c. 830.—"Kharek ... cette isle qui a un farsakh en long et en large, produit du blé, des palmiers, et des vignes."—Ibn Khurdādba, in J. As. ser. vi. tom. v. 283.
c. 1563.—"Partendosi da Basora si passa 200 miglia di Golfo co'l mare a banda destra sino che si giunge nell' isola di Carichi...."—C. Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 386v.
1727.—"The Islands of Carrick ly, about West North West, 12 Leagues from Bowchier."—A. Hamilton, i. 90.
1758.—"The Baron ... immediately sailed for the little island of Karec, where he safely landed; having attentively surveyed the spot he at that time laid the plan, which he afterwards executed with so much success."—Ives, 212.
(2). CARRACK, s. A kind of vessel of burden from the Middle Ages down to the end of the 17th century. The character of the earlier carrack cannot be precisely defined. But the larger cargo-ships of the Portuguese in the trade of the 16th century were generally so styled, and these were sometimes of enormous tonnage, with 3 or 4 decks. Charnock (Marine Architecture, ii. p. 9) has a plate of a Genoese carrack of 1542. He also quotes the description of a Portuguese carrack taken by Sir John Barrough in 1592. It was of 1,600 tons burden, whereof 900 merchandize; carried 32 brass pieces and between 600 and 700 passengers (?); was built with 7 decks. The word (L. Lat.) carraca is regarded by Skeat as properly carrica, from carricare, It. caricare, 'to lade, to charge.' This is possible; but it would be well to examine if it be not from the Ar. ḥarāḳah, a word which the dictionaries explain as 'fire-ship'; though this is certainly not always the meaning. Dozy is inclined to derive carraca (which is old in Sp. he says) from ḳarāḳir, the pl. of ḳurḳūr or ḳurḳūra (see CARACOA). And ḳurḳūra itself he thinks may have come from carricare, which already occurs in St. Jerome. So that Mr. Skeat's origin is possibly correct. [The N.E.D. refers to carraca, of which the origin is said to be uncertain.] Ibn Batuta uses the word twice at least for a state barge or something of that kind (see Cathay p. 499, and Ibn Bat. ii. 116; iv. 289). The like use occurs several times in Makrizi (e.g. I. i. 143; I. ii. 66; and II. i. 24). Quatremère at the place first quoted observes that the ḥarāḳah was not a fire ship in our sense, but a vessel with a high deck from which fire could be thrown; but that it could also be used as a transport vessel, and was so used on sea and land.
1338.—"... after that we embarked at Venice on board a certain carrack, and sailed down the Adriatic Sea."—Friar Pasqual, in Cathay, &c., 231.
1383.—"Eodem tempore venit in magnâ tempestate ad Sandevici portum navis quam dicunt carika (mirae) magnitudinis, plena divitiis, quae facile inopiam totius terrae relevare potuisset, si incolarum invidia permisisset."—T. Walsingham, Hist. Anglic., by H. T. Riley, 1864, ii. 83-84.
1403.—"The prayer being concluded, and the storm still going on, a light like a candle appeared in the cage at the mast-head of the carraca, and another light on the spar that they call bowsprit (bauprés) which is fixed in the forecastle; and another light like a candle in una vara de espinelo (?) over the poop, and these lights were seen by as many as were in the carrack, and were called up to see them, and they lasted awhile and then disappeared, and all this while the storm did not cease, and by-and-by all went to sleep except the steersman and certain sailors of the watch."—Clavijo, § xiii. Comp. Markham, p. 13.
1548.—"De Thesauro nostro munitionum artillariorum, Tentorum, Pavilionum, pro Equis navibus caracatis, Galeis et aliis navibus quibuscumque...."—Act of Edw. VI. in Rymer, xv. 175.
1552.—"Ils avaient 4 barques, grandes comme des ḳarrāḳa...."—Sidi 'Ali, p. 67.
1566-68.—"... about the middle of the month of Ramazan, in the year 974, the inhabitants of Funan and Fandreeah [i.e. Ponany and Pandarāni, q.v.], having sailed out of the former of these ports in a fleet of 12 grabs, captured a caracca belonging to the Franks, which had arrived from Bengal, and which was laden with rice and sugar ... in the year 976 another party ... in a fleet of 17 grabs ... made capture off Shaleeat (see CHALIA) of a large caracca, which had sailed from Cochin, having on board nearly 1,000 Franks...."—Tohfut-ul-Mujahideen, p. 159.
1596.—"It comes as farre short as ... a cocke-boate of a Carrick."—T. Nash, Have with you to Saffron Walden, repr. by J. P. Collier, p. 72.
1613.—"They are made like carracks, only strength and storage."—Beaum. & Flet., The Coxcomb, i. 3.
1615.—"After we had given her chase for about 5 hours, her colours and bulk discovered her to be a very great Portugal carrack bound for Goa."—Terry, in Purchas; [ed. 1777, p. 34].
1620.—"The harbor at Nangasaque is the best in all Japon, wheare there may be 1000 seale of shipps ride landlockt, and the greatest shipps or carickes in the world ... ride before the towne within a cable's length of the shore in 7 or 8 fathom water at least."—Cocks, Letter to Batavia, ii. 313.
c. 1620.—"Il faut attendre là des Pilotes du lieu, que les Gouverneurs de Bombaim et de Marsagão ont soin d'envoyer tout à l'heure, pour conduire le Vaisseau à Turumba [i.e. Trombay] où les Caraques ont coustume d'hyverner."—Routier ... des Indes Or., by Aleixo da Motta, in Thevenot.
c. 1635.—
"The bigger Whale, like some huge carrack lay
Which wanted Sea room for her foes to play...."
Waller, Battle of the Summer Islands.
1653.—"... pour moy il me vouloit loger en son Palais, et que si i'auois la volonté de retourner a Lisbone par mer, il me feroit embarquer sur les premieres Karaques...."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 213.
1660.—"And further, That every Merchant Denizen who shall hereafter ship any Goods or Merchandize in any Carrack or Galley shall pay to your Majesty all manner of Customs, and all the Subsidies aforesaid, as any Alien born out of the Realm."—Act 12 Car. II. cap. iv. s. iv. (Tonnage and Poundage).
c. 1680.—"To this City of the floating ... which foreigners, with a little variation from carroços, call carracas."—Vieira, quoted by Bluteau.
1684.—"... there was a Carack of Portugal cast away upon the Reef having on board at that Time 4,000,000 of Guilders in Gold ... a present from the King of Siam to the King of Portugal."—Cowley, 32, in Dampier's Voyages, iv.
CARRAWAY, s. This word for the seed of Carum carui, L., is (probably through Sp. alcaravea) from the Arabic karawiyā. It is curious that the English form is thus closer to the Arabic than either the Spanish, or the French and Italian carvi, which last has passed into Scotch as carvy. But the Arabic itself is a corruption [not immediately, N.E.D.] of Lat. careum, or Gr. κάρον (Dozy).
CARTMEEL, s. This is, at least in the Punjab, the ordinary form that 'mail-cart' takes among the natives. Such inversions are not uncommon. Thus Sir David Ochterlony was always called by the Sepoys Loni-okhtar. In our memory an officer named Holroyd was always called by the Sepoys Roydāl, [and Brownlow, Lobrūn. By another curious corruption Mackintosh becomes Makkhanī-tosh, 'buttered toast'!]
CARTOOCE, s. A cartridge; kārtūs, Sepoy H.; [comp. TOSTDAUN].
CARYOTA, s. This is the botanical name (Caryota urens, L.) of a magnificent palm growing in the moister forest regions, as in the Western Ghauts and in Eastern Bengal, in Ceylon, and in Burma. A conspicuous character is presented by its enormous bipinnate leaves, somewhat resembling colossal bracken-fronds, 15 to 25 feet long, 10 to 12 in width; also by the huge pendent clusters of its inflorescence and seeds, the latter like masses of rosaries 10 feet long and upwards. It affords much Toddy (q.v.) made into spirit and sugar, and is the tree chiefly affording these products in Ceylon, where it is called Kitul. It also affords a kind of sago, and a woolly substance found at the foot of the leaf-stalks is sometimes used for caulking, and forms a good tinder. The sp. name urens is derived from the acrid, burning taste of the fruit. It is called, according to Brandis, the Mhār-palm in Western India. We know of no Hindustani or familiar Anglo-Indian name. [Watt, (Econ. Dict. ii. 206) says that it is known in Bombay as the Hill or Sago palm. It has penetrated in Upper India as far as Chunār.] The name Caryota seems taken from Pliny, but his application is to a kind of date-palm; his statement that it afforded the best wine of the East probably suggested the transfer.
c. A.D. 70.—"Ab his caryotae maxume celebrantur, et cibo quidem et suco uberrimae, ex quibus praecipua vina orienti, iniqua capiti, unde pomo nomen."—Pliny, xiii. § 9.
1681.—"The next tree is the Kettule. It groweth straight, but not so tall or big as a Coker-Nut-Tree; the inside nothing but a white pith, as the former. It yieldeth a sort of Liquor ... very sweet and pleasing to the Pallate.... The which Liquor they boyl and make a kind of brown sugar called Jaggory [see JAGGERY], &c."—Knox, p. 15.
1777.—"The Caryota urens, called the Saguer tree, grew between Salatiga and Kopping, and was said to be the real tree from which sago is made."—Thunberg, E. T. iv. 149. A mistake, however.
1861.—See quotation under PEEPUL.
CASH, s. A name applied by Europeans to sundry coins of low value in various parts of the Indies. The word in its original form is of extreme antiquity, "Skt. karsha ... a weight of silver or gold equal to 1⁄400 of a Tulā" (Williams, Skt. Dict.; and see also a Note on the Kārsha, or rather kārshāpaṇa, as a copper coin of great antiquity, in E. Thomas's Pathân Kings of Delhi, 361-362). From the Tam. form kāsu, or perhaps from some Konkani form which we have not traced, the Portuguese seem to have made caixa, whence the English cash. In Singalese also kāsi is used for 'coin' in general. The English term was appropriated in the monetary system which prevailed in S. India up to 1818; thus there was a copper coin for use in Madras struck in England in 1803, which bears on the reverse, "XX Cash." A figure of this coin is given in Ruding. Under this system 80 cash = 1 fanam, 42 fanams = 1 star pagoda. But from an early date the Portuguese had applied caixa to the small money of foreign systems, such as those of the Malay Islands, and especially to that of the Chinese. In China the word cash is used, by Europeans and their hangers-on, as the synonym of the Chinese le and tsien, which are those coins made of an alloy of copper and lead with a square hole in the middle, which in former days ran 1000 to the liang or tael (q.v.), and which are strung in certain numbers on cords. [This type of money, as was recently pointed out by Lord Avebury, is a survival of the primitive currency, which was in the shape of an axe.] Rouleaux of coin thus strung are represented on the surviving bank-notes of the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368 onwards), and probably were also on the notes of their Mongol predecessors.
The existence of the distinct English word cash may probably have affected the form of the corruption before us. This word had a European origin from It. cassa, French caisse, 'the money-chest': this word in book-keeping having given name to the heading of account under which actual disbursements of coin were entered (see Wedgwood and N.E.D. s.v.). In Minsheu (2nd ed. 1627) the present sense of the word is not attained. He only gives "a tradesman's Cash, or Counter to keepe money in."
1510.—"They have also another coin called cas, 16 of which go to a tare of silver."—Varthema, 130.
" "In this country (Calicut) a great number of apes are produced, one of which is worth 4 casse, and one casse is worth a quattrino."—Ibid. 172. (Why a monkey should be worth 4 casse is obscure.)
1598.—"You must understand that in Sunda there is also no other kind of money than certaine copper mynt called Caixa, of the bignes of a Hollãdes doite, but not half so thicke, in the middle whereof is a hole to hang it on a string, for that commonlie they put two hundreth or a thousand vpon one string."—Linschoten, 34; [Hak. Soc. i. 113].
1600.—"Those (coins) of Lead are called caxas, whereof 1600 make one mas."—John Davis, in Purchas, i. 117.
1609.—"Ils (les Chinois) apportent la monnoye qui a le cours en toute l'isle de Iava, et Isles circonvoisines, laquelle en lãgue Malaique est appellee Cas.... Cette monnoye est jettée en moule en Chine, a la Ville de Chincheu."—Houtman, in Nav. des Hollandois, i. 30b.
[1621.—"In many places they threw abroad Cashes (or brasse money) in great quantety."—Cocks, Diary, ii. 202.]
1711.—"Doodoos and Cash are Copper Coins, eight of the former make one Fanham, and ten of the latter one Doodoo."—Lockyer, 8. [Doodoo is the Tel. duddu, Skt. dvi, 'two'; a more modern scale is: 2 dooggaunies = 1 doody: 3 doodies = 1 anna.—Mad. Gloss. s.v.]
1718.—"Cass (a very small coin, eighty whereof make one Fano)."—Propagation of the Gospel in the East, ii. 52.
1727.—"At Atcheen they have a small coin of leaden Money called Cash, from 12 to 1600 of them goes to one Mace, or Masscie."—A. Hamilton, ii. 109.
c. 1750-60.—"At Madras and other parts of the coast of Coromandel, 80 casches make a fanam, or 3d. sterling; and 36 fanams a silver pagoda, or 7s. 8d. sterling."—Grose, i. 282.
1790.—"So far am I from giving credit to the late Government (of Madras) for œconomy, in not making the necessary preparations for war, according to the positive orders of the Supreme Government, after having received the most gross insult that could be offered to any nation! I think it very possible that every Cash of that ill-judged saving may cost the company a crore of rupees."—Letter of Lord Cornwallis to E. J. Hollond, Esq., see the Madras Courier, 22nd Sept. 1791.
[1792.—"Whereas the sum of Raheties 1223, 6 fanams and 30 khas has been deducted."—Agreement in Logan, Malabar, iii. 226.]
1813.—At Madras, according to Milburn, the coinage ran:
"10 Cash = 1 doodee; 2 doodees = 1 pice; 8 doodees = 1 single fanam," &c.
The following shows a singular corruption, probably of the Chinese tsien, and illustrates how the striving after meaning shapes such corruptions:—
1876.—"All money transactions (at Manwyne on the Burman-Chinese frontier) are effected in the copper coin of China called 'change,' of which about 400 or 500 go to the rupee. These coins are generally strung on cord," &c.—Report on the Country through which the Force passed to meet the Governor, by W. J. Charlton, M.D.
An intermediate step in this transformation is found in Cocks's Japan Journal, passim, e.g., ii. 89:
"But that which I tooke most note of was of the liberalitee and devotion of these heathen people, who thronged into the Pagod in multetudes one after another to cast money into a littel chapell before the idalles, most parte ... being gins or brass money, whereof 100 of them may vallie som 10d. str., and are about the bignes of a 3d. English money."
CASHEW, s. The tree, fruit, or nut of the Anacardium occidentale, an American tree which must have been introduced early into India by the Portuguese, for it was widely diffused apparently as a wild tree long before the end of the 17th century, and it is described as an Indian tree by Acosta, who wrote in 1578. Crawfurd also speaks of it as abundant, and in full bearing, in the jungly islets of Hastings Archipelago, off the coast of Camboja (Emb. to Siam, &c., i. 103) [see Teele's note on Linschoten, Hak. Soc. ii. 27]. The name appears to be S. American, acajou, of which an Indian form, kājū, [and Malay gajus], have been made. The so-called fruit is the fleshy top of the peduncle which bears the nut. The oil in the shell of the nut is acrid to an extraordinary degree, whilst the kernels, which are roasted and eaten, are quite bland. The tree yields a gum imported under the name of Cadju gum.
1578.—"This tree gives a fruit called commonly Caiu; which being a good stomachic, and of good flavour, is much esteemed by all who know it.... This fruit does not grow everywhere, but is found in gardens at the city of Santa Cruz in the Kingdom of Cochin."—C. Acosta, Tractado, 324 seqq.
1598.—"Cajus groweth on trees like apple-trees, and are of the bignes of a Peare."—Linschoten, p. 94; [Hak. Soc. ii. 28].
[1623.—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 135, calls it cagiu.]
1658.—In Piso, De Indiae utriusque Re Naturali et Medicâ, Amst., we have a good cut of the tree as one of Brasil, called Acaibaa "et fructus ejus Acaju."
1672.—"... il Cagiu.... Questo è l'Amandola ordinaria dell'India, per il che se ne raccoglie grandissima quantità, essendo la pianta fertilissima e molto frequente, ancora nelli luoghi più deserti et inculti."—Vincenzo Maria, 354.
1673.—Fryer describes the tree under the name Cheruse (apparently some mistake), p. 182.
1764.—
"... Yet if
The Acajou haply in the garden bloom...."
Grainger, iv.
[1813.—Forbes calls it "the chashew-apple," and the "cajew-apple."—Or. Mem. 2nd ed. i. 232, 238.]
c. 1830.—"The cashew, with its apple like that of the cities of the Plain, fair to look at, but acrid to the taste, to which the far-famed nut is appended like a bud."—Tom Cringle, ed. 1863, p. 140.
1875.—"Cajoo kernels."—Table of Customs Duties imposed in Br. India up to 1875.
CASHMERE, n.p. The famous valley province of the Western Himālaya, H. and P. Kashmīr, from Skt. Kaśmīra, and sometimes Kāśmīra, alleged by Burnouf to be a contraction of Kaśyapamīra. [The name is more probably connected with the Khasa tribe.] Whether or not it be the Kaspatyrus or Kaspapyrus of Herodotus, we believe it undoubtedly to be the Kaspeiria (kingdom) of Ptolemy. Several of the old Arabian geographers write the name with the guttural ḳ, but this is not so used in modern times.
c. 630.—"The Kingdom of Kia-shi-mi-lo (Kaśmīra) has about 7000 li of circuit. On all sides its frontiers are surrounded by mountains; these are of prodigious height; and although there are paths affording access to it, these are extremely narrow."—Hwen T'sang (Pèl. Bouddh.) ii. 167.
c. 940.—"Ḳashmīr ... is a mountainous country, forming a large kingdom, containing not less than 60,000 or 70,000 towns or villages. It is inaccessible except on one side, and can only be entered by one gate."—Mas'ūdi, i. 373.
1275.—"Ḳashmīr, a province of India, adjoining the Turks; and its people of mixt Turk and Indian blood excel all others in beauty."—Zakarīya Kazvīni, in Gildemeister, 210.
1298.—"Keshimur also is a province inhabited by a people who are idolaters and have a language of their own ... this country is the very source from which idolatry has spread abroad."—Marco Polo, i. 175.
1552.—"The Mogols hold especially towards the N.E. the region Sogdiana, which they now call Queximir, and also Mount Caucasus which divides India from the other Provinces."—Barros, IV. vi. 1.
1615.—"Chishmeere, the chiefe Citie is called Sirinakar."—Terry, in Purchas, ii. 1467; [so in Roe's Map, vol. ii. Hak. Soc. ed.; Chismer in Foster, Letters, iii. 283].
1664.—"From all that hath been said, one may easily conjecture, that I am somewhat charmed with Kachemire, and that I pretend there is nothing in the world like it for so small a kingdom."—Bernier, E. T. 128; [ed. Constable, 400].
1676.—
"A trial of your kindness I must make;
Though not for mine, so much as virtue's sake,
The Queen of Cassimere...."
Dryden's Aurungzebe, iii. 1.
1814.—"The shawls of Cassimer and the silks of Iran."—Forbes, Or. Mem. iii. 177; [2nd ed. ii. 232]. (See KERSEYMERE.)
CASIS, CAXIS, CACIZ, &c., s. This Spanish and Portuguese word, though Dozy gives it only as prêtre chrétien, is frequently employed by old travellers, and writers on Eastern subjects, to denote Mahommedan divines (mullas and the like). It may be suspected to have arisen from a confusion of two Arabic terms—kāḍi (see CAZEE) and ḳashīsh or ḳasīs, 'a Christian Presbyter' (from a Syriac root signifying senuit). Indeed we sometimes find the precise word ḳashīsh (Caxix) used by Christian writers as if it were the special title of a Mahommedan theologian, instead of being, as it really is, the special and technical title of a Christian priest (a fact which gives Mount Athos its common Turkish name of Ḳashīsh Dāgh). In the first of the following quotations the word appears to be applied by the Mussulman historian to pagan priests, and the word for churches to pagan temples. In the others, except that from Major Millingen, it is applied by Christian writers to Mahommedan divines, which is indeed its recognised signification in Spanish and Portuguese. In Jarric's Thesaurus (Jesuit Missions, 1606) the word Cacizius is constantly used in this sense.
c. 1310.—"There are 700 churches (kalīsīa) resembling fortresses, and every one of them overflowing with presbyters (ḳashīshān) without faith, and monks without religion."—Description of the Chinese City of Khanzai (Hangchau) in Wasāf's History (see also Marco Polo, ii. 196).
1404.—"The town was inhabited by Moorish hermits called Caxixes; and many people came to them on pilgrimage, and they healed many diseases."—Markham's Clavijo, 79.
1514.—"And so, from one to another, the message passed through four or five hands, till it came to a Gazizi, whom we should call a bishop or prelate, who stood at the King's feet...."—Letter of Giov. de Empoli, in Archiv. Stor. Ital. Append. p. 56.
1538.—"Just as the Cryer was offering to deliver me unto whomsoever would buy me, in comes that very Cacis Moulana, whom they held for a Saint, with 10 or 11 other Cacis his Inferiors, all Priests like himself of their wicked sect."—F. M. Pinto (tr. by H. C.), p. 8.
1552.—Caciz in the same sense used by Barros, II. ii. 1.
[1553.—See quotation from Barros under LAR.
[1554.—"Who was a Caciz of the Moors, which means in Portuguese an ecclesiastic."—Castañeda, Bk. I. ch. 7.]
1561.—"The King sent off the Moor, and with him his Casis, an old man of much authority, who was the principal priest of his Mosque."—Correa, by Ld. Stanley, 113.
1567.—"... The Holy Synod declares it necessary to remove from the territories of His Highness all the infidels whose office it is to maintain their false religion, such as are the cācizes of the Moors, and the preachers of the Gentoos, jogues, sorcerers, (feiticeiros), jousis, grous (i.e. joshis or astrologers, and gurūs), and whatsoever others make a business of religion among the infidels, and so also the bramans and paibus (? prabhūs, see PURVOE)."—Decree 6 of the Sacred Council of Goa, in Arch. Port. Or. fasc. 4.
1580.—"... e foi sepultado no campo per Cacises."—Primor e Honra, &c., f. 13v.
1582.—"And for pledge of the same, he would give him his sonne, and one of his chief chaplaines, the which they call Cacis."—Castañeda, by N. L.
1603.—"And now those initiated priests of theirs called Cashishes (Casciscis) were endeavouring to lay violent hands upon his property."—Benedict Goës, in Cathay, &c., ii. 568.
1648.—"Here is to be seen an admirably wrought tomb in which a certain Casis lies buried, who was the Pedagogue or Tutor of a King of Guzuratte."—Van Twist, 15.
1672.—"They call the common priests Casis, or by another name Schierifi (see SHEREEF), who like their bishops are in no way distinguished in dress from simple laymen, except by a bigger turban ... and a longer mantle...."—P. Vincenzo Maria, 55.
1688.—"While they were thus disputing, a Caciz, or doctor of the law, joined company with them."—Dryden, L. of Xavier, Works, ed. 1821, xvi. 68.
1870.—"A hierarchical body of priests, known to the people (Nestorians) under the names of Kieshishes and Abunas, is at the head of the tribes and villages, entrusted with both spiritual and temporal powers."—Millingen, Wild Life among the Koords, 270.
CASSANAR, CATTANAR, s. A priest of the Syrian Church of Malabar; Malayāl. kattanār, meaning originally 'a chief,' and formed eventually from the Skt. kartṛi.
1606.—"The Christians of St. Thomas call their priests Caçanares."—Gouvea, f. 28b. This author gives Catatiara and Caçaneira as feminine forms, 'a Cassanar's wife.' The former is Malayāl. kàttatti, the latter a Port. formation.
1612.—"A few years ago there arose a dispute between a Brahman and a certain Cassanar on a matter of jurisdiction."—P. Vincenzo Maria, 152.
[1887.—"Mgr. Joseph ... consecrated as a bishop ... a Catenar."—Logan, Man. of Malabar, i. 211.]
CASSAY, n.p. A name often given in former days to the people of Munneepore (Manipur), on the eastern frontier of Bengal. It is the Burmese name of this people, Kasé, or as the Burmese pronounce it, Kathé. It must not be confounded with Cathay (q.v.) with which it has nothing to do. [See SHAN.]
1759.—In Dalrymple's Orient. Repert. we find Cassay (i. 116).
1795.—"All the troopers in the King's service are natives of Cassay, who are much better horsemen than the Burmans."—Symes, p. 318.
CASSOWARY, s. The name of this great bird, of which the first species known (Casuarius galeatus) is found only in Ceram Island (Moluccas), is Malay kasavārī or kasuārī; [according to Scott, the proper reading is kasuwārī, and he remarks that no Malay Dict. records the word before 1863]. Other species have been observed in N. Guinea, N. Britain, and N. Australia.
[1611.—"St. James his Ginny Hens, the Cassawarway moreover."—(Note by Coryat.) "An East Indian bird at St. James in the keeping of Mr. Walker, that will carry no coales, but eat them as whot you will."—Peacham, in Paneg. verses on Coryat's Crudities, sig. 1. 3r. (1776); quoted by Scott.]
1631.—"De Emeu, vulgo Casoaris. In insula Ceram, aliisque Moluccensibus vicinis insulis, celebris haec avis reperitur."—Jac. Bontii, lib. v. c. 18.
1659.—"This aforesaid bird Cossebàres also will swallow iron and lead, as we once learned by experience. For when our Connestabel once had been casting bullets on the Admiral's Bastion, and then went to dinner, there came one of these Cossebàres on the bastion, and swallowed 50 of the bullets. And ... next day I found that the bird after keeping them a while in his maw had regularly cast up again all the 50."—J. J. Saar, 86.
1682.—"On the islands Sumatra (?) Banda, and the other adjoining islands of the Moluccas there is a certain bird, which by the natives is called Emeu or Eme, but otherwise is commonly named by us Kasuaris."—Nieuhof, ii. 281.
1705.—"The Cassawaris is about the bigness of a large Virginia Turkey. His head is the same as a Turkey's; and he has a long stiff hairy Beard upon his Breast before, like a Turkey...."—Funnel, in Dampier, iv. 266.
CASTE, s. "The artificial divisions of society in India, first made known to us by the Portuguese, and described by them under their term caste, signifying 'breed, race, kind,' which has been retained in English under the supposition that it was the native name" (Wedgwood, s.v.). [See the extraordinary derivation of Hamilton below.] Mr. Elphinstone prefers to write "Cast."
We do not find that the early Portuguese writer Barbosa (1516) applies the word casta to the divisions of Hindu society. He calls these divisions in Narsinga and Malabar so many leis de gentios, i.e. 'laws' of the heathen, in the sense of sectarian rules of life. But he uses the word casta in a less technical way, which shows how it should easily have passed into the technical sense. Thus, speaking of the King of Calicut: "This King keeps 1000 women, to whom he gives regular maintenance, and they always go to his court to act as the sweepers of his palaces ... these are ladies, and of good family" (estas saom fidalgas e de boa casta.—In Coll. of Lisbon Academy, ii. 316). So also Castanheda: "There fled a knight who was called Fernão Lopez, homem de boa casta" (iii. 239). In the quotations from Barros, Correa, and Garcia de Orta, we have the word in what we may call the technical sense.
c. 1444.—"Whence I conclude that this race (casta) of men is the most agile and dexterous that there is in the world."—Cadamosto, Navegação, i. 14.
1552.—"The Admiral ... received these Naires with honour and joy, showing great contentment with the King for sending his message by such persons, saying that he expected this coming of theirs to prosper, as there did not enter into the business any man of the caste of the Moors."—Barros, I. vi. 5.
1561.—"Some of them asserted that they were of the caste (casta) of the Christians."—Correa, Lendas, i. 2, 685.
1563.—"One thing is to be noted ... that no one changes from his father's trade, and all those of the same caste (casta) of shoemakers are the same."—Garcia, f. 213b.
1567.—"In some parts of this Province (of Goa) the Gentoos divide themselves into distinct races or castes (castas) of greater or less dignity, holding the Christians as of lower degree, and keep these so superstitiously that no one of a higher caste can eat or drink with those of a lower...."—Decree 2nd of the Sacred Council of Goa, in Archiv. Port. Orient., fasc. 4.
1572.—
"Dous modos ha de gente; porque a nobre
Nairos chamados são, e a menos dina
Poleas tem por nome, a quem obriga
A lei não misturar a castà antiga."—
Camões, vii. 37.
By Burton:
"Two modes of men are known; the nobles know
the name of Nayrs, who call the lower Caste
Poléas, whom their haughty laws contain
from intermingling with the higher strain."
1612.—"As regards the castes (castas) the great impediment to the conversion of the Gentoos is the superstition which they maintain in relation to their castes, and which prevents them from touching, communicating, or mingling with others, whether superior or inferior; these of one observance with those of another."—Couto, Dec. V. vi. 4. See also as regards the Portuguese use of the word, Gouvea, ff. 103, 104, 105, 106b, 129b; Synodo, 18b, &c.
1613.—"The Banians kill nothing; there are thirtie and odd severall Casts of these that differ something in Religion, and may not eat with each other."—N. Withington, in Purchas, i. 485; see also Pilgrimage, pp. 997, 1003.
1630.—"The common Bramane hath eighty two Casts or Tribes, assuming to themselves the name of that tribe...."—Lord's Display of the Banians, p. 72.
1673.—"The mixture of Casts or Tribes of all India are distinguished by the different modes of binding their Turbats."—Fryer, 115.
c. 1760.—"The distinction of the Gentoos into their tribes or Casts, forms another considerable object of their religion."—Grose, i. 201.
1763.—"The Casts or tribes into which the Indians are divided, are reckoned by travellers to be eighty-four."—Orme (ed. 1803), i. 4.
[1820.—"The Kayasthas (pronounced Kaists, hence the word caste) follow next."—W. Hamilton, Descr. of Hindostan, i. 109.]
1878.—"There are thousands and thousands of these so-called Castes; no man knows their number, no man can know it; for the conception is a very flexible one, and moreover new castes continually spring up and pass away."—F. Jagor, Ost-Indische Handwerk und Gewerbe, 13.
Castes are, according to Indian social views, either high or low.
1876.—"Low-caste Hindoos in their own land are, to all ordinary apprehension, slovenly, dirty, ungraceful, generally unacceptable in person and surroundings.... Yet offensive as is the low-caste Indian, were I estate-owner, or colonial governor, I had rather see the lowest Pariahs of the low, than a single trim, smooth-faced, smooth-wayed, clever high-caste Hindoo, on my lands or in my colony."—W. G. Palgrave, in Fortnightly Rev., cx. 226.
In the Madras Pres. castes are also 'Right-hand' and 'Left-hand.' This distinction represents the agricultural classes on the one hand, and the artizans, &c., on the other, as was pointed out by F. W. Ellis. In the old days of Ft. St. George, faction-fights between the two were very common, and the terms right-hand and left-hand castes occur early in the old records of that settlement, and frequently in Mr. Talboys Wheeler's extracts from them. They are mentioned by Couto. [See Nelson, Madura, Pt. ii. p. 4; Oppert, Orig. Inhab. p. 57.]
Sir Walter Elliot considers this feud to be "nothing else than the occasional outbreak of the smouldering antagonism between Brahmanism and Buddhism, although in the lapse of ages both parties have lost sight of the fact. The points on which they split now are mere trifles, such as parading on horse-back or in a palankeen in procession, erecting a pandal or marriage-shed on a given number of pillars, and claiming to carry certain flags, &c. The right-hand party is headed by the Brahmans, and includes the Parias, who assume the van, beating their tom-toms when they come to blows. The chief of the left-hand are the Panchalars [i.e. the Five Classes, workers in metal and stone, &c.], followed by the Pallars and workers in leather, who sound their long trumpets and engage the Parias." (In Journ. Ethnol. Soc. N.S. 1869, p. 112.)
1612.—"From these four castes are derived 196; and those again are divided into two parties, which they call Valanga and Elange [Tam. valangai, idangai], which is as much as to say 'the right hand' and 'the left hand'...."—Couto, u. s.
The word is current in French:
1842.—"Il est clair que les castes n'ont jamais pu exister solidement sans une veritable conservation religieuse."—Comte, Cours de Phil. Positive, vi. 505.
1877.—"Nous avons aboli les castes et les privilèges, nous avons inscrit partout le principe de l'égalité devant la loi, nous avons donné le suffrage à tous, mais voilà qu'on réclame maintenant l'égalité des conditions."—E. de Laveleye, De la Propriété, p. iv.
Caste is also applied to breeds of animals, as 'a high-caste Arab.' In such cases the usage may possibly have come directly from the Port. alta casta, casta baixa, in the sense of breed or strain.
CASTEES, s. Obsolete. The Indo-Portuguese formed from casta the word castiço, which they used to denote children born in India of Portuguese parents; much as creole was used in the W. Indies.
1599.—"Liberi vero nati in Indiâ, utroque parente Lusitano, castisos vocantur, in omnibus fere Lusitanis similes, colore tamen modicum differunt, ut qui ad gilvum non nihil deflectant. Ex castisis deinde nati magis magisque gilvi fiunt, a parentibus et mesticis magis deflectentes; porro et mesticis nati per omnia indigenis respondent, ita ut in tertiâ generatione Lusitani reliquis Indis sunt simillimi."—De Bry, ii. 76; (Linschoten [Hak. Soc. i. 184]).
1638.—"Les habitans sont ou Castizes, c'est à dire Portugais naturels, et nez de pere et de mere Portugais, ou Mestizes, c'est à dire, nez d'vn pere Portugais et d'vne mere Indienne."—Mandelslo.
1653.—"Les Castissos sont ceux qui sont nays de pere et mere reinols (Reinol); ce mot vient de Casta, qui signifie Race, ils sont mesprizez des Reynols...."—Le Gouz, Voyages, 26 (ed. 1657).
1661.—"Die Stadt (Negapatam) ist zimlich volksreich, doch mehrentheils von Mastycen Castycen, und Portugesichen Christen."—Walter Schulze, 108.
1699.—"Castees wives at Fort St. George."—Census of English on the Coast, in Wheeler, i. 356.
1701-2.—In the MS. Returns of Persons in the Service of the Rt. Honble. the E. I. Company, in the India Office, for this year, we find, "4th (in Council) Matt. Empson, Sea Customer, marry'd Castees," and under 1702, "13. Charles Bugden ... marry'd Casteez."
1726.—"... or the offspring of the same by native women, to wit Mistices and Castices, or blacks ... and Moors."—Valentijn, v. 3.
CASUARINA, s. A tree (Casuarina muricata, Roxb.—N. O. Casuarineae) indigenous on the coast of Chittagong and the Burmese provinces, and southward as far as Queensland. It was introduced into Bengal by Dr. F. Buchanan, and has been largely adopted as an ornamental tree both in Bengal and in Southern India. The tree has a considerable superficial resemblance to a larch or other finely-feathered conifer, making a very acceptable variety in the hot plains, where real pines will not grow. [The name, according to Mr. Scott, appears to be based on a Malayan name associating the tree with the Cassowary, as Mr. Skeat suggests from the resemblance of its needles to the quills of the bird.]
1861.—See quotation under PEEPUL.
1867.—"Our road lay chiefly by the sea-coast, along the white sands, which were fringed for miles by one grand continuous line or border of casuarina trees."—Lt.-Col. Lewin, A Fly on the Wheel, 362.
1879.—"It was lovely in the white moonlight, with the curving shadows of palms on the dewy grass, the grace of the drooping casuarinas, the shining water, and the long drift of surf...."—Miss Bird, Golden Chersonese, 275.
CATAMARÁN, s. Also CUTMURRAM, CUTMURÁL. Tam. kaṭṭu, 'binding,' maram, 'wood.' A raft formed of three or four logs of wood lashed together. The Anglo-Indian accentuation of the last syllable is not correct.
1583.—"Seven round timbers lashed together for each of the said boats, and of the said seven timbers five form the bottom; one in the middle longer than the rest makes a cutwater, and another makes a poop which is under water, and on which a man sits.... These boats are called Gatameroni."—Balbi, Viaggio, f. 82.
1673.—"Coasting along some Cattamarans (Logs lashed to that advantage that they waft off all their Goods, only having a Sail in the midst and Paddles to guide them) made after us...."—Fryer, 24.
1698.—"Some time after the Cattamaran brought a letter...."—In Wheeler, i. 334.
1700.—"Un pecheur assis sur un catimaron, c'est à dire sur quelques grosses pièces de bois liées ensemble en manière de radeau."—Lett. Edif. x. 58.
c. 1780.—"The wind was high, and the ship had but two anchors, and in the next forenoon parted from that by which she was riding, before that one who was coming from the shore on a Catamaran could reach her."—Orme, iii. 300.
1810.—Williamson (V. M. i. 65) applies the term to the rafts of the Brazilian fishermen.
1836.—"None can compare to the Catamarans and the wonderful people that manage them ... each catamaran has one, two, or three men ... they sit crouched upon their heels, throwing their paddles about very dexterously, but very unlike rowing."—Letters from Madras, 34.
1860.—"The Cattamaran is common to Ceylon and Coromandel."—Tennent, Ceylon, i. 442.
[During the war with Napoleon, the word came to be applied to a sort of fire-ship. "Great hopes have been formed at the Admiralty (in 1804) of certain vessels which were filled with combustibles and called catamarans."—(Ld. Stanhope, Life of Pitt, iv. 218.) This may have introduced the word in English and led to its use as 'old cat' for a shrewish hag.]
CATECHU, also CUTCH and CAUT, s. An astringent extract from the wood of several species of Acacia (Acacia catechu, Willd.), the khair, and Acacia suma, Kurz, Ac. sundra, D. C. and probably more. The extract is called in H. kaṭh, [Skt. kvath, 'to decoct'], but the two first commercial names which we have given are doubtless taken from the southern forms of the word, e.g. Can. kāchu, Tam. kāsu, Malay kachu. De Orta, whose judgments are always worthy of respect, considered it to be the lycium of the ancients, and always applied that name to it; but Dr. Royle has shown that lycium was an extract from certain species of berberis, known in the bazars as rasōt. Cutch is first mentioned by Barbosa, among the drugs imported into Malacca. But it remained unknown in Europe till brought from Japan about the middle of the 17th century. In the 4th ed. of Schröder's Pharmacop. Medico-chymica, Lyons, 1654, it is briefly described as Catechu or Terra Japonica, "genus terrae exoticae" (Hanbury and Flückiger, 214). This misnomer has long survived.