Dr. F. Hirth, again (Journ. R. Geog. Soc. i. 260), advocates the quasi-Chinese origin of the word. Dr. Hirth has found the word T'ai (and also with the addition of fung, 'wind') to be really applied to a certain class of cyclonic winds, in a Chinese work on Formosa, which is a re-issue of a book originally published in 1694. Dr. Hirth thinks t'ai as here used (which is not the Chinese word ta or tai, 'great,' and is expressed by a different character) to be a local Formosan term; and is of opinion that the combination t'ai-fung is "a sound so near that of typhoon as almost to exclude all other conjectures, if we consider that the writers using the term in European languages were travellers distinctly applying it to storms encountered in that part of the China Sea." Dr. Hirth also refers to F. Mendes Pinto and the passages (quoted below) in which he says tufão is the Chinese name for such storms. Dr. Hirth's paper is certainly worthy of much more attention than the {948a}scornful assertion of Sir John Barrow, but it does not induce us to change our view as to the origin of typhoon.
Observe that the Port. tufão distinctly represents ṭūfān and not t'ai-fung, and the oldest English form 'tuffon' does the same, whilst it is not by any means unquestionable that these Portuguese and English forms were first applied in the China Sea, and not in the Indian Ocean. Observe also Lord Bacon's use of the word typhones in his Latin below; also that ṭūfān is an Arabic word, at least as old as the Koran, and closely allied in sound and meaning to τυφών, whilst it is habitually used for a storm in Hindustani. This is shown by the quotations below (1810-1836); and Platts defines ṭūfān as "a violent storm of wind and rain, a tempest, a typhoon; a flood, deluge, inundation, the universal deluge" etc.; also ṭūfānī, "stormy, tempestuous ... boisterous, quarrelsome, violent, noisy, riotous."
Little importance is to be attached to Pinto's linguistic remarks such as that quoted, or even to the like dropt by Couto. We apprehend that Pinto made exactly the same mistake that Sir John Barrow did; and we need not wonder at it, when so many of our countrymen in India have supposed hackery to be a Hindustani word, and when we find even the learned H. H. Wilson assuming tope (in the sense of 'grove') to be in native Hindustani use. Many instances of such mistakes might be quoted. It is just possible, though not we think very probable, that some contact with the Formosan term may have influenced the modification of the old English form tuffon into typhoon. It is much more likely to have been influenced by the analogies of monsoon, simoom; and it is quite possible that the Formosan mariners took up their (unexplained) t'ai-fung from the Dutch or Portuguese.
On the origin of the Ar. word the late Prof. Robertson-Smith forwarded the following note:
"The question of the origin of Ṭūfān appears to be somewhat tangled.
"Τυφῶν, 'whirlwind, waterspout,' connected with τῦφος seems pure Greek; the combination in Baal-Zephon, Exod. xiv. 2, and Sephóni, the northern one, in Joel, ii. 20, suggested by Hitzig, appears to break down, for there is no proof of any Egyptian name for Set corresponding to Typhon.
"On the other hand Ṭūfān, the deluge, is plainly borrowed from the Aramaic. Tūfān, for Noah's flood, is both Jewish, Aramaic and Syriac, and this form is not borrowed from the Greek, but comes from a true Semitic root ṭūf 'to overflow.'
"But again, the sense of whirlwind is not recognised in classical Arabic. Even Dozy in his dictionary of later Arabic only cites a modern French-Arabic dictionary (Bocthor's) for the sense, Tourbillon, trombe. Bistání in the Moḥít el Moḥít does not give this sense, though he is pretty full in giving modern as well as old words and senses. In Arabic the root ṭūf means: 'to go round,' and a combination of this idea with the sense of sudden disaster might conceivably have given the new meaning to the word. On the other hand it seems simpler to regard this sense as a late loan from some modern form of τυφών, typho, or tifone. But in order finally to settle the matter one wants examples of this sense of ṭūfān."
[Prof. Skeat (Concise Dict. s.v.) gives: "Sometimes claimed as a Chinese word meaning 'a great wind' ... but this seems to be a late mystification. In old authors the forms are tuffon, tuffoon, tiphon, &c.—Arab. ṭūfān, a hurricane, storm. Gk. τυφών, better τυφώς, a whirlwind. The close accidental coincidence of these words in sense and form is very remarkable, as Whitney notes."]
c. A.D. 160.—"... dies quidem tandem illuxit: sed nichil de periculo, de saevitiâve remissum, quia turbines etiam crebriores, et coelum atrum et fumigantes globi, et figurae quaedam nubium metuendae, quas τυφῶνας vocabant, impendere, imminere, et depressurae navem videbantur."—Aul. Gellius, xix. 2.
1540.—"Now having ... continued our Navigation within this Bay of Cauchin-china ... upon the day of the nativity of our Lady, being the eight of September, for the fear that we were in of the new Moon, during the which there oftentimes happens in this Climate such a terrible storm of wind and rain, as it is not possible for ships to withstand it, which by the Chineses is named Tufan" (o qual tormento os Chins chamão tufão).—Pinto (orig. cap. I.) in Cogan, p. 60.
" "... in the height of forty and one degrees, there arose so terrible a South-wind, called by the Chineses Tufaon (un tempo do Sul, a q̃ Chins chamão tufão)."—Ibid. (cap. lxxix.), in Cogan, p. 97.
1554.—"Não se ouve por pequena maravilha cessarem os tufões na paragem da ilha de Sãchião."—Letter in Sousa, Oriente Conquist. i. 680.
[c. 1554.—"... suddenly from the west arose a great storm known as fil Tofani [literally 'Elephant's flood,' comp. ELEPHANTA, b.]."—Travels of Sidi Ali, Reïs, ed. Vambéry, p. 17.]
1567.—"I went aboorde a shippe of Bengala, at which time it was the yeere of Touffon, concerning which Touffon ye are to vnderstand that in the East Indies often times, there are not stormes as in other countreys; but every 10 or 12 yeeres there are such tempests and stormes that it is a thing incredible ... neither do they know certainly what yeere they will come."—Master Caesar Frederike, in Hakl. ii. 370 [369].
1575.—"But when we approach'd unto it (Cyprus), a Hurricane arose suddenly, and blew so fiercely upon us, that it wound our great Sail round about our main Mast.... These Winds arise from a Wind that is called by the Greeks Typhon; and Pliny calleth it Vertex and Vortex; but as dangerous as they are, as they arise suddenly, so quickly are they laid again also."—Rauwolff's Travels, in Ray's Collection, ed. 1705, p. 320. Here the traveller seems to intimate (though we are not certain) that Typhon was then applied in the Levant to such winds; in any case it was exactly the ṭūfān of India.
1602.—"This Junk seeking to make the port of Chincheo met with a tremendous storm such as the natives call Tufão, a thing so overpowering and terrible, and bringing such violence, such earthquake as it were, that it appears as if all the spirits of the infernal world had got into the waves and seas, driving them in a whirl till their fury seems to raise a scud of flame, whilst in the space of one turning of the sand-glass the wind shall veer round to every point of the compass, seeming to blow more furiously from each in succession.
"Such is this phenomenon that the very birds of heaven, by some natural instinct, know of its coming 8 days beforehand, and are seen to take their nests down from the tree-tops and hide them in crevices of rock. Eight days before, the clouds also are seen to float so low as almost to graze men's heads, whilst in these days the seas seem beaten down as it were, and of a deep blue colour. And before the storm breaks forth, the sky exhibits a token well-known to all, a great object which seamen call the Ox-Eye (Olho de Boi) all of different colours, but so gloomy and appalling that it strikes fear in all who see it. And as the Bow of Heaven, when it appears, is the token of fair weather, and calm, so this seems to portend the Wrath of God, as we may well call such a storm...." &c.—Couto, V. viii. 12.
1610.—"But at the breaking vp, commeth alway a cruell Storme, which they call the Tuffon, fearfull even to men on land; which is not alike extreame euery yeare."—Finch, in Purchas, i. 423.
1613.—"E porque a terra he salitrosa e ventosa, he muy sogeita a tempestades, ora menor aquella chamada Ecnephia (Εκνεφιας), ora maior chamada Tiphon (Τυφων), aquelle de ordinario chamamos Tuphão ou Tormenta desfeita ... e corre com tanta furia e impeto que desfas os tectos das casas e aranca arvores, e as vezes do mar lança as embarcações em terra nos campos do sertão."—Godinho de Eredia, f. 36v.
1615.—"And about midnight Capt. Adams went out in a bark abord the Hozeander with many other barks to tow her in, we fearing a tuffon."—Cocks's Diary, i. 50.
1624.—"3. Typhones majores, qui per latitudinem aliquam corripiunt, et correpta sorbent in sursum, raro fiunt; at vortices, sive turbines exigui et quasi ludicri, frequenter.
"4. Omnes procellae et typhones, et turbines majores, habent manifestum motum praecipitii, aut vibrationis deorsum magis quam alii venti."—Bacon, Hist. Ventorum, in B. Montagu's ed. of Works, x. 49. In the translation by R. G. (1671) the words are rendered "the greater typhones."—Ibid. xiv. 268.
1626.—"Francis Fernandez writeth, that in the way from Malacca to Iapan they are encountred with great stormes which they call Tuffons, that blow foure and twentie houres, beginning from the North to the East, and so about the Compasse."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 600.
1688.—"Tuffoons are a particular kind of violent Storms blowing on the Coast of Tonquin ... it comes on fierce and blows very violent, at N.E. twelve hours more or less.... When the Wind begins to abate it dies away suddenly, and falling flat calm it continues so an Hour, more or less; then the Wind comes round about to the S.W. and it blows and rains as fierce from thence, as it did before at N.E. and as long."—Dampier, ii. 36.
1712.—"Non v'è spavento paragonabile a quello de' naviganti, quali in mezzo all' oceano assaltati d'ogni intorno da turbini e da tifoni."—P. Paolo Segnero, Mann. dell' Anima, Ottobre 14. (Borrowed from Della Crusca Voc.).
1721.—"I told them they were all strangers to the nature of the Moussoons and Tuffoons on the coast of India and China."—Shelvocke's Voyage, 383.
1727.—"... by the Beginning of September, they reacht the Coast of China, where meeting with a Tuffoon, or a North East Storm, that often blows violently about that Season, they were forced to bear away for Johore."—A. Hamilton, ii. 89; [ed. 1744, ii. 88].
1727.—
"In the dread Ocean, undulating wide,
Beneath the radiant line that girts the globe,
The circling Typhon, whirl'd from point to point,
Exhausting all the rage of all the Sky...."
Thomson, Summer.
1780.—Appended to Dunn's New Directory, 5th ed. is:—
"Prognostic of a Tuffoon on the Coast of China. By Antonio Pascal de Rosa, a Portuguese Pilot of Macao."
c. 1810.—(Mr. Martyn) "was with us during a most tremendous touffan, and no one who has not been in a tropical region can, I think, imagine what these storms are."—Mrs. Sherwood's Autobiog. 382.
1826.—"A most terrific toofaun ... came on that seemed likely to tear the very trees up by the roots."—John Shipp, ii. 285.
" "I thanked him, and enquired how this toofan or storm had arisen."—Pandurang Hari, [ed. 1873, i. 50].
1836.—"A hurricane has blown ever since gunfire; clouds of dust are borne along upon the rushing wind; not a drop of rain; nothing is to be seen but the whirling clouds of the tūfān. The old peepul-tree moans, and the wind roars in it as if the storm would tear it up by the roots."—Wanderings of a Pilgrim, ii. 53.
1840.—"Slavers throwing overboard the Dead and Dying. Typhoon coming on.
"'Aloft all hands, strike the topmasts and belay;
Yon angry setting sun, and fierce-edge clouds
Declare the Typhoon's coming' &c. (Fallacies of Hope)."
J. M. W. Turner, in the R.A. Catalogue.
Mr. Ruskin appears to have had no doubt as to the etymology of Typhoon, for the rain-cloud from this picture is engraved in Modern Painters, vol. iv. as "The Locks of Typhon." See Mr. Hamerton's Life of Turner, pp. 288, 291, 345.
Punch parodied Turner in the following imaginary entry from the R.A. Catalogue:
"34.—A Typhoon bursting in a Simoon over the Whirlpool of Maelstrom, Norway, with a ship on fire, an eclipse and the effect of a lunar rainbow."
1853.—"... pointing as he spoke to a dark dirty line which was becoming more and more visible in the horizon:
"'By Jove, yes!' cried Stanton, 'that's a typhaon coming up, sure enough.'"—Oakfield, i. 122.
1859.—"The weather was sultry and unsettled, and my Jemadar, Ramdeen Tewarry ... opined that we ought to make ready for the coming tuphan or tempest.... A darkness that might be felt, and that no lamp could illumine, shrouded our camp. The wind roared and yelled. It was a hurricane."—Lt.-Col. Lewin, A Fly on the Wheel, p. 62.
Compare the next quotation, from the same writer, with that given above from Couto respecting the Olho de Boi:
1885.—"The district was subject to cyclonic storms of incredible violence, fortunately lasting for a very short time, but which often caused much destruction. These storms were heralded by the appearance above the horizon of clouds known to the natives by the name of 'lady's eyebrows,' so called from their being curved in a narrow black-arched wisp, and these most surely foretold the approach of the tornado."—Ibid. 176.
TYRE, s. Tamil and Malayāl. tayir. The common term in S. India for curdled milk. It is the Skt. dadhi, Hind. dahi of Upper India, and probably the name is a corruption of that word.
1626.—"Many reasoned with the Iesuits, and some held vaine Discourses of the Creation, as that there were seuen seas; one of Salt water, the second of Fresh, the third of Honey, the fourth of Milke, the fift of Tair (which is Cream beginning to sowre)...."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 561.
1651.—"Tayer, dat is dicke Melch, die wie Saen nommen."—Rogerius, 138.
1672.—"Curdled milk, Tayer, or what we call Saane, is a thing very grateful to them, for it is very cooling, and used by them as a remedy, especially in hot fevers and smallpox, which is very prevalent in the country."—Baldaeus, Zeylon, 403.
1776.—"If a Bramin applies himself to commerce, he shall not sell ... Camphire and other aromaticks, or Honey, or Water, or Poison, or Flesh, or Milk, or Tyer (Sour Cream) or Ghee, or bitter Oil...."—Halhed, Code, 41.
1782.—"Les uns en furent affligés pour avoir passé les nuits et dormi en plein air; d'autres pour avoir mangé du riz froid avec du Tair."—Sonnerat, i. 201.
c. 1784.—"The Saniassi (Sunyasee), who lived near the chauderie (see CHOULTRY), took charge of preparing my meals, which consisted of rice, vegetables, tayar (lait caillé), and a little mologonier" (eau poivrée—see MULLIGATAWNY).—Haafner, i. 147.
[1800.—"The boiled milk, that the family has not used, is allowed to cool in the same vessel; and a little of the former day's tyre, or curdled milk, is added to promote its coagulation...."—Buchanan, Mysore, ii. 14.]
1822.—"He was indeed poor, but he was charitable; so he spread before them a repast, in which there was no lack of ghee, or milk, or tyer."—The Gooroo Paramartan, E.T. by Babington, p. 80.
UJUNGTANAH, n.p. This is the Malay name (nearly answering to 'Land's End,' from Ujung, 'point or promontory,' and tanah, 'land') of the extreme end of the Malay Peninsula terminating in what the maps call Pt. Romania. In Godinho de Eredia's Declaracam de Malaca the term is applied to the whole Peninsula, but owing to the interchangeable use of u, {951a}v, and of j, i, it appears there throughout as Viontana. The name is often applied by the Portuguese writers to the Kingdom of Johor, in which the Malay dynasty of Malacca established itself when expelled by Alboquerque in 1511; and it is even applied (as in the quotation from Barros) to their capital.
c. 1539.—"After that the King of Jantana had taken that oath before a great Cacis (Casis) of his, called Raia Moulana, upon a festival day when as they solemnized their Ramadan (Ramdam)...."—Pinto, in Cogan's E.T., p. 36.
1553.—"And that you may understand the position of the city of Ujantana, which Don Stephen went to attack, you must know that Ujantana is the most southerly and the most easterly point of the mainland of the Malaca coast, which from this Point (distant from the equator about a degree, and from Malaca something more than 40 leagues) turns north in the direction of the Kingdom of Siam.... On the western side of this Point a river runs into the sea, so deep that ships can run up it 4 leagues beyond the bar, and along its banks, well inland, King Alaudin had established a big town...."—Barros, IV. xi. 13.
1554.—"... en Muar, in Ojantana...."—Botelho, Tombo, 105.
UMBRELLA, s. This word is of course not Indian or Anglo-Indian, but the thing is very prominent in India, and some interest attaches to the history of the word and thing in Europe. We shall collect here a few quotations bearing upon this. The knowledge and use of this serviceable instrument seems to have gone through extraordinary eclipses. It is frequent as an accompaniment of royalty in the Nineveh sculptures; it was in general Indian use in the time of Alexander; it occurs in old Indian inscriptions, on Greek vases, and in Greek and Latin literature; it was in use at the court of Byzantium, and at that of the Great Khan in Mongolia, in medieval Venice, and more recently in the semi-savage courts of Madagascar and Ashantee. Yet it was evidently a strange object, needing particular description, to John Marignolli (c. 1350), Ruy Clavijo (c. 1404), Barbosa (1516), John de Barros (1553), and Minsheu (1617). See also CHATTA, and SOMBRERO.
c. B.C. 325.—"Τοὺς δὲ πωγώνας λέγει Νέαρχος ὅτι βάπτονται Ἰνδοὶ ... καὶ σκιάδια ὅτι προβάλλονται, τοῦ θέρεος, ὅσοι {951b}οὐκ ἠμελημένοι Ἰνδῶν."—Arrian, Indica, xvi.
c. B.C. 2.
"Ipse tene distenta suis umbracula virgis;
Ipse face in turba, qua venit illa, locum."
Ovid, Art. Amat. ii. 209-210.
c. A.D. 5.
"Aurea pellebant rapidos umbracula soles
Quae tamen Herculeae sustinuere manus."
Ibid. Fasti, ii. 311-312.
c. A.D. 100.
"En, cui tu viridem umbellam, cui succina mittas
Grandia natalis quoties redit...."
Juvenal, ix. 50-51.
c. 200.—"... ἔπεμψε δὲ καὶ κλίνην αὔτῳ ἀργυρόποδα, καὶ στρωμνὴν, καὶ σκηνὴν οὐρανόροφον ἀνθίνην, καὶ θρόνον ἀργυροῦν, καὶ ἐπίχρυσον σκιάδιον ..."—Athenaeus, Lib. ii. Epit. § 31.
c. 380.—"Ubi si inter aurata flabella laciniis sericis insiderint muscae, vel per foramen umbraculi pensilis radiolus irruperit solis, queruntur quod non sunt apud Cimmerios nati."—Ammianus Marcellinus, XXVIII. iv.
1248.—"Ibi etiam quoddam Solinum (v. Soliolum), sive tentoriolum, quod portatur super caput Imperatoris, fuit praesentatum eidem, quod totum erat praeparatum cum gemmis."—Joan. de Plano Carpini, in Rec. de V., iv. 759-760.
c. 1292.—"Et a haute festes porte Monsignor le Dus une corone d'or ... et la ou il vait a hautes festes si vait apres lui un damoiseau qui porte une unbrele de dras à or sur son chief...."
and again:
"Et apres s'en vet Monsignor li Dus desos l'onbrele que li dona Monsignor l'Apostoille; et cele onbrele est d'un dras (a) or, que la porte un damosiaus entre ses mains, que s'en vet totes voies apres Monsignor li Dus."—Venetian Chronicle of Martino da Canale, Archiv. Stor. Ital., I. Ser. viii. 214, 560.
1298.—"Et tout ceus ... ont par commandement que toutes fois que il chevauchent doivent avoir sus le chief un palieque que on dit ombrel, que on porte sur une lance en senefiance de grant seigneurie."—Marco Polo, Text of Pauthier, i. 256-7.
c. 1332.—(At Constantinople) "the inhabitants, military men or others, great and small, winter and summer, carry over their heads huge umbrellas (ma hallāt)."—Ibn Batuta, ii. 440.
c. 1335.—"Whenever the Sultan (of Delhi) mounts his horse, they carry an umbrella over his head. But when he starts on a march to war, or on a long journey, you see carried over his head seven umbrellas, two of which are covered with jewels of inestimable value."—Shihābuddīn Dimishkī, in Not. et Exts. xiii. 190.
1404.—"And over her head they bore a shade (sombra) carried by a man, on a {952a}shaft like that of a lance; and it was of white silk, made like the roof of a round tent, and stretched by a hoop of wood, and this shade they carry over the head to protect them from the sun."—Clavijo, § cxxii.
1541.—"Then next to them marches twelve men on horseback, called Peretandas, each of them carrying an Umbrello of carnation Sattin, and other twelve that follow with banners of white damask."—Pinto, in Cogan's E.T., p. 135.
In the original this runs:
"Vão doze homẽs a cavallo, que se chamão peretandas, cõ sombreyros de citim cramesim nas mãos a modo de esparavels postos em cesteas muyto compridas (like tents upon very long staves) et outros doze cõ bãndeyras de damasco branco."
[c. 1590.—"The Ensigns of Royalty.... 2. The Chatr, or umbrella, is adorned with the most precious jewels, of which there are never less than seven. 3. The Sáibán is of an oval form, a yard in length, and its handle, like that of the umbrella, is covered with brocade, and ornamented with precious stones. One of the attendants holds it, to keep off the rays of the sun. It is also called Áftábgír."—Āīn, i. 50.]
1617.—"An Umbrell, a fashion of round and broade fanne, wherewith the Indians, and from them our great ones preserue themselves from the heate of the scorching sunne. G. Ombraire, m. Ombrelle, f. I. Ombrélla. L. Vmbella, ab vmbra, the shadow, est enim instrumentum quo solem à facie arcent ¶ Iuven. Gr. σκιάδιον, diminut. a σκία, i. vmbra. T. Schabhut, q. schathut, à schatten, i. vmbra, et hut, i. pileus, á quo, et B. Schinhoedt. Br. Teggidel, à teg, i. pulchrum forma, et gidd, pro riddio, i. protegere; haec enim vmbellae finis."—Minsheu (1st ed. s.v.).
1644.—"Here (at Marseilles) we bought umbrellas against the heats."—Evelyn's Diary, 7th Oct.
1677.—(In this passage the word is applied to an awning before a shop.) "The Streets are generally narrow ... the better to receive the advantages of Umbrello's extended from side to side to keep the sun's violence from their customers."—Fryer, 222.
1681.—"After these comes an Elephant with two Priests on his back; one whereof is the Priest before spoken of, carrying the painted Stick on his shoulder.... The other sits behind him, holding a round thing like an Vmbrello over his head, to keep off Sun or Rain."—Knox's Ceylon, 79.
1709.—"... The Young Gentleman belonging to the Custom-house that for fear of rain borrowed the Umbrella at Will's Coffee-house in Cornhill of the Mistress, is hereby advertised that to be dry from head to foot in the like occasion he shall be welcome to the Maid's pattens."—The Female Tatler, Dec. 12, quoted in Malcolm's Anecdotes, 1808, p. 429.
1712.
"The tuck'd up semstress walks with hasty strides
While streams run down her oil'd umbrella's sides."
Swift, A City Shower.
1715.
"Good housewives all the winter's rage despise,
Defended by the riding hood's disguise;
Or underneath the Umbrella's oily shade
Safe through the wet on clinking pattens tread.
"Let Persian dames the Umbrella's ribs display
To guard their beauties from the sunny ray;
Or sweating slaves support the shady load
When Eastern monarchs show their state abroad;
Britain in winter only knows its aid
To guard from chilly showers the walking maid."
Gay, Trivia, i.
1850.—Advertisement posted at the door of one of the Sections of the British Association meeting at Edinburgh.
"The gentleman, who carried away a brown silk umbrella from the —— Section yesterday, may have the cover belonging to it, which is of no further use to the Owner, by applying to the Porter at the Royal Hotel."—(From Personal Recollection.)—It is a curious parallel to the advertisement above from the Female Tatler.
UPAS, s. This word is now, like Juggernaut, chiefly used in English as a customary metaphor, and to indicate some institution that the speaker wishes to condemn in a compendious manner. The word upas is Javanese for poison; [Mr. Scott writes: "The Malay word ūpas, means simply 'poison.' It is Javanese hupas, Sundanese upas, Balinese hupas, 'poison.' It commonly refers to vegetable poison, because such are more common. In the Lampong language upas means 'sickness.'"] It became familiar in Europe in connection with exaggerated and fabulous stories regarding the extraordinary and deadly character of a tree in Java, alleged to be so called. There are several trees in the Malay Islands producing deadly poisons, but the particular tree to which such stories were attached is one which has in the last century been described under the name of Antiaris toxicaria, from the name given to the poison by the Javanese proper, viz. Antjar, or Anchar (the name of the tree all over Java), whilst it is known to the Malays and people of Western Java as Upas, and in Celebes and the Philippine Islands as Ipo or Hipo. {953a}[According to Mr. Scott "the Malay name for the 'poison-tree,' or any poison-tree, is pōhun ūpas, pūhun ūpas, represented in English by bohon-upas. The names of two poison-trees, the Javanese anchar (Malay also anchar) and chetik, appear occasionally in English books ... The Sundanese name for the poison tree is bulo ongko."] It was the poison commonly used by the natives of Celebes and other islands for poisoning the small bamboo darts which they used (and in some islands still use) to shoot from the blow-tube (see SUMPITAN, SARBATANE).
The story of some deadly poison in these islands is very old, and we find it in the Travels of Friar Odoric, accompanied by the mention of the disgusting antidote which was believed to be efficacious, a genuine Malay belief, and told by a variety of later and independent writers, such as Nieuhof, Saar, Tavernier, Cleyer, and Kaempfer.
The subject of this poison came especially to the notice of the Dutch in connection with its use to poison the arrows just alluded to, and some interesting particulars are given on the subject by Bontius, from whom a quotation is given below, with others. There is a notice of the poison in De Bry, in Sir T. Herbert (whencesoever he borrowed it), and in somewhat later authors about the middle of the 17th century. In March 1666 the subject came before the young Royal Society, and among a long list of subjects for inquiry in the East occur two questions pertaining to this matter.
The illustrious Rumphius in his Herbarium Amboinense goes into a good deal of detail on the subject, but the tree does not grow in Amboyna where he wrote, and his account thus contains some ill-founded statements, which afterwards lent themselves to the fabulous history of which we shall have to speak presently. Rumphius however procured from Macassar specimens of the plant, and it was he who first gave the native name (Ipo, the Macassar form) and assigned a scientific name, Arbor toxicaria.[274] Passing over with simple {953b}mention the notices in the appendix to John Ray's Hist. Plantarum, and in Valentijn (from both of which extracts will be found below), we come to the curious compound of the loose statements of former writers magnified, of the popular stories current among Europeans in the Dutch colonies, and of pure romantic invention, which first appeared in 1783, in the London Magazine. The professed author of this account was one Foersch, who had served as a junior surgeon in the Dutch East Indies.[275] This person describes the tree, called bohon-upas, as situated "about 27 leagues[276] from Batavia, 14 from Soura Karta, the seat of the Emperor, and between 18 and 20 leagues from Tinkjoe" (probably for Tjukjoe, i.e. Djokjo-Karta), "the present residence of the Sultan of Java." Within a radius of 15 to 18 miles round the tree no human creature, no living thing could exist. Condemned malefactors were employed to fetch the poison; they were protected by special arrangements, yet not more than 1 in 10 of them survived the adventure. Foersch also describes executions by means of the Upas poison, which he says he witnessed at Sura Karta in February 1776.
The whole paper is a very clever piece of sensational romance, and has impressed itself indelibly, it would seem, on the English language; for to it is undoubtedly due the adoption of that standing metaphor to which we have alluded at the beginning of this article. This effect may, however, have been due not so much directly to the article in the London Magazine as to the adoption of the fable by the famous ancestor of a man still more famous, Erasmus Darwin, in his poem of the Loves of the Plants. In that work not only is the essence of Foersch's story embodied in the verse, but the story itself is quoted at length in the notes. It is said that Darwin was warned of the worthlessness of the narrative, but was unwilling to rob his poem of so sensational an episode.
Nothing appears to be known of Foersch except that there was really a person of that name in the medical {954a}service in Java at the time indicated. In our article ANACONDA we have adduced some curious particulars of analogy between the Anaconda-myth and the Upas-myth, and intimated a suspicion that the same hand may have had to do with the spinning of both yarns.
The extraordinary éclat produced by the Foerschian fables led to the appointment of a committee of the Batavian Society to investigate the true facts, whose report was published in 1789. This we have not yet been able to see, for the report is not contained in the regular series of the Transactions of that Society; nor have we found a refutation of the fables by M. Charles Coquebert referred to by Leschenault in the paper which we are about to mention. The poison tree was observed in Java by Deschamps, naturalist with the expedition of D'Entrecasteaux, and is the subject of a notice by him in the Annales de Voyages, vol. i., which goes into little detail, but appears to be correct as far as it goes, except in the statement that the Anchar was confined to Eastern Java. But the first thorough identification of the plant, and scientific account of the facts was that of M. Leschenault de la Tour. This French savant, when about to join a voyage of discovery to the South Seas, was recommended by Jussieu to take up the investigation of the Upas. On first enquiring at Batavia and Samarang, M. Leschenault heard only fables akin to Foersch's romance, and it was at Sura Karta that he first got genuine information, which eventually enabled him to describe the tree from actual examination.
The tree from which he took his specimens was more than 100 ft. in height, with a girth of 18 ft. at the base. A Javanese who climbed it to procure the flowers had to make cuts in the stem in order to mount. After ascending some 25 feet the man felt so ill that he had to come down, and for some days he continued to suffer from nausea, vomiting, and vertigo. But another man climbed to the top of the tree without suffering at all. On another occasion Leschenault, having had a tree of 4 feet girth cut down, walked among its broken branches, and had face and hands besprinkled with the gum-resin, yet neither did he suffer; he adds, however, that he {954b}had washed immediately after. Lizards and insects were numerous on the trunk, and birds perched upon the branches. M. Leschenault gives details of the preparation of the poison as practised by the natives, and also particulars of its action, on which experiment was made in Paris with the material which he brought to Europe. He gave it the scientific name by which it continues to be known, viz. Antiaris toxicaria (N.O. Artocarpeae).[277]
M. Leschenault also drew the attention of Dr. Horsfield, who had been engaged in the botanical exploration of Java some years before the British occupation, and continued it during that period, to the subject of the Upas, and he published a paper on it in the Batavian Transactions for 1813 (vol. vii.). His account seems entirely in accordance with that of Leschenault, but is more detailed and complete, with the result of numerous observations and experiments of his own. He saw the Antiaris first in the Province of Poegar, on his way to Banyuwangi. In Blambangan (eastern extremity of Java) he visited four or five trees; he afterwards found a very tall specimen growing at Passaruwang, on the borders of Malang, and again several young trees in the forests of Japāra, and one near Onārang. In all these cases, scattered over the length of Java, the people knew the tree as anchar.
Full articles on the subject are to be found (by Mr. J. J. Bennet) in Horsfield's Plantae Javanicae Rariores, 1838-52, pp. 52 seqq., together with a figure of a flowering branch pl. xiii.; and in Blume's Rumphia (Brussels, 1836), pp. 46 seqq., and pls. xxii., xxiii.; to both of which works we have been much indebted for guidance. Blume gives a drawing, for the truth of which he vouches, of a tall specimen of the trees. These he describes as "vastas, arduas, et a ceteris segregatas,"—solitary {955a}and eminent, on account of their great longevity, (possibly on account of their being spared by the axe?), but not for any such reason as the fables allege. There is no lack of adjoining vegetation; the spreading branches are clothed abundantly with parasitical plants, and numerous birds and squirrels frequent them. The stem throws out 'wings' or buttresses (see Horsfield in the Bat. Trans., and Blume's Pl.) like many of the forest trees of Further India. Blume refers, in connection with the origin of the prevalent fables, to the real existence of exhalations of carbonic acid gas in the volcanic tracts of Java, dangerous to animal life and producing sterility around, alluding particularly to a paper by M. Loudoun (a Dutch official of Scotch descent), in the Edinburgh New Phil. Journal for 1832, p. 102, containing a formidable description of the Guwo Upas or Poison Valley on the frontier of the Pekalongan and Banyumas provinces. We may observe, however, that, if we remember rightly, the exaggerations of Mr. Loudoun have been exposed and ridiculed by Dr. Junghuhn, the author of "Java." And if the Foersch legend be compared with some of the particulars alleged by several of the older writers, e.g. Camell (in Ray), Valentijn, Spielman, Kaempfer, and Rumphius, it will be seen that the basis for a great part of that putida commentatio, as Blume calls it, is to be found in them.
George Colman the Younger founded on the Foerschian Upas-myth, a kind of melodrama, called the Law of Java, first acted at Covent Garden May 11, 1822. We give some quotations below.[278]
Lindley, in his Vegetable Kingdom, in a short notice of Antiaris toxicaria, says that, though the accounts are greatly exaggerated, yet the facts are notable enough. He says cloth made from the tough fibre is so acrid as to verify the Shirt of Nessus. My friend Gen. Maclagan, noticing Lindley's remark to me, adds: "Do you remember in our High School days (at Edinburgh) a grand Diorama called The Upas Tree? It showed a large wild valley, with a single tree in the {955b}middle, and illustrated the safety of approach on the windward side, and the desolation it dealt on the other."
[For some details as to the use of the Upas poison, and an analysis of the Arrow-poisons of Borneo by Dr. L. Lewin (from Virchow's Archiv. fur Pathol. Anat. 1894, pp. 317-25) see Ling Roth, Natives of Sarawak, ii. 188 seqq. and for superstitions connected with these poisons, Skeat, Malay Magic, 426.]
c. 1330.—"En queste isole sono molte cose maravigliose e strane. Onde alcuni arbori li sono ... che fanno veleno pessimo.... Quelli uomini sono quasi tutti corsali, e quando vanno a battaglia portano ciascuno uno canna in mano, di lunghezza d'un braccio e pongono in capo de la canna uno ago di ferro atossiato in quel veleno, e sofiano nella canna e l'ago vola e percuotelo dove vogliono, e 'ncontinente quelli ch'è percosso muore. Ma egli hanno la tina piene di sterco d'uomo e una iscodella di sterco guarisce l'uomo da queste cotali ponture."—Storia di Frate Odorigo, from Palatina MS., in Cathay, &c., App., p. xlix.
c. 1630.—"And (in Makasser) which is no lesse infernall, the men use long canes or truncks (cald Sempitans—see SUMPITAN), out of which they can (and use it) blow a little pricking quill, which if it draw the lest drop of blood from any part of the body, it makes him (though the strongest man living) die immediately; some venoms operate in an houre, others in a moment, the veynes and body (by the virulence of the poyson) corrupting and rotting presently, to any man's terrour and amazement, and feare to live where such abominations predominate."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1638, p. 329.
c. 1631.—"I will now conclude; but I first must say something of the poison used by the King of Macassar in the Island of Celebes to envenom those little arrows which they shoot through blowing-tubes, a poison so deadly that it causes death more rapidly than a dagger. For one wounded ever so lightly, be it but a scratch bringing blood, or a prick in the heel, immediately begins to nod like a drunken man, and falls dead to the ground. And within half an hour of death this putrescent poison so corrupts the flesh that it can be plucked from the bones like so much mucus. And what seems still more marvellous, if a man (e.g.) be scratched in the thigh, or higher in the body, by another point which is not poisoned, and the still warm blood as it flows down to the feet be merely touched by one of these poisoned little arrows, swift as wind the pestilent influence ascends to the wound, and with the same swiftness and other effects snatches the man from among the living.
"These are no idle tales, but the experience of eye-witnesses, not only among our countrymen, but among Danes and Englishmen."—Jac. Bontii, lib. v. cap. xxxiii.
1646.—"Es wachst ein Baum auf Maccasser, einer Cüst auf der Insul Çelebes, der ist treflich vergiftet, dass wann einer nur an einem Glied damit verletzet wird, und man solches nit alsbald wegschlägt, der Gift geschwind zum Hertzen eilet, und den Garaus machet" (then the antidote as before is mentioned)....  Denn Sie sich auf die Bäume setzten, und kleine Fischgeräht damit schmierten, und durch ein gehöhlert Röhrlein, von einem Baum, auf unser Volck schossen, mit grossen machtigen Schaden."—Saar, Ost-Indianische Funfzehen-Jahrige Kriegs-Dienste ... 1672, pp. 46-47.
1667.—"Enquiries for Suratt, and other parts of the East Indies.
* * * * *
"19. Whether it be true, that the only Antidote hitherto known, against the famous and fatal macassar-poison, is human ordure, taken inwardly? And what substance that poison is made of?"—Phil. Trans. vol. ii. Anno 1667 (Proceedings for March 11, 1666, i.e. N.S. 1667), d. 417.
1682.—"The especial weapons of the Makassar soldiers, which they use against their enemies, are certain pointed arrowlets about a foot in length. At the foremost end these are fitted with a sharp and pointed fish-tooth, and at the butt with a knob of spongy wood.
"The points of these arrows, long before they are to be used, are dipt in poison and then dried.
"This poison is a sap that drips from the bark of the branches of a certain tree, like resin, from pine-trees.
"The tree grows on the Island Makasser, in the interior, and on three or four islands of the Bugisses (see BUGIS), round about Makassar. It is about the height of the clove-tree, and has leaves very similar.
"The fresh sap of this tree is a very deadly poison; indeed its virulence is incurable.
"The arrowlets prepared with this poison are not, by the Makasser soldiers, shot with a bow, but blown from certain blow-pipes (uit zekere spatten gespat); just as here, in the country, people shoot birds by blowing round pellets of clay.
"They can with these in still weather hit their mark at a distance of 4 rods.
"They say the Makassers themselves know no remedy against this poison ... for the poison presses swiftly into the blood and vital spirits, and causes a violent inflammation. They hold (however) that the surest remedy for this poison is ..." (and so on, repeating the antidote already mentioned).—Joan Nieuhof's Zee en Land Reize, &c., pp. 217-218.
c. 1681.—"Arbor Toxicaria, Ipo.
"I have never yet met with any poison more horrible and hateful, produced by any vegetable growth, than that which is derived from this lactescent tree.
* * * * *
Moreover beneath this tree, and in its whole circumference to the distance of a stone-cast, no plant, no shrub, or herbage will grow; the soil beneath it is barren, blackened, and burnt as it were ... and the atmosphere about it is so polluted and poisoned that the birds which alight upon its branches become giddy and fall dead * * * all things perish which are touched by its emanations, insomuch that every animal shuns it and keeps away from it, and even the birds eschew flying by it.
"No man dares to approach the tree without having his arms, feet, and head wrapped round with linen ... for Death seems to have planted his foot and his throne beside this tree...." (He then tells of a venomous basilisk with two feet in front and fiery eyes, a crest, and a horn, that dwelt under this tree). * * *
"The Malays call it Cayu Upas, but in Macassar and the rest of Celebes it is called Ipo.
* * * * *
"It grows in desert places, and amid bare hills, and is easily discerned from afar, there being no other tree near it."
* * * * *
—Rumphii, Herbarium Amboinense, ii. 263-268.
1685.—"I cannot omit to set forth here an account of the poisoned missiles of the Kingdom of Macassar, which the natives of that kingdom have used against our soldiers, bringing them to sudden death. It is extracted from the Journal of the illustrious and gallant admiral, H. Cornelius Spielman.... The natives of the kingdom in question possess a singular art of shooting arrows by blowing through canes, and wounding with these, insomuch that if the skin be but slightly scratched the wounded die in a twinkling."
(Then the old story of the only antidote)....
The account follows extracted from the Journal.
* * * * *
"There are but few among the Macassars and Bugis who possess the real knowledge needful for selecting the poison, so as to distinguish between what is worthless and what is highest quality.... From the princes (or Rajas) I have understood that the soil in which the trees affording the poison grow, for a great space round about produces no grass nor any other vegetable growth, and that the poison is properly a water or liquid, flowing from a bruise or cut made in the bark of those trees, oozing out as sap does from plants that afford milky juices.... When the liquid is being drawn from the wounded tree, no one should carelessly approach it so as to let the liquid touch his hands, for by such contact all the joints become stiffened and contracted. For this reason the collectors make use of long bamboos, armed with sharp iron points. With these they stab the tree with great force, and so get the sap to flow into the canes, in which it {957a}speedily hardens."—Dn. Corn. Spielman ... de Telis deleterio Veneno infectis in Macassar, et aliis Regnis Insulae Celebes; ex ejus Diario extracta. Huic praemittitur brevis narratio de hac materia Dn. Andreae Cleyeri. In Miscellanea Curiosa, sive Ephemeridum.... Academiae Naturae Curiosorum, Dec. II. Annus Tertius. Anni MDCLXXXIV., Norimbergae (1685), pp. 127 seqq.
1704.—"Ipo seu Hypo arbor est mediocris, folio parvo, et obscure virenti, quae tam malignae et nocivae qualitatis, ut omne vivens umbrâ suâ interimat, unde narrant in circuitu, et umbrae distinctu, plurima ossium mortuorum hominum animaliumque videri. Circumvicinas etiam plantas enecat, et aves insidentes interficere ferunt, si Nucis Vomicae Igasur, plantam non invenerint, qua reperta vita quidem donantur et servantur, sed defluvium patiuntur plumarum.... Hypo lac Indi Camucones et Sambales, Hispanis infensissimi, longis, excipiunt arundineis perticis, sagittis intoxicandis deserviturum irremediabile venenum, omnibus aliis alexipharmacis superius, praeterquam stercore humano propinato. An Argensolae arbor comosa, quam Insulae Celebes ferunt, cujus umbra occidentalis mortifera, orientalis antidotum?..."—De Quibusdam Arboribus Venenatis, in Herbarum aliarumque Stirpium in Insula Luzone ... a Revdo Patre Georgio Camello, S.J. Syllabus ad Joannem Raium transmissus. In Appendix, p. 87, of Joan. Raii Hist. Plantarum. Vol. III. (London 1704).
1712.—"Maxima autem celebritas radiculae enata est, ab eximia illa virtute, quam adversus toxicum Macassariense praestat, exitiale illud, et vix alio remedio vincibile. Est venenum hoc succus lacteus et pinguis, qui collegitur ex recens sauciata arbore quadam, indigenes Ipu, Malajis Javanisque Upà dictâ, in abditis locis sylvarum Insulae Celebes ... crescente ... cujus genuinum et in solâ Macassariâ germinantis succum, qui colligere suscipiunt, praesentissimis vitae periculis se exponant necesse est. Nam ad quaerendam arborem loca dumis beluisque infesta penetranda sunt, inventa vero, nisi eminus vulneretur, et ab eâ parte, a qua ventus adspirat, vel aura incumbit, aggressores erumpento halitu subito suffocabit. Quam sortem etiam experiri dicuntur volucres, arborem recens vulneratam transvolantes. Collectio exitiosi liquoris, morti ob patrata maleficia damnatis committitur, eo pacto, ut poena remittatur, si liquorem reportaverint ... Sylvam ingrediuntur longâ instructi arundine ... quam altera extremitate ... ex asse acuunt, ut ad pertundendam arboris corticem valeat.... Quam longe possunt, ab arbore constituti, arundinis aciem arbori valide intrudunt, et liquoris, ex vulnere effluentis, tantum excipiunt, quantum arundinis cavo ad proximum usque internodium capi potest.... Reduces, supplicio et omni discrimine defuncti, hoc vitae suae λυτρον Regi offerunt. Ita narrarunt mihi populares Celebani, hodie Macassari dicti. Quis autem veri quicquam ex Asiaticorum ore referat, quod figmentis {957b}non implicatur...?"—Kaempfer, Amoen. Exot., 575-576.
1726.—"But among all sorts of trees, that occur here, or hereabouts, I know of none more pernicious than the sap of the Macassar Poison tree * * * They say that there are only a few trees of this kind, occuring in the district of Turatte on Celebes, and that none are employed except, at a certain time of the year when it is procurable, those who are condemned to death, to approach the trees and bring away the poison.... The poison must be taken with the greatest care in Bamboos, into which it drips slowly from the bark of the trees, and the persons collected for this purpose must first have their hands, heads, and all exposed parts, well wound round with cloths...."—Valentijn, iii. 218.
1783.—"The following description of the Bohon Upas, or Poison Tree, which grows in the Island of Java, and renders it unwholesome by its noxious vapours, has been procured for the London Magazine, from Mr. Heydinger, who was employed to translate it from the original Dutch, by the author, Mr. Foersch, who, we are informed, is at present abroad, in the capacity of surgeon on board an English vessel....
* * * * *
"'In the year 1774, I was stationed at Batavia, as a surgeon, in the service of the Dutch East India Company. During my residence there I received several different accounts of the Bohon-Upas, and the violent effects of its poison. They all then seemed incredible to me, but raised my curiosity in so high a degree, that I resolved to investigate this subject thoroughly.... I had procured a recommendation from an old Malayan priest to another priest, who lives on the nearest habitable spot to the tree, which is about fifteen or sixteen miles distant. The letter proved of great service to me on my undertaking, as that priest is employed by the Emperor to reside there, in order to prepare for eternity the souls of those who, for different crimes, are sentenced to approach the tree, and to procure the poison....  They are then provided with a silver or tortoise-shell box, in which they are to put the poisonous gum, and are properly instructed how to proceed, while they are upon their dangerous expedition. Among other particulars, they are always told to attend to the direction of the winds; as they are to go towards the tree before the wind, so that the effluvia from the tree are always blown from them.... They are afterwards sent to the house of the old priest, to which place they are commonly attended by their friends and relations. Here they generally remain some days, in expectation of a favourable breeze. During that time the ecclesiastic prepares them for their future fate by prayers and admonitions. When the hour of their departure arrives the priest puts them on a long {958a}leather cap with two glasses before their eyes, which comes down as far as their breast, and also provides them with a pair of leather gloves....
"The worthy old ecclesiastic has assured me, that during his residence there, for upwards of thirty years, he had dismissed above seven hundred criminals in the manner which I have described; and that scarcely two out of twenty returned," ... &c. &c.—London Magazine, Dec. 1783, pp. 512-517.
The paper concludes:
"[We shall be happy to communicate any authentic papers of Mr. Foersch to the public through the London Magazine.]"
1789.—
"No spicy nutmeg scents the vernal gales,
Nor towering plantain shades the midday vales,
* * * * *
No step retreating, on the sand impress'd,
Invites the visit of a second guest;
* * * * *
Fierce in dread silence on the blasted heath
Fell Upas sits, the Hydra Tree of death;
Lo! from one root, the envenom'd soil below,
A thousand vegetative serpents grow ..." etc.
Darwin, Loves of the Plants;
in The Botanic Garden, Pt. II.
1808.—"Notice sur le Pohon Upas ou Arbre à Poison; Extrait d'un Voyage inédit dans l'Intérieur de l'Ile de Java, par L. A. Deschamps, D.M.P., l'un des compagnons du Voyage du Général d'Entrecasteaux.
"C'est au fond des sombre forêts de l'ile de Java que la nature a caché le pohun upas, l'arbre le plus dangereux du règne végétal, pour le poison mortel qu'il renferme, et plus celèbre encore par les fables dont on l'a rendu le sujet...."—Annales des Voyages, i. 69.
1810.—"Le poison fameux dont se servent les Indiens de l'Archipel des Moluques, et des iles de la Sonde, connu sous le nom d'ipo et upas, a interessé plus que tous les autres la curiosité des Européens, parce que les relations qu'on en a donné ont été exagérées et accompagnées de ce merveilleux dont les peuples de l'Inde aiment à orner leurs narrations...."—Leschenault de la Tour, in Mémoire sur le Strychnos Tieute et l'Antiaris toxicaria, plantes venimeuses de l'Ile de Java.... In Annales du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Tom. XVIième, p. 459.
1813.—"The literary and scientific world has in few instances been more grossly imposed upon than in the account of the Pohon Upas, published in Holland about the year 1780. The history and origin of this forgery still remains a mystery. Foersch, who put his name to the publication, certainly was ... a surgeon in the Dutch East India Company's service about the time.... I have been led to suppose that his literary abilities were as mean as his contempt for truth was consummate. {958b}Having hastily picked up some vague information regarding the Oopas, he carried it to Europe, where his notes were arranged, doubtless by a different hand, in such a form as by their plausibility and appearance of truth, to be generally credited.... But though the account just mentioned ... has been demonstrated to be an extravagant forgery, the existence of a tree in Java, from whose sap a poison is prepared, equal in fatality, when thrown into the circulation, to the strongest animal poisons hitherto known, is a fact."—Horsfield, in Batavian Trans. vol. vii. art. x. pp. 2-4.
1822.—"The Law of Java," a Play ... Scene. Kérta-Sûra, and a desolate Tract in the Island of Java.
* * * * *
"Act I. Sc. 2.
Emperor. The haram's laws, which cannot be repealed,
Had not enforced me to pronounce your death,
* * * * *
One chance, indeed, a slender one, for life,
All criminals may claim.
Parbaya. Aye, I have heard
Of this your cruel mercy;—'tis to seek
That tree of Java, which, for many a mile,
Sheds pestilence;—for where the Upas grows
It blasts all vegetation with its own;
And, from its desert confines, e'en those brutes
That haunt the desert most shrink off, and tremble.
Thence if, by miracle, a man condemned
Bring you the poison that the tree exudes,
In which you dip your arrows for the war,
He gains a pardon,—and the palsied wretch
Who scaped the Upas, has escaped the tyrant."
* * * * *
"Act II. Sc. 4.
Pengoose. Finely dismal and romantic, they say, for many miles round the Upas; nothing but poisoned air, mountains, and melancholy. A charming country for making Mems and Nota benes!"
* * * * *
"Act III. Sc. 1.
Pengoose.... That's the Divine, I suppose, who starts the poor prisoners, for the last stage to the Upas tree; an Indian Ordinary of Newgate.
Servant, your brown Reverence! There's no people in the parish, but, I believe, you are the rector?
(Writing). "The reverend Mister Orzinga U.C.J.—The Upas Clergyman of Java."
George Colman the Younger.
[1844.—"We landed in the Rajah's boat at the watering place, near the Upas tree...."—Here follows an interesting account by Mr Adams, in which he describes how "the mate, a powerful person and of strong constitution, felt so much stupified as to be compelled to withdraw from his position on the tree."—Capt. Sir E. Belcher, Narr. of the Voyage of H.M.S. Samarang, i. 180 seqq.]
1868.—"The Church of Ireland offers to us, indeed, a great question, but even that question is but one of a group of questions. There is the Church of Ireland, there is the land of Ireland, there is the education of Ireland ... they are all so many branches from one trunk, and that trunk is the Tree of what is called Protestant ascendancy.... We therefore aim at the destruction of that system of ascendancy, which, though it has been crippled and curtailed by former measures, yet still must be allowed to exist; it is still there like a tall tree of noxious growth, lifting its head to heaven, and darkening and poisoning the land as far as its shadow can extend; it is still there, gentlemen, and now at length the day has come when, as we hope, the axe has been laid to the root of that tree, and it nods and quivers from its top to its base...."—Mr. Gladstone's Speech at Wigan, Oct. 23. In this quotation the orator indicates the Upas tree without naming it. The name was supplied by some commentators referring to this indication at a later date:
1873.—"It was perfectly certain that a man who possessed a great deal of imagination might, if he stayed out sufficiently long at night, staring at a small star, persuade himself next morning that he had seen a great comet; and it was equally certain that such a man, if he stared long enough at a bush, might persuade himself that he had seen a branch of the Upas Tree."—Speech of Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice on the 2nd reading of the University Education (Ireland) Bill, March 3.
" "It was to regain office, to satisfy the Irish irreconcilables, to secure the Pope's brass band, and not to pursue 'the glorious traditions of English Liberalism,' that Mr. Gladstone struck his two blows at the Upas tree."—Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, in Fort. Rev. Sept. pp. 289-90.
1876.—"... the Upas-tree superstition."—Contemp. Rev. May.
1880.—"Lord Crichton, M.P. ... last night said ... there was one topic which was holding all their minds at present ... what was this conspiracy which, like the Upas-tree of fable, was spreading over the land, and poisoning it?..."—In St. James's Gazette, Nov. 11, p. 7.
1885.—"The dread Upas dropped its fruits.
"Beneath the shady canopy of this tall fig no native will, if he knows it, dare to rest, nor will he pass between its stem and the wind, so strong is his belief in its evil influence.
"In the centre of a tea estate, not far off from my encampment, stood, because no one could be found daring enough to cut it down, an immense specimen, which had long been a nuisance to the proprietor on account of the lightning every now and then striking off, to the damage of the shrubs below, large branches, which none of his servants could be induced to remove. One day, having been pitchforked together {959b}and burned, they were considered disposed of: but next morning the whole of his labourers awoke, to their intense alarm, afflicted with a painful eruption.... It was then remembered that the smoke of the burning branches had been blown by the wind through the village...." (Two Chinamen were engaged to cut down and remove the tree, and did not suffer; it was ascertained that they had smeared their bodies with coco-nut oil.)—H. O. Forbes, A Naturalist's Wanderings, 112-113.
[Mr. Bent (Southern Arabia, 72, 89) tells a similar story about the collection of frankincense, and suggests that it was based on the custom of employing slaves in this work, and on an interpretation of the name Hadrimaut, said to mean 'valley of death.']
UPPER ROGER, s. This happy example of the Hobson-Jobson dialect occurs in a letter dated 1755, from Capt. Jackson at Syrian in Burma, which is given in Dalrymple's Oriental Repertory, i. 192. It is a corruption of the Skt. yuva-rāja, 'young King,' the Caesar or Heir-Apparent, a title borrowed from ancient India by most of the Indo-Chinese monarchies, and which we generally render in Siam as the 'Second King.'
URZ, URZEE, and vulgarly URJEE, s. P.—H. 'arẓ and 'arẓī, from Ar. 'arẓ, the latter a word having an extraordinary variety of uses even for Arabic. A petition or humble representation either oral or in writing; the technical term for a request from an inferior to a superior; 'a sifflication' as one of Sir Walter Scott's characters calls it. A more elaborate form is 'arẓ-dāsht, 'memorializing.' This is used in a very barbarous form of Hobson-Jobson below.
1606.—"Every day I went to the Court, and in every eighteen or twentie dayes I put up Ars or Petitions, and still he put mee off with good words...."—John Mildenhall, in Purchas, i. (Bk. iii.) 115.
[1614.—"Until Mocrob Chan's erzedach or letter came to that purpose it would not be granted."—Foster, Letters, ii. 178. In p. 179 "By whom I erzed unto the King again."
[1687.—"The arzdest with the Estimauze (Iltimās, 'humble representation') concerning your twelve articles...."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. II. lxx.
[1688.—"Capt. Haddock desiered the Agent would write his arzdost in answer to the Nabob's Perwanna (Purwanna)."—Ibid. II. lxxxiii.]
1690.—"We think you should Urzdaast the Nabob to writt purposely for ye {960a}releasmt of Charles King, it may Induce him to put a great Value on him."—Letter from Factory at Chuttanutte to Mr. Charles Eyre at Ballasore, d. November 5 (MS. in India Office).
1782.—"Monsr. de Chemant refuses to write to Hyder by arzoasht (read arzdasht), and wants to correspond with him in the same manner as Mons. Duplex did with Chanda Sahib; but the Nabob refuses to receive any letter that is not in the stile of an arzee or petition."—India Gazette, June 22.
c. 1785.—"... they (the troops) constantly applied to our colonel, who for presenting an arzee to the King, and getting him to sign it for the passing of an account of 50 lacks, is said to have received six lacks as a reward...."—Carraccioli, Life of Clive, iii. 155.
1809.—"In the morning ... I was met by a minister of the Rajah of Benares, bearing an arjee from his master to me...."—Ld. Valentia, i. 104.
1817.—"The Governor said the Nabob's Vakeel in the Arzee already quoted, directed me to forward to the presence that it was his wish, that your Highness would write a letter to him."—Mill's Hist. iv. 436.
USHRUFEE. See ASHRAFEE.
USPUK, s. Hind. aspak. 'A handspike,' corr. of the English. This was the form in use in the Canal Department, N.W.P. Roebuck gives the Sea form as hanspeek.
[UZBEG, n.p. One of the modern tribes of the Turkish race. "Uzbeg is a political not an ethnological denomination, originating from Uzbeg Khān of the Golden Horde (1312-1340). It was used to distinguish the followers of Shaibāni Khān (16th century) from his antagonists, and became finally the name of the ruling Turks in the khanates as opposed to the Sarts, Tajiks, and such Turks as entered those regions at a later date...." (Encycl. Brit. 9th ed. xxiii. 661). Others give the derivation from uz, 'self,' bek, 'a ruler,' in the sense of independent. (Schuyler, Turkistan, i. 106, Vambéry, Sketches of C. Asia, 301).
[c. 1330.—"But other two empires of the Tartars ... that which was formerly of Cathay, but now is Osbet, which is called Gatzaria...."—Friar Jordanus, 54.
[1616.—"He ... intendeth the conquest of the Vzbiques, a nation between Samarchand and here."—Sir T. Roe, i. 113, Hak. Soc.
[c. 1660.—"There are probably no people more narrow-minded, sordid or uncleanly, {960b}than the Usbec Tartars."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 120.
[1727.—"The Uspecks entred the Provinces Muschet and Yesd...."—A. Hamilton, ed. 1744, i. 108.
[1900.—"Uz-beg cavalry ('them House-bugs,' as the British soldiers at Rawal Pindi called them)."—Sir R. Warburton, Eighteen Years in the Khyber, 135.]
[VACCA, VAKEA-NEVIS, s. Ar. wāḳia'h, 'an event, news': wāḳi'ah-navīs, 'a news-writer.' These among the Moghuls were a sort of registrars or remembrancers. Later they became spies who were sent into the provinces to supply information to the central Government.
[c. 1590.—"Regulations regarding the Waqi'ahnawís. Keeping records is an excellent thing for a government.... His Majesty has appointed fourteen zealous, experienced, and impartial clerks...."—Āīn, i. 258.
[c. 1662.—"It is true that the Great Mogul sends a Vakea-nevis to the various provinces; that is persons whose business it is to communicate every event that takes place."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 231.
[1673.—"... Peta Gi Pundit Vocanovice, or Publick Intelligencer...."—Fryer, 80.
[1687.—"Nothing appearing in the Vacca or any other Letters untill of late concerning these broils."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, II. lxiii.]
VACCINATION. Vaccine was first imported into Bombay viâ Bussora in 1802. "Since then," says R. Drummond, "the British Governments in Asia have taken great pains to preserve and diffuse this mild instrument of salvation." [Also see Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. ii. 374.]
VAISHNAVA, adj. Relating to Vishnu; applied to the sectaries who especially worship him. In Bengālī the term is converted into Boishnab.
1672.—"... also some hold Wistnou for the supreme god, and therefore are termed Wistnouwaes."—Baldaeus.
[1815.—"Many choose Vishnoo for their guardian deity. These persons are called Voishnuvus."—Ward, Hindoos, 2nd ed. ii. 13.
VAKEEL, s. An attorney; an authorised representative. Arab. wakīl.
[c. 1630.—"A Scribe, Vikeel."—Persian Gloss. in Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1677, p. 316.]
1682.—"If Mr. Charnock had taken the paines to present these 2 Perwannas (Purwanna) himself, 'tis probable, with a small present, he might have prevailed with Bulchund to have our goods freed. However, at this rate any pitifull Vekeel is as good to act ye Company's Service as himself."—Hedges, Diary, Dec. 7; [Hak. Soc. i. 54].
[1683.—"... a copy whereof your Vackel James Price brought you from Dacca."—In Yule, ibid. II. xxiii.]
1691.—"November the 1st, arriv'd a Pattamar or Courrier, from our Fakeel, or Sollicitor at Court...."—Ovington, 415.
1811.—"The Raja has sent two Vakeels or ambassadors to meet me here...."—Ld. Minto in India, 268.
c. 1847.—"If we go into Court I suppose I must employ a Vehicle."—Letter from an European subordinate to one of the present writers.
VARELLA, s. This is a term constantly applied by the old Portuguese writers to the pagodas of Indo-China and China. Of its origin we have no positive evidence. The most probable etymology is that it is the Malay barāhlā or brāhlā, [in Wilkinson's Dict. bĕrhala], 'an idol.' An idol temple is rūmah-barāhlā, 'a house of idols,' but barāhlā alone may have been used elliptically by the Malays or misunderstood by the Portuguese. We have an analogy in the double use of pagoda for temple and idol.
1555.—"Their temples are very large edifices, richly wrought, which they call Valeras, and which cost a great deal...."—Account of China in a Jesuit's Letter appended to Fr. Alvarez H. of Ethiopia, translated by Mr. Major in his Introd. to Mendoza, Hak. Soc. I. xlviii.
1569.—"Gran quantità se ne consuma ancora in quel Regno nelle lor Varelle, che sono gli suo' pagodi, de' quali ve n'è gran quantità di grandi e di picciole, e sono alcune montagnuole fatte a mano, a giusa d'vn pan di zuccaro, e alcune d'esse alte quanti il campanile di S. Marco di Venetia ... si consuma in queste istesse varelle anco gran quantità di oro di foglia...."—Ces. Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 395; [in Hakl. ii. 368.]
1583.—"... nauigammo fin la mattina, che ci trouammo alla Bara giusto di Negrais, che cosi si chiama in lor linguaggio il porto, che va in Pegu, oue discoprimmo a banda sinistra del riuo vn pagodo, ouer varella tutta dorata, la quale si scopre di lontano da' vascelli, che vengono d'alto mare, et massime quando il Sol percote in quell'oro, che {961b}la fà risplendere all'intorno...."—Gasparo Balbi, f. 92.[279]
1587.—"They consume in these Varellaes great quantitie of Golde; for that they be all gilded aloft."—Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 393; [and see quotation from same under DAGON].
1614.—"So also they have many Varelas, which are monasteries in which dwell their religiosos, and some of these are very sumptuous, with their roofs and pinnacles all gilded."—Couto, VI. vii. 9.
More than one prominent geographical feature on the coast-navigation to China was known by this name. Thus in Linschoten's description of the route from Malacca to Macao, he mentions at the entrance to the 'Straits of Sincapura,' a rock having the appearance of an obelisk, called the Varella del China; and again, on the eastern coast of Champa, or Cochin China, we have frequent notice of a point (with a river also) called that of the Varella. Thus in Pinto:
1540.—"The Friday following we found ourselves just against a River called by the inhabitants of the Country Tinacoreu, and by us (the) Varella."—Pinto (in Cogan), p. 48.
This Varella of Champa is also mentioned by Linschoten:
1598.—"... from this thirde point to the Varella the coast turneth North.... This Varella is a high hill reaching into the Sea, and above on the toppe it hath a verie high stonie rock, like a tower or piller, which may be seen far off, therefore it is by the Portingalles called Varella."—p. 342.
VEDAS. The Sacred Books of the Brahmans, Veda being 'knowledge.' Of these books there are nominally four, viz. the Rig, Yajur, Sāma and Atharva Vedas.
The earliest direct intimation of knowledge of the existence of the Vedas appears to be in the book called De Tribus Impostoribus, said to have been printed in 1598, in which they are mentioned.[280] Possibly this {962a}knowledge came through the Arabs. Though thus we do not trace back any direct allusion to the Vedas in European books, beyond the year 1600 or thereabouts, there seems good reason to believe that the Jesuit missionaries had information on the subject at a much earlier date. St. Francis Xavier had frequent discussions with Brahmans, and one went so far as to communicate to him the mantra "Om śrīnārāyaṇanāmah." In 1559 a learned Brahman at Goa was converted by Father Belchior Carneyro, and baptized by the name of Manuel. He afterwards (with the Viceroy's sanction!) went by night and robbed a Brahman on the mainland who had collected many MSS., and presented the spoil to the Fathers, with great satisfaction to himself and them (Sousa, Orient. Conquist. i. 151-2).
It is probable that the information concerning the Hindu religion and sacred books which was attained even in Europe by the end of the 16th century was greater than is commonly supposed, and greater than what we find in print would warrant us to assume. A quotation from San Roman below illustrates this in a general way. And in a constitution of Gregory XV. dated January 31, 1623, there is mention of rites called Haiteres and Tandié, which doubtless represent the Vedic names Aitareya and Tāṇḍya (see Norbert, i. 39). Lucena's allusion below to the "four parts" of Hindu doctrine must have reference to the Vedas, and his information must have come from reports and letters, as he never was in India. In course of time, however, what had been known seems to have been forgotten, and even Halhed (1776) could write about 'Beids of the Shaster!' (see Code, p. xiii.). This shows that though he speaks also of the 'Four Beids' (p. xxxi.) he had no precise knowledge.
In several of the earlier quotations of the word it will be seen that the form used is Vedam or Veidam. This is the Tamil form. And it became prevalent during the 18th century in France from Voltaire's having {962b}constituted himself the advocate of a Sanskrit Poem, called by him l'Ezour Vedam, and which had its origin in S. India. This was in reality an imitation of an Indian Purāna, composed by some missionary in the 17th century (probably by R. de' Nobili), to introduce Christian doctrines; but Voltaire supposed it to be really an ancient Indian book. Its real character was first explained by Sonnerat (see the Essay by F. W. Ellis, in As. Res. xi.). The first information regarding the real Vedas was given by Colebrooke in 1805 (As. Res. viii.). Orme and some authors of the 18th and early part of the 19th century write Bede, which represents the N. Indian vernacular form Bed. Both forms, Bed and Vedam, are known to Fleury, as we see below.
On the subject of the Vedas, see Weber's Hist. of Indian Lit., Max Müller's Ancient Sanskrit Lit., Whitney's Oriental and Linguistic Studies, vol. i. [and Macdonell's Hist. of Sanskrit Lit., pp. 29 seqq.].
c. 1590.—"The Brahmins. These have properly six duties. 1. The study of the Bedes."—Ayeen, by Gladwin, ii. 393; [ed. Jarrett, iii. 115].
" "Philologists are constantly engaged in translating Hindí, Greek, Arabic, and Persian books ... Hájí Ibrahím of Sarhind translated into Persian the At'harban (i.e. Atharva Veda) which, according to the Hindús is one of the four divine books."—Ibid. by Blochmann, i. 104-105.
1600.—"... Consta esta doutrina de quatro partes...."—Lucena V. de P. Franc. Xavier, 95.
1602.—"These books are divided into bodies, limbs, and joints; and their foundations are certain books which they call Vedáos, which are divided into four parts."—Couto, V. vi. 3.
1603.—"Tienen muchos libros, de mucha costa y escriptura, todos llenos de agueros y supersticiones, y de mil fabulas ridiculas que son sus evangelios.... Todo esto es tan sin fundamento, que algunos libros han llegado a Portugal, que se han traydo de la India, y han venido algunos Iogues que se convertieron à la Fè."—San Roman, Hist. de la India Oriental, 47.
1651.—"The Vedam, or the Heathen's book of the Law, hath brought great Esteem unto this Tribe (the Bramines)."—Rogerius, 3.
c. 1667.—"They say then that God, whom they call Achar, that is to say, Immoveable or Immutable, hath sent them four Books which they call Beths, a word signifying Science, because they pretend that in these Books all Sciences are comprehended. The first of these Books is called {963a}Athenba-(Atherba-)bed, the second Zagur-bed, the third Rek-bed, the fourth Sama-bed."—Bernier, E.T. 104; [ed. Constable, 325].
1672.—"Commanda primieramente il Veda (che è tutto il fondamento della loro fede) l'adoratione degli Idoli."—P. Vincenzo, 313.
" "Diese vier Theile ihres Vedam oder Gesetzbuchs werden genant Roggo Vedam, Jadura Vedam, Sama Vedam, und Tarawana Vedam...."—Baldaeus, 556.
1689.—"Il reste maintenant à examiner sur quelles preuves les Siamois ajoutent foi à leur Bali, les Indiens à leur Beth ou Vedam, les Musulmans à leur Alcoran."—Fleury, in Lett. Edif. xxv. 65.
1726.—"Above all it would be a matter of general utility to the Coast that some more chaplains should be maintained there for the sole purpose of studying the Sanskrits tongue (de Sanskritse taal), the head and mother tongue of most eastern languages, and once for all to make a translation of the Vedam, or Lawbook of the Heathen (which is followed not only by the Heathen on this Coast, but also, in whole or in part, in Ceylon, Malabar, Bengal, Surat, and other neighbouring Kingdoms), and thereby to give such preachers further facilities for the more powerful conviction of the Heathen here and elsewhere, on their own ground, and for the disclosure of many mysteries and other matters, with which we are now unacquainted.... This Lawbook of the Heathen, called the Vedam, had in the very old times 4 parts, though one of these is now lost.... These parts were named Roggo Vedam, Sadura or Issoure Vedam, Sama Vedam, and Tarawana or Adderawana Vedam."—Valentijn, Keurlijke Beschryving van Choromandel, in his East Indies, v. pp. 72-73.
1745.—"Je commençais à douter si nous n'avions point été trompés par ceux qui nous avoient donné l'explication de ces cérémonies qu'ils nous avoient assurés être très-conformes à leur Vedam, c'est à dire au Livre de leur loi."—Norbert, iii. 132.
c. 1760.—"Vedam—s.m. Hist. Superst. C'est un livre pour qui les Brames ou Nations idolâtres de l'Indostan ont la plus grande vénération ... en effet, on assure que le Vedam est écrit dans une langue beaucoup plus ancienne que le Sanskrit, qui est la langue savante, connue des bramines. Le mot Vedam signifie science."—Encylopédie, xxx. 32. This information was taken from a letter by Père Calmette, S.J. (see Lett. Edif.), who anticipated Max Müller's chronological system of Vedic literature, in his statement that some parts of the Veda are at least 500 years later than others.
1765.—"If we compare the great purity and chaste manners of the Shastah (Shaster), with the great absurdities and impurities of the Viedam, we need not hesitate to pronounce the latter a corruption of the former."—J. Z. Holwell, Interesting Hist. Events, &c., 2nd ed. i. 12. This gentleman also talks of the Bhades and the Viedam in the same line without a notion that the word was the same (see ibid. Pt. ii. 15, 1767).
c. 1770.—"The Bramin, bursting into tears, promised to pardon him on condition that he should swear never to translate the Bedas or sacred volumes.... From the Ganges to the Indus the Vedam is universally received as the book that contains the principles of religion."—Raynal, tr. 1777, i. 41-42.
c. 1774.—"Si crede poi como infallibile che dai quattro suddette Bed, che in Malabar chiamano Vedam, Bramah medesimo ne retirasse sei Sastrah, cioè scienze."—Della Tomba, 102.
1777.—"The word Vēd, or Vēdă, signifies Knowledge or Science. The sacred writings of the Hindoos are so distinguished, of which there are four books."—C. Wilkins, in his Hĕĕtopădēs, 298.
1778.—"The natives of Bengal derive their religion from a Code called the Shaster, which they assert to be the genuine scripture of Bramah, in preference to the Vedam."—Orme, ed. 1803, ii. 5.
1778.—
"Ein indischer Brahman, geboren auf der Flur,
Der nichts gelesen als den Weda der Natur."
Rückert, Weisheit der Bramanen, i. 1.
1782.—"... pour les rendre (les Pouranons) plus authentiques, ils ajoutèrent qu'ils étoient tirés du Védam; ce que n'étoit pas facile à vérifier, puisque depuis très longtems les Védams ne sont plus connus."—Sonnerat, ii. 21.
1789.—
"Then Edmund begg'd his Rev'rend Master
T'instruct him in the Holy Shaster.
No sooner does the Scholar ask,
Than Goonisham begins the task,
Without a book he glibly reads
Four of his own invented Bedes."
Simpkin the Second, 145.
1791.—"Toute verité ... est renfermée dans les quatre beths."—St. Pierre, Chaumière Indienne.
1794-97.—"... or Hindoo Vedas taught."
Pursuits of Literature, 6th ed. 359.
VEDDAS, n.p. An aboriginal—or at least a forest—people of Ceylon. The word is said to mean 'hunters,' [Tam. vedu, 'hunting'].
1675.—"The Weddas (who call themselves Beddas) are all original inhabitants from old time, whose descent no one is able to tell."—Ryklof van Goens, in Valentijn, Ceylon, 208.
1681.—"In this Land are many of these wild men they call Vaddahs, dwelling near no other Inhabitants. They speak the Chingalayes Language.  They are very expert with their Bows.... They have no Towns nor Houses, only live by the waters under a Tree."—Knox, 61-62.
1770.—"The Bedas who were settled in the northern part of the island (Ceylon) {964a}... go almost naked, and, upon the whole, their manners and government are the same with that of the Highlanders of Scotland." (!)—Raynal (tr. 1777), i. 90.
VELLARD, s. This is a word apparently peculiar to the Island of Bombay, used in the sense which the quotation shows. We have failed to get any elucidation of it from local experience; but there can be little doubt that it is a corruption of the Port. vallado, 'a mound or embankment.' [It is generally known as 'Hornby's Vellard,' after the Governor of that name; but it seems to have been built about 1752, some 20 years before Hornby's time (see Douglas, Bombay and W. India, i. 140).]
1809.—"At the foot of the little hill of Sion is a causeway or vellard, which was built by Mr. Duncan, the present Governor, across a small arm of the sea, which separates Bombay from Salsette.... The vellard was begun A.D. 1797, and finished in 1805, at an expense of 50,575 rupees."—Maria Graham, 8.
VELLORE, n.p. A town, and formerly a famous fortress in the district of N. Arcot, 80 m. W. of Madras. It often figures in the wars of the 18th century, but is best known in Europe for the mutiny of the Sepoys there in 1806. The etym. of the name Vellūr is unknown to us. Fra Paolino gives it as Velur, 'the Town of the Lance'; and Col. Branfill as 'Vēḷūr, from Vēl, a benefit, benefaction.' [Cox-Stuart (Man. N. Arcot, ii. 417) and the writer of the Madras Gloss. agree in deriving it from Tam. vel, 'the babool tree, Acacia arabica,' and ūr, 'village.']
VENDU-MASTER, s. We know this word only from the notifications which we quote. It was probably taken from the name of some Portuguese office of the same kind. [In the quotation given below from Owen it seems that the word was in familiar use at Johanna, and the context shows that his duty was somewhat like that of the chowdry, as he provided fowls, cattle, fruit, &c., for the expedition.]
1781.—From an advertisement in the India Gazette of May 17th it appears to have been an euphemism for Auctioneer; [also see Busteed, Echoes of Old Calcutta, 3rd ed. p. 109].
" "Mr. Donald ... begs leave to acquaint them that the Vendu business will in future be carried on by Robert Donald, and W. Williams."—India Gazette, July 28.
1793.—"The Governor-General is pleased to notify that Mr. Williamson as the Company's Vendu Master is to have the superintendence and management of all Sales at the Presidency."—In Seton-Karr, ii. 99. At pp. 107, 114, also are notifications of sales by "G. Williamson, Vendu Master."
[1823.—"One of the chiefs, a crafty old rogue, commonly known by the name of 'Lord Rodney' ... acted as captain of the port, interpreter, Vendue-Master and master of the ceremonies...."—Owen, Narrative of Voyages to explore the shores of Africa, &c., i. 179.]
VENETIAN, s. This is sometimes in books of the 18th and preceding century used for Sequins. See under CHICK.
1542.—"At the bottom of the cargo (? cifa), among the ballast, she carried 4 big guns (tiros), and others of smaller size, and 60,000 venetians in gold, which were destined for Coje Çafar, in order that with this money he should in all speed provide necessaries for the fleet which was coming."—Correa, iv. 250.
1675.—Fryer gives among coins and weights at Goa:
"The Venetian ... 18 Tangoes, 30 Rees."—p. 206.
1752.—"At this juncture a gold mohur is found to be worth 14 Arcot Rupees, and a Venetian 4½ Arcot Rupees."—In Long, p. 32.
VERANDA, s. An open pillared gallery round a house. This is one of the very perplexing words for which at least two origins may be maintained, on grounds equally plausible. Besides these two, which we shall immediately mention, a third has sometimes been alleged, which is thus put forward by a well-known French scholar:
"Ce mot (véranda) n'est lui-même qu'une transcription inexacte du Persan beramada, perche, terrasse, balcon."—C. Defréméry, in Revue Critique, 1869, 1st Sem. p. 64.
Plausible as this is, it may be rejected. Is it not, however, possible that barāmada, the literal meaning of which is 'coming forward, projecting,' may be a Persian 'striving after meaning,' in explanation of the foreign word which they may have borrowed?
Williams, again, in his Skt. Dict. (1872) gives 'varaṇḍa ... a veranda, a portico....' Moreover Beames in his Comparative Grammar of Modern Aryan Languages, gives Sansk. baraṇḍa, 'portico,' Bengali bārāṇḍā, Hind. varaṇḍā, adding: "Most of our wise-acre literateurs (qu. littérateurs?) in Hindustan now-a-days consider this {965a}word to be derived from Pers. barāmadah, and write it accordingly. It is, however, good Sanskrit" (i. 153). Fortunately we have in Bishop Caldwell a proof that comparative grammar does not preclude good manners. Mr. Beames was evidently in entire ignorance of the facts which render the origin of the Anglo-Indian word so curiously ambiguous; but we shall not call him the "wise-acre grammarian." Varaṇḍa, with the meaning in question, does not, it may be observed, belong to the older Sanskrit, but is only found in comparatively modern works.[281]
Littré also gives as follows (1874): "Etym. Verandah, mot rapporté de l'Inde par les Anglais, est la simple dégénérescence, dans les langues modernes de l'Inde, du Sansc. veranda, colonnade, de var, couvrir."
That the word as used in England and in France was brought by the English from India need not be doubted. But either in the same sense, or in one closely analogous, it appears to have existed, quite independently, in Portuguese and Spanish; and the manner in which it occurs without explanation in the very earliest narrative of the adventure of the Portuguese in India, as quoted below, seems almost to preclude the possibility of their having learned it in that country for the first time; whilst its occurrence in P. de Alcala can leave no doubt on the subject. [Prof. Skeat says: "If of native Span. origin, it may be Span. vara a rod, rail. Cf. L. uarus, crooked" (Concise Dict. s.v.).]
1498.—"E vêo ter comnosco onde estavamos lançados, em huma varanda onde estava hum grande castiçall d'arame que nos alumeava."—Roteiro da Viagem de Vasco da Gama, 2nd ed., 1861, p. 62, i.e. "... and came to join us where we had been put in a varanda, where there was a great candlestick of brass that gave us light...." And Correa, speaking of the same historical passage, though writing at a later date, says: "When the Captain-Major arrived, he was conducted through many courts and verandas (muitos pateos e varandas) to a dwelling opposite that in which the king was...."—Correa, by Stanley, 193, compared with original Lendas, I. i. 98.
1505.—In Pedro de Alcala's Spanish-Arabic Vocabulary we have:
"Varandas—Târbuç.
Varandas assi çârgaba, çârgab."
Interpreting these Arabic words, with the assistance of Prof. Robertson Smith, we find that târbuç is, according to Dozy (Suppt. I. 430), darbūz, itself taken from darābazīn (τραπέζιον), 'a stair-railing, fireguard, balcony, &c.'; whilst çârgab stands for sarjab, a variant (Abul W., p. 735, i.) of the commoner sharjab, 'a lattice, or anything latticed,' such as a window,—'a balcony, a balustrade.'
1540.—"This said, we entred with her into an outward court, all about invironed with Galleries (cercado a roda de duas ordens de varandas) as if it had been a Cloister of Religious persons...."—Pinto (orig. cap. lxxxiii.), in Cogan, 102.
1553 (but relating events of 1511).
"... assentou Affonso d'Alboquerque com elles, que primeiro que sahissem em terra, irem ao seguinte dia, quando agua estivesse estofa, dez bateis a queimar alguns baileus, que são como varandas sobre o mar."—Barros, II. vi. 3.
1563.—"R. ... nevertheless tell me what the tree is like. O. From this varanda you can see the trees in my garden: those little ones have been planted two years, and in four they give excellent fruit...."—Garcia, f. 112.
1602.—"De maneira, que quando ja El Rey (de Pegu) chegava, tinha huns formosos Paços de muitas camaras, varandas, retretes, cozinhas, em que se recolhia com suas mulheres...."—Couto, Dec. vi. Liv. vii., cap. viii.
1611.—"Varanda. Lo entreado de los corridores, por ser como varas, per otro nombre vareastes quasi varafustes."—Cobarruvias.
1631.—In Haex, Malay-Latin Vocabulary, we have as a Malay word, "Baranda, Contignatio vel Solarium."
1644.—"The fort (at Cochin) has not now the form of a fortress, consisting all of houses; that in which the captain lives has a Varanda fronting the river, 15 paces long and 7 wide...."—Bocarro, MS. f. 313.
1710.—"There are not wanting in Cambaya great buildings with their courts, varandas, and chambers."—De Sousa, Oriente Conquist. ii. 152.
1711.—"The Building is very ancient ... and has a paved Court, two large Verandas or Piazzas."—Lockyer, 20.
c. 1714.—"Varanda. Obra sacada do corpo do edificio, cuberta o descuberta, na qual se costuma passear, tomar o sol, o fresco, &c. Pergula."—Bluteau, s.v.
1729.—"Baranda. Especie de corredor o balaustrada que ordinariamente se colocà debante de los altares o escaléras, compuesta de balaustres de hierro, bronce, madera, o otra materia, de la altura de un medio cuerpo, y su uso es para adorno y reparo. Algunos escriven esta voce con b. Lat. Peribolus, Lorica clathrata."—Golis, Hist. de Nueva España, lib. 3, cap. 15. "Alajábase la pieza por la mitad con un baranda o biombo que sin impedir la vista señalava {966a}termino al concorso."—Dicc. de la Ling. Cast. por la R. Acad.
1754.—Ives, in describing the Cave of Elephanta, speaks twice of "the voranda or open gallery."—p. 45.
1756.—"... as soon as it was dark, we were all, without distinction, directed by the guard set over us to collect ourselves into one body, and sit down quietly under the arched Veranda, or Piazza, to the west of the Black-hole prison...."—Holwell's Narr. of the Black Hole [p. 3]; [in Wheeler, Early Records, 229].
c. 1760.—"... Small ranges of pillars that support a pent-house or shed, forming what is called, in the Portuguese lingua-franca, Verandas."—Grose, i. 53.
1781.—"On met sur le devant une petite galerie appellée varangue, et formée par le toit."—Sonnerat, i. 54. There is a French nautical term, varangue, 'the ribs or floor-timbers of a ship,' which seems to have led this writer astray here.
1783.—"You are conducted by a pretty steep ascent up the side of a rock, to the door of the cave, which enters from the North. By it you are led first of all into a feerandah (!) or piazza which extends from East to West 60 feet."—Acct. of some Artificial Caves in the Neighbourhood of Bombay (Elephanta), by Mr. W. Hunter, Surgeon in the E. Indies. In Archaeologia, vii. 287.
" "The other gate leads to what in this country is called a veranda or feranda (printed seranda), which is a kind of piazza or landing-place before you enter the hall."—Letter (on Caves of Elephanta, &c.), from Hector Macneil, Esq., ibid. viii. 254.
1796.—"... Before the lowest (storey) there is generally a small hall supported by pillars of teka (Teak) wood, which is of a yellow colour and exceedingly hard. This hall is called varanda, and supplies the place of a parlour."—Fra Paolino, E.T.
1809.—"In the same verandah are figures of natives of every cast and profession."—Ld. Valentia, i. 424.
1810.—"The viranda keeps off the too great glare of the sun, and affords a dry walk during the rainy season."—Maria Graham, 21.
c. 1816.—"... and when Sergeant Browne bethought himself of Mary, and looked to see where she was, she was conversing up and down the verandah, though it was Sunday, with most of the rude boys and girls of the barracks."—Mrs. Sherwood's Stories, p. 47, ed. 1873.
VERDURE, s. This word appears to have been used in the 18th century for vegetables, adapted from the Port. verduras.
1752.—Among minor items of revenue from duties in Calcutta we find:
| RS. | A. | P. | ||
| "Verdure, fish pots, firewood | 216 | 10 | 6." | —In Long, 35. |
[VERGE, s. A term used in S. India for rice lands. It is the Port. Vársea, Varzia, Vargem, which Vieyra defines as 'a plain field, or a piece of level ground, that is sowed and cultivated.'
[1749.—"... as well as vargems lands as hortas" (see OART).—Treaty, in Logan, Malabar, iii. 48.
[1772.—"The estates and verges not yet assessed must be taxed at 10 per cent."—Govt. Order, ibid. i. 421.]
VETTYVER, s. This is the name generally used by the French for the fragrant grass which we call cuscus (q.v.). The word is Tamil vettiver, [from vettu, 'digging,' ver, 'root'].
1800.—"Europeans cool their apartments by means of wetted tats (see TATTY) made of straw or grass, and sometimes of the roots of the wattie waeroo, which, when wetted, exhales a pleasant but faint smell."—Heyne's Tracts, p. 11.
VIDANA, s. In Ceylon, the title of a village head man. "The person who conveys the orders of Government to the people" (Clough, s.v. vidán). It is apparently from the Skt. vadana, "... the act of speaking ... the mouth, face, countenance ... the front, point," &c. In Javanese wadana (or wadono, in Jav. pronunciation) is "the face, front, van; a chief of high rank: a Javanese title" (Crawfurd, s.v.). The Javanese title is, we imagine, now only traditional; the Ceylonese one has followed the usual downward track of high titles; we can hardly doubt the common Sanskrit origin of both (see Athenaeum, April 1, 1882, p. 413, and May 13, ibid. p. 602). The derivation given by Alwis is probably not inconsistent with this.
1681.—"The Dissauvas (see DISSAVE) by these Courli vidani their officers do oppress and squeez the people, by laying Mulcts upon them.... In Fine this officer is the Dissauva's chief Substitute, who orders and manages all affairs incumbent upon his master."—Knox, 51.
1726.—"Vidanes, the overseers of villages, who are charged to see that no inhabitant suffers any injury, and that the Land is sown betimes...."—Valentijn (Ceylon), Names of Officers, &c., 11.
1756.—"Under each (chief) were placed different subordinate headmen, called Vidána-Aratchies and Vidáns. The last is derived from the word (vidāna), 'commanding,' or 'ordering,' and means, as Clough (p. 647) defines it, the person who conveys the orders of the Government to the People."—J. de Alwis, in Ceylon Journal, 8, p. 237.
VIHARA, WIHARE, &c., s. In Ceylon a Buddhist temple. Skt. vihārā, a Buddhist convent, originally the hall where the monks met, and thence extended to the buildings generally of such an institution, and to the shrine which was attached to them, much as minster has come from monasterium. Though there are now no Buddhist vihāras in India Proper, the former wide diffusion of such establishments has left its trace in the names of many noted places: e.g. Bihār, and the great province which takes its name; Kuch Behār; the Vihār water-works at Bombay; and most probably the City of Bokhārā itself. [Numerous ruins of such buildings have been unearthed in N. India, as, for instance, that at Sarnāth near Benares, of which an account is given by Gen. Cunningham (Arch. Rep. i. 121). An early use of the word (probably in the sense of a monastery) is found in the Mathura Jain inscription of the 2nd century, A.D. in the reign of Huvishka (ibid. iii. 33).]
1681.—"The first and highest order of priests are the Tirinanxes,[282] who are the priests of the Buddou God. Their temples are styled Vehars.... These ... only live in the Vihar, and enjoy great Revenues."—Knox, Ceylon, 74.
[1821.—"The Malwatte and Asgirie wihares ... are the two heads of the Boodhaical establishment in Ceylon."—Davy, An Account of the Interior of Ceylon, 369.]
1877.—"Twice a month, when the rules of the order are read, a monk who had broken them is to confess his crime; if it be slight, some slight penance is laid upon him, to sweep the court-yard of the wihāra, sprinkle the dust round the sacred bo-tree."—Rhys Davids, Buddhism, 169.
VISS, s. A weight used in S. India and in Burma; Tam. vīsai, 'division,' Skt. vihita, 'distributed.' In Madras it was ⅛ of a Madras maund, and = 3lb. 2oz. avoirdupois. The old scale ran, 10 pagoda weights = 1 pollam, 40 pollams = 1 viss, 8 viss = 1 maund (of 25lbs.), 20 maunds = 1 candy. In Burma the viss = 100 tikals = 3lbs. 5 5⅓. Viss is used in Burma by foreigners, but the Burmese call the weight peiktha, probably a corruption of vīsai.
1554.—"The baar (see BAHAR) of Peguu contains 120 biças; each biça weighs 40 ounces; the biça contains 100 ticals; the tical weighs 31⁄5 oitavas."—A. Nunes, 38.
1568.—"This Ganza goeth by weight of Byze ... and commonly a Byza of Ganza is worth (after our accompt) halfe a ducat."—Caesar Frederike, in Hakl. ii. 367.
1626.—"In anno 1622 the Myne was shut up ... the comming of the Mogull's Embassadour to this King's Court, with his peremptory demand of a Vyse of the fairest diamonds, caused the cessation."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 1003.
[1727.—"Viece." See under TICAL.
[1807.—"Visay." See under GARCE.]
1855.—"The King last year purchased 800,000 viss of lead, at 5 tikals (see TICAL) for 100 viss, and sold it at twenty tikals."—Yule, Mission to Ava, 256.
VIZIER, WUZEER, s. Ar.—H. wazīr, 'a minister,' and usually the principal minister, under a (Mahommedan) prince. [In the Koran (cap. xx. 30) Moses says: "Give a wazir of my family, Harūn (Aaron) my brother." In the Āin we have a distinction drawn between the Vakīl, or prime minister, and the Vazīr, or minister of finance (ed. Blochmann, i. 527).] In India the Nawāb of Oudh was long known as the Nawāb Wazīr, the founder of the quasi-independent dynasty having been Sa'ādat 'Alī Khān, who became Sūbadār of Oudh, c. 1732, and was also Wazīr of the Empire, a title which became hereditary in his family. The title of Nawāb Wazīr merged in that of pādshāh, or King, assumed by Ghāzī-ud-dīn Haidar in 1820, and up to his death still borne or claimed by the ex-King Wājid 'Alī Shāh, under surveillance in Calcutta. As most titles degenerate, Wazīr has in Spain become alguazil, 'a constable,' in Port. alvasil, 'an alderman.'
[1612.—"Jeffer Basha Vizier and Viceroy of the Province."—Danvers, Letters, i. 173.]
1614.—"Il primo visir, sopra ogni altro, che era allora Nasuh bascià, genero del Gran Signore, venne ultimo di tutti, con grandissima e ben adorna cavalcata, enfin della quale andava egli solo con molta gravita."—P. della Valle (from Constantinople), i. 43.
[WACADASH, s. Japanese waki-zashi, 'a short sword.'
[1613.—"The Captain Chinesa is fallen at square with his new wife and hath given her his wacadash bidding her cut off her little finger."—Foster, Letters, ii. 18.
[ " "His wacadash or little cattan."—Ibid. ii. 20.
[1898.—"There is also the wakizashi, or dirk of about nine and a half inches, with which harikari was committed."—Chamberlain, Things Japanese, 3rd ed. 377.]
WALER, s. A horse imported from N. South Wales, or Australia in general.
1866.—"Well, young shaver, have you seen the horses? How is the Waler's off foreleg?"—Trevelyan, Dawk Bungalow, 223.
1873.—"For sale, a brown Waler gelding," &c.—Madras Mail, June 25.
WALI, s. Two distinct words are occasionally written in the same way.
(a). Ar. wāli. A Mahommedan title corresponding to Governor; ["the term still in use for the Governor-General of a Province as opposed to the Muḥāfiz̤, or district-governor. In E. Arabia the Wali is the Civil Governor as opposed to the Amīr or Military Commandant. Under the Caliphate the Wali acted also as Prefect of Police (the Indian Faujdār—see FOUJDAR), who is now called Z̤ābit̤" (Burton, Ar. Nights, i. 238)]. It became familiar some years ago in connection with Kandahar. It stands properly for a governor of the highest class, in the Turkish system superior to a Pasha. Thus, to the common people in Egypt, the Khedive is still the Wāli.
1298.—"Whenever he knew of anyone who had a pretty daughter, certain ruffians of his would go to the father and say: 'What say you? Here is this pretty daughter of yours; give her in marriage to the Bailo Achmath' (for they call him the Bailo, or, as we should say, 'the Viceregent')."—Marco Polo, i. 402.
1498.—"... e mandou hum homem que se chama Bale, o qual he como alquaide."—Roteiro de V. da Gama, 54.
1727.—"As I was one morning walking in the Streets, I met accidentally the Governor of the City (Muscat), by them called the Waaly."—A. Hamilton, i. 70; [ed. 1744, i. 71.]
[1753.—In Georgia. "Vali, a viceroy descended immediately from the sovereigns of the country over which he presides."—Hanway, iii. 28.]
b. Ar. walī. This is much used in some Mahommedan countries (e.g. {968b}Egypt and Syria) for a saint, and by a transfer for the shrine of such a saint. ["This would be a separate building like our family tomb and probably domed.... Europeans usually call it 'a little Wali'; or, as they write it, 'Wely'; the contained for the container; the 'Santon' for the 'Santon's tomb'" (Burton, Ar. Nights, i. 97).] See under PEER.
[c. 1590.—"The ascetics who are their repositaries of learning, they style Wali, whose teaching they implicitly follow."—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, ii. 119.]
1869.—"Quant au titre de pir (see PEER) ... il signifie proprement vieillard, mais il est pris dans cette circonstance pour désigner une dignité spirituelle equivalente à celle des Gurû Hindous.... Beaucoup de ces pirs sont à leur mort vénérés comme saints; de là le mot pir est synonyme de Wali, et signifie Saint aussi bien que ce dernier mot."—Garcin de Tassy, Rel. Mus. dans l'Inde, 23.
WALLA, s. This is a popular abridgment of Competition-walla, under which will be found remarks on the termination wālā, and illustrations of its use.
WANDEROO, s. In Ceylon a large kind of monkey, originally described under this name by Knox (Presbytes ursinus). The name is, however, the generic Singhalese word for 'a monkey' (wanderu, vandura), and the same with the Hind. bandar, Skt. vānara. Remarks on the disputed identity of Knox's wanderoo, and the different species to which the name has been applied, popularly, or by naturalists, will be found in Emerson Tennent, i. 129-130.
1681.—"Monkeys.... Some so large as our English Spaniel Dogs, of a darkish gray colour, and black faces, with great white beards round from ear to ear, which makes them show just like old men. There is another sort just of the same bigness, but differ in colour, being milk white both in body and face, having great beards like the others ... both these sorts do but little mischief.... This sort they call in their language Wanderow."—Knox, Hist. Rel. of the I. of Ceylon, 26.
[1803.—"The wanderow is remarkable for its great white beard, which stretches quite from ear to ear across its black face, while the body is of a dark grey."—Percival, Acc. of the I. of Ceylon, 290.]
1810.—"I saw one of the large baboons, called here Wanderows, on the top of a coco-nut tree, where he was gathering nuts...."—Maria Graham, 97.
1874.—"There are just now some very remarkable monkeys. One is a Macaque.... Another is the Wanderoo, a fellow with a great mass of hair round his face, and the most awful teeth ever seen in a monkey's mouth. This monkey has been credited with having killed two niggers before he was caught; he comes from Malabar."—F. Buckland, in Life, 289.
WANGHEE, WHANGEE, s. The trade name for a slender yellow bamboo with beautifully regular and short joints, imported from Japan. We cannot give the origin of the term with any conviction. The two following suggestions may embrace or indicate the origin. (1). Rumphius mentions a kind of bamboo called by him Arundinarbor fera, the native name of which is Bulu swangy (see in vol. iv. cap. vii. et seqq.). As buluh is Malay for bamboo, we presume that swangi is also Malay, but we do not know its meaning. (2). Our friend Professor Terrien de la Couperie notes: "In the K'ang-hi tze-tien, 118, 119, the Huang-tchu is described as follows: 'A species of bamboo, very hard, with the joints close together; the skin is as white as snow; the larger kind can be used for boats, and the smaller used for pipes, &c.' See also Wells Williams, Syllabic Dict. of the Chinese Lang. p. 251.
[On this Professor Giles writes: "'Whang' clearly stands for 'yellow,' as in Whangpoo and like combinations. The difficulty is with ee, which should stand for some word of that sound in the Cantonese dialect. There is such a word in 'clothes, skin, sheath'; and 'yellow skin (or sheath)' would form just such a combination as the Chinese would be likely to employ. The suggestion of Terrien de la Couperie is not to the purpose." So Mr. C. M. Gardner writes: "The word hwang has many meanings in Chinese according to the tone in which it is said. Hwang-chi têng or hwangee-têng might be 'yellow-corticled cane.' The word chuh means 'bamboo,' and hwang-chuh might be 'yellow or Imperial bamboo.' Wan means a 'myriad,' ch'i 'utensil'; wan-chi têng might mean a kind of cane 'good for all kinds of uses.' Wan-chuh is a particular kind of bamboo from which paper is made in W. Hapei."
Mr. Skeat writes: "'Buluh swangi' is correct Malay. Favre in his Malay-Fr. Dict. has 'suwāngi, esprit, spectre, {969b}esprit mauvais.' 'Buluh swangi' does not appear in Ridley's list as the name of a bamboo, but he does not profess to give all the Malay plant names."]
WATER-CHESTNUT. The trapa bispinosa of Roxb.; Hind. singhāṛā, 'the horned fruit.' See SINGARA.
WEAVER-BIRD, s. See BAYA.
WEST-COAST, n.p. This expression in Dutch India means the west coast of Sumatra. This seems also to have been the recognised meaning of the term at Madras in former days. See SLAVE.
[1685.—"Order'd that the following goods be laden aboard the Syam Merchant for the West Coast of Sumatra...."—Pringle, Diary Ft. St. Geo. 1st ser. IV. 136; also see 136, 138, 163, &c.]
1747.—"The Revd. Mr. Francis Fordyce being entered on the Establishment ... and having several months' allowance due to him for the West Coast, amounting to Pags. 371. 9...."—Ft. St. David's Consn., April 30, MS. in India Office. The letter appended shows that the chaplain had been attached to Bencoolen. See also Wheeler, i. 148.
WHAMPOA, n.p. In former days the anchorage of European ships in the river of Canton, some distance below that city. [The name is pronounced Wongpo (Ball, Things Chinese, 3rd ed. 631).]
1770.—"Now all European ships are obliged to anchor at Houang-poa, three leagues from the city" (Canton).—Raynal, tr. 1777, ii. 258.
WHISTLING TEAL, s. This in Jerdon is given as Dendrocygna Awsuree of Sykes. Latin names given to birds and beasts might at least fulfil one object of Latin names, in being intelligible and pronounceable by foreign nations. We have seldom met with a more barbarous combination of impossible words than this. A numerous flock of these whistlers is sometimes seen in Bengal sitting in a tree, a curious habit for ducks.
WHITE ANTS. See ANTS, WHITE.
WHITE JACKET, s. The old custom in the hot weather, in the family or at bachelor parties, was to wear this at dinner; and one or more dozens of white jackets were a regular {970a}item in an Indian outfit. They are now, we believe, altogether, and for many years obsolete. [They certainly came again into common use some 20 years ago.] But though one reads under every generation of British India that they had gone out of use, they did actually survive to the middle of the last century, for I can remember a white-jacket dinner in Fort William in 1849. [The late Mr. Bridgman of Gorakhpur, whose recollection of India dated from the earlier part of the last century told me that in his younger days the rule at Calcutta was that the guest always arrived at his host's house in the full evening-dress of the time, on which his host meeting him at the door expressed his regret that he had not chosen a cooler dress; on which the guest's Bearer always, as if by accident, appeared from round the corner with a nankeen jacket, which was then and there put on. But it would have been opposed to etiquette for the guest to appear in such a dress without express invitation.]
1803.—"It was formerly the fashion for gentlemen to dress in white jackets on all occasions, which were well suited to the country, but being thought too much an undress for public occasions, they are now laid aside for English cloth."—Ld. Valentia, i. 240.
[c. 1848.—"... a white jacket being evening dress for a dinner-party...."—Berncastle, Voyage to China, including a Visit to the Bombay Pres. i. 93.]
WINTER, s. This term is constantly applied by the old writers to the rainy season, a usage now quite unknown to Anglo-Indians. It may have originated in the fact that winter is in many parts of the Mediterranean coast so frequently a season of rain, whilst rain is rare in summer. Compare the fact that shitā in Arabic is indifferently 'winter,' or 'rain'; the winter season being the rainy season. Shitā is the same word that appears in Canticles ii. 11: "The winter (sethāv) is past, the rain is over and gone."
1513.—"And so they set out, and they arrived at Surat (Çurrate) in May, when the winter had already begun, so they went into winter-quarters (polo que envernarão), and in September, when the winter was over, they went to Goa in two foists and other vessels, and in one of these was the ganda (rhinoceros), the sight of which made a great commotion when landed at Goa...."—Correa, ii. 373.
1563.—"R. ... In what time of the year does this disease (morxi, Mort-de-chien) mostly occur?
"O. ... It occurs mostly in June and July (which is the winter-time in this country)...."—Garcia, f. 76y.
c. 1567.—"Da Bezeneger a Goa sono d'estate otto giornate di viaggio: ma noi lo facessimo di mezo l'inverno, il mese de Luglio."—Cesare Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 389.
1583.—"Il uerno in questo paese è il Maggio, Giugno, Luglio e Agosto, e il resto dell'anno è state. Ma bene è da notare che qui la stagione nõ si può chiamar uerno rispetto al freddo, che nõ vi regna mai, mà solo per cagione de' venti, e delle gran pioggie...."—Gasparo Balbi, f. 67v.
1584.—"Note that the Citie of Goa is the principall place of all the Oriental India, and the winter thus beginneth the 15 of May, with very great raine."—Barret, in Hakl. ii. 413.
[1592.—See under PENANG.]
1610.—"The Winter heere beginneth about the first of Iune and dureth till the twentieth of September, but not with continuall raines as at Goa, but for some sixe or seuen dayes every change and full, with much wind, thunder and raine."—Finch, in Purchas, i. 423.
c. 1610.—"L'hyver commence au mois d'Avril, et dure six mois."—Pyrard de Laval, i. 78: [Hak. Soc. i. 104, and see i. 64, ii. 34].
1643.—"... des Galiottes (qui sortent tous les ans pour faire la guerre aux Malabares ... et cela est enuiron la May-Septembre, lors que leur hyuer est passé...."—Mocquet, 347.
1653.—"Dans les Indes il y a deux Estez et deux Hyuers, ou pour mieux dire vn Printemps perpetuel, parce que les arbres y sont tousiours verds: Le premier Esté commance au mois de Mars, et finit au mois de May, que est la commancement de l'hyuer de pluye, qui continue iusques en Septembre pleuuant incessament ces quatre mois, en sorte que les Karauanes, ny les Patmars (see PATTAMAR, a) ne vont ne viennent: i'ay esté quarante iours sans pouuoir sortir de la maison.... Le second Esté est depuis Octobre iusques en Decembre, au quel mois il commance à faire froid ... ce froid est le second Hyuer qui finit au mois de Mars."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 244-245.
1665.—"L'Hyver se sait sentir. El commença en Juin per quantité de pluies et de tonneres."—Thevenot, v. 311.
1678.—"... In Winter (when they rarely stir) they have a Mumjama, or Wax Cloth to throw over it...."—Fryer, 410.
1691.—"In orâ Occidentali, quae Malabarorum est, hyems â mense Aprili in Septembrem usque dominatur: in littore verò Orientali, quod Hollandi de Kust van Choromandel, Oram Coromandellae vocant trans illos montes, in iisdem latitudinis gradibus, contrariô planè modô â Septembri {971a}usque ad Aprilem hyemem habent."—Iobi Lusdofi, ad suam Historiam Commentarius, 101.
1770.—"The mere breadth of these mountains divides summer from winter, that is to say, the season of fine weather from the rainy ... all that is meant by winter in India is the time of the year when the clouds ... are driven violently by the winds against the mountains," &c.—Raynal, tr. 1777, i. 34.
WOOD-APPLE, s. [According to the Madras Gloss. also known as Curd Fruit, Monkey Fruit, and Elephant Apple, because it is like an elephant's skin.] A wild fruit of the N.O. Aurantiaceae growing in all the drier parts of India (Feronia elephantum, Correa). It is somewhat like the bel (see BAEL) but with a still harder shell, and possesses some of its medicinal virtue. In the native pharmacopœia it is sometimes substituted (Moodeen Sherif, [Watt, Econ. Dict. iii. 324 seqq.]). Buchanan-Hamilton calls it the Kot-bel (Kaṭhbel), (Eastern India, ii. 787)].
1875.—"Once upon a time it was announced that the Pádsháh was about to pass through a certain remote village of Upper India. And the village heads gathered in pancháyat to consider what offering they could present on such an unexampled occasion. Two products only of the village lands were deemed fit to serve as nazrána. One was the custard-apple, the other was the wood-apple ... a wild fruit with a very hard shelly rind, something like a large lemon or small citron converted into wood. After many pros and cons, the custard-apple carried the day, and the village elders accordingly, when the king appeared, made salám, and presented a large basket of custard-apples. His Majesty did not accept the offering graciously, but with much abusive language at being stopped to receive such trash, pelted the simpletons with their offering, till the whole basketful had been squashed upon their venerable heads. They retired, abashed indeed, but devoutly thanking heaven that the offering had not been of wood-apples!"—Some Unscientific Notes on the History of Plants (by H. Y.) in Geog. Mag., 1875, pp. 49-50. The story was heard many years ago from Major William Yule, for whom see under TOBACCO.
WOOD-OIL, or GURJUN OIL, s. Beng.—H. garjan. A thin balsam oil drawn from a great forest tree (N.O. Dipterocarpeae) Dipterocarpus turbinatus, Gaertn., and from several other species of Dipt., which are among the finest trees of Transgangetic India. Trees of this N.O. abound also in the {971b}Malay Archipelago, whilst almost unknown in other parts of the world. The celebrated Borneo camphor is the product of one such tree, and the saul-wood of India of another. Much wood-oil is exported from the Burmese provinces, the Malay Peninsula, and Siam. It is much used in the East as a natural varnish and preservative of timber; and in Indian hospitals it is employed as a substitute for copaiva, and as a remedy for leprosy (Hanbury & Flückiger, Watt, Econ. Dict. iii. 167 seqq.). The first mention we know of is c. 1759 in Dalrymple's Or. Repertory in a list of Burma products (i. 109).
WOOLOCK, OOLOCK, s. [Platts in his Hind. Dict. gives ulāq, ulāk, as Turkish, meaning 'a kind of small boat.' Mr. Grierson (Bihar Peasant Life, 42), among the larger kinds of boats, gives ulānk, "which has a long narrow bow overhanging the water in front." Both he and Mr. Grant (Rural Life in Bengal, 25) give drawings of this boat, and the latter writes: "First we have the bulky Oolák, or baggage boat of Bengal, sometimes as gigantic as the Putelee (see PATTELLO), and used for much the same purposes. This last-named vessel is a clinker-built boat—that is having the planks overlapping each other, like those in a London wherry; whereas in the round smooth-sided oolak and most country boats, they are laid edge to edge, and fastened with iron clamps, having the appearance of being stitched."]
1679.—"Messrs. Vincent" (&c.) ... "met the Agent (on the Hoogly R.) in Budgeroes and Oolankes."—Fort St. Geo. Consns., Sept. 14. In Notes and Exts., Madras, 1871.
[1683.—"... 10 Ulocks for Souldiers, etc."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 76.
[1760.—"20 Hoolucks 6 Oars at 28 Rs. per month."—In Long, 227.]
1764.—"Then the Manjees went after him in a wollock to look after him."—Ibid. 383.
1781.—"The same day will be sold a twenty-oar'd Wollock-built Budgerow...."—India Gazette, April 14.
1799.—"We saw not less than 200 large boats at the different quays, which on an average might be reckoned each at 60 tons burthen, all provided with good roofs, and masted after the country manner. They seemed much better constructed than the unwieldy wullocks of Bengal."—Symes, Ava, 233.
WOON, s. Burm. wun, 'a governor or officer of administration'; literally 'a burden,' hence presumably the 'Bearer of the Burden.' Of this there are various well-known compounds, e.g.:
Woon-gyee, i.e. 'Wun-gyī' or Great Minister, a member of the High Council of State or Cabinet, called the Hlot-dau (see LOTOO).
Woon-douk, i.e. Wun-dauk, lit. 'the prop of the Wun'; a sort of Adlatus, or Minister of an inferior class. We have recently seen a Burmese envoy to the French Government designated as "M. Woondouk."
Atwen-wun, Minister of the Interior (of the Court) or Household.
Myo-wun, Provincial Governor (May-woon of Symes).
Ye-wun, 'Water-Governor,' formerly Deputy of the Myo-wun of the Pr. of Pegu (Ray-woon of Symes).
Akaok-wun, Collector of Customs (Akawoon of Symes).
WOORDY-MAJOR, s. The title of a native adjutant in regiments of Indian Irregular Cavalry. Both the rationale of the compound title, and the etymology of wardī, are obscure. Platts gives Hind. wardī or urdī, 'uniform of a soldier, badge or dress of office,' as the first part of the compound, with a questionable Skt. etymology, viruda, 'crying, proclaiming, a panegyric.' But there is also Ar. wird, 'a flight of birds,' and then also 'a troop or squadron,' which is perhaps as probable. [Others, again, as many military titles have come from S. India, connect it with Can. varadi, 'news, an order.']
[1784.—"... We made the wurdee wollah acquainted with the circumstance...."—Forrest, Bombay Letters, ii. 323.
[1861.—"The senior Ressaldar (native captain) and the Woordie Major (native adjutant) ... reported that the sepoys were trying to tamper with his men."—Cave-Browne, Punjab and Delhi, i. 120.]
WOOTZ, s. This is an odd name which has attached itself in books to the so-called 'natural steel' of S. India, made especially in Salem, and in some parts of Mysore. It is prepared from small bits of malleable iron (made from magnetic ore) which are packed in crucibles with pieces of a particular wood (Cassia auriculata), and covered with leaves and clay. The word first appears in a paper read before the Royal Society, June 11, 1795, called: "Experiments and observations to {972b}investigate the nature of a kind of Steel, manufactured at Bombay, and there called Wootz ... by George Pearson, M.D." This paper is quoted below.
The word has never since been recognised as the name of steel in any language, and it would seem to have originated in some clerical error, or misreading, very possibly for wook, representing the Canarese ukku (pron. wukku) 'steel.' Another suggestion has been made by Dr. Edward Balfour. He states that uchcha and nicha (Hind. uṅcha-nīcha, in reality for 'high' and 'low') are used in Canarese speaking districts to denote superior and inferior descriptions of an article, and supposes that wootz may have been a misunderstanding of uchcha, 'of superior quality.' The former suggestion seems to us preferable. [The Madras Gloss. gives as local names of steel, Can. ukku, Tel. ukku, Tam. and Malayāl. urukku, and derives wootz from Skt. ućća, whence comes H. uṅchā.]
The article was no doubt the famous 'Indian Steel,' the σίδηρος Ἰνδικὸς καὶ στόμωμα of the Periplus, the material of the Indian swords celebrated in many an Arabic poem, the alhinde of old Spanish, the hundwānī of the Persian traders, ondanique of Marco Polo, the iron exported by the Portuguese in the 16th century from Baticalà (see BATCUL) in Canara and other parts (see Correa passim). In a letter of the King to the Goa Government in 1591 he animadverts on the great amount of iron and steel permitted to be exported from Chaul, for sale on the African coast and to the Turks in the Red Sea (Archiv. Port. Orient., Fasc. 3, 318).
1795.—"Dr. Scott, of Bombay, in a letter to the President, acquainted him that he had sent over specimens of a substance known by the name of Wootz; which is considered to be a kind of steel, and is in high esteem among the Indians."—Phil. Trans. for 1795, Pt. ii. p. 322.
[1814.—See an account of wootz, in Heyne's Tracts, 362 seqq.]
1841.—"The cakes of steel are called Wootz; they differ materially in quality, according to the nature of the ore, but are generally very good steel, and are sent into Persia and Turkey.... It may be rendered self-evident that the figure or pattern (of Damascus steel) so long sought after exists in the cakes of Wootz, and only requires to be produced by the action of diluted acids ... it is therefore highly probable that the ancient blades (of {973a}Damascus) were made of this steel."—Wilkinson, Engines of War, pp. 203-206.
1864.—"Damascus was long celebrated for the manufacture of its sword blades, which it has been conjectured were made from the wootz of India."—Percy's Metallurgy, Iron and Steel, 860.
(a). The rank and style of the junior grade of covenanted civil servants of the E.I. Company. Technically it has been obsolete since the abolition of the old grades in 1833. The term no doubt originally described the duty of these young men; they were the clerks of the factories.
(b). A copying clerk in an office, native or European.
a.—
1673.—"The whole Mass of the Company's Servants may be comprehended in those Classes, viz., Merchants, Factors, and Writers."—Fryer, 84.
[1675-6.—See under FACTOR.]
1676.—"There are some of the Writers who by their lives are not a little scandalous."—Letter from a Chaplain, in Wheeler, i. 64.
1683.—"Mr. Richard More, one that came out a Writer on ye Herbert, left this World for a better. Ye Lord prepare us all to follow him!"—Hedges, Diary, Aug. 22; [Hak. Soc. i. 105].
1747.—"82. Mr. Robert Clive, Writer in the Service, being of a Martial Disposition, and having acted as a Volunteer in our late Engagements, We have granted him an Ensign's Commission, upon his Application for the same."—Letter from the Council at Ft. St. David to the Honble. Court of Directors, dd. 2d. May, 1747 (MS. in India Office).
1758.—"As we are sensible that our junior servants of the rank of Writers at Bengal are not upon the whole on so good a footing as elsewhere, we do hereby direct that the future appointments to a Writer for salary, diet money, and all allowances whatever, be 400 Rupees per annum, which mark of our favour and attention, properly attended to, must prevent their reflections on what we shall further order in regard to them as having any other object or foundation than their particular interest and happiness."—Court's Letter, March 3, in Long, 129. (The 'further order' is the prohibition of palankins, &c.—see PALANKEEN.)
c. 1760.—"It was in the station of a covenant servant and writer, to the East India Company, that in the month of March, 1750, I embarked."—Grose, i. 1.
1762.—"We are well assured that one great reason of the Writers neglecting the Company's business is engaging too soon in {973b}trade.... We therefore positively order that none of the Writers on your establishment have the benefit or liberty of Dusticks (see DUSTUCK) until the times of their respective writerships are expired, and they commence Factors, with this exception...."—Court's Letter, Dec. 17, in Long, 287.
1765.—"Having obtained the appointment of a Writer in the East India Company's service at Bombay, I embarked with 14 other passengers ... before I had attained my sixteenth year."—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 5; [2nd ed. i. 1].
1769.—"The Writers of Madras are exceedingly proud, and have the knack of forgetting their old acquaintances."—Ld. Teignmouth, Mem. i. 20.
1788.—"In the first place all the persons who go abroad in the Company's civil service, enter as clerks in the counting-house, and are called by a name to correspond with it, Writers. In that condition they are obliged to serve five years."—Burke, Speech on Hastings' Impeachment, Feb. 1788. In Works, vii. 292.
b.—
1764.—"Resolutions and orders.—That no Moonshee, Linguist, Banian (see BANYAN), or Writer be allowed to any officer except the Commander-in-Chief and the commanders of detachments...."—Ft. William Consns. In Long, 382.
[1860.—"Following him are the krānees (see CRANNY), or writers, on salaries varying, according to their duties and abilities, from five to thirty roopees."—Grant, Rural L. in Bengal, 138-9.]
WUG, s. We give this Belūch word for loot on the high authority quoted. [On this Mr. M. L. Dames writes: "This is not, strictly speaking, a Balochī word, but Sindhī, in the form wag or wagu. The Balochī word is bag, but I cannot say for certain whether it is borrowed from Sindhī by Balochi, or vice versâ. The meaning, however, is not loot, but 'a herd of camels.' It is probable that on the occasion referred to the loot consisted of a herd of camels, and this would easily give rise to the idea that the word meant loot. It is one of the commonest forms of plunder in those regions, and I have often heard Balochis, when narrating their raids, describe how they had carried off a 'bag.'"]
1845.—"In one hunt after wug, as the Beloochees call plunder, 200 of that beautiful regiment, the 2nd Europeans, marched incessantly for 15 hours over such ground as I suppose the world cannot match for ravines, except in places where it is impossible to march at all."—Letter of Sir C. Napier, in Life, iii. 298.
XERAFINE, XERAFIM, &c., s. The word in this form represents a silver coin formerly current at Goa and several other Eastern ports, in value somewhat less than 1s. 6d. It varied in Portuguese currency from 300 to 360 reis. But in this case as in so many others the term is a corruption applied to a degenerated value. The original is the Arabic ashrafī (see ASHRAFEE) (or sharīfī, 'noble'—compare the medieval coin so called), which was applied properly to the gold dīnār, but was also in India, and still is occasionally by natives, applied to the gold mohur. Ashrafī for a gold dīnār (value in gold about 11s. 6d.) occurs frequently in the '1001 Nights,' as Dozy states, and he gives various other quotations of the word in different forms (pp. 353-354; [Burton, Ar. Nights, x. 160, 376]). Aigrefin, the name of a coin once known in France, is according to Littré also a corruption of ashrafī.
1498.—"And (the King of Calicut) said that they should tell the Captain that if he wished to go he must give him 600 xarifes, and that soon, and that this was the custom of that country, and of those who came thither."—Roteiro de V. da G. 79.
1510.—"When a new Sultan succeeds to the throne, one of his lords, who are called Amirra (Ameer), says to him: 'Lord, I have been for so long a time your slave, give me Damascus, and I will give you 100,000 or 200,000 teraphim of gold.'"—Varthema, 10.
" "Every Mameluke, great or little, has for his pay six saráphi per month."—Ibid. 13.
" "Our captain sent for the superior of the said mosque, to whom he said: that he should show him the body of Nabi—this Nabi means the Prophet Mahomet—that he would give him 3000 seraphim of gold."—Ibid. 29. This one eccentric traveller gives thus three different forms.
1513.—"... hunc regem Affonsus idem, urbe opulẽtissima et praecipuo emporio Armusio vi capto, quindecim milliũ Seraphinorũ, ea est aurea moneta ducatis equivalẽs annuũ nobis tributariũ effecerat."—Epistola Emmanuelis Regis, 2b. In the preceding the word seems to apply to the gold dīnār.
1523.—"And by certain information of persons who knew the facts ... Antonio de Saldanha ... agreed with the said King Turuxa (Tūrūn Shāh), ... that the said King ... should pay to the King Our {974b}lord 10,000 xarafins more yearly ... in all 25,000 xarafins."—Tombo da India, Subsidios, 79. This is the gold mohur.
1540.—"This year there was such a famine in Choromandel, that it left nearly the whole land depopulated with the mortality, and people ate their fellow men. Such a thing never was heard of on that Coast, where formerly there was such an abundance of rice, that in the port of Negapatam I have often seen more than 700 sail take cargoes amounting to more than 20,000 moios (the moyo = 29.39 bushels) of rice.... This year of famine the Portuguese of the town of St. Thomé did much good to the people, helping them with quantities of rice and millet, and coco-nuts and jagra (see JAGGERY), which they imported in their vessels from other parts, and sold in retail to the people at far lower prices than they could have got if they wished it; and some rich people caused quantities of rice to be boiled in their houses, and gave it boiled down in the water to the people to drink, all for the love of God.... This famine lasted a whole year, and it spread to other parts, but was not so bad as in Choromandel. The King of Bisnagar, who was sovereign of that territory, heard of the humanity and beneficence of the Portuguese to the people of the country, and he was greatly pleased thereat, and sent an ola (see OLLAH) of thanks to the residents of S. Thomé. And this same year there was such a scarcity of provisions in the harbours of the Straits, that in Aden a load (fardo) of rice fetched forty xarafis, each worth a cruzado...."—Correa, iv. 131-132.
1598.—"The chief and most common money (at Goa) is called Pardauue (Pardao) Xeraphin. It is of silver, but of small value. They strike it at Goa, and it is marked on one side with the image of St. Sebastian, on the other with 3 or 4 arrows in a sheaf. It is worth 3 testoons or 300 Reys (Reas) of Portugal, more or less."—Linschoten (from French ed. 71); [Hak. Soc. i. 241, and compare i. 190; and see another version of the same passage under PARDAO].
1610.—"Inprimis of Seraffins Ecberi, which be ten Rupias (Rupee) a piece, there are sixtie Leckes (Lack)."—Hawkins, in Purchas, i. 217. Here the gold mohur is meant.
c. 1610.—"Les pièces d'or sont cherafins à vingt-cinq sols pièce."—Pyrard da Laval, ii. 40; [Hak. Soc. ii. 69, reading cherufins].
1653.—"Monnoyes courantes à Goa.
| "Sequin de Venise | 24 | tangues (Tanga) |
| * * * * * | ||
| Reale d'Espagne | 12 | tangues. |
| Abassis de Perse | 3 | tangues. |
| Pardaux (Pardao) | 5 | tangues. |
| Scherephi | 6 | tangues. |
| Roupies (Rupee) du Mogol | 6 | tangues. |
| Tangue | 20 | bousserouque (Budgrook)." |
| De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, 1657, 530. |
c. 1675.—"Coins ... of Rajapore. Imaginary Coins. The Pagod (Pagoda) is 3½ Rupees. 48 Juttals (see JEETUL) is one Pagod. 10 and ½ Larees (Larin) is 1 Pagod. Zeraphins 2½, 1 Old Dollar.
"Coins and weights of Bombaim. 3 Larees is 1 Zeraphin. 80 Raies (Reas) 1 Laree. 1 Pice is 10 Raies. The Raies are imaginary.
"Coins and weights in Goa.... The Cruzado of gold, 12 Zeraphins. The Zeraphin, 5 Tangoes. The Tango (Tanga), 5 Vinteens. The Vinteen, 15 Basrooks (Budgrook), whereof 75 make a Tango. And 60 Rees make a Tango."—Fryer, 206.
1690.—
| dw. | gr. | |
| "The Gold St. Thoma | 2 | 5½ |
| The Silv. Sherephene | 7 | 4." |
| Table of Coins, in Ovington. |