D (continued 3)

1782.—"Adjoining is a durgaw or burial place, with a view of the river."—Hodges, 102.

1807.—"The dhurgaw may invariably be seen to occupy those scites pre-eminent for comfort and beauty."—Williamson, Oriental Field Sports, 24.

1828.—"... he was a relation of the ... superior of the Durgah, and this is now a sufficient protection."—The Kuzzilbash, ii. 273.

DURIAN, DORIAN, s. Malay duren, Molucca form duriyān, from durī, 'a thorn or prickle, [and ān, the common substantival ending; Mr. Skeat gives the standard Malay as duriyan or durian]; the great fruit of the tree (N. O. Bombaceae) called by botanists Durio zibethinus, D. C. The tree appears to be a native of the Malay Peninsula, and the nearest islands; from which it has been carried to Tenasserim on one side and to Mindanao on the other.

The earliest European mention of this fruit is that by Nicolo Conti. The passage is thus rendered by Winter Jones: "In this island (Sumatra) there also grows a green fruit which they call duriano, of the size of a cucumber. When opened five fruits are found within, resembling oblong oranges. The taste varies like that of cheese." (In India in the XVth Cent., p. 9.) We give the original Latin of Poggio below, which must be more correctly rendered thus: "They have a green fruit which they call durian, as big as a water-melon. Inside there are five things like elongated oranges, and resembling thick butter, with a combination of flavours." (See Carletti, below).

The dorian in Sumatra often forms a staple article of food, as the jack (q.v.) does in Malabar. By natives and old European residents in the Malay regions in which it is produced the dorian is regarded as incomparable, but novices have a difficulty in getting over the peculiar, strong, and offensive odour of the fruit, on account of which it is usual to open it away from the house, and which procured for it the inelegant Dutch nickname of stancker. "When that aversion, however, is conquered, many fall into the taste of the natives, and become passionately fond of it." (Crawfurd, H. of Ind. Arch. i. 419.) [Wallace (Malay Arch. 57) says that he could not bear the smell when he "first tried it in Malacca, but in Borneo I found a ripe fruit on the ground, and, eating it out of doors, I at once became a confirmed Durian eater ... the more you eat of it the less you feel inclined to stop. In fact to eat Durians is a new sensation, worth a voyage to the East to experience."] Our forefathers had not such delicate noses, as may be gathered from some of the older notices. A Governor of the Straits, some forty-five years ago, used to compare the Dorian to 'carrion in custard.'

c. 1440.—"Fructum viridem habent nomine durianum, magnitudine cucumeris, in quo sunt quinque veluti malarancia oblonga, varii saporis, instar butyri coagulati."—Poggii, de Varietate Fortunae, Lib. iv.

1552.—"Durions, which are fashioned like artichokes" (!)—Castanheda, ii. 355.

1553.—"Among these fruits was one kind now known by the name of durions, a thing greatly esteemed, and so luscious that the Malacca merchants tell how a certain trader came to that port with a ship load of great value, and he consumed the whole of it in guzzling durions and in gallantries among the Malay girls."—Barros, II. vi. i.

1563.—"A gentleman in this country (Portuguese India) tells me that he remembers to have read in a Tuscan version of Pliny, 'nobiles durianes.' I have since asked him to find the passage in order that I might trace it in the Latin, but up to this time he says he has not found it."—Garcia, f. 85.

1588.—"There is one that is called in the Malacca tongue durion, and is so good that I have heard it affirmed by manie that have gone about the worlde, that it doth exceede in savour all others that ever they had seene or tasted.... Some do say that have seene it that it seemeth to be that wherewith Adam did transgresse, being carried away by the singular savour."—Parke's Mendoza, ii. 318.

1598.—"Duryoen is a fruit ỹt only groweth in Malacca, and is so much comẽded by those which have proued ye same, that there is no fruite in the world to bee compared with it."—Linschoten, 102; [Hak. Soc. i. 51].

1599.—The Dorian, Carletti thought, had a smell of onions, and he did not at first much like it, but when at last he got used to this he liked the fruit greatly, and thought nothing of a simple and natural kind could be tasted which possessed a more complex and elaborate variety of odours and flavours than this did.—See Viaggi, Florence, 1701; Pt. II. p. 211.

1601.—"Duryoen ... ad apertionem primam ... putridum coepe redolet, sed dotem tamen divinam illam omnem gustui profundit."—Debry, iv. 33.

[1610.—"The Darion tree nearly resembles a pear tree in size."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 366.]

1615.—"There groweth a certaine fruit, prickled like a ches-nut, and as big as one's fist, the best in the world to eate, these are somewhat costly, all other fruits being at an easie rate. It must be broken with force and therein is contained a white liquor like vnto creame, never the lesse it yields a very vnsauory sent like to a rotten oynion, and it is called Esturion" (probably a misprint).—De Monfart, 27.

1727.—"The Durean is another excellent Fruit, but offensive to some People's Noses, for it smells very like ... but when once tasted the smell vanishes."—A. Hamilton, ii. 81; [ed. 1744, ii. 80].

1855.—"The fetid Dorian, prince of fruits to those who like it, but chief of abominations to all strangers and novices, does not grow within the present territories of Ava, but the King makes great efforts to obtain a supply in eatable condition from the Tenasserim Coast. King Tharawadi used to lay post-horses from Martaban to Ava, to bring his odoriferous delicacy."—Yule, Mission to Ava, 161.

1878.—"The Durian will grow as large as a man's head, is covered closely with terribly sharp spines, set hexagonally upon its hard skin, and when ripe it falls; if it should strike any one under the tree, severe injury or death may be the result."—M‘Nair, Perak, 60.

1885.—"I proceeded ... under a continuous shade of tall Durian trees from 35 to 40 feet high.... In the flowering time it was a most pleasant shady wood; but later in the season the chance of a fruit now and then descending on one's head would be less agreeable." Note.—"Of this fruit the natives are passionately fond; ... and the elephants flock to its shade in the fruiting time; but, more singular still, the tiger is said to devour it with avidity."—Forbes, A Naturalist's Wanderings, p. 240.

DURJUN, s. H. darjan, a corr. of the English dozen.

DURWAUN, s. H. from P. darwān, darbān. A doorkeeper. A domestic servant so called is usual in the larger houses of Calcutta. He is porter at the gate of the compound (q.v.).

[c. 1590.—"The Darbáns, or Porters. A thousand of these active men are employed to guard the palace."—Āīn, i. 258.]

c. 1755.—"Derwan."—List of servants in Ives, 50.

1781.—(After an account of an alleged attempt to seize Mr. Hicky's Darwān). "Mr. Hicky begs leave to make the following remarks. That he is clearly of opinion that these horrid Assassins wanted to dispatch him whilst he lay a sleep, as a Door-van is well known to be the alarm of the House, to prevent which the Villians wanted to carry him off,—and their precipitate flight the moment they heard Mr. Hicky's Voice puts it past a Doubt."—Reflections on the consequence of the late attempt made to Assassinate the Printer of the original Bengal Gazette (in the same, April 14).

1784.—"Yesterday at daybreak, a most extraordinary and horrid murder was committed upon the Dirwan of Thomas Martin, Esq."—In Seton-Karr, i. 12.

" "In the entrance passage, often on both sides of it, is a raised floor with one or two open cells, in which the Darwans (or doorkeepers) sit, lie, and sleep—in fact dwell."—Calc. Review, vol. lix. p. 207.

DURWAUZA-BUND. The formula by which a native servant in an Anglo-Indian household intimates that his master or mistress cannot receive a visitor—'Not at home'—without the untruth. It is elliptical for darwāza band hai, 'the door is closed.'

[1877.—"When they did not find him there, it was Darwaza bund."—Allardyce, The City of Sunshine, i. 125.]

DUSSERA, DASSORA, DASEHRA, s. Skt. daśaharā, H. dasharā, Mahr. dasrā; the nine-nights' (or ten days') festival in October, also called Durgā-pūjā (see DOORGA-P.). In the west and south of India this holiday, taking place after the close of the wet season, became a great military festival, and the period when military expeditions were entered upon. The Mahrattas were alleged to celebrate the occasion in a way characteristic of them, by destroying a village! The popular etymology of the word and that accepted by the best authorities, is daś, 'ten (sins)' and har, 'that which takes away (or expiates).' It is, perhaps, rather connected with the ten days' duration of the feast, or with its chief day being the 10th of the month (Aśvina); but the origin is decidedly obscure.

c. 1590.—"The autumn harvest he shall begin to collect from the Deshereh, which is another Hindoo festival that also happens differently, from the beginning of Virgo to the commencement of Libra."—Ayeen, tr. Gladwin, ed. 1800, i. 307; [tr. Jarrett, ii. 46].

1785.—"On the anniversary of the Dusharah you will distribute among the Hindoos, composing your escort, a goat to every ten men."—Tippoo's Letters, 162.

1799.—"On the Institution and Ceremonies of the Hindoo Festival of the Dusrah," published (1820) in Trans. Bomb. Lit. Soc. iii. 73 seqq. (By Sir John Malcolm.)

1812.—"The Courts ... are allowed to adjourn annually during the Hindoo festival called dussarah."—Fifth Report, 37.

1813.—"This being the desserah, a great Hindoo festival ... we resolved to delay our departure and see some part of the ceremonies."—Forbes, Or. Mem. iv. 97; [2nd ed. ii. 450].

DUSTOOR, DUSTOORY, s. P.—H. dastūr, 'custom' [see DESTOOR,] dastūrī, 'that which is customary.' That commission or percentage on the money passing in any cash transaction which, with or without acknowledgment or permission, sticks to the fingers of the agent of payment. Such 'customary' appropriations are, we believe, very nearly as common in England as in India; a fact of which newspaper correspondence from time to time makes us aware, though Europeans in India, in condemning the natives, often forget, or are ignorant of this. In India the practice is perhaps more distinctly recognised, as the word denotes. Ibn Batuta tells us that at the Court of Delhi, in his time (c. 1340), the custom was for the officials to deduct 1⁄10 of every sum which the Sultan ordered to be paid from the treasury (see I. B. pp. 408, 426, &c.).

[1616.—"The dusturia in all bought goodes ... is a great matter."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. ii. 350.]

1638.—"Ces vallets ne sont point nourris au logis, mais ont leurs gages, dont ils s'entretiennent, quoy qu'ils ne montent qu'à trois ou quatre Ropias par moys ... mais ils ont leur tour du baston, qu'ils appellent Testury, qu'ils prennent du consentement du Maistre de celuy dont ils achettent quelque chose."—Mandelslo, Paris, 1659, 224.

[1679.—"The usuall Dustoore shall be equally divided."—S. Master, in Kistna Man. 136.]

1680.—"It is also ordered that in future the Vakils (see VAKEEL), Mutsuddees (see MOOTSUDDY), or Writers of the Tagadgeers,^[112] Dumiers, (?)^[113] or overseers of the Weavers, and the Picars and Podars shall not receive any monthly wages, but shall be content with the Dustoor ... of a quarter anna in the rupee, which the merchants and weavers are to allow them. The Dustoor may be divided twice a year or oftener by the Chief and Council among the said employers."—Ft. St. Geo. Cons., Dec. 2. In Notes and Extracts, No. II. p. 61.

1681.—"For the farme of Dustoory on cooley hire at Pagodas 20 per annum received a part ... (Pag.) 13 00 0."—Ibid. Jan. 10; Ibid. No. III. p. 45.

[1684.—"The Honble. Comp. having order'd ... that the Dustore upon their Investment ... be brought into the Generall Books."—Pringle, Diary, Ft. St. Geo. 1st ser. iii. 69.]

1780.—"It never can be in the power of a superintendent of Police to reform the numberless abuses which servants of every Denomination have introduced, and now support on the Broad Basis of Dustoor."—Hicky's Bengal Gazette, April 29.

1785.—"The Public are hereby informed that no Commission, Brokerage, or Dustoor is charged by the Bank, or permitted to be taken by any Agent or Servant employed by them."—In Seton-Karr, i. 130.

1795.—"All servants belonging to the Company's Shed have been strictly prohibited from demanding or receiving any fees or dastoors on any pretence whatever."—Ibid. ii. 16.

1824.—"The profits however he made during the voyage, and by a dustoory on all the alms given or received ... were so considerable that on his return some of his confidential disciples had a quarrel with him."—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 198.

1866.—"... of all taxes small and great the heaviest is dustooree."—Trevelyan, Dawk Bungalow, 217.

DUSTUCK, s. P. dastak, ['a little hand, hand-clapping to attract attention, a notice']. A pass or permit. The dustucks granted by the Company's covenanted servants in the early half of the 18th century seems to have been a constant instrument of abuse, or bone of contention, with the native authorities in Bengal. [The modern sense of the word in N. India is a notice of the revenue demand served on a defaulter.]

1716.—"A passport or dustuck, signed by the President of Calcutta, should exempt the goods specified from being visited or stopped."—Orme, ed. 1803, ii. 21.

1748.—"The Zemindar near Pultah having stopped several boats with English Dusticks and taken money from them, and disregarding the Phousdar's orders to clear them...."—In Long, 6.

[1762.—"Dusticks." See WRITER.]

1763.—"The dignity and benefit of our Dustucks are the chief badges of honour, or at least interest, we enjoy from our Phirmaund."—From the Chief and Council at Dacca, in Van Sittart, i. 210.

[1769.—"Dusticks." See under HOSBOLHOOKUM.

[1866.—"It is a practice of the Revenue Courts of the sircar to issue Dustuck for the malgoozaree the very day the kist (instalment) became due."—Confessions of an Orderly, 132.]

DWARKA, n.p. More properly Dvārakā or Dvārikā, quasi ἐκατόμπυλος, 'the City with many gates,' a very sacred Hindu place of pilgrimage, on the extreme N.W. point of peninsular Guzerat; the alleged royal city of Krishna. It is in the small State called Okha, which Gen. Legrand Jacob pronounces to be "barren of aught save superstition and piracy" (Tr. Bo. Geog. Soc. vii. 161). Dvārikā is, we apprehend, the βαράκη of Ptolemy. Indeed, in an old Persian map, published in Indian Antiq. i. 370, the place appears, transcribed as Bharraky.

c. 1590.—"The Fifth Division is Jugget (see JACQUETE), which is also called Daurka. Kishen came from Mehtra, and dwelt at this place, and died here. This is considered as a very holy spot by the Brahmins."—Ayeen, by Gladwin, ed. 1800, ii. 76; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 248].