodo, ff. 2v, 3, &c.) Malavar means the Malayālam language.

(B.)

1549.—"Enrico Enriques, a Portuguese priest of our Society, a man of excellent virtue and good example, who is now in the Promontory of Comorin, writes and speaks the Malabar tongue very well indeed."—Letter of Xavier, in Coleridge's Life, ii. 73.

1680.—"Whereas it hath been hitherto accustomary at this place to make sales and alienations of houses in writing in the Portuguese, Gentue, and Mallabar languages, from which some inconveniences have arisen...."—Ft. St. Geo. Consn., Sept 9, in Notes and Extracts, No. iii. 33.

[1682.—"An order in English Portuguez Gentue & Mallabar for the preventing the transportation of this Countrey People and makeing them slaves in other Strange Countreys...."—Pringle, Diary Ft. St. Geo., 1st ser. i. 87.]

1718.—"This place (Tranquebar) is altogether inhabited by Malabarian Heathens."—Propn. of the Gospel in the East, Pt. i. (3rd ed.), p. 18.

" "Two distinct languages are necessarily required; one is the Damulian, commonly called Malabarick."—Ibid. Pt. iii. 33.

1734.—"Magnopere commendantes zelum, ac studium Missionariorum, qui libros sacram Ecclesiae Catholicae doctrinam, rerumque sacrarum monumenta continentes, pro Indorum Christi fidelium eruditione in linguam Malabaricam seu Tamulicam transtulere."—Brief of Pope Clement XII., in Norbert, ii. 432-3. These words are adopted from Card. Tournon's decree of 1704 (see ibid. i. 173).

c. 1760.—"Such was the ardent zeal of M. Ziegenbalg that in less than a year he attained a perfect knowledge of the Malabarian tongue.... He composed also a Malabarian dictionary of 20,000 words."—Grose, i. 261.

1782.—"Les habitans de la côte de Coromandel sont appellés Tamouls; les Européens les nomment improprement Malabars."—Sonnerat, i. 47.

1801.—"From Niliseram to the Chandergerry River no language is understood but the Malabars of the Coast."—Sir T. Munro, in Life, i. 322.

In the following passage the word Malabars is misapplied still further, though by a writer usually most accurate and intelligent:

1810.—"The language spoken at Madras is the Talinga, here called Malabars."—Maria Graham, 128.

1860.—"The term 'Malabar' is used throughout the following pages in the comprehensive sense in which it is applied in the Singhalese Chronicles to the continental invaders of Ceylon; but it must be observed that the adventurers in these expeditions, who are styled in the Mahawanso 'damilos,' or Tamils, came not only from ... 'Malabar,' but also from all parts of the Peninsula as far north as Cuttack and Orissa."—Tennent's Ceylon, i. 353.

MALABAR-CREEPER, s. Argyreia malabarica, Choisy.

[MALABAR EARS, s. The seed vessels of a tree which Ives calls Codaga palli.

1773.—"From their shape they are called Malabar-Ears, on account of the resemblance they bear to the ears of the women of the Malabar coast, which from the large slit made in them and the great weight of ornamental rings put into them, are rendered very large, and so long that sometimes they touch the very shoulders."—Ives, 465.

MALABAR HILL, n.p. This favourite site of villas on Bombay Island is stated by Mr. Whitworth to have acquired its name from the fact that the Malabar pirates, who haunted this coast, used to lie behind it.

[1674.—"On the other side of the great Inlet, to the Sea, is a great Point abutting against Old Woman's Island, and is called Malabar-Hill ... the remains of a stupendous Pagod, near a Tank of Fresh Water, which the Malabars visited it mostly for."—Fryer, 68 seq.]

[MALABAR OIL, s. "The ambiguous term 'Malabar Oil' is applied to a mixture of the oil obtained from the livers of several kinds of fishes frequenting the Malabar Coast of India and the neighbourhood of Karachi."—Watt, Econ. Dict. v. 113.]

MALABAR RITES. This was a name given to certain heathen and superstitious practices which the Jesuits of the Madura, Carnatic, and Mysore Missions permitted to their converts, in spite of repeated prohibitions by the Popes. And though these practices were finally condemned by the Legate Cardinal de Tournon in 1704, they still subsist, more or less, among native Catholic Christians, and especially those belonging to the (so-called) Goa Churches. These practices are generally alleged to have arisen under Father de' Nobili ("Robertus de Nobilibus"), who came to Madura about 1606. There can be no doubt that the aim of this famous Jesuit was to present Christianity to the people under the form, as it were, of a Hindu translation!

The nature of the practices of which we speak may be gathered from the following particulars of their prohibition. In 1623 Pope Gregory XV., by a constitution dated 31st January, condemned the following:—1. The investiture of Brahmans and certain other castes with the sacred thread, through the agency of Hindu priests, and with Hindu ceremonies. For these Christian ceremonies were to be substituted; and the thread was to be regarded as only a civil badge. 2. The ornamental use of sandalwood paste was permitted, but not its superstitious use, e.g., in mixture with cowdung ashes, &c., for ceremonial purification. 3. Bathing as a ceremonial purification. 4. The observance of caste, and the refusal of high-caste Christians to mix with low-caste Christians in the churches was disapproved.

The quarrels between Capuchins and Jesuits later in the 17th century again brought the Malabar Rites into notice, and Cardinal de Tournon was sent on his unlucky mission to determine these matters finally. His decree (June 23, 1704) prohibited:—1. A mutilated form of baptism, in which were omitted certain ceremonies offensive to Hindus, specifically the use of 'saliva, sal, et insufflatio.' 2. The use of Pagan names. 3. The Hinduizing of Christian terms by translation. 4. Deferring the baptism of children. 5. Infant marriages. 6. The use of the Hindu tali (see TALEE). 7. Hindu usages at marriages. 8. Augury at marriages, by means of a coco-nut. 9. The exclusion of women from churches during certain periods. 10. Ceremonies on a girl's attainment of puberty. 11. The making distinctions between Pariahs and others. 12. The assistance of Christian musicians at heathen ceremonies. 13. The use of ceremonial washings and bathings. 14. The use of cowdung-ashes. 15. The reading and use of Hindu books.

With regard to No. 11 it may be observed that in South India the distinction of castes still subsists, and the only Christian Mission in that quarter which has really succeeded in abolishing caste is that of the Basel Society.

MALABATHRUM, s. There can be very little doubt that this classical export from India was the dried leaf of various species of Cinnamomum, which leaf was known in Skt. as tamāla-pattra. Some who wrote soon after the Portuguese discoveries took, perhaps not unnaturally, the pān or betel-leaf for the malabathrum of the ancients; and this was maintained by Dean Vincent in his well-known work on the Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients, justifying this in part by the Ar. name of the betel, tambūl, which is taken from Skt. tāmbūla, betel; tāmbūla-pattra, betel-leaf. The tamāla-pattra, however, the produce of certain wild spp. of Cinnamomum, obtained both in the hills of Eastern Bengal and in the forests of Southern India, is still valued in India as a medicine and aromatic, though in no such degree as in ancient times, and it is usually known in domestic economy as tejpāt, or corruptly tezpāt, i.e. 'pungent leaf.' The leaf was in the Arabic Materia Medica under the name of sādhaj or sādhajī Hindī, as was till recently in the English Pharmacopœia as Folium indicum, which will still be found in Italian drug-shops. The matter is treated, with his usual lucidity and abundance of local knowledge, in the Colloquios of Garcia de Orta, of which we give a short extract. This was evidently unknown to Dean Vincent, as he repeats the very errors which Garcia dissipates. Garcia also notes that confusion of Malabathrum and Folium indicum with spikenard, which is traceable in Pliny as well as among the Arab pharmacologists. The ancients did no doubt apply the name Malabathrum to some other substance, an unguent or solid extract. Rheede, we may notice, mentions that in his time in Malabar, oils in high medical estimation were made from both leaves and root of the "wild cinnamon" of that coast, and that from the root of the same tree a camphor was extracted, having several of the properties of real camphor and more fragrance. (See a note by one of the present writers in Cathay, &c., pp. cxlv.-xlvi.) The name Cinnamon is properly confined to the tree of Ceylon (C. Zeylanicum). The other Cinnamoma are properly Cassia barks. [See Watt. Econ. Dict. ii. 317 seqq.]

c. A.D. 60.—"Μαλάβαθρον ἔνιοι ὑπολάμβάνουσιν εἶναι τῆς Ἰνδικῆς νάρδου φύλλον, πλανώμενοι ὑπὸ τῆς κατὰ τὴν ὀσμὴν, ἐμφερειας, ... ἴδιον γαρ ἐστι γένος φυόμενον ἐν τοῖς Ἰνδικοῖς τέλμασι, φύλλον ὃν ἐπινηχόμενον ὕδατι."—Dioscorides, Mat. Med. i. 11.

c. A.D. 70.—"We are beholden to Syria for Malabathrum. This is a tree that beareth leaves rolled up round together, and seeming to the eie withered. Out of which there is drawn and pressed an Oile for perfumers to use.... And yet there commeth a better kind thereof from India.... The rellish thereof ought to resemble Nardus at the tongue end. The perfume or smell that ... the leafe yeeldeth when it is boiled in wine, passeth all others. It is straunge and monstrous which is observed in the price; for it hath risen from one denier to three hundred a pound."—Pliny, xii. 26, in Ph. Holland.

c. A.D. 90.—"... Getting rid of the fibrous parts, they take the leaves and double them up into little balls, which they stitch through with the fibres of the withes. And these they divide into three classes.... And thus originate the three qualities of Malabathrum, which the people who have prepared them carry to India for sale."—Periplus, near the end. [Also see Yule, Intro. Gill, River of Golden Sand, ed. 1883, p. 89.]

1563.—"R. I remember well that in speaking of betel you told me that it was not folium indu, a piece of information of great value to me; for the physicians who put themselves forward as having learned much from these parts, assert that they are the same; and what is more, the modern writers ... call betel in their works tembul, and say that the Moors give it this name....

"O. That the two things are different as I told you is clear, for Avicenna treats them in two different chapters, viz., in 259, which treats of folium indu, and in 707, which treats of tambul ... and the folium indu is called by the Indians Tamalapatra, which the Greeks and Latins corrupted into Malabathrum," &c.—Garcia, ff. 95v, 96.

c. 1690.—"Hoc Tembul seu Sirium, licet vulgatissimum in India sit folium, distinguendum est a Folio Indo seu Malabathro, Arabibus Cadegi Hindi, in Pharmacopoeis, et Indis, Tamala-patra et folio Indo dicto,... A nostra autem natione intellexi Malabathrum nihil aliud esse quam folium canellae, seu cinnamomi sylvestris."—Rumphius, v. 337.

c. 1760.—"... quand l'on considère que les Indiens appellent notre feuille Indienne tamalapatra on croit d'apercevoir que le mot Grec μαλάβατρον en a été anciennement dérivé."—(Diderot) Encyclopédie, xx. 846.

1837.—(Malatroon is given in Arabic works of Materia Medica as the Greek of Sādhaj, and tuj and tej-pat as the Hindi synonymes). "By the latter names may be obtained everywhere in the bazars of India, the leaves of Cinn. Tamala and of Cinn. albiflorum."—Royle, Essay on Antiq. of Hindoo Medicine, 85.

MALACCA, n.p. The city which gives its name to the Peninsula and the Straits of Malacca, and which was the seat of a considerable Malay monarchy till its capture by the Portuguese under D'Alboquerque in 1511. One naturally supposes some etymological connection between Malay and Malacca. And such a connection is put forward by De Barros and D'Alboquerque (see below, and also under MALAY). The latter also mentions an alternative suggestion for the origin of the name of the city, which evidently refers to the Ar. mulāḳāt, 'a meeting.' This last, though it appears also in the Sijara Malayu, may be totally rejected. Crawfurd is positive that the place was called from the word malaka, the Malay name of the Phyllanthus emblica, or emblic Myrobalan (q.v.), "a tree said to be abundant in that locality"; and this, it will be seen below, is given by Godinho de Eredia as the etymology. Malaka again seems to be a corruption of the Skt. amlaka, from amla, 'acid.' [Mr. Skeat writes: "There can be no doubt that Crawfurd is right, and that the place was named from the tree. The suggested connection between Malayu and Malaka appears impossible to me, and, I think, would do so to any one acquainted with the laws of the language. I have seen the Malaka tree myself and eaten its fruit. Ridley in his Botanical Lists has laka-laka and malaka which he identifies as Phyllanthus emblica, L. and P. pectinatus Hooker (Euphorbiaceae). The two species are hardly distinct, but the latter is the commoner form. The fact is that the place, as is so often the case among the Malays, must have taken its name from the Sungei Malaka, or Malaka River."]

1416.—"There was no King but only a chief, the country belonging to Siam.... In the year 1409, the imperial envoy Cheng Ho brought an order from the emperor and gave to the chief two silver seals, ... he erected a stone and raised the place to a city, after which the land was called the Kingdom of Malacca (Moa-la-ka).... Tin is found in the mountains ... it is cast into small blocks weighing 1 catti 8 taels ... ten pieces are bound together with rattan and form a small bundle, whilst 40 pieces make a large bundle. In all their trading ... they use these pieces of tin instead of money."—Chinese Annals, in Groenveldt, p. 123.

1498.—"Melequa ... is 40 days from Qualecut with a fair wind ... hence proceeds all the clove, and it is worth there 9 crusados for a bahar (q.v.), and likewise nutmeg other 9 crusados the bahar; and there is much porcelain and much silk, and much tin, of which they make money, but the money is of large size and little value, so that it takes 3 farazalas (see Frazala) of it to make a crusado. Here too are many large parrots all red like fire."—Roteiro de V. da Gama, 110-111.

1510.—"When we had arrived at the city of Melacha, we were immediately presented to the Sultan, who is a Moor ... I believe that more ships arrive here than in any other place in the world...."—Varthema, 224.

1511.—"This Paremiçura gave the name of Malaca to the new colony, because in the language of Java, when a man of Palimbão flees away they call him Malayo.... Others say that it was called Malaca because of the number of people who came there from one part and the other in so short a space of time, for the word Malaca also signifies to meet.... Of these two opinions let each one accept that which he thinks to be the best, for this is the truth of the matter."—Commentaries of Alboquerque, E.T. by Birch, iii. 76-77.

1516.—"The said Kingdom of Ansyane (see Siam) throws out a great point of land into the sea, which makes there a cape, where the sea returns again towards China to the north; in this promontory is a small kingdom in which there is a large city called Malaca."—Barbosa, 191.

1553.—"A son of Paramisora called Xaquem Darxa, (i.e. Sikandar Shāh) ... to form the town of Malaca, to which he gave that name in memory of the banishment of his father, because in his vernacular tongue (Javanese) this was as much as to say 'banished,' and hence the people are called Malaios."—De Barros, II. vi. 1.

" "That which he (Alboquerque) regretted most of all that was lost on that vessel, was two lions cast in iron, a first-rate work, and most natural, which the King of China had sent to the King of Malaca, and which King Mahamed had kept, as an honourable possession, at the gate of his Palace, whence Affonso Alboquerque carried them off, as the principal item of his triumph on the capture of the city."—Ibid. II. vii. 1.

1572.—

By Burton:

1612.—"The Arabs call it Malakat, from collecting all merchants."—Sijara Malayu, in J. Ind. Arch. v. 322.

1613.—"Malaca significa Mirabolanos, fructa de hua arvore, plantada ao longo de hum ribeiro chamado Aerlele."—Godinho de Eredia, f. 4.

MALADOO, s. Chicken maladoo is an article in the Anglo-Indian menu. It looks like a corruption from the French cuisine, but of what? [Maladoo or Manadoo, a lady informs me, is cold meat, such as chicken or mutton, cut into slices, or pounded up and re-cooked in batter. The Port. malhado, 'beaten-up,' has been suggested as a possible origin for the word.]

MALAY, n.p. This is in the Malay language an adjective, Malāyu; thus orang Malāyu, 'a Malay'; tāna [tānah] Malāyu, 'the Malay country'; bahāsa [bhāsa] Malāyu, 'the Malay language.'

In Javanese the word malāyu signifies 'to run away,' and the proper name has traditionally been derived from this, in reference to the alleged foundation of Malacca by Javanese fugitives; but we can hardly attach importance to this. It may be worthy at least of consideration whether the name was not of foreign, i.e. of S. Indian origin, and connected with the Malāya of the Peninsula (see under MALABAR). [Mr. Skeat writes: "The tradition given me by Javanese in the Malay States was that the name was applied to Javanese refugees, who peopled the S. of Sumatra. Whatever be the original meaning of the word, it is probable that it started its life-history as a river-name in the S. of Sumatra, and thence became applied to the district through which the river ran, and so to the people who lived there; after which it spread with the Malay dialect until it included not only many allied, but also many foreign, tribes; all Malay-speaking tribes being eventually called Malays without regard to racial origin. A most important passage in this connection is to be found in Leyden's Tr. of the 'Malay Annals' (1821), p. 20, in which direct reference to such a river is made: 'There is a country in the land of Andalás named Paralembang, which is at present denominated Palembang, the raja of which was denominated Damang Lebar Dawn (chieftain Broad-leaf), who derived his origin from Raja Sulan (Chulan?), whose great-grandson he was. The name of its river Muartatang, into which falls another river named Sungey Malayu, near the source of which is a mountain named the mountain Sagantang Maha Miru.' Here Palembang is the name of a well-known Sumatran State, often described as the original home of the Malay race. In standard Malay 'Damang Lebar Dawn' would be 'Dĕmang Lebar Daun.' Raja Chulan is probably some mythical Indian king, the story being evidently derived from Indian traditions. 'Muartatang' may be a mistake for Muar Tenang, which is a place one heard of in the Peninsula, though I do not know for certain where it is. 'Sungey Malayu' simply means 'River Malayu.' 'Sagantang Maha Miru' is, I think, a mistake for Sa-guntang Maha Miru, which is the name used in the Peninsula for the sacred central mountain of the world on which the episode related in the Annals occurred" (see Skeat, Malay Magic, p. 2).]

It is a remarkable circumstance, which has been noted by Crawfurd, that a name which appears on Ptolemy's Tables as on the coast of the Golden Chersonese, and which must be located somewhere about Maulmain, is Μαλεοῦ Κῶλον, words which in Javanese (Malāyu-Kulon) would signify "Malays of the West." After this the next (possible) occurrence of the name in literature is in the Geography of Edrisi, who describes Malai as a great island in the eastern seas, or rather as occupying the position of the Lemuria of Mr. Sclater, for (in partial accommodation to the Ptolemaic theory of the Indian Sea) it stretched eastward nearly from the coast of Zinj, i.e. of Eastern Africa, to the vicinity of China. Thus it must be uncertain without further accounts whether it is an adumbration of the great Malay islands (as is on the whole probable) or of the Island of the Malagashes (Madagascar), if it is either. We then come to Marco Polo, and after him there is, we believe, no mention of the Malay name till the Portuguese entered the seas of the Archipelago.

[A.D. 690.—Mr. Skeat notes: "I Tsing speaks of the 'Molo-yu country,' i.e. the district W. or N.W. of Palembang in Sumatra."]

c. 1150.—"The Isle of Malai is very great.... The people devote themselves to very profitable trade; and there are found here elephants, rhinoceroses, and various aromatics and spices, such as clove, cinnamon, nard ... and nutmeg. In the mountains are mines of gold, of excellent quality ... the people also have windmills."—Edrisi, by Jaubert, i. 945.

c. 1273.—A Chinese notice records under this year that tribute was sent from Siam to the Emperor. "The Siamese had long been at war with the Maliyi, or Maliurh, but both nations laid aside their feud and submitted to China."—Notice by Sir T. Wade, in Bowring's Siam, i. 72.

c. 1292.—"You come to an Island which forms a kingdom, and is called Malaiur. The people have a king of their own, and a peculiar language. The city is a fine and noble one, and there is a great trade carried on there. All kinds of spicery are to be found there."—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. ch. 8.

c. 1539.—"... as soon as he had delivered to him the letter, it was translated into the Portugal out of the Malayan tongue wherein it was written."—Pinto, E.T. p. 15.

1548.—"... having made a breach in the wall twelve fathom wide, he assaulted it with 10,000 strangers, Turks, Abyssins, Moors, Malauares, Achems, Jaos, and Malayos."—Ibid. p. 279.

1553.—"And so these Gentiles like the Moors who inhabit the sea-coasts of the Island (Sumatra), although they have each their peculiar language, almost all can speak the Malay of Malacca as being the most general language of those parts."—Barros, III. v. 1.

" "Everything with them is to be a gentleman; and this has such prevalence in those parts that you will never find a native Malay, however poor he may be, who will set his hand to lift a thing of his own or anybody else's; every service must be done by slaves."—Ibid. II. vi. 1.

1610.—"I cannot imagine what the Hollanders meane, to suffer these Malaysians, Chinesians, and Moores of these countries, and to assist them in their free trade thorow all the Indies, and forbid it their owne seruants, countrymen, and Brethern, upon paine of death and losse of goods."—Peter Williamson Floris, in Purchas, i. 321.

[Mr. Skeat writes: "The word Malaya is now often applied by English writers to the Peninsula as a whole, and from this the term Malaysia as a term of wider application (i.e. to the Archipelago) has been coined (see quotation of 1610 above). The former is very frequently miswritten by English writers as 'Malay,' a barbarism which has even found place on the title-page of a book—'Travel and Sport in Burma, Siam and Malay, by John Bradley, London, 1876.'"]

MALAYĀLAM. This is the name applied to one of the cultivated Dravidian languages, the closest in its relation to the Tamil. It is spoken along the Malabar coast, on the Western side of the Ghauts (or Malāya mountains), from the Chandragiri River on the North, near Mangalore (entering the sea in 12° 29′), beyond which the language is, for a limited distance, Tulu, and then Canarese, to Trevandrum on the South (lat. 8° 29′), where Tamil begins to supersede it. Tamil, however, also intertwines with Malayālam all along Malabar. The term Malayālam properly applies to territory, not language, and might be rendered "Mountain region" [See under MALABAR, and Logan, Man. of Malabar, i. 90.]