c. 1590.—"The Jilaudár (see under JULIBDAR) and the Paik (a runner). Their monthly pay varies from 1200 to 120d. (dāms), according to their speed and manner of service. Some of them will run from 50 to 100 kroh (Coss) per day."—Āīn, E.T. by Blochmann, i. 138 (see orig. i. 144).
1673.—At the Court of Constantinople: "Les Peiks venoient ensuite, avec leurs bonnets d'argent doré ornés d'un petit plumage de héron, un arc et un carquois chargé de flèches."—Journal d'A. Galland, i. 98.
1687.—"... the under officers and servants called Agiam-Oglans, who are designed to the meaner uses of the Seraglio ... most commonly the sons of Christians taken from their Parents at the age of 10 or 12 years.... These are: 1, Porters, 2, Bostangies or Gardiners ... 5, Paicks and Solacks...."—Sir Paul Rycaut, Present State of the Ottoman Empire, 19.
1761.—"Ahmad Sultán then commissioned Sháh Pasand Khán ... the harkáras (see HURCARRA) and the Paiks, to go and procure information as to the state and strength of the Mahratta army."—Muhammad Jáfar Shámlu, in Elliot, viii. 151-2.
1840.—"The express-riders (Eilbothen) accomplished 50 farsangs a-day, so that an express came in 4 days from Khorasan to Tebris [Tabrīz).... The Foot-runners carrying letters (Peik), whose name at least is maintained to this day at both the Persian and Osmanli Courts, accomplished 30 farsangs a-day."—Hammer Purgstall, Gesch. der Golden Horde, 243.
[1868.—"The Payeke is entrusted with the tchilim (see CHILLUM) (pipe), which at court (Khiva) is made of gold or silver, and must be replenished with fresh water every time it is filled with tobacco."—Vambery, Sketches, 89.]
b. Hind. pāīk and pāyik (also Mahr.) from Skt. padātika, and padika, 'a foot-soldier,' with the other specific application given by Wilson, exclusive of 'courier.' In some narratives the word seems to answer exactly to peon. In the first quotation, which is from the Āīn, the word, it will be seen, is different from that quoted under (a) from the same source.
c. 1590.—"It was the custom in those times, for the palace (of the King of Bengal) to be guarded by several thousand pykes (pāyak), who are a kind of infantry. An eunuch entered into a confederacy with these guards, who one night killed the King, Futteh Shah, when the Eunuch ascended the throne, under the title of Barbuck Shah."—Gladwin's Tr., ed. 1800, ii. 19 (orig. i. 415; [Jarrett (ii. 149) gives the word as Páyiks].
In the next quotation the word seems to be the same, though used for 'a seaman.' Compare uses of Lascar.
c. 1615.—"(His fleet) consisted of 20 beaked vessels, all well manned with the sailors whom they call paiques, as well as with Portuguese soldiers and topazes who were excellent musketeers; 50 hired jalias (see GALLEVAT) of like sort and his own (Sebastian Gonçalves's) galliot (see GALLEVAT), which was about the size of a patacho, with 14 demi-falcons on each broadside, two pieces of 18 to 20 lbs. calibre in the forecastle, and 60 Portuguese soldiers, with more than 40 topazes and Cafres (see CAFFER)."—Bocarro, Decada, 452.
1722.—Among a detail of charges at this period in the Zemindárry of Rājshāhī appears:
"9. Paikan, or the pikes, guard of villages, everywhere necessary ... 2,161 rupees."—Fifth Report, App. p. 345.
The following quotation from an Indian Regulation of Ld. Cornwallis's time is a good example of the extraordinary multiplication of terms, even in one Province in India, denoting approximately the same thing:
1792.—"All Pykes, Chokeydars (see CHOKIDAR), Pasbans, Dusauds, Nigabans,[228] Harees (see HARRY), and other descriptions of village watchmen are declared subject to the orders of the Darogah (see DAROGA)...."—Regns. for the Police ... passed by the G.-G. in C., Dec. 7.
" "The army of Assam was a militia organised as follows. The whole male population was bound to serve either as soldiers or labourers, and was accordingly divided into sets of four men each, called gotes, the individuals comprising the gotes being termed pykes."—Johnstone's Acct. of Welsh's Expedition to Assam, 1792-93-94 (commd. by Gen. Keatinge).
1802.—After a detail of persons of rank in Midnapore:
"None of these entertain armed followers except perhaps ten or a dozen Peons for state, but some of them have Pykes in considerable numbers, to keep the peace on their estates. These Pykes are under the magistrate's orders."—Fifth Report, App. p. 535.
1812.—"The whole of this last-mentioned numerous class of Pykes are understood to have been disbanded, in compliance with the new Police regulations."—Fifth Report, 71.
1872.—"... Dalais or officers of the peasant militia (Paiks). The Paiks were settled chiefly around the fort on easy tenures."—Hunter's Orissa, ii. 269.
PYSE! interjection. The use of this is illustrated in the quotations. Notwithstanding the writer's remark (below) it is really Hindustani, viz. po'is, 'look out!' or 'make way!' apparently from Skt. paśya, 'look! see!' (see Molesworth's Mahr. Dict. p. 529, col. c; Fallon's Hind. Dict., p. 376, col. a; [Platts, 282b].
[1815.—"... three men came running up behind them, as if they were clearing the road for some one, by calling out 'pice! pice!' (make way, make way)...."—Elphinstone's Report on Murder of Gungadhur Shastry, in Papers relating to E.I. Affairs, p. 14.]
1883.—"Does your correspondent Col. Prideaux know the origin of the warning called out by buggy drivers to pedestrians in Bombay, 'Pyse'? It is not Hindustani."—Letter in N. & Q., Ser. VI. viii. p. 388.
[Other expressions of the same kind are Malayāl. po, 'Get out of the way!' and Hind. Mahr. khis, khis, from khisnā, 'to drop off.'
1598.—"As these hayros goe in the streetes, they crie po, po, which is to say, take heede."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 280.
1826.—"I was awoke from disturbed rest by cries of kis! kis! (clear the way)."—Pandurang Hari, ed. 1873, i. 46.]
Q
[QUAMOCLIT, s. The Ipomaea quamoclitis, the name given by Linnaeus to the Red Jasmine. The word is a corruption of Skt. Kāma-latā, 'the creeper of Kāma, god of love.'
1834.—"This climber, the most beautiful and luxuriant imaginable, bears also the name of Kamalāta 'Love's Creeper.' Some have flowers of snowy hue, with a delicate fragrance...."—Wanderings of a Pilgrim, i. 310-11.]
QUEDDA, n.p. A city, port, and small kingdom on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula, tributary to Siam. The name according to Crawfurd is Malay kadáh, 'an elephant-trap' (see KEDDAH). [Mr. Skeat writes: "I do not know what Crawfurd's authority may be, but kedah does not appear in Klinkert's Dict.... In any case the form taken by the name of the country is Kĕdah. The coralling of elephants is probably a Siamese custom, the method adopted on the E. coast, where the Malays are left to themselves, being to place a decoy female elephant near a powerful noose."] It has been supposed sometimes that Kadáh is the Κῶλι or Κῶλις of Ptolemy's sea-route to China, and likewise the Kalah of the early Arab voyagers, as in the Fourth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman (see Procgs. R. Geog. Soc. 1882, p. 655; Burton, Arabian Nights, iv. 386). It is possible that these old names however represent Kwala, 'a river mouth,' a denomination of many small ports in Malay regions. Thus the port that we call Quedda is called by the Malays Kwala Batrang.
1516.—"Having left this town of Tanassary, further along the coast towards Malaca, there is another seaport of the Kingdom of Ansiam, which is called Queda, in which also there is much shipping, and great interchange of merchandise."—Barbosa, 188-189.
1553.—"... The settlements from Tavay to Malaca are these: Tenassary, a notable city, Lungur, Torrão, Queda, producing the best pepper on all that coast, Pedão, Perá, Solungor, and our City of Malaca...."—Barros, I. ix. 1.
1572.—
"Olha Tavai cidade, onde começa
De Sião largo o imperio tão comprido:
Tenassarí, Quedá, que he so cabeça
Das que pimenta alli tem produzido."
Camões, x. 123.
By Burton:
"Behold Tavái City, whence begin
Siam's dominions, Reign of vast extent;
Tenassarí, Quedá of towns the Queen
that bear the burthen of the hot piment."
1598.—"... to the town and Kingdome of Queda ... which lyeth under 6 degrees and a halfe; this is also a Kingdome like Tanassaria, it hath also some wine, as Tanassaria hath, and some small quantitie of Pepper."—Linschoten, p. 31; [Hak. Soc. i. 103].
1614.—"And so ... Diogo de Mendonça ... sending the galliots (see GALLEVAT) on before, embarked in the jalia (see GALLEVAT) of João Rodriguez de Paiva, and coming to Queda, and making an attack at daybreak, and finding them unprepared, he burnt the town, and carried off a quantity of provisions and some tin" (calaim, see CALAY).—Bocarro, Decada, 187.
1838.—"Leaving Penang in September, we first proceeded to the town of Quedah lying at the mouth of a river of the same name."—Quedah, &c., by Capt. Sherard Osborne, ed. 1865.
QUEMOY, n.p. An island at the east opening of the Harbour of Amoy. It is a corruption of Kin-măn, in Chang-chau dialect Kin-muin, meaning 'Golden-door.'
QUI-HI, s. The popular distinctive nickname of the Bengal Anglo-Indian, from the usual manner of calling servants in that Presidency, viz. 'Koī hai?' 'Is any one there?' The Anglo-Indian of Madras was known as a Mull, and he of Bombay as a Duck (qq.v.).
1816.—"The Grand Master, or Adventures of Qui Hi in Hindostan, a Hudibrastic Poem; with illustrations by Rowlandson."
1825.—"Most of the household servants are Parsees, the greater part of whom speak English.... Instead of 'Koee hue,' Who's there? the way of calling a servant is 'boy,' a corruption, I believe, of 'bhae,' brother."—Heber, ed. 1844, ii. 98. [But see under BOY.]
c. 1830.—"J'ai vu dans vos gazettes de Calcutta les clameurs des quoihaés (sobriquet des Européens Bengalis de ce côté) sur la chaleur."—Jacquemont, Corresp. ii. 308.
QUILOA, n.p. i.e. Kilwa, in lat. 9° 0′ S., next in remoteness to Sofāla, which for a long time was the ne plus ultra of Arab navigation on the East Coast of Africa, as Capt. Boyados was that of Portuguese navigation on the West Coast. Kilwa does not occur in the Geographies of Edrisi or Abulfeda, though Sofāla is in both. It is mentioned in the Roteiro, and in Barros's account of Da Gama's voyage. Barros had access to a native chronicle of Quiloa, and says it was founded about A.H. 400, and a little more than 70 years after Magadoxo and Brava, by a Persian Prince from Shiraz.
1220.—"Kilwa, a place in the country of Zenj, a city."—Yāḳūt, (orig.), iv. 302.
c. 1330.—"I embarked at the town of Makdashau (Magadoxo), making for the country of the Sawāḥil, and the town of Kulwā, in the country of the Zenj...."—Ibn Batuta, ii. 191. [See under SOFALA.]
1498.—"Here we learned that the island of which they told us in Mocombiquy as being peopled by Christians is an island at which dwells the King of Mocombiquy himself, and that the half is of Moors, and the half of Christians, and in this island is much seed-pearl, and the name of the island is Quyluee...."—Roteiro da Viagem de Vasco da Gama, 48.
1501.—"Quilloa è cittade in Arabia in vna insuletta giunta a terra firma, ben popolata de homini negri et mercadanti: edificata al modo nr̃o: Quiui hanno abundantia de auro: argento: ambra: muschio: et perle: ragionevolmente vesteno panni de sera: et bambaxi fini."—Letter of K. Emanuel, 2.
1506.—"Del 1502 ... mandò al viaggio naue 21, Capitanio Don Vasco de Gamba, che fu quello che discoperse l'India ... e nell'andar de li, del Cao de Bona Speranza, zonse in uno loco chiamato Ochilia; la qual terra e dentro uno rio...."—Leonardo Ca' Masser, 17.
1553.—"The Moor, in addition to his natural hatred, bore this increased resentment on account of the chastisement inflicted on him, and determined to bring the ships into port at the city of Quiloa, that being a populous place, where they might get the better of our ships by force of arms. To wreak this mischief with greater safety to himself he told Vasco da Gama, as if wishing to gratify him, that in front of them was a city called Quiloa, half peopled by Christians of Abyssinia and of India, and that if he gave the order the ships should be steered thither."—Barros, I. iv. 5.
1572.—
"Esta ilha pequena, que habitamos,
He em toda esta terra certa escala
De todos os que as ondas navegamos
De Quilóa, de Mombaça, a de Sofala."
Camões, i. 54.
By Burton:
"This little island, where we now abide,
of all this seaboard is the one sure place
for ev'ry merchantman that stems the tide
from Quiloa, or Sofala, or Mombas...."
QUILON, n.p. A form which we have adopted from the Portuguese for the name of a town now belonging to Travancore; once a very famous and much frequented port of Malabar, and known to the Arabs as Kaulam. The proper name is Tamil, Kollam, of doubtful sense in this use. Bishop Caldwell thinks it may be best explained as 'Palace' or 'royal residence,' from Kolu, 'the royal Presence,' or Hall of Audience. [Mr. Logan says: "Kollam is only an abbreviated form of Koyilagam or Kovilagam, 'King's house'" (Malabar, i. 231, note).] For ages Kaulam was known as one of the greatest ports of Indian trade with Western Asia, especially trade in pepper and brazil-wood. It was possibly the Malé of Cosmas in the 6th century (see MALABAR), but the first mention of it by the present name is about three centuries later, in the Relation translated by Reinaud. The 'Kollam era' in general use in Malabar dates from A.D. 824; but it does not follow that the city had no earlier existence. In a Syriac extract (which is, however, modern) in Land's Anecdota Syriaca (Latin, i. 125; Syriac, p. 27) it is stated that three Syrian missionaries came to Kaulam in A.D. 823, and got leave from King Shakīrbīrtī to build a church and city at Kaulam. It would seem that there is some connection between the date assigned to this event, and the 'Kollam era'; but what it is we cannot say. Shakīrbīrtī is evidently a form of Chakravartti Rāja (see under CHUCKERBUTTY). Quilon, as we now call it, is now the 3rd town of Travancore, pop. (in 1891) 23,380; there is little trade. It had a European garrison up to 1830, but now only one Sepoy regiment.
In ecclesiastical narratives of the Middle Ages the name occurs in the form Columbum, and by this name it was constituted a See of the Roman Church in 1328, suffragan of the Archbishop of Sultaniya in Persia; but it is doubtful if it ever had more than one bishop, viz. Jordanus of Severac, author of the Mirabilia often quoted in this volume. Indeed we have no knowledge that he ever took up his bishopric, as his book was written, and his nomination occurred, both during a visit to Europe. The Latin Church however which he had founded, or obtained the use of, existed 20 years later, as we know from John de' Marignolli, so it is probable that he had reached his See. The form Columbum is accounted for by an inscription (see Ind. Antiq. ii. 360) which shows that the city was called Kolamba, [other forms being Kelambapaṭṭana, or Kālambapaṭṭana (Bombay Gazetteer, vol. i. pt. i. 183)]. The form Palumbum also occurs in most of the MSS. of Friar Odoric's Journey; this is the more difficult to account for, unless it was a mere play (or a trick of memory) on the kindred meanings of columba and palumbes. A passage in a letter from the Nestorian Patriarch Yeshu'yab (c. 650-60) quoted in Assemani (iii. pl. i. 131), appears at that date to mention Colon. But this is an arbitrary and erroneous rendering in Assemani's Latin. The Syriac has Kalah, and probably therefore refers to the port of the Malay regions noticed under CALAY and QUEDDA.
851.—"De ce lieu (Mascate) les navires mettent la voile pour l'Inde, et se dirigent vers Koulam-Malay; la distance entre Mascate et Koulam-Malay est d'un mois de marche, avec un vent modéré."—Relation, &c., tr. by Reinaud, i. 15.
1166.—"Seven days from thence is Chulam, on the confines of the country of the sun-worshippers, who are descendants of Kush ... and are all black. This nation is very trustworthy in matters of trade.... Pepper grows in this country.... Cinnamon, ginger, and many other kinds of spices also grow in this country."—Benjamin of Tudela, in Early Travels in Palestine, 114-115.
c. 1280-90.—"Royaumes de Ma-pa-'rh. Parmi tous les royaumes étrangers d'au-de-là des mers, il n'y eut que Ma-pa-'rh et Kiu-lan (Mabar and Quilon) sur lesquels on ait pu parvenir à établir une certaine sujétion; mais surtout Kiu-lan ... (Année 1282). Cette année ... Kiu-lan a envoyé un ambassadeur à la cour (mongole) pour présenter en tribut des marchandises precieuses et un singe noir."—Chinese Annals, quoted by Pauthier, Marc Pol, ii. 603, 643.
1298.—"When you quit Maabar and go 500 miles towards the S.W. you come to the Kingdom of Coilum. The people are idolators, but there are also some Christians and some Jews," &c.—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. ch. 22.
c. 1300.—"Beyond Guzerat are Kankan and Tána; beyond them the country of Malibár, which from the boundary of Karoha to Kúlam, is 300 parasangs in length.... The people are all Samánis, and worship idols...."—Rashíduddín, in Elliot, i. 68.
c. 1310.—"Ma'bar extends in length from Kúlam to Níláwar (Nellore) nearly 300 parasangs along the sea-coast...."—Wassáf, in Elliot, iii. 32.
c. 1322.—"... as I went by the sea ... towards a certain city called Polumbum (where groweth the pepper in great store)...."—Friar Odoric, in Cathay, p. 71.
c. 1322.—"Poi venni a Colonbio, ch'è la migliore terra d'India per mercatanti. Quivi è il gengiovo in grande copia e del bueno del mondo. Quivi vanno tutti ignudi salvo che portano un panno innanzi alla vergogna, ... e legalosi di dietro."—Palatine MS. of Odoric, in Cathay, App., p. xlvii.
c. 1328.—"In India, whilst I was at Columbum, were found two cats having wings like the wings of bats...."—Friar Jordanus, p. 29.
1330.—"Joannes, &c., nobili viro domino Nascarenorum et universis sub eo Christianis Nascarenis de Columbo gratiam in praesenti, quae ducat ad gloriam in futuro ... quatenus venerabilem Fratrem nostrum Jordanum Catalani episcopum Columbensem ... quem nuper ad episcopalis dignatatis apicem auctoritate apostolica diximus promovendum...."—Letter of Pope John XXII. to the Christians of Coilon, in Odorici Raynaldi Ann. Eccles. v. 495.
c. 1343.—"The 10th day (from Calicut) we arrived at the city of Kaulam, which is one of the finest of Malībār. Its markets are splendid, and its merchants are known under the name of Ṣūlī (see CHOOLIA). They are rich; one of them will buy a ship with all its fittings and load it with goods from his own store."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 10.
c. 1348.—"And sailing on the feast of St. Stephen, we navigated the Indian Sea until Palm Sunday, and then arrived at a very noble city of India called Columbum, where the whole world's pepper is produced.... There is a church of St. George there, of the Latin communion, at which I dwelt. And I adorned it with fine paintings, and taught there the holy Law."—John Marignolli, in Cathay, &c., pp. 342-344.
c. 1430.—"... Coloen, civitatem nobilem venit, cujus ambitus duodecim millia passuum amplectitur. Gingiber qui colobi (colombi) dicitur, piper, verzinum, cannellae quae crassae appellantur, hac in provincia, quam vocant Melibariam, leguntur."—Conti, in Poggius de Var. Fortunae.
c. 1468-9.—"In the year Bhavati (644) of the Kolamba era, King Adityavarmâ the ruler of Vânchi ... who has attained the sovereignty of Cherabaya Maṇdalam, hung up the bell...."—Inscr. in Tinnevelly, see Ind. Antiq. ii. 360.
1510.—"... we departed ... and went to another city called Colon.... The King of this city is a Pagan, and extremely powerful, and he has 20,000 horsemen, and many archers. This country has a good port near to the sea-coast. No grain grows here, but fruits as at Calicut, and pepper in great quantities."—Varthema, 182-3.
1516.—"Further on along the same coast towards the south is a great city and good sea-port which is named Coulam, in which dwell many Moors and Gentiles and Christians. They are great merchants and very rich, and own many ships with which they trade to Cholmendel, the Island of Ceylon, Bengal, Malaca, Samatara, and Pegu.... There is also in this city much pepper."—Barbosa, 157-8.
1572.—
"A hum Cochim, e a outro Cananor
A qual Chalé, a qual a ilha da Pimenta,
A qual Coulao, a qual da Cranganor,
E os mais, a quem o mais serve, e contenta...."
Camões, vii. 35.
By Burton:
"To this Cochim, to that falls Cananor,
one hath Chalé, another th' Isle Piment,
a third Coulam, a fourth takes Cranganor,
the rest is theirs with whom he rests content."
1726.—"... Coylang."—Valentijn, Choro., 115.
1727.—"Coiloan is another small principality. It has the Benefit of a River, which is the southermost Outlet of the Couchin Islands; and the Dutch have a small Fort, within a Mile of it on the Sea-shore.... It keeps a Garrison of 30 Men, and its trade is inconsiderable."—A. Hamilton, i. 333 [ed. 1744].
QUIRPELE, s. This Tamil name of the mungoose (q.v.) occurs in the quotation which follows: properly Kīrippiḷḷai, ['little squeaker'].
1601.—"... bestiolia quaedam Quil sive Quirpele vocata, quae aspectu primo viverrae...."—De Bry, iv. 63.
R
RADAREE, s. P.—H. rāh-dārī, from rāh-dār, 'road-keeper.' A transit duty; sometimes 'black-mail.' [Rāh-dārī is very commonly employed in the sense of sending prisoners, &c., by escort from one police post to another, as along the Grand Trunk road].
1620.—"Fra Nicolo Ruigiola Francescano genovese, il quale, passagiero, che d'India andava in Italia, partito alcuni giorni prima da Ispahan ... poco di qua lontano era stato trattenuto dai rahdari, o custodi delle strade...."—P. della Valle, ii. 99.
1622.—"At the garden Pelengon we found a rahdar or guardian of the road, who was also the chief over certain other rahdari, who are usually posted in another place 2 leagues further on."—Ibid. ii. 285.
1623.—"For Rahdars, the Khan has given them a firman to free them, also firmans for a house...."—Sainsbury, iii. p. 163.
[1667.—"... that the goods ... may not be stopped ... on pretence of taking Rhadaryes, or other dutyes...."—Phirmaan of Shaw Orung Zeeb, in Forrest, Bombay Letters, Home Series, i. 213.]
1673.—"This great officer, or Farmer of the Emperor's Custom (the Shawbunder [see SHABUNDER]), is obliged on the Roads to provide for the safe travelling for Merchants by a constant Watch ... for which Rhadorage, or high Imposts, are allowed by the Merchants, both at Landing and in their passage inland."—Fryer, 222.
1685.—"Here we were forced to compound with the Rattaree men, for ye Dutys on our goods."—Hedges, Diary, Dec. 15; [Hak. Soc. i. 213. In i. 100, Rawdarrie].
c. 1731.—"Nizámu-l Mulk ... thus got rid of ... the ráhdárí from which latter impost great annoyance had fallen upon travellers and traders."—Kháfi Khán, in Elliot, vii. 531.
[1744.—"Passing the river Kizilazan we ascended the mountains by the Rahdar (a Persian toll) of Noglabar...."—Hanway, i. 226.]
RAGGY, s. Rāgī (the word seems to be Dec. Hindustani, [and is derived from Skt. rāga, 'red,' on account of the colour of the grain]. A kind of grain, Eleusine Coracana, Gaertn.; Cynosurus Coracanus, Linn.; largely cultivated, as a staple of food, in Southern India.
1792.—"The season for sowing raggy, rice, and bajera from the end of June to the end of August."—Life of T. Munro, iii. 92.
1793.—"The Mahratta supplies consisting chiefly of Raggy, a coarse grain, which grows in more abundance than any other in the Mysore Country, it became necessary to serve it out to the troops, giving rice only to the sick."—Dirom, 10.
[1800.—"The Deccany Mussulmans call it Ragy. In the Tamil language it is called Kevir (kēzhvaragu)."—Buchanan, Mysore, i. 100.]
RAINS, THE, s. The common Anglo-Indian colloquial for the Indian rainy season. The same idiom, as chuvas, had been already in use by the Portuguese. (See WINTER).
c. 1666.—"Lastly, I have imagined that if in Delhi, for example, the Rains come from the East, it may yet be that the Seas which are Southerly to it are the origin of them, but that they are forced by reason of some Mountains ... to turn aside and discharge themselves another way...."—Bernier, E.T., 138; [ed. Constable, 433].
1707.—"We are heartily sorry that the Rains have been so very unhealthy with you."—Letter in Orme's Fragments.
1750.—"The Rains ... setting in with great violence, overflowed the whole country."—Orme, Hist., ed. 1803, i. 153.
1868.—"The place is pretty, and although it is 'the Rains,' there is scarcely any day when we cannot get out."—Bp. Milman, in Memoir, p. 67.
[RAIS, s. Ar. ra'īs, from ra's, 'the head,' in Ar. meaning 'the captain, or master, not the owner of a ship;' in India it generally means 'a native gentleman of respectable position.'
1610.—"... Reyses of all our Nauyes."—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 435.
1785.—"... their chief (more worthless in truth than a horsekeeper)." In note—"In the original the word syse is introduced for the sake of a jingle with the word Ryse (a chief or leader)."—Tippoo's Letters, 18.
1870.—"Raees." See under RYOT.
1900.—"The petition was signed by representative landlords, raises."—Pioneer Mail, April 13.]
RAJA, RAJAH, s. Skt. rājā, 'king.' The word is still used in this sense, but titles have a tendency to degenerate, and this one is applied to many humbler dignitaries, petty chiefs, or large Zemindars. It is also now a title of nobility conferred by the British Government, as it was by their Mahommedan predecessors, on Hindus, as Nawāb is upon Moslem. Rāī, Rāo, Rānā, Rāwal, Rāya (in S. India), are other forms which the word has taken in vernacular dialects or particular applications. The word spread with Hindu civilisation to the eastward, and survives in the titles of Indo-Chinese sovereigns, and in those of Malay and Javanese chiefs and princes.
It is curious that the term Rājā cannot be traced, so far as we know, in any of the Greek or Latin references to India, unless the very questionable instance of Pliny's Rachias be an exception. In early Mahommedan writers the now less usual, but still Indian, forms Rāō and Rāī, are those which we find. (Ibn Batuta, it will be seen, regards the words for king in India and in Spain as identical, in which he is fundamentally right.) Among the English vulgarisms of the 18th century again we sometimes find the word barbarised into Roger.
c. 1338.—"... Bahā-uddīn fled to one of the heathen Kings called the Rāī Kanbīlah. The word Rāī among those people, just as among the people of Rūm, signifies 'King.'"—Ibn Batuta, iii. 318. The traveller here refers, as appears by another passage, to the Spanish Rey.
[1609.—"Raiaw." See under GOONT.]
1612.—"In all this part of the East there are 4 castes.... The first caste is that of the Rayas, and this is a most noble race from which spring all the Kings of Canara...."—Couto, V. vi. 4.
[1615.—"According to your direction I have sent per Orincay (see ORANKAY) Beege Roger's junk six pecculles (see PECUL) of lead."—Foster, Letters, iv. 107.
[1623.—"A Ragia, that is an Indian Prince."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 84.]
1683.—"I went a hunting with ye Ragea, who was attended with 2 or 300 men, armed with bows and arrows, swords and targets."—Hedges, Diary, March 1; [Hak. Soc. i. 66].
1786.—Tippoo with gross impropriety addresses Louis XVI. as "the Rajah of the French."—Select Letters, 369.
RAJAMUNDRY, n.p. A town, formerly head-place of a district, on the lower Godavery R. The name is in Telegu Rājamahendravaramu, 'King-chief('s)-Town,' [and takes its name from Mahendradeva of the Orissa dynasty; see Morris, Godavery Man. 23].
RAJPOOT, s. Hind. Rājpūt, from Skt. Rājaputra, 'King's Son.' The name of a great race in India, the hereditary profession of which is that of arms. The name was probably only a honorific assumption; but no race in India has furnished so large a number of princely families. According to Chand, the great medieval bard of the Rājpūts, there were 36 clans of the race, issued from four Kshatriyas (Parihār, Pramār, Solankhī, and Chauhān) who sprang into existence from the sacred Agnikuṇḍa or Firepit on the summit of Mount Abū. Later bards give five eponyms from the firepit, and 99 clans. The Rājpūts thus claim to be true Kshatriyas, or representatives of the second of the four fundamental castes, the Warriors; but the Brahmans do not acknowledge the claim, and deny that the true Kshatriya is extant. Possibly the story of the fireborn ancestry hides a consciousness that the claim is factitious. "The Rajpoots," says Forbes, "use animal food and spirituous liquors, both unclean in the last degree to their puritanic neighbours, and are scrupulous in the observance of only two rules,—those which prohibit the slaughter of cows, and the remarriage of widows. The clans are not forbidden to eat together, or to intermarry, and cannot be said in these respects to form separate castes" (Rās-mālā, reprint 1878, p. 537).
An odd illustration of the fact that to partake of animal food, and especially of the heroic repast of the flesh of the wild boar killed in the chase (see Terry's representation of this below), is a Rājpūt characteristic, occurs to the memory of one of the present writers. In Lord Canning's time the young Rājpūt Rāja of Alwar had betaken himself to degrading courses, insomuch that the Viceroy felt constrained, in open durbar at Agra, to admonish him. A veteran political officer, who was present, inquired of the agent at the Alwar Court what had been the nature of the conduct thus rebuked. The reply was that the young prince had become the habitual associate of low and profligate Mahommedans, who had so influenced his conduct that among other indications, he would not eat wild pig. The old Political, hearing this, shook his head very gravely, saying, 'Would not eat Wild Pig! Dear! Dear! Dear!' It seemed the ne plus ultra of Rājpūt degradation! The older travellers give the name in the quaint form Rashboot, but this is not confined to Europeans, as the quotation from Sidi 'Alí shows; though the aspect in which the old English travellers regarded the tribe, as mainly a pack of banditti, might have made us think the name to be shaped by a certain sense of aptness. The Portuguese again frequently call them Reys Butos, a form in which the true etymology, at least partially, emerges.
1516.—"There are three qualities of these Gentiles, that is to say, some are called Razbutes, and they, in the time that their King was a Gentile, were Knights, the defenders of the Kingdom, and governors of the Country."—Barbosa, 50.
1533.—"Insomuch that whilst the battle went on, Saladim placed all his women in a large house, with all that he possessed, whilst below the house were combustibles for use in the fight; and Saladim ordered them to be set fire to, whilst he was in it. Thus the house suddenly blew up with great explosion and loud cries from the unhappy women; whereupon all the people from within and without rushed to the spot, but the Resbutos fought in such a way that they drove the Guzarat troops out of the gates, and others in their hasty flight cast themselves from the walls and perished."—Correa, iii. 527.
" "And with the stipulation that the 200 pardaos, which are paid as allowance to the lascarins of the two small forts which stand between the lands of Baçaim and the Reys buutos, shall be paid out of the revenues of Baçaim as they have been paid hitherto."—Treaty of Nuno da Cunha with the K. of Cambaya, in Subsidios, 137.
c. 1554.—"But if the caravan is attacked, and the Bāts (see BHAT) kill themselves, the Rashbūts, according to the law of the Bāts, are adjudged to have committed a crime worthy of death."—Sidi 'Ali Kapudān, in J. As., Ser. I., tom. ix. 95.
[1602.—"Rachebidas."—Couto, Dec. viii. ch. 15.]
c. 1614.—"The next day they embarked, leaving in the city, what of those killed in fight and those killed by fire, more than 800 persons, the most of them being Regibutos, Moors of great valour; and of ours fell eighteen...."—Bocarro, Decada, 210.
[1614.—"... in great danger of thieves called Rashbouts...."—Foster, Letters, ii. 260.]
1616.—"... it were fitter he were in the Company of his brother ... and his safetie more regarded, then in the hands of a Rashboote Gentile...."—Sir T. Roe, i. 553-4; [Hak. Soc. ii. 282].
" "The Rashbootes eate Swines-flesh most hateful to the Mahometans."—Terry, in Purchas, ii. 1479.
1638.—"These Rasboutes are a sort of Highway men, or Tories."—Mandelslo, Eng. by Davies, 1669, p. 19.
1648.—"These Resbouts (Resbouten) are held for the best soldiers of Gusuratta."—Van Twist, 39.
[c. 1660.—"The word Ragipous signifies Sons of Rajas."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 39.]
1673.—"Next in esteem were the Rashwaws, Rashpoots, or Souldiers."—Fryer, 27.
1689.—"The place where they went ashore was at a Town of the Moors, which name our Seamen give to all the Subjects of the Great Mogul, but especially his Mahometan Subjects; calling the Idolaters Gentous or Rashbouts."—Dampier, i. 507.
1791.—"... Quatre cipayes ou reispoutes montés sur des chevaux persans, pour l'escorter."—B. de St. Pierre, Chaumière Indienne.
RAMASAMMY, s. This corruption of Rāmaswāmi ('Lord Rāma'), a common Hindū proper name in the South, is there used colloquially in two ways:
(a). As a generic name for Hindūs, like 'Tommy Atkins' for a British soldier. Especially applied to Indian coolies in Ceylon, &c.
(b). For a twisted roving of cotton in a tube (often of wrought silver) used to furnish light for a cigar (see FULEETA). Madras use:
a.—
[1843.—"I have seen him almost swallow it, by Jove, like Ramo Samee, the Indian juggler."—Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. i.]
1880.—"... if you want a clerk to do your work or a servant to attend on you, ... you would take on a saponaceous Bengali Baboo, or a servile abject Madrasi Ramasammy.... A Madrasi, even if wrongly abused, would simply call you his father, and his mother, and his aunt, defender of the poor, and epitome of wisdom, and would take his change out of you in the bazaar accounts."—Cornhill Mag., Nov., pp. 582-3.
RAMBOTANG, s. Malay rambūtan (Filet, No. 6750, p. 256). The name of a fruit (Nephelium lappaceum, L.), common in the Straits, having a thin luscious pulp, closely adhering to a hard stone, and covered externally with bristles like those of the external envelope of a chestnut. From rambūt, 'hair.'