S (part 1)

SABAIO, ÇABAIO, &c., n.p. The name generally given by the Portuguese writers to the Mahommedan prince who was in possession of Goa when they arrived in India, and who had lived much there. He was in fact that one of the captains of the Bāhmanī kingdom of the Deccan who, in the division that took place on the decay of the dynasty towards the end of the 15th century, became the founder of the 'Adil Shāhī family which reigned in Bijapur from 1489 to the end of the following century (see IDALCAN). His real name was Abdul Muẓaffar Yūsuf, with the surname Sabāī or Savāī. There does not seem any ground for rejecting the intelligent statement of De Barros (II. v. 2) that he had this name from being a native of Sāvā in Persia [see Bombay Gazetteer, xxiii. 404]. Garcia de Orta does not seem to have been aware of this history, and he derives the name from Sāḥib (see below), apparently a mere guess, though not an unnatural one. Mr. Birch's surmise (Alboquerque, ii. 82), with these two old and obvious sources of suggestion before him, that "the word may possibly be connected with sipāhī, Arabic, a soldier," is quite inadmissible (nor is sipāhī Arabic). [On this word Mr. Whiteway writes: "In his explanation of this word Sir H. Yule has been misled by Barros. Couto (Dec. iv. Bk. 10 ch. 4) is conclusive, where he says: 'This Çufo extended the limits of his rule as far as he could till he went in person to conquer the island of Goa, which was a valuable possession for its income, and was in possession of a lord of Canara, called Savay, a vassal of the King of Canara, who then had his headquarters at what we call Old Goa.... As there was much jungle here, Savay, the lord of Goa, had certain houses where he stayed for hunting.... These houses still preserve the memory of the Hindu Savay, as they are called the Savayo's house, where for many years the Governors of India lived. As our João de Barros could not get true information of these things, he confounded the name of the Hindu Savay with that of Çufo (? Yūsuf) Adil Shāh, saying in the 5th Book of his 2nd Decade that when we went to India a Moor called Soay was lord of Goa, that we ordinarily called him Sabayo, and that he was a vassal of the King of the Deccan, a Persian, and native of the city of Sawa. At this his sons laughed heartily when we read it to them, saying that their father was anything but a Turk, and his name anything but Çufo.' This passage makes it clear that the origin of the word is the Hindu title Siwāī, Hind. Sawāī, 'having the excess of a fourth,' 'a quarter better than other people,' which is one of the titles of the Mahārājā of Jaypur. To show that it was more or less well known, I may point to the little State of Sunda, which lay close to Goa on the S.E., of which the Rāja was of the Vijayanagar family. This little State became independent after the destruction of Vijayanagar, and remained in existence till absorbed by Tippoo Sultan. In this State Siwāī was a common honorific of the ruling family. At the same time Barros was not alone in calling Adil Shāh the Sabaio (see Alboquerque, Cartas, p. 24), where the name occurs. The mistake having been made, everyone accepted it."]

There is a story, related as unquestionable by Firishta, that the Sabaio was in reality a son of the Turkish Sultan Agā Murād (or 'Amurath') II., who was saved from murder at his father's death, and placed in the hands of 'Imād-ud-dīn, a Persian merchant of Sāvā, by whom he was brought up. In his youth he sought his fortune in India, and being sold as a slave, and going through a succession of adventures, reached his high position in the Deccan (Briggs, Firishta, iii. 7-8).

1510.—"But when Afonso Dalboquerque took Goa, it would be about 40 years more or less since the Çabaio had taken it from the Hindoos."—Dalboquerque, ii. 96.

" "In this island (Goa called Goga) there is a fortress near the sea, walled round after our manner, in which there is sometimes a captain called Savaiu, who has 400 Mamelukes, he himself being also a Mameluke...."—Varthema, 116.

1516.—"Going further along the coast there is a very beautiful river, which sends two arms into the sea, making between them an island, on which stands the city of Goa belonging to Daquem (Deccan), and it was a principality of itself with other districts adjoining in the interior; and in it there was a great Lord, as vassal of the said King (of Deccan) called Sabayo, who being a good soldier, well mannered and experienced in war, this lordship of Goa was bestowed upon him, that he might continually make war on the King of Narsinga, as he did until his death. And then he left this city to his son Çabaym Hydalçan...."—Barros, Lisbon ed. 287.

1563.—"O. ... And returning to our subject, as Adel in Persian means 'justice,' they called the prince of these territories Adelham, as it were 'Lord of Justice.'

"R. A name highly inappropriate, for neither he nor the rest of them are wont to do justice. But tell me also why in Spain they call him the Sabaio?

"O. Some have told me that he was so called because they used to call a Captain by this name; but I afterwards came to know that in fact saibo in Arabic means 'lord.'..."—Garcia, f. 36.

SABLE-FISH. See HILSA.

SADRAS, SADRASPATÁM, n.p. This name of a place 42 m. south of Madras, the seat of an old Dutch factory, was probably shaped into the usual form in a sort of conformity with Madras or Madraspatam. The correct name is Sadurai, but it is sometimes made into Sadrang- and Shatranj-patam. [The Madras Gloss. gives Tam. Shathurangappaṭanam, Skt. chatur-anga, 'the four military arms, infantry, cavalry, elephants and cars.'] Fryer (p. 28) calls it Sandraslapatam, which is probably a misprint for Sandrastapatam.

1672.—"From Tirepoplier you come ... to Sadraspatam, where our people have a Factory."—Baldaeus, 152.

1726.—"The name of the place is properly Sadrangapatam; but for short it is also called Sadrampatam, and most commonly Sadraspatam. In the Tellinga it indicates the name of the founder, and in Persian it means 'thousand troubles' or the Shah-board which we call chess."—Valentijn, Choromandel, 11. The curious explanation of Shatranj or 'chess,' as 'a thousand troubles,' is no doubt some popular etymology; such as P. sad-ranj, 'a hundred griefs.' The word is really of Sanskrit origin, from Chaturangam, literally, 'quadripartite'; the four constituent parts of an army, viz. horse, foot, chariots and elephants.

[1727.—"Saderass, or Saderass Patam." (See under LONG-CLOTH.)]

c. 1780.—"J'avois pensé que Sadras auroit été le lieu où devoient finir mes contrarietés et mes courses."—Haafner, i. 141.

" "'Non, je ne suis point Anglois,' m'écriai-je avec indignation et transport; 'je suis un Hollandois de Sadringapatnam.'"—Ibid. 191.

1781.—"The chief officer of the French now despatched a summons to the English commandant of the Fort to surrender, and the commandant, not being of opinion he could resist ... evacuated the fort, and proceeded by sea in boats to Sudrung Puttun."—H. of Hydur Naik, 447.

SAFFLOWER, s. The flowers of the annual Carthamus tinctorius, L. (N.O. Compositae), a considerable article of export from India for use of a red dye, and sometimes, from the resemblance of the dried flowers to saffron, termed 'bastard saffron.' The colouring matter of safflower is the basis of rouge. The name is a curious modification of words by the 'striving after meaning.' For it points, in the first half of the name, to the analogy with saffron, and in the second half, to the object of trade being a flower. But neither one nor the other of these meanings forms any real element in the word. Safflower appears to be an eventual corruption of the Arabic name of the thing, 'us̤fūr. This word we find in medieval trade-lists (e.g. in Pegolotti) to take various forms such as asfiore, asfrole, astifore, zaffrole, saffiore; from the last of which the transition to safflower is natural. In the old Latin translation of Avicenna it seems to be called Crocus hortulanus, for the corresponding Arabic is given hasfor. Another Arabic name for this article is ḳurṭum, which we presume to be the origin of the botanist's carthamus. In Hind. it is called kusumbha or kusum. Bretschneider remarks that though the two plants, saffron and safflower, have not the slightest resemblance, and belong to two different families and classes of the nat. system, there has been a certain confusion between them among almost all nations, including the Chinese.

c. 1200.—"'Usfur ... Abu Hanifa. This plant yields a colouring matter, used in dyeing. There are two kinds, cultivated and wild, both of which grow in Arabia, and the seeds of which are called al-ḳurṭum."—Ibn Baithar, ii. 196.

c. 1343.—"Affiore vuol esser fresco, e asciutto, e colorito rosso in colore di buon zafferano, e non giallo, e chiaro a modo di femminella di zafferano, e che non sia trasandato, che quando è vecchio e trasandato si spolverizza, e fae vermini."—Pegolotti, 372.

1612.—"The two Indian ships aforesaid did discharge these goods following ... oosfar, which is a red die, great quantitie."—Capt. Saris, in Purchas, i. 347.

[1667-8.—"... madder, safflower, argoll, castoreum...."—List of Goods imported, in Birdwood, Report on Old Records, 76.]

1810.—"Le safran bâtard ou carthame, nommé dans le commerce safranon, est appelé par les Arabes ... osfour ou ... Kortom. Suivant M. Sonnini, le premier nom désigne la plante; et le second, ses graines."—Silv. de Sacy, Note on Abdallatif, p. 123.

1813.—"Safflower (Cussom, Hind., Asfour, Arab.) is the flower of an annual plant, the Carthamus tinctorius, growing in Bengal and other parts of India, which when well-cured is not easily distinguishable from saffron by the eye, though it has nothing of its smell or taste."—Milburn, ii. 238.

SAFFRON, s. Arab. za'farān. The true saffron (Crocus sativus, L.) in India is cultivated in Kashmīr only. In South India this name is given to turmeric, which the Portuguese called açafrão da terra ('country saffron.') The Hind. name is haldī, or in the Deccan halad, [Skt. haridra, hari, 'green, yellow']. Garcia de Orta calls it croco Indiaco, 'Indian saffron.' Indeed, Dozy shows that the Arab. kurkum for turmeric (whence the bot. Lat. curcuma) is probably taken from the Greek κρόκος or obl. κρόκον. Moodeen Sherif says that kurkum is applied to saffron in many Persian and other writers.

c. 1200.—"The Persians call this root al-Hard, and the inhabitants of Basra call it al-Kurkum, and al-Kurkum is Saffron. They call these plants Saffron because they dye yellow in the same way as Saffron does."—Ibn Baithar, ii. 370.

1563.—"R. Since there is nothing else to be said on this subject, let us speak of what we call 'country saffron.'

"O. This is a medicine that should be spoken of, since it is in use by the Indian physicians; it is a medicine and article of trade much exported to Arabia and Persia. In this city (Goa) there is little of it, but much in Malabar, i.e. in Cananor and Calecut. The Canarins call the root alad; and the Malabars sometimes give it the same name, but more properly call it mangale, and the Malays cunhet; the Persians, darzard, which is as much as to say 'yellow-wood.' The Arabs call it habet; and all of them, each in turn, say that this saffron does not exist in Persia, nor in Arabia, nor in Turkey, except what comes from India."—Garcia, f. 78v. Further on he identifies it with curcuma.

1726.—"Curcuma, or Indian Saffron."—Valentijn, Chor. 42.

SAGAR-PESHA, s. Camp-followers, or the body of servants in a private establishment. The word, though usually pronounced in vulgar Hind. as written above, is Pers. shāgird-pesha (lit. shāgird, 'a disciple, a servant,' and pesha, 'business').

[1767.—"Saggur Depessah-pay...."—In Long, 513.]

SAGO, s. From Malay sāgū. The farinaceous pith taken out of the stem of several species of a particular genus of palm, especially Metroxylon laeve, Mart., and M. Rumphii, Willd., found in every part of the Indian Archipelago, including the Philippines, wherever there is proper soil. They are most abundant in the eastern part of the region indicated, including the Moluccas and N. Guinea, which probably formed the original habitat; and in these they supply the sole bread of the natives. In the remaining parts of the Archipelago, sago is the food only of certain wild tribes, or consumed (as in Mindanao) by the poor only, or prepared (as at Singapore, &c.) for export. There are supposed to be five species producing the article.

1298.—"They have a kind of trees that produce flour, and excellent flour it is for food. These trees are very tall and thick, but have a very thin bark, and inside the bark they are crammed with flour."—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. ch. xi.

1330.—"But as for the trees which produce flour, tis after this fashion.... And the result is the best pasta in the world, from which they make whatever they choose, cates of sorts, and excellent bread, of which I, Friar Odoric, have eaten."—Fr. Odoric, in Cathay, &c., 32.

1522.—"Their bread (in Tidore) they make of the wood of a certain tree like a palm-tree, and they make it in this way. They take a piece of this wood, and extract from it certain long black thorns which are situated there; then they pound it, and make bread of it which they call sagu. They make provision of this bread for their sea voyages."—Pigafetta, Hak. Soc. p. 136. This is a bad description, and seems to refer to the Sagwire, not the true sago-tree.

1552.—"There are also other trees which are called çagus, from the pith of which bread is made."—Castanheda, vi. 24.

1553.—"Generally, although they have some millet and rice, all the people of the Isles of Maluco eat a certain food which they call Sagum, which is the pith of a tree like a palm-tree, except that the leaf is softer and smoother, and the green of it is rather dark."—Barros, III. v. 5.

1579.—"... and a Kind of meale which they call Sago, made of the toppes of certaine trees, tasting in the Mouth like some curds, but melts away like sugar."—Drake's Voyage, Hak. Soc. p. 142.

" Also in a list of "Certaine Wordes of the Naturall Language of Iaua"; "Sagu, bread of the Countrey."—Hakl. iv. 246.

c. 1690.—"Primo Sagus genuina, Malaice Sagu, sive Lapia tuni, h.e. vera Sagu."—Rumphius, i. 75. (We cannot make out the language of lapia tuni.)

1727.—"And the inland people subsist mostly on Sagow, the Pith of a small Twig split and dried in the Sun."—A. Hamilton, ii. 93; [ed. 1744].

SAGWIRE, s. A name applied often in books, and, formerly at least, in the colloquial use of European settlers and traders, to the Gomuti palm or Arenga saccharifera, Labill., which abounds in the Ind. Archipelago, and is of great importance in its rural economy. The name is Port. sagueira (analogous to palmeira), in Span. of the Indies saguran, and no doubt is taken from sagu, as the tree, though not the Sago-palm of commerce, affords a sago of inferior kind. Its most important product, however, is the sap, which is used as toddy (q.v.), and which in former days also afforded almost all the sugar used by natives in the islands. An excellent cordage is made from a substance resembling black horse-hair, which is found between the trunk and the fronds, and this is the gomuti of the Malays, which furnished one of the old specific names (Borassus Gomutus, Loureiro). There is also found in a like position a fine cotton-like substance which makes excellent tinder, and strong stiff spines from which pens are made, as well as arrows for the blow-pipe, or Sumpitan (see SARBATANE). "The seeds have been made into a confection, whilst their pulpy envelope abounds in a poisonous juice—used in the barbarian wars of the natives—to which the Dutch gave the appropriate name of 'hell-water'" (Crawfurd, Desc. Dict. p. 145). The term sagwire is sometimes applied to the toddy or palm-wine, as will be seen below.

1515.—"They use no sustenance except the meal of certain trees, which trees they call Sagur, and of this they make bread."—Giov. da Empoli, 86.

1615.—"Oryza tamen magna hic copia, ingens etiam modus arborum quas Saguras vocant, quaeque varia suggerunt commoda."—Jarric, i. 201.

1631.—"... tertia frequens est in Banda ac reliquis insulis Moluccis, quae distillat ex arbore non absimili Palmae Indicae, isque potus indigenis Saguër vocatur...."—Jac. Bontii, Dial. iv. p. 9.

1784.—"The natives drink much of a liquor called saguire, drawn from the palm-tree."—Forrest, Mergui, 73.

1820.—"The Portuguese, I know not for what reason, and other European nations who have followed them, call the tree and the liquor sagwire."—Crawfurd, Hist. i. 401.

SAHIB, s. The title by which, all over India, European gentlemen, and it may be said Europeans generally, are addressed, and spoken of, when no disrespect is intended, by natives. It is also the general title (at least where Hindustani or Persian is used) which is affixed to the name or office of a European, corresponding thus rather to Monsieur than to Mr. For Colonel Ṣāḥib, Collector Ṣāḥib, Lord Ṣāḥib, and even Sergeant Ṣāḥib are thus used, as well as the general vocative Ṣāḥib! 'Sir!' In other Hind. use the word is equivalent to 'Master'; and it is occasionally used as a specific title both among Hindus and Musulmans, e.g. Appa Ṣāḥib, Tīpū Ṣāḥib; and generically is affixed to the titles of men of rank when indicated by those titles, as Khān Ṣāḥib, Nawāb Ṣāḥib, Rājā Ṣāḥib. The word is Arabic, and originally means 'a companion'; (sometimes a companion of Mahommed). [In the Arabian Nights it is the title of a Wazīr (Burton, i. 218).]

1673.—"... To which the subtle Heathen replied, Sahab (i.e. Sir), why will you do more than the Creator meant?"—Fryer, 417.

1689.—"Thus the distracted Husband in his Indian English confest, English fashion, Sab, best fashion, have one Wife best for one Husband."—Ovington, 326.

1853.—"He was told that a 'Sahib' wanted to speak with him."—Oakfield, ii. 252.

1878.—"... forty Elephants and five Sahibs with guns and innumerable followers."—Life in the Mofussil, i. 194.

[ST. DEAVES, n.p. A corruption of the name of the island of Sandwīp in the Bay of Bengal, situated off the coast of Chittagong and Noakhālī, which is best known in connection with the awful loss of life and property in the cyclone of 1876.

[1688.—"From Chittagaum we sailed away the 29th January, after had sent small vessels to search round the Island St. Deaves."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. II. lxxx.]

SAINT JOHN'S, n.p.

a. An English sailor's corruption, which for a long time maintained its place in our maps. It is the Sindān of the old Arab Geographers, and was the first durable settling-place of the Parsee refugees on their emigration to India in the 8th century. [Dosabhai Framji, Hist. of the Parsis, i. 30.] The proper name of the place, which is in lat. 20° 12′ and lies 88 m. north of Bombay, is apparently Sajām (see Hist. of Cambay, in Bo. Govt. Selections, No. xxvi., N.S., p. 52), but it is commonly called Sanjān. E. B. Eastwick in J. Bo. As. Soc. R. i. 167, gives a Translation from the Persian of the "Kiṣṣah-i-Sanjān, or History of the arrival and settlement of the Parsees in India." Sanjān is about 3 m. from the little river-mouth port of Umbargām. "Evidence of the greatness of Sanjān is found, for miles around, in old foundations and bricks. The bricks are of very superior quality."—Bomb. Gazetteer, vol. xiv. 302, [and for medieval references to the place, ibid. I. Pt. i. 262, 520 seq.].

c. 1150.—"Sindān is 1½ mile from the sea.... The town is large and has an extensive commerce both in exports and imports."—Edrisi, in Elliot, i. 85.

c. 1599.—

"When the Dastur saw the soil was good,

He selected the place for their residence:

The Dastur named the spot Sanjan,

And it became populous as the Land of Iran."

—Kiṣṣah, &c., as above, p. 179.

c. 1616.—"The aldea Nargol ... in the lands of Daman was infested by Malabar Moors in their parós, who commonly landed there for water and provisions, and plundered the boats that entered or quitted the river, and the passengers who crossed it, with heavy loss to the aldeas adjoining the river, and to the revenue from them, as well as to that from the custom-house of Sangens."—Bocarro, Decada, 670.

1623.—"La mattina seguente, fatto giorno, scoprimmo terra di lontano ... in un luogo poco discosto da Bassain, che gl'Inglesi chiamano Terra di San Giovanni; ma nella carta da navigare vidi esser notato, in lingua Portoghese, col nome d'ilhas das vaccas, o 'isole delle vacche' al modo nostro."—P. della Valle, ii. 500; [Hak. Soc. i. 16].

1630.—"It happened that in safety they made to the land of St. Iohns on the shoares of India."—Lord, The Religion of the Persees, 3.

1644.—"Besides these four posts there are in the said district four Tanadarias (see TANADAR), or different Captainships, called Samgês (St. John's), Danū, Maim, and Trapor."—Bocarro (Port. MS.).

1673.—"In a Week's Time we turned it up, sailing by Baçein, Tarapore, Valentine's Peak, St. John's, and Daman, the last City northward on the Continent, belonging to the Portuguese."—Fryer, 82.

1808.—"They (the Parsee emigrants) landed at Dieu, and lived there 19 years; but, disliking the place ... the greater part of them left it and came to the Guzerat coast, in vessels which anchored off Seyjan, the name of a town."—R. Drummond.

1813.—"The Parsees or Guebres ... continued in this place (Diu) for some time, and then crossing the Gulph, landed at Suzan, near Nunsaree, which is a little to the southward of Surat."—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 109; [2nd ed. i. 78].

1841.—"The high land of St. John, about 3 leagues inland, has a regular appearance...."—Horsburgh's Directory, ed. 1841, i. 470.

1872.—"In connexion with the landing of the Parsis at Sanjân, in the early part of the 8th century, there still exist copies of the 15 Sanskrit Ślokas, in which their Mobeds explained their religion to Jadé Rânâ, the Râja of the place, and the reply he gave them."—Ind. Antiq. i. 214. The Ślokas are given. See them also in Dosabhai Framji's Hist. of the Parsees, i. 31.

b. ST. JOHN'S ISLAND, n.p. This again is a corruption of San-Shan, or more correctly Shang-chuang, the Chinese name of an island about 60 or 70 miles S.W. of Macao, and at some distance from the mouth of the Canton River, the place where St. Francis Xavier died, and was originally buried.

1552.—"Inde nos ad Sancianum, Sinarum insulam a Cantone millia pas. circiter cxx Deus perduxit incolumes."—Scti. Franc. Xaverii Epistt., Pragae 1667, IV. xiv.

1687.—"We came to Anchor the same Day, on the N.E. end of St. John's Island. This Island is in Lat. about 32 d. 30 min. North, lying on the S. Coast of the Province of Quantung or Canton in China."—Dampier, i. 406.

1727.—"A Portuguese Ship ... being near an Island on that Coast, called after St. Juan, some Gentlemen and Priests went ashore for Diversion, and accidentally found the Saint's Body uncorrupted, and carried it Passenger to Goa."—A. Hamilton, i. 252; [ed. 1744, ii. 255].

1780.—"St. John's," in Dunn's New Directory, 472.

c. ST. JOHN'S ISLANDS. This is also the chart-name, and popular European name, of two islands about 6 m. S. of Singapore, the chief of which is properly Pulo Sikajang, [or as Dennys (Desc. Dict. 321) writes the word, Pulo Skijang].

SAIVA, s. A worshipper of Śiva; Skt. Śaiva, adj., 'belonging to Siva.'

1651.—"The second sect of the Bramins, 'Seiviá' ... by name, say that a certain Eswara is the supreme among the gods, and that all the others are subject to him."—Rogerius, 17.

1867.—"This temple is reckoned, I believe, the holiest shrine in India, at least among the Shaivites."—Bp. Milman, in Memoirs, p. 48.

SALA, s. Hind. sālā, 'brother-in-law,' i.e. wife's brother; but used elliptically as a low term of abuse.

[1856.—"Another reason (for infanticide) is the blind pride which makes them hate that any man should call them sala, or Sussoor—brother-in-law, or father-in-law."—Forbes, Rās Mālā, ed. 1878, 616.]

1881.—"Another of these popular Paris sayings is 'et ta sœur?' which is as insulting a remark to a Parisian as the apparently harmless remark sālā, 'brother-in-law,' is to a Hindoo."—Sat. Rev., Sept. 10, 326.

SALAAM, s. A salutation; properly oral salutation of Mahommedans to each other. Arab. salām, 'peace.' Used for any act of salutation; or for 'compliments.'

[c. 60 B.C.—

"Ἀλλ' εἰ μὲν Σύρος ἐσσὶ "Σαλὰμ," εἰ δ' οὗν σύ γε φοίνιξ

"Ναίδιος," εἰ δ' Ἕλλην "Χαῖρε"· τὸ δ' αὐτὸ φράσον."

—Meleagros, in Anthologia Palatina, vii. 149.

The point is that he has been a bird of passage, and says good-bye now to his various resting-places in their own tongue.]

1513.—"The ambassador (of Bisnagar) entering the door of the chamber, the Governor rose from the chair on which he was seated, and stood up while the ambassador made him great çalema."—Correa, Lendas, II. i. 377. See also p. 431.

1552.—"The present having been seen he took the letter of the Governor, and read it to him, and having read it told him how the Governor sent him his çalema, and was at his command with all his fleet, and with all the Portuguese...."—Castanheda, iii. 445.

1611.—"Çalema. The salutation of an inferior."—Cobarruvias, Sp. Dict. s.v.

1626.—"Hee (Selim i.e. Jahāngīr) turneth ouer his Beades, and saith so many words, to wit three thousand and two hundred, and then presenteth himself to the people to receive their salames or good morrow...."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 523.

1638.—"En entrant ils se salüent de leur Salom qu'ils accompagnent d'vne profonde inclination."—Mandelslo, Paris, 1659, 223.

1648.—"... this salutation they call salam; and it is made with bending of the body, and laying of the right hand upon the head."—Van Twist, 55.

1689.—"The Salem of the Religious Bramins, is to join their Hands together, and spreading them first, make a motion towards their Head, and then stretch them out."—Ovington, 183.

1694.—"The Town Conicopolies, and chief inhabitants of Egmore, came to make their Salaam to the President."—Wheeler, i. 281.

1717.—"I wish the Priests in Tranquebar a Thousand fold Schalam."—Philipp's Acct. 62.

1809.—"The old priest was at the door, and with his head uncovered, to make his salaams."—Ld. Valentia, i. 273.

1813.—

"'Ho! who art thou?'—'This low salam

Replies, of Moslem faith I am.'"

Byron, The Giaour.

1832.—"Il me rendit tous les salams que je fis autrefois au Grand Mogol."—Jacquemont, Corresp. ii. 137.

1844.—"All chiefs who have made their salam are entitled to carry arms personally."—G. O. of Sir C. Napier, 2.

SALAK, s. A singular-looking fruit, sold and eaten in the Malay regions, described in the quotation. It is the fruit of a species of ratan (Salacca edulis), of which the Malay name is rotan-salak.

1768-71.—"The salac (Calamus rotang zalacca) which is the fruit of a prickly bush, and has a singular appearance, being covered with scales, like those of a lizard; it is nutritious and well tasted, in flavour somewhat resembling a raspberry."—Stavorinus, E.T. i. 241.

SALEB, SALEP, s. This name is applied to the tubers of various species of orchis found in Europe and Asia, which from ancient times have had a great reputation as being restorative and highly nutritious. This reputation seems originally to have rested on the 'doctrine of signatures,' but was due partly no doubt to the fact that the mucilage of saleb has the property of forming, even with the addition of 40 parts of water, a thick jelly. Good modern authorities quite disbelieve in the virtues ascribed to saleb, though a decoction of it, spiced and sweetened, makes an agreeable drink for invalids. Saleb is identified correctly by Ibn Baithar with the Satyrium of Dioscorides and Galen. The full name in Ar. (analogous to the Greek orchis) is Khuṣī-al-tha'lab, i.e. 'testiculus vulpis'; but it is commonly known in India as s̤a'lab miṣrī, i.e. Salep of Egypt, or popularly salep-misry. In Upper India s̤aleb is derived from various species of Eulophia, found in Kashmīr and the Lower Himālaya. Saloop, which is, or used to be, supplied hot in winter mornings by itinerant vendors in the streets of London, is, we believe, a representative of Saleb; but we do not know from what it is prepared. [In 1889 a correspondent to Notes & Queries (7 ser. vii. 35) stated that "within the last twenty years saloop vendors might have been seen plying their trade in the streets of London. The term saloop was also applied to an infusion of the sassafras bark or wood. In Pereira's Materia Medica, published in 1850, it is stated that 'sassafras tea, flavoured with milk and sugar, is sold at daybreak in the streets of London under the name of saloop.' Saloop in balls is still sold in London, and comes mostly from Smyrna."]

In the first quotation it is doubtful what is meant by salīf; but it seems possible that the traveller may not have recognised the tha'lab, s̤a'lab in its Indian pronunciation.

c. 1340.—"After that, they fixed the amount of provision to be given by the Sultan, viz. 1000 Indian riṭls of flour ... 1000 of meat, a large number of riṭls (how many I don't now remember) of sugar, of ghee, of salīf, of areca, and 1000 leaves of betel."—Ibn Batuta, iii. 382.

1727.—"They have a fruit called Salob, about the size of a Peach, but without a stone. They dry it hard ... and being beaten to Powder, they dress it as Tea and Coffee are.... They are of opinion that it is a great restorative."—A. Hamilton, i. 125; [ed. 1744, i. 126].

[1754.—In his list of Indian drugs Ives (p. 44) gives "Rad. Salop, Persia Rs. 35 per maund."]

1838.—"Saleb Misree, a medicine, comes (a little) from Russia. It is considered a good nutritive for the human constitution, and is for this purpose powdered and taken with milk. It is in the form of flat oval pieces of about 80 grains each.... It is sold at 2 or 3 Rupees per ounce."—Desc. of articles found in Bazars of Cabool. In Punjab Trade Report, 1862, App. vi.

1882 (?).—"Here we knock against an ambulant salep-shop (a kind of tea which people drink on winter mornings); there against roaming oil, salt, or water-vendors, bakers carrying brown bread on wooden trays, pedlars with cakes, fellows offering dainty little bits of meat to the knowing purchaser."—Levkosia, The Capital of Cyprus, ext. in St. James's Gazette, Sept. 10.

SALEM, n.p. A town and inland district of S. India. Properly Shelam, which is perhaps a corruption of Chera, the name of the ancient monarchy in which this district was embraced. ["According to one theory the town of Salem is said to be identical with Seran or Sheran, and occasionally to have been named Sheralan; when S. India was divided between the three dynasties of Chola, Sera and Pandia, according to the generally accepted belief, Karur was the place where the three territorial divisions met; the boundary was no doubt subject to vicissitudes, and at one time possibly Salem or Serar was a part of Sera."—Le Fanu, Man. of Salem, ii. 18.]

SALEMPOORY, s. A kind of chintz. See allusions under PALEMPORE. [The Madras Gloss., deriving the word from Tel. sāle, 'weaver,' pura, Skt. 'town,' describes it as "a kind of cotton cloth formerly manufactured at Nellore; half the length of ordinary Punjums" (see PIECE-GOODS). The third quotation indicates that it was sometimes white.]

[1598.—"Sarampuras."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 95.

[1611.—"I ... was only doubtful about the white Betteelas and Salempurys."—Danvers, Letters, i. 155.

[1614.—"Salampora, being a broad white cloth."—Foster, ibid. ii. 32.]

1680.—"Certain goods for Bantam priced as follows:—

"Salampores, Blew, at 14 Pagodas per corge...."—Ft. St. Geo. Consn., April 22. In Notes and Exts. iii. 16; also ibid. p. 24.

1747.—"The Warehousekeeper reported that on the 1st inst. when the French entered our Bounds and attacked us ... it appeared that 5 Pieces of Long Cloth and 10 Pieces of Salampores were stolen, That Two Pieces of Salampores were found upon a Peon ... and the Person detected is ordered to be severely whipped in the Face of the Publick...."—Ft. St. David Consn., March 30 (MS. Records in India Office).

c. 1780.—"... en l'on y fabriquoit différentes espèces de toiles de coton, telles que salempouris."—Haafner, ii. 461.

SALIGRAM, s. Skt. Śālagrāma (this word seems to be properly the name of a place, 'Village of the Sāl-tree'—a real or imaginary tīrtha or place of sacred pilgrimage, mentioned in the Mahābhārata). [Other and less probable explanations are given by Oppert, Anc. Inhabitants, 337.] A pebble having mystic virtues, found in certain rivers, e.g. Gandak, Son, &c. Such stones are usually marked by containing a fossil ammonite. The śālagrāma is often adopted as the representative of some god, and the worship of any god may be performed before it. It is daily worshipped by the Brahmans; but it is especially connected with Vaishnava doctrine. In May 1883 a śālagrāma was the ostensible cause of great popular excitement among the Hindus of Calcutta. During the proceedings in a family suit before the High Court, a question arose regarding the identity of a śālagrāma, regarded as a household god. Counsel on both sides suggested that the thing should be brought into court. Mr. Justice Norris hesitated to give this order till he had taken advice. The attorneys on both sides, Hindus, said there could be no objection; the Court interpreter, a high-caste Brahman, said it could not be brought into Court, because of the coir-matting, but it might with perfect propriety be brought into the corridor for inspection; which was done. This took place during the excitement about the "Ilbert Bill," giving natives magisterial authority in the provinces over Europeans; and there followed most violent and offensive articles in several native newspapers reviling Mr. Justice Norris, who was believed to be hostile to the Bill. The editor of the Bengallee newspaper, an educated man, and formerly a member of the covenanted Civil Service, the author of one of the most unscrupulous and violent articles, was summoned for contempt of court. He made an apology and complete retractation, but was sentenced to two months' imprisonment.

c. 1590.—"Salgram is a black stone which the Hindoos hold sacred.... They are found in the river Sown, at the distance of 40 cose from the mouth."—Ayeen, Gladwin's E.T. 1800, ii. 25; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 150].

1782.—"Avant de finir l'histoire de Vichenou, je ne puis me dispenser de parler de la pierre de Salagraman. Elle n'est autre chose qu'une coquille petrifiée du genre des cornes d'Ammon: les Indiens prétendent qu'elle represente Vichenou, parcequ'ils en ont découvert de neuf nuances différentes, ce qu'ils rapportent aux neuf incarnations de ce Dieu.... Cette pierre est aux sectateurs de Vichenou ce que le Lingam est à ceux de Chiven."—Sonnerat, i. 307.

[1822.—"In the Nerbuddah are found those types of Shiva, called Solgrammas, which are sacred pebbles held in great estimation all over India."—Wallace, Fifteen Years in India, 296.]

1824.—"The shalgramŭ is black, hollow, and nearly round; it is found in the Gunduk River, and is considered a representation of Vishnoo.... The Shalgramŭ is the only stone that is naturally divine; all the other stones are rendered sacred by incantations."—Wanderings of a Pilgrim, i. 43.

1885.—"My father had one (a Salagram). It was a round, rather flat, jet black, small, shining stone. He paid it the greatest reverence possible, and allowed no one to touch it, but worshipped it with his own hands. When he became ill, and as he would not allow a woman to touch it, he made it over to a Brahman ascetic with a money present."—Sundrábái, in Punjab Notes and Queries, ii. 109. The śālagrāma is in fact a Hindu fetish.

SALLABAD, s. This word, now quite obsolete, occurs frequently in the early records of English settlements in India, for the customary or prescriptive exactions of the native Governments, and for native prescriptive claims in general. It is a word of Mahratti development, sālābād, 'perennial,' applied to permanent collections or charges; apparently a factitious word from Pers. sāl, 'year,' and Ar. ābād, 'ages.'

[1680.—"Salabad." See under ROOCKA.]

1703.—"... although these are hardships, yet by length of time become Sallabad (as we esteem them), there is no great demur made now, and are not recited here as grievances."—In Wheeler, ii. 19.

1716.—"The Board upon reading them came to the following resolutions:—That for anything which has yet appeared the Comatees (Comaty) may cry out their Pennagundoo Nagarum ... at their houses, feasts, and weddings, &c., according to Salabad but not before the Pagoda of Chindy Pillary...."—Ibid. 234.

1788.—"Sallabaud. (Usual Custom). A word used by the Moors Government to enforce their demand of a present."—Indian Vocabulary (Stockdale).

SALOOTREE, SALUSTREE, s. Hind. Sālotar, Sālotrī. A native farrier or horse-doctor. This class is now almost always Mahommedan. But the word is taken from the Skt. name Sālihotra, the original owner of which is supposed to have written in that language a treatise on the Veterinary Art, which still exists in a form more or less modified and imperfect. "A knowledge of Sanskrit must have prevailed pretty generally about this time (14th century), for there is in the Royal Library at Lucknow a work on the veterinary art, which was translated from the Sanskrit by order of Ghiyásu-d dín Muhammad Sháh Khiljí. This rare book, called Kurrutu-l-Mulk, was translated as early as A.H. 783 (A.D. 1381), from an original styled Sálotar, which is the name of an Indian, who is said to have been a Bráhman, and the tutor of Susruta. The Preface says the translation was made 'from the barbarous Hindi into the refined Persian, in order that there may be no more need of a reference to infidels.'" (Elliot, v. 573-4.)

[1831.—"'... your aloes are not genuine.' 'Oh yes, they are,' he exclaimed. 'My salutree got them from the Bazaar.'"—Or. Sport. Mag., reprint 1873, ii. 223.]

SALSETTE, n.p.

a. A considerable island immediately north of Bombay. The island of Bombay is indeed naturally a kind of pendant to the island of Salsette, and during the Portuguese occupation it was so in every sense. That occupation is still marked by the remains of numerous villas and churches, and by the survival of a large R. Catholic population. The island also contains the famous and extensive caves of Kāṇhērī (see KENNERY). The old city of Tana (q.v.) also stands upon Salsette. Salsette was claimed as part of the Bombay dotation of Queen Catherine, but refused by the Portuguese. The Mahrattas took it from them in 1739, and it was taken from these by us in 1774. The name has been by some connected with the salt-works which exist upon the islands (Salinas). But it appears in fact to be the corruption of a Mahratti name Shāshṭī, from Shāshashṭī, meaning 'Sixty-six' (Skt. Shaṭ-shashṭi), because (it is supposed) the island was alleged to contain that number of villages. This name occurs in the form Shatsashti in a stone inscription dated Sak. 1103 (A.D. 1182). See Bo. J. R. As. Soc. xii. 334. Another inscription on copper plates dated Sak. 748 (A.D. 1027) contains a grant of the village of Naura, "one of the 66 of Śri Sthānaka (Thana)," thus entirely confirming the etymology (J. R. As. Soc. ii. 383). I have to thank Mr. J. M. Campbell, C.S.I., for drawing my attention to these inscriptions.

b. Salsette is also the name of the three provinces of the Goa territory which constituted the Velhas Conquistas or Old Conquests. These lay all along the coast, consisting of (1) the Ilhas (viz. the island of Goa and minor islands divided by rivers and creeks), (2) Bardez on the northern mainland, and (3) Salsette on the southern mainland. The port of Marmagaon, which is the terminus of the Portuguese Indian Railway, is in this Salsette. The name probably had the like origin to that of the Island Salsette; a parallel to which was found in the old name of the Island of Goa, Tiçoari, meaning (Mahr.) Tīs-wādī, "30 hamlets." [See BARGANY.]

A.D. 1186.—"I, Aparāditya ("the paramount sovereign, the Ruler of the Koṅkana, the most illustrious King") have given with a libation of water 24 drachms, after exempting other taxes, from the fixed revenue of the oart in the village of Mahauli, connected with Shaṭ-shashṭi."—Inscription edited by Pandit Bhagavānlāl Indraji, in J. Bo. Br. R. A. S. xii. 332. [And see Bombay Gazetteer, I. Pt. ii. 544, 567.]

a.—

1536.—

"Item—Revenue of the Cusba (Caçabe—see CUSBAH) of Maym:

R̃bc lxbij fedeas (40,567)

And the custom-house (Mandovim)
of the said Maym " (48,000)

And Mazagong (Mazaguão) " (11,500)

And Bombay (Monbaym) " (23,000)

And the Cusba and Customs
of Caranja " (94,700)

And in paddy (baté) xxi muras (see MOORAH)
1 candil (see CANDY)

And the Island of Salsete fedeas (319,100)

And in paddy xxi muras 1 candil."

S. Botelho, Tombo, 142.

1538.—"Beyond the Isle of Elephanta (do Alifante) about a league distant is the island of Salsete. This island is seven leagues long by 5 in breadth. On the north it borders the Gulf of Cambay, on the south it has the I. of Elephanta, on the east the mainland, and on the west the I. of Bombai or of Boa Vida. This island is very fertile, abounding in provisions, cattle, and game of sorts, and in its hills is great plenty of timber for building ships and galleys. In that part of the island which faces the S.W. wind is built a great and noble city called Thana; and a league and a half in the interior is an immense edifice called the Pagoda of Salsete; both one and the other objects most worthy of note; Thana for its decay (destroição) and the Pagoda as a work unique in its way, and the like of which is nowhere to be seen."—João de Castro, Primo Roteiro da India, 69-70.

1554.—"And to the Tanadar (tenadar) of Salsete 30,000 reis.

"He has under him 12 peons (piães) of whom the said governor takes 7; leaving him 5, which at the aforesaid rate amount to 10,800 reis.

"And to a Parvu (see PARVOE) that he has, who is the country writer ... and having the same pay as the Tenadar Mor, which is 3 pardaos a month, amounting in a year at the said rate to 10,800 reis."—Botelho, Tombo, in Subsidios, 211-212.

1610.—"Frey Manuel de S. Mathias, guardian of the convent of St. Francis in Goa, writes to me that ... in Goa alone there are 90 resident friars; and besides in Baçaim and its adjuncts, viz., in the island of Salsete and other districts of the north they have 18 parishes (Freguezias) of native Christians with vicars; and five of the convents have colleges, or seminaries where they bring up little orphans; and that the said Ward of Goa extends 300 leagues from north to south."—Livros das Monções, 298.

[1674.—"From whence these Pieces of Land receive their general Name of Salset ... either because it signifies in Canorein a Granary...."—Fryer, 62.]

c. 1760.—"It was a melancholy sight on the loss of Salsett, to see the many families forced to seek refuge on Bombay, and among them some Portuguese Hidalgos or noblemen, reduced of a sudden from very flourishing circumstances to utter beggary."—Grose, i. 72.

[1768.—"Those lands are comprised in 66 villages, and from this number it is called Salsette."—Foral of Salsette, India Office MS.]

1777.—"The acquisition of the Island of Salset, which in a manner surrounds the Island of Bombay, is sufficient to secure the latter from the danger of a famine."—Price's Tracts, i. 101.

1808.—"The island of Sashty (corrupted by the Portuguese into Salsette) was conquered by that Nation in the year of Christ 1534, from the Mohammedan Prince who was then its Sovereign; and thereupon parcelled out, among the European subjects of Her Most Faithful Majesty, into village allotments, at a very small Foro or quit-rent."—Bombay, Regn. I. of 1808, sec. ii.

b.—

1510.—"And he next day, by order of the Governor, with his own people and many more from the Island (Goa) passed over to the mainland of Salsete and Antruz, scouring the districts and the tanadaris, and placing in them by his own hand tanadars and collectors of revenue, and put all in such order that he collected much money, insomuch that he sent to the factor at Goa very good intelligence, accompanied by much money."—Correa, ii. 161.

1546.—"We agree in the manner following, to wit, that I Idalxaa (Idalcan) promise and swear on our Koran (no noso moçaffo), and by the head of my eldest son, that I will remain always firm in the said amity with the King of Portugal and with his governors of India, and that the lands of Salsete and Bardees, which I have made contract and donation of to His Highness, I confirm and give anew, and I swear and promise by the oath aforesaid never to reclaim them or make them the Subject of War."—Treaty between D. John de Castro and Idalxaa, who was formerly called Idalção (Adil Khān).—Botelho, Tombo, 40.

1598.—"On the South side of the Iland of Goa, wher the riuer runneth againe into the Sea, there cometh euen out with the coast a land called Salsette, which is also vnder the subiection of the Portingales, and is ... planted both with people and fruite."—Linschoten, 51; [Hak. Soc. i. 177].

1602.—"Before we treat of the Wars which in this year (c. 1546) Idalxa (Adil Shāh) waged with the State about the mainland provinces of Salsete and Bardés, which caused much trouble to the Government of India, it seems well to us to give an account of these Moor Kings of Visiapor."—Couto, IV. x. 4.

SALWEN, n.p. The great river entering the sea near Martaban in British Burma, and which the Chinese in its upper course call Lu-kiang. The Burmese form is Than-lwen, but the original form is probably Shān. ["The Salween River, which empties itself into the sea at Maulmain, rivals the Irrawaddy in length but not in importance" (Forbes, British Burma, 8).]

SAMBOOK, s. Ar. sanbuḳ, and sunbūḳ (there is a Skt. word śambūka, 'a bivalve shell,' but we are unable to throw any light on any possible transfer); a kind of small vessel formerly used in Western India and still on the Arabian coast. [See Bombay Gazetteer, xiii. Pt. ii. 470.] It is smaller than the bagalā (see BUGGALOW), and is chiefly used to communicate between a roadstead and the shore, or to go inside the reefs. Burton renders the word 'a foyst,' which is properly a smaller kind of galley. See description in the last but one quotation below.

c. 330.—"It is the custom when a vessel arrives (at Makdashau) that the Sultan's ṣunbūḳ boards her to ask whence the ship comes, who is the owner, and the skipper (or pilot), what she is laden with, and what merchants or other passengers are on board."—Ibn Batuta, ii. 183; also see pp. 17, 181, &c.

1498.—"The Zambuco came loaded with doves'-dung, which they have in those islands, and which they were carrying, it being merchandize for Cambay, where it is used in dyeing cloths."—Correa, Lendas, i. 33-34.

" In the curious Vocabulary of the language of Calicut, at the end of the Roteiro of Vasco da Gama, we find: "Barcas; Cambuco."

[1502.—"Zambucos." See under NACODA.]

1506.—"Questo Capitanio si prese uno sambuco molto ricco, veniva dalla Mecha per Colocut."—Leonardo Ca' Masser, 17.

1510.—"As to the names of their ships, some are called Sambuchi, and these are flat-bottomed."—Varthema, 154.

1516.—"Item—our Captain Major, or Captain of Cochim shall give passes to secure the navigation of the ships and zanbuqos of their ports ... provided they do not carry spices or drugs that we require for our cargoes, but if such be found, for the first occasion they shall lose all the spice and drugs so loaded, and on the second they shall lose both ship and cargo, and all may be taken as prize of war."—Treaty of Lopo Soares with Coulão (Quilon), in Botelho, Tombo, Subsidios, p. 32.

[1516.—"Zambucos." See under ARECA.]

1518.—"Zambuquo." See under PROW.

1543.—"Item—that the Zanbuquos which shall trade in his port in rice or nele (paddy) and cottons and other matters shall pay the customary dues."—Treaty of Martin Affonso de Sousa with Coulam, in Botelho, Tombo, 37.

[1814.—"Sambouk." See under DHOW.]

1855.—"Our pilgrim ship ... was a Sambuk of about 400 ardébs (50 tons), with narrow wedge-like bows, a clean water-line, a sharp keel, undecked except upon the poop, which was high enough to act as a sail in a gale of wind. We carried 2 masts, imminently raking forward, the main considerably longer than the mizen, and the former was provided with a large triangular latine...."—Burton, Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah, i. 276; [Memorial ed. i. 188].

1858.—"The vessels of the Arabs called Sembuk are small Baggelows of 80 to 100 tons burden. Whilst they run out forward into a sharp prow, the after part of the vessel is disproportionately broad and elevated above the water, in order to form a counterpoise to the colossal triangular sail which is hoisted to the masthead with such a spread that often the extent of the yard is greater than the whole length of the vessel."—F. von Neimans, in Zeitschr. der Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch. xii. 420.

1880.—"The small sailing boat with one sail, which is called by the Arabs 'Jámbook' with which I went from Hodeida to Aden."—Letter in Athenaeum, March 13, p. 346.

[1900.—"We scrambled into a sambouka crammed and stuffed with the baggage."—Bent, Southern Arabia, 220.]

SAMBRE, SAMBUR, s. Hind. sābar, sāmbar; Skt. śambara. A kind of stag (Rusa Aristotelis, Jerdon; [Blanford, Mammalia, 543 seqq.]) the elk of S. Indian sportsmen; ghaus of Bengal; jerrow (jarāo) of the Himālaya; the largest of Indian stags, and found in all the large forests of India. The word is often applied to the soft leather, somewhat resembling chamois leather, prepared from the hide.

1673.—"... Our usual diet was of spotted deer, Sabre, wild Hogs and sometimes wild Cows."—Fryer, 175.

[1813.—"Here he saw a number of deer, and four large sabirs or samboos, one considerably bigger than an ox...."—Diary, in Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. ii. 400.]

1823.—"The skin of the Sambre, when well prepared, forms an excellent material for the military accoutrements of the soldiers of the native Powers."—Malcolm, Central India, i. 9.

[1900.—"The Sambu stags which Lord Powerscourt turned out in his glens...."—Spectator, December 15, p. 883.]

SAMPAN, s. A kind of small boat or skiff. The word appears to be Javanese and Malay. It must have been adopted on the Indian shores, for it was picked up there at an early date by the Portuguese; and it is now current all through the further East. [The French have adopted the Annamite form tamban.] The word is often said to be originally Chinese, 'sanpan,' = 'three boards,' and this is possible. It is certainly one of the most ordinary words for a boat in China. Moreover, we learn, on the authority of Mr. E. C. Baber, that there is another kind of boat on the Yangtse which is called wu-pan, 'five boards.' Giles however says: "From the Malay sam-pan = three boards"; but in this there is some confusion. The word has no such meaning in Malay.

1510.—"My companion said, 'What means then might there be for going to this island?"' They answered: 'That it was necessary to purchase a chiampana,' that is a small vessel, of which many are found there."—Varthema, 242.

1516.—"They (the Moors of Quilacare) perform their voyages in small vessels which they call champana."—Barbosa, 172.

c. 1540.—"In the other, whereof the captain was slain, there was not one escaped, for Quiay Panian pursued them in a Champana, which was the Boat of his Junk."—Pinto (Cogan, p. 79), orig. ch. lix.

1552.-"... Champanas, which are a kind of small vessels."—Castanheda, ii. 76; [rather, Bk. ii. ch. xxii. p. 76].

1613.—"And on the beach called the Bazar of the Jaos ... they sell every sort of provision in rice and grain for the Jaos merchants of Java Major, who daily from the dawn are landing provisions from their junks and ships in their boats or Champenas (which are little skiffs)...."—Godinho de Eredia, 6.

[1622.—"Yt was thought fytt ... to trym up a China Sampan to goe with the fleete...."—Cocks's Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. 122.]

1648.—In Van Spilbergen's Voyage we have Champane, and the still more odd Champaigne. [See under TOPAZ.]

1702.—"Sampans being not to be got we were forced to send for the Sarah and Eaton's Long-boats."—MS. Correspondence in 1. Office from China Factory (at Chusan), Jan. 8.

c. 1788.—"Some made their escape in prows, and some in sampans."—Mem. of a Malay Family, 3.

1868.—"The harbour is crowded with men-of-war and trading vessels ... from vessels of several hundred tons burthen down to little fishing-boats and passenger sampans."—Wallace, Malay Archip. 21.

SAMSHOO, s. A kind of ardent spirit made in China from rice. Mr. Baber doubts this being Chinese; but according to Wells Williams the name is san-shao, 'thrice fired' (Guide, 220). 'Distilled liquor' is shao-siu, 'fired liquor.' Compare Germ. Brantwein, and XXX beer. Strabo says: 'Wine the Indians drink not except when sacrificing, and that is made of rice in lieu of barley" (xv. c. i. § 53).

1684.—"... sampsoe, or Chinese Beer."—Valentijn, iv. (China) 129.

[1687.—"Samshu." See under ARRACK.]

1727.—"... Samshew or Rice Arrack."—A. Hamilton, ii. 222; [ed. 1744, ii. 224].

c. 1752.—"... the people who make the Chinese brandy called Samsu, live likewise in the suburbs."—Osbeck's Voyage, i. 235.

[1852.—"... samshoe, a Chinese invention, and which is distilled from rice, after the rice has been permitted to foment (?) in ... vinegar and water."—Neale, Residence in Siam, 75.

SANDAL, SANDLE, SANDERS, SANDAL-WOOD, s. From Low Latin santalum, in Greek σάνταλον, and in later Greek σάνδανον; coming from the Arab. ṣandal, and that from Skt. chandana. The name properly belongs to the fragrant wood of the Santalum album, L. Three woods bearing the name santalum, white, yellow, and red, were in officinal use in the Middle Ages. But the name Red Sandalwood, or Red Sanders, has been long applied, both in English and in the Indian vernaculars, to the wood of Pterocarpus santalina, L., a tree of S. India, the wood of which is inodorous, but which is valued for various purposes in India (pillars, turning, &c.), and is exported as a dye-wood. According to Hanbury and Flückiger this last was the sanders so much used in the cookery of the Middle Ages for colouring sauces, &c. In the opinion of those authorities it is doubtful whether the red sandal of the medieval pharmacologists was a kind of the real odorous sandal-wood, or was the wood of Pteroc. santal. It is possible that sometimes the one and sometimes the other was meant. For on the one hand, even in modern times, we find Milburn (see below) speaking of the three colours of the real sandal-wood; and on the other hand we find Matthioli in the 16th century speaking of the red sandal as inodorous.

It has been a question how the Pterocarpus santalina came to be called sandal-wood at all. We may suggest, as a possible origin of this, the fact that its powder "mixed with oil is used for bathing and purifying the skin" (Drury, s.v.), much as the true sandal-wood powder also is used in the East.

c. 545.—"And from the remoter regions, I speak of Tzinista and other places of export, the imports to Taprobane are silk, aloeswood, cloves, Sandalwood (τζάνδανη), and so forth...."—Cosmas, in Cathay, &c., clxxvii.

1298.—"Encore sachiez que en ceste ysle a arbres de sandal vermoille ausi grant come sunt les arbres des nostre contrée ... et il en ont bois come nos avuns d'autres arbres sauvajes."—Marco Polo, Geog. Text, ch. cxci.

c. 1390.—"Take powdered rice and boil it in almond milk ... and colour it with Saunders."—Recipe quoted by Wright, Domestic Manners, &c., 350.

1554.—"Le Santal donc croist es Indes Orientales et Occidentales: en grandes Forestz, et fort espesses. Il s'en treuue trois especes: mais le plus pasle est le meilleur: le blanc apres: le rouge est mis au dernier ranc, pource qu'il n'a aucune odeur: mais les deux premiers sentent fort bon."—Matthioli (old Fr. version), liv. i. ch. xix.

1563.—"The Sandal grows about Timor, which produces the largest quantity, and it is called chundana; and by this name it is known in all the regions about Malaca; and the Arabs, being those who carried on the trade of those parts, corrupted the word and called it sandal. Every Moor, whatever his nation, calls it thus...."—Garcia, f. 185v. He proceeds to speak of the sandalo vermelho as quite a different product, growing in Tenasserim and on the Coromandel Coast.

1584.—"... Sandales wilde from Cochin. Sandales domestick from Malacca...."—Wm. Barrett, in Hakl. ii. 412.

1613.—"... certain renegade Christians of the said island, along with the Moors, called in the Hollanders, who thinking it was a fine opportunity, went one time with five vessels, and another time with seven, against the said fort, at a time when most of the people ... were gone to Solor for the Sandal trade, by which they had their living."—Bocarro, Decada, 723.

1615.—"Committee to procure the commodities recommended by Capt. Saris for Japan, viz. ... pictures of wars, steel, skins, sanders-wood."—Sainsbury, i. 380.

1813.—"When the trees are felled, the bark is taken off; they are then cut into billets, and buried in a dry place for two months, during which period the white ants will eat the outer wood without touching the sandal; it is then taken up and ... sorted into three kinds. The deeper the colour, the higher is the perfume; and hence the merchants sometimes divide sandal into red, yellow, and white; but these are all different shades of the same colour."—Milburn, i. 291.

1825.—"Redwood, properly Red Saunders, is produced chiefly on the Coromandel Coast, whence it has of late years been imported in considerable quantity to England, where it is employed in dyeing. It ... comes in round billets of a thickish red colour on the outside, a deep brighter red within, with a wavy grain; no smell or taste."—Ibid. ed. 1825, p. 249.

SANDOWAY, n.p. A town of Arakan, the Burmese name of which is Thandwé (Sand-wé), for which an etymology ('iron-tied'), and a corresponding legend are invented, as usual [see Burmah Gazetteer, ii. 606]. It is quite possible that the name is ancient, and represented by the Sada of Ptolemy.

1553.—"In crossing the gulf of Bengal there arose a storm which dispersed them in such a manner that Martin Affonso found himself alone, with his ship, at the island called Negamale, opposite the town of Sodoe, which is on the mainland, and there was wrecked upon a reef...."—Barros, IV. ii. 1.

In I. ix. 1, it is called Sedoe.

1696.—"Other places along this Coast subjected to this King (of Arracan) are Coromoria, Sedoa, Zara, and Port Magaoni."—Appendix to Ovington, p. 563.

SANGUICEL, s. This is a term (pl. sanguiceis) often used by the Portuguese writers on India for a kind of boat, or small vessel, used in war. We are not able to trace any origin in a vernacular word. It is perhaps taken from the similar proper name which is the subject of the next article. [This supposition is rendered practically certain from the quotation from Albuquerque below, furnished by Mr. Whiteway.] Bluteau gives "Sanguicel; termo da India. He hum genero de embarcação pequena q̃ serve na costa da India para dar alcanse aos paròs dos Mouros," 'to give chase to the prows of the Moors.'

[1512.—"Here was Nuno Vaz in a ship, the St. John, which was built in Çamguicar."—Albuquerque, Cartas, p. 99. In a letter of Nov. 30, 1513, he varies the spelling to Çamgicar. There are many other passages in the same writer which make it practically certain that Sanguicels were the vessels built at Sanguicer.]

1598.—"The Conde (Francisco da Gama) was occupied all the winter (q.v.) in reforming the fleets ... and as the time came on he nominated his brother D. Luiz da Gama to be Captain-Major of the Indian Seas for the expedition to Malabar, and wrote to Baçaim to equip six very light Sanguicels according to instructions which should be given by Sebastian Botelho, a man of great experience in that craft.... These orders were given by the Count Admiral because he perceived that big fleets were not of use to guard convoys, and that it was light vessels like these alone which could catch the paraos and vessels of the pirates ... for these escaped our fleets, and got hold of the merchant vessels at their pleasure, darting in and out, like light horse, where they would...."—Couto, Dec. XII. liv. i. ch. 18.

1605.—"And seeing that I am informed that ... the incursions of certain pirates who still infest that coast might be prevented with less apparatus and expense, if we had light vessels which would be more effective than the foists and galleys of which the fleets have hitherto been composed, seeing how the enemy use their sanguicels, which our ships and galleys cannot overtake, I enjoin and order you to build a quantity of light vessels to be employed in guarding the coast in place of the fleet of galleys and foists...."—King's Letter to Dom Affonso de Castro, in Livros das Monções, i. 26.

[1612.—See under GALLIVAT, b.]

1614.—"The eight Malabaresque Sanguicels that Francis de Miranda despatched to the north from the bar of Goa went with three chief captains, each of them to command a week in turn...."—Bocarro, Decada, 262.

SANGUICER, SANGUEÇA, ZINGUIZAR, &c., n.p. This is a place often mentioned in the Portuguese narratives, as very hostile to the Goa Government, and latterly as a great nest of corsairs. This appears to be Sangameshvar, lat. 17° 9′, formerly a port of Canara on the River Shāstrī, and standing 20 miles from the mouth of that river. The latter was navigable for large vessels up to Sangameshvar, but within the last 50 years has become impassable. [The name is derived from Skt. sangama-īśvara, 'Siva, Lord of the river confluence.']

1516.—"Passing this river of Dabul and going along the coast towards Goa you find a river called Cinguiçar, inside of which there is a place where there is a traffic in many wares, and where enter many vessels and small Zambucos (Sambook) of Malabar to sell what they bring, and buy the products of the country. The place is peopled by Moors, and Gentiles of the aforesaid Kingdom of Daquem" (Deccan).—Barbosa, Lisbon ed. p. 286.

1538.—"Thirty-five leagues from Guoa, in the middle of the Gulf of the Malabars there runs a large river called Zamgizara. This river is well known and of great renown. The bar is bad and very tortuous, but after you get within, it makes amends for the difficulties without. It runs inland for a great distance with great depth and breadth."—De Castro, Primeiro Roteiro, 36.

1553.—De Barros calls it Zingaçar in II. i. 4, and Sangaça in IV. i. 14.

1584.—"There is a Haven belonging to those ryvers (rovers), distant from Goa about 12 miles, and is called Sanguiseo, where many of those Rovers dwell, and doe so much mischiefe that no man can passe by, but they receive some wrong by them.... Which the Viceroy understanding, prepared an armie of 15 Foists, over which he made chiefe Captaine a Gentleman, his Nephew called Don Iulianes Mascharenhas, giving him expresse commandement first to goe unto the Haven of Sanguiseu, and utterly to raze the same downe to the ground."—Linschoten, ch. 92; [Hak. Soc. ii. 170].

1602.—"Both these projects he now began to put in execution, sending all his treasures (which they said exceeded ten millions in gold) to the river of Sanguicer, which was also within his jurisdiction, being a seaport, and there embarking it at his pleasure."—Couto, ix. 8. See also Dec. X. iv.:

"How D. Gileanes Mascarenhas arrived in Malabar, and how he entered the river of Sanguicer to chastise the Naique of that place; and of the disaster in which he met his death." (This is the event of 1584 related by Linschoten); also Dec. X. vi. 4: "Of the things that happened to D. Jeronymo Mascarenhas in Malabar, and how he had a meeting with the Zamorin, and swore peace with him; and how he brought destruction on the Naique of Sanguicer."

1727.—"There is an excellent Harbour for Shipping 8 Leagues to the Southward of Dabul, called Sanguseer, but the Country about being inhabited by Raparees, it is not frequented."—A. Hamilton, [ed. 1744] i. 244.

SANSKRIT, s. The name of the classical language of the Brahmans, Saṃskṛita, meaning in that language 'purified' or 'perfected.' This was obviously at first only an epithet, and it is not of very ancient use in this specific application. To the Brahmans Sanskrit was the bhāsha, or language, and had no particular name. The word Sanskrit is used by the protogrammarian Pāṇini (some centuries before Christ), but not as a denomination of the language. In the latter sense, however, both 'Sanskrit' and 'Prakrit' (Pracrit) are used in the Bṛihat Samhitā of Varāhamihira, c. A.D. 504, in a chapter on omens (lxxxvi. 3), to which Prof. Kern's translation does not extend. It occurs also in the Mṛichch'hakaṭikā, translated by Prof. H. H. Wilson in his Hindu Theatre, under the name of the 'Toy-cart'; in the works of Kumārila Bhatta, a writer of the 7th century; and in the Pāṇinīyā Śīkshā, a metrical treatise ascribed by the Hindus to Pāṇini, but really of comparatively modern origin.

There is a curiously early mention of Sanskrit by the Mahommedan poet Amīr Khusrū of Delhi, which is quoted below. The first mention (to our knowledge) of the word in any European writing is in an Italian letter of Sassetti's, addressed from Malabar to Bernardo Davanzati in Florence, and dating from 1586. The few words on the subject, of this writer, show much acumen.

In the 17th and 18th centuries such references to this language as occur are found chiefly in the works of travellers to Southern India, and by these it is often called Grandonic, or the like, from grantha, 'a book' (see GRUNTH, GRUNTHUM) i.e. a book of the classical Indian literature. The term Sanskrit came into familiar use after the investigations into this language by the English in Bengal (viz. by Wilkins, Jones, &c.) in the last quarter of the 18th century. [See Macdonell, Hist. of Sanskrit Lit. ch. i.]

A.D. x?—"Maitreya. Now, to me, there are two things at which I cannot choose but laugh, a woman reading Sanskrit, and a man singing a song: the woman snuffles like a young cow when the rope is first passed through her nostrils; and the man wheezes like an old Pandit repeating his bead-roll."—The Toy-Cart, E.T. in Wilson's Works, xi. 60.

A.D. y?—"Three-and-sixty or four-and-sixty sounds are there originally in Prakrit (PRACRIT) even as in Sanskrit, as taught by the Svayambhū."—Pāṇinīyā Śīkshā, quoted in Weber's Ind. Studien (1858), iv. 348. But see also Weber's Akadem. Vorlesungen (1876), p. 194.

1318.—"But there is another language, more select than the other, which all the Brahmans use. Its name from of old is Sahaskrit, and the common people know nothing of it."—Amīr Khusrū, in Elliot, iii. 563.

1586.—"Sono scritte le loro scienze tutte in una lingua che dimandano Samscruta, che vuol dire 'bene articolata': della quale non si ha memoria quando fusse parlata, con avere (com' io dico) memorie antichissime. Imparanla come noi la greca e la latina, e vi pongono molto maggior tempo, si che in 6 anni o 7 sene fanno padroni: et ha la lingua d'oggi molte cose comuni con quella, nella quale sono molti de' nostri nomi, e particularmente de numeri il 6, 7, 8, e 9, Dio, serpe, et altri assai."—Sassetti, extracted in De Gubernatis, Storia, &c., Livorno, 1875, p. 221.

c. 1590.—"Although this country (Kashmīr) has a peculiar tongue, the books of knowledge are Sanskrit (or Sahanskrit). They also have a written character of their own, with which they write their books. The substance which they chiefly write upon is Tūs, which is the bark of a tree, which with a little pains they make into leaves, and it lasts for years. In this way ancient books have been written thereon, and the ink is such that it cannot be washed out."—Āīn (orig.), i. p. 563; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 351].

1623.—"The Jesuites conceive that the Bramenes are of the dispersion of the Israelites, and their Bookes (called Samescretan) doe somewhat agree with the Scriptures, but that they understand them not."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 559.

1651.—"... Souri signifies the Sun in Samscortam, which is a language in which all the mysteries of Heathendom are written, and which is held in esteem by the Bramines just as Latin is among the Learned in Europe."—Rogerius, 4.

In some of the following quotations we have a form which it is difficult to account for:

c. 1666.—"Their first study is in the Hanscrit, which is a language entirely different from the common Indian, and which is only known by the Pendets. And this is that Tongue, of which Father Kircher hath published the Alphabet received from Father Roa. It is called Hanscrit, that is, a pure Language; and because they believe this to be the Tongue in which God, by means of Brahma, gave them the four Beths (see VEDA), which they esteem Sacred Books, they call it a Holy and Divine Language."—Bernier, E.T. 107; [ed. Constable, 335].

1673.—"... who founded these, their Annals nor their Sanscript deliver not."—Fryer, 161.

1689.—"... the learned Language among them is called the Sanscreet."—Ovington, 248.

1694.—"Indicus ludus Tchûpur, sic nominatus veterum Brachmanorum linguâ Indicè dictâ Sanscroot, seu, ut vulgo, exiliori sono elegantiae causâ Sanscreet, non autem Hanscreet ut minus recte eam nuncupat Kircherus."—Hyde, De Ludis Orientt., in Syntagma Diss. ii. 264.

1726.—"Above all it would be a matter of general utility to the Coast that some more chaplains should be maintained there for the sole purpose of studying the Sanskrit tongue (de Sanskritze taal) the head-and-mother tongue of most of the Eastern languages, and once for all to make an exact translation of the Vedam or Law book of the Heathen...."—Valentijn, Choro. p. 72.

1760.—"They have a learned language peculiar to themselves, called the Hanscrit...."—Grose, i. 202.

1774.—"This code they have written in their own language, the Shanscrit. A translation of it is begun under the inspection of one of the body, into the Persian language, and from that into English."—W. Hastings, to Lord Mansfield, in Gleig, i. 402.

1778.—"The language as well as the written character of Bengal are familiar to the Natives ... and both seem to be base derivatives from the Shanscrit."—Orme, ed. 1803, ii. 5.

1782.—"La langue Samscroutam, Samskret, Hanscrit ou Grandon, est la plus étendue: ses caractères multipliés donnent beaucoup de facilité pour exprimer ses pensées, ce qui l'a fait nommer langue divine par le P. Pons."—Sonnerat, i. 224.

1794.—

"With Jones, a linguist, Sanskrit, Greek, or Manks."

Pursuits of Literature, 6th ed. 286.

1796.—"La madre di tutte le lingue Indiane è la Samskrda, cioè, lingua perfetta, piena, ben digerita. Krda opera perfetta o compita, Sam, simul, insieme, e vuol dire lingua tutta insieme ben digerita, legata, perfetta."—Fra Paolino, p. 258.

SAPECA, SAPÈQUE, s. This word is used at Macao for what we call cash (q.v.) in Chinese currency; and it is the word generally used by French writers for that coin. Giles says: "From sapek, a coin found in Tonquin and Cochin-China, and equal to about half a pfennig (1⁄600 Thaler), or about one-sixth of a German Kreutzer" (Gloss. of Reference, 122). We cannot learn much about this coin of Tonquin. Milburn says, under 'Cochin China': "The only currency of the country is a sort of cash, called sappica, composed chiefly of tutenague (see TOOTNAGUE), 600 making a quan: this is divided into 10 mace of 60 cash each, the whole strung together, and divided by a knot at each mace" (ed. 1825, pp. 444-445). There is nothing here inconsistent with our proposed derivation, given later on. Mace and Sappica are equally Malay words. We can hardly doubt that the true origin of the term is that communicated by our friend Mr. E. C. Baber: "Very probably from Malay sa, 'one,' and păku, 'a string or file of the small coin called pichis.' Pichis is explained by Crawfurd as 'Small coin ... money of copper, brass, or tin.... It was the ancient coin of Java, and also the only one of the Malays when first seen by the Portuguese.' Păku is written by Favre peḳū (Dict. Malais-Français) and is derived by him from Chinese pé-ko, 'cent.' In the dialect of Canton pak is the word for 'a hundred,' and one pak is the colloquial term for a string of one hundred cash." Sapeku would then be properly a string of 100 cash, but it is not difficult to conceive that it might through some misunderstanding (e.g. a confusion of peku and pichis) have been transferred to the single coin. There is a passage in Mr. Gerson da Cunha's Contributions to the Study of Portuguese Numismatics, which may seem at first sight inconsistent with this derivation. For he seems to imply that the smallest denomination of coin struck by Albuquerque at Goa in 1510 was called cepayqua, i.e. in the year before the capture of Malacca, and consequent familiarity with Malay terms. I do not trace his authority for this; the word is not mentioned in the Commentaries of Alboquerque, and it is quite possible that the dinheiros, as these small copper coins were also called, only received the name cepayqua at a later date, and some time after the occupation of Malacca (see Da Cunha, pp. 11-12, and 22). [But also see the quotation of 1510 from Correa under PARDAO. This word has been discussed by Col. Temple (Ind. Antiq., August 1897, pp. 222 seq.), who gives quotations establishing the derivation from the Malay sapaku.

[1639.—"It (caxa, cash) hath a four-square hole through it, at which they string them on a Straw; a String of two hundred Caxaes, called Sata, is worth about three farthings sterling, and five Satas tyed together make a Sapocon. The Javians, when this money first came amongst them, were so cheated with the Novelty, that they would give six bags of Pepper for ten Sapocons, thirteen whereof amount to but a Crown."--Mandelslo, Voyages, E.T. p. 117.

[1703.—"This is the reason why the Caxas are valued so little: they are punched in the middle, and string'd with little twists of Straw, two hundred in one Twist, which is called Santa, and is worth nine Deniers. Five Santas tied together make a thousand Caxas, or a Sapoon (? Sapocon)."—Collection of Dutch Voyages, 199.

[1830.—"The money current in Bali consists solely of Chinese pice with a hole in the centre.... They however put them up in hundreds and thousands; two hundred are called satah, and are equal to one rupee copper, and a thousand called Sapaku, are valued at five rupees."—Singapore Chronicle, June 1830, in Moor, Indian Archip. p. 94.

[1892.—"This is a brief history of the Sapec (more commonly known to us as the cash), the only native coin of China, and which is found everywhere from Malaysia to Japan."—Ridgeway, Origin of Currency, 157.]

SAPPAN-WOOD, s. The wood of Caesalpina sappan; the baḳḳam of the Arabs, and the Brazil-wood of medieval commerce. Bishop Caldwell at one time thought the Tamil name, from which this was taken, to have been given because the wood was supposed to come from Japan. Rumphius says that Siam and Champa are the original countries of the Sappan, and quotes from Rheede that in Malabar it was called Tsajampangan, suggestive apparently of a possible derivation from Champa. The mere fact that it does not come from Japan would not disprove this derivation any more than the fact that turkeys and maize did not originally come from Turkey would disprove the fact of the birds and the grain (gran turco) having got names from such a belief. But the tree appears to be indigenous in Malabar, the Deccan, and the Malay Peninsula; whilst the Malayāl. shappaṅṅam, and the Tamil shappu, both signifying 'red (wood),' are apparently derivatives from shawa, 'to be red,' and suggest another origin as most probable. [The Mad. Gloss. gives Mal. chappannam, from chappu, 'leaf,' Skt. anga, 'body'; Tam. shappangaṃ.] The Malay word is also sapang, which Crawfurd supposes to have originated the trade-name. If, however, the etymology just suggested be correct, the word must have passed from Continental India to the Archipelago. For curious particulars as to the names of this dye-wood, and its vicissitudes, see BRAZIL; [and Burnell's note on Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 121].

c. 1570.—

"O rico Sião ja dado ao Bremem,

O Cochim de Calemba que deu mana

De sapão, chumbo, salitre e vitualhas

Lhe apercebem celleiros e muralhas."

A. de Abreu, Desc. de Malaca.

1598.—"There are likewise some Diamants and also ... the wood Sapon, whereof also much is brought from Sian, it is like Brasill to die withall."—Linschoten, 36; [Hak. Soc. i. 120].

c. 1616.—"There are in this city of Ová (read Odia, Judea), capital of the kingdom of Siam, two factories; one of the Hollanders with great capital, and another of the English with less. The trade which both drive is in deer-skins, shagreen sappan (sapão) and much silk which comes thither from Chincheo and Cochinchina...."—Bocarro, Decada, 530.

[1615.—"Hindering the cutting of baccam or brazill wood."—Foster, Letters, iii. 158.]

1616.—"I went to Sapàn Dono to know whether he would lend me any money upon interest, as he promised me; but ... he drove me afe with wordes, ofring to deliver me money for all our sappon which was com in this junk, at 22 mas per pico."—Cocks's Diary, i. 208-9.

1617.—Johnson and Pitts at Judea in Siam "are glad they can send a junk well laden with sapon, because of its scarcity."—Sainsbury, ii. 32.

1625.—"... a wood to die withall called Sapan wood, the same we here call Brasill."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 1004.

1685.—"Moreover in the whole Island there is a great plenty of Brazill wood, which in India is called sapão."—Ribeiro, Fat. Hist. f. 8.

1727.—"It (the Siam Coast) produces good store of Sapan and Agala-woods, with Gumlack and Sticklack, and many Drugs that I know little about."—A. Hamilton, ii. 194; [ed. 1744].

1860.—"The other productions which constituted the exports of the island were Sapan wood to Persia...."—Tennent, Ceylon, ii. 54.

SARBATANE, SARBACANE, s. This is not Anglo-Indian, but it often occurs in French works on the East, as applied to the blowing-tubes used by various tribes of the Indian Islands for discharging small arrows, often poisoned. The same instrument is used among the tribes of northern South America, and in some parts of Madagascar. The word comes through the Span. cebratana, cerbatana, zarbatana, also Port. sarabatana, &c., Ital. cerbotana, Mod. Greek ζαροβοτάνα, from the Ar. zabaṭāna, 'a tube for blowing pellets' (a pea-shooter in fact!). Dozy says that the r must have been sounded in the Arabic of the Spanish Moors, as Pedro de Alcala translates zebratana by Ar. zarbatāna. The resemblance of this to the Malay sumpitan (q.v.) is curious, though it is not easy to suggest a transition, if the Arabic word is, as it appears, old enough to have been introduced into Spanish. There is apparently, however, no doubt that in Arabic it is a borrowed word. The Malay word seems to be formed directly from sumpit, 'to discharge from the mouth by a forcible expiration' (Crawfurd, Mal. Dict.).

[1516.—"... the force which had accompanied the King, very well armed, many of them with bows, others carrying blowing tubes with poisoned arrows (Zarvatanas com setas ervadas)...."—Comm. of Dalboquerque, Hak. Soc. iii. 104.]

SARBOJI, s. This is the name of some weapon used in the extreme south of India; but we have not been able to ascertain its character or etymology. We conjecture, however, that it may be the long lance or pike, 18 or 20 feet long, which was the characteristic and formidable weapon of the Marava Colleries (q.v.). See Bp. Caldwell's H. of Tinnevelly, p. 103 and passim; [Stuart, Man. of Tinnevelly, 50. This explanation is probably incorrect. Welsh (Military Rem. i. 104) defines sarabogies as "a species of park guns, for firing salutes at feasts, &c.; but not used in war." It has been suggested that the word is simply Hind. sirbojha, 'a head-load,' and Dr. Grierson writes: "'Laden with a head' may refer to a head carried home on a spear." Dr. Pope writes: "Sarboji is not found in any Dravidian dialect, as far as I know. It is a synonym for Sivaji. Sarva (sarbo)-ji is honorific. In the Tanjore Inscription it is Serfogi. In mythology Siva's name is 'arrow,' 'spear,' and 'head-burthen,' of course by metonomy." Mr. Brandt suggests Tam. sĕrŭ, "war," bŭgei, "a tube." No weapon of the name appears in Mr. Egerton's Hand-book of Indian Arms.]

1801.—"The Rt. Hon. the Governor in Council ... orders and directs all persons, whether Polygars (see POLIGAR), Colleries, or other inhabitants possessed of arms in the Provinces of Dindigul, Tinnevelly, Ramnadpuram, Sivagangai, and Madura, to deliver the said arms, consisting of Muskets, Matchlocks, Pikes, Gingauls (see GINGALL), and Sarabogoi to Lieut.-Col. Agnew...."—Procl. by Madras Govt., dd. 1st Decr., in Bp. Caldwell's Hist. p. 227.

c. 1814.—"Those who carry spear and sword have land given them producing 5 kalams of rice; those bearing muskets, 7 kalams; those bearing the sarboji, 9 kalams; those bearing the sanjali (see GINGALL), or gun for two men, 14 kalams...."—Account of the Maravas, from Mackenzie MSS. in Madras Journal, iv. 360.

SAREE, s. Hind. sāṛī, sāṛhī. The cloth which constitutes the main part of a woman's dress in N. India, wrapt round the body and then thrown over the head.

1598.—"... likewise they make whole pieces or webbes of this hearbe, sometimes mixed and woven with silke.... Those webs are named sarijn...."—Linschoten, 28; [Hak. Soc. i. 96].

1785.—"... Her clothes were taken off, and a red silk covering (a saurry) put upon her."—Acct. of a Suttee, in Seton-Karr, i. 90.

SARNAU, SORNAU, n.p. A name often given to Siam in the early part of the 16th century; from Shahr-i-nao, Pers. 'New-city'; the name by which Yuthia or Ayodhya (see JUDEA), the capital founded on the Menam about 1350, seems to have become known to the traders of the Persian Gulf. Mr. Braddell (J. Ind. Arch. v. 317) has suggested that the name (Sheher-al-nawi, as he calls it) refers to the distinction spoken of by La Loubère between the Thai-Yai, an older people of the race, and the Thai-Noi, the people known to us as Siamese. But this is less probable. We have still a city of Siam called Lophaburī, anciently a capital, and the name of which appears to be a Sanskrit or Pali form, Nava-pura, meaning the same as Shahr-i-nao; and this indeed may have first given rise to the latter name. The Cernove of Nicolo Conti (c. 1430) is generally supposed to refer to a city of Bengal, and one of the present writers has identified it with Lakhnāotī or Gauṛ, an official name of which in the 14th cent. was Shahr-i-nao. But it is just possible that Siam was the country spoken of.

1442.—"The inhabitants of the sea-coasts arrive here (at Ormuz) from the counties of Chín, Java, Bengal, the cities of Zirbád, Tenásiri, Sokotora, Shahr-i-nao...."—Abdurrazzāk, in Not. et Exts., xiv. 429.

1498.—"Xarnauz is of Christians, and the King is Christian; it is 50 days voyage with a fair wind from Calicut. The King ... has 400 elephants of war; in the land is much benzoin ... and there is aloeswood...."—Roteiro de Vasco da Gama, 110.

1510.—"... They said they were from a city called Sarnau, and had brought for sale silken stuffs, and aloeswood, and benzoin, and musk."—Varthema, 212.

1514.—"... Tannazzari, Sarnau, where is produced all the finest white benzoin, storax, and lac finer than that of Martaman."—Letter of Giov. d'Empoli, in Arch. Storico Italiano, App. 80.

1540.—"... all along the coast of Malaya, and within the Land, a great King commands, who for a more famous and recommendable Title above all other Kings, causeth himself to be called Prechau Saleu, Emperor of all Sornau, which is a Country wherein there are thirteen kingdoms, by us commonly called Siam" (Sião).—Pinto (orig. cap. xxxvi.), in Cogan, p. 43.

c. 1612.—"It is related of Siam, formerly called Sheher-al-Nawi, to which Country all lands under the wind here were tributary, that there was a King called Bubannia, who when he heard of the greatness of Malacca sent to demand submission and homage of that kingdom."—Sijara Malayu, in J. Ind. Arch. v. 454.

1726.—"About 1340 reigned in the kingdom of Siam (then called Sjaharnouw or Sornau), a very powerful Prince."—Valentijn, v. 319.

SARONG, s. Malay. sārung; the body-cloth, or long kilt, tucked or girt at the waist, and generally of coloured silk or cotton, which forms the chief article of dress of the Malays and Javanese. The same article of dress, and the name (saran) are used in Ceylon. It is an old Indian form of dress, but is now used only by some of the people of the south; e.g. on the coast of Malabar, where it is worn by the Hindus (white), by the Mappilas (Moplah) of that coast, and the Labbais (Lubbye) of Coromandel (coloured), and by the Banṭs of Canara, who wear it of a dark blue. With the Labbais the coloured sarong is a modern adoption from the Malays. Crawfurd seems to explain sarung as Javanese, meaning first 'a case or sheath,' and then a wrapper or garment. But, both in the Malay islands and in Ceylon, the word is no doubt taken from Skt. sāranga, meaning 'variegated' and also 'a garment.'

[1830.—"... the cloth or sarong, which has been described by Mr. Marsden to be 'not unlike a Scots highlander's plaid in appearance, being a piece of party-coloured cloth, about 6 or 8 feet long, and 3 or 4 feet wide, sewed together at the ends, forming, as some writers have described it, a wide sack without a bottom.' With the Maláyus, the sarong is either worn slung over the shoulders as a sash, or tucked round the waist and descending to the ankles, so as to enclose the legs like a petticoat."—Raffles, Java, i. 96.]

1868.—"He wore a sarong or Malay petticoat, and a green jacket."—Wallace, Mal. Arch. 171.

SATIGAM, n.p. Sātgāon, formerly and from remote times a port of much trade on the right bank of the Hoogly R., 30 m. above Calcutta, but for two and a half centuries utterly decayed, and now only the site of a few huts, with a ruined mosque as the only relique of former importance. It is situated at the bifurcation of the Saraswati channel from the Hoogly, and the decay dates from the silting up of the former. It was commonly called by the Portuguese Porto Pequeno (q.v.).

c. 1340.—"About this time the rebellion of Fakhrá broke out in Bengal. Fakhrá and his Bengali forces killed Kádar Khán (Governor of Lakhnauti).... He then plundered the treasury of Lakhnauti, and secured possession of that place and of Satgánw and Sunárgánw."—Ziā-ud-dīn Barnī, in Elliot, iii. 243.

1535.—"In this year Diogo Rabello, finishing his term of service as Captain and Factor of the Choromandel fishery, with license from the Governor went to Bengal in a vessel of his ... and he went well armed along with two foists which equipped with his own money, the Governor only lending him artillery and nothing more.... So this Diogo Rabello arrived at the Port of Satigaon, where he found two great ships of Cambaya which three days before had arrived with great quantity of merchandise, selling and buying: and these, without touching them, he caused to quit the port and go down the river, forbidding them to carry on any trade, and he also sent one of the foists, with 30 men, to the other port of Chatigaon, where they found three ships from the Coast of Choromandel, which were driven away from the port. And Diogo Rabello sent word to the Gozil that he was sent by the Governor with choice of peace or war, and that he should send to ask the King if he chose to liberate the (Portuguese) prisoners, in which case he also would liberate his ports and leave them in their former peace...."—Correa, iii. 649.

[c. 1590.—"In the Sarkár of Sátgáon, there are two ports at a distance of half a kos from each other; the one is Sátgáon, the other Hugli: the latter the chief; both are in the possession of the Europeans. Fine pomegranates grow here."—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, ii. 125.]

SATIN, s. This is of course English, not Anglo-Indian. The common derivation [accepted by Prof. Skeat (Concise Dict. 2nd ed. s.v.)] is with Low Lat. seta, 'silk,' Lat. seta, saeta, 'a bristle, a hair,' through the Port. setim. Dr. Wells Williams (Mid. King., ii. 123) says it is probably derived eventually from the Chinese sz'-tün, though intermediately through other languages. It is true that sz'tün or sz'-twan is a common (and ancient) term for this sort of silk texture. But we may remark that trade-words adopted directly from the Chinese are comparatively rare (though no doubt the intermediate transit indicated would meet this objection, more or less). And we can hardly doubt that the true derivation is that given in Cathay and the Way Thither, p. 486; viz. from Zaitun or Zayton, the name by which Chwan-chau (Chinchew), the great medieval port of western trade in Fokien, was known to western traders. We find that certain rich stuffs of damask and satin were called from this place, by the Arabs, Zaitūnia; the Span. aceytuni (for 'satin'), the medieval French zatony, and the medieval Ital. zetani, afford intermediate steps.

c. 1350.—"The first city that I reached after crossing the sea was Zaitūn.... It is a great city, superb indeed; and in it they make damasks of velvet as well as those of satin (kimkhā—see KINCOB, ATLAS), which are called from the name of the city zaitūnia."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 269.

1352.—In an inventory of this year in Douet d'Arcq we have: "Zatony at 4 écus the ell" (p. 342).

1405.—"And besides, this city (Samarkand) is very rich in many wares which come to it from other parts. From Russia and Tartary come hides and linens, and from Cathay silk-stuffs, the best that are made in all that region, especially the setunis, which are said to be the best in the world, and the best of all are those that are without pattern."—Clavijo (translated anew—the passage corresponding to Markham's at p. 171). The word setuni occurs repeatedly in Clavijo's original.

1440.—In the Libro de Gabelli, &c., of Giov. da Uzzano, we have mention among silk stuffs, several times, of "zetani vellutati, and other kinds of zetani."—Della Decima, iv. 58, 107, &c.

1441.—"Before the throne (at Bijanagar) was placed a cushion of zaitūnī satin, round which three rows of the most exquisite pearls were sewn."—Abdurrazzāk, in Elliot, iv. 120. (The original is "darpesh-i-takht bālishī az aṭlas-i-zaitūnī"; see Not. et Exts. xiv. 376. Quatremère (ibid. 462) translated 'un carreau de satin olive,' taking zaitūn in its usual Arabic sense of 'an olive tree.') Also see Elliot, iv. 113.

SATRAP, s. Anc. Pers. khshatrapa, which becomes satrap, as khshāyathiya becomes shāh. The word comes to us direct from the Greek writers who speak of Persia. But the title occurs not only in the books of Ezra, Esther, and Daniel, but also in the ancient inscriptions, as used by certain lords in Western India, and more precisely in Surāshtra or Peninsular Guzerat. Thus, in a celebrated inscription regarding a dam, near Girnār:

c. A.D. 150.—"... he, the Mahā-Khshatrapa Rudradāman ... for the increase of his merit and fame, has rebuilt the embankment three times stronger."—In Indian Antiquary, vii. 262. The identity of this with satrap was pointed out by James Prinsep, 1838 (J. As. Soc. Ben. vii. 345). [There were two Indian satrap dynasties, viz. the Western Satraps of Saurāshtra and Gujarāt, from about A.D. 150 to A.D. 388; for which see Rapson and Indraji, The Western Kshatrapas (J. R. A. S., N. S., 1890, p. 639); and the Northern Kshatrapas of Mathura and the neighbouring territories in the 1st cent. A.D. See articles by Rapson and Indraji in J. R. A. S., N. S., 1894, pp. 525, 541.]

1883.—"An eminent Greek scholar used to warn his pupils to beware of false analogies in philology. 'Because,' he used to say, 'σατράπης is the Greek for satrap, it does not follow that ῥατράπης is the Greek for rat-trap.'"—Sat. Rev. July 14, p. 53.

SATSUMA, n.p. Name of a city and formerly of a principality (daimioship) in Japan, the name of which is familiar not only from the deplorable necessity of bombarding its capital Kagosima in 1863 (in consequence of the murder of Mr. Richardson, and other outrages, with the refusal of reparation), but from the peculiar cream-coloured pottery made there and now well known in London shops.

1615.—"I said I had receued suffition at his highnes hands in havinge the good hap to see the face of soe mightie a King as the King of Shashma; whereat he smiled."—Cocks's Diary, i. 4-5.

1617.—"Speeches are given out that the caboques or Japon players (or whores) going from hence for Tushma to meete the Corean ambassadors, were set on by the way by a boate of Xaxma theeves, and kild all both men and women, for the money they had gotten at Firando."—Ibid. 256.

SAUGOR, SAUGOR ISLAND, n.p. A famous island at the mouth of the Hoogly R., the site of a great fair and pilgrimage—properly Ganga Sāgara ('Ocean Ganges'). It is said once to have been populous, but in 1688 (the date is clearly wrong) to have been swept by a cyclone-wave. It is now a dense jungle haunted by tigers.

1683.—"We went in our Budgeros to see ye Pagodas at Sagor, and returned to ye Oyster River, where we got as many Oysters as we desired."—Hedges, March 12; [Hak. Soc. i. 68].

1684.—"James Price assured me that about 40 years since, when ye Island called Gonga Sagur was inhabited, ye Raja of ye Island gathered yearly Rent out of it, to ye amount of 26 Lacks of Rupees."—Ibid. Dec. 15; [Hak. Soc. i. 172].

1705.—"Sagore est une Isle où il y a une Pagode très-respectée parmi les Gentils, où ils vont en pelerinage, et où il y a deux Faquers qui y font leur residence. Ces Faquers sçavent charmer les bêtes feroces, qu'on y trouve en quantité, sans quoi ils seroient tous les jours exposés à estre devorez."—Luillier, p. 123.

1727.—"... among the Pagans, the Island Sagor is accounted holy, and great numbers of Jougies go yearly thither in the Months of November and December, to worship and wash in Salt-Water, tho' many of them fall Sacrifices to the hungry Tigers."—A. Hamilton, ii. 3; [ed. 1744].

SAUL-WOOD, s. Hind. sāl, from Skt. śāla; the timber of the tree Shorea robusta, Gaertner, N.O. Dipterocarpeae, which is the most valuable building timber of Northern India. Its chief habitat is the forest immediately under the Himālaya, at intervals throughout that region from the Brahmaputra to the Biās; it abounds also in various more southerly tracts between the Ganges and the Godavery. [The botanical name is taken from Sir John Shore. For the peculiar habitat of the Sāl as compared with the Teak, see Forsyth, Highlands of C.I. 25 seqq.] It is strong and durable, but very heavy, so that it cannot be floated without more buoyant aids, and is, on that and other accounts, inferior to teak. It does not appear among eight kinds of timber in general use, mentioned in the Āīn. The saul has been introduced into China, perhaps at a remote period, on account of its connection with Buddha's history, and it is known there by the Indian name, so-lo (Bretschneider on Chinese Botan. Works, p. 6).

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,—

Land Revenue,

Excise Duties, in Calcutta,

Sayer Revenue,

Abkarry ditto.

In the accounts for 1861-2 it became—

Land Revenue,

Sayer and Miscellaneous,

Abkaree,

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:—

Under Bengal, Behar and Orissa:

Sale of Trees and Sunken Boats Rs. 555 0 0

Under Pegu and Martaban Provinces:

Fisheries Rs. 1,22,874 0 2

Tax on Birds' nests (q.v.) 7,449 0 0

T"x on Salt 43,061 3 10

Fees for fruits and gardens 7,287 9 1

Tax on Bees' wax 1,179 8 0

Do. Collections 8,050 0 0

Sale of Government Timbers, &c. 4,19,141 12 8

6,09,043 1 9

Under the same:

Sale proceeds of unclaimed and confiscated Timbers, Rs. 146 11 10

Net Salvage on Drift Timbers 2,247 10 0

2,394 5 10

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 Councl....

"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.—

"... By this scimitar,

That slew the Sophy, and a Persian prince

That won three fields of Sultan Soliman ..."

Merchant of Venice, ii. 1.

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.—

"We've shouted on seven-ounce nuggets,

We've starved on a Seedee boy's pay."

R. Kipling, The Seven Seas.]

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:—

8 Rutties = 1 Masha = 15 troy grains.

12 Mashas = 1 Tola = 180 ditto.

80 Tolas (or sicca weight) = 1 Seer = 2½ lbs. troy.

40 Seers = 1 Mun or Bazar Maund = 100 lbs. troy."

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, 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, 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:—

"Chīnī kā piyālā ṭūṭā, kóī joṛtā nahīn;

Mālī jī kā bāg lagā, koī toṛtā nahīn;

Sītal-pãṭĭ bichhī, koī sotā nahīn;

Rāj-bansī mūā, koī rotā nahīn."

Which might be rendered:

"A china bowl that, broken, none can join;

A flowery field, whose blossoms none purloin;

A royal scion slain, and none shall weep;

A sītalpaṭṭī spread where none shall sleep."

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 ye Seapy, or Nabob's horseman, consigned to me, with order to see ye Perwanna put in execution; but having thought better of it, ye Ray desired me to have patience till tomorrow morning. He would then present me to the Nabob, whose commands to ye 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.

Present:—

Charles Floyer, Esq., Governor.

George Gibson

John Crompton

William Brown

John Holland

John Rodolph de Gingens

John Usgate

Robert Sanderson.

"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, 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.—

"There was not a captain, nor scarce a seapoy,

But a Prince would depose, or a Bramin destroy."

Letter of Simpkin the Second, &c., 8.

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.—

"Il ne criant ni Kriss ni zagaies,

Il regarde l'homme sans fuir,

Et rit des balles des cipayes

Qui rebondissent sur son cuir."

Th. Gautier, L'Hippopotame.

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 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!' [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.—

"Nor let thy bright impatient flames destroy

The golden Shaddock, the forbidden fruit...."—Grainger, Bk. I.

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.—

"He has stripped my rails of the shaddock frails and the green unripened pine."

R. Kipling, Barrack Room Ballads, p. 130.]

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:

"Every man sat stylle and pokyd othir;

They saide: 'This is the Develys brothir,

That sles our men, and thus hem eetes...."

[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:

"With shetes and with chalons faire yspredde."—The Reve's Tale.

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.

[1598.—"Cheyla," in Linschoten, i. 91.

[1800.—"Shillas, or thin white muslins.... They are very coarse, and are sometimes striped, and then called Dupattas (see DOOPUTTY)."—Buchanan, Mysore, ii. 240.]

1809.—"The shalie, a long piece of coloured silk or cotton, is wrapped round the waist in the form of a petticoat, which leaves part of one leg bare, whilst the other is covered to the ancle with long and graceful folds, gathered up in front, so as to leave one end of the shalie to cross the breast, and form a drapery, which is sometimes thrown over the head as a veil."—Maria Graham, 3. [But, as Sir H. Yule suggested, in this form the word may represent Saree.]

1813.—"Red Shellas or Salloes...."—Milburne, i. 124.

[ " "His shela, of fine cloth, with a silk or gold thread border...."—Trans. Lit. Soc. Bo. iii. 219 seq.

[1900.—"Sela Dupatta—worn by men over shoulders, tucked round waist, ends hanging in front ... plain body and borders richly ornamented with gold thread; white, yellow, and green; worn in full dress, sometimes merely thrown over shoulders, with the ends hanging in front from either shoulder."—Yusuf Ali, Mon. on Silk, 72.

The following may represent the same word, or be perhaps connected with P.—H. chilla, 'a selvage, gold threads in the border of a turban, &c.'

[1610.—"Tsyle, the corge, Rs. 70."—Danvers, Letters, i. 72.]

1615.—"320 pieces red zelas."—Foster, Letters, iv. 129. The same word is used by Cocks, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 4.

SHAMA, s. Hind. shāmā [Skt. syāma, 'black, dark-coloured.'] A favourite song-bird and cage-bird, Kitta cincla macrura, Gmel. "In confinement it imitates the notes of other birds, and of various animals, with ease and accuracy" (Jerdon). The long tail seems to indicate the identity of this bird rather than the mainā (see MYNA) with that described by Aelian. [Mr. M‘Crindle (Invasion of India, 186) favours the identification of the bird with the Mainā.]

c. A.D. 250.—"There is another bird found among the Indians, which is of the size of a starling. It is particoloured; and in imitating the voice of man it is more loquacious and clever than a parrot. But it does not readily bear confinement, and yearning for liberty, and longing for intercourse with its kind, it prefers hunger to bondage with fat living. The Macedonians who dwell among the Indians, in the city of Bucephala and thereabouts ... call the bird κερκίων ('Taily'); and the name arose from the fact that the bird twitches his tail just like a wagtail."—Aelian, de Nat. Anim. xvi. 3.

SHAMAN, SHAMANISM, s. These terms are applied in modern times to superstitions of the kind that connects itself with exorcism and "devil-dancing" as their most prominent characteristic, and which are found to prevail with wonderful identity of circumstance among non-Caucasian races over parts of the earth most remote from one another; not only among the vast variety of Indo-Chinese tribes, but among the Dravidian tribes of India, the Veddahs of Ceylon, the races of Siberia, and the red nations of N. and S. America. "Hinduism has assimilated these 'prior superstitions of the sons of Tur,' as Mr. Hodgson calls them, in the form of Tantrika mysteries, whilst, in the wild performance of the Dancing Dervishes at Constantinople, we see, perhaps, again, the infection of Turanian blood breaking out from the very heart of Mussulman orthodoxy" (see Notes to Marco Polo, Bk. II. ch. 50). The characteristics of Shamanism is the existence of certain sooth-sayers or medicine-men, who profess a special art of dealing with the mischievous spirits who are supposed to produce illness and other calamities, and who invoke these spirits and ascertain the means of appeasing them, in trance produced by fantastic ceremonies and convulsive dancings.

The immediate origin of the term is the title of the spirit-conjuror in the Tunguz language, which is shaman, in that of the Manchus becoming saman, pl. samasa. But then in Chinese Sha-măn or Shi-măn is used for a Buddhist ascetic, and this would seem to be taken from the Skt. śramana, Pali samana. Whether the Tanguz word is in any way connected with this or adopted from it, is a doubtful question. W. Schott, who has treated the matter elaborately (Über den Doppelsinn des Wortes Schamane und über den tungusichen Schamanen-Cultus am Hofe der Mandju Kaisern, Berlin Akad. 1842), finds it difficult to suppose any connection. We, however, give a few quotations relating to the two words in one series. In the first two the reference is undoubtedly to Buddhist ascetics.

c. B.C. 320.—"Τοὺς δὲ Σαρμάνας, τοὺς μὲν ἐντιμοτάτους Ὑλοβίους φησὶν ὀνομάζεσθαι, ζῶντας ἐν ταῖς ὕλαις ἀπὸ φύλλων καὶ καρπῶν ἀγρίων, ἐσθῆτας δ' ἔχειν ἀπὸ φλοῖων δενδρέιων, ἀφροδισίων χωρὶς καὶ οἴνου."—From Megasthenes, in Strabo, xv.

c. 712.—"All the Samanís assembled and sent a message to Bajhrá, saying, "We are násik devotees. Our religion is one of peace and quiet, and fighting and slaying is prohibited, as well as all kinds of shedding of blood."—Chach Náma, in Elliot, i. 158.

1829.—"Kami is the Mongol name of the spirit-conjuror or sorcerer, who before the introduction of Buddhism exercised among the Mongols the office of Sacrificer and Priest, as he still does among the Tunguzes, Manjus, and other Asiatic tribes.... In Europe they are known by the Tunguz name schaman; among the Manjus as saman, and among the Tibetans as Hlaba. The Mongols now call them with contempt and abhorrence Böh or Böghe, i.e. 'Sorcerer,' 'Wizard,' and the women who give themselves to the like fooleries Udugun."—I. J. Schmidt, Notes to Sanang Setzen, p. 416.

1871.—"Among Siberian tribes, the shamans select children liable to convulsions as suitable to be brought up to the profession, which is apt to become hereditary with the epileptic tendencies it belongs to."—Tylor, Primitive Culture, ii. 121.

SHAMBOGUE, s. Canar. shāna- or sāna-bhoga; shanāya, 'allowance of grain paid to the village accountant,' Skt. bhoga, 'enjoyment.' A village clerk or accountant.

[c. 1766.—"... this order to be enforced in the accounts by the shanbague."—Logan, Malabar, iii. 120.

[1800.—"Shanaboga, called Shanbogue by corruption, and Curnum by the Musulmans, is the village accountant."—Buchanan's Mysore, i. 268.]

1801.—"When the whole kist is collected, the shanbogue and potail (see PATEL) carry it to the teshildar's cutcherry."—T. Munro, in Life, i. 316.

SHAMEEANA, SEMIANNA, s. Pers. shamiyāna or shāmiyāna [very doubtfully derived from Pers. shāh, 'king,' miyāna, 'centre'], an awning or flat tent-roof, sometimes without sides, but often in the present day with canauts; sometimes pitched like a porch before a large tent; often used by civil officers, when on tour, to hold their court or office proceedings coram populo, and in a manner generally accessible. [In the early records the word is used for a kind of striped calico.]

c. 1590.—"The Shāmyānah-awning is made of various sizes, but never more than of 12 yards square."—Āīn, i. 54.

[1609.—"A sort of Calico here called semijanes are also in abundance, it is broader than the Calico."—Danvers, Letters, i. 29.]

[1613.—"The Hector having certain chueckeros (chucker) of fine Semian chowters."—Ibid. i. 217. In Foster, iv. 239, semanes.]

1616.—"... there is erected a throne foure foote from the ground in the Durbar Court from the backe whereof, to the place where the King comes out, a square of 56 paces long, and 43 broad was rayled in, and covered with fair Semiaenes or Canopies of Cloth of Gold, Silke, or Velvet ioyned together, and sustained with Canes so covered."—Sir T. Roe, in Purchas, i.; Hak. Soc. i. 142.

[1676.—"We desire you to furnish him with all things necessary for his voyage, ... with bridle and sadle, Semeanoes, canatts (Canaut)...."—Forrest, Bombay Letters, i. 89.]

1814.—"I had seldom occasion to look out for gardens or pleasure grounds to pitch my tent or erect my Summiniana or Shamyana, the whole country being generally a garden."—Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 455; 2nd ed. ii. 64. In ii. 294 he writes Shumeeana].

1857.—"At an early hour we retired to rest. Our beds were arranged under large canopies, open on all sides, and which are termed by the natives 'Shameanahs.'"—M. Thornhill, Personal Adventures, 14.

SHAMPOO, v. To knead and press the muscles with the view of relieving fatigue, &c. The word has now long been familiarly used in England. The Hind. verb is chāmpnā, from the imperative of which, chāmpō, this is most probably a corruption, as in the case of Bunow, Puckerow, &c. The process is described, though not named, by Terry, in 1616: "Taking thus their ease, they often call their Barbers, who tenderly gripe and smite their Armes and other parts of their bodies instead of exercise, to stirre the bloud. It is a pleasing wantonnesse, and much valued in these hot climes." (In Purchas, ii. 1475). The process was familiar to the Romans under the Empire, whose slaves employed in this way were styled tractator and tractatrix. [Perhaps the earliest reference to the practice is in Strabo (McCrindle, Ancient India, 72).] But with the ancients it seems to have been allied to vice, for which there is no ground that we know in the Indian custom.

1748.—"Shampooing is an operation not known in Europe, and is peculiar to the Chinese, which I had once the curiosity to go through, and for which I paid but a trifle. However, had I not seen several China merchants shampooed before me, I should have been apprehensive of danger, even at the sight of all the different instruments...." (The account is good, but too long for extract.)—A Voyage to the E. Indies in 1747 and 1748. London, 1762, p. 226.

1750-60.—"The practice of champing, which by the best intelligence I could gather is derived from the Chinese, may not be unworthy particularizing, as it is little known to the modern Europeans...."—Grose, i. 113. This writer quotes Martial, iii. Ep. 82, and Seneca, Epist. 66, to show that the practice was known in ancient Rome.

1800.—"The Sultan generally rose at break of day: after being champoed, and rubbed, he washed himself, and read the Koran for an hour."—Beatson, War with Tippoo, p. 159.

[1810.—"Shampoeing may be compared to a gentle kneading of the whole person, and is the same operation described by the voyagers to the Southern and Pacific ocean."—Wilks, Hist. Sketches, Madras reprint, i. 276.]

" "Then whilst they fanned the children, or champooed them if they were restless, they used to tell stories, some of which dealt of marvels as great as those recorded in the 1001 Nights."—Mrs. Sherwood, Autobiog. 410.

" "That considerable relief is obtained from shampoing, cannot be doubted; I have repeatedly been restored surprisingly from severe fatigue...."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 198.

1813.—"There is sometimes a voluptuousness in the climate of India, a stillness in nature, an indescribable softness, which soothes the mind, and gives it up to the most delightful sensations: independent of the effects of opium, champoing, and other luxuries indulged in by oriental sensualists."—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 35; [2nd ed. i. 25.]

SHAN, n.p. The name which we have learned from the Burmese to apply to the people who call themselves the great T'ai, kindred to the Siamese, and occupying extensive tracts in Indo-China, intermediate between Burma, Siam, and China. They are the same people that have been known, after the Portuguese, and some of the early R. C. Missionaries, as Laos (q.v.); but we now give the name an extensive signification covering the whole race. The Siamese, who have been for centuries politically the most important branch of this race, call (or did call themselves—see De la Loubère, who is very accurate) T'ai-Noe or 'Little T'ai,' whilst they applied the term T'ai-Yai, or 'Great T'ai,' to their northern kindred or some part of these; sometimes also calling the latter T'ai-güt, or the 'Ta'i left behind.' The T'ai or Shan are certainly the most numerous and widely spread race in Indo-China, and innumerable petty Shan States exist on the borders of Burma, Siam, and China, more or less dependent on, or tributary to, their powerful neighbours. They are found from the extreme north of the Irawadi Valley, in the vicinity of Assam, to the borders of Camboja; and in nearly all we find, to a degree unusual in the case of populations politically so segregated, a certain homogeneity in language, civilisation, and religion (Buddhist), which seems to point to their former union in considerable States.

One branch of the race entered and conquered Assam in the 13th century, and from the name by which they were known, Ahom or Aham, was derived, by the frequent exchange of aspirant and sibilant, the name, just used, of the province itself. The most extensive and central Shan State, which occupied a position between Ava and Yunnan, is known in the Shan traditions as Mung-Mau, and in Burma by the Buddhisto-classical name of Kauśāmbi (from a famous city of that name in ancient India) corrupted by a usual process into Ko-Shan-pyi and interpreted to mean 'Nine-Shan-States.' Further south were those T'ai States which have usually been called Laos, and which formed several considerable kingdoms, going through many vicissitudes of power. Several of their capitals were visited and their ruins described by the late Francis Garnier, and the cities of these and many smaller States of the same race, all built on the same general quadrangular plan, are spread broadcast over that part of Indo-China which extends from Siam north of Yunnan.

Mr. Cushing, in the Introduction to his Shan Dictionary (Rangoon, 1881), divides the Shan family by dialectic indications into the Ahoms, whose language is now extinct, the Chinese Shan (occupying the central territory of what was Mau or Kauśāmbi), the Shan (Proper, or Burmese Shan), Laos (or Siamese Shan), and Siamese.

The term Shan is borrowed from the Burmese, in whose peculiar orthography the name, though pronounced Shān, is written rham. We have not met with its use in English prior to the Mission of Col. Symes in 1795. It appears in the map illustrating his narrative, and once or twice in the narrative itself, and it was frequently used by his companion, F. Buchanan, whose papers were only published many years afterwards in various periodicals difficult to meet with. It was not until the Burmese war of 1824-1826, and the active investigation of our Eastern frontier which followed, that the name became popularly known in British India. The best notice of the Shans that we are acquainted with is a scarce pamphlet by Mr. Ney Elias, printed by the Foreign Dept. of Calcutta in 1876 (Introd. Sketch of the Hist. of the Shans, &c.). [The ethnology of the race is discussed by J. G. Scott, Upper Burma Gazetteer, i. pt. i. 187 seqq. Also see Prince Henri d'Orleans, Du Tonkin aux Indes, 1898; H. S. Hallett, Among the Shans, 1885, and A Thousand Miles on an Elephant, 1890.]

Though the name as we have taken it is a Burmese oral form, it seems to be essentially a genuine ethnic name for the race. It is applied in the form Sam by the Assamese, and the Kakhyens; the Siamese themselves have an obsolete Siẽm (written Sieyam) for themselves, and Sieng (Sieyang) for the Laos. The former word is evidently the Sien, which the Chinese used in the compound Sien-lo (for Siam,—see Marco Polo, 2nd ed. Bk. iii. ch. 7, note 3), and from which we got, probably through a Malay medium, our Siam (q.v.). The Burmese distinguish the Siamese Shans as Yudia (see JUDEA) Shans, a term perhaps sometimes including Siam itself. Symes gives this (through Arakanese corruption) as 'Yoodra-Shaan,' and he also (no doubt improperly) calls the Manipūr people 'Cassay Shaan' (see CASSAY).

1795.—"These events did not deter Shanbuan from pursuing his favourite scheme of conquest to the westward. The fertile plains and populous towns of Munnipoora and the Cassay Shaan, attracted his ambition."—Symes, p. 77.

" "Zemee (see JANGOMAY), Sandapoora, and many districts of the Yoodra Shaan to the eastward, were tributary, and governed by Chobwas, who annually paid homage to the Birman king."—Ibid. 102.

" "Shaan, or Shan, is a very comprehensive term given to different nations, some independent, others the subjects of the greater states."—Ibid. 274.

c. 1818.—"... They were assisted by many of the Zaboà (see CHOBWA) or petty princes of the Sciam, subject to the Burmese, who, wearied by the oppressions and exactions of the Burmese Mandarins and generals, had revolted, and made common cause with the enemies of their cruel masters.... The war which the Burmese had to support with these enemies was long and disastrous ... instead of overcoming the Sciam (they) only lost day by day the territories ... and saw their princes range themselves ... under the protection of the King of Siam."—Sangermano, p. 57.

1861.—

"Fie, Fie! Captain Spry!

You are surely in joke

With your wires and your trams,

Going past all the Shams

With branches to Bam-you (see BAMO), and end in A-smoke."

Ode on the proposed Yunnan Railway.

Bhamo and Esmok were names constantly recurring in the late Capt. Spry's railway projects.

SHANBAFF, SINABAFF, &c., s. Pers. shānbāft. A stuff often mentioned in the early narratives as an export from Bengal and other parts of India. Perhaps indeed these names indicate two different stuffs, as we do not know what they were, except that (as mentioned below) the sinabaff was a fine white stuff. Sīnabāff is not in Vuller's Lexicon. Shānabāf is, and is explained as genus panni grossioris, sic descripta (E. T.): "A very coarse and cheap stuff which they make for the sleeves of ḳabās (see CABAYA) for sale."—Bahār-i-'Ajam. But this cannot have been the character of the stuffs sent by Sultan Mahommed Tughlak (as in the first quotation) to the Emperor of China. [Badger (quoted by Birdwood, Report on Old Records, 153) identifies the word with sīna-bāfta, 'China-woven' cloths.]

1343.—"When the aforesaid present came to the Sultan of India (from the Emp. of China) ... in return for this present he sent another of greater value ... 100 pieces of shīrīnbāf, and 500 pieces of shānbāf."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 3.

1498.—"The overseer of the Treasury came next day to the Captain-Major, and brought him 20 pieces of white stuff, very fine, with gold embroidery which they call beyramies (beiramee), and other 20 large white stuffs, very fine, which were named sinabafos...."—Correa, E.T. by Ld. Stanley, 197.

[1508.—See under ALJOFAR.]

1510.—"One of the Persians said: 'Let us go to our house, that is, to Calicut.' I answered, 'Do not go, for you will lose these fine sinabaph' (which were pieces of cloth we carried)."—Varthema, 269.

1516.—"The quintal of this sugar was worth two ducats and a half in Malabar, and a good Sinabáffo was worth two ducats."—Barbosa, 179.

[ " "Also they make other stuffs which they call Mamonas (Maḥmūdīs?), others duguazas (dogazīs?), others chautares (see chowtars, under PIECE-GOODS), others sinabafas, which last are the best, and which the Moors hold in most esteem to make shirts of."—Ibid., Lisbon ed. 362.]

SHASTER, s. The Law books or Sacred Writings of the Hindus. From Skt. śāstra, 'a rule,' a religious code, a scientific treatise.

1612.—"... They have many books in their Latin.... Six of these they call Xastra, which are the bodies; eighteen which they call Purána (Poorana), which are the limbs."—Couto, V. vi. 3.

1630.—"... The Banians deliver that this book, by them called the Shaster, or the Book of their written word, consisted of these three tracts."—Lord's Display, ch. viii.

1651.—In Rogerius, the word is everywhere misprinted Iastra.

1717.—"The six Sastrangól contain all the Points and different Ceremonies in Worship...."—Phillips's Account, 40.

1765.—"... at the capture of Calcutta, A.D. 1756, I lost many curious Gentoo manuscripts, and among them two very correct and valuable copies of the Gentoo Shastah."—J. Z. Holwell, Interesting Hist. Events, &c., 2d ed., 1766, i. 3.

1770.—"The Shastah is looked upon by some as a commentary on the vedam, and by others as an original work."—Raynal (tr. 1777), i. 50.

1776.—"The occupation of the Bramin should be to read the Beids, and other Shasters."—Halhed, Gentoo Code, 39.

[SHASTREE, s. Hind. śāstrī (see SHASTER). A man of learning, one who teaches any branch of Hindu learning, such as law.

[1824.—"Gungadhur Shastree, the minister of the Baroda state, ... was murdered by Trimbuckjee under circumstances which left no doubt that the deed was perpetrated with the knowledge of Bajerow."—Malcolm, Central India, 2nd ed. i. 307.]

SHAWL, s. Pers. and Hind. shāl, also doshāla, 'a pair of shawls.' The Persian word is perhaps of Indian origin, from Skt. śavala, 'variegated.' Sir George Birdwood tells us that he has found among the old India records "Carmania shells" and "Carmania shawools," meaning apparently Kermān shawls. He gives no dates unfortunately. [In a book of 1685 he finds "Shawles Carmania" and "Carmania Wooll"; in one of 1704, "Chawools" (Report on Old Records, 27, 40). Carmania goats are mentioned in a letter in Forrest, Bombay Letters, i. 140.] In Meninski (published in 1680) shāl is defined in a way that shows the humble sense of the word originally:

"Panni viliores qui partim albi, partim cineritii, partim nigri esse solent ex lana et pillis caprinis; hujusmodi pannum seu telam injiciunt humeris Dervisii ... instar stolae aut pallii." To this he adds, "Datur etiam sericea ejusmodi tela, fere instar nostri multitii, sive simplicis sive duplicati." For this the 2nd edition a century later substitutes: "Shāl-i-Hindī" (Indian shawl). "Tela sericea subtilissima ex India adferri solita."

c. 1590.—"In former times shawls were often brought from Kashmír. People folded them in four folds, and wore them for a very long time.... His Majesty encourages in every possible way the (shāl-bāfī) manufacture of shawls in Kashmír. In Lahór also there are more than 1000 workshops."—Āīn i. 92. [Also see ed. Jarrett, ii. 349, 355.]

c. 1665.—"Ils mettent sur eux a toute saison, lorsqu'ils sortent, une Chal, qui est une maniere de toilette d'une laine très-fine qui se fait a Cachmìr. Ces Chals ont environ deux aunes (the old French aune, nearly 47 inches English) de long sur une de large. On les achete vingt-cinq ou trente écus si elles sont fines. Il y en a même qui coûtent cinquante écus, mais ce sont les très-fines."—Thevenot, v. 110.

c. 1666.—"Ces chales sont certaines pièces d'étoffe d'une aulne et demie de long, et d'une de large ou environ, qui sont brodées aux deux bouts d'une espèce de broderie, faite au métier, d'un pied ou environ de large.... J'en ai vu de ceux que les Omrahs font faire exprès, qui coutoient jusqu'à cent cinquante Roupies; des autres qui sont de cette laine du pays, je n'en ai pas vu qui passaient 50 Roupies."—Bernier, ii. 280-281; [ed. Constable, 402].

1717.—"... Con tutto ciò preziosissime nobilissime e senza comparazione magnifiche sono le tele che si chiamano Scial, si nella lingua Hindustana, come ancora nella lingua Persiana. Tali Scial altro non sono, che alcuni manti, che si posano sulla testa, e facendo da man destra, e da man sinistra scendere le due metà, con queste si cinge...."—MS. Narrative of Padre Ip. Desideri.

[1662.—"Another rich Skarf, which they call schal, made of a very fine stuff."—J. Davies, Ambassador's Trav., Bk. vi. 235, Stanf. Dict.]

1727.—"When they go abroad they wear a Shawl folded up, or a piece of White Cotton Cloth lying loose on the Top of their Heads."—A. Hamilton, ii. 50; [Shaul in ed. 1744, ii. 49].

c. 1760.—"Some Shawls are manufactured there.... Those coming from the province of Cachemire on the borders of Tartary, being made of a peculiar kind of silky hair, that produces from the loom a cloth beautifully bordered at both ends, with a narrow flowered selvage, about two yards and a half long, and a yard and a half wide ... and according to the price, which is from ten pounds and upwards to fifteen shillings, join, to exquisite fineness, a substance that renders them extremely warm, and so pliant that the fine ones are easily drawn through a common ring on the finger."—Grose, i. 118.

1781.—Sonnerat writes challes. He says: "Ces étoffes (faites avec la laine des moutons de Tibet) surpassent nos plus belles soieries en finesse."—Voyage, i. 52.

It seems from these extracts that the large and costly shawl, woven in figures over its whole surface, is a modern article. The old shawl, we see, was from 6 to 8 feet long, by about half that breadth; and it was most commonly white, with only a border of figured weaving at each end. In fact what is now called a Rampoor Chudder when made with figured ends is probably the best representation of the old shawl.

SHEEAH, SHIA, s. Arab. shī'a, i.e. 'sect.' A follower (more properly the followers collectively) of the Mahommedan 'sect,' or sects rather, which specially venerate 'Ali, and regard the Imāms (see IMAUM), his descendants, as the true successors to the Caliphate. The Persians (since the accession of the 'Sophy' dynasty, (q.v.)) are Shī'as, and a good many of the Moslems in India. The sects which have followed more or less secret doctrines, and the veneration of hereditary quasi-divine heads, such as the Karmathites and Ismaelites of Musulman history, and the modern Bohras (see BORA) and "Mulāḥis," may generally be regarded as Shī'a. [See the elaborate article on the sect in Hughes, Dict. of Islām, 572 seqq.]

c. 1309.—"... dont encore il est ainsi, que tuit cil qui croient en la loy Haali dient que cil qui croient en la loy Mahommet sont mescréant; et aussi tuit cil qui croient en la loy Mahommet dient que tuit cil qui croient en la loy Haali sont mescréant."—Joinville, 252.

1553.—"Among the Moors have always been controversies ... which of the four first Caliphs was the most legitimate successor to the Caliphate. The Arabians favoured Bubac, Homar, and Otthoman, the Persians (Parseos) favoured Alle, and held the others for usurpers, and as holding it against the testament of Mahamed ... to the last this schism has endured between the Arabians and the Persians. The latter took the appellation Xiá, as much as to say 'Union of one Body,' and the Arabs called them in reproach Raffady [Rāfiḍī, a heretic (lit. 'deserter')], as much as to say 'People astray from the Path,' whilst they call themselves Çuny (see SUNNEE), which is the contrary."—Barros, II. x. 6.

1620.—"The Sonnite adherents of tradition, like the Arabs, the Turks, and an infinite number of others, accept the primacy of those who actually possess it. The Persians and their adherents who are called Shias (Sciai), i.e. 'Sectaries,' and are not ashamed of the name, believe in the primacy of those who have only claimed it (without possessing it), and obstinately contend that it belongs to the family of Alì only."—P. della Valle, ii. 75; [conf. Hak. Soc. i. 152].

1626.—"He is by Religion a Mahumetan, descended from Persian Ancestors, and retaineth their opinions, which differing in many points from the Turkes, are distinguished in their Sectes by tearmes of Seaw and Sunnee."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 995.

1653.—"Les Persans et Keselbaches (Kuzzilbash) se disent Schaì ... si les Ottomans estoient Schaìs, ou de la Secte de Haly, les Persans se feroient Sonnis qui est la Secte des Ottomans."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, 106.

1673.—"His Substitute here is a Chias Moor."—Fryer, 29.

1798.—"In contradistinction to the Soonis, who in their prayers cross their hands on the lower part of the breast, the Schiahs drop their arms in straight lines."—G. Forster, Travels, ii. 129.

1805.—"The word Sh'eeah, or Sheeut, properly signifies a troop or sect ... but has become the distinctive appellation of the followers of Aly, or all those who maintain that he was the first legitimate Khuleefah, or successor to Moohummad."—Baillie, Digest of Mah. Law, II. xii.

1869.—"La tolerance indienne est venue diminuer dans l'Inde le fanatisme Musulman. Là Sunnites et Schiites n'ont point entre eux cette animosité qui divise les Turcs et les Persans ... ces deux sectes divisent les musulmans de l'Inde; mais comme je viens de dire, elles n'excitent généralement entre eux aucune animosité."—Garcin de Tassy, Rel. Mus., p. 12.

SHEERMAUL, s. Pers.—Hind. shīrmāl, a cake made with flour, milk and leaven; a sort of brioche. [The word comes from Pers. shīr, 'milk,' māl, 'crushing.' Riddell (Domest. Econ. 461) gives a receipt for what he calls "Nauna Sheer Mhal," nān being Pers., 'bread.']

[1832.—"The dishes of meetah (miṭhā, 'sweet') are accompanied with the many varieties of bread common to Hindoostaun, without leaven, as Sheah-maul, bacherkaunie (bakir-khani), chapaatie (chupatty), &c.; the first two have milk and ghee mixed with the flour, and nearly resemble our pie-crust."—Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali, Observations, i. 101.

[SHEIKH, s. Ar. shaikh; an old man, elder, chief, head of an Arab tribe. The word should properly mean one of the descendants of tribes of genuine Arab descent, but at the present day, in India, it is often applied to converts to Islam from the lower Hindu tribes. For the use of the word in the sense of a saint, see under PEER.

[1598.—"Lieftenant (which the Arabians called zequen)."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 24.

[1625.—"They will not haue them iudged by any Custome, and they are content that their Xeque doe determine them as he list."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, ii. 1146.

1727.—"... but if it was so, that he (Abraham) was their Sheek, as they alledge, they neither follow him in Morals or Religion."—A. Hamilton, ed. 1744, i. 37.

[1835.—"Some parents employ a sheykh or fikee to teach their boys at home."—Lane, Mod. Egypt., ed. 1871, i. 77.]

SHERBET, s. Though this word is used in India by natives in its native (Arab. and Pers.) form sharbat, 'draught,' it is not a word now specially in Anglo-Indian use. The Arabic seems to have entered Europe by several different doors. Thus in Italian and French we have sorbetto and sorbet, which probably came direct from the Levantine or Turkish form shurbat or shorbat; in Sp. and Port. we have xarabe, axarabe (ash-sharāb, the standard Ar. sharāb, 'wine or any beverage'), and xarope, and from these forms probably Ital. sciroppo, siroppo, with old French ysserop and mod. French sirop; also English syrup, and more directly from the Spanish, shrub. Mod. Span. again gets, by reflection from French or Italian, sorbete and sîrop (see Dozy, 17, and Marcel Devic, s.v. sirop). Our sherbet looks as if it had been imported direct from the Levant. The form shrāb is applied in India to all wines and spirits and prepared drinks, e.g. Port-shraub, Sherry-shraub, Lall-shraub, Brandy-shraub, Beer-shraub.

c. 1334.—"... They bring cups of gold, silver, and glass, filled with sugar-candy-water; i.e. syrup diluted with water. They call this beverage sherbet" (ash-shurbat).—Ibn Batuta, iii. 124.

1554.—"... potio est gratissima praesertim ubi multa nive, quae Constantinopoli nullo tempore deficit, fuerit refirgerata, Arab Sorbet vocant, hoc est, potionem Arabicam."—Busbeq. Ep. i. p. 92.

1578.—"The physicians of the same country use this xarave (of tamarinds) in bilious and ardent fevers."—Acosta, 67.

c. 1580.—"Et saccharo potum jucundissimum parant quem Sarbet vocant."—Prosper Alpinus, Pt. i. p. 70.

1611.—"In Persia there is much good wine of grapes which is called Xaràb in the language of the country."—Teixeira, i. 16.

c. 1630.—"Their liquor may perhaps better delight you; 'tis faire water, sugar, rose-water, and juyce of Lemons mixt, call'd Sherbets or Zerbets, wholsome and potable."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1638, p. 241.

1682.—"The Moores ... dranke a little milk and water, but not a drop of wine; they also dranke a little sorbet, and jacolatt (see JOCOLE)."—Evelyn's Diary, Jan 24.

1827.—"On one occasion, before Barak-el-Hadgi left Madras, he visited the Doctor, and partook of his sherbet, which he preferred to his own, perhaps because a few glasses of rum or brandy were usually added to enrich the compound."—Sir W. Scott, The Surgeon's Daughter, ch. x.

1837.—"The Egyptians have various kinds of sherbets.... The most common kind (called simply shurbát or shurbát sook'har ...) is merely sugar and water ... lemonade (ley'moónáteh, or sharáb el-leymoón) is another."—Lane, Mod. Egypt., ed. 1837, i. 206.

1863.—"The Estate overseer usually gave a dance to the people, when the most dissolute of both sexes were sure to be present, and to indulge too freely in the shrub made for the occasion."—Waddell, 29 Years in the W. Indies, 17.

SHEREEF, s. Ar. sharīf, 'noble.' A dignitary descended from Mahommed.

1498.—"The ambassador was a white man who was Xarife, as much as to say a creligo" (i.e. clerigo).—Roteiro, 2nd ed. 30.

[1672.—"Schierifi." See under CASIS.

[c. 1666.—"The first (embassage) was from the Cherif of Meca...."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 133.

1701.—"... ye Shreif of Judda...."—Forrest, Bombay Letters, i. 232.]

SHERISTADAR, s. The head ministerial officer of a Court, whose duty it is to receive plaints, and see that they are in proper form and duly stamped, and generally to attend to routine business. Properly H.—P. from sar-rishtā-dār or sarishta-dār, 'register-keeper.' Sar-rishtā, an office of registry, literally means 'head of the string.' C. P. Brown interprets Sarrishtadār as "he who holds the end of the string (on which puppets dance)"—satirically, it may be presumed. Perhaps 'keeper of the clue,' or 'of the file' would approximately express the idea.

1786.—(With the object of establishing) "the officers of the Canongoe's Department upon its ancient footing, altogether independent of the Zemindars ... and to prevent confusion in the time to come.... For these purposes, and to avail ourselves as much as possible of the knowledge and services of Mr. James Grant, we have determined on the institution of an office well-known in this country under the designation of Chief Serrishtadar, with which we have invested Mr. Grant, to act in that capacity under your Board, and also to attend as such at your deliberations, as well as at our meetings in the Revenue Department."—Letter from G. G. in C. to Board of Revenue, July 19 (Bengal Rev. Regulation xix.).

1878.—"Nowadays, however, the Serishtadar's signature is allowed to authenticate copies of documents, and the Assistant is thus spared so much drudgery."—Life in the Mofussil, i. 117.

[SHEVAROY HILLS, n.p. The name applied to a range of hills in the Salem district of Madras. The origin of the name has given rise to much difference of opinion. Mr. Lefanu (Man. of Salem, ii. 19 seq.) thinks that the original name was possibly Sivarayan, whence the German name Shivarai and the English Shevaroys; or that Sivarayan may by confusion have become Sherarayan, named after the Raja of Sera; lastly, he suggests that it comes from sharpu or sharvu, 'the slope or declivity of a hill,' and vay, 'a mouth, passage, way.' This he is inclined to accept, regarding Shervarayan or Sharvayrayan, as 'the cliff which dominates (rayan) the way (vay) which leads through or under the declivity (sharvu).' The Madras Gloss. gives the Tam. form of the name as Shervarayanmalai, from Sheran, 'the Chera race,' irayan, 'king,' and malai, 'mountain.'

[1823.—"Mr. Cockburn ... had the kindness to offer me the use of a bungalow on the Shervaraya hills...."—Hoole, Missions in Madras, 282.

[SHIBAR, SHIBBAR, s. A kind of coasting vessel, sometimes described as a great pattamar. Molesworth (Mahr. Dict. s.v.) gives shibāṛ which, in the usual dictionary way, he defines as 'a ship or large vessel of a particular description.' The Bombay Gazetteer (x. 171) speaks of the 'shibādi, a large vessel, from 100 to 300 tons, generally found in the Ratnagiri sub-division ports'; and in another place (xiii. Pt. ii. 720) says that it is a large vessel chiefly used in the Malabar trade, deriving the name from Pers. shāhī-bār, 'royal-carrier.'

[1684.—"The Mucaddam (MOCUDDUM) of this shibar bound for Goa."—Yule, in Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. II. clxv.; also see clxxxiv.

[1727.—"... the other four were Grabs or Gallies, and Sheybars, or half Gallies."—A. Hamilton, ed. 1744, i. 134.

[1758.—"... then we cast off a boat called a large seebar, bound to Muscat...."—Ives, 196.]

SHIGRAM, s. A Bombay and Madras name for a kind of hack palankin carriage. The camel-shigram is often seen on roads in N. India. The name is from Mahr. śīghr, Skt. śīghra, 'quick or quickly.' A similar carriage is the Jutkah, which takes its name from Hind. jhaṭkā, 'swift.'

[1830.—At Bombay, "In heavy coaches, lighter landaulets, or singular-looking shigrampoes, might be seen bevies of British fair ..."—Mrs. Elwood, Narr. ii. 376.

[1875.—"As it is, we have to go ... 124 miles in a dak gharri, bullock shigram, or mail-cart...."—Wilson, Abode of Snow, 18.]

SHIKAR, s. Hind. from Pers. shikār, 'la chasse'; sport (in the sense of shooting and hunting); game.

c. 1590.—"Āīn, 27. Of Hunting (orig. Āīn-i-Shikār). Superficial worldly observers see in killing an animal a sort of pleasure, and in their ignorance stride about, as if senseless, on the field of their passions. But deep enquirers see in hunting a means of acquisition of knowledge.... This is the case with His Majesty."—Āīn, i. 282.

1609-10.—"Sykary, which signifieth, seeking, or hunting."—W. Finch, in Purchas, i. 428.

1800.—"250 or 300 horsemen ... divided into two or three small parties, supported by our infantry, would give a proper shekar; and I strongly advise not to let the Mahratta boundary stop you in the pursuit of your game."—Sir A. Wellesley to T. Munro, in Life of Munro, iii. 117.

1847.—"Yet there is a charm in this place for the lovers of Shikar."—Dry Leaves from Young Egypt, 3.

[1859.—"Although the jungles literally swarm with tigers, a shickar, in the Indian sense of the term, is unknown."—Oliphant, Narr. of Mission, i. 25.]

1866.—"May I ask what has brought you out to India, Mr. Cholmondeley? Did you come out for shikar, eh?"—Trevelyan, The Dawk Bungalow, in Fraser, lxxiii. 222.

In the following the word is wrongly used in the sense of Shikaree.

[1900.—"That so experienced a shikar should have met his death emphasises the necessity of caution."—Field, Sept. 1.]

SHIKAREE, SHEKARRY, s. Hind. shikārī, a sportsman. The word is used in three ways:

a. As applied to a native expert, who either brings in game on his own account, or accompanies European sportsmen as guide and aid.

[1822.—"Shecarries are generally Hindoos of low cast, who gain their livelihood entirely by catching birds, hares, and all sorts of animals."—Johnson, Sketches of Field Sports, 25.]

1879.—"Although the province (Pegu) abounds in large game, it is very difficult to discover, because there are no regular shikarees in the Indian acceptation of the word. Every village has its local shikaree, who lives by trapping and killing game. Taking life as he does, contrary to the principles of his religion, he is looked upon as damned by his neighbours, but that does not prevent their buying from him the spoils of the chase."—Pollok, Sport in Br. Burmah, &c., i. 13.

b. As applied to the European sportsman himself: e.g. "Jones is well known as a great Shikaree." There are several books of sporting adventure written circa 1860-75 by Mr. H. A. Leveson under the name of 'The Old Shekarry.'

[c. A shooting-boat used in the Cashmere lakes.

[1875.—"A shikārī is a sort of boat, that is in daily use with the English visitors; a light boat manned, as it commonly is, by six men, it goes at a fast pace, and, if well fitted with cushions, makes a comfortable conveyance. A bandūqī (see BUNDOOK) shikāri is the smallest boat of all; a shooting punt, used in going after wild fowl on the lakes."—Drew, Jummoo, &c., 181.]

SHIKAR-GĀH, s. Pers. A hunting ground, or enclosed preserve. The word has also a technical application to patterns which exhibit a variety of figures and groups of animals, such as are still woven in brocade at Benares, and in shawl-work in Kashmir and elsewhere (see Marco Polo, Bk. I. ch. 17, and notes). [The great areas of jungle maintained by the Amīrs of Sind and called Shikārgāhs are well known.

[1831.—"Once or twice a month when they (the Ameers) are all in good health, they pay visits to their different shikargahs or preserves for game."—J. Burnes, Visit to the Court of Sinde, 103.]

SHIKHÓ, n. and v. Burmese word. The posture of a Burmese in presence of a superior, i.e. kneeling with joined hands and bowed head in an attitude of worship. Some correspondence took place in 1883, in consequence of the use of this word by the then Chief Commissioner of British Burma, in an official report, to describe the attitude used by British envoys at the Court of Ava. The statement (which was grossly incorrect) led to remonstrance by Sir Arthur Phayre. The fact was that the envoy and his party sat on a carpet, but the attitude had no analogy whatever to that of shikho, though the endeavour of the Burmese officials was persistent to involve them in some such degrading attitude. (See KOWTOW.)

1855.—"Our conductors took off their shoes at the gate, and the Woondouk made an ineffectual attempt to induce the Envoy to do likewise. They also at four different places, as we advanced to the inner gate, dropt on their knees and shikhoed towards the palace."—Yule, Mission to Ava, 82.

1882.—"Another ceremony is that of shekhoing to the spire, the external emblem of the throne. All Burmans must do this at each of the gates, at the foot of the steps, and at intervals in between...."—The Burman, His Life and Notions, ii. 206.

SHINBIN, SHINBEAM, &c., s. A term in the Burmese teak-trade; apparently a corruption from Burm. shīn-byīn. The first monosyllable (shīn) means 'to put together side by side,' and byīn, 'plank,' the compound word being used in Burmese for 'a thick plank used in constructing the side of a ship.' The shinbin is a thick plank, about 15″ wide by 4″ thick, and running up to 25 feet in length (see Milburn, i. 47). It is not sawn, but split from green trees.

1791.—"Teak Timber for sale, consisting of

Duggis (see DUGGIE).

Shinbeens.

Coma planks (?).

Maguire planks (?)

Joists and Sheathing Boards."

Madras Courier, Nov. 10.

SHINKALI, SHIGALA, n.p. A name by which the City and Port of Cranganore (q.v.) seems to have been known in the early Middle Ages. The name was probably formed from Tiruvan-jiculam, mentioned by Dr. Gundert below. It is perhaps the Gingaleh of Rabbi Benjamin in our first quotation; but the data are too vague to determine this, though the position of that place seems to be in the vicinity of Malabar.

c. 1167.—"Gingaleh is but three days distant by land, whereas it requires a journey of fifteen days to reach it by the sea; this place contains about 1,000 Israelites."—Benjamin of Tudela, in Wright's Early Travels, p. 117.

c. 1300.—"Of the cities on the shore (of Malībār) the first is Sindábúr (Goa), then Faknúr (see BACANORE), then the country of Manjarúr (see MANGALORE) ... then Chinkalī (or Jinkalī), then Kúlam (see QUILON)."—Rashīduddīn, see J. R. As. Soc., N.S., iv. pp. 342, 345.

c. 1320.—"Le pays de Manîbâr, appelè pays du Poivre, comprend les villes suivantes.

"La ville de Shinkli, dont la majeure partie de la population est composée de Juifs.

"Kaulam est la dernière ville de la côte de Poivre."—Shemseddin Dimishqui, by Mehren (Cosmographie du Moyen Age), p. 234.

c. 1328.—"... there is one very powerful King in the country where the pepper grows, and his kingdom is called Molebar. There is also the King of Singuyli...."—Fr. Jordanus, p. 40.

1330.—"And the forest in which the pepper groweth extendeth for a good 18 days' journey, and in that forest there be two cities, the one whereof is called Flandrina (see PANDARANI), and the other Cyngilin...."—Fr. Odoric, in Cathay, &c., 75-76.

c. 1330.—"Etiam Shâliyât (see CHALIA) et Shinkala urbes Malabaricae sunt, quarum alteram Judaei incolunt...."—Abulfeda, in Gildemeister, 185.

c. 1349.—"And in the second India, which is called Mynibar, there is Cynkali, which signifieth Little India" (Little China) "for Kali is 'little.'"—John Marignolli, in Cathay, &c., 373.

1510.—"Scigla alias et Chrongalor vocatur, ea quam Cranganorium dicimus Malabariae urbem, ut testatur idem Jacobus Indiarum episcopus ad calcem Testamenti Novi ab ipso exarati anno Graecorum 1821, Christi 1510, et in fine Epistolarum Pauli, Cod. Syr. Vat. 9 et 12."—In Assemani, Diss. de Syr. Nest., pp. 440, 732.

1844.—"The place (Codungalur) is identified with Tiruvan-jiculam river-harbour, which Cheraman Perumal is said to have declared the best of the existing 18 harbours of Kerala...."—Dr. Gundert, in Madras Journal, xiii. 120.

" "One Kerala Ulpatti (i.e. legendary history of Malabar) of the Nasrani, says that their forefathers ... built Codangalur, as may be learned from the granite inscription at the northern entrance of the Tiruvan-jiculam temple...."—Ibid. 122.

SHINTOO, SINTOO, s. Japanese Shintau, 'the Way of the Gods.' The primitive relation of Japan. It is described by Faria y Sousa and other old writers, but the name does not apparently occur in those older accounts, unless it be in the Seuto of Couto. According to Kaempfer the philosophic or Confucian sect is called in Japan Siuto. But that hardly seems to fit what is said by Couto, and his Seuto seems more likely to be a mistake for Sento. [See Lowell's articles on Esoteric Shintoo, in Proc. As. Soc. Japan, 1893.]

1612.—"But above all these idols they adore one Seutó, of which they say that it is the substance and principle of All, and that its abode is in the Heavens."—Couto, V. viii. 12.

1727.—"Le Sinto qu'on appelle aussi Sinsju et Kamimitsi, est le Culte des Idoles, établi anciennement dans le pays. Sin et Kami sont les noms des Idoles qui font l'object de ce Culte. Siu (sic) signifie la Foi, ou la Religion. Sinsja et au pluriel Sinsju, ce sont les personnes qui professent cette Religion."—Kaempfer, Hist. de Japon, i. 176; [E.T. 204].

1770.—"Far from encouraging that gloomy fanaticism and fear of the gods, which is inspired by almost all other religions, the Xinto sect had applied itself to prevent, or at least to moderate that disorder of the imagination."—Raynal (E.T. 1777), i. 137.

1878.—"The indigenous religion of the Japanese people, called in later times by the name of Shintau or Way of the Gods, in order to distinguish it from the way of the Chinese moral philosophers, and the way of Buddha, had, at the time when Confucianism and Buddhism were introduced, passed through the earliest stages of development."—Westminster Rev., N.S., No. cvii. 29.

[SHIRAZ, n.p. The wine of Shiraz was much imported and used by Europeans in India in the 17th century, and even later.

[1627.—"Sheraz then probably derives it self either from sherab which in the Persian Tongue signifies a Grape here abounding ... or else from sheer which in the Persian signifies Milk."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1677, p. 127.

[1685.—"... three Chests of Sirash wine...."—Pringle, Diary Ft. St. Geo., 1st ser. iv. 109, and see ii. 148.

[1690.—"Each Day there is prepar'd (at Surrat) a Publick Table for the Use of the President and the rest of the Factory.... The Table is spread with the choicest Meat Surrat affords ... and equal plenty of generous Sherash and Arak Punch...."—Ovington, 394.

[1727.—"Shyrash is a large City on the Road, about 550 Miles from Gombroon."—A. Hamilton, ed. 1744, i. 99.

[1813.—"I have never tasted this (pomegranate wine), nor any other Persian wine, except that of Schiraz, which, although much extolled by poets, I think inferior to many wines in Europe."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. i. 468.]

SHIREENBAF, s. Pers. Shīrīnbāf, 'sweet-woof.' A kind of fine cotton stuff, but we cannot say more precisely what.

c. 1343.—"... one hundred pieces of shīrīnbāf...."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 3.

[1609.—"Serribaff, a fine light stuff or cotton whereof the Moors make their cabayes or clothing."—Danvers, Letters, i. 29.]

1673.—"... siring chintz, Broad Baftas...."—Fryer, 88.

SHISHAM. See under SISSOO.

SHISHMUHULL, s. Pers. shīsha-maḥal, lit. 'glass apartment' or palace. This is or was a common appendage of native palaces, viz. a hall or suite of rooms lined with mirror and other glittering surfaces, usually of a gimcrack aspect. There is a place of exactly the same description, now gone to hideous decay, in the absurd Villa Palagonia at Bagheria near Palermo.

1835.—"The Shīsha-mahal, or house of glass, is both curious and elegant, although the material is principally pounded talc and looking-glass. It consists of two rooms, of which the walls in the interior are divided into a thousand different panels, each of which is filled up with raised flowers in silver, gold, and colours, on a ground-work of tiny convex mirrors."—Wanderings of a Pilgrim, i. 365.

SHOE OF GOLD (or of Silver). The name for certain ingots of precious metal, somewhat in the form of a Chinese shoe, but more like a boat, which were formerly current in the trade of the Far East. Indeed of silver they are still current in China, for Giles says: "The common name among foreigners for the Chinese silver ingot, which bears some resemblance to a native shoe. May be of any weight from 1 oz. and even less, to 50 and sometimes 100 oz., and is always stamped by the assayer and banker, in evidence of purity" (Gloss. of Reference, 128). [In Hissar the Chinese silver is called sillī from the slabs (sil) in which it is sold (Maclagan, Mon. on Gold and Silver Work in Punjab, p. 5).] The same form of ingot was probably the bālish (or yāstok) of the Middle Ages, respecting which see Cathay, &c., 115, 481, &c. Both of these latter words mean also 'a cushion,' which is perhaps as good a comparison as either 'shoe' or 'boat.' The word now used in C. Asia is yambū. There are cuts of the gold and silver ingots in Tavernier, whose words suggest what is probably the true origin of the popular English name, viz. a corruption of the Dutch Goldschuyt.

1566.—"... valuable goods exported from this country (China) ... are first, a quantity of gold, which is carried to India, in loaves in the shape of boats...."—C. Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 391b.

1611.—"Then, I tell you, from China I could load ships with cakes of gold fashioned like boats, containing, each of them, roundly speaking, 2 marks weight, and so each cake will be worth 280 pardaos."—Couto, Dialogo do Soldado Pratico, p. 155.

1676.—"The Pieces of Gold mark'd Fig. 1, and 2, are by the Hollanders called Goltschut, that is to say, a Boat of Gold, because they are in the form of a Boat. Other Nations call them Loaves of Gold.... The Great Pieces come to 12 hundred Gilders of Holland Money, and thirteen hundred and fifty Livres of our Money."—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 8.

1702.—"Sent the Moolah to be delivered the Nabob, Dewan, and Buxie 48 China Oranges ... but the Dewan bid the Moolah write the Governor for a hundred more that he might send them to Court; which is understood to be One Hundred shoes of gold, or so many thousand pagodas or rupees."—In Wheeler, i. 397.

1704.—"Price Currant, July, 1704, (at Malacca) ... Gold, China, in Shoos 94 Touch."—Lockyer, 70.

1862.—"A silver ingot 'Yambu' weighs about 2 (Indian) seers ... = 4 lbs., and is worth 165 Co.'s rupees. Koomoosh, also called 'Yambucha,' or small silver ingot, is worth 33 Rs. ... 5 yambuchas, being equal to 1 yambu. There are two descriptions of 'yambucha'; one is a square piece of silver, having a Chinese stamp on it; the other ... in the form of a boat, has no stamp. The Yambu is in the form of a boat, and has a Chinese stamp on it."—Punjab Trade Report, App. ccxxvi.-xxviii. 1.

1875.—"The yámbú or kúrs is a silver ingot something the shape of a deep boat with projecting bow and stern. The upper surface is lightly hollowed, and stamped with a Chinese inscription. It is said to be pure silver, and to weigh 50 (Cashghar) ser = 30,000 grains English."—Report of Forsyth's Mission to Kashghar, 494.

[1876.—"... he received his pay in Chinese yambs (gold coins), at the rate of 128 rubles each, while the real commercial value was only 115 rubles."—Schuyler, Turkistan, ii. 322.

[1901.—A piece of Chinese shoe money, value 10 taels, was exhibited before the Numismatic Society.—Athenaeum, Jan. 26, p. 118. Perhaps the largest specimen known of Chinese "boat-money" was exhibited. It weighed 89½ ounces troy, and represented 50 taels, or £8, 8s. 0d. English.—Ibid. Jan. 25, 1902, p. 120].

SHOE-FLOWER, s. A name given in Madras Presidency to the flower of the Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis, L. It is a literal translation of the Tam. shapāttupu, Singh. sappattumala, a name given because the flowers are used at Madras to blacken shoes. The Malay name Kempang sapatu means the same. Voigt gives shoe-flower as the English name, and adds: "Petals astringent, used by the Chinese to blacken their shoes (?) and eyebrows" (Hortus Suburbanus Calcuttensis, 116-7); see also Drury, s.v. The notion of the Chinese blackening their shoes is surely an error, but perhaps they use it to blacken leather for European use.

[1773.—"The flower (Trepalta, or Morroock) (which commonly by us is called Shoe-flower, because used to black our shoes) is very large, of a deep but beautiful crimson colour."—Ives, 475.]

1791.—"La nuit suivante ... je joignis aux pavots ... une fleur de foule sapatte, qui sert aux cordonniers à teindre leurs cuirs en noir."—B. de St. Pierre, Chaumière Indienne. This foule-sapatte is apparently some quasi Hindustani form of the name (phul-sabāt?) used by the Portuguese.

SHOE-GOOSE, s. This ludicrous corruption of the Pers. siyāh-gosh, lit. 'black-ear,' i.e. lynx (Felis Caracal) occurs in the passage below from A. Hamilton. [The corruption of the same word by the Times, below, is equally amusing.]

[c. 1330.—"... ounces, and another kind something like a greyhound, having only the ears black, and the whole body perfectly white, which among these people is called Siagois."—Friar Jordanus, 18.]

1727.—"Antelopes, Hares and Foxes, are their wild game, which they hunt with Dogs, Leopards, and a small fierce creature called by them a Shoe-goose."—A. Hamilton, i. 124; [ed. 1744, i. 125].

1802.—"... between the cat and the lion, are the ... syagush, the lynx, the tiger-cat...."—Ritson, Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food, 12.

1813.—"The Moguls train another beast for antelope-hunting called the Syah-gush, or black-ears, which appears to be the same as the caracal, or Russian lynx."—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 277; [2nd ed. i. 175 and 169].

[1886.—"In 1760 a Moor named Abdallah arrived in India with a 'Shah Goest' (so spelt, evidently a Shawl Goat) as a present for Mr. Secretary Pitt."—Account of I. O. Records, in Times, Aug. 3.]

SHOKE, s. A hobby, a favourite pursuit or whim. Ar.—shauḳ.

1796.—"This increased my shouq ... for soldiering, and I made it my study to become a proficient in all the Hindostanee modes of warfare."—Mily. Mem. of Lt.-Col. J. Skinner, i. 109.

[1866.—"One Hakim has a shoukh for turning everything ooltapoolta."—Confessions of an Orderly, 94.]

SHOLA, s. In S. India, a wooded ravine; a thicket. Tam. sholāi.

1862.—"At daylight ... we left the Sisipara bungalow, and rode for several miles through a valley interspersed with sholas of rhododendron trees."—Markham, Peru and India, 356.

1876.—"Here and there in the hollows were little jungles; sholas, as they are called."—Sir M. E. Grant-Duff, Notes of Indian Journey, 202.

SHOOCKA, s. Ar.—H. shuḳḳa (properly 'an oblong strip'), a letter from a king to a subject.

1787.—"I have received several melancholy Shukhas from the King (of Dehli) calling on me in the most pressing terms for assistance and support."—Letter of Lord Cornwallis, in Corresp. i. 307.

SHOOLDARRY, s. A small tent with steep sloping roof, two poles and a ridge-piece, and with very low side walls. The word is in familiar use, and is habitually pronounced as we have indicated. But the first dictionary in which we have found it is that of Platts. This author spells the word chholdārī, identifying the first syllable with jhol, signifying 'puckering or bagging.' In this light, however, it seems possible that it is from jhūl in the sense of a bag or wallet, viz. a tent that is crammed into a bag when carried. [The word is in Fallon, with the rather doubtful suggestion that it is a corruption of the English 'soldier's' tent. See PAWL.]

1808.—"I have now a shoaldarree for myself, and a long paul (see PAWL) for my people."—Elphinstone, in Life, i. 183.

[1869.—"... the men in their suldaris, or small single-roofed tents, had a bad time of it...."—Ball, Jungle Life, 156.]

SHRAUB, SHROBB, s. Ar. sharāb; Hind. sharāb, shrāb, 'wine.' See under SHERBET.

SHROFF, s. A money-changer, a banker. Ar. ṣarrāf, ṣairafi, ṣairaf. The word is used by Europeans in China as well as in India, and is there applied to the experts who are employed by banks and mercantile firms to check the quality of the dollars that pass into the houses (see Giles under next word). Also shroffage, for money-dealer's commission. From the same root comes the Heb. sōrēf, 'a goldsmith.' Compare the figure in Malachi, iii. 3: "He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi." Only in Hebrew the goldsmith tests metal, while the ṣairaf tests coins. The Arab poet says of his mare: "Her forefeet scatter the gravel every midday, as the dirhams are scattered at their testing by the ṣairaf" (W. R. S.)

1554.—"Salaries of the officers of the Custom Houses, and other charges for these which the Treasurers have to pay.... Also to the Xarrafo, whose charge it is to see to the money, two pardaos a month, which make for a year seven thousand and two hundred reis."—Botelho, Tombo, in Subsidios, 238.

1560.—"There are in the city many and very wealthy çarafos who change money."—Tenreiro, ch. i.

1584.—"5 tangas make a seraphin (see XERAFINE) of gold; but if one would change them into basaruchies (see BUDGROOK) he may have 5 tangas and 16 basaruchies, which ouerplus they call cerafagio...."—Barret, in Hakl. ii. 410.

1585.—"This present year, because only two ships came to Goa, (the reals) have sold at 12 per cent. of Xarafaggio (shroffage), as this commission is called, from the word Xaraffo, which is the title of the banker."—Sassetti, in De Gubernatis, Storia, p. 203.

1598.—"There is in every place of the street exchangers of money, by them called Xaraffos, which are all christian Jewes."—Linschoten, 66; [Hak. Soc. i. 231, and see 244.]

c. 1610.—"Dans ce Marché ... aussi sont les changeurs qu'ils nomment Cherafes, dont il y en a en plusieurs autres endroits; leurs boutiques sont aux bouts des ruës et carrefours, toutes couuertes de monnoye, dont ils payent tribut au Roy."—Pyrard de Laval, ii. 39; [Hak. Soc. ii. 67].

[1614.—"... having been borne in hand by our Sarafes to pay money there."—Foster, Letters, iii. 282. The "Sheriff of Bantam" (ibid. iv. 7) may perhaps be a shroff, but compare Shereef.]

1673.—"It could not be improved till the Governor had released the Shroffs or Bankers."—Fryer, 413.

1697-8.—"In addition to the cash and property which they had got by plunder, the enemy fixed two lacs of rupees as the price of the ransom of the prisoners.... To make up the balance, the Sarráfs and merchants of Nandurbár were importuned to raise a sum, small or great, by way of loan. But they would not consent."—Kháfí Khán, in Elliot, vii. 362.

1750.—"... the Irruption of the Morattoes into Carnatica, was another event that brought several eminent Shroffs and wealthy Merchants into our Town; insomuch, that I may say, there was hardly a Shroff of any Note, in the Mogul empire but had a House in it; in a word, Madrass was become the Admiration of all the Country People, and the Envy of all our European Neighbours."—Letter to a Proprietor of the E. I. Co. 53-54.

1809.—"I had the satisfaction of hearing the Court order them (i.e. Gen. Martin's executors) to pay two lacs and a half to the plaintiff, a shroff of Lucknow."—Ld. Valentia, i. 243.

[1891.—"The banker in Persia is looked on simply as a small tradesman—in fact the business of the Serof is despised."—Wills, in the Land of the Lion and the Sun, 192].

SHROFF, TO, v. This verb is applied properly to the sorting of different rupees or other coins, so as to discard refuse, and to fix the various amounts of discount or agio upon the rest, establishing the value in standard coin. Hence figuratively 'to sift,' choosing the good (men, horses, facts, or what not) and rejecting the inferior.

[1554.—(See under BATTA, b.)]

1878.—"Shroffing schools are common in Canton, where teachers of the art keep bad dollars for the purpose of exercising their pupils; and several works on the subject have been published there, with numerous illustrations of dollars and other foreign coins, the methods of scooping out silver and filling up with copper or lead, comparisons between genuine and counterfeit dollars, the difference between native and foreign milling, etc., etc."—Giles, Glossary of Reference, 129.

1882.—(The Compradore) "derived a profit from the process of shroffing which (the money received) underwent before being deposited in the Treasury."—The Fankwae at Canton, 55.

SHRUB, s. See under SHERBET.

SHULWAURS, s. Trousers, or drawers rather, of the Oriental kind, the same as pyjammas, long-drawers, or mogul-breeches (qq.v.). The Persian is shalwār, which according to Prof. Max Müller is more correctly shulvār, from shul, 'the thigh,' related to Latin crus, cruris, and to Skt. kshura or khura, 'hoof' (see Pusey on Daniel, 570). Be this as it may, the Ar. form is sirwāl (vulg. sharwāl), pl. sarāwīl, [which Burton (Arab. Nights, i. 205) translates 'bag-trousers' and 'petticoat-trousers,' "the latter being the divided skirt of the future."] This appears in the ordinary editions of the Book of Daniel in Greek, as σαράβαρα, and also in the Vulgate, as follows: "Et capillus capitis eorum non esset adustus, et sarabala eorum non fuissent immutata, et odor ignis non transisset per eos" (iii. 27). The original word is sarbālīn, pl. of sarbāla. Luther, however, renders this Mantel; as the A.V. also does by coats; [the R.V. hosen]. On this Prof. Robertson-Smith writes:

"It is not certain but that Luther and the A.V. are right. The word sarbālīn means 'cloak' in the Gemara; and in Arabic sirbāl is 'a garment, a coat of mail.' Perhaps quite an equal weight of scholarship would now lean (though with hesitation) towards the cloak or coat, and against the breeches theory.

"The Arabic word occurs in the Traditions of the Prophet (Bokhāri, vii. 36).

"Of course it is certain that σαράβαρα comes from the Persian, but not through Arabic. The Bedouins did not wear trowsers in the time of Ammianus, and don't do so now.