S (continued 2)

c. 650.—"L'Honorable du siècle, animé d'une grande pitié, et obéissant à l'ordre des temps, jugea utile de paraitre dans le monde. Quand il eut fini de convertir les hommes, il se plongea dans les joies du Nirvâna. Se plaçant entre deux arbres Sâlas, il tourna sa tête vers le nord et s'endormit."—Hiouen Thsang, Mémoires (Voyages des Pèl. Bouddh. ii. 340).

1765.—"The produce of the country consists of shaal timbers (a wood equal in quality to the best of our oak)."—Holwell, Hist. Events, &c., i. 200.

1774.—"This continued five kos; towards the end there are sāl and large forest trees."—Bogle, in Markham's Tibet, 19.

1810.—"The saul is a very solid wood ... it is likewise heavy, yet by no means so ponderous as teak; both, like many of our former woods, sink in fresh water."—Williamson, V.M. ii. 69.

SAYER, SYRE, &c., s. Hind. from Arab. sā'ir, a word used technically for many years in the Indian accounts to cover a variety of items of taxation and impost, other than the Land Revenue.

The transitions of meaning in Arabic words are (as we have several times had occasion to remark) very obscure; and until we undertook the investigation of the subject for this article (a task in which we are indebted to the kind help of Sir H. Waterfield, of the India Office, one of the busiest men in the public service, but, as so often happens, one of the readiest to render assistance) the obscurity attaching to the word sayer in this sense was especially great.

Wilson, s.v. says: "In its original purport the word signifies moving, walking, or the whole, the remainder; from the latter it came to denote the remaining, or all other, sources of revenue accruing to the Government in addition to the land-tax." In fact, according to this explanation, the application of the term might be illustrated by the ancient story of a German Professor lecturing on botany in the pre-scientific period. He is reported to have said: 'Every plant, gentlemen, is divided into two parts. This is the root,—and this is the rest of it!' Land revenue was the root, and all else was 'the rest of it.'

Sir C. Trevelyan again, in a passage quoted below, says that the Arabic word has "the same meaning as 'miscellaneous.'" Neither of these explanations, we conceive, pace tantorum virorum, is correct.

The term Sayer in the 18th century was applied to a variety of inland imposts, but especially to local and arbitrary charges levied by zemindars and other individuals, with a show of authority, on all goods passing through their estates by land or water, or sold at markets (bazar, haut, gunge) established by them, charges which formed in the aggregate an enormous burden upon the trade of the country.

Now the fact is that in sā'ir two old Semitic forms have coalesced in sound though coming from different roots, viz. (in Arabic) sair, producing sā'ir, 'walking, current,' and sā'r, producing sā'ir, 'remainder,' the latter being a form of the same word that we have in the Biblical Shear-jashub, 'the remnant shall remain' (Isaiah, vii. 3). And we conceive that the true sense of the Indian term was 'current or customary charges'; an idea that lies at the root of sundry terms of the same kind in various languages, including our own Customs, as well as the dustoory which is so familiar in India. This interpretation is aptly illustrated by the quotation below from Mr. Stuart's Minute of Feb. 10, 1790.

At a later period it seems probable that some confusion arose with the other sense of sā'ir, leading to its use, more or less, for 'et ceteras,' and accounting for what we have indicated above as erroneous explanations of the word.

I find, however, that the Index and Glossary to the Regulations, ed. 1832 (vol. iii.), defines: "Sayer. What moves. Variable imports, distinct from land-rent or revenue, consisting of customs, tolls, licenses, duties on merchandise, and other articles of personal moveable property; as well as mixed duties, and taxes on houses, shops, bazars, &c." This of course throws some doubt on the rationale of the Arabic name as suggested above.

In a despatch of April 10, 1771, to Bengal, the Court of Directors drew attention to the private Bazar charges, as "a great detriment to the public collections, and a burthen and oppression to the inhabitants"; enjoining that no Buzars or Gunges should be kept up but such as particularly belonged to the Government. And in such the duties were to be rated in such manner as the respective positions and prosperity of the different districts would admit.

In consequence of these instructions it was ordered in 1773 that "all duties coming under the description of sayer Chelluntah (H. chalantā, 'in transit'), and Rah-darry (radaree) ... and other oppressive impositions on the foreign as well as the internal trade of the country" should be abolished; and, to prevent all pretext of injustice, proportional deductions of rent were conceded to the zemindars in the annual collections. Nevertheless the exactions went on much as before, in defiance of this and repeated orders. And in 1786 the Board of Revenue issued a proclamation declaring that any person levying such duties should be subject to corporal punishment, and that the zemindar in whose zemindarry such an offence might be committed, should forfeit his lands.

Still the evil practices went on till 1790, when Lord Cornwallis took up the matter with intelligence and determination. In the preceding year he had abolished all radaree duties in Behar and Benares, but the abuses in Bengal Proper seem to have been more swarming and persistent. On June 11, 1790, orders were issued resuming the collection of all duties indicated into the hands of Government; but this was followed after a few weeks (July 28) by an order abolishing them altogether, with some exceptions, which will be presently alluded to. This double step is explained by the Governor-General in a Minute dated July 18: "When I first proposed the resumption of the Sayer from the Landholders, it appeared to me advisable to continue the former collection (the unauthorised articles excepted) for the current year, in order that by the necessary accounts [we might have the means] for making a fair adjustment of the compensation, and at the same time acquire sufficient knowledge of the collections to enable us to enter upon the regulation of them from the commencement of the ensuing year.... The collections appear to be so numerous, and of so intricate a nature, as to preclude the possibility of regulating them all; and as the establishment of new rates for such articles as it might be thought advisable to continue would require much consideration, ... I recommend that, instead of continuing the collection ... for the current year ... all the existing articles of Sayer collection (with the exception of the Abkarry (Abcarree) ...) be immediately abolished; and that the Collectors be directed to withdraw their officers from the Gunges, Bazars and Hauts," compensation being duly made. The Board of Revenue could then consider on what few articles of luxury in general consumption it might be proper to reimpose a tax.

The Order of July 28 abolished "all duties, taxes, and collections coming under the denomination of Sayer (with the exception of the Government and Calcutta Customs, the duties levied on pilgrims at Gya, and other places of pilgrimage,—the Abkarry ... which is to be collected on account of the Government ... the collections made in the Gunges, Bazars and Hauts situated within the limits of Calcutta, and such collections as are confirmed to the land-holders and the holders of Gunges &c. by the published Resolutions of June 11, 1790, namely, rent paid for the use of land (and the like) ... or for orchards, pasture-ground, or fisheries sometimes included in the sayer under the denomination of phulkur (Hind. phalkar, from phal, 'fruit'), bunkur (from Hind. ban, 'forest or pasture-ground'), and julkur (Hind. jalkar, from jal, 'water')...." These Resolutions are printed with Regn. XXVII. of 1793.

By an order of the Board of Revenue of April 28, 1790, correspondence regarding Sayer was separated from 'Land Revenue'; and on the 16th idem the Abkarry was separately regulated.

The amount in the Accounts credited as Land Revenue in Bengal seems to have included both Sayer and Abkarry down to the Accts. presented to Parliament in 1796. In the "Abstract Statement of Receipts and Disbursements of the Bengal Government" for 1793-94, the "Collections under head of Syer and Abkarry" amount to Rs. 10,98,256. In the Accounts, printed in 1799, for 1794-5 to 1796-7, the "Land and Sayer Revenues" are given, but Abkārī is not mentioned. Among the Receipts and Disbursements for 1800-1 appears "Syer Collections, including Abkaree, 7,81,925."

These forms appear to have remained in force down to 1833. In the accounts presented in 1834, from 1828-9, to 1831-2, with Estimate for 1832-3, Land Revenue is given separately, and next to it Syer and Abkaree Revenue. Except that the spelling was altered back to Sayer and Abkarry, this remained till 1856. In 1857 the accounts for 1854-5 showed in separate lines,—

In the accounts for 1861-2 it became—

and in those for 1863-4 Sayer vanished altogether.

The term Sayer has been in use in Madras and Bombay as well as in Bengal. From the former we give an example under 1802; from the latter we have not met with a suitable quotation.

The following entries in the Bengal accounts for 1858-59 will exemplify the application of Sayer in the more recent times of its maintenance:—

c. 1580.—"Sāīr az Gangāpat o aṭrāf-i-Hindowi waghaira ..." i.e. "Sayer from the Ganges ... and the Hindu districts, &c.... 170,800 dams."—Āīn-i-Akbarī, orig. i. 395, in detailed Revenues of Sirkar Jannatābād or Gaur; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 131].

1751.—"I have heard that Ramkissen Seat who lives in Calcutta has carried goods to that place without paying the Muxidavad Syre chowkey (choky) duties."—Letter from Nawāb to Prest. Ft. William, in Long, 25.

1788.—"Sairjat.—All kinds of taxation besides the land-rent. Sairs.—Any place or office appointed for the collection of duties or customs."—The Indian Vocabulary, 112.

1790.—"Without entering into a discussion of privileges founded on Custom, and of which it is easier to ascertain the abuse than the origin, I shall briefly remark on the Collections of Sayer, that while they remain in the hands of the Zemindars, every effort to free the internal Commerce from the baneful effects of their vexatious impositions must necessarily prove abortive."—Minute by the Hon. C. Stuart, dd. Feb. 10, quoted by Lord Cornwallis in his Minute of July 18.

" "The Board last day very humanely and politically recommended unanimously the abolition of the Sayr.

"The statement of Mr. Mercer from Burdwan makes all the Sayr (consisting of a strange medley of articles taxable, not omitting even Hermaphrodites) amount only to 58,000 Rupees...."—Minute by Mr. Law of the Bd. of Revenue, forwarded by the Board, July 12.

1792.—"The Jumma on which a settlement for 10 years has been made is about (current Rupees) 3,01,00,000 ... which is 9,35,691 Rupees less than the Average Collections of the three preceding Years. On this Jumma, the Estimate for 1791-2 is formed, and the Sayer Duties, and some other extra Collections, formerly included in the Land Revenue, being abolished, accounts for the Difference...."—Heads of Mr. Dundas's Speech on the Finances of the E.I. Company, June 5, 1792.

1793.—"A Regulation for re-enacting with alterations and modifications, the Rules passed by the Governor General in Council on 11th June and 28th July, 1790, and subsequent dates, for the resumption and abolition of Sayer, or internal Duties and Taxes throughout Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa," &c. "Passed by the Governor General in Council on the 1st May, 1793...."—Title of Regulation, XXVII. of 1793.

1802.—"The Government having reserved to itself the entire exercise of its discretion in continuing or abolishing, temporarily or permanently, the articles of revenue included according to the custom and practice of the country, under the several heads of salt and saltpetre—of the sayer or duties by sea or land—of the abkarry ...—of the excise ...—of all takes personal and professional, as well as those derived from markets, fairs and bazaars—of lakhiraj (see LACKERAGE) lands.... The permanent land-tax shall be made exclusively of the said articles now recited."—Madras Regulation, XXV. § iv.

1817.—"Besides the land-revenue, some other duties were levied in India, which were generally included under the denomination of Sayer."—Mill, H. of Br. India, v. 417.

1863.—"The next head was 'Sayer,' an obsolete Arabic word, which has the same meaning as 'miscellaneous.' It has latterly been composed of a variety of items connected with the Land Revenue, of which the Revenue derived from Forests has been the most important. The progress of improvement has given a value to the Forests which they never had before, and it has been determined ... to constitute the Revenue derived from them a separate head of the Public Accounts. The other Miscellaneous Items of Land Revenue which appeared under 'Sayer,' have therefore been added to Land Revenue, and what remains has been denominated 'Forest Revenue.'"—Sir C. Trevelyan, Financial Statement, dd. April 30.

SCARLET. See SUCLAT.

SCAVENGER, s. We have been rather startled to find among the MS. records of the India Office, in certain "Lists of Persons in the Service of the Right. Honble. the East India Company, in Fort St. George, and the other Places on the Coast of Choromandell," beginning with Feby. 170½, and in the entries for that year, the following:

"Fort St. David.

"5. Trevor Gaines, Land Customer and Scavenger of Cuddalore, 5th Counc^l....

"6. Edward Bawgus, Translator of Country Letters, Sen. Mercht.

"7. John Butt, Scavenger and Cornmeeter, Tevenapatam, Mercht."

Under 1714 we find again, at Fort St. George:

"Joseph Smart, Rentall General and Scavenger, 8th of Council,"

and so on, in the entries of most years down to 1761, when we have, for the last time:

"Samuel Ardley, 7th of Council, Masulipatam, Land-Customer, Military Storekeeper, Rentall General, and Scavenger."

Some light is thrown upon this surprising occurrence of such a term by a reference to Cowel's Law Dictionary, or The Interpreter (published originally in 1607) new ed. of 1727, where we read:

"Scavage, Scavagium. It is otherwise called Schevage, Shewage, and Scheauwing; maybe deduced from the Saxon Seawian (Sceawian?) Ostendere, and is a kind of Toll or Custom exacted by Mayors, Sheriffs, &c., of Merchant-strangers, for Wares shewed or offered to Sale within their Precincts, which is prohibited by the Statute 19 H. 7, 8. In a Charter of Henry the Second to the City of Canterbury it is written Scewinga, and (in Mon. Ang. 2, per fol. 890 b.) Sceawing; and elsewhere I find it in Latin Tributum Ostensorium. The City of London still retains the Custom, of which in An old printed Book of the Customs of London, we read thus, Of which Custom halfen del appertaineth to the Sheriffs, and the other halfen del to the Hostys in whose Houses the Merchants been lodged; And it is to wet that Scavage is the Shew by cause that Merchanties (sic) shewn unto the Sheriffs Merchandizes, of the which Customs ought to be taken ere that ony thing thereof be sold, &c.

"Scavenger, From the Belgick Scavan, to scrape. Two of every Parish within London and the suburbs are yearly chosen into this Office, who hire men called Rakers, and carts, to cleanse the streets, and carry away the Dirt and Filth thereof, mentioned in 14 Car. 2, cap. 2. The Germans call him a Drecksimon, from one Simon, a noted Scavenger of Marpurg.

* * * * *

"Schavaldus, The officer who collected the Scavage-Money, which was sometimes done with Extortion and great Oppression." (Then quotes Hist. of Durham from Wharton, Anglia Sacra, Pt. i. p. 75; "Anno 1311. Schavaldos insurgentes in Episcopatu (Richardus episcopus) fortiter composuit. Aliqui suspendebantur, aliqui extra Episcopatum fugabantur.")

In Spelman also (Glossarium Archaiologicum, 1688) we find:—

"Scavagium.] Tributum quod a mercatoribus exigere solent nundinarum domini, ob licentiam proponendi ibidem venditioni mercimonia, a Saxon (sceawian) id est, Ostendere, inspicere, Angl. schewage and shewage." Spelman has no Scavenger or Scavager.

The scavage then was a tax upon goods for sale which were liable to duty, the word being, as Skeat points out, a Law French (or Low Latin?) formation from shew. ["From O.F. escauw-er, to examine, inspect. O. Sax. skawon, to behold; cognate with A.S. sceawian, to look at." (Concise Dict. s.v.)] And the scavager or scavenger was originally the officer charged with the inspection of the goods and collection of this tax. Passages quoted below from the Liber Albus of the City of London refer to these officers, and Mr. Riley in his translation of that work (1861, p. 34) notes that they were "Officers whose duty it was originally to take custom upon the Scavage, i.e. inspection of the opening out, of imported goods. At a later date, part of their duty was to see that the streets were kept clean; and hence the modern word 'scavenger,' whose office corresponds with the rakyer (raker) of former times." [The meaning and derivation of this word have been discussed in Notes & Queries, 2 ser. ix. 325; 5 ser. v. 49, 452.]

We can hardly doubt then that the office of the Coromandel scavenger of the 18th century, united as we find it with that of "Rentall General," or of "Land-customer," and held by a senior member of the Company's Covenanted Service, must be understood in the older sense of Visitor or Inspector of Goods subject to duties, but (till we can find more light) we should suppose rather duties of the nature of bazar tax, such as at a later date we find classed as sayer (q.v.), than customs on imports from seaward.

It still remains an obscure matter how the charge of the scavagers or scavengers came to be transferred to the oversight of streets and street-cleaning. That this must have become a predominant part of their duty at an early period is shown by the Scavager's Oath which we quote below from the Liber Albus. In Skinner's Etymologicon, 1671, the definition is Collector sordium abrasarum (erroneously connecting the word with shaving and scraping), whilst he adds: "Nostri Scavengers vilissimo omnium ministerio sordes et purgamenta urbis auferendi funguntur." In Cotgrave's English-French Dict., ed. by Howel, 1673, we have: "Scavinger. Boueur. Gadouard"—agreeing precisely with our modern use. Neither of these shows any knowledge of the less sordid office attaching to the name. The same remark applies to Lye's Junius, 1743. It is therefore remarkable to find such a survival of the latter sense in the service of the Company, and coming down so late as 1761. It must have begun with the very earliest of the Company's establishments in India, for it is probable that the denomination was even then only a survival in England, due to the Company's intimate connection with the city of London. Indeed we learn from Mr. Norton, quoted below, that the term scavage was still alive within the City in 1829.

1268.—"Walterus Hervy et Willelmus de Dunolmo, Ballivi, ut Custodes ... de Lxxv.l. vj.s. & xd. de consuetudinibus omnemodarum mercandisarum venientium de partibus transmarinis ad Civitatem praedictam, de quibus consuetudo debetur quae vocatur Scavagium...."—Mag. Rot. 59. Hen. III., extracted in T. Madox, H. and Ant. of the Exchequer, 1779, i. 779.

Prior to 1419.—"Et debent ad dictum Wardemotum per Aldermannum et probos Wardae, necnon per juratores, eligi Constabularii, Scavegeours, Aleconners, Bedelle, et alii Officiarii."—Liber Albus, p. 38.

" "Serement de Scawageours. Vous jurrez qe vous surverrez diligientiement qe lez pavimentz danz vostre Garde soient bien et droiturelement reparaillez et nyent enhaussez a nosance dez veysyns; et qe lez chemyns, ruwes, et venelles soient nettez dez fiens et de toutz maners dez ordures, pur honestee de la citee; et qe toutz les chymyneys, fournes, terrailles soient de piere, et suffisantement defensables encontre peril de few; et si vous trovez rien a contraire vous monstrez al Alderman, issint qe l'Alderman ordeigne pur amendement de celle. Et ces ne lerrez—si Dieu vous eyde et lez Saintz."—Ibid. p. 313.

1594.—Letter from the Lords of the Council to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, requesting them to admit John de Cardenas to the office of Collector of Scavage, the reversion of which had ... been granted to him.—Index to the Remembrancia of the C. of London (1878), p. 284.

1607.—Letter from the Lord Mayor to the Lord Treasurer ... enclosing a Petition from the Ward of Aldersgate, complaining that William Court, an inhabitant of that Ward for 8 or 10 years past, refused to undergo the office of Scavenger in the Parish, claiming exemption ... being privileged as Clerk to Sir William Spencer, Knight, one of the Auditors of the Court of Exchequer, and praying that Mr. Court, although privileged, should be directed to find a substitute or deputy and pay him.—Ibid. 288.

1623.—Letter ... reciting that the City by ancient Charters held ... "the office of Package and Scavage of Strangers' goods, and merchandise carried by them by land or water, out of the City and Liberties to foreign parts, whereby the Customs and Duties due to H.M. had been more duly paid, and a stricter oversight taken of such commodities so exported."—Remembrancia, p. 321.

1632.—Order in Council, reciting that a Petition had been presented to the Board from divers Merchants born in London, the sons of Strangers, complaining that the "Packer of London required of them as much fees for Package, Balliage, Shewage, &c., as of Strangers not English-born...."—Ibid. 322.

1760.—"Mr. Handle, applying to the Board to have his allowance of Scavenger increased, and representing to us the great fatigue he undergoes, and loss of time, which the Board being very sensible of. Agreed we allow him Rs. 20 per month more than before on account of his diligence and assiduity in that post."—Ft. William Consn., in Long, 245. It does not appear from this what the duties of the scavenger in Mr. Handle's case were.

1829.—"The oversight of customable goods. This office, termed in Latin supervisus, is translated in another charter by the words search and surveying, and in the 2nd Charter of Charles I. it is termed the scavage, which appears to have been its most ancient and common name, and that which is retained to the present day.... The real nature of this duty is not a toll for showing, but a toll paid for the oversight of showing; and under that name (supervisus apertionis) it was claimed in an action of debt in the reign of Charles II.... The duty performed was seeing and knowing the merchandize on which the King's import customs were paid, in order that no concealment, or fraudulent practices ... should deprive the King of his just dues ... (The duty) was well known under the name of scavage, in the time of Henry III., and it seems at that time to have been a franchise of the commonalty."—G. Norton, Commentaries on the Hist., &c., of the City of London, 3rd ed. (1869), pp. 380-381.

Besides the books quoted, see H. Wedgewood's Etym. Dict. and Skeat's do., which have furnished useful light, and some references.

SCRIVAN, s. An old word for a clerk or writer, from Port. escrivão.

[1616.—"He desired that some English might early on the Morow come to his howse, wher should meete a Scriuano and finish that busines."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. i. 173. On the same page "The Scriuane of Zulpheckcarcon."]

1673.—"In some Places they write on Cocoe-Leafes dried, and then use an Iron Style, or else on Paper, when they use a Pen made with a Reed, for which they have a Brass Case, which holds them and the Ink too, always stuck at the Girdles of their Scrivans."—Fryer, 191.

1683.—"Mr. Watson in the Taffaty warehouse without any provocation called me Pittyful Prodigall Scrivan, and told me my Hatt stood too high upon my head...."—Letter of S. Langley, in Hedges' Diary, Sept. 5; [Hak. Soc. i. 108].

SCYMITAR, s. This is an English word for an Asiatic sabre. The common Indian word is talwār (see TULWAUR). We get it through the French cimiterre, Ital. scimeterra, and according to Marcel Devic originally from Pers. shamshīr (chimchīr as he writes it). This would be still very obscure unless we consider the constant clerical confusion in the Middle Ages between c and t, which has led to several metamorphoses of words; of which a notable example is Fr. carquois from Pers. tīrkash. Scimecirra representing shimshīr might easily thus become scimetirra. But we cannot prove this to have been the real origin. This word (shamshīr) was known to Greek writers. Thus:

A.D. 93.—"... Καὶ καθίστησι τὸν πρεσβύτατον παῖδα Μορόβαζον βασιλέα περιθεῖσα τὸ διάδημα καὶ δοῦσα τὸν σημαντῆρα τοὺ πατρὸς δακτύλιον, τήντε σαμψηρὰν ὀνομαζομένην παρ' αὐτοῖς."—Joseph. Antiqq. xx. ii. 3.

c. A.D. 114.—"Δῶρα φέρει Τραιανῷ ὑφάσματα σηρικὰ καὶ σαμψήρας αἱ δέ εἰσι σπάθαι βαρβαρικαί."—Quoted in Suidas Lexicon, s.v.

1595.—

1610.—"... Anon the Patron starting up, as if of a sodaine restored to life; like a mad man skips into the boate, and drawing a Turkise Cymiter, beginneth to lay about him (thinking that his vessell had been surprised by Pirats), when they all leapt into the sea; and diuing vnder water like so many Diue-dappers, ascended without the reach of his furie."—Sandys, Relation, &c., 1615, p. 28.

1614.—"Some days ago I visited the house of a goldsmith to see a scimitar (scimitarra) that Nasuhbashá the first vizir, whom I have mentioned above, had ordered as a present to the Grand Signor. Scabbard and hilt were all of gold; and all covered with diamonds, so that little or nothing of the gold was to be seen."—P. della Valle, i. 43.

c. 1630.—"They seldome go without their swords (shamsheers they call them) form'd like a cresent, of pure metall, broad, and sharper than any rasor; nor do they value them, unlesse at one blow they can cut in two an Asinego...."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1638, p. 228.

1675.—"I kept my hand on the Cock of my Carabine; and my Comrade followed a foote pace, as well armed; and our Janizary better than either of us both: but our Armenian had only a Scimeter."—(Sir) George Wheler, Journey into Greece, London, 1682, p. 252.

1758.—"The Captain of the troop ... made a cut at his head with a scymetar which Mr. Lally parried with his stick, and a Coffree (Caffer) servant who attend him shot the Tanjerine dead with a pistol."—Orme, i. 328.

SEACUNNY, s. This is, in the phraseology of the Anglo-Indian marine, a steersman or quartermaster. The word is the Pers. sukkānī, from Ar. sukkān, 'a helm.'

c. 1580.—"Aos Mocadões, Socões, e Vogas."—Primor e Honra, &c. f. 68v. ("To the Mocuddums, Seacunnies, and oarsmen.")

c. 1590.—"Sukkāngīr, or helmsman. He steers the ship according to the orders of the Mu'allim."—Āīn, i. 280.

1805.—"I proposed concealing myself with 5 men among the bales of cloth, till it should be night, when the Frenchmen being necessarily divided into two watches might be easily overpowered. This was agreed to ... till daybreak, when unfortunately descrying the masts of a vessel on our weather beam, which was immediately supposed to be our old friend, the sentiments of every person underwent a most unfortunate alteration, and the Nakhoda, and the Soucan, as well as the Supercargo, informed me that they would not tell a lie for all the world, even to save their lives; and in short, that they would neither be airt nor pairt in the business."—Letter of Leyden, dd. Oct. 4-7, in Morton's Life.

1810.—"The gunners and quartermasters ... are Indian Portuguese; they are called Secunnis."—Maria Graham, 85.

[1855.—"... the Seacunnies, or helmsmen, were principally Manilla men."—Neale, Residence in Siam, 45.]

SEBUNDY, s. Hind. from Pers. sihbandī (sih, 'three'). The rationale of the word is obscure to us. [Platts says it means 'three-monthly or quarterly payment.' The Madras Gloss. less probably suggests Pers. sipāhbandī (see SEPOY), 'recruitment.'] It is applied to irregular native soldiery, a sort of militia, or imperfectly disciplined troops for revenue or police duties, &c. Certain local infantry regiments were formerly officially termed Sebundy. The last official appearance of the title that we can find is in application to "The Sebundy Corps of Sappers and Miners" employed at Darjeeling. This is in the E.I. Register down to July, 1869, after which the title does not appear in any official list. Of this corps, if we are not mistaken, the late Field-Marshal Lord Napier of Magdala was in charge, as Lieut. Robert Napier, about 1840. An application to Lord Napier, for corroboration of this reminiscence of many years back, drew from him the following interesting note:—

"Captain Gilmore of the (Bengal) Engineers was appointed to open the settlement of Darjeeling, and to raise two companies of Sebundy Sappers, in order to provide the necessary labour.

"He commenced the work, obtained some (Native) officers and N.C. officers from the old Bengal Sappers, and enlisted about half of each company.

"The first season found the little colony quite unprepared for the early commencement of the Rains. All the Coolies, who did not die, fled, and some of the Sappers deserted. Gilmore got sick; and in 1838 I was suddenly ordered from the extreme border of Bengal—Nyacollee—to relieve him for one month. I arrived somehow, with a pair of pitarahs as my sole possession.

"Just then, our relations with Nepaul became strained, and it was thought desirable to complete the Sebundy Sappers with men from the Border Hills unconnected with Nepaul—Garrows and similar tribes. Through the Political Officer the necessary number of men were enlisted and sent to me.

"When they arrived I found, instead of the 'fair recruits' announced, a number of most unfit men; some of them more or less crippled, or with defective sight. It seemed probable that, by the process known to us in India as uddlee buddlee (see BUDLEE), the original recruits had managed to insert substitutes during the journey! I was much embarrassed as to what I should do with them; but night was coming on, so I encamped them on the newly opened road, the only clear space amid the dense jungle on either side. To complete my difficulty it began to rain, and I pitied my poor recruits! During the night there was a storm—and in the morning, to my intense relief, they had all disappeared!

"In the expressive language of my sergeant, there was not a 'visage' of the men left.

"The Sebundies were a local corps, designed to furnish a body of labourers fit for mountain-work. They were armed, and expected to fight if necessary. Their pay was 6rs. a month, instead of a Sepoy's 7½. The pensions of the Native officers were smaller than in the regular army, which was a ground of complaint with the Bengal Sappers, who never expected in accepting the new service that they would have lower pensions than those they enlisted for.

"I eventually completed the corps with Nepaulese, and, I think, left them in a satisfactory condition.

"I was for a long time their only sergeant-major. I supplied the Native officers and N.C. officers from India with a good pea-jacket each, out of my private means, and with a little gold-lace made them smart and happy.

"When I visited Darjeeling again in 1872, I found the remnant of my good Sapper officers living as pensioners, and waiting to give me an affectionate welcome.

* * * * *

"My month's acting appointment was turned into four years. I walked 30 miles to get to the place, lived much in hovels and temporary huts thrown up by my Hill-men, and derived more benefit from the climate than from my previous visit to England. I think I owe much practical teaching to the Hill-men, the Hills and the Climate. I learnt the worst the elements could do to me—very nearly—excepting earthquakes! And I think I was thus prepared for any hard work."

c. 1778.—"At Dacca I made acquaintance with my venerable friend John Cowe. He had served in the Navy so far back as the memorable siege of Havannah, was reduced when a lieutenant, at the end of the American War, went out in the Company's military service, and here I found him in command of a regiment of Sebundees, or native militia."—Hon. R. Lindsay, in L. of the Lindsays, iii. 161.

1785.—"The Board were pleased to direct that in order to supply the place of the Sebundy corps, four regiments of Sepoys be employed in securing the collection of the revenues."—In Seton-Karr, i. 92.

" "One considerable charge upon the Nabob's country was for extraordinary sibbendies, sepoys and horsemen, who appear to us to be a very unnecessary incumbrance upon the revenue."—Append. to Speech on Nab. of Arcot's Debts, in Burke's Works, iv. 18, ed. 1852.

1796.—"The Collector at Midnapoor having reported the Sebundy Corps attached to that Collectorship, Sufficiently Trained in their Exercise; the Regular Sepoys who have been Employed on that Duty are to be withdrawn."—G. O. Feb. 23, in Suppt. to Code of Military Regs., 1799, p. 145.

1803.—"The employment of these people therefore ... as sebundy is advantageous ... it lessens the number of idle and discontented at the time of general invasion and confusion."—Wellington, Desp. (ed. 1837), ii. 170.

1812.—"Sebundy, or provincial corps of native troops."—Fifth Report, 38.

1861.—"Sliding down Mount Tendong, the summit of which, with snow lying there, we crossed, the Sebundy Sappers were employed cutting a passage for the mules; this delayed our march exceedingly."—Report of Capt. Impey, R.E., in Gawler's Sikhim, p. 95.

SEEDY, s. Hind. sīdī; Arab. saiyid, 'lord' (whence the Cid of Spanish romantic history), saiyidī, 'my lord'; and Mahr. siddhī. Properly an honorific name given in Western India to African Mahommedans, of whom many held high positions in the service of the kings of the Deccan. Of these at least one family has survived in princely position to our own day, viz. the Nawāb of Jangīra (see JUNGEERA), near Bombay. The young heir to this principality, Siddhī Ahmad, after a minority of some years, was installed in the Government in Oct., 1883. But the proper application of the word in the ports and on the shipping of Western India is to negroes in general. [It "is a title still applied to holy men in Marocco and the Maghrib; on the East African coast it is assumed by negro and negroid Moslems, e.g. Sidi Mubarak Bombay; and 'Seedy boy' is the Anglo-Indian term for a Zanzibar-man" (Burton, Ar. Nights, iv. 231).]

c. 1563.—"And among these was an Abyssinian (Abexim) called Cide Meriam, a man reckoned a great cavalier, and who entertained 500 horse at his own charges, and who greatly coveted the city of Daman to quarter himself in, or at the least the whole of its pergunnas (parganas—see PERGUNNAH) to devour."—Couto, VII. x. 8.

[c. 1610.—"The greatest insult that can be passed upon a man is to call him Cisdy—that is to say 'cook.'"—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 173.]

1673.—"An Hobsy or African Coffery (they being preferred here to chief employments, which they enter on by the name of Siddies)."—Fryer, 147.

" "He being from a Hobsy Caphir made a free Denizen ... (who only in this Nation arrive to great Preferment, being the Frizled Woolly-pated Blacks) under the known style of Syddies...."—Ibid. 168.

1679.—"The protection which the Siddees had given to Gingerah against the repeated attacks of Sevagi, as well as their frequent annoyance of their country, had been so much facilitated by their resort to Bombay, that Sevagi at length determined to compel the English Government to a stricter neutrality, by reprisals on their own port."—Orme, Fragments, 78.

1690.—"As he whose Title is most Christian, encouraged him who is its principal Adversary to invade the Rights of Christendom, so did Senor Padre de Pandara, the Principal Jesuite and in an adjacent Island to Bombay, invite the Síddy to exterminate all the Protestants there."—Ovington, 157.

1750-60.—"These (islands) were formerly in the hands of Angria and the Siddies or Moors."—Grose, i. 58.

1759.—"The Indian seas having been infested to an intolerable degree by pirates, the Mogul appointed the Siddee, who was chief of a colony of Coffrees (Caffer), to be his Admiral. It was a colony which, having been settled at Dundee-Rajapore, carried on a considerable trade there, and had likewise many vessels of force."—Cambridge's Account of the War, &c., p. 216.

1800.—"I asked him what he meant by a Siddee. He said a hubshee. This is the name by which the Abyssinians are distinguished in India."—T. Munro, in Life, i. 287.

1814.—"Among the attendants of the Cambay Nabob ... are several Abyssinian and Caffree slaves, called by way of courtesy Seddees or Master."—Forbes, Or. Mem. iii. 167; [2nd ed. ii. 225].

1832.—"I spoke of a Sindhee" (Siddhee) "or Habshee, which is the name for an Abyssinian in this country lingo."—Mem. of Col. Mountain, 121.

1885.—"The inhabitants of this singular tract (Soopah plateau in N. Canara) were in some parts Mahrattas, and in others of Canarese race, but there was a third and less numerous section, of pure African descent called Sidhis ... descendants of fugitive slaves from Portuguese settlements ... the same ebony coloured, large-limbed men as are still to be found on the African coast, with broad, good-humoured, grinning faces."—Gordon S. Forbes, Wild Life in Canara, &c., 32-33.

[1896.—

SEEMUL, SIMMUL, &c. (sometimes we have seen Symbol, and Cymbal), s. Hind. semal and sembhal; [Skt. śālmali]. The (so-called) cotton-tree Bombax Malabaricum, D.C. (N.O. Malvaceae), which occurs sporadically from Malabar to Sylhet, and from Burma to the Indus and beyond. It is often cultivated. "About March it is a striking object with its immense buttressed trunks, and its large showy red flowers, 6 inches in breadth, clustered on the leafless branches. The flower-buds are used as a potherb and the gum as a medicine" (Punjab Plants). We remember to have seen a giant of this species near Kishnagarh, the buttresses of which formed chambers, 12 or 13 feet long and 7 or 8 wide. The silky cotton is only used for stuffing pillows and the like. The wood, though wretched in quality for any ordinary purpose, lasts under water, and is commonly the material for the curbs on which wells are built and sunk in Upper India.

[c. 1807.—"... the Salmoli, or Simul ... is one of the most gaudy ornaments of the forest or village...."—Buchanan Hamilton, E. India, ii. 789.]

SEER, s. Hind. ser; Skt. seṭak. One of the most generally spread Indian denominations of weight, though, like all Indian measures, varying widely in different parts of the country. And besides the variations of local ser and ser we often find in the same locality a pakkā (pucka) and a kachchhā (cutcha) ser; a state of things, however, which is human, and not Indian only (see under PUCKA). The ser is generally (at least in upper India) equivalent to 80 tolas or rupee-weights; but even this is far from universally true. The heaviest ser in the Useful Tables (see Thomas's ed. of Prinsep) is that called "Coolpahar," equivalent to 123 tolas, and weighing 3 lbs. 1 oz. 6¼ dr. avoird.; the lightest is the ser of Malabar and the S. Mahratta country, which is little more than 8 oz. [the Macleod ser of Malabar, introduced in 1802, is of 130 tolas; 10 of these weigh 33 lb. (Madras Man. ii. 516).]

Regulation VII. of the Govt. of India of 1833 is entitled "A Reg. for altering the weight of the Furruckabad Rupee (see RUPEE) and for assimilating it to the legal currency of the Madras and Bombay Presidencies; for adjusting the weight of the Company's sicca Rupee, and for fixing a standard unit of weight for India." This is the nearest thing to the establishment of standard weights that existed up to 1870. The preamble says: "It is further convenient to introduce the weight of the Furruckabad Rupee as the unit of a general system of weights for Government transactions throughout India." And Section IV. contains the following:

"The Tola or Sicca weight to be equal to 180 grains troy, and the other denominations or weights to be derived from this unit, according to the following scale:—

Section VI. of the same Regulation says:

"The system of weights and measures (?) described in Section IV. is to be adopted at the mints and assay offices of Calcutta and Saugor respectively in the adjustment and verification of all weights for government or public purposes sent thither for examination."

But this does not go far in establishing a standard unit of weight for India: though the weights detailed in § iv. became established for Government purposes in the Bengal Presidency. The seer of this Regulation was thus 14,400 grains troy—2½ lbs. troy, 2.057 lbs. avoirdupois.

In 1870, in the Government of Lord Mayo, a strong movement was made by able and influential men to introduce the metrical system, and an Act was passed called "The Indian Weights and Measures Act" (Act XI. of 1870) to pave the way for this. The preamble declares it expedient to provide for the ultimate adoption of an uniform system of weights and measures thoughout British India, and the Act prescribes certain standards, with powers to the Local Governments to declare the adoption of these.

Section II. runs:

"Standards.—The primary standard of weight shall be called ser, and shall be a weight of metal in the possession of the Government of India, which weight, when weighed in a vacuum, is equal to the weight known in France as the kilogramme des Archives."

Again, Act XXXI. of 1872, called "The Indian Weights and Measures of Capacity Act," repeats in substance the same preamble and prescription of standard weight. It is not clear to us what the separate object of this second Act was. But with the death of Lord Mayo the whole scheme fell to the ground. The ser of these Acts would be = 2.2 lbs. avoirdupois, or 0.143 of a pound greater than the 80 tola ser.

1554.—"Porto Grande de Bemgala.—'The maund (mão) with which they weigh all merchandize is of 40 ceres, each cer 182⁄5 ounces; the said maund weighs 46½ arratels (rottle).'"—A. Nunes, 37.

1648.—"One Ceer weighs 18 peysen ... and makes ¾ pound troy weight."—Van Twist, 62.

1748.—"Enfin on verse le tout un serre de l'huile."—Lett. Edif. xiv. 220.

SEER-FISH, s. A name applied to several varieties of fish, species of the genus Cybium. When of the right size, neither too small nor too big, these are reckoned among the most delicate of Indian sea-fish. Some kinds salt well, and are also good for preparing as Tamarind-Fish. The name is sometimes said to be a corruption of Pers. sīah (qu. Pers. 'black?') but the quotations show that it is a corruption of Port. serra. That name would appear to belong properly to the well-known saw-fish (Pristis)—see Bluteau, quoted below; but probably it may have been applied to the fish now in question, because of the serrated appearance of the rows of finlets, behind the second dorsal and anal fins, which are characteristic of the genus (see Day's Fishes of India, pp. 254-256, and plates lv., lvi.).

1554.—"E aos Marinheiros hum peixe cerra par mes, a cada hum."—A. Nunez, Livro dos Pesos, 43.

" "To Lopo Vaaz, Mestre of the firearms (espingardes), his pay and provisions.... And for his three workmen, at the rate of 2 measures of rice each daily, and half a seer fish (peixe serra) each monthly, and a maund of firewood each monthly."—S. Botelho, Tombo, 235.

1598.—"There is a fish called Piexe Serra, which is cut in round pieces, as we cut Salmon and salt it. It is very good."—Linschoten, 88; [Hak. Soc. ii. 11].

1720.—"Peyxe Serra is ordinarily produced in the Western Ocean, and is so called" etc. (describing the Saw-fish).... "But in the Sea of the Islands of Quirimba (i.e. off Mozambique) there is a different peyxe serra resembling a large corvina,^[239] but much better, and which it is the custom to pickle. When cured it seems just like ham."—Bluteau, Vocab. vii. 606-607.

1727.—"They have great Plenty of Seer-fish, which is as savoury as any Salmon or Trout in Europe."—A. Hamilton, i. 379; [ed. 1744, i. 382].

[1813.—"... the robal, the seir-fish, the grey mullet ... are very good."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. i. 36.]

1860.—"Of those in ordinary use for the table the finest by far is the Seir-fish,^[240] a species of Scomber, which is called Tora-malu by the natives. It is in size and form very similar to the salmon, to which the flesh of the female fish, notwithstanding its white colour, bears a very close resemblance, both in firmness and in flavour."—Tennent's Ceylon, i. 205.

SEERPAW, s. Pers. through Hind. sar-ā-pā—'cap-a-pie.' A complete suit, presented as a Khilat (Killut) or dress of honour, by the sovereign or his representative.

c. 1666.—"He ... commanded, there should be given to each of them an embroider'd Vest, a Turbant, and a Girdle of Silk Embroidery, which is that which they call Ser-apah, that is, an Habit from head to foot."—Bernier, E.T. 37; [ed. Constable, 147].

1673—"Sir George Oxendine ... had a Collat (Killut) or Serpaw, a Robe of Honour from Head to Foot, offered him from the Great Mogul."—Fryer, 87.

1680.—"Answer is returned that it hath not been accustomary for the Governours to go out to receive a bare Phyrmaund (Firmaun), except there come therewith a Serpow or a Tasheriffe (Tashreef)."—Ft. St. Geo. Consn. Dec. 2, in N. & E. No. iii. 40.

1715.—"We were met by Padre Stephanus, bringing two Seerpaws."—In Wheeler, ii. 245.

1727.—"As soon as he came, the King embraced him, and ordered a serpaw or a royal Suit to be put upon him."—A. Hamilton, i. 171 [ed. 1744].

1735.—"The last Nabob (Sadatulla) would very seldom suffer any but himself to send a Seerpaw; whereas in February last Sunta Sahib, Subder Ali Sahib, Jehare Khan and Imaum Sahib, had all of them taken upon them to send distinct Seerpaws to the President."—In Wheeler, iii. 140.

1759.—"Another deputation carried six costly Seerpaws; these are garments which are presented sometimes by superiors in token of protection, and sometimes by inferiors in token of homage."—Orme, i. 159.

SEETULPUTTY, s. A fine kind of mat made especially in Eastern Bengal, and used to sleep on in the cold weather. [They are made from the split stems of the mukta pata, Phrynium dichotomum, Roxb. (see Watt, Econ. Dict. vi. pt. i. 216 seq.).] Hind. sītalpaṭṭī, 'cold-slip.' Williamson's spelling and derivation (from an Arab. word impossibly used, see SICLEEGUR) are quite erroneous.

1810.—"A very beautiful species of mat is made ... especially in the south-eastern districts ... from a kind of reedy grass.... These are peculiarly slippery, whence they are designated 'seekul-putty' (i.e. polished sheets).... The principal uses of the 'seekul-putty' are to be laid under the lower sheet of a bed, thereby to keep the body cool."—Williamson, V.M. ii. 41.

[1818.—"Another kind (of mat) the shēētŭlŭpatēēs, laid on beds and couches on account of their coolness, are sold from one roopee to five each."—Ward, Hindoos, i. 106.]

1879.—In Fallon's Dicty. we find the following Hindi riddle:—

Which might be rendered:

The answer is an Egg; the Starry Sky; a Snake (Rãj-bansī, 'royal scion,' is a placatory name for a snake); and the Sea.

SEMBALL, s. Malay-Javan. sāmbil, sāmbal. A spiced condiment, the curry of the Archipelago. [Dennys (Descr. Dict. p. 337) describes many varieties.]

1817.—"The most common seasoning employed to give a relish to their insipid food is the lombock (i.e. red-pepper); triturated with salt it is called sambel."—Raffles, H. of Java, i. 98.

SEPOY, SEAPOY, s. In Anglo-Indian use a native soldier, disciplined and dressed in the European style. The word is Pers. sipāhī, from sipāh, 'soldiery, an army'; which J. Oppert traces to old Pers. spāda, 'a soldier' (Le peuple et la Langue des Mèdes, 1879, p. 24). But Sbah is a horseman in Armenian; and sound etymologists connect sipāh with asp, 'a horse'; [others with Skt. padāti, 'a foot-soldier']. The original word sipāhī occurs frequently in the poems of Amīr Khusrū (c. A.D. 1300), bearing always probably the sense of a 'horse-soldier,' for all the important part of an army then consisted of horsemen. See spāhī below.

The word sepoy occurs in Southern India before we had troops in Bengal; and it was probably adopted from Portuguese. We have found no English example in print older than 1750, but probably an older one exists. The India Office record of 1747 from Fort St. David's is the oldest notice we have found in extant MS. [But see below.]

c. 1300.—"Pride had inflated his brain with wind, which extinguished the light of his intellect, and a few sipāhīs from Hindustan, without any religion, had supported the credit of his authority."—Amīr Khusrū, in Elliot, iii. 536.

[1665.—"Souldier—Suppya and Haddee."—Persian Gloss. in Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1677, p. 99.]

1682.—"As soon as these letters were sent away, I went immediately to Ray Nundelall's to have y^e Seapy, or Nabob's horseman, consigned to me, with order to see y^e Perwanna put in execution; but having thought better of it, y^e Ray desired me to have patience till tomorrow morning. He would then present me to the Nabob, whose commands to y^e Seapy and Bulchunds Vekeel would be more powerfull and advantageous to me than his own."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 55, seq. Here we see the word still retaining the sense of 'horseman' in India.

[1717.—"A Company of Sepoys with the colours."—Yule, in ditto, II. ccclix. On this Sir H. Yule notes: "This is an occurrence of the word sepoy, in its modern signification, 30 years earlier than any I had been able to find when publishing the A.-I. Gloss. I have one a year earlier, and expect now to find it earlier still."

[1733.—"You are next ... to make a complete survey ... of the number of fighting Sepoys...."—Forrest, Bombay Letters, ii. 55.]

1737.—"Elle com tota a força desponivel, que eram 1156 soldados pagos em que entraram 281 chegados na não Mercês, e 780 sypaes ou lascarins (lascar), recuperon o territorio."—Bosquejo das Possesões Portuguezas no Oriente, &c., por Joaquim Pedro Celestino Soares, Lisboa, 1851, p. 58.

1746.—"The Enemy, by the best Intelligence that could be got, and best Judgment that could be formed, had or would have on Shore next Morning, upwards of 3000 Europeans, with at least 500 Coffrys, and a number of Cephoys and Peons."—Ext. of Diary, &c., in App. to A Letter to a Propr. of the E.I. Co., London, 1750, p. 94.

[1746.—Their strength on shore I compute 2000 Europeans Seapiahs and 300 Coffrees."—Letter from Madras, Oct. 9, in Bengal Consultations. Ibid. p. 600, we have Seapies.]

1747.—"At a Council of War held at Fort St. David the 25th December, 1747.

"It is further ordered that Captn. Crompton keep the Detachment under his Command at Cuddalore, in a readiness to march to the Choultry over against the Fort as soon as the Signal shall be made from the Place, and then upon his firing two Muskets, Boats shall be sent to bring them here, and to leave a serjeant at Cuddalore Who shall conduct his Seapoys to the Garden Guard, and the Serjeant shall have a Word by which He shall be received at the Garden."—Original MS. Proceedings (in the India Office).

" The Council of Fort St. David write to Bombay, March 16th, "if they could not supply us with more than 300 Europeans, We should be glad of Five or Six Hundred of the best Northern People their way, as they are reported to be much better than ours, and not so liable to Desertion."

In Consn. May 30th they record the arrival of the ships Leven, Warwick, and Ilchester, Princess Augusta, "on the 28th inst., from Bombay, (bringing) us a General from that Presidency,^[241] as entered No. 38, advising of having sent us by them sundry stores and a Reinforcement of Men, consisting of 70 European Soldiers, 200 Topasses (Topaz), and 100 well-trained Seapoys, all of which under the command of Capt. Thomas Andrews, a Good Officer...."

And under July 13th. "... The Reinforcement of Sepoys having arrived from Tellicherry, which, with those that were sent from Bombay, making a formidable Body, besides what are still expected; and as there is far greater Dependance to be placed on those People than on our own Peons ... many of whom have a very weakly Appearance, Agreed, that a General Review be now had of them, that all such may be discharged, and only the Choicest of them continued in the Service."—MS. Records in India Office.

1752.—"... they quitted their entrenchments on the first day of March, 1752, and advanced in order of battle, taking possession of a rising ground on the right, on which they placed 50 Europeans; the front consisted of 1500 Sipoys, and one hundred and twenty or thirty French."—Complete Hist. of the War in India, 1761, pp. 9-10.

1758.—A Tabular Statement (Mappa) of the Indian troops, 20th Jan. of this year, shows "Corpo de Sipaes" with 1162 "Sipaes promptos."—Bosquejo, as above.

" "A stout body of near 1000 Sepoys has been raised within these few days."—In Long, 134.

[1759.—"Boat rice extraordinary for the Gentoo Seapois...."—Ibid. 174.]

1763.—"The Indian natives and Moors, who are trained in the European manner, are called Sepoys."—Orme, i. 80.

1763.—"Major Carnac ... observes that your establishment is loaded with the expense of more Captains than need be, owing to the unnecessarily making it a point that they should be Captains who command the Sepoy Battalions, whereas such is the nature of Sepoys that it requires a peculiar genius and talent to be qualified for that service, and the Battalion should be given only to such who are so without regard to rank."—Court's Letter, of March 9. In Long, 290.

1770.—"England has at present in India an establishment to the amount of 9800 European troops, and 54,000 sipahis well armed and disciplined."—Raynal (tr. 1777), i. 459.

1774.—"Sipai sono li soldati Indiani."—Della Tomba, 297.

1778.—"La porta del Ponente della città sì custodiva dalli sipais soldati Indiani radunati da tutte le tribù, e religioni."—Fra Paolino, Viaggio, 4.

1780.—"Next morning the sepoy came to see me.... I told him that I owed him my life.... He then told me that he was not very rich himself, as his pay was only a pagoda and a half a month—and at the same time drew out his purse and offered me a rupee. This generous behaviour, so different to what I had hitherto experienced, drew tears from my eyes, and I thanked him for his generosity, but I would not take his money."—Hon. J. Lindsay's Imprisonment, Lives of Lindsays, iii. 274.

1782.—"As to Europeans who run from their natural colours, and enter into the service of the country powers, I have heard one of the best officers the Company ever had ... say that he considered them no otherwise than as so many Seapoys; for acting under blacks they became mere blacks in spirit."—Price, Some Observations, 95-96.

1789.—

1803.—"Our troops behaved admirably; the sepoys astonished me."—Wellington, ii. 384.

1827.—"He was betrothed to the daughter of a Sipahee, who served in the mud-fort which they saw at a distance rising above the jungle."—Sir W. Scott, The Surgeon's Daughter, ch. xiii.

1836.—"The native army of the E. I. Company.... Their formation took place in 1757. They are usually called sepoys, and are light and short."—In R. Phillips, A Million of Facts, 718.

1881.—"As early as A.D. 1592 the chief of Sind had 200 natives dressed and armed like Europeans: these were the first 'sepoys.'"—Burton's Camoens, A Commentary, ii. 445.

The French write cipaye or cipai:

1759.—"De quinze mille Cipayes dont l'armée est censée composée, j'en compte à peu près huit cens sur la route de Pondichery, chargé de sucre et de poivre et autres marchandises, quant aux Coulis, ils sont tous employés pour le même objet."—Letter of Lally to the Governor of Pondicherry, in Cambridge's Account, p. 150.

c. 1835-38.—

Since the conquest of Algeria the same word is common in France under another form, viz., spāhī. But the Spāhī is totally different from the sepoy, and is in fact an irregular horseman. With the Turks, from whom the word is taken, the spāhī was always a horseman.

1554.—"Aderant magnis muneribus praepositi multi, aderant praetoriani equites omnes Sphai, Garipigi, Ulufagi, Gianizarorum magnus numerus, sed nullus in tanto conventu nobilis nisi ex suis virtutibus et fortibus factis."—Busbeq, Epistolae, i. 99.

[1562.—"The Spachi, and other orders of horsemen."—J. Shute, Two Comm. (Tr.) fol. 53 ro. Stanf. Dict. where many early instances of the word will be found.]

1672.—"Mille ou quinze cents Spahiz, tous bien équippés et bien montés ... terminoient toute ceste longue, magnifique, et pompeuse cavalcade."—Journal d'Ant. Galland, i. 142.

1675.—"The other officers are the sardar (Sirdar), who commands the Janizaries ... the Spahi Aga, who commands the Spahies or Turkish Horse."—Wheeler's Journal, 348.

[1686.—"I being providentially got over the river before the Spie employed by them could give them intelligence."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 229.]

1738.—"The Arab and other inhabitants are obliged, either by long custom ... or from fear and compulsion, to give the Spahees and their company the mounah ... which is such a sufficient quantity of provision for ourselves, together with straw and barley for our mules and horses."—Shaw's Travels in Barbary, ed. 1757, p. xii.

1786.—"Bajazet had two years to collect his forces ... we may discriminate the janizaries ... a national cavalry, the Spahis of modern times."—Gibbon, ch. lxv.

1877.—"The regular cavalry was also originally composed of tribute children.... The sipahis acquired the same pre-eminence among the cavalry which the janissaries held among the infantry, and their seditious conduct rendered them much sooner troublesome to the Government."—Finlay, H. of Greece, ed. 1877, v. 37.

SERAI, SERYE, s. This word is used to represent two Oriental words entirely different.

a. Hind. from Pers. sarā, sarāī. This means originally an edifice, a palace. It was especially used by the Tartars when they began to build palaces. Hence Sarāī, the name of more than one royal residence of the Mongol Khāns upon the Volga, the Sarra of Chaucer. The Russians retained the word from their Tartar oppressors, but in their language sarai has been degraded to mean 'a shed.' The word, as applied to the Palace of the Grand Turk, became, in the language of the Levantine Franks, serail and serraglio. In this form, as P. della Valle lucidly explains below, the "striving after meaning" connected the word with Ital. serrato, 'shut up'; and with a word serraglio perhaps previously existing in Italian in that connection. [Seraglio, according to Prof. Skeat (Concise Dict. s.v.) is "formed with suffix -aglio (L. -aculum) from Late Lat. serare, 'to bar, shut in'—Lat. sera, a 'bar, bolt'; Lat. serere, 'to join together.'] It is this association that has attached the meaning of 'women's apartments' to the word. Sarai has no such specific sense.

But the usual modern meaning in Persia, and the only one in India, is that of a building for the accommodation of travellers with their pack-animals; consisting of an enclosed yard with chambers round it.

Recurring to the Italian use, we have seen in Italy the advertisement of a travelling menagerie as Serraglio di Belve. A friend tells us of an old Scotchman whose ideas must have run in this groove, for he used to talk of 'a Serragle of blackguards.' In the Diary in England of Annibale Litolfi of Mantua the writer says: "On entering the tower there is a Serraglio in which, from grandeur, they keep lions and tigers and cat-lions." (See Rawdon Brown's Calendar of Papers in Archives of Venice, vol. vi. pt. iii. 1557-8. App.) [The Stanf. Dict. quotes Evelyn as using the word of a place where persons are confined: 1644. "I passed by the Piazza Judea, where their seraglio begins" (Diary, ed. 1872, i. 142).]

c. 1584.—"At Saraium Turcis palatium principis est, vel aliud amplum aedificium, non a Czar^[242] voce Tatarica, quae regem significat, dictum; vnde Reineccius Saragliam Turcis vocari putet, ut regiam. Nam aliae quoque domus, extra Sultani regiam, nomen hoc ferunt ... vt ampla Turcorum hospitia, sive diversoria publica, quae vulgo Caravasarias (Caravanseray) nostri vocant."—Leunclavius, ed. 1650, p. 403.

1609.—"... by it the great Suray, besides which are diuers others, both in the city and suburbs, wherein diuers neate lodgings are to be let, with doores, lockes, and keys to each."—W. Finch, in Purchas, i. 434.

1614.—"This term serraglio, so much used among us in speaking of the Grand Turk's dwelling ... has been corrupted into that form from the word serai, which in their language signifies properly 'a palace.'... But since this word serai resembles serraio, as a Venetian would call it, or seraglio as we say, and seeing that the palace of the Turk is (serrato or) shut up all round by a strong wall, and also because the women and a great part of the courtiers dwell in it barred up and shut in, so it may perchance have seemed to some to have deserved such a name. And thus the real term serai has been converted into serraglio."—P. della Valle, i. 36.

1615.—"Onely from one dayes Journey to another the Sophie hath caused to bee erected certaine kind of great harbours, or huge lodgings (like hamlets) called caravan-sara, or surroyes, for the benefite of Caravanes...."—De Montfart, 8.

1616.—"In this kingdome there are no Innes to entertaine strangers, only in great Townes and Cities are faire Houses built for their receit, which they call Sarray, not inhabited, where any Passenger may haue roome freely, but must bring with him his Bedding, his Cooke, and other necessaries."—Terry, in Purchas, ii. 1475.

1638.—"Which being done we departed from our Serray (or Inne)."—W. Bruton, in Hakl. v. 49.

1648.—"A great sary or place for housing travelling folk."—Van Twist, 17.

[1754.—"... one of the Sciddees (seedy) officers with a party of men were lodged in the Sorroy...."—Forrest, Bombay Letters, i. 307.]

1782.—"The stationary tenants of the Serauee, many of them women, and some of them very pretty, approach the traveller on his entrance, and in alluring language describe to him the varied excellencies of their several lodgings."—Forster, Journey, ed. 1808, i. 86.

1825.—"The whole number of lodgers in and about the serai, probably did not fall short of 500 persons. What an admirable scene for an Eastern romance would such an inn as this afford!"—Heber, ed. 1844, ii. 122.

1850.—"He will find that, if we omit only three names in the long line of the Delhi Emperors, the comfort and happiness of the people were never contemplated by them; and with the exception of a few saráís and bridges,—and these only on roads traversed by the imperial camps—he will see nothing in which purely selfish considerations did not prevail."—Sir H. M. Elliot, Original Preface to Historians of India, Elliot, I. xxiii.

b. A long-necked earthenware (or metal) flagon for water; a goglet (q.v.). This is Ar.—P. ṣurāḥī. [This is the doraḳ or ḳulleh of Egypt, of which Lane (Mod. Egypt. ed. 1871, i. 186 seq.) gives an account with illustrations.]

c. 1666.—"... my Navab having vouchsafed me a very particular favour, which is, that he hath appointed to give me every day a new loaf of his house, and a Souray of the water of Ganges ... Souray is that Tin-flagon full of water, which the Servant that marcheth on foot before the Gentleman on horseback, carrieth in his hand, wrapt up in a sleeve of red cloath."—Bernier, E.T. 114; [ed. Constable, 356].

1808.—"We had some bread and butter, two surahees of water, and a bottle of brandy."—Elphinstone, in Life, i. 183.

[1880.—"The best known is the gilt silver work of Cashmere, which is almost confined to the production of the water-vessels or sarais, copied from the clay goblets in use throughout the northern parts of the Panjab."—Birdwood, Indust. Arts of India, 149.]

SERANG, s. A native boatswain, or chief of a lascar crew; the skipper of a small native vessel. The word is Pers. sarhang, 'a commander or overseer.' In modern Persia it seems to be used for a colonel (see Wills, 80).

1599.—"... there set sail two Portuguese vessels which were come to Amacao (Macao) from the City of Goa, as occurs every year. They are commanded by Captains, with Pilots, quartermasters, clerks, and other officers, who are Portuguese; but manned by sailors who are Arabs, Turks, Indians, and Bengalis, who serve for so much a month, and provide themselves under the direction and command of a chief of their own whom they call the Saranghi, who also belongs to one of these nations, whom they understand, and recognise and obey, carrying out the orders that the Portuguese Captain, Master, or Pilot may give to the said Saranghi."—Carletti, Viaggi, ii. 206.

1690.—"Indus quem de hoc Ludo consului fuit scriba satis peritus ab officio in nave suâ dictus le saràng, Anglicè Boatswain seú Boson."—Hyde, De Ludis Orientt. in Syntagma, ii. 264.

[1822.—"... the ghaut syrangs (a class of men equal to the kidnappers of Holland and the crimps of England)...."—Wallace, Fifteen Years in India, 256.]

SERAPHIN. See XERAFIN.

SERENDĪB, n.p. The Arabic form of the name of Ceylon in the earlier Middle Ages. (See under CEYLON.)

SERINGAPATAM, n.p. The city which was the capital of the Kingdom of Mysore during the reigns of Hyder Ali and his son Tippoo. Written Sri-raṅga-paṭṭana, meaning according to vulgar interpretation 'Vishnu's Town.' But as both this and the other Srirangam (Seringam town and temple, so-called, in the Trichinopoly district) are on islands of the Cauvery, it is possible that ranga stands for Lanka, and that the true meaning is 'Holy-Isle-Town.'

[SERPEYCH, s. Pers. sarpech, sarpesh; an ornament of gold, silver or jewels, worn in front of the turban; it sometimes consists of gold plates strung together, each plate being set with precious stones. Also a band of silk and embroidery worn round the turban.

[1753.—"... a fillet. This they call a sirpeach, which is wore round the turban; persons of great distinction generally have them set with precious stones."—Hanway, iv. 191.

[1786.—"Surpaishes." See under CULGEE.

[1813.—"Serpeych." See under KILLUT.]

SETT, s. Properly Hind. seṭh, which according to Wilson is the same word with the Cheṭṭi (see CHETTY) or Sheṭṭi of the Malabar Coast, the different forms being all from Skt. śreshṭha, 'best, or chief,' śresṭhi, 'the chief of a corporation, a merchant or banker.' C. P. Brown entirely denies the identity of the S. Indian sheṭṭi with the Skt. word (see CHETTY).

1740.—"The Sets being all present at the Board inform us that last year they dissented to the employment of Fillick Chund (&c.), they being of a different caste; and consequently they could not do business with them."—In Long, p. 9.

1757.—"To the Seats Mootabray and Roopchund the Government of Chandunagore was indebted a million and a half Rupees."—Orme, ii. 138 of reprint (Bk. viii.).

1770.—"As soon as an European arrived the Gentoos, who know mankind better than is commonly supposed, study his character ... and lend or procure him money upon bottomry, or at interest. This interest, which is usually 9 per cent. at this, is higher when he is under a necessity of borrowing of the Cheyks.

"These Cheyks are a powerful family of Indians, who have, time immemorial, inhabited the banks of the Ganges. Their riches have long ago procured them the management of the bank belonging to the Court...."—Raynal, tr. 1777, i. 427. Note that by Cheyks the Abbé means Setts.

[1883.—"... from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin a security endorsed by the Mathura Seth is as readily convertible into cash as a Bank of England Note in London or Paris."—F. S. Growse, Mathura, 14.]

SETTLEMENT, s. In the Land Revenue system of India, an estate or district is said to be settled, when instead of taking a quota of the year's produce the Government has agreed with the cultivators, individually or in community, for a fixed sum to be paid at several periods of the year, and not liable to enhancement during the term of years for which the agreement or settlement is made. The operation of arranging the terms of such an agreement, often involving tedious and complicated considerations and enquiries, is known as the process of settlement. A Permanent Settlement is that in which the annual payment is fixed in perpetuity. This was introduced in Bengal by Lord Cornwallis in 1793, and does not exist except within that great Province, [and a few districts in the Benares division of the N.W.P., and in Madras.]

[SEVEN PAGODAS, n.p. The Tam. Mavallipuram, Skt. Mahabalipura, 'the City of the Great Bali,' a place midway between Sadras and Covelong. But in one of the inscriptions (about 620 A.D.) a King, whose name is said to have been Amara, is described as having conquered the chief of the Mahamalla race. Malla was probably the name of a powerful highland chieftain subdued by the Chalukyans. (See Crole, Man. of Chingleput, 92 seq.). Dr. Oppert (Orig. Inhabit., 98) takes the name to be derived from the Malla or Palli race.

SEVEN SISTERS, or BROTHERS. The popular name (Hind. sāt-bhāī) of a certain kind of bird, about the size of a thrush, common throughout most parts of India, Malacocercus terricolor, Hodgson, 'Bengal babbler' of Jerdon. The latter author gives the native name as Seven Brothers, which is the form also given in the quotation below from Tribes on My Frontier. The bird is so named from being constantly seen in little companies of about that number. Its characteristics are well given in the quotations. See also Jerdon's Birds (Godwin-Austen's ed., ii. 59). In China certain birds of starling kind are called by the Chinese pa-ko, or "Eight Brothers," for a like reason. See Collingwood's Rambles of a Naturalist, 1868, p. 319. (See MYNA.)

1878.—"The Seven Sisters pretend to feed on insects, but that is only when they cannot get peas ... sad-coloured birds hopping about in the dust, and incessantly talking whilst they hop."—Ph. Robinson, In My Indian Garden, 30-31.

1883.—"... the Satbhai or 'Seven Brothers' ... are too shrewd and knowing to be made fun of.... Among themselves they will quarrel by the hour, and bandy foul language like fishwives; but let a stranger treat one of their number with disrespect, and the other six are in arms at once.... Each Presidency of India has its own branch of this strange family. Here (at Bombay) they are brothers, and in Bengal they are sisters; but everywhere, like Wordsworth's opinionative child, they are seven."—Tribes on My Frontier, 143.

SEVERNDROOG, n.p. A somewhat absurd corruption, which has been applied to two forts of some fame, viz.:

a. Suvarna-druga, or Suwandrug, on the west coast, about 78 m. below Bombay (Lat. 17° 48′ N.). It was taken in 1755 by a small naval force from Tulajī Angria, of the famous piratical family. [For the commander of the expedition, Commodore James, and his monument on Shooter's Hill, see Douglas, Bombay and W. India, i. 117 seq.]

b. Savandrug; a remarkable double hill-fort in Mysore, standing on a two-topped bare rock of granite, which was taken by Lord Cornwallis's army in 1791 (Lat. 12° 55′). [Wilks (Hist. Sketches, Madras reprint, i. 228, ii. 232) calls it Savendy Droog, and Savendroog.]

SEYCHELLE ISLANDS, n.p. A cluster of islands in the Indian Ocean, politically subordinate to the British Government of Mauritius, lying be-between 3° 40′ & 4° 50′ S. Lat., and about 950 sea-miles east of Mombas on the E. African coast. There are 29 or 30 of the Seychelles proper, of which Mahé, the largest, is about 17 m. long by 3 or 4 wide. The principal islands are granitic, and rise "in the centre of a vast plateau of coral" of some 120 m. diameter.

These islands are said to have been visited by Soares in 1506, and were known vaguely to the Portuguese navigators of the 16th century as the Seven Brothers (Os sete Irmanos or Hermanos), sometimes Seven Sisters (Sete Irmanas), whilst in Delisle's Map of Asia (1700) we have both "les Sept Frères" and "les Sept Sœurs." Adjoining these on the W. or S.W. we find also on the old maps a group called the Almirantes, and this group has retained that name to the present day, constituting now an appendage of the Seychelles.

The islands remained uninhabited, and apparently unvisited, till near the middle of the 18th century. In 1742 the celebrated Mahé de la Bourdonnais, who was then Governor of Mauritius and the Isle of Bourbon, despatched two small vessels to explore the islands of this little archipelago, an expedition which was renewed by Lazare Picault, the commander of one of the two vessels, in 1774, who gave to the principal island the name of Mahé, and to the group the name of Iles de Bourdonnais, for which Iles Mahé (which is the name given in the Neptune Orientale of D'Apres de Manneville, 1775, pp. 29-38, and the charts), seems to have been substituted. Whatever may have been La Bourdonnais' plans with respect to these islands, they were interrupted by his engagement in the Indian campaigns of 1745-46, and his government of Mauritius was never resumed. In 1756 the Sieur Morphey (Murphy?), commander of the frigate Le Cerf, was sent by M. Magon, Governor of Mauritius and Bourbon, to take possession of the Island of Mahé. But it seems doubtful if any actual settlement of the islands by the French occurred till after 1769. [See the account of the islands in Owen's Narrative, ii. 158 seqq.]

A question naturally has suggested itself to us as to how the group came by the name of the Seychelles Islands; and it is one to which no trustworthy answer will be easily found in English, if at all. Even French works of pretension (e.g. the Dictionnaire de la Rousse) are found to state that the islands were named after the "Minister of Marine, Herault de Séchelles, who was eminent for his services and his able administration. He was the first to establish a French settlement there." This is quoted from La Rousse; but the fact is that the only man of the name known to fame is the Jacobin and friend of Danton, along with whom he perished by the guillotine. There never was a Minister of Marine so called! The name Séchelles first (so far as we can learn) appears in the Hydrographie Française of Belin, 1767, where in a map entitled Carte réduite du Canal de Mozambique the islands are given as Les Iles Sécheyles, with two enlarged plans en cartouche of the Port de Sécheyles. In 1767 also Chev. de Grenier, commanding the Heure du Berger, visited the Islands, and in his narrative states that he had with him the chart of Picault, "envoyé par La Bourdonnais pour reconnoître les isles des Sept Frères, lesquelles ont été depuis nommée iles Mahé et ensuite iles Séchelles." We have not been able to learn by whom the latter name was given, but it was probably by Morphey of the Cerf; for among Dalrymple's Charts (pub. 1771), there is a "Plan of the Harbour adjacent to Bat River on the Island Seychelles, from a French plan made in 1756, published by Bellin." And there can be no doubt that the name was bestowed in honour of Moreau de Séchelles, who was Contrôleur-Général des Finances in France in 1754-56, i.e. at the very time when Governor Magon sent Capt. Morphey to take possession. One of the islands again is called Silhouette, the name of an official who had been Commissaire du roi près la Compagnie des Indes, and succeeded Moreau de Séchelles as Controller of Finance; and another is called Praslin, apparently after the Duc de Choiseul Praslin who was Minister of Marine from 1766 to 1770.

The exact date of the settlement of the islands we have not traced. We can only say that it must have been between 1769 and 1772. The quotation below from the Abbé Rochon shows that the islands were not settled when he visited them in 1769; whilst that from Capt. Neale shows that they were settled before his visit in 1772. It will be seen that both Rochon and Neale speak of Mahé as "the island Seychelles, or Sécheyles," as in Belin's chart of 1767. It seems probable that the cloud under which La Bourdonnais fell, on his return to France, must have led to the suppression of his name in connection with the group.

The islands surrendered to the English Commodore Newcome in 1794, and were formally ceded to England with Mauritius in 1815. Seychelles appears to be an erroneous English spelling, now however become established. (For valuable assistance in the preceding article we are indebted to the courteous communications of M. James Jackson, Librarian of the Société de Géographie at Paris, and of M. G. Marcel of the Bibliothèque Nationale. And see, besides the works quoted here, a paper by M. Elie Pujot, in L'Explorateur, vol. iii. (1876) pp. 523-526).

The following passage of Pyrard probably refers to the Seychelles:

c. 1610.—"Le Roy (des Maldives) enuoya par deux foys vn très expert pilote pour aller descouvrir vne certaine isle nommée pollouoys, qui leur est presque inconnuë.... Ils disent aussi que le diable les y tourmentoit visiblement, et que pour l'isle elle est fertile en toutes sortes de fruicts, et mesme ils ont opinion que ces gros Cocos medicinaux qui sont si chers-là en viennent.... Elle est sous la hauteur de dix degrés au delà de la ligne et enuiron six vingt lieuës des Maldiues...."—(see COCO-DE-MER).—Pyrard de Laval, i. 212. [Also see Mr. Gray's note in Hak. Soc. ed. i. 296, where he explains the word pollouoys in the above quotation as the Malay pulo, 'an island,' Malé Fólávahi.]

1769.—"The principal places, the situation of which I determined, are the Secheyles islands, the flat of Cargados, the Salha da Maha, the island of Diego Garcia, and the Adu isles. The island Secheyles has an exceedingly good harbour.... This island is covered with wood to the very summit of the mountains.... In 1769 when I spent a month here in order to determine its position with the utmost exactness, Secheyles and the adjacent isles were inhabited only by monstrous crocodiles; but a small establishment has since been formed on it for the cultivation of cloves and nutmegs."—Voyage to Madagascar and the E. Indies by the Abbé Rochon, E.T., London, 1792, p. liii.

1772.—"The island named Seychelles is inhabited by the French, and has a good harbour.... I shall here deliver my opinion that these islands, where we now are, are the Three Brothers and the adjacent islands ... as there are no islands to the eastward of them in these latitudes, and many to the westward."—Capt. Neale's Passage from Bencoolen to the Seychelles Islands in the Swift Grab. In Dunn's Directory, ed. 1780, pp. 225, 232.

[1901.—"For a man of energy, perseverance, and temperate habits, Seychelles affords as good an opening as any tropical colony."—Report of Administrator, in Times, Oct. 2.]

SHA, SAH, s. A merchant or banker; often now attached as a surname. It is Hind. sāh and sāhu from Skt. sādhu, 'perfect, virtuous, respectable' 'prudhomme'). See SOWCAR.

[c. 1809.—"... the people here called Mahajans (Mahajun), Sahu, and Bahariyas, live by lending money."—Buchanan Hamilton, E. India, ii. 573.]

SHABASH! interj. 'Well done!' 'Bravo!' Pers. Shā-bāsh. 'Rex fias!'^[243] [Rather shād-bāsh, 'Be joyful.']

c. 1610.—"Le Roy fit rencontre de moy ... me disant vn mot qui est commun en toute l'Inde, à savoir Sabatz, qui veut dire grand mercy, et sert aussi à louer vn homme pour quelque chose qu'il a bien fait."—Pyrard de Laval, i. 224.

[1843.—"I was awakened at night from a sound sleep by the repeated savāshes! wāh! wāhs! from the residence of the thanndar."—Davidson, Travels in Upper India, i. 209.]

SHABUNDER, s. Pers. Shāh-bandar, lit. 'King of the Haven,' Harbour-Master. This was the title of an officer at native ports all over the Indian seas, who was the chief authority with whom foreign traders and ship-masters had to transact. He was often also head of the Customs. Hence the name is of prominent and frequent occurrence in the old narratives. Portuguese authors generally write the word Xabander; ours Shabunder or Sabundar. The title is not obsolete, though it does not now exist in India; the quotation from Lane shows its recent existence in Cairo, [and the Persians still call their Consuls Shāh-bandar (Burton, Ar. Nights, iii. 158)]. In the marine Malay States the Shābandar was, and probably is, an important officer of State. The passages from Lane and from Tavernier show that the title was not confined to seaports. At Aleppo Thevenot (1663) calls the corresponding official, perhaps by a mistake, 'Scheik Bandar' (Voyages, iii. 121). [This is the office which King Mihrjān conferred upon Sindbad the Seaman, when he made him "his agent for the port and registrar of all ships that entered the harbour" (Burton, iv. 351)].

c. 1350.—"The chief of all the Musulmans in this city (Kaulam—see QUILON) is Mahommed Shāhbandar."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 100.

c. 1539.—"This King (of the Batas) understanding that I had brought him a Letter and a Present from the Captain of Malaca, caused me to be entertained by the Xabandar, who is he that with absolute Power governs all the affairs of the Army."—Pinto (orig. cap. xv.), in Cogan's Transl. p. 18.

1552.—"And he who most insisted on this was a Moor, Xabandar of the Guzarates" (at Malacca).—Castanheda, ii. 359.

1553.—"A Moorish lord called Sabayo (Sabaio) ... as soon as he knew that our ships belonged to the people of these parts of Christendom, desiring to have confirmation on the matter, sent for a certain Polish Jew who was in his service as Shabandar (Xabandar), and asked him if he knew of what nation were the people who came in these ships...."—Barros, I. iv. 11.

1561.—"... a boatman, who, however, called himself Xabandar."—Correa, Lendas, ii. 80.

1599.—"The Sabandar tooke off my Hat, and put a Roll of white linnen about my head...."—J. Davis, in Purchas, i. 12.

[1604.—"Sabindar." See under KLING.]

1606.—"Then came the Sabendor with light, and brought the Generall to his house."—Middleton's Voyage, E. (4).

1610.—"The Sabander and the Governor of Mancock (a place scituated by the River)...."—Peter Williamson Floris, in Purchas, i. 322.

[1615.—"The opinion of the Sabindour shall be taken."—Foster, Letters, iv. 79.]

c. 1650.—"Coming to Golconda, I found that the person whom I had left in trust with my chamber was dead: but that which I observ'd most remarkable, was that I found the door seal'd with two Seals, one being the Cadi's or chief Justice's, the other the Sha-Bander's or Provost of the Merchants."—Tavernier, E.T. Pt. ii. 136; [ed. Ball, ii. 70].

1673.—"The Shawbunder has his Grandeur too, as well as receipt of Custom, for which he pays the King yearly 22,000 Thomands."—Fryer, 222.

1688.—"When we arrived at Achin, I was carried before the Shabander, the chief Magistrate of the City...."—Dampier, i. 502.

1711.—"The Duties the Honourable Company require to be paid here on Goods are not above one fifth Part of what is paid to the Shabander or Custom-Master."—Lockyer, 223.

1726.—Valentyn, v. 313, gives a list of the Sjahbandars of Malakka from 1641 to 1725. They are names of Dutchmen.

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

1759.—"I have received a long letter from the Shahzada, in which he complains that you have begun to carry on a large trade in salt, and betel nut, and refuse to pay the duties on those articles ... which practice, if continued, will oblige him to throw up his post of Shahbunder Droga (Daroga)."—W. Hastings to the Chief at Dacca, in Van Sittart, i. 5.

1768.—"... two or three days after my arrival (at Batavia), the landlord of the hotel where I lodged told me he had been ordered by the shebandar to let me know that my carriage, as well as others, must stop, if I should meet the Governor, or any of the council; but I desired him to acquaint the shebandar that I could not consent to perform any such ceremony."—Capt. Carteret, quoted by transl. of Stavorinus, i. 281.

1795.—"The descendant of a Portuguese family, named Jaunsee, whose origin was very low ... was invested with the important office of Shawbunder, or intendant of the port, and receiver of the port customs."—Symes, p. 160.

1837.—"The Seyd Mohammad El Mahroockee, the Shahbendar (chief of the Merchants of Cairo) hearing of this event, suborned a common fellah...."—Lane's Mod. Egyptians, ed. 1837, i. 157.

SHADDOCK, s. This name properly belongs to the West Indies, having been given, according to Grainger, from that of the Englishman who first brought the fruit thither from the East, and who was, according to Crawfurd, an interloper captain, who traded to the Archipelago about the time of the Revolution, and is mentioned by his contemporary Dampier. The fruit is the same as the pommelo (q.v.). And the name appears from a modern quotation below to be now occasionally used in India. [Nothing definite seems to be known of this Capt. Shaddock. Mr. R. C. A. Prior (7 ser. N. & Q., vii. 375) writes: "Lunan, in 'Hortus Jamaicensis,' vol. ii. p. 171, says, 'This fruit is not near so large as the shaddock, which received its name from a Capt. Shaddock, who first brought the plant from the East Indies.' The name of the captain is believed to have been Shattock, one not uncommon in the west of Somersetshire. Sloane, in his 'Voyage to Jamaica,' 1707, vol. i. p. 41 says, 'The seed of this was first brought to Barbados by one Capt. Shaddock, commander of an East Indian ship, who touch'd at that island in his passage to England, and left its seed there.'" Watt (Econ. Dict. ii. 349) remarks that the Indian vernacular name Batāvī nībū, 'Batavian lime,' suggests its having been originally brought from Batavia.]

[1754.—"... pimple-noses (pommelo), called in the West Indies, Chadocks, a very fine large fruit of the citron-kind, but of four or five times its size...."—Ives, 19.]

1764.—

1803.—"The Shaddock, or pumpelmos (pommelo), often grows to the size of a man's head."—Percival's Ceylon, 313.

[1832.—"Several trays of ripe fruits of the season, viz., kurbootahs (shadock), kabooza (melons)...."—Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali, Observations, i. 365.]

1878.—"... the splendid Shaddock that, weary of ripening, lays itself upon the ground and swells at ease...."—In My Indian Garden, 50.

[1898.—

SHADE (TABLE-SHADE, WALL-SHADE), s. A glass guard to protect a candle or simple oil-lamp from the wind. The oldest form, in use at the beginning of the last century, was a tall glass cylinder which stood on the table, the candlestick and candle being placed bodily within in. In later days the universal form has been that of an inverted dome fitting into the candlestick, which has an annular socket to receive it. The wall-shade is a bracket attached to the wall, bearing a candle or cocoa-nut oil lamp, protected by such a shade. In the wine-drinking days of the earlier part of last century it was sometimes the subject of a challenge, or forfeit, for a man to empty a wall-shade filled with claret. The second quotation below gives a notable description of a captain's outfit when taking the field in the 18th century.

1780.—"Borrowed last Month by a Person or Persons unknown, out of a private Gentleman's House near the Esplanade, a very elegant Pair of Candle Shades. Whoever will return the same will receive a reward of 40 Sicca Rupees.—N.B. The Shades have private marks."—Hicky's Bengal Gazette, April 8.

1789.—"His tent is furnished with a good large bed, mattress, pillow, &c., a few camp-stools or chairs, a folding table, a pair of shades for his candles, six or seven trunks with table equipage, his stock of linen (at least 24 shirts); some dozens of wine, brandy, and gin; tea, sugar, and biscuit; and a hamper of live poultry and his milch-goat."—Munro's Narrative, 186.

1817.—"I am now finishing this letter by candle-light, with the help of a handkerchief tied over the shade."—T. Munro, in Life, i. 511.

[1838.—"We brought carpets, and chandeliers, and wall shades (the great staple commodity of Indian furniture), from Calcutta...."—Miss Eden, Up the Country, 2nd ed. i. 182.]

SHAGREEN, s. This English word,—French chagrin; Ital. zigrino; Mid. High Ger. Zager,—comes from the Pers. saghrī, Turk. ṣāghrī, meaning properly the croupe or quarter of a horse, from which the peculiar granulated leather, also called sāghrī in the East, was originally made. Diez considers the French (and English adopted) chagrin in the sense of vexation to be the same word, as certain hard skins prepared in this way were used as files, and hence the word is used figuratively for gnawing vexation, as (he states) the Ital. lima also is (Etym. Worterbuch, ed. 1861, ii. 240). He might have added the figurative origin of tribulation. [This view is accepted by the N.E.D.; but Prof. Skeat (Concise Dict.) denies its correctness.]

1663.—"... à Alep ... on y travaille aussi bien qu'à Damas le sagri, qui est ce qu'on appelle chagrin en France, mais l'on en fait une bien plus grande quantité en Perse.... Le sagri sa fait de croupe d'âne," &c.—Thevenot, Voyages, iii. 115-116.

1862.—"Saghree, or Keemookt, Horse or Ass-Hide."—Punjab Trade Report, App. ccxx.; [For an account of the manufacture of kimukht, see Hoey, Mon. on Trades and Manufactures of N. India, 94.]

SHAITAN, Ar. 'The Evil One; Satan.' Shaitān kā bhāī, 'Brother of the Arch-Enemy,' was a title given to Sir C. Napier by the Amīrs of Sind and their followers. He was not the first great English soldier to whom this title had been applied in the East. In the romance of Cœur de Lion, when Richard entertains a deputation of Saracens by serving at table the head of one of their brethren, we are told:

[c. 1630.—"But a Mountebank or Impostor is nick-named Shitan-Tabib, i.e. the Devil's Chirurgion."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1677, p. 304.

1753.—"God preserve me from the Scheithan Alragim."—Hanway, iii. 90.]

1863.—"Not many years ago, an eccentric gentleman wrote from Sikkim to the Secretary of the Asiatic Society in Calcutta, stating that, on the snows of the mountains there were found certain mysterious footsteps, more than 30 or 40 paces asunder, which the natives alleged to be Shaitan's. The writer at the same time offered, if Government would give him leave of absence for a certain period, etc., to go and trace the author of these mysterious vestiges, and thus this strange creature would be discovered without any expense to Government. The notion of catching Shaitan without any expense to Government was a sublime piece of Anglo-Indian tact, but the offer was not accepted."—Sir H. Yule, Notes to Friar Jordanus, 37.

SHALEE, SHALOO, SHELLA, SALLO, &c., s. We have a little doubt as to the identity of all these words; the two latter occur in old works as names of cotton stuffs; the first two (Shakespear and Fallon give sālū) are names in familiar use for a soft twilled cotton stuff, of a Turkey-red colour, somewhat resembling what we call, by what we had judged to be a modification of the word, shaloon. But we find that Skeat and other authorities ascribe the latter word to a corruption of Chalons, which gave its name to certain stuffs, apparently bed-coverlets of some sort. Thus in Chaucer:

On which Tyrwhitt quotes from the Monasticon, "... aut pannos pictos qui vocantur chalons loco lectisternii." See also in Liber Albus:

"La charge de chalouns et draps de Reynes...."—p. 225, also at p. 231.

c. 1343.—"I went then to Shāliyāt (near Calicut—see CHALIA) a very pretty town, where they make the stuffs (qu. shālī?) that bear its name."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 109.

[It is exceedingly difficult to disentangle the meanings and derivations of this series of words. In the first place we have saloo, Hind. sālū, the Turkey-red cloth above described; a word which is derived by Platts from Skt. śālū, 'a kind of astringent substance,' and is perhaps the same word as the Tel. sālū, 'cloth.' This was originally an Indian fabric, but has now been replaced in the bazars by an English cloth, the art of dyeing which was introduced by French refugees who came over after the Revolution (see 7 ser. N. & Q. viii. 485 seq.). See PIECE-GOODS, SALOOPAUTS.

[c. 1590.—"Sálu, per piece, 3 R. to 2 M."—Āīn, i. 94.

[1610.—"Sallallo, blue and black."—Danvers, Letters, i. 72.

[1672.—"Salloos, made at Gulcundah, and brought from thence to Surat, and go to England."—In Birdwood, Report on Old Records, 62.

[1896.—"Salu is another fabric of a red colour prepared by dyeing English cloth named mārkīn ('American') in the āl dye, and was formerly extensively used for turbans, curtains, borders of female coats and female dress."—Muhammad Hadi, Mon. on Dyes, 34.

Next we have shelah, which may be identical with Hind. selā, which Platts connects with Skt. chela, chaila, 'a piece of cloth,' and defines as "a kind of scarf or mantle (of silk, or lawn, or muslin; usually composed of four breadths depending from the shoulders loosely over the body: it is much worn and given as a present, in the Dakkhan); silk turban." In the Deccan it seems to be worn by men (Herklots, Qanoon-e-Islam, Madras reprint, 18). The Madras Gloss. gives sheelay, Mal. shīla, said to be from Skt. chīra, 'a strip of cloth,' in the sense of clothes; and sullah, Hind. sela, 'gauze for turbans.'

[c. 1590.—"Shelah, from the Dek'han, per piece, ½ to 2 M."—Āīn, i. 95.