1509.—"Whilst Sequeira was consulting with his people over this matter, the King sent his Bendhara or Treasure-Master on board."—Valentijn, v. 322.

1539.—"There the Bandara (Bendara) of Malaca, (who is as it were Chief Justicer among the Mahometans), (o supremo no mando, na honra e ne justica dos mouros) was present in person by the express commandment of Pedro de Faria for to entertain him."—Pinto (orig. cap. xiv.), in Cogan, p. 17.

1552.—"And as the Bendara was by nature a traitor and a tyrant, the counsel they gave him seemed good to him."—Castanheda, ii. 359, also iii. 433.

1561.—"Então manson ... que dizer que matára o seu bandara polo mao conselho que lhe deve."—Correa, Lendas, ii. 225.

[1610.—An official at the Maldives is called Rana-bandery Tacourou, which Mr. Gray interprets—Singh. ran, 'gold,' bandhara, 'treasury,' ṭhakkura, Skt., 'an idol.'—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 58.]

1613.—"This administration (of Malacca) is provided for a three years' space with a governor ... and with royal officers of revenue and justice, and with the native Bendara in charge of the government of the lower class of subjects and foreigners."—Godinho de Eredia, 6v.

1631.—"There were in Malaca five principal officers of dignity ... the second is Bendará, he is the superintendent of the executive (veador da fazenda) and governs the Kingdom: sometimes the Bendará holds both offices, that of Puduca raja and of Bendará."—D'Alboquerque, Commentaries (orig.), 358-359.

1634.—

"O principal sogeito no governo

De Mahomet, e privanca, era o Bendára,

Magistrado supremo."

Malaca Conquistada, iii. 6.

1726.—"Bandares or Adassing are those who are at the Court as Dukes, Counts, or even Princes of the Royal House."—Valentijn (Ceylon), Names of Officers, &c., 8.

1810.—"After the Raja had amused himself with their speaking, and was tired of it ... the bintara with the green eyes (for it is the custom that the eldest bintara should have green shades before his eyes, that he may not be dazzled by the greatness of the Raja, and forget his duty) brought the books and packets, and delivered them to the bintara with the black baju, from whose hands the Raja received them, one by one, in order to present them to the youths."—A Malay's account of a visit to Govt. House, Calcutta, transl. by Dr. Leyden in Maria Graham, p. 202.

1883.—"In most of the States the reigning prince has regular officers under him, chief among whom ... the Bandahara or treasurer, who is the first minister...."—Miss Bird, The Golden Chersonese, 26.

BENDY, BINDY, s.: also BANDICOY (q.v.), the form in S. India; H. bhinḍī, [bhenḍī], Dakh. bhenḍī, Mahr. bhenḍā; also in H. rāmturἀī; the fruit of the plant Abelmoschus esculentus, also Hibiscus esc. It is called in Arab. bāmiyah (Lane, Mod. Egypt, ed. 1837, i. 199: [5th ed. i. 184: Burton, Ar. Nights, xi. 57]), whence the modern Greek μπάμια. In Italy the vegetable is called corni de' Greci. The Latin name Abelmoschus is from the Ar. ḥabb-ul-mushk, 'grain of musk' (Dozy).

1810.—"The bendy, called in the West Indies okree, is a pretty plant resembling a hollyhock; the fruit is about the length and thickness of one's finger ... when boiled it is soft and mucilaginous."—Maria Graham, 24.

1813.—"The banda (Hibiscus esculentus) is a nutritious oriental vegetable."—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 32; [2nd ed. i. 22].

1880.—"I recollect the West Indian Ookroo ... being some years ago recommended for introduction in India. The seed was largely advertised, and sold at about 8s. the ounce to eager horticulturists, who ... found that it came up nothing other than the familiar bendy, the seed of which sells at Bombay for 1d. the ounce. Yet ... ookroo seed continued to be advertised and sold at 8s. the ounce...."—Note by Sir G. Birdwood.

BENDY-TREE, s. This, according to Sir G. Birdwood, is the Thespesia populnea, Lam. [Watt, Econ. Dict. vi. pt. iv. 45 seqq.], and gives a name to the 'Bendy Bazar' in Bombay. (See PORTIA.)

BENGAL, n.p. The region of the Ganges Delta and the districts immediately above it; but often in English use with a wide application to the whole territory garrisoned by the Bengal army. This name does not appear, so far as we have been able to learn, in any Mahommedan or Western writing before the latter part of the 13th century. In the earlier part of that century the Mahommedan writers generally call the province Lakhnaotī, after the chief city, but we have also the old form Bang, from the indigenous Vaṅga. Already, however, in the 11th century we have it as Vaṅgālam on the Inscription of the great Tanjore Pagoda. This is the oldest occurrence that we can cite.

The alleged City of Bengala of the Portuguese which has greatly perplexed geographers, probably originated with the Arab custom of giving an important foreign city or seaport the name of the country in which it lay (compare the city of Solmandala, under COROMANDEL). It long kept a place in maps. The last occurrence that we know of is in a chart of 1743, in Dalrymple's Collection, which identifies it with Chittagong, and it may be considered certain that Chittagong was the place intended by the older writers (see Varthema and Ovington). The former, as regards his visiting Banghella, deals in fiction—a thing clear from internal evidence, and expressly alleged, by the judicious Garcia de Orta: "As to what you say of Ludovico Vartomano, I have spoken, both here and in Portugal, with men who knew him here in India, and they told me that he went about here in the garb of a Moor, and then reverted to us, doing penance for his sins; and that the man never went further than Calecut and Cochin."—Colloquios, f. 30.

c. 1250.—"Muhammad Bakhtiyár ... returned to Behár. Great fear of him prevailed in the minds of the infidels of the territories of Lakhnauti, Behar, Bang, and Kámrúp."—Tabakát-i-Násiri, in Elliot, ii. 307.

1298.—"Bangala is a Province towards the south, which up to the year 1290 ... had not yet been conquered...." (&c.).—Marco Polo, Bk. ii. ch. 55.

c. 1300.—"... then to Bijalár (but better reading Bangālā), which from of old is subject to Delhi...."—Rashīduddīn, in Elliot, i. 72.

c. 1345.—"... we were at sea 43 days and then arrived in the country of Banjāla, which is a vast region abounding in rice. I have seen no country in the world where provisions are cheaper than in this; but it is muggy, and those who come from Khorāsān call it 'a hell full of good things.'"—Ibn Batuta, iv. 211. (But the Emperor Aurungzebe is alleged to have "emphatically styled it the Paradise of Nations."—Note in Stavorinus, i. 291.)

c. 1350.—

"Shukr shikan shawand hama ṭūṭiān-i-Hind

Zīn ḳand-i-Pārsī kih ba Bangāla mi rawad."

Hāfiz.

i.e.,

"Sugar nibbling are all the parrots of Ind

From this Persian candy that travels to Bengal"

(viz. his own poems).

1498.—"Bemgala: in this Kingdom are many Moors, and few Christians, and the King is a Moor ... in this land are many cotton cloths, and silk cloths, and much silver; it is 40 days with a fair wind from Calicut."—Roteiro de V. da Gama, 2nd ed. p. 110.

1506.—"A Banzelo, el suo Re è Moro, e li se fa el forzo de' panni de gotton...."—Leonardo do Ca' Masser, 28.

1510.—"We took the route towards the city of Banghella ... one of the best that I had hitherto seen."—Varthema, 210.

1516.—"... the Kingdom of Bengala, in which there are many towns.... Those of the interior are inhabited by Gentiles subject to the King of Bengala, who is a Moor; and the seaports are inhabited by Moors and Gentiles, amongst whom there is much trade and much shipping to many parts, because this sea is a gulf ... and at its inner extremity there is a very great city inhabited by Moors, which is called Bengala, with a very good harbour."—Barbosa, 178-9.

c. 1590.—"Bungaleh originally was called Bung; it derived the additional al from that being the name given to the mounds of earth which the ancient Rajahs caused to be raised in the low lands, at the foot of the hills."—Ayeen Akbery, tr. Gladwin, ii. 4 (ed. 1800); [tr. Jarrett, ii. 120].

1690.—"Arracan ... is bounded on the North-West by the Kingdom of Bengala, some Authors making Chatigam to be its first Frontier City; but Teixeira, and generally the Portuguese Writers, reckon that as a City of Bengala; and not only so, but place the City of Bengala it self ... more South than Chatigam. Tho' I confess a late French Geographer has put Bengala into his Catalogue of imaginary Cities...."—Ovington, 554.

BENGAL, s. This was also the designation of a kind of piece-goods exported from that country to England, in the 17th century. But long before, among the Moors of Spain, a fine muslin seems to have been known as al-bangala, surviving in Spanish albengala. (See Dozy and Eng. s.v. [What were called "Bengal Stripes" were striped ginghams brought first from Bengal and first made in Great Britain at Paisley. (Draper's Dict. s.v.). So a particular kind of silk was known as "Bengal wound," because it was "rolled in the rude and artless manner immemorially practised by the natives of that country." (Milburn, in Watt, Econ. Dict. vi. pt. 3, 185.) See N.E.D. for examples of the use of the word as late as Lord Macaulay.]

1696.—"Tis granted that Bengals and stain'd Callicoes, and other East India Goods, do hinder the Consumption of Norwich stuffs...."—Davenant, An Essay on the East India Trade, 31.

BENGALA, s. This is or was also applied in Portuguese to a sort of cane carried in the army by sergeants, &c. (Bluteau).

BENGALEE, n.p. A native of Bengal [Baboo]. In the following early occurrence in Portuguese, Bengala is used:

1552.—"In the defence of the bridge died three of the King's captains and Tuam Bandam, to whose charge it was committed, a Bengali (Bengala) by nation, and a man sagacious and crafty in stratagems rather than a soldier (cavalheiro)."—Barros, II., vi. iii.

[1610.—"Bangasalys." See quotation from Teixeira under BANKSHALL.]

A note to the Seir Mutaqherin quotes a Hindustani proverb: Bangālī jangālī, Kashmīrī bepīrī, i.e. 'The Bengalee is ever an entangler, the Cashmeeree without religion.'

[In modern Anglo-Indian parlance the title is often applied in provinces other than Bengal to officers from N. India. The following from Madras is a curious early instance of the same use of the word:—

[1699.—"Two Bengalles here of Council."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. cclxvii.]

BENIGHTED, THE, adj. An epithet applied by the denizens of the other Presidencies, in facetious disparagement to Madras. At Madras itself "all Carnatic fashion" is an habitual expression among older English-speaking natives, which appears to convey a similar idea. (See MADRAS, MULL.)

1860.—"... to ye Londe of St Thomé. It ys ane darke Londe, & ther dwellen ye Cimmerians whereof speketh Homerus Poeta in hys Odysseia & to thys Daye thei clepen Tenebrosi, or Ye Benyhted Folke."—Fragments of Sir J. Maundevile, from a MS. lately discovered.

BENJAMIN, BENZOIN, &c., s. A kind of incense, derived from the resin of the Styrax benzoin, Dryander, in Sumatra, and from an undetermined species in Siam. It got from the Arab traders the name lubān-Jāwī, i.e. 'Java Frankincense,' corrupted in the Middle Ages into such forms as we give. The first syllable of the Arabic term was doubtless taken as an article—lo bengioi, whence bengioi, benzoin, and so forth. This etymology is given correctly by De Orta, and by Valentijn, and suggested by Barbosa in the quotation below. Spanish forms are benjui, menjui; Modern Port. beijoim, beijuim; Ital. belzuino, &c. The terms Jāwā, Jāwī were applied by the Arabs to the Malay countries generally (especially Sumatra) and their products. (See Marco Polo, ii. 266; [Linschoten, Hak. Soc. ii. 96] and the first quotation here.)

c. 1350.—"After a voyage of 25 days we arrived at the Island of Jāwa (here Sumatra) which gives its name to the Jāwī incense (al-lubān al-Jāwī)."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 228.

1461.—"Have these things that I have written to thee next thy heart, and God grant that we may be always at peace. The presents (herewith): Benzoi, rotoli 30. Legno Aloë, rotoli 20. Due paja di tapeti...."—Letter from the Soldan of Egypt to the Doge Pasquale Malipiero, in the Lives of the Doges, Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, xxii. col. 1170.

1498.—"Xarnauz ... is from Calecut 50 days' sail with a fair wind (see SARNAU) ... in this land there is much beijoim, which costs iii cruzados the farazalla, and much aloee which costs xxv cruzados the farazalla" (see FRAZALA).—Roteiro da Viagem de V. da Gama, 109-110.

1516.—"Benjuy, each farazola lx, and the very good lxx fanams."—Barbosa (Tariff of Prices at Calicut), 222.

 "  "Benjuy, which is a resin of trees which the Moors call luban javi."—Ibid. 188.

1539.—"Cinco quintais de beijoim de boninas."[40]—Pinto, cap. xiii.

1563.—"And all these species of benjuy the inhabitants of the country call cominham,[41] but the Moors call them louan jaoy, i.e. 'incense of Java' ... for the Arabs call incense louan."—Garcia, f. 29v.

1584.—"Belzuinum mandolalo[40] from Sian and Baros. Belzuinum, burned, from Bonnia" (Borneo?).—Barret, in Hakl. ii. 413.

1612.—"Beniamin, the pund iiii li."—Rates and Valuatioun of Merchandize (Scotland), pub. by the Treasury, Edin. 1867, p. 298.

BENUA, n.p. This word, Malay banuwa, [in standard Malay, according to Mr. Skeat, benuwa or benua], properly means 'land, country,' and the Malays use orang-banuwa in the sense of aborigines, applying it to the wilder tribes of the Malay Peninsula. Hence "Benuas" has been used by Europeans as a proper name of those tribes.—See Crawfurd, Dict. Ind. Arch. sub voce.

1613.—"The natives of the interior of Viontana (Ujong-tana, q.v.) are properly those Banuas, black anthropophagi, and hairy, like satyrs."—Godinho de Eredia, 20.

BERBERYN, BARBERYN, n.p. Otherwise called Beruwala, a small port with an anchorage for ships and a considerable coasting trade, in Ceylon, about 35 m. south of Columbo.

c. 1350.—"Thus, led by the Divine mercy, on the morrow of the Invention of the Holy Cross, we found ourselves brought safely into port in a harbour of Seyllan, called Pervilis, over against Paradise."—Marignolli, in Cathay, ii. 357.

c. 1618.—"At the same time Barreto made an attack on Berbelim, killing the Moorish modeliar [Modelliar] and all his kinsfolk."—Bocarro, Decada, 713.

1780.—"Barbarien Island."—Dunn, New Directory, 5th ed. 77.

1836.—"Berberyn Island.... There is said to be an anchorage north of it, in 6 or 7 fathoms, and a small bay further in ... where small craft may anchor."—Horsburgh, 5th ed. 551.

[1859.—Tennent in his map (Ceylon, 3rd ed.) gives Barberyn, Barbery, Barberry.]

BERIBERI, s. An acute disease, obscure in its nature and pathology, generally but not always presenting dropsical symptoms, as well as paralytic weakness and numbness of the lower extremities, with oppressed breathing. In cases where debility, oppression, anxiety and dyspnœa are extremely severe, the patient sometimes dies in 6 to 30 hours. Though recent reports seem to refer to this disease as almost confined to natives, it is on record that in 1795, in Trincomalee, 200 Europeans died of it.

The word has been alleged to be Singhalese beri [the Mad. Admin. Man. Gloss. s.v. gives baribari], 'debility.' This kind of reduplication is really a common Singhalese practice. It is also sometimes alleged to be a W. Indian Negro term; and other worthless guesses have been made at its origin. The Singhalese origin is on the whole most probable [and is accepted by the N.E.D.]. In the quotations from Bontius and Bluteau, the disease described seems to be that formerly known as Barbiers. Some authorities have considered these diseases as quite distinct, but Sir Joseph Fayrer, who has paid attention to beriberi and written upon it (see The Practitioner, January 1877), regards Barbiers as "the dry form of beri-beri," and Dr. Lodewijks, quoted below, says briefly that "the Barbiers of some French writers is incontestably the same disease." (On this it is necessary to remark that the use of the term Barbiers is by no means confined to French writers, as a glance at the quotations under that word will show). The disease prevails endemically in Ceylon, and in Peninsular India in the coast-tracts, and up to 40 or 60 m. inland; also in Burma and the Malay region, including all the islands, at least so far as New Guinea, and also Japan, where it is known as kakké: [see Chamberlain, Things Japanese, 3rd ed. p. 238 seqq.]. It is very prevalent in certain Madras Jails. The name has become somewhat old-fashioned, but it has recurred of late years, especially in hospital reports from Madras and Burma. It is frequently epidemic, and some of the Dutch physicians regard it as infectious. See a pamphlet, Beri-Beri door J. A. Lodewijks, ondofficier van Gezondheit bij het Ned. Indische Leger, Harderwijk, 1882. In this pamphlet it is stated that in 1879 the total number of beri-beri patients in the military hospitals of Netherlands-India, amounted to 9873, and the deaths among these to 1682. In the great military hospitals at Achin there died of beri-beri between 1st November 1879, and 1st April 1880, 574 persons, of whom the great majority were dwangarbeiders, i.e. 'forced labourers.' These statistics show the extraordinary prevalence and fatality of the disease in the Archipelago. Dutch literature on the subject is considerable.

Sir George Birdwood tells us that during the Persian Expedition of 1857 he witnessed beri-beri of extraordinary virulence, especially among the East African stokers on board the steamers. The sufferers became dropsically distended to a vast extent, and died in a few hours.

In the second quotation scurvy is evidently meant. This seems much allied by causes to beriberi though different in character.

[1568.—"Our people sickened of a disease called berbere, the belly and legs swell, and in a few days they die, as there died many, ten or twelve a day."—Couto, viii. ch. 25.]

c. 1610.—"Ce ne fut pas tout, car i'eus encor ceste fascheuse maladie de louende que les Portugais appellent autrement berber et les Hollandais scurbut."—Mocquet, 221.

1613.—"And under the orders of the said General André Furtado de Mendoça, the discoverer departed to the court of Goa, being ill with the malady of the berebere, in order to get himself treated."—Godinho de Eredia, f. 58.

1631.—"... Constat frequenti illorum usu, praesertim liquoris saguier dicti, non solum diarrhaeas ... sed et paralysin Beriberi dictam hinc natam esse."—Jac. Bontii, Dial. iv. See also Lib. ii. cap. iii., and Lib. iii. p. 40.

1659.—"There is also another sickness which prevails in Banda and Ceylon, and is called Barberi; it does not vex the natives so much as foreigners."—Sarr, 37.

1682.—"The Indian and Portuguese women draw from the green flowers and cloves, by means of firing with a still, a water or spirit of marvellous sweet smell ... especially is it good against a certain kind of paralysis called Berebery."—Nieuhof, Zee en Lant-Reize, ii. 33.

1685.—"The Portuguese in the Island suffer from another sickness which the natives call béri-béri."—Ribeiro, f. 55.

1720.—"Berebere (termo da India). Huma Paralysia bastarde, ou entorpecemento, com que fica o corpo como tolhido."—Bluteau, Dict. s.v.

1809.—"A complaint, as far as I have learnt, peculiar to the island (Ceylon), the berri-berri; it is in fact a dropsy that frequently destroys in a few days."—Ld. Valentia, i. 318.

1835.—(On the Maldives) "... the crew of the vessels during the survey ... suffered mostly from two diseases; the Beri-beri which attacked the Indians only, and generally proved fatal."—Young and Christopher, in Tr. Ro. Geog. Soc., vol. i.

1837.—"Empyreumatic oil called oleum nigrum, from the seeds of Celastrus nutans (Malkungnee) described in Mr. Malcolmson's able prize Essay on the Hist. and Treatment of Beriberi ... the most efficacious remedy in that intractable complaint."—Royle on Hindu Medicine, 46.

1880.—"A malady much dreaded by the Japanese, called Kakké.... It excites a most singular dread. It is considered to be the same disease as that which, under the name of Beriberi, makes such havoc at times on crowded jails and barracks."—Miss Bird's Japan, i. 288.

1882.—"Berbá, a disease which consists in great swelling of the abdomen."—Blumentritt, Vocabular, s.v.

1885.—"Dr. Wallace Taylor, of Osaka, Japan, reports important discoveries respecting the origin of the disease known as beri-beri. He has traced it to a microscopic spore largely developed in rice. He has finally detected the same organism in the earth of certain alluvial and damp localities."—St. James's Gazette, Aug. 9th.

Also see Report on Prison Admin. in Br. Burma, for 1878, p. 26.

BERYL, s. This word is perhaps a very ancient importation from India to the West, it having been supposed that its origin was the Skt. vaidūrya, Prak. velūriya, whence [Malay baiduri and biduri], P. billaur, and Greek βήρυλλος. Bochart points out the probable identity of the two last words by the transposition of l and r. Another transposition appears to have given Ptolemy his Ὀρούδια ὄρη (for the Western Ghats), representing probably the native Vaidūrya mountains. In Ezekiel xxvii. 13, the Sept. has Βηρύλλιον, where the Hebrew now has tarshīsh, [another word with probably the same meaning being shohsm (see Professor Ridgeway in Encycl. Bibl. s.v. Beryl)]. Professor Max Müller has treated of the possible relation between vaidūrya and vidāla, 'a cat,' and in connection with this observes that "we should, at all events, have learnt the useful lesson that the chapter of accidents is sometimes larger than we suppose."—(India, What can it Teach us?" p. 267). This is a lesson which many articles in our book suggest; and in dealing with the same words, it may be indicated that the resemblance between the Greek αἴλουρος, bilaur, a common H. word for a cat, and the P. billaur, 'beryl,' are at least additional illustrations of the remark quoted.

c. A.D. 70.—"Beryls ... from India they come as from their native place, for seldom are they to be found elsewhere.... Those are best accounted of which carrie a sea-water greene."—Pliny, Bk. XXXVII. cap. 20 (in P. Holland, ii. 613).

c. 150.—"Πυννάτα ἐν ᾗ βήρυλλος."—Ptolemy, l. vii.

BETEL, s. The leaf of the Piper betel, L., chewed with the dried areca-nut (which is thence improperly called betel-nut, a mistake as old as Fryer—1673,—see p. 40), chunam, etc., by the natives of India and the Indo-Chinese countries. The word is Malayāl. veṭṭila, i.e. veru + ila = 'simple or mere leaf,' and comes to us through the Port. betre and betle. Pawn (q.v.) is the term more generally used by modern Anglo-Indians. In former times the betel-leaf was in S. India the subject of a monopoly of the E. I. Co.

1298.—"All the people of this city (Cael) as well as of the rest of India, have a custom of perpetually keeping in the mouth a certain leaf called Tembul ... the lords and gentlefolks and the King have these leaves prepared with camphor and other aromatic spices, and also mixt with quicklime...."—Marco Polo, ii. 358. See also Abdurrazzāk, in India in XV. Cent., p. 32.

1498.—In Vasco da Gama's Roteiro, p. 59, the word used is atombor, i.e. al-tambūl (Arab.) from the Skt. tāmbūla. See also Acosta, p. 139. [See TEMBOOL.]

1510.—"This betel resembles the leaves of the sour orange, and they are constantly eating it."—Varthema, p. 144.

1516.—"We call this betel Indian leaf."[42]—Barbosa, 73.

[1521.—"Bettre (or vettele)." See under ARECA.]

1552.—"... at one side of the bed ... stood a man ... who held in his hand a gold plate with leaves of betelle...."—De Barros, Dec. I. liv. iv. cap. viii.

1563.—"We call it betre, because the first land known by the Portuguese was Malabar, and it comes to my remembrance that in Portugal they used to speak of their coming not to India, but to Calecut ... insomuch that in all the names that occur, which are not Portuguese, are Malabar, like betre."—Garcia, f. 37g.

1582.—The transl. of Castañeda by N. L. has betele (f. 35), and also vitele (f. 44).

1585.—A King's letter grants the revenue from betel (betre) to the bishop and clergy of Goa.—In Arch. Port. Or., fasc. 3, p. 38.

1615.—"He sent for Coco-Nuts to give the Company, himselfe chewing Bittle and lime of Oyster-shels, with a Kernell of Nut called Arracca, like an Akorne, it bites in the mouth, accords rheume, cooles the head, strengthens the teeth, & is all their Phisicke."—Sir T. Roe, in Purchas, i. 537; [with some trifling variations in Foster's ed. (Hak. Soc.) i. 19].

1623.—"Celebratur in universo oriente radix quaedam vocata Betel, quam Indi et reliqui in ore habere et mandere consueverunt, atque ex eâ mansione mire recreantur, et ad labores tolerandos, et ad languores discutiendos ... videtur autem esse ex narcoticis, quia magnopere denigrat dentes."—Bacon, Historia Vitae et Mortis, ed. Amst. 1673, p. 97.

1672.—"They pass the greater part of the day in indolence, occupied only with talk, and chewing Betel and Areca, by which means their lips and teeth are always stained."—P. di Vincenzo Maria, 232.

1677.—The Court of the E. I. Co. in a letter to Ft. St. George, Dec. 12, disapprove of allowing "Valentine Nurse 20 Rupees a month for diet, 7 Rs. for house-rent, 2 for a cook, 1 for Beetle, and 2 for a Porter, which is a most extravagant rate, which we shall not allow him or any other."—Notes and Exts., No. i. p. 21.

1727.—"I presented the Officer that waited on me to the Sea-side (at Calicut) with 5 zequeens for a feast of bettle to him and his companions."—A. Hamilton, i. 306.

BETTEELA, BEATELLE, &c., s. The name of a kind of muslin constantly mentioned in old trading-lists and narratives. This seems to be a Sp. and Port. word beatilla or beatilha, for 'a veil,' derived, according to Cobarruvias, from "certain beatas, who invented or used the like." Beata is a religieuse. ["The Betilla is a certain kind of white E. I. chintz made at Masulipatam, and known under the name of Organdi."—Mad. Admin. Man. Gloss. p. 233.]

[1566.—"A score Byatilhas, which were worth 200 pardaos."—Correa, iii. 479.]

1572.—

"Vestida huma camisa preciosa

Trazida de delgada beatilha,

Que o corpo crystallino deixa ver-se;

Que tanto bem não he para esconder-se."

Camões, vi. 21.

1598.—"... this linnen is of divers sorts, and is called Serampuras, Cassas, Comsas, Beattillias, Satopassas, and a thousand such names."—Linschoten, 28; [Hak. Soc. i. 95; and cf. i. 56].

1685.—"To servants, 3 pieces beteelaes."—In Wheeler, i. 149.

1727.—"Before Aurangzeb conquered Visiapore, this country (Sundah) produced the finest Betteelas or Muslins in India."—A. Hamilton, i. 264.

[1788.—"There are various kinds of muslins brought from the East Indies, chiefly from Bengal: Betelles, &c."—Chambers' Cycl., quoted in 3 ser. Notes & Q. iv. 88.]

BEWAURIS, adj. P.—H. be-wāris, 'without heir.' Unclaimed, without heir or owner.

BEYPOOR, n.p. Properly Veppūr, or Bēppūr, [derived from Malayāl. veppu, 'deposit,' ur, 'village,' a place formed by the receding of the sea, which has been turned into the Skt. form Vāyupura, 'the town of the Wind-god']. The terminal town of the Madras Railway on the Malabar coast. It stands north of the river; whilst the railway station is on the S. of the river—(see CHALIA). Tippoo Sahib tried to make a great port of Beypoor, and to call it Sultanpatnam. [It is one of the many places which have been suggested as the site of Ophir (Logan, Malabar, i. 246), and is probably the Belliporto of Tavernier, "where there was a fort which the Dutch had made with palms" (ed. Ball, i. 235).]

1572.—

"Chamará o Samorim mais gente nova;

Virão Reis de Bipur, e de Tanor...."

Camões, x. 14.

1727.—"About two Leagues to the Southward of Calecut, is a fine River called Baypore, capable to receive ships of 3 or 400 Tuns."—A. Hamilton, i. 322.

BEZOAR, s. This word belongs, not to the A.-Indian colloquial, but to the language of old oriental trade and materia medica. The word is a corruption of the P. name of the thing, pādzahr, 'pellens venenum,' or pāzahr. The first form is given by Meninski as the etymology of the word, and this is accepted by Littré [and the N.E.D.]. The quotations of Littré from Ambrose Paré show that the word was used generically for 'an antidote,' and in this sense it is used habitually by Avicenna. No doubt the term came to us, with so many others, from Arab medical writers, so much studied in the Middle Ages, and this accounts for the b, as Arabic has no p, and writes bāzahr. But its usual application was, and is, limited to certain hard concretions found in the bodies of animals, to which antidotal virtues were ascribed, and especially to one obtained from the stomach of a wild goat in the Persian province of Lar. Of this animal and the bezoar an account is given in Kaempfer's Amoenitates Exoticae, pp. 398 seqq. The Bezoar was sometimes called Snake-Stone, and erroneously supposed to be found in the head of a snake. It may have been called so really because, as Ibn Baithar states, such a stone was laid upon the bite of a venomous creature (and was believed) to extract the poison. Moodeen Sheriff, in his Suppt. to the Indian Pharmacopœia, says there are various bezoars in use (in native mat. med.), distinguished according to the animal producing them, as a goat-, camel-, fish-, and snake-bezoar; the last quite distinct from Snake-Stone (q.v.).

[A false Bezoar stone gave occasion for the establishment of one of the great distinctions in our Common Law, viz. between actions founded upon contract, and those founded upon wrongs: Chandelor v. Lopus was decided in 1604 (reported in 2. Croke, and in Smith's Leading Cases). The head-note runs—"The defendant sold to the plaintiff a stone, which he affirmed to be a Bezoar stone, but which proved not to be so. No action lies against him, unless he either knew that it was not a Bezoar stone, or warranted it to be a Bezoar stone" (quoted by Gray, Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 484).]

1516.—Barbosa writes pajar.

[1528.—"Near this city (Lara) in a small mountain are bred some animals of the size of a buck, in whose stomach grows a stone they call bazar."—Tenreiro, ch. iii. p. 14.]

[1554.—Castanheda (I. ch. 46) calls the animal whence bezoar comes bagoldaf, which he considers an Indian word.]

c. 1580.—"... adeo ut ex solis Bezahar nonnulla vasa conflata viderim, maxime apud eos qui a venenis sibi cavere student."—Prosper Alpinus, Pt. i. p. 56.

1599.—"Body o' me, a shrewd mischance. Why, had you no unicorn's horn, nor bezoar's stone about you, ha?"—B. Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour, Act v. sc. 4.

[ "  "Bezar sive bazar"; see quotation under MACE.]

1605.—The King of Bantam sends K. James I. "two beasar stones."—Sainsbury, i. 143.

1610.—"The Persian calls it, par excellence, Pazahar, which is as much as to say 'antidote' or more strictly 'remedy of poison or venom,' from Zahar, which is the general name of any poison, and pá, 'remedy'; and as the Arabic lacks the letter p, they replace it by b, or f, and so they say, instead of Pázahar, Bázahar, and we with a little additional corruption Bezar."—P. Teixeira, Relaciones, &c., p. 157.

1613.—"... elks, and great snakes, and apes of bazar stone, and every kind of game birds."—Godinho de Eredia, 10v.

1617.—"... late at night I drunke a little bezas stone, which gave me much paine most parte of night, as though 100 Wormes had byn knawing at my hart; yet it gave me ease afterward."—Cocks's Diary, i. 301; [in i. 154 he speaks of "beza stone"].

1634.—Bontius claims the etymology just quoted from Teixeira, erroneously, as his own.—Lib. iv. p. 47.

1673.—"The Persians then call this stone Pazahar, being a compound of Pa and Zahar, the first of which is against, and the other is Poyson."—Fryer, 238.

 "  "The Monkey Bezoars which are long, are the best...."—Ibid. 212.

1711.—"In this animal (Hog-deer of Sumatra, apparently a sort of chevrotain or Tragulus) is found the bitter Bezoar, called Pedra di Porco Siacca, valued at ten times its Weight in Gold."—Lockyer, 49.

1826.—"What is spikenard? what is mumiai? what is pahzer? compared even to a twinkle of a royal eye-lash?"—Hajji Baba, ed. 1835, p. 148.

BHAT, s. H. &c. bhāṭ (Skt. bhàṭṭa, a title of respect, probably connected with bhàrtṛi, 'a supporter or master'), a man of a tribe of mixed descent, whose members are professed genealogists and poets; a bard. These men in Rājputāna and Guzerat had also extraordinary privileges as the guarantors of travellers, whom they accompanied, against attack and robbery. See an account of them in Forbes's Rās Mālā, I. ix. &c., reprint 558 seqq.; [for Bengal, Risley, Tribes & Castes, i. 101 seqq.; for the N.W.P., Crooke, Tribes & Castes, ii. 20 seqq.

[1554.—"Bats," see quotation under RAJPUT.]

c. 1555.—"Among the infidel Bānyāns in this country (Guzerat) there is a class of literati known as Bāts. These undertake to be guides to traders and other travellers ... when the caravans are waylaid on the road by Rāshbūts, i.e. Indian horsemen, coming to pillage them, the Bāt takes out his dagger, points it at his own breast, and says: 'I have become surety! If aught befals the caravan I must kill myself!' On these words the Rāshbūts let the caravan pass unharmed."—Sidi 'Ali, 95.

[1623.—"Those who perform the office of Priests, whom they call Boti."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 80.]

1775.—"The Hindoo rajahs and Mahratta chieftains have generally a Bhaut in the family, who attends them on public occasions ... sounds their praise, and proclaims their titles in hyperbolical and figurative language ... many of them have another mode of living; they offer themselves as security to the different governments for payment of their revenue, and the good behaviour of the Zemindars, patels, and public farmers; they also become guarantees for treaties between native princes, and the performance of bonds by individuals."—Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 89; [2nd ed. i. 377; also see ii. 258]. See TRAGA.

1810.—"India, like the nations of Europe, had its minstrels and poets, concerning whom there is the following tradition: At the marriage of Siva and Parvatty, the immortals having exhausted all the amusements then known, wished for something new, when Siva, wiping the drops of sweat from his brow, shook them to earth, upon which the Bawts, or Bards, immediately sprang up."—Maria Graham, 169.

1828.—"A 'Bhat' or Bard came to ask a gratuity."—Heber, ed. 1844, ii. 53.

BHEEL, n.p. Skt. Bhilla; H. Bhīl. The name of a race inhabiting the hills and forests of the Vindhya, Malwa, and of the N.-Western Deccan, and believed to have been the aborigines of Rājputāna; some have supposed them to be the Φυλλῖται of Ptolemy. They are closely allied to the Coolies (q.v.) of Guzerat, and are believed to belong to the Kolarian division of Indian aborigines. But no distinct Bhīl language survives.

1785.—"A most infernal yell suddenly issued from the deep ravines. Our guides informed us that this was the noise always made by the Bheels previous to an attack."—Forbes, Or. Mem. iii. 480.

1825.—"All the Bheels whom we saw to-day were small, slender men, less broad-shouldered ... and with faces less Celtic than the Puharees of the Rajmahal.... Two of them had rude swords and shields, the remainder had all bows and arrows."—Heber, ed. 1844, ii. 75.

BHEEL, s. A word used in Bengal—bhīl: a marsh or lagoon; same as Jeel (q.v.)

[1860.—"The natives distinguish a lake so formed by a change in a river's course from one of usual origin or shape by calling the former a bowr—whilst the latter is termed a Bheel."—Grant, Rural Life in Bengal, 35.]

1879.—"Below Shouy-doung there used to be a big bheel, wherein I have shot a few duck, teal, and snipe."—Pollok, Sport in B. Burmah, i. 26.

BHEESTY, s. The universal word in the Anglo-Indian households of N. India for the domestic (corresponding to the saḳḳā of Egypt) who supplies the family with water, carrying it in a mussuck, (q.v.), or goatskin, slung on his back. The word is P. bihishtī, a person of bihisht or paradise, though the application appears to be peculiar to Hindustan. We have not been able to trace the history of this term, which does not apparently occur in the Āīn, even in the curious account of the way in which water was cooled and supplied in the Court of Akbar (Blochmann, tr. i. 55 seqq.), or in the old travellers, and is not given in Meninski's lexicon. Vullers gives it only as from Shakespear's Hindustani Dict. [The trade must be of ancient origin in India, as the leather bag is mentioned in the Veda and Manu (Wilson, Rig Veda, ii. 28; Institutes, ii. 79.) Hence Col. Temple (Ind. Ant., xi. 117) suggests that the word is Indian, and connects it with the Skt. vish, 'to sprinkle.'] It is one of the fine titles which Indian servants rejoice to bestow on one another, like Mehtar, Khalīfa, &c. The title in this case has some justification. No class of men (as all Anglo-Indians will agree) is so diligent, so faithful, so unobtrusive, and uncomplaining as that of the bihishtīs. And often in battle they have shown their courage and fidelity in supplying water to the wounded in face of much personal danger.