P (part 2)

[Abrawan, P. āb-i-ravān, 'flowing water'; a very fine kind of Dacca muslin. 'Woven air' is the name applied in the Arabian Nights to the Patna gauzes, a term originally used for the produce of the Coan looms (Burton, x. 247.) "The Hindoos amuse us with two stories, as instances of the fineness of this muslin. One, that the Emperor Aurungzebe was angry with his daughter for exposing her skin through her clothes; whereupon the young princess remonstrated in her justification that she had seven jamahs (see JAMMA) or suits on; and another, in the Nabob Allaverdy Khawn's time a weaver was chastised and turned out of the city for his neglect, in not preventing his cow from eating up a piece of abrooan, which he had spread and carelessly left on the grass."—Bolt, Considerations on Affairs of India, 206.]

3. ADATIS.

2. ALLEJAS.

3. Alliballies.—"Alaballee (signifying according to the weavers' interpretation of the word 'very fine') is a muslin of fine texture."—(J. Taylor, Account of the Cotton Manufacture at Dacca, 45). According to this the word is perhaps from Ar. ā'lā, 'superior,' H. bhalā, 'good.'

3. Allibanees.—Perhaps from ā'lā, 'superior,' bānā, 'woof.'

1. Annabatchies.

3. Arrahs.—Perhaps from the place of that name in Shahābād, where, according to Buchanan Hamilton (Eastern India, i. 548) there was a large cloth industry.

3. Aubrahs.

2. Aunneketchies.

3. BAFTAS.

3. BANDANNAS.

1. Bejutapauts.—H. be-jūṭā, 'without join,' pāt, 'a piece.'

1. BETEELAS.

3. Blue cloth.

1. Bombay Stuffs.

1. Brawl.—The N.E.D. describes Brawl as a 'blue and white striped cloth manufactured in India.' In a letter of 1616 (Foster, iv. 306) we have "Lolwee champell and Burral." The editor suggests H. biral, 'open in texture, fine.' But Roquefort (s.v.) gives: "Bure, Burel, grosse étoffe en laine de couleur rousse ou grisâtre, dont s'habillent ordinairement les ramoneurs; cette étoffe est faite de brebis noire et brune, sans aucune autre teinture." And see N.E.D. s.v. Borrel.

3. Byrampauts. (See BEIRAMEE.)

2. Callawapores.

3. Callipatties.—H. Kālī, 'black,' pattī, 'strip.'

3. CAMBAYS.

3. Cambrics.

3. Carpets.

3. Carridaries.

2. Cattaketchies.

1. Chalias. (See under SHALEE.)

3. Charconnaes.—H. chār-khāna, 'chequered.' "The charkana, or chequered muslin, is, as regards manufacture, very similar to the Doorea (see DOREAS below). They differ in the breadth of the stripes, their closeness to each other, and the size of the squares." (Forbes Watson, Textile Man. 78). The same name is now applied to a silk cloth. "The word chārkhāna simply means 'a check,' but the term is applied to certain silk or mixed fabrics containing small checks, usually about 8 or 10 checks in a line to an inch." (Yusuf Ali, Mon. on Silk, 93. Also see Journ. Ind. Art, iii. 6.)

1683.—"20 yards of charkonnas."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 94.

2. Chavonis.

1. Chelloes. (See SHALEE.)

3. Chinechuras.—Probably cloth from Chinsura.

1. CHINTZ, of sorts.

3. Chittabullies.

3. Chowtars.—This is almost certainly not identical with Chudder. In a list of cotton cloths in the Āīn (i. 94) we have chautār, which may mean 'made with four threads or wires.' Chautāhī, 'four-fold,' is a kind of cloth used in the Punjab for counterpanes (Francis, Man. Cotton, 7). This cloth is frequently mentioned in the early letters.

1610.—"Chautares are white and well requested."—Danvers, Letters, i. 75.

1614.—"The Chauters of Agra and fine baftas nyll doth not here vend."—Foster, Letters, ii. 45.

1615.—"Four pieces fine white Cowter."—Ibid. iv. 51.

3. Chuclaes.—This may be H. chaklā, chakrī, which Platts defines as 'a kind of cloth made of silk and cotton.'

3. Chunderbannies.—This is perhaps H. chandra, 'the moon,' bānā, 'woof.'

3. Chundraconaes.—Forbes Watson has: "Chunderkana, second quality muslin for handkerchiefs": "Plain white bleached muslin called Chunderkora." The word is probably chandrakhāna, 'moon checks.'

3. Clouts, common coarse cloth, for which see N.E.D.

3. Coopees.—This is perhaps H. kaupin, kopin, 'the small lungooty worn by Fakirs.'

3. Corahs.—H. korā, 'plain, unbleached, undyed.' What is now known as Kora silk is woven in pieces for waist-cloths (see Yusuf Ali, op. cit. 76).

3. Cossaes.—This perhaps represents Ar. khāṣṣa 'special.' In the Āīn we have khāçah in the list of cotton cloths (i. 94). Mr. Taylor describes it as a muslin of a close fine texture, and identifies it with the fine muslin which, according to the Āīn (ii. 124), was produced at Sonārgāon. The finest kind he says is "jungle-khasu." (Taylor, op. cit. 45.)

3. Cushtaes.—These perhaps take their name from Kushtia, a place of considerable trade in the Nadiya District.

3. Cuttannees. (See COTTON.)

1. Dhooties. (See DHOTY.)

3. Diapers.

3. Dimities.

3. Doreas.—H. ḍoriyā, 'striped cloth,' ḍor, 'thread.' In the list in the Āīn (i. 95), Doriyah appears among cotton stuffs. It is now also made in silk: "The simplest pattern is the stripe; when the stripes are longitudinal the fabric is a doriya.... The doriya was originally a cotton fabric, but it is now manufactured in silk, silk-and-cotton, tasar, and other combinations." (Yusuf Ali, op. cit. 57, 94.)

1683.—"3 pieces Dooreas."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 94.

3. DOSOOTIES.

3. DUNGAREES.

3. Dysucksoys.

3. Elatches.—Platts gives H. Ilāchā, 'a kind of cloth woven of silk and thread so as to present the appearance of cardamoms (ilāchī).' But it is almost certainly identical with alleja. It was probably introduced to Agra, where now alone it is made, by the Moghuls. It differs from doriya (see DOREAS above) in having a substantial texture, whereas the doriya is generally flimsy. (Yusuf Ali, op. cit. 95.)

3. Emmerties.—This is H. amratī, imratī, 'sweet as nectar.'

2. GINGHAMS.

2. Gudeloor (dimities).—There is a place of the name in the Neilgherry District, but it does not seem to have any cloth manufacture.

1. GUINEA STUFFS.

3. Gurrahs.—This is probably the H. gārhā: "unbleached fabrics which under names varying in different localities, constitute a large proportion of the clothing of the poor. They are used also for packing goods, and as a covering for the dead, for which last purpose a large quantity is employed both by Hindoos and Mahomedans. These fabrics in Bengal pass under the name of garrha and guzee." (Forbes Watson, op. cit. 83.)

3. Habassies.—Probably P. 'abbāsī, used of cloths dyed in a sort of magenta colour. The recipe is given by Hadi, Mon. on Dyeing in the N.W.P. p. 16.

3. Herba Taffeties.—These are cloths made of Grass-cloth.

3. Humhums, from Ar. ḥammām, 'a Turkish bath' "(apparently so named from its having been originally used at the bath), is a cloth of a thick stout texture, and generally worn as a wrapper in the cold season." (Taylor, op. cit. 63.)

2. Izarees.—P. izār, 'drawers, trousers.' Watson (op. cit. 57, note) says that in some places it is peculiar to men, the women's drawers being Turwar. Herklots (Qanoon-e-Islam, App. xiv.) gives eezar as equivalent to shulwaur, like the pyjamma, but not so wide.

3. Jamdannies.—P.-H. jāmdānī, which is said to be properly jāmahdānī, 'a box for holding a suit.' The jāmdānī is a loom-figured muslin, which Taylor (op. cit. 48) calls "the most expensive productions of the Dacca looms."

3. Jamwars. H. jāmawār, 'sufficient for a dress.' It is not easy to say what stuff is intended by this name. In the Āīn (ii. 240) we have jamahwār, mentioned among Guzerat stuffs worked in gold thread, and again (i. 95) jāmahwār Parmnarm among woollen stuffs. Forbes Watson gives among Kashmīr shawls: "Jamewars, or striped shawl pieces"; in the Punjab they are of a striped pattern made both in pashm and wool (Johnstone, Mon. on Wool, 9), and Mr. Kipling says, "the stripes are broad, of alternate colours, red and blue, &c." (Mukharji, Art Manufactures of India, 374.)

3. Kincha cloth.

3. Kissorsoys.

3. Laccowries.

1. Lemmannees.

3. LONG CLOTHS.

3. LOONGHEES, HERBA. (See GRASS-CLOTH.)

1. LOONGHEE, MAGHRUB. Ar. maghrib, maghrab, 'the west.'

3. Mamoodeatis.

3. Mammoodies. Platts gives Maḥmūdī, 'praised, fine muslin.' The Āīn (i. 94) classes the Maḥmūdī among cotton cloths, and at a low price. A cloth under this name is made at Shāhābād in the Hardoi District. (Oudh Gazetteer, ii. 25.)

2. Monepore cloths. (See MUNNEPORE.)

2. Moorees.—"Moories are blue cloths, principally manufactured in the districts of Nellore and at Canatur in the Chingleput collectorate of Madras.... They are largely exported to the Straits of Malacca." (Balfour, Cycl. ii. 982.)

1684-5.—"Moorees superfine, 1000 pieces."—Pringle, Diary Ft. St. Geo. iv. 41.

3. Muggadooties. (See MOONGA.)

3. MULMULS.

3. Mushrues.—P. mashrū', 'lawful.' It is usually applied to a kind of silk or satin with a cotton back. "Pure silk is not allowed to men, but women may wear the most sumptuous silk fabrics" (Yusuf Ali, op. cit. 90, seq.). "All Mushroos wash well, especially the finer kinds, used for bodices, petticoats, and trousers of both sexes." (Forbes Watson, op. cit. 97.)

1832.—"... Mussheroo (striped washing silks manufactured at Benares)...."—Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali, Observations, i. 106.

1. MUSTERS.

3. Naibabies.

3. Nainsooks.—H. nainsukh, 'pleasure of the eye.' A sort of fine white calico. Forbes Watson (op. cit. 76) says it is used for neckerchiefs, and Taylor (op. cit. 46) defines it as "a thick muslin, apparently identical with the tunsook (tansak'h, Blochmann, i. 94) of the Ayeen." A cloth is made of the same name in silk, imitated from the cotton fabric. (Yusuf Ali, op. cit. 95.)

1. Neganepauts.

1. Nicannees.—Quoting from a paper of 1683, Orme (Fragments, 287) has "6000 Niccanneers, 13 yards long."

3. Nillaes.—Some kind of blue cloth, H. nīlā, 'blue.'

1. Nunsarees.—There is a place called Nansārī in the Bhandāra District (Central Provinces Gazetteer, 346).

2. Oringal (cloths). Probably take their name from the once famous city of Warangal in Hyderabad.

3. PALAMPORES.

3. Peniascoes.—In a paper quoted by Birdwood (Report on Old Records, 40) we have Pinascos, which he says are stuffs made of pine-apple fibre.

2, 3. Percaulas.—H. parkālā, 'a spark, a piece of glass.' These were probably some kind of spangled robe, set with pieces of glass, as some of the modern Phoolkaris are. In the Madras Diaries of 1684-5 we have "Percollaes," and "percolles, fine" (Pringle, i. 53, iii. 119, iv. 41.)

3. Photaes.—In a letter of 1615 we have "Lunges (see LOONGHEE) and Footaes of all sorts." (Foster, Letters, iv. 306), where the editor suggests H. phūṭā, 'variegated.' But in the Āīn we find "Fautahs (loin-bands)" (i. 93), which is the P. foṭa, and this is from the connection the word probably meant.

3. Pulecat handkerchiefs. (See MADRAS handkerchiefs and BANDANNA.)

2. Punjum.—The Madras Gloss. gives Tel. punjamu, Tam. puñjam, lit. 'a collection.' "In Tel. a collection of 60 threads and in Tam. of 120 threads skeined, ready for the formation of the warp for weaving. A cloth is denominated 10, 12, 14, up to 40 poonjam, according to the number of times 60, or else 120, is contained in the total number of threads in the warp. Poonjam thus also came to mean a cloth of the length of one poonjam as usually skeined; this usual length is 36 cubits, or 18 yards, and the width from 38 to 44 inches, 14 lbs. being the common weight; pieces of half length were formerly exported as Salempoory." Writing in 1814, Heyne (Tracts, 347) says: "Here (in Salem) two punjums are designated by 'first call,' so that twelve punjums of cloth is called 'six call,' and so on."

3. Puteahs. (See PUTTEE.) In a letter of 1610 we have: "Patta, katuynen, with red stripes over thwart through." (Danvers, Letters, i. 72.)

2. Putton Ketchies.—Cloths which ossibly took their name from the city of Anhilwāra Patan in Cutch.

1727.—"That country (Tegnapatam) produces Pepper, and coarse Cloth called catchas."—A. Hamilton, i. 335.

3. Raings.—"Rang is a muslin which resembles jhuna in its transparent gauze or net-like texture. It is made by passing a single thread of the warp through each division of the reed" (Taylor, op. cit. 44.) "1 Piece of Raiglins."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 94.

1. Saloopauts. (See SHALEE.)

3. Sannoes.

2. Sassergates.—Some kind of cloth called 'that of the 1000 knots,' H. sahasra granṭhi. "Saserguntees" (Birdwood, Rep. on Old Records, 63).

2. Sastracundees.—These cloths seem to take their name from a place called Sāstrakunḍa, 'Pool of the Law.' This is probably the place named in the Āīn (ed. Jarrett, ii. 124): "In the township of Kiyāra Sundar is a large reservoir which gives a peculiar whiteness to the cloths washed in it." Gladwin reads the name Catarashoonda, or Catarehsoonder (see Taylor, op. cit. 91).

3. Seerbands, Seerbetties.—These are names for turbans, H. sirband, sirbatti. Taylor (op. cit. 47) names them as Dacca muslins under the names of surbund and surbutee.

3. Seershauds.—This is perhaps P. sirshād, 'head-delighting,' some kind of turban or veil.

3. Seersuckers.—Perhaps, sir, 'head,' sukh, 'pleasure.'

3. Shalbaft.—P. shālbāft, 'shawl-weaving.' (See SHAWL.)

3. Sicktersoys.

3. SOOSIES.

3. Subnoms, Subloms.—"Shubnam is a thin pellucid muslin to which the Persian figurative name of 'evening dew' (shabnam) is given, the fabric being, when spread over the bleaching-field, scarcely distinguishable from the dew on the grass." (Taylor, op. cit. 45.)

3. Succatoons. (See SUCLAT.)

3. Taffaties of sorts. "A name applied to plain woven silks, in more recent times signifying a light thin silk stuff with a considerable lustre or gloss" (Drapers' Dict. s.v.). The word comes from P. tāftan, 'to twist, spin.' The Āīn (i. 94) has tāftah in the list of silks.

3. Tainsooks.—H. tansukh, 'taking ease.' (See above under NAINSOOKS.)

3. Tanjeebs. P. tanzeb, 'body adorning.'—"A tolerably fine muslin" (Taylor, op. cit. 46; Forbes Watson, op. cit. 76). "The silk tanzeb seems to have gone out of fashion, but that in cotton is very commonly used for the chicken work in Lucknow." (Yusuf Ali, op. cit. 96.)

1. Tapseils. (See under ALLEJA.) In the Āīn (i. 94) we have: "Tafçilah (a stuff from Mecca)."

1670.—"So that in your house are only left some Tapseiles and cotton yarn."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. ccxxvi. Birdwood in Report on Old Records, 38, has Topsails.

2. Tarnatannes.—"There are various kinds of muslins brought from the East Indies, chiefly from Bengal, betelles (see BETTEELA), tarnatans...." (Chambers' Cycl. of 1788, quoted in 3rd ser. N. & Q. iv. 135). It is suggested (ibid. 3rd ser. iv. 135) that this is the origin of English tarletan, Fr. tarletane, which is defined in the Drapers' Dict. as "a fine open muslin, first imported from India and afterwards imitated here."

3. Tartorees.

3. Tepoys.

3. Terindams.—"Turundam (said by the weavers to mean 'a kind of cloth for the body,' the name being derived from the Arabic word turuh (tarḥ, taraḥ) 'a kind,' and the Persian one undam (andām) 'the body,' is a muslin which was formerly imported, under the name of terendam, into this country." (Taylor, op. cit. 46.)

2. Ventepollams.

PIGDAUN, s. A spittoon; Hind. pīkdān. Pīk is properly the expectorated juice of chewed betel.

[c. 1665.—"... servants ... to carry the Picquedent or spittoon...."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 214. In 283 Piquedans.]

1673.—"The Rooms are spread with Carpets as in India, and they have Pigdans, or Spitting pots of the Earth of this Place, which is valued next to that of China, to void their Spittle in."—Fryer, 223.

[1684.—Hedges speaks of purchasing a "Spitting Cup."—Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 149.]

PIGEON ENGLISH. The vile jargon which forms the means of communication at the Chinese ports between Englishmen who do not speak Chinese, and those Chinese with whom they are in the habit of communicating. The word "business" appears in this kind of talk to be corrupted into "pigeon," and hence the name of the jargon is supposed to be taken. [For examples see Chamberlain, Things Japanese, 3rd ed. pp. 321 seqq.; Ball, Things Chinese, 3rd ed. 430 seqq. (See BUTLER ENGLISH.)]

1880.—"... the English traders of the early days ... instead of inducing the Chinese to make use of correct words rather than the misshapen syllables they had adopted, encouraged them by approbation and example, to establish Pigeon English—a grotesque gibberish which would be laughable if it were not almost melancholy."—Capt. W. Gill, River of Golden Sand, i. 156.

1883.—"The 'Pidjun English' is revolting, and the most dignified persons demean themselves by speaking it.... How the whole English-speaking community, without distinction of rank, has come to communicate with the Chinese in this baby talk is extraordinary."—Miss Bird, Golden Chersonese, 37.

PIG-STICKING. This is Anglo-Indian hog-hunting, or what would be called among a people delighting more in lofty expression, 'the chase of the Wild Boar.' When, very many years since, one of the present writers, destined for the Bengal Presidency, first made acquaintance with an Indian mess-table, it was that of a Bombay regiment at Aden—in fact of that gallant corps which is now known as the 103rd Foot, or Royal Bombay Fusiliers. Hospitable as they were, the opportunity of enlightening an aspirant Bengalee on the short-comings of his Presidency could not be foregone. The chief counts of indictment were three: 1st. The inferiority of the Bengal Horse Artillery system; 2nd. That the Bengalees were guilty of the base effeminacy of drinking beer out of champagne glasses; 3rd. That in pig-sticking they threw the spear at the boar. The two last charges were evidently ancient traditions, maintaining their ground as facts down to 1840 therefore; and showed how little communication practically existed between the Presidencies as late as that year. Both the allegations had long ceased to be true, but probably the second had been true in the 18th century, as the third certainly had been. This may be seen from the quotation from R. Lindsay, and by the text and illustrations of Williamson's Oriental Field Sports (1807), [and much later (see below)]. There is, or perhaps we should say more diffidently there was, still a difference between the Bengal practice in pig-sticking, and that of Bombay. The Bengal spear is about 6½ feet long, loaded with lead at the butt so that it can be grasped almost quite at the end and carried with the point down, inclining only slightly to the front; the boar's charge is received on the right flank, when the point, raised to 45° or 50° of inclination, if rightly guided, pierces him in the shoulder. The Bombay spear is a longer weapon, and is carried under the armpit like a dragoon's lance. Judging from Elphinstone's statement below we should suppose that the Bombay as well as the Bengal practice originally was to throw the spear, but that both independently discarded this, the Qui-his adopting the short overhand spear, the Ducks the long lance.

1679.—"In the morning we went a hunting of wild Hoggs with Kisna Reddy, the chief man of the Islands" (at mouth of the Kistna) "and about 100 other men of the island (Dio) with lances and Three score doggs, with whom we killed eight Hoggs great and small, one being a Bore very large and fatt, of greate weight."—Consn. of Agent and Council of Fort St. Geo. on Tour. In Notes and Exts. No. II.

The party consisted of Streynsham Master "Agent of the Coast and Bay," with "Mr. Timothy Willes and Mr. Richard Mohun of the Councell, the Minister, the Chyrurgeon, the Schoolmaster, the Secretary, and two Writers, an Ensign, 6 mounted soldiers and a Trumpeter," in all 17 Persons in the Company's Service, and "Four Freemen, who went with the Agent's Company for their own pleasure, and at their own charges." It was a Tour of Visitation of the Factories.

1773.—The Hon. R. Lindsay does speak of the "Wild-boar chase"; but he wrote after 35 years in England, and rather eschews Anglo-Indianisms:

"Our weapon consisted only of a short heavy spear, three feet in length, and well poised; the boar being found and unkennelled by the spaniels, runs with great speed across the plain, is pursued on horseback, and the first rider who approaches him throws the javelin...."—Lives of the Lindsays, iii. 161.

1807.—"When (the hog) begins to slacken, the attack should be commenced by the horseman who may be nearest pushing on to his left side; into which the spear should be thrown, so as to lodge behind the shoulder blade, and about six inches from the backbone."—Williamson, Oriental Field Sports, p. 9. (Left must mean hog's right.) This author says that the bamboo shafts were 8 or 9 feet long, but that very short ones had formerly been in use; thus confirming Lindsay.

1816.—"We hog-hunt till two, then tiff, and hawk or course till dusk ... we do not throw our spears in the old way, but poke with spears longer than the common ones, and never part with them."—Elphinstone's Life, i. 311.

[1828.—"... the boar who had made good the next cane with only a slight scratch from a spear thrown as he was charging the hedge."—Orient. Sport. Mag. reprint 1873, i. 116.]

1848.—"Swankey of the Body-Guard himself, that dangerous youth, and the greatest buck of all the Indian army now on leave, was one day discovered by Major Dobbin, tête-à-tête with Amelia, and describing the sport of pigsticking to her with great humour and eloquence."—Vanity Fair, ii. 288.

1866.—"I may be a young pig-sticker, but I am too old a sportsman to make such a mistake as that."—Trevelyan, The Dawk Bungalow, in Fraser, lxxiii. 387.

1873.—"Pigsticking may be very good fun...."—A True Reformer, ch. i.

1876.—"You would perhaps like tiger-hunting or pig-sticking; I saw some of that for a season or two in the East. Everything here is poor stuff after that."—Daniel Deronda, ii. ch. xi.

1878.—"In the meantime there was a 'pig-sticking' meet in the neighbouring district."—Life in the Mofussil, i. 140.

PIG-TAIL, s. This term is often applied to the Chinaman's long plait of hair, by transfer from the queue of our grandfathers, to which the name was much more appropriate. Though now universal among the Chinese, this fashion was only introduced by their Manchu conquerors in the 17th century, and was "long resisted by the natives of the Amoy and Swatow districts, who, when finally compelled to adopt the distasteful fashion, concealed the badge of slavery beneath cotton turbans, the use of which has survived to the present day" (Giles, Glossary of Reference, 32). Previously the Chinese wore their unshaven back hair gathered in a net, or knotted in a chignon. De Rhodes (Rome, 1615, p. 5) says of the people of Tongking, that "like the Chinese they have the custom of gathering the hair in fine nets under the hat."

1879.—"One sees a single Sikh driving four or five Chinamen in front of him, having knotted their pigtails together for reins."—Miss Bird, Golden Chersonese, 283.

PILAU, PILOW, PILÁF, &c., s. Pers. pulāo, or pilāv, Skt. pulāka, 'a ball of boiled rice.' A dish, in origin purely Mahommedan, consisting of meat, or fowl, boiled along with rice and spices. Recipes are given by Herklots, ed. 1863, App. xxix.; and in the Āīn-i-Akbarī (ed. Blochmann, i. 60), we have one for ḳīma pulāo (ḳīma = 'hash') with several others to which the name is not given. The name is almost as familiar in England as curry, but not the thing. It was an odd circumstance, some 45 years ago, that the two surgeons of a dragoon regiment in India were called Currie and Pilleau.

1616.—"Sometimes they boil pieces of flesh or hens, or other fowl, cut in pieces in their rice, which dish they call pillaw. As they order it they make it a very excellent and a very well tasted food."—Terry, in Purchas, ii. 1471.

c. 1630.—"The feast begins: it was compounded of a hundred sorts of pelo and candied dried meats."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1638, p. 138, [and for varieties, p. 310].

[c. 1660.—"... my elegant hosts were fully employed in cramming their mouths with as much Pelau as they could contain...."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 121.]

1673.—"The most admired Dainty wherewith they stuff themselves is Pullow, whereof they will fill themselves to the Throat and receive no hurt, it being so well prepared for the Stomach."—Fryer, 399. See also p. 93. At p. 404 he gives a recipe.

1682.—"They eate their pilaw and other spoone-meate withoute spoones, taking up their pottage in the hollow of their fingers."—Evelyn, Diary, June 19.

1687.—"They took up their Mess with their Fingers, as the Moors do their Pilaw, using no Spoons."—Dampier, i. 430.

1689.—"Palau, that is Rice boil'd ... with Spices intermixt, and a boil'd Fowl in the middle, is the most common Indian Dish."—Ovington, 397.

1711.—"They cannot go to the Price of a Pilloe, or boil'd Fowl and Rice; but the better sort make that their principal Dish."—Lockyer, 231.

1793.—"On a certain day ... all the Musulman officers belonging to your department shall be entertained at the charge of the Sircar, with a public repast, to consist of Pullao of the first sort."—Select Letters of Tippoo S., App. xlii.

c. 1820.—

"And nearer as they came, a genial savour

Of certain stews, and roast-meats, and pilaus,

Things which in hungry mortals' eyes find favour."—Don Juan, v. 47.

1848.—"'There's a pillau, Joseph, just as you like it, and Papa has brought home the best turbot in Billingsgate.'"—Vanity Fair, i. 20.

PINANG, s. This is the Malay word for Areca, and it is almost always used by the Dutch to indicate that article, and after them by some Continental writers of other nations. The Chinese word for the same product—pin-lang—is probably, as Bretschneider says, a corruption of the Malay word. (See PENANG.)

[1603.—"They (the Javans) are very great eaters—and they haue a certaine hearbe called bettaile (see BETEL) which they vsually have carryed with them wheresouer they goe, in boxes, or wrapped vp in a cloath like a sugar loafe: and also a nut called Pinange, which are both in operation very hott, and they eate them continually to warme them within, and keepe them from the fluxe. They do likewise take much tabacco, and also opium."—E. Scott, An Exact Discovrse, &c., of the East Indies, 1606, Sig. N. 2.

[1665.—"Their ordinary food ... is Rice, Wheat, Pinange...."—Sir T. Herbert, Travels, 1677, p. 365 (Stanf. Dict.).]

1726.—"But Shah Sousa gave him (viz. Van der Broek, an envoy to Rajmahal in 1655) good words, and regaled him with Pinang (a great favour), and promised that he should be amply paid for everything."—Valentijn, v. 165.

PINDARRY, s. Hind. pinḍārī, pinḍārā, but of which the more original form appears to be Mahr. penḍhārī, a member of a band of plunderers called in that language penḍhār and penḍhārā. The etymology of the word is very obscure. We may discard as a curious coincidence only, the circumstance observed by Mr. H. T. Prinsep, in the work quoted below (i. 37, note), that "Pindara seems to have the same reference to Pandour that Kuzāk has to Cossack." Sir John Malcolm observes that the most popular etymology among the natives ascribes the name to the dissolute habits of the class, leading them to frequent the shops dealing in an intoxicating drink called pinda. (One of the senses of penḍhā, according to Molesworth's Mahr. Dict., is 'a drink for cattle and men, prepared from Holcus sorghum' (see JOWAUR) 'by steeping it and causing it to ferment.') Sir John adds: 'Kurreem Khan' (a famous Pindarry leader) 'told me he had never heard of any other reason for the name; and Major Henley had the etymology confirmed by the most intelligent of the Pindarries of whom he enquired' (Central India, 2nd ed. i. 433). Wilson again considers the most probable derivation to be from the Mahr. penḍhā, but in the sense of a 'bundle of rice-straw,' and hara, 'who takes,' because the name was originally applied to horsemen who hung on to an army, and were employed in collecting forage. We cannot think either of the etymologies very satisfactory. We venture another, as a plausible suggestion merely. Both pinḍ-paṛnā in Hindi, and pinḍās-basneṅ in Mahr. signify 'to follow'; the latter being defined 'to stick closely to; to follow to the death; used of the adherence of a disagreeable fellow.' Such phrases would aptly apply to these hangers-on of an army in the field, looking out for prey. [The question has been discussed by Mr. W. Irvine in an elaborate note published in the Indian Antiq. of 1900. To the above three suggestions he adds two made by other authorities: 4. that the term was taken from the Beder race; 5. from Pinḍārā, pinḍ, 'a lump of food,' ār, 'bringer,' a plunderer. As to the fourth suggestion, he remarks that there was a Beder race dwelling in Mysore, Belary and the Nizam's territories. But the objection to this etymology is that as far back as 1748 both words, Bedar and Pinḍārī, are used by the native historian, Rām Singh Munshī, side by side, but applied to different bodies of men. Mr. Irvine's suggestion is that the word Pinḍārī, or more strictly Panḍhār, comes from a place or region called Pāndhār or Pandhār. This place is referred to by native historians, and seems to have been situated between Burhānpur and Handiya on the Nerbudda. There is good evidence to prove that large numbers of Pindāris were settled in this part of the country. Mr. Irvine sums up by saying: "If it were not for a passage in Grant Duff (H. of the Mahrattas, Bombay reprint, 157), I should have been ready to maintain that I had proved my case. My argument requires two things to make it irrefutable: (1) a very early connection between Pandhār and the Pindhāris; (2) that the Pindhāris had no early home or settlement outside Pandhār. As to the first point, the recorded evidence seems to go no further back than 1794, when Sendhiah granted them lands in Nimār; whereas before that time the name had become fixed, and had even crept into Anglo-Indian vocabularies. As to the second point, Grant Duff says, and he if anybody must have known, that "there were a number of Pindhāris about the borders of Mahārāshtra and the Carnatic...." Unless these men emigrated from Khandesh about 1726 (that is a hundred years before 1826, the date of Grant Duff's book), their presence in the South with the same name tends to disprove any special connection between their name, Pindhāri, and a place, Pindhār, several hundred miles from their country. On the other hand, it is a very singular coincidence that men known as Pindhāris should have been newly settled about 1794 in a country which had been known as Pandhār at least ninety years before they thus occupied it. Such a mere fortuitous connection between Pandhār and the Pindhāris is so extraordinary that we may call it an impossibility. A fair inference is that the region Pandhār was the original home of the Pindhāris, that they took their name from it, and that grants of land between Burhānpur and Handiya were made to them in what had always been their home-country, namely Pandhār."]

The Pinḍārīs seem to have grown up in the wars of the late Mahommedan dynasties in the Deccan, and in the latter part of the 17th century attached themselves to the Mahrattas in their revolt against Aurangzīb; the first mention which we have seen of the name occurs at this time. For some particulars regarding them we refer to the extract from Prinsep below. During and after the Mahratta wars of Lord Wellesley's time many of the Pinḍārī leaders obtained grants of land in Central India from Sindia and Holkar, and in the chaos which reigned at that time outside the British territory their raids in all directions, attended by the most savage atrocities, became more and more intolerable; these outrages extended from Bundelkhand on the N.E., Kadapa on the S., and Orissa on the S.E., to Guzerat on the W., and at last repeatedly violated British territory. In a raid made upon the coast extending from Masulipatam northward, the Pinḍārīs in ten days plundered 339 villages, burning many, killing and wounding 682 persons, torturing 3600, and carrying off or destroying property to the amount of £250,000. It was not, however, till 1817 that the Governor-General, the Marquis of Hastings, found himself armed with permission from home, and in a position to strike at them effectually, and with the most extensive strategic combinations ever brought into action in India. The Pinḍārīs were completely crushed, and those of the native princes who supported them compelled to submit, whilst the British power for the first time was rendered truly paramount throughout India.

1706-7.—"Zoolfecar Khan, after the rains pursued Dhunnah, who fled to the Beejapore country, and the Khan followed him to the banks of the Kistnah. The Pinderrehs took Velore, which however was soon retaken.... A great caravan, coming from Aurungabad, was totally plundered and everything carried off, by a body of Mharattas, at only 12 coss distance from the imperial camp."—Narrative of a Bondeela Officer, app. to Scott's Tr. of Firishta's H. of Deccan, ii. 122. [On this see Malcolm, Central India, 2nd ed. i. 426. Mr. Irvine in the paper quoted above shows that it is doubtful if the author really used the word. "By a strange coincidence the very copy used by J. Scott is now in the British Museum. On turning to the passage I find 'Peḍā Baḍar,' a well-known man of the period, and not Pindārā or Pinderreh at all."]

1762.—"Siwaee Madhoo Rao ... began to collect troops, stores, and heavy artillery, so that he at length assembled near 100,000 horse, 60,000 Pindarehs, and 50,000 matchlock foot.... In reference to the Pindarehs, it is not unknown that they are a low tribe of robbers entertained by some of the princes of the Dakhan, to plunder and lay waste the territories of their enemies, and to serve for guides."—H. of Hydur Naik, by Meer Hassan Ali Khan, 149. [Mr. Irvine suspects that this may be based on a misreading as in the former quotation. The earliest undoubted mention of the name in native historians is by Rām Singh (1748). There is a doubtful reference in the Tārīkh-i-Muhammadī (1722-23)].

1784.—"Bindarras, who receive no pay, but give a certain monthly sum to the commander-in-chief for permission to maraud, or plunder, under sanction of his banners."—Indian Vocabulary, s.v.

1803.—"Depend upon it that no Pindarries or straggling horse will venture to your rear, so long as you can keep the enemy in check, and your detachment well in advance."—Wellington, ii. 219.

1823.—"On asking an intelligent old Pindarry, who came to me on the part of Kurreem Khan, the reason of this absence of high character, he gave me a short and shrewd answer: 'Our occupation' (said he) 'was incompatible with the fine virtues and qualities you state; and I suppose if any of our people ever had them, the first effect of such good feeling would be to make him leave our community.'"—Sir John Malcolm, Central India, i. 436.

[ " "He had ascended on horseback ... being mounted on a Pindaree pony, an animal accustomed to climbing."—Hoole, Personal Narrative, 292.]

1825.—"The name of Pindara is coeval with the earliest invasion of Hindoostan by the Mahrattas.... The designation was applied to a sort of sorry cavalry that accompanied the Pêshwa's armies in their expeditions, rendering them much the same service as the Cossacks perform for the armies of Russia.... The several leaders went over with their bands from one chief to another, as best suited their private interests, or those of their followers.... The rivers generally became fordable by the close of the Dussera. The horses then were shod, and a leader of tried courage and conduct having been chosen as Luhbureea, all that were inclined set forth on a foray or Luhbur, as it was called in the Pindaree nomenclature; all were mounted, though not equally well. Out of a thousand, the proportion of good cavalry might be 400: the favourite weapon was a bamboo spear ... but ... it was a rule that every 15th or 20th man of the fighting Pindarees should be armed with a matchlock. Of the remaining 600, 400 were usually common looteas (see LOOTY), indifferently mounted, and armed with every variety of weapon, and the rest, slaves, attendants, and camp-followers, mounted on tattoos, or wild ponies, and keeping up with the luhbur in the best manner they could."—Prinsep, Hist. of Pol. and Mil. Transactions (1813-1823), i. 37, note.

1829.—"The person of whom she asked this question said 'Brinjaree' (see BRINJARRY) ... but the lady understood him Pindaree, and the name was quite sufficient. She jumped out of the palanquin and ran towards home, screaming, 'Pindarees, Pindarees.'"—Mem. of John Shipp, ii. 281.

[1861.—

"So I took to the hills of Malwa, and the free Pindaree life."]

Sir A. Lyall, The Old Pindaree.

PINE-APPLE. (See ANANAS.) [The word has been corrupted by native weavers into pinaphal or minaphal, as the name of a silk fabric, so called because of the pine-apple pattern on it. (See Yusuf Ali, Mon. on Silk, 99.)]

PINJRAPOLE, s. A hospital for animals, existing perhaps only in Guzerat, is so called. Guz. pinjrāpor or pinjrapol, [properly a cage (pinjra) for the sacred bull (pola) released in the name of Siva]. See Heber, ed. 1844, ii. 120, and Ovington, 300-301; [P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 67, 70. Forbes (Or. Mem. 2nd ed. i. 156) describes "the Banian hospital" at Surat; but they do not use this word, which Molesworth says is quite modern in Mahr.]

1808.—"Every marriage and mercantile transaction among them is taxed with a contribution for the Pinjrapole ostensibly."—R. Drummond.

PINTADO. From the Port.

a. A 'painted' (or 'spotted') cloth, i.e. chintz (q.v.). Though the word was applied, we believe, to all printed goods, some of the finer Indian chintzes were, at least in part, finished by hand-painting.

1579.—"With cloth of diverse colours, not much unlike our vsuall pentadoes."—Drake, World Encompassed, Hak. Soc. 143.

[1602.—"... some fine pinthadoes."—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 34.]

1602-5.—"... about their loynes a fine Pintadoe."—Scot's Discourse of Iava, in Purchas, i. 164.

1606.—"Heare the Generall deliuered a Letter from the KINGS MAIESTIE of ENGLAND, with a fayre standing Cuppe, and a cover double gilt, with divers of the choicest Pintadoes, which hee kindly accepted of."—Middleton's Voyage, E. 3.

[1610.—"Pintadoes of divers sorts will sell.... The names are Sarassa, Berumpury, large Chaudes, Selematt Cambaita, Selematt white and black, Cheat Betime and divers others."—Danvers, Letters, i. 75.

c. 1630.—"Also they stain Linnen cloth, which we call pantadoes."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1677, p. 304.]

1665.—"To Woodcott ... where was a roome hung with Pintado, full of figures greate and small, prettily representing sundry trades and occupations of the Indians."—Evelyn's Diary, Dec. 30.

c. 1759.—"The chintz and other fine painted goods, will, if the market is not overstocked, find immediate vent, and sell for 100 p. cent."—Letter from Pegu, in Dalrymple, Or. Rep. i. 120.

b. A name (not Anglo-Indian) for the Guinea-fowl. This may have been given from the resemblance of the speckled feathers to a chintz. But in fact pinta in Portuguese is 'a spot,' or fleck, so that probably it only means speckled. This is the explanation of Bluteau. [The word is more commonly applied to the cape Pigeon. See Mr. Gray's note on Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 21, who quotes from Fryer, p. 12.]

PISACHEE, Skt. piśāchī, a she-demon, m. piśācha. In S. India some of the demons worshipped by the ancient tribes are so called. The spirits of the dead, and particularly of those who have met with violent deaths, are especially so entitled. They are called in Tamil pey. Sir Walter Elliot considers that the Piśāchīs were (as in the case of Rākshasas) a branch of the aboriginal inhabitants. In a note he says: 'The Piśāchī dialect appears to have been a distinct Dravidian dialect, still to be recognised in the speech of the Paraiya, who cannot pronounce distinctly some of the pure Tamil letters.' There is, however, in the Hindu drama a Piśāchā bhāshā, a gibberish or corruption of Sanskrit, introduced. [This at the present day has been applied to English.] The term piśāchī is also applied to the small circular storms commonly by Europeans called devils (q.v.). We do not know where Archdeacon Hare (see below) found the Piśāchī to be a white demon.

1610.—"The fifth (mode of Hindu marriage) is the Pisácha-viváha, when the lover, without obtaining the sanction of the girl's parents, takes her home by means of talismans, incantations, and such like magical practices, and then marries her. Pisách, in Sanskrit, is the name of a demon, which takes whatever person it fixes on, and as the above marriage takes place after the same manner, it has been called by this name."—The Dabistán, ii. 72; [See Manu, iii. 34].

c. 1780.—"'Que demandez-vous?' leur criai-je d'un ton de voix rude. 'Pourquoi restez-vous là à m'attendre? et d'où vient que ces autres femmes se sont enfuies, comme si j'étois un Péschaseh (esprit malin), ou une bête sauvage qui voulût vous devorer?'"—Haafner, ii. 287.

1801.—"They believe that such men as die accidental deaths become Pysáchi, or evil spirits, and are exceedingly troublesome by making extraordinary noises, in families, and occasioning fits and other diseases, especially in women."—F. Buchanan's Mysore, iii. 17.

1816.—"Whirlwinds ... at the end of March, and beginning of April, carry dust and light things along with them, and are called by the natives peshashes or devils."—Asiatic Journal, ii. 367.

1819.—"These demons or peisaches are the usual attendants of Shiva."—Erskine on Elephanta, in Bo. Lit. Soc. Trans. i. 219.

1827.—"As a little girl was playing round me one day with her white frock over her head, I laughingly called her Pisashee, the name which the Indians give to their white devil. The child was delighted with so fine a name, and ran about the house crying out to every one she met, I am the Pisashee, I am the Pisashee. Would she have done so, had she been wrapt in black, and called witch or devil instead? No: for, as usual, the reality was nothing, the sound and colour everthing."—J. C. Hare, in Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1st Series, ed. 1838, p. 7.

PISANG, s. This is the Malay word for plantain or banana (qq.v.). It is never used by English people, but is the usual word among the Dutch, and common also among the Germans, [Norwegians and Swedes, who probably got it through the Dutch.]

1651.—"Les Cottewaniens vendent des fruits, come du Pisang, &c."—A. Roger, La Porte Ouverte, p. 11.

c. 1785.—"Nous arrivâmes au grand village de Colla, où nous vîmes de belles allées de bananiers ou pisang...."—Haafner, ii. 85.

[1875.—"Of the pisang or plantain ... there are over thirty kinds, of which, the Pisang-mas, or golden plantain, so named from its colour, though one of the smallest, is nevertheless most deservedly prized."—Thomson, The Straits of Malacca, 8.]

PISHPASH, s. Apparently a factitious Anglo-Indian word, applied to a slop of rice-soup with small pieces of meat in it, much used in the Anglo-Indian nursery. [It is apparently P. pash-pash, 'shivered or broken in pieces'; from Pers. pashīdan.]

1834.—"They found the Secretary disengaged, that is to say, if surrounded with huge volumes of Financial Reports on one side, and a small silver tray holding a mess of pishpash on the other, can be called disengaged."—The Baboo, &c. i. 85.

PITARRAH, s. A coffer or box used in travelling by palankin, to carry the traveller's clothes, two such being slung to a banghy (q.v.). Hind. piṭārā, peṭārā, Skt. piṭaka, 'a basket.' The thing was properly a basket made of cane; but in later practice of tin sheet, with a light wooden frame.

[1833.—"... he sat in the palanquin, which was filled with water up to his neck, whilst everything he had in his batara (or 'trunk') was soaked with wet...."—Travels of Dr. Wolff, ii. 198.]

1849.—"The attention of the staff was called to the necessity of putting their pitarahs and property in the Bungalow, as thieves abounded. 'My dear Sir,' was the reply, 'we are quite safe; we have nothing.'"—Delhi Gazette, Nov. 7.

1853.—"It was very soon settled that Oakfield was to send to the dák bungalow for his petarahs, and stay with Staunton for about three weeks."—W. D. Arnold, Oakfield, i. 223.

PLANTAIN, s. This is the name by which the Musa sapientum is universally known to Anglo-India. Books distinguish between the Musa sapientum or plantain, and the Musa paradisaica or banana; but it is hard to understand where the line is supposed to be drawn. Variation is gradual and infinite.

The botanical name Musa represents the Ar. mauz, and that again is from the Skt. mocha. The specific name sapientum arises out of a misunderstanding of a passage in Pliny, which we have explained under the head Jack. The specific paradisaica is derived from the old belief of Oriental Christians (entertained also, if not originated by the Mahommedans) that this was the tree from whose leaves Adam and Eve made themselves aprons. A further mystical interest attached also to the fruit, which some believed to be the forbidden apple of Eden. For in the pattern formed by the core or seeds, when the fruit was cut across, our forefathers discerned an image of the Cross, or even of the Crucifix. Medieval travellers generally call the fruit either Musa or 'Fig of Paradise,' or sometimes 'Fig of India,' and to this day in the W. Indies the common small plantains are called 'figs.' The Portuguese also habitually called it 'Indian Fig.' And this perhaps originated some confusion in Milton's mind, leading him to make the Banyan (Ficus Indica of Pliny, as of modern botanists) the Tree of the aprons, and greatly to exaggerate the size of the leaves of that ficus.

The name banana is never employed by the English in India, though it is the name universal in the London fruit-shops, where this fruit is now to be had at almost all seasons, and often of excellent quality, imported chiefly, we believe, from Madeira, [and more recently from Jamaica. Mr. Skeat adds that in the Strait Settlements the name plantain seems to be reserved for those varieties which are only eatable when cooked, but the word banana is used indifferently with plantain, the latter being on the whole perhaps the rarer word].

The name plantain is no more originally Indian than is banana. It, or rather platano, appears to have been the name under which the fruit was first carried to the W. Indies, according to Oviedo, in 1516; the first edition of his book was published in 1526. That author is careful to explain that the plant was improperly so called, as it was quite another thing from the platanus described by Pliny. Bluteau says the word is Spanish. We do not know how it came to be applied to the Musa. [Mr. Guppy (8 ser. Notes & Queries, viii. 87) suggests that "the Spaniards have obtained platano from the Carib and Galibi words for banana, viz., balatanna and palatana, by the process followed by the Australian colonists when they converted a native name for the casuarina trees into 'she-oak'; and that we can thus explain how platano came in Spanish to signify both the plane-tree and the banana." Prof. Skeat (Concise Dict. s.v.) derives plantain from Lat. planta, 'a plant'; properly 'a spreading sucker or shoot'; and says that the plantain took its name from its spreading leaf.] The rapid spread of the plantain or banana in the West, whence both names were carried back to India, is a counterpart to the rapid diffusion of the ananas in the Old World of Asia. It would seem from the translation of Mendoça that in his time (1585) the Spaniards had come to use the form plantano, which our Englishmen took up as plantan and plantain. But even in the 1736 edition of Bailey's Dict. the only explanation of plantain given is as the equivalent of the Latin plantago, the field-weed known by the former name. Platano and Plantano are used in the Philippine Islands by the Spanish population.

1336.—"Sunt in Syriâ et Aegypto poma oblonga quae Paradisi nuncupantur optimi saporis, mollia, in ore cito dissolubilia: per transversum quotiescumque ipsa incideris invenies Crucifixum ... diu non durant, unde per mare ad nostras partes duci non possunt incorrupta."—Gul. de Boldensele.

c. 1350.—"Sunt enim in orto illo Adae de Seyllano primo musae, quas incolae ficus vocant ... et istud vidimus oculis nostris quod ubicunque inciditur per transversum, in utrâque parte incisurae videtur ymago hominis crucifixi ... et de istis foliis ficûs Adam et Eva fecerunt sibi perizomata...."—John de' Marignolli, in Cathay, &c. p. 352.

1384.—"And there is again a fruit which many people assert to be that regarding which our first father Adam sinned, and this fruit they call Muse ... in this fruit you see a very great miracle, for when you divide it anyway, whether lengthways or across, or cut it as you will, you shall see inside, as it were, the image of the Crucifix; and of this we comrades many times made proof."—Viaggio di Simone Sigoli (Firenze, 1862, p. 160).

1526 (tr. 1577).—"There are also certayne plantes whiche the Christians call Platani. In the myddest of the plant, in the highest part thereof, there groweth a cluster with fourtie or fiftie platans about it.... This cluster ought to be taken from the plant, when any one of the platans begins to appeare yelowe, at which time they take it, and hang it in their houses, where all the cluster waxeth rype, with all his platans."—Oviedo, transl. in Eden's Hist. of Travayle, f. 208.

1552 (tr. 1582).—"Moreover the Ilande (of Mombas) is verye pleasaunt, having many orchards, wherein are planted and are groweing ... Figges of the Indias...."—Castañeda, by N. L., f. 22.

1579.—"... a fruit which they call Figo (Magellane calls it a figge of a span long, but it is no other than that which the Spaniards and Portingalls have named Plantanes)."—Drake's Voyage, Hak. Soc. p. 142.

1585 (tr. 1588).—"There are mountaines very thicke of orange trees, siders [i.e. cedras, 'citrons'], limes, plantanos, and palmas."—Mendoça, by R. Parke, Hak. Soc. ii. 330.

1588.—"Our Generall made their wiues to fetch vs Plantans, Lymmons, and Oranges, Pine-apples, and other fruits."—Voyage of Master Thomas Candish, in Purchas, i. 64.

1588 (tr. 1604).—"... the first that shall be needefulle to treate of is the Plantain (Platano), or Plantano, as the vulgar call it.... The reason why the Spaniards call it platano (for the Indians had no such name), was, as in other trees for that they have found some resemblance of the one with the other, even as they called some fruites prunes, pines, and cucumbers, being far different from those which are called by those names in Castille. The thing wherein was most resemblance, in my opinion, between the platanos at the Indies and those which the ancients did celebrate, is the greatnes of the leaves.... But, in truth, there is no more comparison nor resemblance of the one with the other than there is, as the Proverb saith, betwixt an egge and a chesnut."—Joseph de Acosta, transl. by E. G., Hak. Soc. i. 241.

1593.—"The plantane is a tree found in most parts of Afrique and America, of which two leaves are sufficient to cover a man from top to toe."—Hawkins, Voyage into the South Sea, Hak. Soc. 49.

1610.—"... and every day failed not to send each man, being one and fiftie in number, two cakes of white bread, and a quantitie of Dates and Plantans...."—Sir H. Middleton, in Purchas, i. 254.

c. 1610.—"Ces Gentils ayant pitié de moy, il y eut vne femme qui me mit ... vne seruiete de feuilles de plantane accommodées ensemble auec des espines, puis me ietta dessus du rys cuit auec vne certaine sauce qu'ils appellent caril (see CURRY)...."—Mocquet, Voyages, 292.

[ " "They (elephants) require ... besides leaves of trees, chiefly of the Indian fig, which we call Bananes and the Turks plantenes."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 345.]

1616.—"They have to these another fruit we English there call a Planten, of which many of them grow in clusters together ... very yellow when they are Ripe, and then they taste like unto a Norwich Pear, but much better."—Terry, ed. 1665, p. 360.

c. 1635.—

"... with candy Plantains and the juicy Pine,

On choicest Melons and sweet Grapes they dine,

And with Potatoes fat their wanton wine."

Waller, Battle of the Summer Islands.

c. 1635.—

"Oh how I long my careless Limbs to lay

Under the Plantain's Shade; and all the Day

With amorous Airs my Fancy entertain."

Waller, Battle of the Summer Islands.

c. 1660.—

"The Plant (at Brasil Bacone call'd) the Name

Of the Eastern Plane-tree takes, but not the same:

Bears leaves so large, one single Leaf can shade

The Swain that is beneath her Covert laid;

Under whose verdant Leaves fair Apples grow,

Sometimes two Hundred on a single Bough...."

Cowley, of Plants, Bk. v.

1664.—

"Wake, Wake Quevera! Our soft rest must cease,

And fly together with our country's peace.

No more must we sleep under plantain shade,

Which neither heat could pierce nor cold invade;

Where bounteous Nature never feels decay,

And opening buds drive falling fruits away."

Dryden, Prologue to the Indian Queen.

1673.—"Lower than these, but with a Leaf far broader, stands the curious Plantan, loading its tender Body with a Fruit, whose clusters emulate the Grapes of Canaan, which burthened two men's shoulders."—Fryer, 19.

1686.—"The Plantain I take to be King of all Fruit, not except the Coco itself."—Dampier, i. 311.

1689.—"... and now in the Governour's Garden (at St. Helena) and some others of the Island are quantities of Plantins, Bonanoes, and other delightful Fruits brought from the East...."—Ovington, 100.

1764.—

"But round the upland huts, bananas plant;

A wholesome nutriment bananas yield,

And sunburnt labour loves its breezy shade,

Their graceful screen let kindred plantanes join,

And with their broad vans shiver in the breeze."

Grainger, Bk. iv.

1805.—"The plantain, in some of its kinds, supplies the place of bread."—Orme, Fragments, 479.

PLASSEY, n.p. The village Palāsī, which gives its name to Lord Clive's famous battle (June 23, 1757). It is said to take its name from the pālas (or dhawk) tree.

1748.—"... that they have great reason to complain of Ensign English's conduct in not waiting at Placy ... and that if he had staid another day at Placy, as Tullerooy Caun was marching with a large force towards Cutway, they presume the Mahrattas would have retreated inland on their approach and left him an open passage...."—Letter from Council at Cossimbazar, in Long, p. 2.

[1757.—Clive's original report of the battle is dated on the "plain of Placis."—Birdwood, Report on Old Records, 57.]

1768-71.—"General Clive, who should have been the leader of the English troops in this battle (Plassy), left the command to Colonel Coote, and remained hid in his palankeen during the combat, out of the reach of the shot, and did not make his appearance before the enemy were put to flight."—Stavorinus, E.T. i. 486. This stupid and inaccurate writer says that several English officers who were present at the battle related this "anecdote" to him. This, it may be hoped, is as untrue as the rest of the story. Even to such a writer one would have supposed that Clive's mettle would be familiar.

PODÁR, s. Hind. poddār, corrn. of Pers. fot̤adār, from fot̤a, 'a bag of money.' A cash-keeper, or especially an officer attached to a treasury, whose business it is to weigh money and bullion and appraise the value of coins.

[c. 1590.—"The Treasurer. Called in the language of the day Fotadar."—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, ii. 49.]

1680.—"Podar." (See under DUSTOOR.)

1683.—"The like losses in proportion were preferred to be proved by Ramchurne Podar, Bendura bun Podar, and Mamoobishwas who produced their several books for evidence."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 84.

[1772.—"Podār, a money-changer or teller, under a shroff."—Verelst, View of Bengal, Gloss. s.v.]

POGGLE, PUGGLY, &c., s. Properly Hind. pāgal; 'a madman, an idiot'; often used colloquially by Anglo-Indians. A friend belonging to that body used to adduce a macaronic adage which we fear the non-Indian will fail to appreciate: "Pagal et pecunia jaldè separantur!" [See NAUTCH.]

1829.—"It's true the people call me, I know not why, the pugley."—Mem. John Shipp, ii. 255.

1866.—"I was foolish enough to pay these budmashes beforehand, and they have thrown me over. I must have been a paugul to do it."—Trevelyan, The Dawk Bungalow, 385.

[1885.—"He told me that the native name for a regular picnic is a 'Poggle-khana,' that is, a fool's dinner."—Lady Dufferin, Viceregal Life, 88.]

POISON-NUT, s. Strychnos nux vomica, L.

POLEA, n.p. Mal. pulayan, [from Tam. pulam, 'a field,' because in Malabar they are occupied in rice cultivation]. A person of a low or impure tribe, who causes pollution (pula) to those of higher caste, if he approaches within a certain distance. [The rules which regulate their meeting with other people are given by Mr. Logan (Malabar, i. 118).] From pula the Portuguese formed also the verbs empolear-se, 'to become polluted by the touch of a low-caste person,' and desempolear-se, 'to purify oneself after such pollution' (Gouvea, f. 97, and Synod. f. 52v), superstitions which Menezes found prevailing among the Christians of Malabar. (See HIRAVA.)

1510.—"The fifth class are called Poliar, who collect pepper, wine, and nuts ... the Poliar may not approach either the Naeri (see NAIR) or the Brahmins within 50 paces, unless they have been called by them...."—Varthema, 142.

1516.—"There is another lower sort of gentiles called puler.... They do not speak to the nairs except for a long way off, as far as they can be heard speaking with a loud voice.... And whatever man or woman should touch them, their relations immediately kill them like a contaminated thing...."—Barbosa, 143.

1572.—

"A ley, da gente toda, ricca e pobre,

De fabulas composta se imagina:

Andão nus, e somente hum pano cobre

As partes que a cubrir natura ensina.

Dous modos ha de gente; porque a nobre

Nayres chamados são, e a minos dina

Poleas tem por nome, a quem obriga

A ley não misturar a casta antiga."

Camões, vii. 37.

By Burton:

"The Law that holds the people high and low,

is fraught with false phantastick tales long past;

they go unclothèd, but a wrap they throw

for decent purpose round the loins and waist:

Two modes of men are known: the nobles know

the name of Nayrs, who call the lower caste

Poléas, whom their haughty laws contain

from intermingling with the higher strain...."

1598.—"When the Portingales came first into India, and made league and composition with the King of Cochin, the Nayros desired that men shovld give them place, and turne out of the Way, when they mette in the Streetes, as the Polyas. ..." (used to do).—Linschoten, 78; [Hak. Soc. i. 281; also see i. 279].

1606.—"... he said by way of insult that he would order him to touch a Poleaa, which is one of the lowest castes of Malauar."—Gouvea, f. 76.

1626.—"These Puler are Theeves and Sorcerers."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 553.

[1727.—"Poulias." (See under MUCOA.)

[1754.—"Niadde and Pullie are two low castes on the Malabar coast...."—Ives, 26.

[1766.—"... Poolighees, a cast hardly suffered to breathe the common air, being driven into the forrests and mountains out of the commerce of mankind...."—Grose, 2nd ed. ii. 161 seq.]

1770.—"Their degradation is still more complete on the Malabar coast, which has not been subdued by the Mogul, and where they (the pariahs) are called Pouliats."—Raynal, E.T. 1798, i. 6.

1865.—"Further south in India we find polyandry among ... Poleres of Malabar."—McLennan, Primitive Marriage, 179.

POLIGAR, s. This term is peculiar to the Madras Presidency. The persons so called were properly subordinate feudal chiefs, occupying tracts more or less wild, and generally of predatory habits in former days; they are now much the same as Zemindars in the highest use of that term (q.v.). The word is Tam. pāḷaiyakkāran, 'the holder of a pālaiyam,' or feudal estate; Tel. paḷegāḍu; and thence Mahr. pālegār; the English form being no doubt taken from one of the two latter. The southern Poligars gave much trouble about 100 years ago, and the "Poligar wars" were somewhat serious affairs. In various assaults on Pānjālamkurichi, one of their forts in Tinnevelly, between 1799 and 1801 there fell 15 British officers. Much regarding the Poligārs of the south will be found in Nelson's Madura, and in Bishop Caldwell's very interesting History of Tinnevelly. Most of the quotations apply to those southern districts. But the term was used north to the Mahratta boundary.

1681.—"They pulled down the Polegar's houses, who being conscious of his guilt, had fled and hid himself."—Wheeler, i. 118.

1701.—"Le lendemain je me rendis à Tailur, c'est une petite ville qui appartient à un autre Paleagaren."—Lett. Edif. x. 269.

1745.—"J'espère que Votre Eminence agréera l'établissement d'une nouvelle Mission près des Montagnes appellées vulgairement des Palleagares, où aucun Missionnaire n'avait paru jusqu'à présent. Cette contrée est soumise à divers petits Rois appellés également Palleagars, qui sont independans du Grand Mogul quoique placés presque au milieu de son Empire."—Norbert, Mem. ii. 406-7.

1754.—"A Polygar ... undertook to conduct them through defiles and passes known to very few except himself."—Orme, i. 373.

1780.—"He (Hyder) now moved towards the pass of Changana, and encamped upon his side of it, and sent ten thousand polygàrs to clear away the pass, and make a road sufficient to enable his artillery and stores to pass through."—Hon. James Lindsay, in Lives of the Lindsays, iii. 233.

" "The matchlock men are generally accompanied by poligars, a set of fellows that are almost savage, and make use of no other weapon than a pointed bamboo spear, 18 or 20 feet long."—Munro's Narrative, 131.

1783.—"To Mahomet Ali they twice sold the Kingdom of Tanjore. To the same Mahomet Ali they sold at least twelve sovereign Princes called the Polygars."—Burke's Speech on Fox's India Bill, in Works, iii. 458.

1800.—"I think Pournaya's mode of dealing with these rajahs ... is excellent. He sets them up in palankins, elephants, &c., and a great sowarry, and makes them attend to his person. They are treated with great respect, which they like, but can do no mischief in the country. Old Hyder adopted this plan, and his operations were seldom impeded by polygar wars."—A. Wellesley to T. Munro, in Arbuthnot's Mem. xcii.

1801.—"The southern Poligars, a race of rude warriors habituated to arms of independence, had been but lately subdued."—Welsh, i. 57.

1809.—"Tondiman is an hereditary title. His subjects are Polygars, and since the late war ... he is become the chief of those tribes, among whom the singular law exists of the female inheriting the sovereignty in preference to the male."—Ld. Valentia, i. 364.

1868.—"There are 72 bastions to the fort of Madura; and each of them was now formally placed in charge of a particular chief, who was bound for himself and his heirs to keep his post at all times, and under all circumstances. He was also bound to pay a fixed annual tribute; to supply and keep in readiness a quota of troops for the Governor's armies; to keep the Governor's peace over a particular tract of country.... A grant was made to him of a tract of a country ... together with the title of Páleiya Kâran (Poligar)...."—Nelson's Madura, Pt. iii. p. 99.

" "Some of the Poligars were placed in authority over others, and in time of war were answerable for the good conduct of their subordinates. Thus the Sethupati was chief of them all; and the Poligar of Dindigul is constantly spoken of as being the chief of eighteen Poligars ... when the levying of troops was required the Delavay (see DALAWAY) sent requisitions to such and such Poligars to furnish so many armed men within a certain time...."—Nelson's Madura, Pt. iii. p. 157.

The word got transferred in English parlance to the people under such Chiefs (see quotations above, 1780-1809); and especially, it would seem, to those whose habits were predatory:

1869.—"There is a third well-defined race mixed with the general population, to which a common origin may probably be assigned. I mean the predatory classes. In the south they are called Poligars, and consist of the tribes of Marawars, Kallars (see COLLERY), Bedars (see BYDE), Ramuses (see RAMOOSY): and in the North are represented by the Kolis (see COOLY) of Guzerat, and the Gujars (see GOOJUR) of the N.W. Provinces."—Sir Walter Elliot, in J. Ethn. Soc. L., N.S. i. 112.

[POLIGAR DOG, s. A large breed of dogs found in S. India. "The Polygar dog is large and powerful, and is peculiar in being without hair" (Balfour, Cycl. i. 568).]

[1853.—"It was evident that the original breed had been crossed with the bull-dog, or the large Poligar dog of India."—Campbell, Old Forest Ranger, 3rd ed. p. 12.]

POLLAM, s. Tam. pālaiyam; Tel. pāḷemu; (see under POLIGAR).

1783.—"The principal reason which they assigned against the extirpation of the polygars (see POLIGAR) was that the weavers were protected in their fortresses. They might have added, that the Company itself which stung them to death, had been warmed in the bosom of these unfortunate princes; for on the taking of Madras by the French, it was in their hospitable pollams that most of the inhabitants found refuge and protection."—Burke's Speech on Fox's E. I. Bill, in Works, iii. 488.

1795.—"Having submitted the general remarks on the Pollams I shall proceed to observe that in general the conduct of the Poligars is much better than could be expected from a race of men, who have hitherto been excluded from those advantages, which almost always attend conquered countries, an intercourse with their conquerors. With the exception of a very few, when I arrived they had never seen a European...."—Report on Dindigal, by Mr. Wynch, quoted in Nelson's Madura, Pt. iv. p. 15.

POLO, s. The game of hockey on horseback, introduced of late years into England, under this name, which comes from Baltī; polo being properly in the language of that region the ball used in the game. The game thus lately revived was once known and practised (though in various forms) from Provence to the borders of China (see CHICANE). It had continued to exist down to our own day, it would seem, only near the extreme East and the extreme West of the Himālaya, viz. at Manipur in the East (between Cachar and Burma), and on the West in the high valley of the Indus (in Ladāk, Balti, Astōr and Gilgit, and extending into Chitrāl). From the former it was first adopted by our countrymen at Calcutta, and a little later (about 1864) it was introduced into the Punjab, almost simultaneously from the Lower Provinces and from Kashmīr, where the summer visitors had taken it up. It was first played in England, it would seem at Aldershot, in July 1871, and in August of the same year at Dublin in the Phœnix Park. The next year it was played in many places. But the first mention we can find in the Times is a notice of a match at Lillie-Bridge, July 11, 1874, in the next day's paper. There is mention of the game in the Illustrated London News of July 20, 1872, where it is treated as a new invention by British officers in India. [According to the author of the Badminton Library treatise on the game, it was adopted by Lieut. Sherer in 1854, and a club was formed in 1859. The same writer fixes its introduction into the Punjab and N.W.P. in 1861-62. See also an article in Baily's Magazine on "The Early History of Polo" (June 1890). The Central Asian form is described, under the name of Baiga or Kok-büra, 'grey wolf,' by Schuyler (Turkistan, i. 268 seqq.) and that in Dardistan by Biddulph (Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh, 84 seqq.).] In Ladāk it is not indigenous, but an introduction from Baltistan. See a careful and interesting account of the game of those parts in Mr. F. Drew's excellent book, The Jummoo and Kashmir Territories, 1875, pp. 380-392.

We learn from Professor Tylor that the game exists still in Japan, and a very curious circumstance is that the polo racket, just as that described by Jo. Cinnamus in the extract under CHICANE has survived there. [See Chamberlain, Things Japanese, 3rd ed. 333 seqq.]

1835.—"The ponies of Muneepoor hold a very conspicuous rank in the estimation of the inhabitants.... The national game of Hockey, which is played by every male of the country capable of sitting a horse, renders them all expert equestrians; and it was by men and horses so trained, that the princes of Muneepoor were able for many years not only to repel the aggressions of the Burmahs, but to save the whole country ... and plant their banners on the banks of the Irrawattee."—Pemberton's Report on the E. Frontier of Br. India, 31-32.

1838.—"At Shighur I first saw the game of the Chaughán, which was played the day after our arrival on the Mydan or plain laid out expressly for the purpose.... It is in fact hocky on horseback. The ball, which is larger than a cricket ball, is only a globe made of a kind of willow-wood, and is called in Tibeti 'Pulu.'... I can conceive that the Chaughán requires only to be seen to be played. It is the fit sport of an equestrian nation.... The game is played at almost every valley in Little Tibet and the adjoining countries ... Ladakh, Yessen, Chitral, &c.; and I should recommend it to be tried on the Hippodrome at Bayswater...."—Vigne, Travels in Kashmir, Ladakh, Iskardo, &c. (1842), ii. 289-392.

1848.—"An assembly of all the principal inhabitants took place at Iskardo, on some occasion of ceremony or festivity.... I was thus fortunate enough to be a witness of the chaugan, which is derived from Persia, and has been described by Mr. Vigne as hocky on horseback.... Large quadrangular enclosed meadows for this game may be seen in all the larger villages of Balti, often surrounded by rows of beautiful willow and poplar trees."—Dr. T. Thomson, Himalaya and Tibet, 260-261.

1875.—

"Polo, Tent-pegging, Hurlingham, the Rink,

I leave all these delights."

Browning, Inn Album, 23.

POLLOCK-SAUG, s. Hind. pālak, pālak-sāg; a poor vegetable, called also 'country spinach' (Beta vulgaris, or B. Bengalensis, Roxb.). [Riddell (Domest. Econ. 579) calls it 'Bengal Beet.']

POLONGA, TIC-POLONGA, s. A very poisonous snake, so called in Ceylon (Bungarus? or Daboia elegans?); Singh. poloñgarā. [The Madras Gloss. identifies it with the Daboia elegans, and calls it 'Chain viper,' 'Necklace snake,' 'Russell's viper,' or cobra manilla. The Singh. name is said to be titpolanga, tit, 'spotted,' polanga, 'viper.']

1681.—"There is another venomous snake called Polongo, the most venomous of all, that kills cattel. Two sorts of them I have seen, the one green, the other of reddish gray, full of white rings along the sides, and about five or six feet long."—Knox, 29.

1825.—"There are only four snakes ascertained to be poisonous; the cobra de capello is the most common, but its bite is not so certainly fatal as that of the tic polonga, which destroys life in a few minutes."—Mrs. Heber, in H.'s Journal, ed. 1844, ii. 167.

POMFRET, POMPHRET, s. A genus of sea-fish of broad compressed form, embracing several species, of good repute for the table on all the Indian coasts. According to Day they are all reducible to Stromateus sinensis, 'the white Pomfret,' Str. cinereus, which is, when immature, 'the silver Pomfret,' and when mature, 'the gray Pomfret,' and Str. niger, 'the black P.' The French of Pondicherry call the fish pample. We cannot connect it with the πομπίλος of Aelian (xv. 23) and Athenaeus (Lib. VII. cap. xviii. seqq.) which is identified with a very different fish, the 'pilot-fish' (Naucrates ductor of Day). The name is probably from the Portuguese, and a corruption of pampano, 'a vine-leaf,' from supposed resemblance; this is the Portuguese name of a fish which occurs just where the pomfret should be mentioned. Thus:

[1598.—"The best fish is called Mordexiin, Pampano, and Tatiingo."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. ii. 11.]

1613.—"The fishes of this Mediterranean (the Malayan sea) are very savoury sables, and seer fish (serras) and pampanos, and rays...."—Godinho de Eredia, f. 33v.

[1703.—"... Albacores, Daulphins, Paumphlets."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. cccxxxiv.]

1727.—"Between Cunnaca and Ballasore Rivers ... a very delicious Fish called the Pamplee, come in Sholes, and are sold for two Pence per Hundred. Two of them are sufficient to dine a moderate Man."—A. Hamilton, i. 396; [ed. 1744].

1810.—

"Another face look'd broad and bland

Like pamplet floundering on the sand;

Whene'er she turned her piercing stare,

She seemed alert to spring in air."—

Malay verses, rendered by Dr. Leyden, in Maria Graham, 201.

1813.—"The pomfret is not unlike a small turbot, but of a more delicate flavour; and epicures esteem the black pomfret a great dainty."—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 52-53; [2nd ed. i. 36].

[1822.—"... the lad was brought up to catch pamphlets and bombaloes...."—Wallace, Fifteen Years in India, 106.]

1874.—"The greatest pleasure in Bombay was eating a fish called 'pomfret.'"—Sat. Rev., 30th May, 690.

[1896.—"Another account of this sort of seine fishing, for catching pomfret fish, is given by Mr. Gueritz."—Ling Roth, Natives of Sarawak, i. 455.]

POMMELO, PAMPELMOOSE, &c., s. Citrus decumana, L., the largest of the orange-tribe. It is the same fruit as the shaddock of the West Indies; but to the larger varieties some form of the name Pommelo seems also to be applied in the West. A small variety, with a fine skin, is sold in London shops as "the Forbidden fruit." The fruit, though grown in gardens over a great part of India, really comes to perfection only near the Equator, and especially in Java, whence it was probably brought to the continent. For it is called in Bengal Batāvī nimbū (i.e. Citrus Bataviana). It probably did not come to India till the 17th century; it is not mentioned in the Āīn. According to Bretschneider the Pommelo is mentioned in the ancient Chinese Book of the Shu-King. Its Chinese name is Yu.

The form of the name which we have put first is that now general in Anglo-Indian use. But it is probably only a modern result of 'striving after meaning' (quasi Pomo-melone?). Among older authors the name goes through many strange shapes. Tavernier calls it pompone (Voy. des Indes, liv. iii. ch. 24; [ed. Ball, ii. 360]), but the usual French name is pampel-mousse. Dampier has Pumplenose (ii. 125); Lockyer, Pumplemuse (51); Forrest, Pummel-nose (32); Ives, 'pimple-noses, called in the West Indies Chadocks' . Maria Graham uses the French spelling (22). Pompoleon is a form unknown to us, but given in the Eng. Cyclopaedia. Molesworth's Marāṭhi Dict. gives "papannas, papanas, or papanis (a word of. S. America)." We are unable to give the true etymology, though Littré says boldly "Tamoul, bambolimas." Ainslie (Mat. Medica, 1813) gives Poomlimas as the Tamil, whilst Balfour (Cycl. of India) gives Pumpalimas and Bambulimas as Tamil, Bombarimasa and Pampara-panasa as Telugu, Bambali naringi as Malayālim. But if these are real words they appear to be corruptions of some foreign term. [Mr. F. Brandt points out that the above forms are merely various attempts to transliterate a word which is in Tamil pambalimāsu, while the Malayālim is bambāli-nārakam 'bambili tree.' According to the Madras Gloss. all these, as well as the English forms, are ultimately derived from the Malay pumpulmas. Mr. Skeat writes: "In an obsolete Malay dict., by Howison (1801) I find 'poomplemoos, a fruit brought from India by Captain Shaddock, the seeds of which were planted at Barbadoes,' and afterwards obtained his name: the affix moos appears to be the Dutch moes, 'vegetable.'" If this be so, the Malay is not the original form.]

1661.—"The fruit called by the Netherlanders Pumpelmoos, by the Portuguese Jamboa, grows in superfluity outside the city of Batavia.... This fruit is larger than any of the lemon-kind, for it grows as large as the head of a child of 10 years old. The core or inside is for the most part reddish, and has a kind of sourish sweetness, tasting like unripe grapes."—Walter Schulzen, 236.

PONDICHERRY, n.p. This name of what is now the chief French settlement in India, is Pudu-ch'chēri, or Puthuççēri, 'New Town,' more correctly Pudu-vai, Puthuvai, meaning 'New Place.' C. P. Brown, however, says it is Pudi-cherū, 'New Tank.' The natives sometimes write it Phulcheri. [Mr. Garstin (Man. S. Arcot, 422) says that Hindus call it Puthuvai or Puthuççeri, while Musulmans call it Pulcheri, or as the Madras Gloss. writes the word, Pulchari.]

1680.—"Mr. Edward Brogden, arrived from Porto Novo, reports arrival at Puddicherry of two French ships from Surat, and the receipt of advices of the death of Sevajie."—Fort St. Geo. Consn., May 23. In Notes and Exts. No. iii. p. 20.

[1683.—"... Interlopers intend to settle att Verampatnam, a place neer Pullicherry...."—Pringle, Diary Ft. St. Geo., 1st ser. ii. 41. In iv. 113 (1685) we have Pondicherry.]

1711.—"The French and Danes likewise hire them (Portuguese) at Pont de Cheree and Trincombar."—Lockyer, 286.

1718.—"The Fifth Day we reached Budulscheri, a French Town, and the chief Seat of their Missionaries in India."—Prop. of the Gospel, p. 42.

1726.—"Poedechery," in Valentijn, Choro. 11.

1727.—"Punticherry is the next Place of Note on this Coast, a colony settled by the French."—A. Hamilton, i. 356; [ed. 1744].

1753.—"L'établissement des François à Pondicheri remonte jusqu'en l'année 1674; mais par de si foibles commencements, qu'on n'auroit eu de la peine à imaginer, que les suites en fussent aussi considerables."—D'Anville, p. 121.

1780.—"An English officer of rank, General Coote, who was unequalled among his compeers in ability and experience in war, and who had frequently fought with the French of Phoolcheri in the Karnatic and ... had as often gained the victory over them...."—H. of Hyder Naik, 413.

PONGOL, s. A festival of S. India, observed early in January. Tam. pŏngăl, 'boiling'; i.e. of the rice, because the first act in the feast is the boiling of the new rice. It is a kind of harvest-home. There is an interesting account of it by the late Mr. C. E. Gover (J. R. As. Soc. N.S. v. 91), but the connection which he traces with the old Vedic religion is hardly to be admitted. [See the meaning of the rite discussed by Dr. Fraser, Golden Bough, 2nd ed. iii. 305 seq.]

1651.—"... nous parlerons maintenant du Pongol, qui se celebre le 9 de Janvier en l'honneur du Soleil.... Ils cuisent du ris avec du laict.... Ce ris se cuit hors la maison, afin que le Soleil puisse luire dessus ... et quand ils voyent, qu'il semble le vouloir retirer, ils crient d'une voix intelligible, Pongol, Pongol, Pongol, Pongol...."—Abr. Roger, Fr. Tr. 1670, pp. 237-8.

1871.—"Nor does the gentle and kindly influence of the time cease here. The files of the Munsif's Court will have been examined with cases from litigious enemies or greedy money lenders. But as Pongol comes round many of them disappear.... The creditor thinks of his debtor, the debtor of the creditor. The one relents, the other is ashamed, and both parties are saved by a compromise. Often it happens that a process is postponed 'till after Pongol!'"—Gover, as above, p. 96.

POOJA, s. Properly applied to the Hindu ceremonies in idol-worship; Skt. pūjā; and colloquially to any kind of rite. Thus jhanḍā kī pūjā, or 'Pooja of the flag,' is the sepoy term for what in St. James's Park is called 'Trooping of the colours.' [Used in the plural, as in the quotation of 1900, it means the holidays of the Durgā Pūjā or Dussera.]

[1776.—"... the occupation of the Bramin should be ... to cause the performance of the poojen, i.e. the worship to Dewtàh...."—Halhed, Code, ed. 1781, Pref. xcix.

[1813.—"... the Pundits in attendance commenced the pooja, or sacrifice, by pouring milk and curds upon the branches, and smearing over the leaves with wetted rice."—Broughton, Letters, ed. 1892, p. 214.]

1826.—"The person whose steps I had been watching now approached the sacred tree, and having performed puja to a stone deity at its foot, proceeded to unmuffle himself from his shawls...."—Pandurang Hari, 26; [ed. 1873, i. 34].

1866.—"Yes, Sahib, I Christian boy. Plenty poojah do. Sunday time never no work do."—Trevelyan, The Dawk Bungalow, in Fraser, lxxiii. 226.

1874.—"The mass of the ryots who form the population of the village are too poor to have a family deity. They are forced to be content with ... the annual pujahs performed ... on behalf of the village community."—Cal. Rev. No. cxvii. 195.

1879.—"Among the curiosities of these lower galleries are little models of costumes and country scenes, among them a grand pooja under a tree."—Sat. Rev. No. 1251, p. 477.

[1900.—"Calcutta has been in the throes of the Pujahs since yesterday."—Pioneer Mail, 5 Oct.].

POOJAREE, s. Hind. pujārī. An officiating priest in an idol temple.

1702.—"L'office de poujari ou de Prêtresse de la Reine mère était incompatible avec le titre de servante du Seigneur."—Lett. Edif. xi. 111.

[1891.—"Then the Pūjāri, or priest, takes the Bhuta sword and bell in his hands...."—Monier-Williams, Brahmanism and Hinduism, 4th ed. 249.]

POOL, s. P.—H. pul, 'a bridge.' Used in two of the quotations under the next article for 'embankment.'

[1812.—"The bridge is thrown over the river ... it is called the Pool Khan...."—Morier, Journey through Persia, 124.]

POOLBUNDY, s. P.—H. pulbandī, 'Securing of bridges or embankments.' A name formerly given in Bengal to a civil department in charge of the embankments. Also sometimes used improperly for the embankment itself.

[1765.—"Deduct Poolbundy advanced for repairs of dykes, roads, &c."—Verelst, View of Bengal, App. 213.

[c. 1781.—"Pay your constant devoirs to Marian Allypore, or sell yourself soul and body to Poolbundy."—Ext. from Hicky's Gazette, in Busteed, Echoes of Old Calcutta, 3rd ed. 178. This refers to Impey, who was called by this name in allusion to a lucrative contract given to his relative, a Mr. Fraser.]

1786.—"That the Superintendent of Poolbundy Repairs, after an accurate and diligent survey of the bunds and pools, and the provincial Council of Burdwan ... had delivered it as their opinion...."—Articles of Charge against Warren Hastings, in Burke, vii. 98.

1802.—"The Collector of Midnapore has directed his attention to the subject of poolbundy, and in a very ample report to the Board of Revenue, has described certain abuses and oppressions, consisting chiefly of pressing ryots to work on the pools, which call aloud for a remedy."—Fifth Report, App. p. 558.

1810.—"... the whole is obliged to be preserved from inundation by an embankment called the pool bandy, maintained at a very great and regular expense."—Williamson, V. M., ii. 365.

POON, PEON, &c., s. Can. ponne, [Mal. punna, Skt. punnāga]. A timber tree (Calophyllum inophyllum, L.) which grows in the forests of Canara, &c., and which was formerly used for masts, whence also called mast-wood. [Linschoten refers to this tree, but not by name (Hak. Soc. i. 67).]

[1727.—"... good Poon-masts, stronger but heavier than Firr."—A. Hamilton, ed. 1744, i. 267.

[1776.—"... Pohoon-masts, chiefly from the Malabar coast."—Grose, 2nd ed. ii. 109.]

[1773.—"Poon tree ... the wood light but tolerably strong; it is frequently used for masts, but unless great care be taken to keep the wet from the ends of it, it soon rots."—Ives, 460.]

1835.—"Peon, or Puna ... the largest sort is of a light, bright colour, and may be had at Mangalore, from the forests of Corumcul in Canara, where it grows to a length of 150 feet. At Mangalore I procured a tree of this sort that would have made a foremast for the Leander, 60-gun ship, in one piece, for 1300 Rupees."—Edye, in J. R. As. Soc. ii. 354.

POONAMALEE, n.p. A town, and formerly a military station, in the Chingleput Dist. of Madras Presidency, 13 miles west of Madras. The name is given in the Imp. Gazetteer as Pūnamallu (?), and Ponda malāi, whilst Col. Branfill gives it as "Pūntha malli for Pūvirunthamalli," without further explanation. [The Madras Gloss. gives Tam. Pundamalli, 'town of the jasmine-creeper,' which is largely grown there for the supply of the Madras markets.

[1876.—"The dog, a small piebald cur, with a short tail, not unlike the 'Poonamallee terrier,' which the British soldier is wont to manufacture from Pariah dogs for 'Griffins' with sporting proclivities, was brought up for inspection."—McMahon, Karens of the Golden Chersonese, 236.]

POONGEE, PHOONGY, s. The name most commonly given to the Buddhist religieux in British Burma. The word (p'hun-gyi) signifies 'great glory.'

1782.—"... leurs Prêtres ... sont moins instruits que les Brames, et portent le nom de Ponguis."—Sonnerat, ii. 301.

1795.—"From the many convents in the neighbourhood of Rangoon, the number of Rhahans and Phongis must be very considerable; I was told it exceeded 1500."—Symes, Embassy to Ava, 210.

1834.—"The Talapoins are called by the Burmese Phonghis, which term means great glory, or Rahans, which means perfect."—Bp. Bigandet, in J. Ind. Archip. iv. 222-3.

[1886.—"Every Burman has for some time during his life to be a Pohngee, or monk."—Lady Dufferin, Viceregal Life, 177.]

POORÁNA, s. Skt. purāṇa, 'old,' hence 'legendary,' and thus applied as a common name to 18 books which contain the legendary mythology of the Brahmans.

1612.—"... These books are divided into bodies, members, and joints (cortos, membros, e articulos) ... six which they call Xastra (see SHASTER), which are the bodies; eighteen which they call Puraná, which are the members; twenty-eight called Agamon, which are the joints."—Couto, Dec. V. liv. vi. cap. 3.

1651.—"As their Poranas, i.e. old histories, relate."—Rogerius, 153.

[1667.—"When they have acquired a knowledge of Sanscrit ... they generally study the Purana, which is an abridgment and interpretation of the Beths" (see VEDAS).—Bernier, ed. Constable, p. 335.]

c. 1760.—"Le puran comprend dix-huit livres qui renferment l'histoire sacrée, qui contient les dogmes de la religion des Bramines."—Encyclopédie, xxvii. 807.

1806.—"Ceux-ci, calculoient tout haut de mémoire tandis que d'autres, plus avancés, lisoient, d'un ton chantant, leurs Pourans."—Haafner, i. 130.

POORUB, and POORBEEA, ss. Hind. pūrab, pūrb, 'the East,' from Skt. pūrva or pūrba, 'in front of,' as paścha (Hind. pachham) means 'behind' or 'westerly' and dakshina, 'right-hand' or southerly. In Upper India the term means usually Oudh, the Benares division, and Behar. Hence Poorbeea (pūrbiya), a man of those countries, was, in the days of the old Bengal army, often used for a sepoy, the majority being recruited in those provinces.

1553.—"Omaum (Humāyūn) Patxiah ... resolved to follow Xerchan (Sher Khān) and try his fortunes against him ... and they met close to the river Ganges before it unites with the river Jamona, where on the West bank of the river there is a city called Canose (Canauj), one of the chief of the kingdom of Dely. Xerchan was beyond the river in the tract which the natives call Purba...."—Barros, IV. ix. 9.

[1611.—"Pierb is 400 cose long."—Jourdain, quoted in Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. ii. 538.]

1616.—"Bengala, a most spacious and fruitful province, but more properly to be called a kingdom, which hath two very large provinces within it, Purb and Patan, the one lying on the east, the other on the west side of the river."—Terry, ed. 1665, p. 357.

1666.—"La Province de Halabas s'appelloit autrefois Purop...."—Thevenot, v. 197.

[1773.—"Instead of marching with the great army he had raised into the Purbunean country ... we were informed he had turned his arms against us...."—Ives, 91.]

1881.—

"... My lands were taken away,

And the Company gave me a pension of just eight annas a day;

And the Poorbeahs swaggered about our streets as if they had done it all...."

Attar Singh loquitur, by 'Sowar,' Sir M. Durand in an Indian paper, the name and date lost.

POOTLY NAUTCH, s. Properly Hind. kāṭh-putlī-nāch, 'wooden-puppet-dance.' A puppet show.

c. 1817.—"The day after tomorrow will be my lad James Dawson's birthday, and we are to have a puttully-nautch in the evening."—Mrs. Sherwood's Stories, 291.

POPPER-CAKE, in Bombay, and in Madras popadam, ss. These are apparently the same word and thing, though to the former is attributed a Hind. and Mahr. origin pāpaṛ, Skt. parpaṭa, and to the latter a Tamil one, pappaḍam, as an abbreviation of paruppu-aḍam, 'lentil cake.' [The Madras Gloss. gives Tel. appadam, Tam. appalam (see HOPPER), and Mal. pappatam, from parippu, 'dhall,' ata, 'cake.'] It is a kind of thin scone or wafer, made of any kind of pulse or lentil flour, seasoned with assafoetida, &c., fried in oil, and in W. India baked crisp, and often eaten at European tables as an accompaniment to curry. It is not bad, even to a novice.

1814.—"They are very fond of a thin cake, or wafer, called popper, made from the flour of oord or mash ... highly seasoned with assa-foetida; a salt called popper-khor; and a very hot massaula (see MUSSALLA), compounded of turmeric, black pepper, ginger, garlic, several kinds of warm seeds, and a quantity of the hottest Chili pepper."—Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 50; [2nd ed. i. 347].

1820.—"Papaḍoms (fine cakes made of gram-flour and a fine species of alkali, which gives them an agreeable salt taste, and serves the purpose of yeast, making them rise, and become very crisp when fried...."—As. Researches, xiii. 315.

" "Paper, the flour of ooreed (see OORD), salt, assa-foetida, and various spices, made into a paste, rolled as thin as a wafer, and dried in the sun, and when wanted for the table baked crisp...."—T. Coates, in Tr. Lit. Soc. Bo. iii. 194.

PORCA, n.p. In Imp. Gazetteer Porakád, also called Piracada; properly Puṛākkāḍŭ, [or according to the Madras Gloss. Purakkātu, Mal. pura, 'outside,' kātu, 'jungle']. A town on the coast of Travancore, formerly a separate State. The Portuguese had a fort here, and the Dutch, in the 17th century, a factory. Fra Paolina (1796) speaks of it as a very populous city full of merchants, Mahommedan, Christian, and Hindu. It is now insignificant. [See Logan, Malabar, i. 338.]

[1663-4.—"Your ffactories of Carwarr and Porquatt are continued but to very little purpose to you."—Forrest, Bombay Letters, i. 18.]

PORCELAIN, s. The history of this word for China-ware appears to be as follows. The family of univalve mollusks called Cypraeidae, or Cowries, (q.v.) were in medieval Italy called porcellana and porcelletta, almost certainly from their strong resemblance to the body and back of a pig, and not from a grosser analogy suggested by Mahn (see in Littré sub voce). That this is so is strongly corroborated by the circumstance noted by Dr. J. E. Gray (see Eng. Cyc. Nat. Hist. s.v. Cypraeidae) that Pig is the common name of shells of this family on the English coast; whilst Sow also seems to be a name of one or more kinds. The enamel of this shell seems to have been used in the Middle Ages to form a coating for ornamental pottery, &c., whence the early application of the term porcellana to the fine ware brought from the far East. Both applications of the term, viz. to cowries and to China-ware, occur in Marco Polo (see below). The quasi-analogous application of pig in Scotland to earthen-ware, noticed in an imaginary quotation below, is probably quite an accident, for there appears to be a Gaelic pige, 'an earthen jar,' &c. (see Skeat, s.v. piggin). We should not fail to recall Dr. Johnson's etymology of porcelaine from "pour cent années," because it was believed by Europeans that the materials were matured under ground 100 years! (see quotations below from Barbosa, and from Sir Thomas Brown).

c. 1250.—Capmany has the following passage in the work cited. Though the same writer published the Laws of the Consulado del Mar in 1791, he has deranged the whole of the chapters, and this, which he has quoted, is omitted altogether!

"In the XLIVth chap. of the maritime laws of Barcelona, which are undoubtedly not later than the middle of the 13th century, there are regulations for the return cargoes of the ships trading with Alexandria.... In this are enumerated among articles brought from Egypt ... cotton in bales and spun wool de capells (for hats?), porcelanas, alum, elephants' teeth...."—Memorias, Hist. de Barcelona, I. Pt. ii. p. 44.

1298.—"Il ont monoie en tel mainere con je voz dirai, car il espendent porcelaine blance, celle qe se trovent en la mer et qe se metent au cuel des chienz, et vailent les quatre-vingt porcelaines un saic d'arjent qe sunt deus venesians gros...."—Marco Polo, oldest French text, p. 132.

" "Et encore voz di qe en ceste provence, en une cité qe est apellé Tinugui, se font escuelle de porcellaine grant et pitet les plus belles qe l'en peust deviser."—Ibid. 180.

c. 1328.—"Audivi quòd ducentas civitates habet sub se imperator ille (Magnus Tartarus) majores quàm Tholosa; et ego certè credo quòd plures habeant homines.... Alia non sunt quae ego sciam in isto imperio digna relatione, nisi vasa pulcherrima, et nobilissima, atque virtuosa porseleta."—Jordani Mirabilia, p. 59.

In the next passage it seems probable that the shells, and not China dishes, are intended.

c. 1343.—"... ghomerabica, vernice, armoniaco, zaffiere, coloquinti, porcelláne, mirra, mirabolani ... si vendono a Vinegia a cento di peso sottile" (i.e. by the cutcha hundredweight).—Pegolotti, Practica della Mercatura, p. 134.

c. 1440.—"... this Cim and Macinn that I haue before named arr ii verie great provinces, thinhabitants whereof arr idolaters, and there make they vessells and disshes of Porcellana."—Giosafa Barbaro, Hak. Soc. 75.

In the next the shells are clearly intended:

1442.—"Gabelle di Firenze ... Porcielette marine, la libra ... soldi ... denari 4."—Uzzano, Prat. della Mercatura, p. 23.

1461.—"Porcellane pezzi 20, cioè 7 piattine, 5 scodelle, 4 grandi e una piccida, piattine 5 grandi, 3 scodelle, una biava, e due bianche."—List of Presents sent by the Soldan of Egypt to the Doge Pasquale Malepiero. In Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, xxi. col. 1170.

1475.—"The seaports of Cheen and Machin are also large. Porcelain is made there, and sold by the weight and at a low price."—Nikitin, in India in the XVth Cent., 21.

1487.—"... le mando lo inventario del presente del Soldano dato a Lorenzo ... vasi grandi di Porcellana mai più veduti simili ne meglio lavorati...."—Letter of P. da Bibbieno to Clar. de' Medici, in Roscoe's Lorenzo, ed. 1825, ii. 371.

1502.—"In questo tempo abrusiorno xxi nave sopra il porto di Calechut; et de epse hebbe tãte drogarie e speciarie che caricho le dicte sei nave. Praeterea me ha mandato sei vasi di porzellana excellitissimi et grãdi: quatro bochali de argento grandi cõ certi altri vasi al modo loro per credentia."—Letter of K. Emanuel, 13.

1516.—"They make in this country a great quantity of porcelains of different sorts, very fine and good, which form for them a great article of trade for all parts, and they make them in this way. They take the shells of sea-snails (? caracoli), and eggshells, and pound them, and with other ingredients make a paste, which they put underground to refine for the space of 80 or 100 years, and this mass of paste they leave as a fortune to their children...."—Barbosa, in Ramusio, i. 320v.

1553.—(In China) "The service of their meals is the most elegant that can be, everything being of very fine procelana (although they also make use of silver and gold plate), and they eat everything with a fork made after their fashion, never putting a hand into their food, much or little."—Barros, III. ii. 7.

1554.—(After a suggestion of the identity of the vasa murrhina of the ancients): "Ce nom de Porcelaine est donné à plusieurs coquilles de mer. Et pource qu'vn beau Vaisseau d'vne coquille de mer ne se pourroit rendre mieux à propos suyuãt le nom antique, que de l'appeller de Porceláine i'ay pensé que les coquilles polies et luysantes, resemblants à Nacre de perles, ont quelque affinité auec la matière des vases de Porcelaine antiques: ioinct aussi que le peuple Frãçois nomme les patesnostres faictes de gros vignols, patenostres de Porcelaine. Les susdicts vases de Porcelaine sont transparents, et coustent bien cher au Caire, et disent mesmement qu'ilz les apportent des Indes. Mais cela ne me sembla vraysemblable: car on n'en voirroit pas si grande quantité, ne de si grãdes pieces, s'il failloit apporter de si loing. Vne esguiere, vn pot, ou vn autre vaisseau pour petite qu'elle soit, couste vn ducat: si c'est quelque grãd vase, il coustera d'auantage."—P. Belon, Observations, f. 134.

c. 1560.—"And because there are many opinions among the Portugals which have not beene in China, about where this Porcelane is made, and touching the substance whereof it is made, some saying, that it is of oysters shels, others of dung rotten of a long time, because they were not enformed of the truth, I thought it conuenient to tell here the substance...."—Gaspar da Cruz, in Purchas, iii. 177.

[1605-6.—"... China dishes or Puselen."—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 77.

[1612.—"Balanced one part with sandal wood, Porcelain and pepper."—Danvers, Letters, i. 197.]

1615.—"If we had in England beds of porcelain such as they have in China,—which porcelain is a kind of plaster buried in the earth, and by length of time congealed and glazed into that substance; this were an artificial mine, and part of that substance...."—Bacon, Argument on Impeachment of Waste; Works, by Spedding, &c., 1859, vii. 528.

c. 1630.—"The Bannyans all along the sea-shore pitch their Booths ... for there they sell Callicoes, China-satten, Purcellain-ware, scrutores or Cabbinets...."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1665, p. 45.

1650.—"We are not thoroughly resolved concerning Porcellane or China dishes, that according to common belief they are made of earth, which lieth in preparation about an hundred years underground; for the relations thereof are not only divers but contrary; and Authors agree not herein...."—Sir Thomas Browne, Vulgar Errors, ii. 5.

[1652.—"Invited by Lady Gerrard I went to London, where we had a greate supper; all the vessels, which were innumerable, were of Porcelan, she having the most ample and richest collection of that curiositie in England."—Evelyn, Diary, March 19.]

1726.—In a list of the treasures left by Akbar, which is given by Valentijn, we find:

"In Porcelyn, &c., Ropias 2507747."—iv. (Suratte), 217.

1880.—"'Vasella quidem delicatiora et caerulea et venusta, quibus inhaeret nescimus quid elegantiae, porcellana vocantur, quasi (sed nescimus quare) a porcellis. In partibus autem Britanniae quae septentrionem spectant, vocabulo forsan analogo, vasa grossiora et fusca pigs appellant barbari, quasi (sed quare iterum nescimus) a porcis.' Narrischchen und Weitgeholt, Etymol. Universale, s.v. 'Blue China.'"—Motto to An Ode in Brown Pig, St. James's Gazette, July 17.

PORGO, s. We know this word only from its occurrence in the passage quoted; and most probably the explanation suggested by the editor of the Notes is correct, viz. that it represents Port. peragua. This word is perhaps the same as pirogue, used by the French for a canoe or 'dug-out'; a term said by Littré to be (piroga) Carib. [On the passage from T. B. quoted below Sir H. Yule has the following note: "J. (i.e. T.) B., the author, gives a rough drawing. It represents the Purgoe as a somewhat high-sterned lighter, not very large, with five oar-pins a side. I cannot identify it exactly with any kind of modern boat of which I have found a representation. It is perhaps most like the palwār. I think it must be an Orissa word, but I have not been able to trace it in any dictionary, Uriya or Bengali." On this Col. Temple says: "The modern Indian palwār (Malay palwa) is a skiff, and would not answer the description." Anderson (loc. cit.) mentions that in 1685 several "well-laden Purgoes" and boats had put in for shelter at Rameswaram to the northward of Madapollam, i.e. on the Coromandel Coast. There seems to be no such word known there now. I think, however, that the term Purgoo is probably an obsolete Anglo-Indian corruption of an Indian corruption of the Port. term barco, barca, a term used for any kind of sailing boat by the early Portuguese visitors to the East (e.g. D'Alboquerque, Hak. Soc. ii. 230; Vasco da Gama, Hak. Soc. 77, 240).]

[1669-70.—"A Purgoo: These Vse for the most part between Hugly and Pyplo and Ballasore: with these boats they carry goods into ye Roads on board English and Dutch, &c. Ships, they will liue a longe time in ye Sea, beinge brought to anchor by ye Sterne, as theire Vsual way is."—MS. by T. B.[ateman], quoted by Anderson, English Intercourse with Siam, p. 266.]

1680.—Ft. St. Geo. Consn., Jany. 30, "records arrival from the Bay of the 'Success,' the Captain of which reports that a Porgo [Peragua?, a fast-sailing vessel, Clipper] drove ashore in the Bay about Peply...."—Notes and Exts. No. iii. p. 2.

[1683.—"The Thomas arrived with ye 28 bales of Silk taken out of the Purga."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 65.

[1685.—"In Hoogly letter to Fort St. George, dated February 6 Porgo occurs coupled with 'bora' (Hind. bhar, 'a lighter')."—Pringle, Diary Ft. St. Geo. 1st ser. iii. 165.]

PORTIA, s. In S. India the common name of the Thespesia populnea, Lam. (N.O. Malvaceae), a favourite ornamental tree, thriving best near the sea. The word is a corruption of Tamil Puarassu, 'Flower-king'; [pu-varasu, from pu, 'flower,' arasu, 'peepul tree']. In Ceylon it is called Suria gansuri, and also the Tulip-tree.

1742.—"Le bois sur lequel on les met (les toiles), et celui qu'on employe pour les battre, sont ordinairement de tamarinier, ou d'un autre arbe nommé porchi."—Lett. Edif. xiv. 122.

1860.—"Another useful tree, very common in Ceylon, is the Suria, with flowers so like those of a tulip that Europeans know it as the tulip tree. It loves the sea air and saline soils. It is planted all along the avenues and streets in the towns near the coast, where it is equally valued for its shade and the beauty of its yellow flowers, whilst its tough wood is used for carriage-shafts and gun-stocks."—Tennent's Ceylon, i. 117.

1861.—"It is usual to plant large branches of the portia and banyan trees in such a slovenly manner that there is little probability of the trees thriving or being ornamental."—Cleghorn, Forests and Gardens of S. India, 197.

PORTO NOVO, n.p. A town on the coast of South Arcot, 32 m. S. of Pondicherry. The first mention of it that we have found is in Bocarro, Decada, p. 42 (c. 1613). The name was perhaps intended to mean 'New Oporto,' rather than 'New Haven,' but we have not found any history of the name. [The Tamil name is Parangi-pēṭṭai, 'European town,' and it is called by Mahommedans Maḥmūd-bandar.]

1718.—"At Night we came to a Town called Porta Nova, and in Malabarish Pirenkī Potei (Parangipēṭṭai)."—Propagation of the Gospel, &c., Pt. ii. 41.

1726.—"The name of this city (Porto Novo) signifies in Portuguese New Haven, but the Moors call it Mohhammed Bendar ... and the Gentoos Perringepeente."—Valentijn, Choromandel, 8.

PORTO PIQUENO, PORTO GRANDE, nn.pp. 'The Little Haven and the Great Haven'; names by which the Bengal ports of Satigam (q.v.) and Chatigam (see CHITTAGONG) respectively were commonly known to the Portuguese in the 16th century.

1554.—"Porto Pequeno de Bemgala ... Cowries are current in the country; 80 cowries make 1 pone (see PUN); of these pones 48 are equal to 1 larin more or less."—A. Nunes, 37.

1554.—"Porto Grande de Bemgala. The maund (mão), by which they weigh all goods, contains 40 seers (ceros), each seer 182⁄5 ounces...."—A. Nunes, 37.

1568.—"Io mi parti d'Orisa per Bengala al Porto Picheno ... s'entra nel fiume Ganze, dalla bocca del qual fiume sino a Satagan (see SATIGAM) città, oue si fanno negotij, et oue i mercadanti si riducono, sono centi e venti miglia, che si fanno in diciotto hore a remi, cioè, in tre crescenti d'acqua, che sono di sei hore l'uno."—Ces. Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 392.

1569.—"Partissemo di Sondiua, et giungessemo in Chitigan il gran porto di Bengala, in tempo che già i Portoghesi haueuano fatto pace o tregua con i Rettori."—Ibid. 396.

1595.—"Besides, you tell me that the traffic and commerce of the Porto Pequeno of Bemguala being always of great moment, if this goes to ruin through the Mogors, they will be the masters of those tracts."—Letter of the K. of Portugal, in Archiv. Port. Orient., Fascic. 3, p. 481.

1596.—"And so he wrote me that the Commerce of Porto Grande of Bengala is flourishing, and that the King of the Country had remitted to the Portuguese 3 per cent. of the duties that they used to pay."—Ibid. p. 580.

1598.—"When you thinke you are at the point de Gualle, to be assured thereof, make towards the Iland, to know it ... where commonlie all the shippes know the land, such I say as we sayle to Bengalen, or to any of the Hauens thereof, as Porto Pequeno or Porto Grande, that is the small, or the great Haven, where the Portingalles doe traffique...."—Linschoten, Book III. p. 324.

[c. 1617.—"Port Grande, Port Pequina," in Sir T. Roe's List, Hak. Soc. ii. 538.]

POSTEEN, s. An Afghan leathern pelisse, generally of sheep-skin with the fleece on. Pers. postīn, from post, 'a hide.'

1080.—"Khwája Ahmad came on some Government business to Ghaznín, and it was reported to him that some merchants were going to Turkistán, who were returning to Ghaznín in the beginning of winter. The Khwája remembered that he required a certain number of postins (great coats) every year for himself and sons...."—Nizám-ul-Mulk, in Elliot, ii. 497.

1442.—"His Majesty the Fortunate Khākān had sent for the Prince of Kālikūt, horses, pelisses (postīn) and robes woven of gold...."—Abdurazzāk, in Not. et Extr. xiv. Pt. i. 437.

[c. 1590.—"In the winter season there is no need of poshtins (fur-lined coats)...."—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, ii. 337.]

1862.—"Otter skins from the Hills and Kashmir, worn as Postīns by the Yarkandis."—Punjab Trade Report, p. 65.

POTTAH, s. Hind. and other vernaculars, paṭṭā, &c. A document specifying the conditions on which lands are held; a lease or other document securing rights in land or house property.

1778.—"I am therefore hopeful you will be kindly pleased to excuse me the five lacs now demanded, and that nothing may be demanded of me beyond the amount expressed in the pottah."—The Rajah of Benares to Hastings, in Articles of Charge against H., Burke, vi. 591.

[1860.—"By the Zumeendar, then, or his under tenant, as the case may be, the land is farmed out to the Ryuts by pottahs, or agreements...."—Grant, Rural Life in Bengal, 67.

PRA, PHRA, PRAW, s. This is a term constantly used in Burma, familiar to all who have been in that country, in its constant application as a style of respect, addressed or applied to persons and things of especial sanctity or dignity. Thus it is addressed at Court to the King; it is the habitual designation of the Buddha and his images and dagobas; of superior ecclesiastics and sacred books; corresponding on the whole in use, pretty closely to the Skt. Śṛī. In Burmese the word is written bhurā, but pronounced (in Arakan) p'hrā, and in modern Burma Proper, with the usual slurring of the r, P'hyā or Pyā. The use of the term is not confined to Burma; it is used in quite a similar way in Siam, as may be seen in the quotation below from Alabaster; the word is used in the same form P'hra among the Shans; and in the form Prea, it would seem, in Camboja. Thus Garnier speaks of Indra and Vishnu under their Cambojan epithets as Prea En and Prea Noreai (Nārāyaṇa); of the figure of Buddha entering nirvāna, as Prea Nippan; of the King who built the great temple of Angkor Wat as Prea Kot Melea, of the King reigning at the time of the expedition as Prea Ang Reachea Vodey, of various sites of temples as Preacon, Preacan, Prea Pithu, &c. (Voyage d'Exploration, i. 26, 49, 388, 77, 85, 72).

The word p'hrā appears in composition in various names of Burmese kings, as of the famous Alomp'hra (1753-60), founder of the late dynasty, and of his son Bodoah-p'hra (1781-1819). In the former instance the name is, according to Sir A. Phayre, Alaung-p'hrā, i.e. the embryo Buddha, or Bodisatva. A familiar Siamese example of use is in the Phrā Bāt, or sacred foot-mark of Buddha, a term which represents the Śṛi Pada of Ceylon.

The late Prof. H. H. Wilson, as will be seen, supposed the word to be a corruption of Skt. prabhu (see PARVOE). But Mr. Alabaster points, under the guidance of the Siamese spelling, rather to Skt. vara, 'pre-eminent, excellent.' This is in Pali varo, "excellent, best, precious, noble" (Childers). A curious point is that, from the prevalence of the term phrā in all the Indo-Chinese kingdoms, we must conclude that it was, at the time of the introduction of Buddhism into those countries, in predominant use among the Indian or Ceylonese propagators of the new religion. Yet we do not find any evidence of such a use of either prabhu or vara. The former would in Pali be pabbho. In a short paper in the Bijdragen of the Royal Institute of the Hague (Dl. X. 4de Stuk, 1885), Prof. Kern indicates that this term was also in use in Java, in the forms Bra and pra, with the sense of 'splendid' and the like; and he cites as an example Bra-Wijaya (the style of several of the medieval kings of Java), where Bra is exactly the representative of Skt. Śṛī.

1688.—"I know that in the country of Laos the Dignities of Pa-ya and Meuang, and the honourable Epithets of Pra are in use; it may be also that the other terms of Dignity are common to both Nations, as well as the Laws."—De la Loubère, Siam, E.T. 79.

" "The Pra-Clang, or by a corruption of the Portugueses, the Barcalon, is the officer, who has the appointment of the Commerce, as well within as without the Kingdom.... His name is composed of the Balie word Pra, which I have so often discoursed of, and of the word Clang, which signifies Magazine."—Ibid. 93.

" "Then Sommona-Codom (see GAUTAMA) they call Pra-Boute-Tchaou, which verbatim signifies the Great and Excellent Lord."—Ibid. 134.

1795.—"At noon we reached Meeaday, the personal estate of the Magwoon of Pegue, who is oftener called, from this place, Meeaday Praw, or Lord of Meeaday."—Symes, Embassy to Ava, 242.

1855.—"The epithet Phra, which occupies so prominent a place in the ceremonial and religious vocabulary of the Siamese and Burmese, has been the subject of a good deal of nonsense. It is unfortunate that our Burmese scholars have never (I believe) been Sanskrit scholars, nor vice versâ, so that the Palee terms used in Burma have had little elucidation. On the word in question, Professor H. H. Wilson has kindly favoured me with a note: 'Phrá is no doubt a corruption of the Sanskrit Prabhu, a Lord or Master; the h of the aspirate bh is often retained alone, leaving Prahu which becomes Práh or Phra.'"—Sir H. Yule, Mission to Ava, 61.

1855.—"All these readings (of documents at the Court) were intoned in a high recitative, strongly resembling that used in the English cathedral service. And the long-drawn Phyá-á-á-á! (My Lord), which terminated each reading, added to the resemblance, as it came in exactly like the Amen of the Liturgy."—Ibid. 88.

1859.—"The word Phra, which so frequently occurs in this work, here appears for the first time; I have to remark that it is probably derived from, or of common origin with, the Pharaoh of antiquity. It is given in the Siamese dictionaries as synonymous with God, ruler, priest, and teacher. It is in fact the word by which sovereignty and sanctity are associated in the popular mind."—Bowring, Kingdom and People of Siam, [i. 35].

1863.—"The title of the First King (of Siam) is Phra-Chom-Klao-Yu-Hua and spoken as Phra Phutthi-Chao-Yu-Hua.... His Majesty's nose is styled in the Pali form Phra-Nasa.... The Siamese term the (Catholic) missionaries, the Preachers of the Phra-Chao Phu-Sang, i.e. of God the Creator, or the Divine Lord Builder.... The Catholic missionaries express 'God' by Phra-Phutthi-Chao ... and they explain the Eucharist as Phra-Phutthi-Kaya (Kaya = 'Body')."—Bastian, Reise, iii. 109, and 114-115.

1870.—"The most excellent Parā, brilliant in his glory, free from all ignorance, beholding Nibbāna the end of the migration of the soul, lighted the lamp of the law of the Word."—Rogers, Buddhagosha's Parables, tr. from the Burmese, p. 1.

1871.—"Phra is a Siamese word applied to all that is worthy of the highest respect, that is, everything connected with religion and royalty. It may be translated as 'holy.' The Siamese letters p—h—r commonly represent the Sanskrit v—r. I therefore presume the word to be derived from the Sanskrit 'vri'—'to choose, or to be chosen,' and 'vara'—'better, best, excellent,' the root of ἄριστος."—Alabaster, The Wheel of the Law, 164.

PRAAG, sometimes PIAGG, n.p. Properly Prayāga, 'the place of sacrifice,' the old Hindu name of Allahabad, and especially of the river confluence, since remote ages a place of pilgrimage.

c. A.D. 638.—"Le royaume de Polo-ye-kia (Prayâga) a environ 5000 li de tour. La capitale, qui est située au confluent de deux fleuves, a environ 20 li de tour.... Dans la ville, il y a un temple des dieux qui est d'une richesse éblouissante, et où éclatent une multitude de miracles.... Si quel qu'un est capable de pousser le mépris de la vie jusqu' à se donner la mort dans ce temple, il obtient le bonheur eternel et les joies infinies des dieux.... Depuis l'antiquité jusqu' à nos jours, cette coutume insensée n'a pas cessé un instant."—Hiouen-Thsang, in Pèl. Boudd. ii. 276-79.

c. 1020.—"... thence to the tree of Barāgi, 12 (parasangs). This is at the confluence of the Jumna and Ganges."—Al-Birūnī, in Elliot, i. 55.

1529.—"The same day I swam across the river Ganges for my amusement. I counted my strokes, and found that I crossed over at 33 strokes. I then took breath and swam back to the other side. I had crossed by swimming every river that I had met with, except the Ganges. On reaching the place where the Ganges and Jumna unite, I rowed over in the boat to the Piâg side...."—Baber, 406.

1585.—"... Frõ Agra I came to Prage, where the riuer Jemena entreth into the mightie riuer Ganges, and Iemena looseth his name."—R. Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 386.

PRACRIT, s. A term applied to the older vernacular dialects of India, such as were derived from, or kindred to, Sanskrit. Dialects of this nature are used by ladies, and by inferior characters, in the Sanskrit dramas. These dialects, and the modern vernaculars springing from them, bear the same relation to Sanskrit that the "Romance" languages of Europe bear to Latin, an analogy which is found in many particulars to hold with most surprising exactness. The most completely preserved of old Prakrits is that which was used in Magadha, and which has come down in the Buddhist books of Ceylon under the name of Pali (q.v.). The first European analysis of this language bears the title "Institutiones Linguae Pracriticae. Scripsit Christianus Lassen, Bonnae ad Rhenum, 1837." The term itself is Skt. prākṛita, 'natural, unrefined, vulgar,' &c.

1801.—"Sanscrita is the speech of the Celestials, framed in grammatical institutes, Pracrita is similar to it, but manifold as a provincial dialect, and otherwise."—Sanskrit Treatise, quoted by Colebrooke, in As. Res. vii. 199.

PRAYA, s. This is in Hong-Kong the name given to what in most foreign settlements in China is called the Bund; i.e. the promenade or drive along the sea. It is Port. praia, 'the shore.'

[1598.—"Another towne towards the North, called Villa de Praya (for Praya is as much as to say, as strand)."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. ii. 278.]

PRESIDENCY (and PRESIDENT), s. The title 'President,' as applied to the Chief of a principal Factory, was in early popular use, though in the charters of the E.I.C. its first occurrence is in 1661 (see Letters Patent, below). In Sainsbury's Calendar we find letters headed "to Capt. Jourdain, president of the English at Bantam" in 1614 (i. 297-8); but it is to be doubted whether this wording is in the original. A little later we find a "proposal by Mr. Middleton concerning the appointment of two especial factors, at Surat and Bantam, to have authority over all other factors; Jourdain named." And later again he is styled "John Jourdain, Captain of the house" (at Bantam; see pp. 303, 325), and "Chief Merchant at Bantam" (p. 343).

1623.—"Speaking of the Dutch Commander, as well as of the English President, who often in this fashion came to take me for an airing, I should not omit to say that both of them in Surat live in great style, and like the grandees of the land. They go about with a great train, sometimes with people of their own mounted, but particularly with a great crowd of Indian servants on foot and armed, according to custom, with sword, target, bow and arrows."—P. della Valle, ii. 517.

" "Our boat going ashore, the President of the English Merchants, who usually resides in Surat, and is chief of all their business in the E. Indies, Persia, and other places dependent thereon, and who is called Sign. Thomas Rastel ... came aboard in our said boat, with a minister of theirs (so they term those who do the priest's office among them)."—Ibid. ii. 501-2; [Hak. Soc. i. 19].

1638.—"As soon as the Commanders heard that the (English) President was come to Suhaly, they went ashore.... The two dayes following were spent in feasting, at which the Commanders of the two Ships treated the President, who afterwards returned to Suratta.... During my abode at Suratta, I wanted for no divertisement; for I ... found company at the Dutch President's, who had his Farms there ... inasmuch as I could converse with them in their own Language."—Mandelslo, E.T., ed. 1669, p. 19.

1638.—"Les Anglois ont bien encore vn bureau à Bantam, dans l'Isle de Jaua, mais il a son President particulier, qui ne depend point de celuy de Suratta."—Mandelslo, French ed. 1659, p. 124.

" "A mon retour à Suratta ie trouvay dans la loge des Anglois plus de cinquante marchands, que le President auoit fait venir de tous les autres Bureaux, pour rendre compte de leur administration, et pour estre presens à ce changement de Gouuernement."—Ibid. 188.

1661.—"And in case any Person or Persons, being convicted and sentenced by the President and Council of the said Governor and Company, in the said East Indies, their Factors or Agents there, for any Offence by them done, shall appeal from the same, that then, and in every such case, it shall and may be lawful to and for the said President and Council, Factor or Agent, to seize upon him or them, and to carry him or them home Prisoners to England."—Letters Patent to the Governor and Company of Merchants of London, trading with the E. Indies, 3d April.

1670.—The Court, in a letter to Fort St. George, fix the amount of tonnage to be allowed to their officers (for their private investments) on their return to Europe:

"Presidents and Agents, at Surat, Fort
St. George, and Bantam 5 tonns.

Chiefes, at Persia, the Bay (q.v.),
Mesulapatam, and Macassar: Deputy at
Bombay, and Seconds at Surat, Fort
St. George, and Bantam 3 tonns."

In Notes and Exts., No. i. p. 3.

1702.—"Tuesday 7th Aprill.... In the morning a Councill ... afterwards having some Discourse arising among us whether the charge of hiring Calashes, &c., upon Invitations given us from the Shabander or any others to go to their Countrey Houses or upon any other Occasion of diverting our Selves abroad for health, should be charged to our Honble Masters account or not, the President and Mr. Loyd were of opinion to charge the same.... But Mr. Rouse, Mr. Ridges, and Mr. Master were of opinion that Batavia being a place of extraordinary charge and Expense in all things, the said Calash hire, &c., ought not to be charged to the Honourable Company's Account."—MS. Records in India Office.

The book containing this is a collocation of fragmentary MS. diaries. But this passage pertains apparently to the proceedings of President Allen Catchpole and his council, belonging to the Factory of Chusan, from which they were expelled by the Chinese in 1701-2; they stayed some time at Batavia on their way home. Mr. Catchpole (or Ketchpole) was soon afterwards chief of an English settlement made upon Pulo Condore, off the Cambojan coast. In 1704-5, we read that he reported favourably on the prospects of the settlement, requesting a supply of young writers, to learn the Chinese language, anticipating that the island would soon become an important station for Chinese trade. But Catchpole was himself, about the end of 1705, murdered by certain people of Macassar, who thought he had broken faith with them, and with him all the English but two (see Bruce's Annals, 483-4, 580, 606, and A. Hamilton, ii. 205 [ed. 1744]). The Pulo Condore enterprise thus came to an end.

1727.—"About the year 1674, President Aungier, a gentleman well qualified for governing, came to the Chair, and leaving Surat to the Management of Deputies, came to Bombay, and rectified many things."—A. Hamilton, i. 188.

PRICKLY-HEAT, s. A troublesome cutaneous rash (Lichen tropicus) in the form of small red pimples, which itch intolerably. It affects many Europeans in the hot weather. Fryer (pub. 1698) alludes to these "fiery pimples," but gives the disease no specific name. Natives sometimes suffer from it, and (in the south) use a paste of sandal-wood to alleviate it. Sir Charles Napier in Sind used to suffer much from it, and we have heard him described as standing, when giving an interview during the hot weather, with his back against the edge of an open door, for the convenience of occasional friction against it. [See RED-DOG.]

1631.—"Quas Latinus Hippocrates Cornelius Celsus papulas, Plinius sudamina vocat ... ita crebra sunt, ut ego adhuc neminem noverim qui molestias has effugerit, non magis quam morsas culicum, quos Lusitani Mosquitas vocant. Sunt autem haec papulae rubentes, et asperae aliquantum, per sudorem in cutem ejectæ; plerumque a capite ad calcem usque, cum summo pruritu, et assiduo scalpendi desiderio erumpentes."—Jac. Bontii, Hist. Nat. &c., ii. 18, p. 33.

1665.—"The Sun is but just now rising, yet he is intolerable; there is not a Cloud in the Sky, not a breath of Wind; my horses are spent, they have not seen a green Herb since we came out of Lahor; my Indians, for all their black, dry, and hard skin, sink under it. My face, hands and feet are peeled off, and my body is covered all over with pimples that prick me, as so many needles."—Bernier, E.T. 125; [ed. Constable, 389].

[1673.—"This Season ... though moderately warm, yet our Bodies broke out into small fiery Pimples (a sign of a prevailing Crasis) augmented by Muskeetoe-Bites, and Chinces raising Blisters on us."—Fryer, 35.]

1807.—"One thing I have forgotten to tell you of—the prickly heat. To give you some notion of its intensity, the placid Lord William (Bentinck) has been found sprawling on a table on his back; and Sir Henry Gwillin, one of the Madras Judges, who is a Welshman, and a fiery Briton in all senses, was discovered by a visitor rolling on his own floor, roaring like a baited bull."—Lord Minto in India, June 29.

1813.—"Among the primary effects of a hot climate (for it can hardly be called a disease) we may notice prickly heat."—Johnson, Influence of Trop. Climates, 25.

PRICKLY-PEAR, s. The popular name, in both E. and W. Indies, of the Opuntia Dillenii, Haworth (Cactus Indica, Roxb.), a plant spread all over India, and to which Roxburgh gave the latter name, apparently in the belief of its being indigenous in that country. Undoubtedly, however, it came from America, wide as has been its spread over Southern Europe and Asia. On some parts of the Mediterranean shores (e.g. in Sicily) it has become so characteristic that it is hard to realize the fact that the plant had no existence there before the 16th century. Indeed at Palermo we have heard this scouted, and evidence quoted in the supposed circumstance that among the mosaics of the splendid Duomo of Monreale (12th century) the fig-leaf garments of Adam and Eve are represented as of this uncompromising material. The mosaic was examined by one of the present writers, with the impression that the belief has no good foundation. [See 8th ser. Notes and Queries, viii. 254.] The cactus fruit, yellow, purple, and red, which may be said to form an important article of diet in the Mediterranean, and which is now sometimes seen in London shops, is not, as far as we know, anywhere used in India, except in times of famine. No cactus is named in Drury's Useful Plants of India. And whether the Mediterranean plants form a different species, or varieties merely, as compared with the Indian Opuntia, is a matter for inquiry. The fruit of the Indian plant is smaller and less succulent. There is a good description of the plant and fruit in Oviedo, with a good cut (see Ramusio's Ital. version, bk. viii. ch. xxv.). That author gives an amusing story of his first making acquaintance with the fruit in S. Domingo, in the year 1515.

Some of the names by which the Opuntia is known in the Punjab seem to belong properly to species of Euphorbia. Thus the Euphorbia Royleana, Bois., is called tsūī, chū, &c.; and the Opuntia is called Kābulī tsūī, Gangi sho, Kanghi chū, &c. Gangi chū is also the name of an Euphorbia sp. which Dr. Stewart takes to be the E. Neriifolia, L. (Punjab Plants, pp. 101 and 194-5). [The common name in Upper India for the prickly pear is nāgphanī, 'snake-hood,' from its shape.] This is curious; for although certain cactuses are very like certain Euphorbias, there is no Euphorbia resembling the Opuntia in form.

The Zaḳūm mentioned in the Āīn (Gladwin, 1800, ii. 68; [Jarrett, ii. 239; Sidi Ali, ed. Vambery, p. 31] as used for hedges in Guzerat, is doubtless Euphorbia also. The Opuntia is very common as a hedge plant in cantonments, &c., and it was much used by Tippoo as an obstruction round his fortifications. Both the E. Royleana and the Opuntia are used for fences in parts of the Punjab. The latter is objectionable, from harbouring dirt and reptiles; but it spreads rapidly both from birds eating the fruit, and from the facility with which the joints take root.

1685.—"The Prickly-Pear, Bush, or Shrub, of about 4 or 5 foot high ... the Fruit at first is green, like the Leaf.... It is very pleasant in taste, cooling and refreshing; but if a Man eats 15 or 20 of them they will colour his water, making it look like Blood."—Dampier, i. 223 (in W. Indies).

1764.—

"On this lay cuttings of the prickly pear;

They soon a formidable fence will shoot."

Grainger, Bk. i.

[1829.—"The castle of Bunai ... is covered with the cactus, or prickly pear, so abundant on the east side of the Aravali."—Tod, Annals, Calcutta reprint, i. 826.]

1861.—"The use of the prickly pear" (for hedges) "I strongly deprecate; although impenetrable and inexpensive, it conveys an idea of sterility, and is rapidly becoming a nuisance in this country."—Cleghorn, Forests and Gardens, 285.

PROME, n.p. An important place in Pegu above the Delta. The name is Talaing, properly Brun. The Burmese call it Pyé or (in the Aracanese form in which the r is pronounced) Pré and Pré-myo ('city').

1545.—"When he (the K. of Bramaa) was arrived at the young King's pallace, he caused himself to be crowned King of Prom, and during the Ceremony ... made that poor Prince, whom he had deprived of his Kingdom, to continue kneeling before him, with his hands held up.... This done he went into a Balcone, which looked on a great Market-place, whither he commanded all the dead children that lay up and down the streets, to be brought, and then causing them to be hacked very small, he gave them, mingled with Bran, Rice, and Herbs, to his Elephants to eat."—Pinto, E.T. 211-212 (orig. clv.).

c. 1609.—"... this quarrel was hardly ended when a great rumour of arms was heard from a quarter where the Portuguese were still fighting. The cause of this was the arrival of 12,000 men, whom the King of Pren sent in pursuit of the King of Arracan, knowing that he had fled that way. Our people hastening up had a stiff and well fought combat with them; for although they were fatigued with the fight which had been hardly ended, those of Pren were so disheartened at seeing the Portuguese, whose steel they had already felt, that they were fain to retire."—Bocarro, 142. This author has Prom (p. 132) and Porão (p. 149). [Also see under AVA.]

1755.—"Prone ... has the ruins of an old brick wall round it, and immediately without that, another with Teak Timber."—Capt. G. Baker, in Dalrymple, i. 173.

1795.—"In the evening, my boat being ahead, I reached the city of Peeaye-mew, or Prome, ... renowned in Birman history."—Symes, pp. 238-9.

PROW, PARAO, &c., s. This word seems to have a double origin in European use; the Malayāl. pāṛu, 'a boat,' and the Island word (common to Malay, Javanese, and most languages of the Archipelago) prāū or prāhū. This is often specifically applied to a peculiar kind of galley, "Malay Prow," but Crawfurd defines it as "a general term for any vessel, but generally for small craft." It is hard to distinguish between the words, as adopted in the earlier books, except by considering date and locality.

1499.—"The King despatched to them a large boat, which they call paráo, well manned, on board which he sent a Naire of his with an errand to the Captains...."—Correa, Lendas, I. i. 115.

1510.—(At Calicut) "Some other small ships are called Parao, and they are boats of ten paces each, and are all of a piece, and go with oars made of cane, and the mast also is made of cane."—Varthema, 154.

1510.—"The other Persian said: 'O Sir, what shall we do?' I replied: 'Let us go along this shore till we find a parao, that is, a small bark.'"—Ibid. 269.

1518.—"Item; that any one possessing a zambuquo (see SAMBOOK) or a parao of his own and desiring to go in it may do so with all that belongs to him, first giving notice two days before to the Captain of the City."—Livro dos Privilegios da Cidade de Goa, in Archiv. Port. Orient. Fascic. v. p. 7.

1523.—"When Dom Sancho (Dom Sancho Anriquez; see Correa, ii. 770) went into Muar to fight with the fleet of the King of Bintam which was inside the River, there arose a squall which upset all our paraos and lancharas at the bar mouth...."—Lembrança de Cousas de India, p. 5.

1582.—"Next daye after the Capitaine Generall with all his men being a land, working upon the ship called Berrio, there came in two little Paraos."—Castañeda (tr. by N. L.), f. 62v.

1586.—"The fifth and last festival, which is called Sapan Donon, is one in which the King (of Pegu) is embarked in the most beautiful parò, or boat...."—G. Balbi, f. 122.

1606.—Gouvea (f. 27v) uses parò.

" "An howre after this comming a board of the hollanders came a prawe or a canow from Bantam."—Middleton's Voyage, c. 3 (v).

[1611.—"The Portuguese call their own galiots Navires (navios) and those of the Malabars, Pairaus. Most of these vessels were Chetils (see CHETTY), that is to say merchantmen. Immediately on arrival the Malabars draw up their Pados or galliots on the beach."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 345.

1623.—"In the Morning we discern'd four ships of Malabar Rovers near the shore (they called them Paroes and they goe with Oars like our Galeots or Foists."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. ii. 201.]

[1666.—"Con secreto previno Lope de Soarez veinte bateles, y gobernandolo y entrando por un rio, hallaron el peligro de cinco naves y ochenta paraos con mucha gente resuelta y de valor."—Faria y Sousa, Asia, i. 66.

1673.—"They are owners of several small Provoes, of the same make, and Canooses, cut out of one entire Piece of Wood."—Fryer, 20. Elsewhere (e.g. 57, 59) he has Proes.

1727.—"The Andemaners had a yearly Custom to come to the Nicobar Islands, with a great number of small Praws, and kill or take Prisoners as many of the poor Nicobareans as they could overcome."—A. Hamilton, ii. 65 [ed. 1744].

1816.—"... Prahu, a term under which the Malays include every description of vessel."—Raffles, in As. Res. xii. 132.

1817.—"The Chinese also have many brigs ... as well as native-built prahus."—Raffles, Java, i. 203.

1868.—"On December 13th I went on board a prau bound for the Aru Islands."—Wallace, Malay Archip. 227.

PUCKA, adj. Hind. pakkā, 'ripe, mature, cooked'; and hence substantial, permanent, with many specific applications, of which examples have been given under the habitually contrasted term cutcha (q.v.). One of the most common uses in which the word has become specific is that of a building of brick and mortar, in contradistinction to one of inferior material, as of mud, matting, or timber. Thus:

[1756.—"... adjacent houses; all of them of the strongest Pecca work, and all most proof against our Mettal on ye Bastions." Capt. Grant, Report on Siege of Calcutta, ed. by Col. Temple, Ind. Ant., 1890, p. 7.]

1784.—"The House, Cook-room, bottle-connah, godown, &c., are all pucka-built."—In Seton-Karr, i. 41.

1824.—"A little above this beautiful stream, some miserable pucka sheds pointed out the Company's warehouses."—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 259-60.

1842.—"I observe that there are in the town (Dehli) many buildings pucka-built, as it is called in India."—Wellington to Ld. Ellenborough, in Indian Adm. of Ld. E., p. 306.

1857.—"Your Lahore men have done nobly. I should like to embrace them; Donald, Roberts, Mac, and Dick are, all of them, pucca trumps."—Lord Lawrence, in Life, ii. 11.

1869.—"... there is no surer test by which to measure the prosperity of the people than the number of pucka houses that are being built."—Report of a Sub-Committee on Proposed Indian Census.

This application has given rise to a substantive pucka, for work of brick and mortar, or for the composition used as cement and plaster.

1727.—"Fort William was built on an irregular Tetragon of Brick and Mortar, called Puckah, which is a Composition of Brick-dust, Lime, Molasses, and cut Hemp, and when it comes to be dry, it is as hard and tougher than firm Stone or Brick."—A. Hamilton, ii. 19; [ed. 1744, ii. 7].

The word was also sometimes used substantively for "pucka pice" (see CUTCHA).

c. 1817.—"I am sure I strive, and strive, and yet last month I could only lay by eight rupees and four puckers."—Mrs. Sherwood's Stories, 66.

In (Stockdale's) Indian Vocabulary of 1788 we find another substantive use, but it was perhaps even then inaccurate.

1788.—"Pucka—A putrid fever, generally fatal in 24 hours."

Another habitual application of pucka and cutcha distinguishes between two classes of weights and measures. The existence of twofold weight, the pucka ser and the cutcha, used to be very general in India. It was equally common in Medieval Europe. Almost every city in Italy had its libra grossa and libra sottile (e.g. see Pegolotti, 4, 34, 153, 228, &c.), and we ourselves still have them, under the names of pound avoirdupois and pound troy.

1673.—"The Maund Pucka at Agra is double as much (as the Surat Maund)."—Fryer, 205.

1760.—"Les pacca cosses ... repondent à une lieue de l'Isle de France."—Lett. Edif. xv. 189.

1803.—"If the rice should be sent to Coraygaum, it should be in sufficient quantities to give 72 pucca seers for each load."—Wellington, Desp. (ed. 1837), ii. 43.

In the next quotation the terms apply to the temporary or permanent character of the appointments held.

1866.—"Susan. Well, Miss, I don't wonder you're so fond of him. He is such a sweet young man, though he is cutcha. Thank goodness, my young man is pucka, though he is only a subordinate Government Salt Chowkee."—Trevelyan, The Dawk Bungalow, 222.

The remaining quotations are examples of miscellaneous use:

1853.—"'Well, Jenkyns, any news?' 'Nothing pucka that I know of.'"—Oakfield, ii. 57.

1866.—"I cannot endure a swell, even though his whiskers are pucka."—Trevelyan, The Dawk Bungalow, in Fraser, lxxiii. 220.

The word has spread to China:

"Dis pukka sing-song makee show

How smart man make mistake, galow."

Leland, Pidgin English Sing-Song, 54.

PUCKAULY, s.; also PUCKAUL. Hind. pakhālī, 'a water-carrier.' In N. India the pakhāl [Skt. payas, 'water,' khalla, 'skin'] is a large water-skin (an entire ox-hide) of some 20 gallons content, of which a pair are carried by a bullock, and the pakhālī is the man who fills the skins, and supplies the water thus. In the Madras Drill Regulations for 1785 (33), ten puckalies are allowed to a battalion. (See also Williamson's V. M. (1810), i. 229.)

[1538.—Referring to the preparations for the siege of Diu, "which they brought from all the wells on the island by all the bullocks they could collect with their water-skins, which they call pacals (Pacais)."—Couto, Dec. V. Bk. iii. ch. 2.]

1780.—"There is another very necessary establishment to the European corps, which is two buccalies to each company: these are two large leathern bags for holding water, slung upon the back of a bullock...."—Munro's Narrative, 183.

1803.—"It (water) is brought by means of bullocks in leathern bags, called here puckally bags, a certain number of which is attached to every regiment and garrison in India. Black fellows called Puckauly-boys are employed to fill the bags, and drive the bullocks to the quarters of the different Europeans."—Percival's Ceylon, 102.

1804.—"It would be a much better arrangement to give the adjutants of corps an allowance of 26 rupees per mensam, to supply two puckalie men, and two bullocks with bags, for each company."—Wellington, iii. 509.

1813.—"In cities, in the armies, and with Europeans on country excursions, the water for drinking is usually carried in large leather bags called pacaulies, formed by the entire skin of an ox."—Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 140; [2nd ed. i. 415].

1842.—"I lost no time in confidentially communicating with Capt. Oliver on the subject of trying some experiments as to the possibility of conveying empty 'puckalls' and 'mussucks' by sea to Suez."—Sir G. Arthur, in Ellenborough's Ind. Admin. 219.

[1850.—"On the reverse flank of companies march the Pickalliers, or men driving bullocks, carrying large leather bags filled with water...."—Hervey, Ten Years in India, iii. 335.]

PUCKEROW, v. This is properly the imperative of the Hind. verb pakṛānā, 'to cause to be seized,' pakṛāo, 'cause him to be seized'; or perhaps more correctly of a compound verb pakaṛāo, 'seize and come,' or in our idiom, 'Go and seize.' But puckerow belongs essentially to the dialect of the European soldier, and in that becomes of itself a verb 'to puckerow,' i.e. to lay hold of (generally of a recalcitrant native). The conversion of the Hind. imperative into an Anglo-Indian verb infinitive, is not uncommon; compare bunow, dumbcow, gubbrow, lugow, &c.

1866.—"Fanny, I am cutcha no longer. Surely you will allow a lover who is pucka to puckero!"—Trevelyan, The Dawk Bungalow, 390.

PUDIPATAN, n.p. The name of a very old seaport of Malabar, which has now ceased to have a place in the Maps. It lay between Cannanore and Calicut, and must have been near the Waddakaré of K. Johnston's Royal Atlas. [It appears in the map in Logan's Malabar as Putuppatanam or Putappanam.] The name is Tamil, Pudupaṭṭana, 'New City.' Compare true form of Pondicherry.

c. 545.—"The most notable places of trade are these ... and then five marts of Malé from which pepper is exported, to wit, Parti, Mangaruth (see MANGALORE), Salopatana, Nalopatana, Pudopatana...."—Cosmas Indicopleustes, Bk. xi. (see in Cathay, &c. p. clxxviii.).

c. 1342.—"Buddfattan, which is a considerable city, situated upon a great estuary.... The haven of this city is one of the finest; the water is good, the betel-nut is abundant, and is exported thence to India and China."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 87.

c. 1420.—"A quâ rursus se diebus viginti terrestri viâ contulit ad urbem portumque maritimum nomine Pudifetaneam."—Conti, in Poggio, de Var. Fort.

1516.—"... And passing those places you come to a river called Pudripatan, in which there is a good place having many Moorish merchants who possess a multitude of ships, and here begins the Kingdom of Calicut."—Barbosa, in Ramusio, i. f. 311v. See also in Stanley's Barbosa Pudopatani, and in Tohfat-ul-Mujahideen, by Rowlandson, pp. 71, 157, where the name (Budfattan) is misread Buduftun.

[PUG, s. Hind. pag, Skt. padaka, 'a foot'; in Anglo-Indian use the footmarks of an animal, such as a tiger.

[1831.—"... sanguine we were sometimes on the report of a bura pug from the shikaree."—Orient. Sport. Mag. reprint 1873, ii. 178.

[1882.—"Presently the large square 'pug' of the tiger we were in search of appeared."—Sanderson, Thirteen Years, 30.]

PUGGRY, PUGGERIE, s. Hind. pagṛī, 'a turban.' The term being often used in colloquial for a scarf of cotton or silk wound round the hat in turban-form, to protect the head from the sun, both the thing and name have of late years made their way to England, and may be seen in London shop-windows.

c. 1200.—"Prithirâja ... wore a pagari ornamented with jewels, with a splendid toro. In his ears he wore pearls; on his neck a pearl necklace."—Chand Bardai E.T. by Beames, Ind. Ant. i. 282.

[1627.—"... I find it is the common mode of the Eastern People to shave the head all save a long lock which superstitiously they leave at the very top, such especially as wear Turbans, Mandils, Dustars, and Puggarees."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1677, p. 140.]

1673.—"They are distinguished, some according to the consanguinity they claim with Mahomet, as a Siad is akin to that Imposture, and therefore only assumes to himself a Green Vest and Puckery (or Turbat)...."—Fryer, 93; [comp. 113].

1689.—"... with a Puggaree or Turbant upon their Heads."—Ovington, 314.

1871.—"They (the Negro Police in Demarara) used frequently to be turned out to parade in George Town streets, dressed in a neat uniform, with white puggries framing in their ebony faces."—Jenkins, The Coolie.

PUGGY, s. Hind. pagī (not in Shakespear's Dict., nor in Platts), from pag (see PUG), 'the foot.' A professional tracker; the name of a caste, or rather an occupation, whose business is to track thieves by footmarks and the like. On the system, see Burton, Sind Revisited, i. 180 seqq.

[1824.—"There are in some of the districts of Central India (as in Guzerat) puggees, who have small fees on the village, and whose business it is to trace thieves by the print of their feet."—Malcolm, Central India, 2nd ed. ii. 19.]

1879.—"Good puggies or trackers should be employed to follow the dacoits during the daytime."—Times of India, Overland Suppt., May 12, p. 7.

PUHUR, PORE, PYRE, &c., s. Hind. pahar, pahr, from Skt. prahara. 'A fourth part of the day and of the night, a watch' or space of 8 ghaṛīs (see GHURRY).

c. 1526.—"The natives of Hindostân divide the night and day into 60 parts, each of which they denominate a Gheri; they likewise divide the night into 4 parts, and the day into the same number, each of which they call a Pahar or watch, which the Persians call a Pâs."—Baber, 331.

[c. 1590.—"The Hindu philosophers divide the day and night into four parts, each of which they call a pahr."—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, iii. 15.]

1633.—"Par." See under GHURRY.

1673.—"Pore." See under GONG.

1803.—"I have some Jasooses selected by Col. C's brahmin for their stupidity, that they might not pry into state secrets, who go to Sindia's camp, remain there a phaur in fear...."—M. Elphinstone, in Life, i. 62.

PULÁ, s. In Tamil pillai, Malayāl. pilla, 'child'; the title of a superior class of (so-called) Śūdras, [especially curnums]. In Cochin and Travancore it corresponds with Nāyar (see NAIR). It is granted by the sovereign, and carries exemption from customary manual labour.

1553.—"... pulas, who are the gentlemen" (fidalgos).—Castanheda, iv. 2.

[1726.—"O Saguate que o Commendor tinha remetido como gristnave amim e as Pulamares temos ca recebid."—Ratification, in Logan, Malabar, iii. 13.]

PULICAT, n.p. A town on the Madras coast, which was long the seat of a Dutch factory. Bp. Caldwell's native friend Seshagiri Śāstri gives the proper name as pala-Vêlkāḍu, 'old Velkāḍu or Verkāḍu,' the last a place-name mentioned in the Tamil Sivaite Tevāram (see also Valentijn below). [The Madras Gloss. gives Pazhaverk-kādu, 'old acacia forest,' which is corroborated by Dr. Hultzsch (Epigraphia Indica, i. 398).]

1519.—"And because he had it much in charge to obtain all the lac (alacre) that he could, the Governor learning from merchants that much of it was brought to the Coast of Choromandel by the vessels of Pegu and Martaban which visited that coast to procure painted cloths and other coloured goods, such as are made in Paleacate, which is on the coast of Choromandel, whence the traders with whom the Governor spoke brought it to Cochin; he, having got good information on the whole matter, sent a certain Frolentine (sic, frolentim) called Pero Escroco, whom he knew, and who was good at trade, to be factor on the coast of Choromandel...."—Correa, ii. 567.

1533.—"The said Armenian, having already been at the city of Paleacate, which is in the Province of Choromandel and the Kingdom of Bisnaga, when on his way to Bengal, and having information of the place where the body of S. Thomas was said to be, and when they arrived at the port of Paleacate the wind was against their going on...."—Barros, III. vii. 11.

[1611.—"The Dutch had settled a factory at Pellacata."—Danvers, Letters, i. 133; in Foster, ii. 83, Pollicat.]

1726.—"Then we come to Palleam Wedam Caddoe, called by us for shortness Palleacatta, which means in Malabars 'The old Fortress,' though most commonly we call it Castle Geldria."—Valentijn, Chorom. 13.

" "The route I took was along the strip of country between Porto Novo and Paleiacatta. This long journey I travelled on foot; and preached in more than a hundred places...."—Letter of the Missionary Schultze, July 19, in Notices of Madras, &c., p. 20.

1727.—"Policat is the next Place of Note to the City and Colony of Fort St George.... It is strengthned with two Forts, one contains a few Dutch soldiers for a Garrison, the other is commanded by an Officer belonging to the Mogul."—A. Hamilton, i. 372, [ed. 1744].

[1813.—"Pulecat handkerchiefs." See under PIECE-GOODS.]

PULTUN, s. Hind. palṭan, a corruption of Battalion, possibly with some confusion of platoon or péloton. The S. India form is pataulam, patālam. It is the usual native word for a regiment of native infantry; it is never applied to one of Europeans.

1800.—"All I can say is that I am ready primed, and that if all matters suit I shall go off with a dreadful explosion, and shall probably destroy some campoos and pultons which have been indiscreetly pushed across the Kistna."—A. Wellesley to T. Munro, in Mem. of Munro, by Arbuthnot, lxix.

[1895.—"I know lots of Sahibs in a pultoon at Bareilly."—Mrs Croker, Village Tales and Jungle Tragedies, 60.]

PULWAH, PULWAR, s. One of the native boats used on the rivers of Bengal, carrying some 12 to 15 tons. Hind. palwār. [For a drawing see Grierson, Bihar Village Life, p. 42.]

1735.—"... We observed a boat which had come out of Samboo river, making for Patna: the commandant detached two light pulwaars after her...."—Holwell, Hist. Events, &c., i. 69.

[1767.—"... a Peon came twice to Noon-golah, to apply for polwars...."—Verelst, View of Bengal, App. 197.]

1780.—"Besides this boat, a gentleman is generally attended by two others; a pulwah for the accommodation of the kitchen, and a smaller boat, a paunchway" (q.v.).—Hodges, p. 39.

1782.—"To be sold, Three New Dacca Pulwars, 60 feet long, with Houses in the middle of each."—India Gazette, Aug. 31.

1824.—"The ghât offered a scene of bustle and vivacity which I by no means expected. There were so many budgerows and pulwars, that we had considerable difficulty to find a mooring place."—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 131.

1860.—"The Pulwar is a smaller description of native travelling boat, of neater build, and less rusticity of character, sometimes used by a single traveller of humble means, and at others serves as cook-boat and accommodation for servants accompanying one of the large kind of boats...."—Grant, Rural Life in Bengal, p. 7, with an illustration.

PULWAUN, s. P.—H. pahlwān, [which properly means 'a native of ancient Persia' (see PAHLAVI). Mr. Skeat notes that in Malay the word becomes pahlāwan, probably from a confusion with Malay āwan, 'to fight']. A champion; a professed wrestler or man of strength.

[1753.—"... the fourth, and least numerous of these bodies, were choice men of the Pehlevans...."—Hanway, iii. 104.

[1813.—"When his body has by these means imbibed an additional portion of vigour, he is dignified by the appellation of Puhlwan."—Broughton, Letters, ed. 1892, p. 165.]

1828.—"I added a pehlivân or prize-fighter, a negro whose teeth were filed into saws, of a temper as ferocious as his aspect, who could throw any man of his weight to the ground, carry a jackass, devour a sheep whole, eat fire, and make a fountain of his inside, so as to act as a spout."—Hajji Baba in England, i. 15.

PUN, s. A certain number of cowries, generally 80; Hind. paṇa. (See under COWRY). The Skt. paṇa is 'a stake played for a price, a sum,' and hence both a coin (whence fanam, q.v.) and a certain amount of cowries.

1554.—"Pone." (See under PORTO PIQUENO.)

1683.—"I was this day advised that Mr. Charnock putt off Mr. Ellis's Cowries at 34 pund to ye Rupee in payment of all ye Peons and Servants of the Factory, whereas 38 punds are really bought by him for a Rupee...."—Hedges, Diary, Oct. 2; [Hak. Soc. i. 122].

1760.—"We now take into consideration the relief of the menial servants of this Settlement, respecting the exorbitant price of labor exacted from them by tailors, washermen, and barbers, which appear in near a quadruple (pro)portion compared with the prices paid in 1755. Agreed, that after the 1st of April they be regulated as follows:

"No tailor to demand for making:

1 Jamma, more than 3 annas.

1 pair of drawers, 7 pun of cowries.

No washerman:

1 corge of pieces, 7 pun of cowries.

No barber for shaving a single person, more than 7 gundas" (see COWRY).—Ft. William Consns., March 27, in Long, 209.

PUNCH, s. This beverage, according to the received etymology, was named from the Pers. panj, or Hind. and Mahr. pānch, both meaning 'five'; because composed of five ingredients, viz. arrack, sugar, lime-juice, spice, and water. Fryer may be considered to give something like historical evidence of its origin; but there is also something of Indian idiom in the suggestion. Thus a famous horse-medicine in Upper India is known as battīsī, because it is supposed to contain 32 ('battīs') ingredients. Schiller, in his Punschlied, sacrificing truth to trope, omits the spice and makes the ingredients only 4: "Vier Elemente Innig gesellt, Bilden das Leben, Bauen die Welt."

The Greeks also had a "Punch," πενταπλόα, as is shown in the quotation from Athenaeus. Their mixture does not sound inviting. Littré gives the etymology correctly from the Pers. panj, but the 5 elements à la française, as tea, sugar, spirit, cinnamon, and lemon-peel,—no water therefore!

Some such compound appears to have been in use at the beginning of the 17th century under the name of Larkin (q.v.). Both Dutch and French travellers in the East during that century celebrate the beverage under a variety of names which amalgamate the drink curiously with the vessel in which it was brewed. And this combination in the form of Bole-ponjis was adopted as the title of a Miscellany published in 1851, by H. Meredith Parker, a Bengal civilian, of local repute for his literary and dramatic tastes. He had lost sight of the original authorities for the term, and his quotation is far astray. We give them correctly below.

c. 210.—"On the feast of the Scirrha at Athens he (Aristodemus on Pindar) says a race was run by the young men. They ran this race carrying each a vine-branch laden with grapes, such as is called ōschus; and they ran from the temple of Dionysus to that of Athena Sciras. And the winner receives a cup such as is called 'Five-fold,' and of this he partakes joyously with the band of his comrades. But the cup is called πενταπλόα because it contains wine and honey and cheese and flour, and a little oil."—Athenaeus, XI. xcii.

1638.—"This voyage (Gombroon to Surat) ... we accomplished in 19 days.... We drank English beer, Spanish sack, French wine, Indian spirit, and good English water, and made good Palepunzen."—Mandelslo, (Dutch ed. 1658), p. 24. The word Palepunzen seems to have puzzled the English translator (John Davis, 2nd ed. 1669), who has "excellent good sack, English beer, French wines, Arak, and other refreshments." (p. 10).

1653.—"Bolleponge est vn mot Anglois, qui signifie vne boisson dont les Anglois vsent aux Indes faite de sucre, suc de limon, eau de vie, fleur de muscade, et biscuit roty."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 534.

[1658.—"Arriued this place where found the Bezar almost Burnt and many of the People almost starued for want of Foode which caused much Sadnes in Mr. Charnock and my Selfe, but not soe much as the absence of your Company, which wee haue often remembered in a bowle of the cleerest Punch, hauing noe better Liquor."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. iii. cxiv.]

1659.—"Fürs Dritte, Pale bunze getituliret, von halb Wasser, halb Brantwein, dreyssig, vierzig Limonien, deren Körnlein ausgespeyet werden, und ein wenig Zucker eingeworfen; wie dem Geschmack so angenehm nicht, also auch der Gesundheit nicht."—Saar, ed. 1672, 60.

[1662.—"Amongst other spirituous drinks, as Punch, &c., they gave us Canarie that had been carried to and fro from the Indies, which was indeed incomparably good."—Evelyn, Diary, Jan. 16.]

c. 1666.—"Neánmoins depuis qu'ils (les Anglois) ont donné ordre, aussi bien que les Hollandois, que leurs equipages ne boivent point tant de Bouleponges ... il n'y a pas tant de maladies, et il ne leur meurt plus tant de monde. Bouleponge est un certain breuvage composé d'arac ... avec du suc de limons, de l'eau, et un peu de muscade rapée dessus: il est assez agréable au gout, mais c'est la peste du corps et de la santé."—Bernier, ed. 1723, ii. 335 (Eng. Tr. p. 141); [ed. Constable, 441].

1670.—"Doch als men zekere andere drank, die zij Paleponts noemen, daartusschen drinkt, zo word het quaat enigsins geweert."—Andriesz, 9. Also at p. 27, "Palepunts."

We find this blunder of the compound word transported again to England, and explained as a 'hard word.'

1672.—Padre Vincenzo Maria describes the thing, but without a name:

"There are many fruites to which the Hollanders and the English add a certain beverage that they compound of lemon-juice, aqua-vitae, sugar, and nutmegs, to quench their thirst, and this, in my belief, augments not a little the evil influence."—Viaggio, p. 103.

1673.—"At Nerule is the best Arach or Nepa (see NIPA) de Goa, with which the English on this Coast make that enervating Liquor called Paunch (which is Indostan for Five), from Five Ingredients; as the Physicians name their Composition Diapente; or from four things, Diatessaron."—Fryer, 157.

1674.—"Palapuntz, a kind of Indian drink, consisting of Aqua-vitae, Rose-water, juyce of Citrons and Sugar."—Glossographia, &c., by T. E.

[1675.—"Drank part of their boules of Punch (a liquor very strange to me)."—H. Teonge, Diary, June 1.]

1682.—"Some (of the Chinese in Batavia) also sell Sugar-beer, as well as cooked dishes and Sury (see SURA), arak or Indian brandy; wherefrom they make Mussak and Follepons, as the Englishmen call it."—Nieuhoff, Zee en Lant-Reize, ii. 217.

1683.—"... Our owne people and mariners who are now very numerous, and insolent among us, and (by reason of Punch) every day give disturbance."—Hedges, Diary, Oct. 8; [Hak. Soc. i. 123].

1688.—"... the soldiers as merry as Punch could make them."—In Wheeler, i. 187.

1689.—"Bengal (Arak) is much stronger spirit than that of Goa, tho' both are made use of by the Europeans in making Punch."—Ovington, 237-8.

1694.—"If any man comes into a victualling house to drink punch, he may demand one quart good Goa arak, half a pound of sugar, and half a pint of good lime water, and make his own punch...."—Order Book of Bombay Govt., quoted by Anderson, p. 281.

1705.—"Un bon repas chez les Anglais ne se fait point sans bonne ponse qu'on sert dans un grand vase."—Sieur Luillier, Voy. aux Grandes Indes, 29.

1771.—"Hence every one (at Madras) has it in his Power to eat well, tho' he can afford no other Liquor at Meals than Punch, which is the common Drink among Europeans, and here made in the greatest Perfection."—Lockyer, 22.

1724.—"Next to Drams, no Liquor deserves more to be stigmatised and banished from the Repasts of the Tender, Valetudinary, and Studious, than Punch."—G. Cheyne, An Essay on Health and Longevity, p. 58.

1791.—"Dès que l'Anglais eut cessé de manger, le Paria ... fit un signe à sa femme, qui apporta ... une grande calebasse pleine de punch, qu'elle avoit preparé, pendant le souper, avec de l'eau, et du jus de citron, et du jus de canne de sucre...."—B. de St. Pierre, Chaumière Indienne, 56.

PUNCH-HOUSE, s. An Inn or Tavern; now the term is chiefly used by natives (sometimes in the hybrid form Punch-ghar, [which in Upper India is now transferred to the meeting-place of a Municipal Board]) at the Presidency towns, and applied to houses frequented by seamen. Formerly the word was in general Anglo-Indian use. [In the Straits the Malay Panc-haus is, according to Mr. Skeat, still in use, though obolescent.]

[1661.—"... the Commandore visiting us, wee delivering him another examination of a Persee (Parsee), who kept a Punch house, where the murder was committed...."—Forrest, Bombay Letters, Home Series, i. 189.]

1671-2.—"It is likewise enordered and declared hereby that no Victuallar, Punch-house, or other house of Entertainment shall be permitted to make stoppage at the pay day of their wages...."—Rules, in Wheeler, iii. 423.

1676.—Major Puckle's "Proposals to the Agent about the young men at Metchlepatam.

"That some pecuniary mulct or fine be imposed ... for misdemeanours.

"6. Going to Punch or Rack-houses without leave or warrantable occasion.

"Drubbing any of the Company's Peons or servants."

—In Notes and Exts., No. I. p. 40.

1688.—"... at his return to Achen he constantly frequented an English Punch-house, spending his Gold very freely."—Dampier, ii. 134.

" "Mrs. Francis, wife to the late Lieutenant Francis killed at Hoogly by the Moors, made it her petition that she might keep a Punch-house for her maintenance."—In Wheeler, i. 184.

1697.—"Monday, 1st April ... Mr. Cheesely having in a Punch-house, upon a quarrel of words, drawn his Sword ... and being taxed therewith, he both doth own and justify the drawing of the sword ... it thereupon ordered not to wear a sword while here."—In Wheeler, i. 320.

1727.—"... Of late no small Pains and Charge have been bestowed on its Buildings (of the Fort at Tellichery); but for what Reason I know not ... unless it be for small Vessels ... or to protect the Company's Ware-house, and a small Punch-house that stands on the Sea-shore...."—A. Hamilton, i. 299 [ed. 1744].

1789.—"Many ... are obliged to take up their residence in dirty punch-houses."—Munro's Narrative, 22.

1810.—"The best house of that description which admits boarders, and which are commonly called Punch-houses."—Williamson, V.M. i. 135.

PUNCHAYET, s. Hind. panchāyat, from pānch, 'five.' A council (properly of 5 persons) assembled as a Court of Arbiters or Jury; or as a committee of the people of a village, of the members of a Caste, or whatnot, to decide on questions interesting the body generally.

1778.—"The Honourable William Hornby, Esq., President and Governor of His Majesty's Castle and Island of Bombay, &c.

"The humble Petition of the Managers of the Panchayet of Parsis at Bombay...."—Dosambhai Framji, H. of the Parsis, 1884, ii. 219.

1810.—"The Parsees ... are governed by their own panchaït or village Council. The word panchaït literally means a Council of five, but that of the Guebres in Bombay consists of thirteen of the principal merchants of the sect."—Maria Graham, 41.

1813.—"The carpet of justice was spread in the large open hall of the durbar, where the arbitrators assembled: there I always attended, and agreeably to ancient custom, referred the decision to a panchaeet or jury of five persons."—Forbes, Or. Mem., ii. 359; [in 2nd ed. (ii. 2) Panchaut].

1819.—"The punchayet itself, although in all but village causes it has the defects before ascribed to it, possesses many advantages. The intimate acquaintance of the members with the subject in dispute, and in many cases with the characters of the parties, must have made their decisions frequently correct, and ... the judges being drawn from the body of the people, could act on no principles that were not generally understood."—Elphinstone, in Life, ii. 89.

1821.—"I kept up punchayets because I found them ... I still think that the punchayet should on no account be dropped, that it is an excellent institution for dispensing justice, and in keeping up the principles of justice, which are less likely to be observed among a people to whom the administration of it is not at all intrusted."—Ibid. 124.

1826.—"... when he returns assemble a punchayet, and give this cause patient attention, seeing that Hybatty has justice."—Pandurang Hari, 31; [ed. 1873, i. 42].

1832.—Bengal Regn. VI. of this year allows the judge of the Sessions Court to call in the alternative aid of a punchayet, in lieu of assessors, and so to dispense with the futwa. See LAW-OFFICER.

1853.—"From the death of Runjeet Singh to the battle of Sobraon, the Sikh Army was governed by 'Punchayets' or 'Punches'—committees of the soldiery. These bodies sold the Government to the Sikh chief who paid the highest, letting him command until murdered by some one who paid higher."—Sir C. Napier, Defects of Indian Government, 69.

1873.—"The Council of an Indian Village Community most commonly consists of five persons ... the panchayet familiar to all who have the smallest knowledge of India."—Maine, Early Hist. of Institutions, 221.

PUNDIT, s. Skt. paṇḍita, 'a learned man.' Properly a man learned in Sanskrit lore. The Pundit of the Supreme Court was a Hindu Law-Officer, whose duty it was to advise the English Judges when needful on questions of Hindu Law. The office became extinct on the constitution of the 'High Court,' superseding the Supreme Court and Sudder Court, under the Queen's Letters Patent of May 14, 1862.

In the Mahratta and Telegu countries, the word Paṇḍit is usually pronounced Pant (in English colloquial Punt); but in this form it has, as with many other Indian words in like case, lost its original significance, and become a mere personal title, familiar in Mahratta history, e.g. the Nānā Dhundopant of evil fame.

Within the last 30 or 35 years the term has acquired in India a peculiar application to the natives trained in the use of instruments, who have been employed beyond the British Indian frontier in surveying regions inaccessible to Europeans. This application originated in the fact that two of the earliest men to be so employed, the explorations by one of whom acquired great celebrity, were masters of village schools in our Himālayan provinces. And the title Pundit is popularly employed there much as Dominie used to be in Scotland. The Pundit who brought so much fame on the title was the late Nain Singh, C.S.I. [See Markham, Memoir of Indian Surveys, 2nd ed. 148 seqq.]

1574.—"I hereby give notice that ... I hold it good, and it is my pleasure, and therefore I enjoin on all the pandits (panditos) and Gentoo physicians (phisicos gentios) that they ride not through this City (of Goa) or the suburbs thereof on horseback, nor in andors and palanquins, on pain of paying, on the first offence 10 cruzados, and on the second 20, pera o sapal, with the forfeiture of such horses, andors, or palanquins, and on the third they shall become the galley-slaves of the King my Lord...."—Procl. of the Governor Antonio Moriz Barreto, in Archiv. Port. Orient. Fascic. 5, p. 899.

1604.—"... llamando tãbien en su compania los Põditos, le presentaron al Nauabo."—Guerrero, Relaçion, 70.

1616.—"... Brachmanae una cum Panditis comparentes, simile quid iam inde ab orbis exordio in Indostane visum negant."—Jarric, Thesaurus, iii. 81-82.

1663.—"A Pendet Brachman or Heathen Doctor whom I had put to serve my Agah ... would needs make his Panegyrick ... and at last concluded seriously with this: When you put your Foot into the Stirrup, My Lord, and when you march on Horseback in the front of the Cavalry, the Earth trembleth under your Feet, the eight Elephants that hold it up upon their Heads not being able to support it."—Bernier, E.T., 85; [ed. Constable, 264].

1688.—"Je feignis donc d'être malade, et d'avoir la fièvre; on fit venir aussitôt un Pandite ou médicin Gentil."—Dellon, Rel. de l'Inq. de Goa, 214.

1785.—"I can no longer bear to be at the mercy of our pundits, who deal out Hindu law as they please; and make it at reasonable rates, when they cannot find it ready made."—Letter of Sir W. Jones, in Mem. by Ld. Teignmouth, 1807, ii. 67.

1791.—"Il était au moment de s'embarquer pour l'Angleterre, plein de perplexité et d'ennui, lorsque les brames de Bénarés lui apprirent que le brame supérieur de la fameuse pagode de Jagrenat ... était seul capable de resoudre toutes les questions de la Société royale de Londres. C'était en effet le plus fameux pandect, ou docteur, dont on eût jamais oui parler."—B. de St. Pierre, La Chaumière Indienne. The preceding exquisite passage shows that the blunder which drew forth Macaulay's flaming wrath, in the quotation lower down, was not a new one.

1798.—"... the most learned of the Pundits or Bramin lawyers, were called up from different parts of Bengal."—Raynal, Hist. i. 42.

1856.—"Besides ... being a Pundit of learning, he (Sir David Brewster) is a bundle of talents of various kinds."—Life and Letters of Sydney Dobell, ii. 14.

1860.—"Mr. Vizetelly next makes me say that the principle of limitation is found 'amongst the Pandects of the Benares....' The Benares he probably supposes to be some Oriental nation. What he supposes their Pandects to be I shall not presume to guess.... If Mr. Vizetelly had consulted the Unitarian Report, he would have seen that I spoke of the Pundits of Benares, and he might without any very long and costly research have learned where Benares is and what a Pundit is."—Macaulay, Preface to his Speeches.

1877.—"Colonel Y——. Since Nain Singh's absence from this country precludes my having the pleasure of handing to him in person, this, the Victoria or Patron's Medal, which has been awarded to him, ... I beg to place it in your charge for transmission to the Pundit."—Address by Sir R. Alcock, Prest. R. Geog. Soc., May 28.

"Colonel Y—— in reply, said: ... Though I do not know Nain Singh personally, I know his work.... He is not a topographical automaton, or merely one of a great multitude of native employés with an average qualification. His observations have added a larger amount of important knowledge to the map of Asia than those of any other living man, and his journals form an exceedingly interesting book of travels. It will afford me great pleasure to take steps for the transmission of the Medal through an official channel to the Pundit."—Reply to the President, same date.

PUNJAUB, n.p. The name of the country between the Indus and the Sutlej. The modern Anglo-Indian province so-called, now extends on one side up beyond the Indus, including Peshāwar, the Derajāt, &c., and on the other side up to the Jumna, including Delhi. [In 1901 the Frontier Districts were placed under separate administration.] The name is Pers. Panj-āb, 'Five Rivers.' These rivers, as reckoned, sometimes include the Indus, in which case the five are (1) Indus, (2) Jelam (see JELUM) or Behat, the ancient Vitasta which the Greeks made Ὑδάσπης (Strabo) and Βιδάσπης (Ptol.), (3) Chenāb, ancient Chandrabāgha and Āsiknī. Ptolemy preserves a corruption of the former Sanskrit name in Σανδαβάλ, but it was rejected by the older Greeks because it was of ill omen, i.e. probably because Grecized it would be Ξανδροφάγος, 'the devourer of Alexander.' The alternative Āsiknī they rendered Ἀκεσίνης. (4) Rāvī, the ancient Airāvatī, Ὑάρωτης (Strabo), Ὑδραώτης (Arrian), Ἄδρις or Ῥούαδις (Ptol.). (5) Biās, ancient Vipāsā, Ὕφασις (Arrian), Βιβάσιος (Ptol.). This excluded the Sutlej, Satadru, Hesydrus of Pliny, Ζαράδρος or Ζαδάδρης (Ptol.), as Timur excludes it below. We may take in the Sutlej and exclude the Indus, but we can hardly exclude the Chenāb as Wassāf does below.

No corresponding term is used by the Greek geographers. "Putandum est nomen Panchanadae Graecos aut omnino latuisse, aut casu quodam non ad nostra usque tempora pervenisse, quod in tanta monumentorum ruina facile accidere potuit" (Lassen, Pentapotamia, 3). Lassen however has termed the country Pentepotamia in a learned Latin dissertation on its ancient geography. Though the actual word Panjāb is Persian, and dates from Mahommedan times, the corresponding Skt. Panchanada is ancient and genuine, occurring in the Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa. The name Panj-āb in older Mahommedan writers is applied to the Indus river, after receiving the rivers of the country which we call Punjaub. In that sense Panj-nad, of equivalent meaning, is still occasionally used. [In S. India the term is sometimes applied to the country watered by the Tumbhadra, Wardha, Malprabha, Gatprabha and Kistna (Wilks, Hist. Sketches, Madras reprint, i. 405).]

We remember in the newspapers, after the second Sikh war, the report of a speech by a clergyman in England, who spoke of the deposition of "the bloody Punjaub of Lahore."

B.C. x.—"Having explored the land of the Pahlavi and the country adjoining, there had then to be searched Panchanada in every part; the monkeys then explore the region of Kashmīr with its woods of acacias."—Rāmāyaṇa, Bk. iv. ch. 43.

c. 940.—Maṣ'ūdī details (with no correctness) the five rivers that form the Mihrān or Indus. He proceeds: "When the Five Rivers which we have named have past the House of Gold which is Mūltān, they unite at a place three days distant from that city, between it and Manṣūra at a place called Doshāb."—i. 377-8.

c. 1020.—"They all (Sind, Jhailam, Irāwa, Biah) combine with the Satlader (Sutlej) below Múltán, at a place called Panjnad, or 'the junction of the five rivers.' They form a very wide stream."—Al-Birūnī, in Elliot, i. 48.

c. 1300.—"After crossing the Panj-āb, or five rivers, namely Sind, Jelam, the river of Loháwar (i.e. of Lahore, viz. the Rāvī), Satlút, and Bīyah...."—Wassāf, in Elliot, iii. 36.

c. 1333.—"By the grace of God our caravan arrived safe and sound at Banj-āb, i.e. at the River of the Sind. Banj (panj) signifies 'five,' and āb, 'water;' so that the name signifies 'the Five Waters.' They flow into this great river, and water the country."—Ibn Batuta, iii. 91.

c. 1400.—"All these (united) rivers (Jelam, Chenáb, Ráví, Bíyáh, Sind) are called the Sind or Panj-áb, and this river falls into the Persian Gulf near Thatta."—The Emp. Timur, in Elliot, iii. 476.

[c. 1630.—"He also takes a Survey of Pang-ob...."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1677, p. 63. He gives a list of the rivers in p. 70.]

1648.—"... Pang-ab, the chief city of which is Lahor, is an excellent and fruitful province, for it is watered by the five rivers of which we have formerly spoken."—Van Twist, 3.

" "The River of the ancient Indus, is by the Persians and Magols called Pang-ab, i.e. the Five Waters."—Ibid. i.

1710.—"He found this ancient and famous city (Lahore) in the Province Panschaap, by the side of the broad and fish-abounding river Rari (for Ravi)."—Valentijn, iv. (Suratte), 282.

1790.—"Investigations of the religious ceremonies and customs of the Hindoos, written in the Carnatic, and in the Punjab, would in many cases widely differ."—Forster, Preface to Journey.

1793.—"The Province, of which Lahore is the capital, is oftener named Panjab than Lahore."—Rennell's Memoir, 3rd ed. 82.

1804.—"I rather think ... that he (Holkar) will go off to the Punjaub. And what gives me stronger reason to think so is, that on the seal of his letter to me he calls himself 'the Slave of Shah Mahmoud, the King of Kings.' Shah Mahmoud is the brother of Zemaun Shah. He seized the musnud and government of Caubul, after having defeated Zemaun Shah two or three years ago, and put out his eyes."—Wellington, Desp. under March 17.

1815.—"He (Subagtageen) ... overran the fine province of the Punjaub, in his first expedition."—Malcolm, Hist. of Persia, i. 316.

PUNKAH, s. Hind. pankhā.

a. In its original sense a portable fan, generally made from the leaf of the palmyra (Borassus flabelliformis, or 'fan-shaped'), the natural type and origin of the fan. Such pankhās in India are not however formed, as Chinese fans are, like those of our ladies; they are generally, whether large or small, of a bean-shape, with a part of the dried leaf-stalk adhering, which forms the handle.

b. But the specific application in Anglo-Indian colloquial is to the large fixed and swinging fan, formed of cloth stretched on a rectangular frame, and suspended from the ceiling, which is used to agitate the air in hot weather. The date of the introduction of this machine into India is not known to us. The quotation from Linschoten shows that some such apparatus was known in the 16th century, though this comes out clearly in the French version alone; the original Dutch, and the old English translation are here unintelligible, and indicate that Linschoten (who apparently never was at Ormuz) was describing, from hearsay, something that he did not understand. More remarkable passages are those which we take from Dozy, and from El-Fakhrī, which show that the true Anglo-Indian punka was known to the Arabs as early as the 8th century.

a.—

1710.—"Aloft in a Gallery the King sits in his chaire of State, accompanied with his Children and chiefe Vizier ... no other without calling daring to goe vp to him, saue onely two Punkaws to gather wind."—W. Finch, in Purchas, i. 439. The word seems here to be used improperly for the men who plied the fans. We find also in the same writer a verb to punkaw:

"... behind one punkawing, another holding his sword."—Ibid. 433.

Terry does not use the word:

1616.—"... the people of better quality, lying or sitting on their Carpets or Pallats, have servants standing about them, who continually beat the air upon them with Flabella's, or Fans, of stiffned leather, which keepe off the flyes from annoying them, and cool them as they lye."—Ed. 1665, p. 405.

1663.—"On such occasions they desire nothing but ... to lie down in some cool and shady place all along, having a servant or two to fan one by turns, with their great Pankas, or Fans."—Bernier, E.T., p. 76; [ed. Constable, 241].

1787.—"Over her head was held a punker."—Sir C. Malet, in Parl. Papers, 1821, 'Hindoo Widows.'

1809.—"He ... presented me ... two punkahs."—Lord Valentia, i. 428.

1881.—"The chair of state, the sella gestatoria, in which the Pope is borne aloft, is the ancient palanquin of the Roman nobles, and, of course, of the Roman Princes ... the fans which go behind are the punkahs of the Eastern Emperors, borrowed from the Court of Persia."—Dean Stanley, Christian Institutions, 207.

b.—

c. 1150-60.—"Sous le nom de Khaich on entend des étoffes de mauvais toile de lin qui servent à différents usages. Dans ce passage de Rhazès (c. A.D. 900) ce sont des ventilateurs faits de cet étoffe. Ceci se pratique de cette manière: on en prend un morceau de la grandeur d'un tapis, un peu plus grand ou un peu plus petit selon les dimensions de la chambre, et on le rembourre avec des objets qui ont de la consistance et qui ne plient pas facilement, par exemple avec du sparte. L'ayant ensuite suspendu au milieu de la chambre, on le fait tirer et lacher doucement et continuellement par un homme placé dans le haut de l'appartement. De cette manière il fait beaucoup de vent et rafraichit l'air. Quelquefois on le trempe dans de l'eau de rose, et alors il parfume l'air en même temps qu'il le rafraichit."—Glossaire sur le Mançouri, quoted in Dozy et Engelmann, p. 342. See also Dozy, Suppt. aux Dictt. Arabes, s.v. Khaich.

1166.—"He (Ibn Hamdun the Kātib) once recited to me the following piece of his composition, containing an enigmatical description of a linen fan:

"'Fast and loose, it cannot touch what it tries to reach; though tied up it moves swiftly, and though a prisoner it is free. Fixed in its place it drives before it the gentle breeze; though its path lie closed up it moves on in its nocturnal journey.'"—Quoted by Ibn Khallikan, E.T. iii. 91.

" The linen fan (Mirwaha-t al Khaish) is a large piece of linen, stretched on a frame, and suspended from the ceiling of the room. They make use of it in Irâk. See de Sacy's Hariri, p. 474."—Note by MacGuckin de Slane, ibid. p. 92.

c. 1300.—"One of the innovations of the Caliph Manṣūr (A.D. 753-774) was the Khaish of linen in summer, a thing which was not known before his time. But the Sāsānian Kings used in summer to have an apartment freshly plastered (with clay) every day, which they inhabited, and on the morrow another apartment was plastered for them."—El-Fakhrī, ed. Ahlwardt, p. 188.

1596.—"And (they use) instruments like swings with fans, to rock the people in, and to make wind for cooling, which they call cattaventos."—Literal Transln. from Linschoten, ch. 6.

1598.—"And they vse certaine instruments like Waggins, with bellowes, to beare all the people in, and to gather winde to coole themselves withall, which they call Cattaventos."—Old English Translation, by W. P., p. 16; [Hak. Soc. i. 52].

The French version is really a brief description of the punka:

1610.—"Ils ont aussi du Cattaventos qui sont certains instruments pendus en l'air es quels se faisant donner le bransle ils font du vent qui les rafraichit."—Ed. 1638, p. 17.

The next also perhaps refers to a suspended punka:

1662.—"... furnished also with good Cellars with great Flaps to stir the Air, for reposing in the fresh Air from 12 till 4 or 5 of the Clock, when the Air of these Cellars begins to be hot and stuffing."—Bernier, p. 79; [ed. Constable, 247].

1807.—"As one small concern succeeds another, the punkah vibrates gently over my eyes."—Lord Minto in India, 27.

1810.—"Were it not for the punka (a large frame of wood covered with cloth) which is suspended over every table, and kept swinging, in order to freshen the air, it would be scarcely possible to sit out the melancholy ceremony of an Indian dinner."—Maria Graham, 30.

" Williamson mentions that punkahs "were suspended in most dining halls."—Vade Mecum, i. 281.

1823.—"Punkas, large frames of light wood covered with white cotton, and looking not unlike enormous fire-boards, hung from the ceilings of the principal apartments."—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 28.

1852.—

"Holy stones with scrubs and slaps

(Our Christmas waits!) prelude the day;

For holly and festoons of bay

Swing feeble punkas,—or perhaps

A windsail dangles in collapse."

Christmas on board a P. and O., near the Equator.

1875.—"The punkah flapped to and fro lazily overhead."—Chesney, The Dilemma, ch. xxxviii.

Mr. Busteed observes: "It is curious that in none of the lists of servants and their duties which are scattered through the old records in the last century (18th), is there any mention of the punka, nor in any narratives referring to domestic life in India then, that have come under our notice, do we remember any allusion to its use.... The swinging punka, as we see it to-day, was, as every one knows, an innovation of a later period.... This dates from an early year in the present century."—Echoes of Old Calcutta, p. 115. He does not seem, however, to have found any positive evidence of the date of its introduction. ["Hanging punkahs are said by one authority to have originated in Calcutta by accident towards the close of the last (18th) century. It is reported that a clerk in a Government office suspended the leaf of a table, which was accidentally waved to and fro by a visitor. A breath of cool air followed the movement, and suggested the idea which was worked out and resulted in the present machine" (Carey, Good Old Days of John Company, i. 81). Mr. Douglas says that punkahs were little used by Europeans in Bombay till 1810. They were not in use at Nuncomar's trial in Calcutta (1775), Bombay and W. India, ii. 253.]

PUNSAREE, s. A native drug-seller; Hind. pansārī. We place the word here partly because C. P. Brown says 'it is certainly a foreign word,' and assigns it to a corruption of dispensarium; which is much to be doubted. [The word is really derived from Skt. paṇyaśāla, 'a market, warehouse.']

[1830.—"Beside this, I purchased from a pansaree some application for relieving the pain of a bruise."—Frazer, The Persian Adventurer, iii. 23.]

PURDAH, s. Hind. from Pers. parda, 'a curtain'; a portière; and especially a curtain screening women from the sight of men; whence a woman of position who observes such rules of seclusion is termed parda-nishīn, 'one who sits behind a curtain.' (See GOSHA.)

1809.—"On the fourth (side) a purdah was stretched across."—Ld. Valentia, i. 100.

1810.—"If the disorder be obstinate, the doctor is permitted to approach the purdah (i.e. curtain, or screen) and to put the hand through a small aperture ... in order to feel the patient's pulse."—Williamson, V. M. i. 130.

[1813.—"My travelling palankeen formed my bed, its purdoe or chintz covering my curtains."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. ii. 109.]

1878.—"Native ladies look upon the confinement behind the purdah as a badge of rank, and also as a sign of chastity, and are exceedingly proud of it."—Life in the Mofussil, i. 113.

[1900.—"Charitable aid is needed for the purdah women."—Pioneer Mail, Jan. 21.]

PURDESEE, s. Hind. paradeśī usually written pardesī, 'one from a foreign country.' In the Bombay army the term is universally applied to a sepoy from N. India. [In the N.W.P. the name is applied to a wandering tribe of swindlers and coiners.]

PURWANNA, PERWAUNA, s. Hind. from Pers. parwāna, 'an order; a grant or letter under royal seal; a letter of authority from an official to his subordinate; a license or pass.'

1682.—"... we being obliged at the end of two months to pay Custom for the said goods, if in that time we did not procure a Pherwanna for the Duan of Decca to excuse us from it."—Hedges, Diary, Oct. 10; [Hak. Soc. i. 34].

1693.—"... Egmore and Pursewaukum were lately granted us by the Nabob's purwannas."—Wheeler, i. 281.

1759.—"Perwanna, under the Coochuck (or the small seal) of the Nabob Vizier Ulma Maleck, Nizam ul Muluck Bahadour, to Mr. John Spenser."—In Cambridge's Acct. of the War, 230. (See also quotation under HOSBOLHOOKUM.)

1774.—"As the peace has been so lately concluded, it would be a satisfaction to the Rajah to receive your parwanna to this purpose before the departure of the caravan."—Bogle's Diary, in Markham's Tibet, p. 50. But Mr. Markham changes the spelling of his originals.

PUTCHOCK, s. This is the trade-name for a fragrant root, a product of the Himālaya in the vicinity of Kashmīr, and forming an article of export from both Bombay and Calcutta to the Malay countries and to China, where it is used as a chief ingredient of the Chinese pastille-rods commonly called jostick. This root was recognised by the famous Garcia de Orta as the Costus of the ancients. The latter took their word from the Skt. kusṭha, by a modification of which name—kuṭ—it is still known and used as a medicine in Upper India. De Orta speaks of the plant as growing about Mandu and Chitore, whence it was brought for sale to Ahmadābād; but his informants misled him. The true source was traced in situ by two other illustrious men, Royle and Falconer, to a plant belonging to the N. O. Compositae, Saussurea Xappe, Clarke, for which Dr. Falconer, not recognising the genus, had proposed the name of Aucklandia Costus verus, in honour of the then Governor-General. The Costus is a gregarious plant, occupying open, sloping sides of the mountains, at an elevation of 8000 to 9000 feet. See article by Falconer in Trans. Linn. Soc. xix. 23-31.

The trade-name is, according to Wilson, the Telugu pāch'chāku, 'green leaf,' but one does not see how this applies. (Is there, perhaps, some confusion with Patch? see PATCHOULI). De Orta speaks as if the word, which he writes pucho, were Malay. Though neither Crawfurd nor Favre gives the word, in this sense, it is in Marsden's earlier Malay Dict.: "Pūchok, a plant, the aromatic leaves of which are an article of trade; said by some to be Costus indicus, and by others the Melissa, or Laurus." [On this Mr. Skeat writes: "Puchok is the Malay word for a young sprout, or the growing shoot of a plant. Puchok in the special sense here used is also a Malay word, but it may be separate from the other. Klinkert gives puchok as a sprout or shoot and also as a radish-like root (indigenous in China (sic), used in medicine for fumigation, &c.). Apparently it is always the root and not the leaves of the plant that are used, in which case Marsden may have confused the two senses of the word."] In the year 1837-38 about 250 tons of this article, valued at £10,000, were exported from Calcutta alone. The annual import into China at a later date, according to Wells Williams, was 2,000 peculs or 120 tons (Middle Kingdom, ed. 1857, ii. 308). In 1865-66, the last year for which the details of such minor exports are found in print, the quantity exported from Calcutta was only 492½ cwt., or 24⅝ tons. In 1875 the value of the imports at Hankow and Chefoo was £6,421. [Watt, Econ. Dict. vi. pt. ii. p. 482, Bombay Gazetteer, xi. 470.]

1516.—See Barbosa under CATECHU.

1520.—"We have prohibited (the export of) pepper to China ... and now we prohibit the export of pucho and incense from these parts of India to China."—Capitulo de hum Regimento del Rey a Diogo Ayres, Feitor da China, in Arch. Port. Orient., Fasc. v. 49.

1525.—"Pucho of Cambaya worth 35 tangas a maund."—Lembranças, 50.

[1527.—Mr. Whiteway notes that in a letter of Diogo Calvo to the King, dated Jan. 17, pucho is mentioned as one of the imports to China.—India Office MS. Corpo Chronologico, vol. i.]

1554.—"The baar (see BAHAR) of pucho contains 20 faraçolas (see FRAZALA), and an additional 4 of picota (q.v.), in all 24 faraçolas...."—A. Nunes, 11.

1563.—"I say that costus in Arabic is called cost or cast; in Guzarate it is called uplot (upaleta); and in Malay, for in that region there is a great trade and consumption thereof, it is called pucho. I tell you the name in Arabic, because it is called by the same name by the Latins and Greeks, and I tell it you in Guzerati, because that is the land to which it is chiefly carried from its birth-place; and I tell you the Malay name because the greatest quantity is consumed there, or taken thence to China."—Garcia, f. 72.

c. 1563.—"... Opium, Assa Fetida, Puchio, with many other sortes of Drugges."—Caesar Frederike, in Hakl. ii. 343.

[1609.—"Costus of 2 sorts, one called pokermore, the other called Uplotte (see Garcia, above)."—Danvers, Letters, i. 30.]

1617.—"5 hampers pochok...."—Cocks, Diary, i. 294.

1631.—"Caeterum Costus vulgato vocabulo inter mercatores Indos Pucho, Chinensibus Potsiock, vocatur ... vidi ego integrum Picol, quod pondus centum et viginti in auctione decem realibus distribui."—Jac. Bontii, Hist. Nat., &c., lib. iv. p. 46.

1711.—In Malacca Price Currant, July 1704: "Putchuck or Costus dulcis."—Lockyer, 77.

1726.—"Patsjaak (a leaf of Asjien (Acheen?) that is pounded to powder, and used in incense)...."—Valentijn, Choro. 34.

1727.—"The Wood Ligna dulcis grows only in this country (Sind). It is rather a Weed than a Wood, and nothing of it is useful but the Root, called Putchock, or Radix dulcis.... There are great quantities exported from Surat, and from thence to China, where it generally bears a good Price...."—A. Hamilton, i. 126; [ed. 1744, i. 127].

1808.—"Elles emploient ordinairement ... une racine aromatique appelée pieschtok, qu'on coupe par petits morceaux, et fait bouillir dans de l'huile de noix de coco. C'est avec cette huile que les danseuses se graissent...."—Haafner, ii. 117.

1862.—"Koot is sent down country in large quantities, and is exported to China, where it is used as incense. It is in Calcutta known under the name of 'Patchuk.'"—Punjab Trade Report, cvii.

PUTLAM, n.p. A town in Ceylon on the coast of the bay or estuary of Calpentyn; properly Puṭṭalama; a Tamil name, said by Mr. Fergusson to be puthu- (pudu?) alam, 'New Salt-pans.' Ten miles inland are the ruins of Tammana Newera, the original Tambapanni (or Taprobane), where Vijaya, the first Hindu immigrant, established his kingdom. And Putlam is supposed to be the place where he landed.

1298.—"The pearl-fishers ... go post to a place callen Bettelar, and (then) go 60 miles into the gulf."—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. ch. 16.

c. 1345.—"The natives went to their King and told him my reply. He sent for me, and I proceeded to his presence in the town of Baṭṭāla, which was his capital, a pretty little place, surrounded by a timber wall and towers."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 166.

1672.—"Putelaon...."—Baldaeus (Germ.), 373.

1726.—"Portaloon or Putelan."—Valentijn, Ceylon, 21.

PUTNEE, PUTNEY, s.

a. Hind. and Beng. paṭṭanī, or paṭnī, from v. paṭ-nā, 'to be agreed or closed' (i.e. a bargain). Goods commissioned or manufactured to order.

1755.—"A letter from Cossimbazar mentions they had directed Mr. Warren Hastings to proceed to the Putney aurung (q.v.) in order to purchase putney on our Honble. Masters' account, and to make all necessary enquiries."—Fort William Consns., Nov. 10. In Long, 61.

b. A kind of sub-tenure existing in the Lower Provinces of Bengal, the patnīdār, or occupant of which "holds of a Zemindar a portion of the Zemindari in perpetuity, with the right of hereditary succession, and of selling or letting the whole or part, so long as a stipulated amount of rent is paid to the Zemindar, who retains the power of sale for arrears, and is entitled to a regulated fee or fine upon transfer" (Wilson, q.v.). Probably both a and b are etymologically the same, and connected with paṭṭā (see POTTAH).

[1860.—"A perpetual lease of land held under a Zumeendar is called a putnee,—and the holder is called a putneedar, who not only pays an advanced rent to the Zumeendar, but a handsome price for the same."—Grant, Rural Life in Bengal, 64.]

PUTTÁN, PATHÁN, n.p. Hind. Paṭhān. A name commonly applied to Afghans, and especially to people in India of Afghan descent. The derivation is obscure. Elphinstone derives it from Pushtūn and Pukhtūn, pl. Pukhtāna, the name the Afghans give to their own race, with which Dr. Trumpp [and Dr. Bellew (Races of Afghanistan, 25) agree. This again has been connected with the Pactyica of Herodotus (iii. 102, iv. 44).] The Afghans have for the name one of the usual fantastic etymologies which is quoted below (see quotation, c. 1611). The Mahommedans in India are sometimes divided into four classes, viz. Paṭhāns; Mughals (see MOGUL), i.e. those of Turki origin; Shaikhs, claiming Arab descent; and Saiyyids, claiming also to be descendants of Mahommed.

1553.—"This State belonged to a people called Patane, who were lords of that hill-country. And as those who dwell on the skirts of the Pyrenees, on this side and on that, are masters of the passes by which we cross from Spain to France, or vice versâ, so these Patan people are the masters of the two entrances to India, by which those who go thither from the landward must pass...."—Barros, IV. vi. 1.

1563.—"... This first King was a Patane of certain mountains that march with Bengala."—Garcia, Coll. f. 34.

1572.—

"Mas agora de nomes, et de usança,

Novos, et varios são os habitantes,

Os Delijs, os Patãnes que em possança

De terra, e gente são mais abundantes."

Camões, vii. 20.

[By Aubertin:

"But now inhabitants of other name

And customs new and various there are found,

The Delhis and Patans, who in the fame

Of land and people do the most abound."]

1610.—"A Pattan, a man of good stature."—Hawkins, in Purchas, i. 220.

c. 1611.—"... the mightiest of the Afghan people was Kais.... The Prophet gave Kais the name of Abd Ulrasheed ... and ... predicted that God would make his issue so numerous that they, with respect to the establishment of the Faith, would outvie all other people; the angel Gabriel having revealed to him that their attachment to the Faith would, in strength, be like the wood upon which they lay the keel when constructing a ship, which wood the seamen call Pathan: on this account he conferred upon Abd Ulrasheed the title of Pathan also."—Hist. of the Afghans, E.T., by Dorn, i. 38.

[1638.—"... Ozmanchan a Puttanian...."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1677, p. 76.]

1648.—"In general the Moors are a haughty and arrogant and proud people, and among them the Pattans stand out superior to the others in dress and manners."—Van Twist, 58.

1666.—"Martin Affonso and the other Portuguese delivered them from the war that the Patanes were making on them."—Faria y Sousa, Asia Portuguesa, i. 343.

1673.—"They are distinguished, some according to the Consanguinity they claim with Mahomet; as a Siad is a kin to that Imposture.... A Shiek is a Cousin too, at a distance, into which Relation they admit all new made Proselytes. Meer is somewhat allied also.... The rest are adopted under the Name of the Province ... as Mogul, the Race of the Tartars ... Patan, Duccan."—Fryer, 93.

1681.—"En estas regiones ay vna cuyas gentes se dizen los Patanes."—Martinez de la Puente, Compendio, 21.

1726.—"... The Patans (Patanders) are very different in garb, and surpass in valour and stout-heartedness in war."—Valentijn, Choro. 109.

1757.—"The Colonel (Clive) complained bitterly of so many insults put upon him, and reminded the Soubahdar how different his own conduct was, when called upon to assist him against the Pytans."—Ives, 149.

1763.—"The northern nations of India, although idolaters ... were easily induced to embrace Mahomedanism, and are at this day the Affghans or Pitans."—Orme, i. 24, ed. 1803.

1789.—"Moormen are, for the most part, soldiers by profession, particularly in the cavalry, as are also ... Pitans."—Munro, Narr. 49.

1798.—"... Afghans, or as they are called in India, Patans."—G. Forster, Travels, ii. 47.

[PUTTEE, PUTTY, s. Hind. paṭṭī.

a. A piece or strip of cloth, bandage; especially used in the sense of a ligature round the lower part of the leg used in lieu of a gaiter, originally introduced from the Himālaya, and now commonly used by sportsmen and soldiers. A special kind of cloth appears in the old trade-lists under the name of puteahs (see PIECE GOODS).

1875.—"Any one who may be bound for a long march will put on leggings of a peculiar sort, a bandage about 6 inches wide and four yards long, wound round from the ankle up to just below the knee, and then fastened by an equally long string, attached to the upper end, which is lightly wound many times round the calf of the leg. This, which is called patawa, is a much cherished piece of dress."—Drew, Jummoo, 175.

1900.—"The Puttee leggings are excellent for peace and war, on foot or on horseback."—Times, Dec. 24.

b. In the N.W.P. "an original share in a joint or coparcenary village or estate comprising many villages; it is sometimes defined as the smaller subdivision of a mahal or estate" (Wilson). Hence Putteedaree, paṭṭidārī used for a tenure of this kind.

1852.—"Their names were forthwith scratched off the collector's books, and those of their eldest sons were entered, who became forthwith, in village and cutcherry parlance, lumberdars of the shares of their fathers, or in other words, of puttee Shere Singh and puttee Baz Singh."—Raikes, Notes on the N.W.P. 94.

c. In S. India, soldiers' pay.

1810.—"... hence in ordinary acceptation, the pay itself was called puttee, a Canarese word which properly signifies a written statement of any kind."—Wilks, Hist. Sketches, Madras reprint, i. 415.]

PUTTYWALLA, s. Hind. paṭṭā-wālā, paṭṭī-wālā (see PUTTEE), 'one with a belt.' This is the usual Bombay term for a messenger or orderly attached to an office, and bearing a belt and brass badge, called in Bengal chuprassy or peon (qq.v.), in Madras usually by the latter name.

1878.—"Here and there a belted Government servant, called a Puttiwālā, or Paṭṭawālā, because distinguished by a belt...."—Monier Williams, Modern India, 34.

PUTWA, s. Hind. patwā. The Hibiscus sabdariffa, L., from the succulent acid flowers of which very fair jelly is made in Anglo-Indian households. [It is also known as the Rozelle or Red Sorrel (Watt, Econ. Dict. iv. 243). Riddell (Domest. Econ. 337) calls it "Oseille or Roselle jam and jelly."]

PYE, s. A familiar designation among British soldiers and young officers for a Pariah-dog (q.v.); a contraction, no doubt, of the former word.

[1892.—"We English call him a pariah, but this word, belonging to a low, yet by no means degraded class of people in Madras, is never heard on native lips as applied to a dog, any more than our other word 'pie.'"—L. Kipling, Beast and Man, 266.]

PYJAMMAS, s. Hind. pāē-jāma (see JAMMA), lit. 'leg-clothing.' A pair of loose drawers or trowsers, tied round the waist. Such a garment is used by various persons in India, e.g. by women of various classes, by Sikh men, and by most Mahommedans of both sexes. It was adopted from the Mahommedans by Europeans as an article of dishabille and of night attire, and is synonymous with Long Drawers, Shulwáurs, and Mogul-breeches. [For some distinctions between these various articles of dress see Forbes-Watson, (Textile Manufactures, 57).] It is probable that we English took the habit like a good many others from the Portuguese. Thus Pyrard (c. 1610) says, in speaking of Goa Hospital: "Ils ont force calsons sans quoy ne couchent iamais les Portugais des Indes" (ii. p. 11; [Hak. Soc. ii. 9]). The word is now used in London shops. A friend furnishes the following reminiscence: "The late Mr. B——, tailor in Jermyn Street, some 40 years ago, in reply to a question why pyjammas had feet sewn on to them (as was sometimes the case with those furnished by London outfitters) answered: 'I believe, Sir, it is because of the White Ants!'"

[1828—

"His chief joy smoking a cigar

In loose Paee-jams and native slippers."

Orient. Sport. Mag., reprint 1873, i. 64.]

1881.—"The rest of our attire consisted of that particularly light and airy white flannel garment, known throughout India as a pajama suit."—Haekel, Ceylon, 329.

PYKE, PAIK, s. Wilson gives only one original of the term so expressed in Anglo-Indian speech. He writes: "Páík or Páyik, corruptly Pyke, Hind. &c. (from S. padātika), Páík or Páyak, Mar. A footman, an armed attendant, an inferior police and revenue officer, a messenger, a courier, a village watchman: in Cuttack the Páíks formerly constituted a local militia, holding land of the Zamindárs or Rájas by the tenure of military service," &c., quoting Bengal Regulations. [Platts also treats the two words as identical.] But it seems clear to us that there are here two terms rolled together:

a. Pers. Paik, 'a foot-runner or courier.' We do not know whether this is an old Persian word or a Mongol introduction. According to Hammer Purgstall it was the term in use at the Court of the Mongol princes, as quoted below. Both the words occur in the Āīn, but differently spelt, and that with which we now deal is spelt paik (with the fatḥa point).

c. 1590.—"The Jilaudár (see under JULIBDAR) and the Paik (a runner). Their monthly pay varies from 1200 to 120d. (dāms), according to their speed and manner of service. Some of them will run from 50 to 100 kroh (Coss) per day."—Āīn, E.T. by Blochmann, i. 138 (see orig. i. 144).

1673.—At the Court of Constantinople: "Les Peiks venoient ensuite, avec leurs bonnets d'argent doré ornés d'un petit plumage de héron, un arc et un carquois chargé de flèches."—Journal d'A. Galland, i. 98.

1687.—"... the under officers and servants called Agiam-Oglans, who are designed to the meaner uses of the Seraglio ... most commonly the sons of Christians taken from their Parents at the age of 10 or 12 years.... These are: 1, Porters, 2, Bostangies or Gardiners ... 5, Paicks and Solacks...."—Sir Paul Rycaut, Present State of the Ottoman Empire, 19.

1761.—"Ahmad Sultán then commissioned Sháh Pasand Khán ... the harkáras (see HURCARRA) and the Paiks, to go and procure information as to the state and strength of the Mahratta army."—Muhammad Jáfar Shámlu, in Elliot, viii. 151-2.

1840.—"The express-riders (Eilbothen) accomplished 50 farsangs a-day, so that an express came in 4 days from Khorasan to Tebris [Tabrīz).... The Foot-runners carrying letters (Peik), whose name at least is maintained to this day at both the Persian and Osmanli Courts, accomplished 30 farsangs a-day."—Hammer Purgstall, Gesch. der Golden Horde, 243.

[1868.—"The Payeke is entrusted with the tchilim (see CHILLUM) (pipe), which at court (Khiva) is made of gold or silver, and must be replenished with fresh water every time it is filled with tobacco."—Vambery, Sketches, 89.]

b. Hind. pāīk and pāyik (also Mahr.) from Skt. padātika, and padika, 'a foot-soldier,' with the other specific application given by Wilson, exclusive of 'courier.' In some narratives the word seems to answer exactly to peon. In the first quotation, which is from the Āīn, the word, it will be seen, is different from that quoted under (a) from the same source.

c. 1590.—"It was the custom in those times, for the palace (of the King of Bengal) to be guarded by several thousand pykes (pāyak), who are a kind of infantry. An eunuch entered into a confederacy with these guards, who one night killed the King, Futteh Shah, when the Eunuch ascended the throne, under the title of Barbuck Shah."—Gladwin's Tr., ed. 1800, ii. 19 (orig. i. 415; [Jarrett (ii. 149) gives the word as Páyiks].

In the next quotation the word seems to be the same, though used for 'a seaman.' Compare uses of Lascar.

c. 1615.—"(His fleet) consisted of 20 beaked vessels, all well manned with the sailors whom they call paiques, as well as with Portuguese soldiers and topazes who were excellent musketeers; 50 hired jalias (see GALLEVAT) of like sort and his own (Sebastian Gonçalves's) galliot (see GALLEVAT), which was about the size of a patacho, with 14 demi-falcons on each broadside, two pieces of 18 to 20 lbs. calibre in the forecastle, and 60 Portuguese soldiers, with more than 40 topazes and Cafres (see CAFFER)."—Bocarro, Decada, 452.

1722.—Among a detail of charges at this period in the Zemindárry of Rājshāhī appears:

"9. Paikan, or the pikes, guard of villages, everywhere necessary ... 2,161 rupees."—Fifth Report, App. p. 345.

The following quotation from an Indian Regulation of Ld. Cornwallis's time is a good example of the extraordinary multiplication of terms, even in one Province in India, denoting approximately the same thing:

1792.—"All Pykes, Chokeydars (see CHOKIDAR), Pasbans, Dusauds, Nigabans, Harees (see HARRY), and other descriptions of village watchmen are declared subject to the orders of the Darogah (see DAROGA)...."—Regns. for the Police ... passed by the G.-G. in C., Dec. 7.

" "The army of Assam was a militia organised as follows. The whole male population was bound to serve either as soldiers or labourers, and was accordingly divided into sets of four men each, called gotes, the individuals comprising the gotes being termed pykes."—Johnstone's Acct. of Welsh's Expedition to Assam, 1792-93-94 (commd. by Gen. Keatinge).

1802.—After a detail of persons of rank in Midnapore:

"None of these entertain armed followers except perhaps ten or a dozen Peons for state, but some of them have Pykes in considerable numbers, to keep the peace on their estates. These Pykes are under the magistrate's orders."—Fifth Report, App. p. 535.

1812.—"The whole of this last-mentioned numerous class of Pykes are understood to have been disbanded, in compliance with the new Police regulations."—Fifth Report, 71.

1872.—"... Dalais or officers of the peasant militia (Paiks). The Paiks were settled chiefly around the fort on easy tenures."—Hunter's Orissa, ii. 269.

PYSE! interjection. The use of this is illustrated in the quotations. Notwithstanding the writer's remark (below) it is really Hindustani, viz. po'is, 'look out!' or 'make way!' apparently from Skt. paśya, 'look! see!' (see Molesworth's Mahr. Dict. p. 529, col. c; Fallon's Hind. Dict., p. 376, col. a; [Platts, 282b].

[1815.—"... three men came running up behind them, as if they were clearing the road for some one, by calling out 'pice! pice!' (make way, make way)...."—Elphinstone's Report on Murder of Gungadhur Shastry, in Papers relating to E.I. Affairs, p. 14.]

1883.—"Does your correspondent Col. Prideaux know the origin of the warning called out by buggy drivers to pedestrians in Bombay, 'Pyse'? It is not Hindustani."—Letter in N. & Q., Ser. VI. viii. p. 388.

[Other expressions of the same kind are Malayāl. po, 'Get out of the way!' and Hind. Mahr. khis, khis, from khisnā, 'to drop off.'

1598.—"As these hayros goe in the streetes, they crie po, po, which is to say, take heede."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 280.

1826.—"I was awoke from disturbed rest by cries of kis! kis! (clear the way)."—Pandurang Hari, ed. 1873, i. 46.]