[1591.—"So that helping your memorie with certain Tablei or Tariffas made of purpose to know the numbers of the souldiers that are to enter into ranke."—Garrard, Art Warre, p. 224 (Stanf. Dict.).
[1617.—"... a brief Tareg of Persia."—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 462.]
TAROUK, TAROUP, n.p. Burm. Tarūk, Tarūp. This is the name given by the Burmese to the Chinese. Thus a point a little above the Delta of the Irawadi, where the invading army of Kublai Khan (c. 1285) is said to have turned back, is called Tarūk-mau, or Chinese Point. But the use of this name, according to Sir A. Phayre, dates only from the Middle Ages, and the invasion just mentioned. Before that the Chinese, as we understand him, are properly termed Tsin; though the coupled names Tarūk and Taret, which are applied in the chronicles to early invaders, "may be considered as designations incorrectly applied by later copyists." And Sir A. Phayre thinks Tarūk is a form of Tūrk, whilst Taret is now applied to the Manchus. It seems to us probable that Taruk and Taret are probably meant for 'Turk and Tartar' (see H. of Burma, pp. 8, 11, 56). [Mr. Scott (Upper Burma Gazetteer, i. pt. i. 193) suggests a connection with the Teru or Tero State, which developed about the 11th century, the race having been expelled from China in 778 A.D.]
TASHREEF, s. This is the Ar. tashrīf, 'honouring'; and thus "conferring honour upon anyone, as by paying him a visit, presenting a dress of honour, or any complimentary donation" (Wilson). In Northern India the general use of the word is as one of ceremonious politeness in speaking of a visit from a superior or from one who is treated in politeness as a superior; when such an one is invited to 'bring his tashrīf,' i.e. 'to carry the honour of his presence,' 'to condescend to visit '——. The word always implies superiority on the part of him to whom tashrīf is attributed. It is constantly used by polite natives in addressing Europeans. But when the European in return says (as we have heard said, through ignorance of the real meaning of the phrase), 'I will bring my tashrīf,' the effect is ludicrous in the extreme, though no native will betray his amusement. In S. India the word seems to be used for the dress of honour conferred, and in the old Madras records, rightly or wrongly, for any complimentary present, in fact a honorarium. Thus in Wheeler we find the following:
1674.—"He (Lingapa, naik of Poonamalee) had, he said, carried a tasheriff to the English, and they had refused to take it...."—Op. cit. i. 84.
1680.—"It being necessary to appoint one as the Company's Chief Merchant (Verona being deceased), resolved Bera Pedda Vincatadry, do succeed and the Tasheriffs be given to him and the rest of the principal Merchants, viz., 3 yards Scarlett to Pedda Vincatadry, and 2½ yards each to four others....
"The Governor being informed that Verona's young daughter was melancholly and would not eat because her husband had received no Tasheriff, he also is Tasherifd with 2½ yards Scarlet cloth."—Fort St. Geo. Consns., April 6. In Notes and Exts., Madras, 1873, p. 15.
1685.—"Gopall Pundit having been at great charge in coming hither with such a numerous retinue ... that we may engage him ... to continue his friendship, to attain some more and better privileges there (at Cuddalore) than we have as yet—It is ordered that he with his attendants be Tasherift as followeth" (a list of presents follows).—In Wheeler, i. 148. [And see the same phrase in Pringle, Diary, &c., i. 1].
TATTOO, and abbreviated, TAT, s. A native-bred pony. Hind. ṭaṭṭū, [which Platts connects with Skt. tara, 'passing over'].
c. 1324.—"Tughlak sent his son Mahommed to bring Khusrū back. Mahommed seized the latter and brought him to his father mounted on a tātū, i.e. a pack-horse."—Ibn Batuta, iii. 207.
1784.—"On their arrival at the Choultry they found a miserable dooley and 15 tattoo horses."—In Seton-Karr, i. 15.
1785.—"We also direct that strict injunctions be given to the baggage department, for sending all the lean Tatoos, bullocks, &c., to grass, the rainy season being now at hand."—Tippoo's Letters, 105.
1804.—"They can be got for 25 rupees each horseman upon an average; but, I believe, when they receive only this sum they muster tattoos.... From 30 to 35 rupees each horse is the sum paid to the best horsemen."—Wellington, iii. 174.
1808.—"These tut,hoos are a breed of small ponies, and are the most useful and hardy little animals in India."—Broughton's Letters, 156; [ed. 1892, 117].
1810.—"Every servant ... goes share in some tattoo ... which conveys his luggage."—Williamson, V.M. i. 311.
1824.—"Tattoos. These are a kind of small, cat-hammed, and ill-looking ponies; but they are hardy and walk faster than oxen."—Seely, Wonders of Ellora, ch. ii.
1826.—"... when I mounted on my tattoo, or pony, I could at any time have commanded the attendance of a dozen grooms, so many pressed forward to offer me their services."—Pandurang Hari, 21; [ed. 1873, i. 28].
[1830.—"Mounting our tats, we were on the point of proceeding homewards...."—Oriental Sport. Mag., ed. 1873, i. 437.]
c. 1831.—"... mon tattou est fort au dessous de la taille d'un arabe...."—Jacquemont, Corresp. i. 347.
c. 1840.
"With its bright brass patent axles, and its little hog-maned tatts,
And its ever jetty harness, which was always made by Watts...."
A few lines in honour of the late Mr. Simms,
in Parker's Bole Ponjis, 1851, ii. 215.
1853.—"... Smith's plucky proposal to run his notable tat, Pickles."—Oakfield, i. 94.
1875.—"You young Gentlemen rode over on your tats, I suppose? The Subaltern's tat—that is the name, you know, they give to a pony in this country—is the most useful animal you can imagine."—The Dilemma, ch. ii.
TATTY, s. Hind. ṭaṭṭī and ṭaṭi, [which Platts connects with Skt. tantra, 'a thread, the warp in a loom']. A screen or mat made of the roots of fragrant grass (see CUSCUS) with which door or window openings are filled up in the season of hot winds. The screens being kept wet, their fragrant evaporation as the dry winds blow upon them cools and refreshes the house greatly, but they are only efficient when such winds are blowing. See also THERMANTIDOTE. The principle of the tatty is involved in the quotation from Dr. Fryer, though he does not mention the grass-mats.
c. 1665.—"... or having in lieu of Cellarage certain Kas-Kanays, that is, little Houses of Straw, or rather of odoriferous Roots, that are very neatly made, and commonly placed in the midst of a Parterre ... that so the Servants may easily with their Pompion-bottles, water them from without."—Bernier, E.T. 79; [ed. Constable, 247].
1673.—"They keep close all day for 3 or 4 Months together ... repelling the Heat by a coarse wet Cloath, continually hanging before the chamber-windows."—Fryer, 47.
[1789.—The introduction of tatties into Calcutta is mentioned in a letter from Dr. Campbell, dated May 10, 1789:—"We have had very hot winds and delightful cool houses. Everybody uses tatties now.... Tatties are however dangerous when you are obliged to leave them and go abroad, the heat acts so powerfully on the body that you are commonly affected with a severe catarrh."—In Carey, Good Old Days, i. 80.]
1808.—"... now, when the hot winds have set in, and we are obliged to make use of tattees, a kind of screens made of the roots of a coarse grass called Kus."—Broughton's Letters, 110; [ed. 1892, p. 83].
1809.—"Our style of architecture is by no means adapted to the climate, and the large windows would be insufferable, were it not for the tattyes which are easily applied to a house one story high."—Ld. Valentia, i. 104.
1810.—"During the hot winds tats (a kind of mat), made of the root of the koosa grass, which has an agreeable smell, are placed against the doors and windows."—Maria Graham, 125.
1814.—"Under the roof, throughout all the apartments, are iron rings, from which the tattees or screens of sweet scented grass, were suspended."—Forbes, Or. Mem. iv. 6; [2nd ed. ii. 392].
1828.—"An early breakfast was over; the well watered tatties were applied to the windows, and diffused through the apartment a cool and refreshing atmosphere which was most comfortably contrasted with the white heat and roar of the fierce wind without."—The Kuzzilbash, I. ii.
TAUT, s. Hind. ṭāṭ, [Skt. trātra, 'defence,' or tantrī, 'made of threads']. Sackcloth.
[c. 1810.—"In this district (Dinajpoor) large quantities of this cloth (Tat or Choti) are made...."—Buchanan, Eastern India, ii. 851.]
1820.—"... made into coarse cloth taut, by the Brinjaries and people who use pack bullocks for making bags (gonies, see GUNNY) for holding grain, &c."—Tr. Bo. Lit. Soc. iii. 244.
TAVOY, n.p. A town and district of what we call the Tenasserim Province of B. Burma. The Burmese call it Dha-wé; but our name is probably adopted from a Malay form. The original name is supposed to be Siamese. [The Burmah Gazetteer (ii. 681) gives the choice of three etymologies: 'landing place of bamboos'; from its arms (dha, 'a sword,' way, 'to buy'); from Hta-way, taken from a cross-legged Buddha.]
1553.—"The greater part of this tract is mountainous, and inhabited by the nation of Brammás and Jangomas, who interpose on the east of this kingdom (Pegu) between it and the great kingdom of Siam; which kingdom of Siam borders the sea from the city of Tavay downwards."—Barros, III. iii. 4.
1583.—"Also some of the rich people in a place subject to the Kingdom of Pegu, called Tavae, where is produced a quantity of what they call in their language Calain, but which in our language is called Calaia (see CALAY), in summer leave their houses and go into the country, where they make some sheds to cover them, and there they stop three months, leaving their usual dwellings with food in them for the devil, and this they do in order that in the other nine months he may give them no trouble, but rather be propitious and favourable to them."—G. Balbi, f. 125.
1587.—"... Iland of Tavi, from which cometh great store of Tinne which serveth all India."—R. Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 395.
1695.—"10th. That your Majesty, of your wonted favour and charity to all distresses, would be pleased to look with Eyes of Pity, upon the poor English Captive, Thomas Browne, who is the only one surviving of four that were accidentally drove into Tauwy by Storm, as they were going for Atcheen about 10 years ago, in the service of the English Company."—Petition to the King of Burma, presented at Ava by Edward Fleetwood, in Dalrymple, Or. Repert. ii. 374.
[TAWEEZ, s. Ar. ta'wīẓ, lit. 'praying for protection by invoking God, or by uttering a charm'; then 'an amulet or phylactery'; and, as in the quotation from Herklots, 'a structure of brick or stone-work over a tomb.'
[1819.—"The Jemidar ... as he is very superstitious, all his stud have turveez or charms...."—Lt.-Col. Fitzclarence, Journal of a Route across India, 144.
[1826.—
"Let her who doth this Taweey wear,
Guard against the Gossein's snare."
Pandurang Hari, ed. 1873, i. 148.
[1832.—"The generality of people have tombs made of mud or stone ... forming first three square taweezes or platforms...."—Herklots, Qanoon-e-Islam, 2nd ed. 284.]
[TAZEE, s. Pers. tāzī, 'invading, invader,' from tāz, 'running.' A favourite variety of horse, usually of Indian breed. The word is also used of a variety of greyhound.
[c. 1590.—"Horses have been divided into seven classes.... Arabs, Persian horses, Mujannas, Turki horses, Yabus (see YABOO) and Janglah horses.... The last two classes are also mostly Indian breed. The best kind is called Tází...."—Āīn, i. 234-5.
[1839.—"A good breed of the Indian kind, called Tauzee, is also found in Bunnoo and Damaun...."—Elphinstone, Caubul, ed. 1842, i. 189.
[1883.—"The 'Tazzies,' or greyhounds are not looked upon as unclean...."—Wills, Modern Persia, ed. 1891, p. 306.]
TAZEEA, n. A.—P.—H. ta'ziya, 'mourning for the dead.' In India the word is applied to the taboot, or representations, in flimsy material, of the tombs of Hussein and Hassan which are carried about in the Muḥarram (see MOHURRUM) processions. In Persia it seems to be applied to the whole of the mystery-play which is presented at that season. At the close of the procession the ta'ziyas must be thrown into water; if there be no sufficient mass of water they should be buried. [See Sir L. Pelly, The Miracle Play of Hasan and Husain.] The word has been carried to the W. Indies by the coolies, whose great festival (whether they be Mahommedans or Hindus) the Muḥarram has become. And the attempt to carry the Tazeeas through one of the towns of Trinidad, in spite of orders to the contrary, led in the end of 1884 to a sad catastrophe. [Mahommedan Lascars have an annual celebration at the London Docks.]
1809.—"There were more than a hundred Taziyus, each followed by a long train of Fuqueers, dressed in the most extravagant manner, beating their breasts ... such of the Mahratta Surdars as are not Brahmuns frequently construct Taziyus at their own tents, and expend large sums of money upon them."—Broughton, Letters, 72; [ed. 1892, 53].
1869.—"En lisant la description ... de ces fêtes on croira souvent qu'il s'agit de fêtes hindous. Telle est par exemple la solennité du ta'zia ou deuil, établie en commemoration du martyre de Huçaïn, laquelle est semblable en bien de points à celle du Durga-pujâ.... Le ta'ziya dure dix jours comme le Durga-pujâ. Le dixième jour, les Hindous précipitent dans la rivière la statue de la déesse au milieu d'une foule immense, avec un grand appareil et au son de mille instruments de musique; la même chose a lieu pour les représentations du tombeau de Huçaïn."—Garcin de Tassy, Rel. Musulm. p. 11.
TEA, s. Crawfurd alleges that we got this word in its various European forms from the Malay Te, the Chinese name being Chhâ. The latter is indeed the pronunciation attached, when reading in the 'mandarin dialect,' to the character representing the tea-plant, and is the form which has accompanied the knowledge of tea to India, Persia, Portugal, Greece (τσάι) and Russia. But though it may be probable that Te, like several other names of articles of trade, may have come to us through the Malay, the word is, not the less, originally Chinese, Tê (or Tay as Medhurst writes it) being the utterance attached to the character in the Fuh-kien dialect. The original pronunciation, whether direct from Fuh-kien or through the Malay, accompanied the introduction of tea to England as well as other countries of Western Europe. This is shown by several couplets in Pope, e.g.
1711.—
"... There stands a structure of majestic frame
Which from the neighbouring Hampton takes its name.
* * * * *
Here thou, great Anna, whom three Realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tea."
Rape of the Lock, iii.
Here tay was evidently the pronunciation, as in Fuh-kien. The Rape of the Lock was published in 1711. In Gray's Trivia, published in 1720, we find tea rhyme to pay, in a passage needless to quote (ii. 296). Fifty years later there seems no room for doubt that the pronunciation had changed to that now in use, as is shown by Johnson's extemporised verses (c. 1770):
"I therefore pray thee, Renny, dear,
That thou wilt give to me
With cream and sugar soften'd well,
Another dish of tea"—and so on.
Johnsoniana, ed. Boswell, 1835, ix. 194.
The change must have taken place between 1720 and 1750, for about the latter date we find in the verses of Edward Moore:
"One day in July last at tea,
And in the house of Mrs. P."
The Trial of Sarah, &c.
[But the two forms of pronunciation seem to have been in use earlier, as appears from the following advertisement in The Gazette of Sept. 9, 1658 (quoted in 8 ser. N. & Q. vi. 266): "That excellent, and by all Physitians approved, China Drink, called by the Chineans Toha, by other nations Tay, alias Tee, is sold at the Sultaness Head, a coffee house in Sweetings Rents by the Royal Exchange, London."] And in Zedler's Lexicon (1745) it is stated that the English write the word either Tee or Tea, but pronounce it Tiy, which seems to represent our modern pronunciation. ["Strange to say, the Italians, however, have two names for tea, cia and te, the latter, of course, is from the Chinese word te, noticed above, while the former is derived from the word ch'a. It is curious to note in this connection that an early mention, if not the first notice, of the word in English is under the form cha (in an English Glossary of A.D. 1671); we are also told that it was once spelt tcha—both evidently derived from the Cantonese form of the word: but 13 years later we have the word derived from the Fokienese te, but borrowed through the French and spelt as in the latter language the; the next change in the word is early in the following century when it drops the French spelling and adopts the present form of tea, though the Fokienese pronunciation, which the French still retain, is not dropped for the modern pronunciation of the now wholly Anglicised word tea till comparatively lately. It will thus be seen that we, like the Italians, might have had two forms of the word, had we not discarded the first, which seemed to have made but little lodgement with us, for the second" (Ball, Things Chinese, 3rd ed. 583 seq.).]
Dr. Bretschneider states that the Tea-shrub is mentioned in the ancient Dictionary Rh-ya, which is believed to date long before our era, under the names Kia and K'u-tu (K'u = 'bitter'), and a commentator on this work who wrote in the 4th century A.D. describes it, adding "From the leaves can be made by boiling a hot beverage" (On Chinese Botanical Works, &c., p. 13). But the first distinct mention of tea-cultivation in Chinese history is said to be a record in the annals of the T'ang Dynasty under A.D. 793, which mentions the imposition in that year of a duty upon tea. And the first western mention of it occurs in the next century, in the notes of the Arab traders, which speak not only of tea, but of this fact of its being subject to a royal impost. Tea does not appear to be mentioned by the medieval Arab writers upon Materia Medica, nor (strange to say) do any of the European travellers to Cathay in the 13th and 14th centuries make mention of it. Nor is there any mention of it in the curious and interesting narrative of the Embassy sent by Shāh Rukh, the son of the great Timur, to China (1419-21).[264] The first European work, so far as we are aware, in which tea is named, is Ramusio's (posthumous) Introduction to Marco Polo, in the second volume of his great collection of Navigationi e Viaggi. In this he repeats the account of Cathay which he had heard from Hajji Mahommed, a Persian merchant who visited Venice. Among other matters the Hajji detailed the excellent properties of Chiai-Catai (i.e. Pers. Chā-i-Khitāī, 'Tea of China'), concluding with an assurance that if these were known in Persia and in Europe, traders would cease to purchase rhubarb, and would purchase this herb instead, a prophecy which has been very substantially verified. We find no mention of tea in the elaborate work of Mendoça on China. The earliest notices of which we are aware will be found below. Milburn gives some curious extracts from the E.I. Co.'s records as to the early importation of tea into England. Thus, 1666, June 30, among certain "raretys," chiefly the production of China, provided by the Secretary of the Company for His Majesty, appear:
| "22¾ lbs. of thea at 50s. per lb. | = £56 17 6 |
| For the two cheefe persons that attended his Majesty, thea |
6 15 6" |
In 1667 the E.I. Co.'s first order for the importation of tea was issued to their agent at Bantam: "to send home by these ships 100lb. weight of the best tey that you can get." The first importation actually made for the Co. was in 1669, when two canisters were received from Bantam, weighing 143½ lbs. (Milburn, ii. 531.) [The earliest mention of tea in the Old Records of the India Office is in a letter from Mr. R. Wickham, the Company's Agent at Firando, in Japan, who, writing, June 27, 1615, to Mr. Eaton at Miaco, asks for "a pt. of the best sort of chaw" (see Birdwood, Report on Old Records, 26, where the early references are collected).]
A.D. 851.—"The King (of China) reserves to himself ... a duty on salt, and also on a certain herb which is drunk infused in hot water. This herb is sold in all the towns at high prices; it is called sākh. It has more leaves than the ratb'ah (Medicago sativa recens) and something more of aroma, but its taste is bitter. Water is boiled and poured upon this herb. The drink so made is serviceable under all circumstances."—Relation, &c., trad. par Reinaud, i. 40.
c. 1545.—"Moreover, seeing the great delight that I above the rest of the party took in this discourse of his, he (Chaggi Memet, i.e. Hajji Mahommed) told me that all over the country of Cathay they make use of another plant, that is of its leaves, which is called by those people Chiai Catai: it is produced in that district of Cathay which is called Cachan-fu. It is a thing generally used and highly esteemed in all those regions. They take this plant whether dry or fresh, and boil it well in water, and of this decoction they take one or two cups on an empty stomach; it removes fever, headache, stomach-ache, pain in the side or joints; taking care to drink it as hot as you can bear; it is good also for many other ailments which I can't now remember, but I know gout was one of them. And if any one chance to feel his stomach oppressed by overmuch food, if he will take a little of this decoction he will in a short time have digested it. And thus it is so precious and highly esteemed that every one going on a journey takes it with him, and judging from what he said these people would at any time gladly swap a sack of rhubarb for an ounce of Chiai Catai. These people of Cathay say (he told us) that if in our country, and in Persia, and the land of the Franks, it was known, merchants would no longer invest their money in Rauend Chini as they call rhubarb."—Ramusio, Dichiaratione, in ii. f. 15.
c. 1560.—"Whatsoever person or persones come to any mans house of qualitee, hee hath a custome to offer him in a fine basket one Porcelane ... with a kinde of drinke which they call cha, which is somewhat bitter, red, and medicinall, which they are wont to make with a certayne concoction of herbes."—Da Cruz, in Purchas, iii. 180.
1565.—"Ritus est Japoniorum ... benevolentiae causâ praebere spectanda, quae apud se pretiosissima sunt, id est, omne instrumentum necessarium ad potionem herbae cujusdam in pulverem redactae, suavem gustu, nomine Chia. Est autem modus potionis ejusmodi: pulveris ejus, quantum uno juglandis putamine continetur, conjiciunt in fictile vas ex eorum genere, quae procellana (Porcelain) vulgus appellat. Inde calenti admodum aquâ dilutum ebibunt. Habent autem in eos usus ollam antiquissimi operis ferream, figlinum poculum, cochlearia, infundibulum eluendo figlino, tripodem, foculum denique potioni caleficiendae."—Letter from Japan, of L. Almeida, in Maffei, Litt. Select. ex India, Lib. iv.
1588.—"Caeterum (apud Chinenses) ex herba quadam expressus liquor admodum salutaris, nomine Chia, calidus hauritur, ut apud Iaponios."—Maffei, Hist. Ind. vi.
" "Usum vitis ignorant (Japonii): oryzâ exprimunt vinum: Sed ipsi quoque ante omnia delectantur haustibus aquae poene ferventis, insperso quem supra diximus pulvere Chia. Circa eam potionem diligentissimi sunt, ac principes interdum viri suis ipsi manibus eidem temperandae ac miscendae, amicorum honoris causae, dant operam."—Ibid. Lib. xii.
1598.—"... the aforesaid warme water is made with the powder of a certaine hearbe called chaa."—Linschoten, 46; [Hak. Soc. i. 157].
1611.—"Of the same fashion is the cha of China, and taken in the same manner; except that the Cha is the small leaf of a herb, from a certain plant brought from Tartary, which was shown me when I was at Malaca."—Teixeira, i. 19.
1616.—"I bought 3 chaw cups covered with silver plates...."—Cocks, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 202, [and see ii. 11].
1626.—"They vse much the powder of a certaine Herbe called Chia, of which they put as much as a Walnut-shell may containe, into a dish of Porcelane, and drinke it with hot water."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 587.
1631.—"Dur. You have mentioned the drink of the Chinese called Thee; what is your opinion thereof?... Bont. ... The Chinese regard this beverage almost as something sacred ... and they are not thought to have fulfilled the rites of hospitality to you until they have served you with it, just like the Mahometans with their Caveah (see COFFEE). It is of a drying quality, and banishes sleep ... it is beneficial to asthmatic and wheezing patients."—Jac. Bontius, Hist. Nat. et Med. Ind. Or. Lib. i. Dial. vi. p. 11.
1638.—"Dans les assemblées ordinaires (à Sourat) que nous faisions tous les iours, nous ne prenions que du Thè, dont l'vsage est fort cummun par toutes les Indes."—Mandelslo, ed. Paris, 1659, p. 113.
1658.—"Non mirum est, multos etiam nunc in illo errore versari, quasi diversae speciei plantae essent The et Tsia, cum è contra eadem sit, cujus decoctum Chinensibus The, Iaponensibus Tsia nomen audiat; licet horum Tsia, ob magnam contributionem et coctionem, nigrum The appellatur."—Bontii Hist. Nat. Pisonis Annot. p. 87.
1660.—(September) "28th.... I did send for a cup of tea (a China drink) of which I never had drank before."—Pepys's Diary. [Both Ld. Braybrooke (4th ed. i. 110) and Wheatley (i. 249) read tee, and give the date as Sept. 25.]
1667.—(June) "28th.... Home and there find my wife making of tea; a drink which Mr. Pelling, the Potticary, tells her is good for her cold and defluxions."—Ibid. [Wheatley, vi. 398].
1672.—"There is among our people, and particularly among the womankind a great abuse of Thee, not only that too much is drunk ... but this is also an evil custom to drink it with a full stomach; it is better and more wholesome to make use of it when the process of digestion is pretty well finished.... It is also a great folly to use sugar candy with Thee."—Baldaeus, Germ. ed. 179. (This author devotes five columns to tea, and its use and abuse in India).
1677.—"Planta dicitur Chà, vel ... Cià, ... cujus usus in Chinae claustris nescius in Europae quoque paulatim sese insinuare attentat.... Et quamvis Turcarum Cave (see COFFEE) et Mexicanorum Ciocolata eundem praestent effectum, Cià tamen, quam nonulli quoque Te vocant, ea multum superat," etc.—Kircher, China Illust. 180.
" "Maer de Ciâ (of Thee) sonder achting op eenije tijt te hebben, is novit schadelijk."—Vermeulen, 30.
1683.—"Lord Russell ... went into his chamber six or seven times in the morning, and prayed by himself, and then came out to Tillotson and me; he drunk a little tea and some sherry."—Burnet, Hist. of Own Time, Oxford ed. 1823, ii. 375.
1683.—
"Venus her Myrtle, Phœbus has his Bays;
Tea both excels which She[265] vouchsafes to praise,
The best of Queens, and best of Herbs we owe
To that bold Nation which the Way did show
To the fair Region where the Sun does rise,
Whose rich Productions we so justly prize."—Waller.
1690.—"... Of all the followers of Mahomet ... none are so rigidly Abstemious as the Arabians of Muscatt.... For Tea and Coffee, which are judg'd the privileg'd Liquors of all the Mahometans, as well as Turks, as those of Persia, India, and other parts of Arabia, are condemned by them as unlawful...."—Ovington, 427.
1726.—"I remember well how in 1681 I for the first time in my life drank thee at the house of an Indian Chaplain, and how I could not understand how sensible men could think it a treat to drink what tasted no better than hay-water."—Valentijn, v. 190.
1789.—
"And now her vase a modest Naiad fills
With liquid crystal from her pebbly rills;
Piles the dry cedar round her silver urn,
(Bright climbs the blaze, the crackling faggots burn).
Culls the green herb of China's envy'd bowers,
In gaudy cups the steaming treasure pours;
And sweetly smiling, on her bended knee,
Presents the fragrant quintessence of Tea."
Darwin, Botanic Garden, Loves of the Plants, Canto ii.
1844.—"The Polish word for tea, Herbata, signifies more properly 'herb,' and in fact there is little more of the genuine Chinese beverage in the article itself than in its name, so that we often thought with longing of the delightful Russian Tshaï, genuine in word and fact."—J. I. Kohl, Austria, p. 444.
The following are some of the names given in the market to different kinds of tea, with their etymologies.
1. (TEA), BOHEA. This name is from the Wu-i (dialectically Bú-î)-shan Mountains in the N.W. of Fuh-kien, one of the districts most famous for its black tea. In Pope's verse, as Crawfurd points out, Bohea stands for a tea in use among fashionable people. Thus:
"To part her time 'twixt reading and bohea,
To muse, and spill her solitary tea."
Epistle to Mrs Teresa Blount.
[The earliest examples in the N.E.D. carry back the use of the word to the first years of the 18th century.]
1711.—"There is a parcel of extraordinary fine Bohee Tea to be sold at 26s. per Pound, at the sign of the Barber's Pole, next door to the Brazier's Shop in Southampton Street in the Strand."—Advt. in the Spectator of April 2, 1711.
1711.—
"Oh had I rather unadmired remained
On some lone isle or distant northern land;
Where the gilt chariot never marks the way,
Where none learn ombre, none e'er taste bohea."
Belinda, in Rape of the Lock, iv. 153.
The last quotation, and indeed the first also, shows that the word was then pronounced Bohay. At a later date Bohea sank to be the market name of one of the lowest qualities of tea, and we believe it has ceased altogether to be a name quoted in the tea-market. The following quotations seem to show that it was the general name for "black-tea."
1711.—"Bohea is of little Worth among the Moors and Gentoos of India, Arrabs and Persians ... that of 45 Tale (see TAEL) would not fetch the Price of green Tea of 10 Tale a Pecull."—Lockyer, 116.
1721.—
"Where Indus and the double Ganges flow,
On odorif'rous plains the leaves do grow,
Chief of the treat, a plant the boast of fame,
Sometimes called green, Bohea's the greater name."
Allan Ramsay's Poems, ed. 1800, i. 213-14.
1726.—"Anno 1670 and 1680 there was knowledge only of Boey Tea and Green Tea, but later they speak of a variety of other sorts ... Congo ... Pego ... Tongge, Rosmaryn Tea, rare and very dear."—Valentijn, iv. 14.
1727.—"In September they strip the Bush of all its Leaves, and, for Want of warm dry Winds to cure it, are forced to lay it on warm Plates of Iron or Copper, and keep it stirring gently, till it is dry, and that Sort is called Bohea."—A. Hamilton, ii. 289; [ed. 1744, ii. 288].
But Zedler's Lexicon (1745) in a long article on Thee gives Thee Bohea as "the worst sort of all." The other European trade-names, according to Zedler, were Thee-Peco, Congo which the Dutch called the best, but Thee Cancho was better still and dearer, and Chaucon best of all.
2. (TEA) CAMPOY, a black tea also. Kam-pui, the Canton pron. of the characters Kien-pei, "select-dry (over a fire)."
3. (TEA) CONGOU (a black tea). This is Kang-hu (tê) the Amoy pronunciation of the characters Kung-fu, 'work or labour.' [Mr. Pratt (9 ser. N. & Q. iv. 26) writes: "The N.E.D. under Congou derives it from the standard Chinese Kung-fu (which happens also to be the Cantonese spelling); 'the omission of the f,' we are told, 'is the foreigner's corruption.' It is nothing of the kind. The Amoy name for this tea is Kong-hu, so that the omission of the f is due to the local Chinese dialect."]
4. HYSON (a green tea). This is He- (hei and ai in the south) -ch'un, 'bright spring,' [which Mr. Ball (Things Chinese, 586) writes yu-ts'in, 'before the rain'], characters which some say formed the hong name of a tea-merchant named Le, who was in the trade in the dist. of Hiu-ning (S.W. of Hang-chau) about 1700; others say that He-chun was Le's daughter, who was the first to separate the leaves, so as to make what is called Hyson. [Mr. Ball says that it is so called, "the young hyson being half-opened leaves plucked in April before the spring rains."]
c. 1772.—
"And Venus, goddess of the eternal smile,
Knowing that stormy brows but ill become
Fair patterns of her beauty, hath ordained
Celestial Tea;—a fountain that can cure
The ills of passion, and can free from frowns.
* * * * *
To her, ye fair! in adoration bow!
Whether at blushing morn, or dewy eve,
Her smoking cordials greet your fragrant board
With Hyson, or Bohea, or Congo crown'd."
R. Fergusson, Poems.
5. OOLONG (bl. tea). Wu-lung, 'black dragon'; respecting which there is a legend to account for the name. ["A black snake (and snakes are sometimes looked upon as dragons in China) was coiled round a plant of this tea, and hence the name" (Ball, op. cit. 586).]
6. PEKOE (do.). Pak-ho, Canton pron. of characters pŏh-hao, 'white-down.'
7. POUCHONG (do.). Pao-chung, 'fold-sort.' So called from its being packed in small paper packets, each of which is supposed to be the produce of one choice tea-plant. Also called Padre-souchong, because the priests in the Wu-i hills and other places prepare and pack it.
8. SOUCHONG (do.). Siu-chung, Canton for Siao-chung, 'little-sort.'
1781.—"Les Nations Européennes retirent de la Chine des thés connus sous les noms de thé bouy, thé vert, et thé saothon."—Sonnerat, ii. 249.
9. TWANKAY (green tea). From T'un-k'i, the name of a mart about 15 m. S.W. of Hwei-chau-fu in Ngan-hwei. Bp. Moule says (perhaps after W. Williams?) from T'un-k'i, name of a stream near Yen-shau-fu in Chi-kiang. [Mr. Pratt (loc. cit.) writes; "The Amoy Tun-ke is nearer, and the Cantonese Tun-kei nearer still, its second syllable being absolutely the same in sound as the English. The Twankay is a stream in the E. of the province of Nganhwui, where Twankay tea grows."] Twankay is used by Theodore Hook as a sort of slang for 'tea.'
10. YOUNG HYSON. This is called by the Chinese Yü-t'sien, 'rain-before,' or 'Yu-before,' because picked before Kuh-yu, a term falling about 20th April (see HYSON above). According to Giles it was formerly called, in trade, Uchain, which seems to represent the Chinese name. In an "Account of the Prices at which Teas have been put up to Sale, that arrived in England in 1784, 1785" (MS. India Office Records) the Teas are (from cheaper to dearer):—
"Bohea Tea,
Congou,
Souchong,
Singlo (?),
Hyson."
TEA-CADDY, s. This name, in common English use for a box to contain tea for the daily expenditure of the household, is probably corrupted, as Crawfurd suggests, from catty, a weight of 1⅓ lb. (q.v.). A 'catty-box,' meaning a box holding a catty, might easily serve this purpose and lead to the name. This view is corroborated by a quotation which we have given under caddy (q.v.) A friend adds the remark that in his youth 'Tea-caddy' was a Londoner's name for Harley Street, due to the number of E.I. Directors and proprietors supposed to inhabit that district.
TEAPOY, s. A small tripod table. This word is often in England imagined to have some connection with tea, and hence, in London shops for japanned ware and the like, a teapoy means a tea-chest fixed on legs. But this is quite erroneous. Tipāī is a Hindustāni, or perhaps rather an Anglo-Hindustāni word for a tripod, from Hind. tīn, 3, and Pers. pāē, 'foot.' The legitimate word from the Persian is sipāī (properly sihpāya), and the legitimate Hindi word tirpad or tripad, but tipāī or tepoy was probably originated by some European in analogy with the familiar charpoy (q.v.) or 'four-legs,' possibly from inaccuracy, possibly from the desire to avoid confusion with another very familiar word sepoy, seapoy. [Platts, however, gives tipāī as a regular Hind. word, Skt. tri-pād-ikā.] The word is applied in India not only to a three-legged table (or any very small table, whatever number of legs it has), but to any tripod, as to the tripod-stands of surveying instruments, or to trestles in carpentry. Sihpāya occurs in 'Ali of Yezd's history of Timur, as applied to the trestles used by Timur in bridging over the Indus (Elliot, iii. 482). A teapoy is called in Chinese by a name having reference to tea: viz. Ch'a-chi'rh. It has 4 legs.
[c. 1809.—"(Dinajpoor) Sepaya, a wooden stand for a lamp or candle with three feet."—Buchanan, Eastern India, ii. 945.]
1844.—"'Well, to be sure, it does seem odd—very odd;'—and the old gentleman chuckled,—'most odd to find a person who don't know what a tepoy is.... Well, then, a tepoy or tinpoy is a thing with three feet, used in India to denote a little table, such as that just at your right.'
"'Why, that table has four legs,' cried Peregrine.
"'It's a tepoy all the same,' said Mr. Havethelacks."—Peregrine Pulteney, i. 112.
TEAK, s. The tree, and timber of the tree, known to botanists as Tectona grandis, L., N.O. Verbenaceae. The word is Malayāl. tekka, Tam. tekku. No doubt this name was adopted owing to the fact that Europeans first became acquainted with the wood in Malabar, which is still one of the two great sources of supply; Pegu being the other. The Skt. name of the tree is śāka, whence the modern Hind. name sāgwān or sāgūn and the Mahr. śāg. From this last probably was taken sāj, the name of teak in Arabic and Persian. And we have doubtless the same word in the σαγαλίνα of the Periplus, one of the exports from Western India, a form which may be illustrated by the Mahr. adj. sāgalī, 'made of the teak, belonging to teak.' The last fact shows, in some degree, how old the export of teak is from India. Teak beams, still undecayed, exist in the walls of the great palace of the Sassanid Kings at Seleucia or Ctesiphon, dating from the middle of the 6th century. [See Birdwood, First Letter Book, Intro. XXIX.] Teak has continued to recent times to be imported into Egypt. See Forskal, quoted by Royle (Hindu Medicine, 128). The gopher-wood of Genesis is translated sāj in the Arabic version of the Pentateuch (Royle). [It was probably cedar (see Encycl. Bibl. s.v.)]
Teak seems to have been hardly known in Gangetic India in former days. We can find no mention of it in Baber (which however is indexless), and the only mention we can find in the Āīn, is in a list of the weights of a cubic yard of 72 kinds of wood, where the name "Ságaun" has not been recognised as teak by the learned translator (see Blochmann's E.T. i. p. 228).