CHETTY, s. A member of any of the trading castes in S. India, answering in every way to the Banyans of W. and N. India. Malayāl. cheṭṭi, Tam. sheṭṭi, [Tel. seṭṭi, in Ceylon seḍḍi]. These have all been supposed to be forms from the Skt. śreshṭi; but C. P. Brown (MS.) denies this, and says "Shetti, a shop-keeper, is plain Telegu," and quite distinct from śreshṭi. [The same view is taken in the Madras Gloss.] Whence then the H. Seṭh (see SETT)? [The word was also used for a 'merchantman': see the quotations from Pyrard on which Gray notes: "I do not know any other authority for the use of the word for merchantships, though it is analogous to our merchantmen.'"]
c. 1349.—The word occurs in Ibn Batuta (iv. 259) in the form ṣăti, which he says was given to very rich merchants in China; and this is one of his questionable statements about that country.
1511.—"The great Afonso Dalboquerque ... determined to appoint Ninachatu, because he was a Hindoo, Governor of the Quilins (Cheling) and Chetins."—Comment. of Af. Dalboq., Hak. Soc. iii. 128; [and see quotation from ibid. iii. 146, under KLING].
1516.—"Some of these are called Chettis, who are Gentiles, natives of the province of Cholmender."—Barbosa, 144.
1552.—"... whom our people commonly call Chatis. These are men with such a genius for merchandise, and so acute in every mode of trade, that among our people when they desire either to blame or praise any man for his subtlety and skill in merchant's traffic they say of him, 'he is a Chatim'; and they use the word chatinar for 'to trade,'—which are words now very commonly received among us."—Barros, I. ix. 3.
c. 1566.—"Ui sono uomini periti che si chiamano Chitini, li quali metteno il prezzo alle perle."—Cesare Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 390.
1596.—"The vessels of the Chatins of these parts never sail along the coast of Malavar nor towards the north, except in a cafilla, in order to go and come more securely, and to avoid being cut off by the Malavars and other corsairs, who are continually roving in those seas."—Viceroy's Proclamation at Goa, in Archiv. Port. Or., fasc. 3, 661.
1598.—"The Souldiers in these dayes give themselves more to be Chettijns [var. lect. Chatiins] and to deale in Marchandise, than to serve the King in his Armado."—Linschoten, 58; [Hak. Soc. i. 202].
[ " "Most of these vessels were Chetils, that is to say, merchantmen."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 345.
[c. 1610.—"Each is composed of fifty or sixty war galiots, without counting those of chetie, or merchantmen."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 117.]
1651.—"The Sitty are merchant folk."—Rogerius, 8.
1686.—"... And that if the Chetty Bazaar people do not immediately open their shops, and sell their grain, etc., as usually, that the goods and commodities in their several ships be confiscated."—In Wheeler, i. 152.
1726.—"The Sittis are merchant folk and also porters...."—Valentijn, Choro. 88.
" "The strength of a Bramin is Knowledge; the strength of a King is Courage; the strength of a Bellale (or Cultivator) is Revenue; the strength of a Chetti is Money."—Apophthegms of Ceylon, tr. in Valentijn, v. 390.
c. 1754.—"Chitties are a particular kind of merchants in Madras, and are generally very rich, but rank with the left-hand cast."—Ives, 25.
1796.—"Cetti, mercanti astuti, diligenti, laboriosi, sobrii, frugali, ricchi."—Fra Paolino, 79.
[CHEYLA, s. "Originally a H. word (chelā, Skt. cheṭaka, cheḍaka) meaning 'a servant,' many changes have been rung upon it in Hindu life, so that it has meant a slave, a household slave, a family retainer, an adopted member of a great family, a dependant relative and a soldier in its secular senses; a follower, a pupil, a disciple and a convert in its ecclesiastical senses. It has passed out of Hindu usage into Muhammadan usage with much the same meanings and ideas attached to it, and has even meant a convert from Hinduism to Islam." (Col. Temple, in Ind. Ant., July, 1896, pp. 200 seqq.). In Anglo-Indian usage it came to mean a special battalion made up of prisoners and converts.
[c. 1596.—"The Chelahs or Slaves. His Majesty from religious motives dislikes the name bandah or slave.... He therefore calls this class of men Chelahs, which Hindi term signifies a faithful disciple."—Āīn, Blochmann, i. 253 seqq.
[1791.—"(The Europeans) all were bound on the parade and rings (boly) the badge of slavery were put into their ears. They were then incorporated into a battalion of Cheylas."—In Seton-Karr, ii. 311.
[1795.—"... a Havildar ... compelled to serve in one of his Chela Corps."—Ibid. ii. 407.]
CHIAMAY, n.p. The name of an imaginary lake, which in the maps of the 16th century, followed by most of those of the 17th, is made the source of most of the great rivers of Further India, including the Brahmaputra, the Irawadi, the Salwen, and the Menam. Lake Chiamay was the counterpart of the African lake of the same period which is made the source of all the great rivers of Africa, but it is less easy to suggest what gave rise to this idea of it. The actual name seems taken from the State of Zimmé (see JANGOMAY) or Chiang-mai.
c. 1544.—"So proceeding onward, he arrived at the Lake of Singipamor, which ordinarily is called Chiammay...."—F. M. Pinto, Cogan's tr., p. 271.
1552.—"The Lake of Chiamai, which stands to the northward, 200 leagues in the interior, and from which issue six notable streams, three of which combining with others form the great river which passes through the midst of Siam, whilst the other three discharge into the Gulf of Bengala."—Barros, I. ix. 1.
1572.—
"Olha o rio Menão, que se derrama
Do grande lago, que Chiamai se chama."
Camões, x. 125.
1652.—"The Countrey of these Brames ... extendeth Northwards from the neerest Peguan Kingdomes ... watered with many great and remarkable Rivers, issuing from the Lake Chiamay, which though 600 miles from the Sea, and emptying itself continually into so many Channels, contains 400 miles in compass, and is nevertheless full of waters for the one or the other."—P. Heylin's Cosmographie, ii. 238.
CHICANE, CHICANERY, ss. These English words, signifying pettifogging, captious contention, taking every possible advantage in a contest, have been referred to Spanish chico, 'little,' and to Fr. chic, chicquet, 'a little bit,' as by Mr. Wedgwood in his Dict. of Eng. Etymology. See also quotation from Saturday Review below. But there can be little doubt that the words are really traceable to the game of chaugān, or horse-golf. This game is now well known in England under the name of Polo (q.v.). But the recent introduction under that name is its second importation into Western Europe. For in the Middle Ages it came from Persia to Byzantium, where it was popular under a modification of its Persian name (verb τζυκανίζειν, playing ground τζυκανιστήριον), and from Byzantium it passed, as a pedestrian game, to Languedoc, where it was called, by a further modification, chicane (see Ducange, Dissertations sur l'Histoire de St. Louis, viii., and his Glossarium Graecitatis, s.v. τζυκανίζειν; also Ouseley's Travels, i. 345). The analogy of certain periods of the game of golf suggests how the figurative meaning of chicaner might arise in taking advantage of the petty accidents of the surface. And this is the strict meaning of chicaner, as used by military writers.
Ducange's idea was that the Greeks had borrowed both the game and the name from France, but this is evidently erroneous. He was not aware of the Persian chaugān. But he explains well how the tactics of the game would have led to the application of its name to "those tortuous proceedings of pleaders which we old practitioners call barres." The indication of the Persian origin of both the Greek and French words is due to W. Ouseley and to Quatremère. The latter has an interesting note, full of his usual wealth of Oriental reading, in his translation of Makrizi's Mameluke Sultans, tom. i. pt. i. pp. 121 seqq.
The preceding etymology was put forward again in Notes upon Mr. Wedgwood's Dictionary published by one of the present writers in Ocean Highways, Sept. 1872, p. 186. The same etymology has since been given by Littré (s.v.), who says: "Dès lors, la série des sens est: jeu de mail, puis action de disputer la partie, et enfin manœuvres processives"; [and is accepted by the N.E.D. with the reservation that "evidence actually connecting the French with the Greek word appears not to be known"].
The P. forms of the name are chaugān and chauigān; but according to the Bahāri 'Ajam (a great Persian dictionary compiled in India, 1768) the primitive form of the word is chulgān from chūl, 'bent,' which (as to the form) is corroborated by the Arabic sawljān. On the other hand, a probable origin of chaugān would be an Indian (Prakrit) word, meaning 'four corners' [Platts gives chaugāna, 'four-fold'], viz. as a name for the polo-ground. The chulgān is possibly a 'striving after meaning.' The meanings are according to Vüllers (1) any stick with a crook; (2) such a stick used as a drumstick; (3) a crook from which a steel ball is suspended, which was one of the royal insignia, otherwise called kaukaba [see Blochmann, Āīn, vol. i. plate ix. No. 2.]; (4) (The golf-stick, and) the game of horse-golf.
The game is now quite extinct in Persia and Western Asia, surviving only in certain regions adjoining India, as is specified under Polo. But for many centuries it was the game of kings and courts over all Mahommedan Asia. The earliest Mahommedan historians represent the game of chaugān as familiar to the Sassanian kings; Ferdusi puts the chaugān-stick into the hands of Siāwūsh, the father of Kai Khusrū or Cyrus; many famous kings were devoted to the game, among whom may be mentioned Nūruddīn the Just, Atābek of Syria and the great enemy of the Crusaders. He was so fond of the game that he used (like Akbar in after days) to play it by lamp-light, and was severely rebuked by a devout Mussulman for being so devoted to a mere amusement. Other zealous chaugān-players were the great Saladin, Jalāluddīn Mankbarni of Khwārizm, and Malik Bībars, Marco Polo's "Bendocquedar Soldan of Babylon," who was said more than once to have played chaugān at Damascus and at Cairo within the same week. Many illustrious persons also are mentioned in Asiatic history as having met their death by accidents in the maidān, as the chaugān-field was especially called; e.g. Ḳutbuddīn Ībak of Delhi, who was killed by such a fall at Lahore in (or about) 1207. In Makrizi (I. i. 121) we read of an Amīr at the Mameluke Court called Husāmuddīn Lajīn 'Azīzī the Jukāndār (or Lord High Polo-stick).
It is not known when the game was conveyed to Constantinople, but it must have been not later than the beginning of the 8th century.[60] The fullest description of the game as played there is given by Johannes Cinnamus (c. 1190), who does not however give the barbarian name:
"The winter now being over and the gloom cleared away, he (the Emperor Manuel Comnenus) devoted himself to a certain sober exercise which from the first had been the custom of the Emperors and their sons to practise. This is the manner thereof. A party of young men divide into two equal bands, and in a flat space which has been measured out purposely they cast a leather ball in size somewhat like an apple; and setting this in the middle as if it were a prize to be contended for they rush into the contest at full speed, each grasping in his right hand a stick of moderate length which comes suddenly to a broad rounded end, the middle of which is closed by a network of dried catgut. Then each party strives who shall first send the ball beyond the goal planted conspicuously on the opposite side, for whenever the ball is struck by the netted sticks through the goal at either side, that gives the victory to the other side. This is the kind of game, evidently a slippery and dangerous one. For a player must be continually throwing himself right back, or bending to one side or the other, as he turns his horse short, or suddenly dashes off at speed, with such strokes and twists as are needed to follow up the ball.... And thus as the Emperor was rushing round in furious fashion in this game, it so happened that the horse which he rode came violently to the ground. He was prostrate below the horse, and as he struggled vainly to extricate himself from its incumbent weight his thigh and hand were crushed beneath the saddle and much injured...."—In Bonn ed. pp. 263-264.
We see from this passage that at Byzantium the game was played with a kind of racket, and not with a polo-stick.
We have not been able to find an instance of the medieval French chicane in this sense, nor does Littré's Dictionary give any. But Ducange states positively that in his time the word in this sense survived in Languedoc, and there could be no better evidence. From Henschel's Ducange also we borrow a quotation which shows chuca, used for some game of ball, in French-Latin, surely a form of chaugān or chicane.
The game of chaugān, the ball (gū or gavī) and the playing-ground (maidān) afford constant metaphors in Persian literature.
c. 820.—"If a man dream that he is on horseback along with the King himself, or some great personage, and that he strikes the ball home, or wins the chukān (ἤτοι τζυκανίζει) he shall find grace and favour thereupon, conformable to the success of his ball and the dexterity of his horse." Again: "If the King dream that he has won in the chukān (ὅτι ἐτζυκανίζεν) he shall find things prosper with him."—The Dream Judgments of Achmet Ibn Seirim, from a MS. Greek version quoted by Ducange in Gloss. Graecitatis.
c. 940.—Constantine Porphyrogenitus, speaking of the rapids of the Danapris or Dnieper, says: "ὁ δὲ τούτο φραγμὸς τοσοῦτον ἐστι στενὸς ὅσον τὸ πλάτος τοῦ τζυκανιστηρίου ("The defile in this case is as narrow as the width of the chukan-ground.")—De Adm. Imp., cap. ix. (Bonn ed. iii. 75).
969.—"Cumque inquisitionis sedicio non modica petit pro Constantino ... ex ea parte qua Zucanistri magnitudo portenditur, Constantinus crines solutus per cancellos caput exposuit, suaque ostensione populi mox tumultum sedavit."—Liudprandus, in Pertz, Mon. Germ., iii. 333.
"... he selected certain of his medicines and drugs, and made a goff-stick (jaukan?) [Burton, 'a bat'] with a hollow handle, into which he introduced them; after which ... he went again to the King ... and directed him to repair to the horse-course, and to play with the ball and goff-stick...."—Lane's Arabian Nights, i. 85-86; [Burton, i. 43].
c. 1030-40.—"Whenever you march ... you must take these people with you, and you must ... not allow them to drink wine or to play at chaughān."—Baihaki, in Elliot, ii. 120.
1416.—"Bernardus de Castro novo et nonnulli alii in studio Tholosano studentes, ad ludum lignobolini sive Chucarum luderunt pro vino et volema, qui ludus est quasi ludus billardi," &c.—MS. quoted in Henschel's Ducange.
c. 1420.—"The Τζυκανιστήριον was founded by Theodosius the Less ... Basilius the Macedonian extended and levelled the Τζυκανιστήριον."—Georgius Codinus de Antiq. Constant., Bonn ed. 81-82.
1516.—Barbosa, speaking of the Mahommedans of Cambay, says: "Saom tam ligeiros e manhosos na sela que a cavalo jogaom ha choqua, ho qual joguo eles tem antre sy na conta em que nos temos ho das canas"—(Lisbon ed. 271); i.e. "They are so swift and dexterous in the saddle that they play choca on horseback, a game which they hold in as high esteem as we do that of the canes" (i.e. the jereed).
1560.—"They (the Arabs) are such great riders that they play tennis on horseback" (que jogão a choca a cavallo).—Tenreiro, Itinerario, ed. 1762, p. 359.
c. 1590.—"His Majesty also plays at chaugán in dark nights ... the balls which are used at night are set on fire.... For the sake of adding splendour to the games ... His Majesty has knobs of gold and silver fixed to the tops of the chaugán sticks. If one of them breaks, any player that gets hold of the pieces may keep them."—Āīn-i-Akbarī, i. 298; [ii. 303].
1837.—"The game of choughan mentioned by Baber is still played everywhere in Tibet; it is nothing but 'hockey on horseback,' and is excellent fun."—Vigne, in J. A. S. Bengal, vi. 774.
In the following I would say, in justice to the great man whose words are quoted, that chicane is used in the quasi-military sense of taking every possible advantage of the ground in a contest:
1761.—"I do suspect that some of the great Ones have had hopes given to them that the Dutch may be induced to join us in this war against the Spaniards,—if such an Event should take place I fear some sacrifices will be made in the East Indies—I pray God my suspicions may be without foundation. I think Delays and Chicanery is allowable against those who take Advantage of the times, our Distresses, and situation."—Unpublished Holograph Letter from Lord Clive, in India Office Records. Dated Berkeley Square, and indorsed 27th Decr. 1761.
1881.—"One would at first sight be inclined to derive the French chic from the English 'cheek'; but it appears that the English is itself the derived word, chic being an old Romance word signifying finesse, or subtlety, and forming the root of our own word chicanery."—Sat. Rev., Sept. 10, p. 326 (Essay on French Slang).
a. H.—P. chik; a kind of screen-blind made of finely-split bamboo, laced with twine, and often painted on the outer side. It is hung or framed in doorways or windows, both in houses and in tents. The thing [which is described by Roe,] may possibly have come in with the Mongols, for we find in Kovalefski's Mongol Dict. (2174) "Tchik = Natte." The Āīn (i. 226) has chigh. Chicks are now made in London, as well as imported from China and Japan. Chicks are described by Clavijo in the tents of Timour's chief wife:
1404.—"And this tent had two doors, one in front of the other, and the first doors were of certain thin coloured wands, joined one to another like in a hurdle, and covered on the outside with a texture of rose-coloured silk, and finely woven; and these doors were made in this fashion, in order that when shut the air might yet enter, whilst those within could see those outside, but those outside could not see those who were within."—§ cxxvi.
[1616.—His wives "whose Curiositye made them breake little holes in a grate of reede that hung before it to gaze on mee."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. ii. 321.]
1673.—"Glass is dear, and scarcely purchaseable ... therefore their Windows are usually folding doors, screened with Cheeks or latises."—Fryer, 92.
The pron. cheek is still not uncommon among English people:—"The Coach where the Women were was covered with cheeks, a sort of hanging Curtain, made with Bents variously coloured with Lacker, and Checquered with Packthred so artificially that you see all without, and yourself within unperceived."—Fryer, 83.
1810.—"Cheeks or Screens to keep out the glare."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 43.
1825.—"The check of the tent prevents effectually any person from seeing what passes within...."—Heber (ed. 1844), i. 192.
b. Short for chickeen, a sum of four rupees. This is the Venetian zecchino, cecchino, or sequin, a gold coin long current on the shores of India, and which still frequently turns up in treasure-trove, and in hoards. In the early part of the 15th century Nicolo Conti mentions that in some parts of India, Venetian ducats, i.e. sequins, were current (p. 30). And recently, in fact in our own day, chick was a term in frequent Anglo-Indian use, e.g. "I'll bet you a chick."
The word zecchino is from the Zecca, or Mint at Venice, and that name is of Arabic origin, from sikka, 'a coining die.' The double history of this word is curious. We have just seen how in one form, and by what circuitous secular journey, through Egypt, Venice, India, it has gained a place in the Anglo-Indian Vocabulary. By a directer route it has also found a distinct place in the same repository under the form Sicca (q.v.), and in this shape it still retains a ghostly kind of existence at the India Office. It is remarkable how first the spread of Saracenic power and civilisation, then the spread of Venetian commerce and coinage, and lastly the spread of English commerce and power, should thus have brought together two words identical in origin, after so widely divergent a career.
The sequin is sometimes called in the South shānārcash, because the Doge with his sceptre is taken for the Shānār, or toddy-drawer climbing the palm-tree! [See Burnell, Linschoten, i. 243.] (See also VENETIAN.)
We apprehend that the gambling phrases 'chicken-stakes' and 'chicken-hazard' originate in the same word.
1583.—"Chickinos which be pieces of Golde woorth seuen shillings a piece sterling."—Caesar Frederici, in Hakl. ii. 343.
1608.—"When I was there (at Venice) a chiquiney was worth eleven livers and twelve sols."—Coryat's Crudities, ii. 68.
1609.—"Three or four thousand chequins were as pretty a proportion to live quietly on, and so give over."—Pericles, P. of Tyre, iv. 2.
1612.—"The Grand Signiors Custome of this Port Moha is worth yearly unto him 1500 chicquenes."—Saris, in Purchas, i. 348.
[1616.—"Shee tooke chickenes and royalls for her goods."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. i. 228.]
1623.—"Shall not be worth a chequin, if it were knock'd at an outcry."—Beaum. & Flet., The Maid in the Mill, v. 2.
1689.—"Four Thousand Checkins he privately tied to the flooks of an Anchor under Water."—Ovington, 418.
1711.—"He (the Broker) will charge 32 Shahees per Chequeen when they are not worth 31½ in the Bazar."—Lockyer, 227.
1727.—"When my Barge landed him, he gave the Cockswain five Zequeens, and loaded her back with Poultry and Fruit."—A. Hamilton, i. 301; ed. 1744, i. 303.
1767.—
"Received....
* * * * *
"Chequins 5 at 5. Arcot Rs. 25 0 0"
* * * * *
Lord Clive's Account of his Voyage to India,
in Long, 497.
1866.—
"Whenever master spends a chick,
I keep back two rupees, Sir."
Trevelyan, The Dawk Bungalow.
1875.—"'Can't do much harm by losing twenty chicks,' observed the Colonel in Anglo-Indian argot."—The Dilemma, ch. x.
CHICKEN, s. Embroidery; Chickenwalla, an itinerant dealer in embroidered handkerchiefs, petticoats, and such like. P. chikin or chikīn, 'art needlework.' [At Lucknow, the chief centre of the manufacture, this embroidery was formerly done in silk; the term is now applied to hand-worked flowered muslin. (See Hoey, Monograph, 88, Yusuf Ali, 69.)]
CHICKORE, s. The red-legged partridge, or its close congener Caccabis chukor, Gray. It is common in the Western Himālaya, in the N. Punjab, and in Afghanistan. The francolin of Moorcroft's Travels is really the chickore. The name appears to be Skt. chakora, and this disposes of the derivation formerly suggested by one of the present writers, as from the Mongol tsokhor, 'dappled or pied' (a word, moreover, which the late Prof. Schiefner informed us is only applied to horses). The name is sometimes applied to other birds. Thus, according to Cunningham, it is applied in Ladak to the Snow-cock (Tetraogallus Himalayensis, Gray), and he appears to give chá-kor as meaning 'white-bird' in Tibetan. Jerdon gives 'snow chukor' and 'strath-chukor' as sportsmen's names for this fine bird. And in Bengal Proper the name is applied, by local English sportsmen, to the large handsome partridge (Ortygornis gularis, Tem.) of Eastern Bengal, called in H. kaiyah or ban-tītar ('forest partridge'). See Jerdon, ed. 1877, ii. 575. Also the birds described in the extract from Mr. Abbott below do not appear to have been caccabis (which he speaks of in the same journal as 'red-legged partridge'). And the use of the word by Persians (apparently) is notable; it does not appear in Persian dictionaries. There is probably some mistake. The birds spoken of may have been the Large Sand-grouse (Pterocles arenarius, Pal.), which in both Persia and Afghanistan is called by names meaning 'Black-breast.'
The belief that the chickore eats fire, mentioned in the quotation below, is probably from some verbal misconception (quasi ātish-khōr?). [This is hardly probable as the idea that the partridge drinks the moonbeams is as old as the Brahma Vaivarta Purāna: "O Lord, I drink in with the partridges of my eyes thy face full of nectar, which resembles the full moon of autumn." Also see Katha Sarit Sāgara, tr. by Mr. Tawney (ii. 243), who has kindly given the above references.] Jerdon states that the Afghans call the bird the 'Fire-eater.'
c. 1190.—"... plantains and fruits, Koils, Chakors, peacocks, Sarases, beautiful to behold."—The Prithirája Rásan of Chand Bardáī, in Ind. Ant. i. 273.
In the following passage the word cator is supposed by the editor to be a clerical error for çacor or chacor.
1298.—"The Emperor has had several little houses erected in which he keeps in mew a huge number of cators, which are what we call the Great Partridge."—Marco Polo (2nd ed.), i. 287.
1520.—"Haidar Alemdâr had been sent by me to the Kafers. He met me below the Pass of Bâdîj, accompanied by some of their chiefs, who brought with them a few skins of wine. While coming down the Pass, he saw prodigious numbers of Chikûrs."—Baber, 282.
1814.—"... partridges, quails, and a bird which is called Cupk by the Persians and Afghauns, and the hill Chikore by the Indians, and which I understand is known in Europe by the name of the Greek Partridge."—Elphinstone's Caubool, ed. 1839, i. 192; ["the same bird which is called Chicore by the natives and fire-eater by the English in Bengal."—Ibid. ii. 95].
c. 1815.—"One day in the fort he found a hill-partridge enclosed in a wicker basket.... This bird is called the chuckoor, and is said to eat fire."—Mrs. Sherwood, Autobiog., 440.
1850.—"A flight of birds attracted my attention; I imagine them to be a species of bustard or grouse—black beneath and with much white about the wings—they were beyond our reach; the people called them Chukore."—K. Abbott, Notes during a Journey in Persia, in J. R. Geog. Soc. xxv. 41.
CHILAW, n.p. A place on the west coast of Ceylon, an old seat of the pearl-fishery. The name is a corruption of the Tam. salābham, 'the diving'; in Singhalese it is Halavatta. The name was commonly applied by the Portuguese to the whole aggregation of shoals (Baixos de Chilao) in the Gulf of Manaar, between Ceylon and the coast of Madura and Tinnevelly.
1543.—"Shoals of Chilao." See quotation under BEADALA.
1610.—"La pesqueria de Chilao ... por hazerse antiguamente in un puerto del mismo nombre en la isla de Seylan ... llamado asi por ista causa; por que chilao, en lengua Chengala, ... quiere dezir pesqueria."—Teixeira, Pt. ii. 29.
CHILLUM, s. H. chilam; "the part of the huḳḳa (see HOOKA) which contains the tobacco and charcoal balls, whence it is sometimes loosely used for the pipe itself, or the act of smoking it" (Wilson). It is also applied to the replenishment of the bowl, in the same way as a man asks for "another glass." The tobacco, as used by the masses in the hubble-bubble, is cut small and kneaded into a pulp with goor, i.e. molasses, and a little water. Hence actual contact with glowing charcoal is needed to keep it alight.
1781.—"Dressing a hubble-bubble, per week at 3 chillums a day. fan 0, dubs 3, cash 0."
—Prison Experiences in Captivity of Hon. J. Lindsay, in Lives of Lindsays, iii.
1811.—"They have not the same scruples for the Chillum as for the rest of the Hooka, and it is often lent ... whereas the very proposition for the Hooka gives rise frequently to the most ridiculous quarrels."—Solvyns, iii.
1828.—"Every sound was hushed but the noise of that wind ... and the occasional bubbling of my hookah, which had just been furnished with another chillum."—The Kuzzilbash, i. 2.
1829.—"Tugging away at your hookah, find no smoke; a thief having purloined your silver chelam and surpoose."—John Shipp, ii. 159.
1848.—"Jos however ... could not think of moving till his baggage was cleared, or of travelling until he could do so with his chillum."—Vanity Fair, ii. ch. xxiii.
CHILLUMBRUM, n.p. A town in S. Arcot, which is the site of a famous temple of Siva, properly Shidamburam. Etym. obscure. [Garstin (Man. S. Arcot, 400) gives the name as Chedambram, or more correctly Chittambalam, 'the atmosphere of wisdom.']
1755.—"Scheringham (Seringam), Schalembron, et Gengy m'offroient également la retraite après laquelle je soupirois."—Anquetil du Perron, Zendav. Disc. Prelim. xxviii.
CHILLUMCHEE, s. H. chilamchī, also silfchī, and silpchī, of which chilamchī is probably a corruption. A basin of brass (as in Bengal), or tinned copper (as usually in the West and South) for washing hands. The form of the word seems Turkish, but we cannot trace it.
1715.—"We prepared for our first present, viz., 1000 gold mohurs ... the unicorn's horn ... the astoa (?) and chelumgie of Manilla work...."—In Wheeler, ii. 246.
1833.—"Our supper was a peelaw ... when it was removed a chillumchee and goblet of warm water was handed round, and each washed his hands and mouth."—P. Gordon, Fragment of the Journal of a Tour, &c.
1851.—"When a chillumchee of water sans soap was provided, 'Have you no soap?' Sir C. Napier asked——"—Mawson, Indian Command of Sir C. Napier.
1857.—"I went alone to the Fort Adjutant, to report my arrival, and inquire to what regiment of the Bengal army I was likely to be posted.
"'Army!—regiment!' was the reply. 'There is no Bengal Army; it is all in revolt.... Provide yourself with a camp-bedstead, and a chillumchee, and wait for orders.'
"I saluted and left the presence of my superior officer, deeply pondering as to the possible nature and qualities of a chillumchee, but not venturing to enquire further."—Lt.-Col. Lewin, A Fly on the Wheel, p. 3.
There is an Anglo-Indian tradition, which we would not vouch for, that one of the orators on the great Hastings trial depicted the oppressor on some occasion, as "grasping his chillum in one hand and his chillumchee in the other."
The latter word is used chiefly by Anglo-Indians of the Bengal Presidency and their servants. In Bombay the article has another name. And it is told of a gallant veteran of the old Bengal Artillery, who was full of "Presidential" prejudices, that on hearing the Bombay army commended by a brother officer, he broke out in just wrath: "The Bombay Army! Don't talk to me of the Bombay Army! They call a chillumchee a gindy!——the Beasts!"
CHILLY, s. The popular Anglo-Indian name of the pod of red pepper (Capsicum fruticosum and C. annuum, Nat. Ord. Solanaceae). There can be little doubt that the name, as stated by Bontius in the quotation, was taken from Chili in S. America, whence the plant was carried to the Indian Archipelago, and thence to India.
[1604.—"Indian pepper.... In the language of Cusco, it is called Vchu, and in that of Mexico, chili."—Grimston, tr. D'Acosta, H. W. Indies, I. Bk. iv. 239 (Stanf. Dict.)]
1631.—"... eos addere fructum Ricini Americani, quod lada Chili Malaii vocant, quasi dicas Piper e Chile, Brasiliae contermina regione.'—Jac. Bontii, Dial. V. p. 10.
Again (lib. vi. cap. 40, p. 131) Bontius calls it 'piper Chilensis,' and also 'Ricinus Braziliensis.' But his commentator, Piso, observes that Ricinus is quite improper; "vera Piperis sive Capsici Braziliensis species apparet." Bontius says it was a common custom of natives, and even of certain Dutchmen, to keep a piece of chilly continually chewed, but he found it intolerable.
1848.—"'Try a chili with it, Miss Sharp,' said Joseph, really interested. 'A chili?' said Rebecca, gasping. 'Oh yes!'.... 'How fresh and green they look,' she said, and put one into her mouth. It was hotter than the curry; flesh and blood could bear it no longer."—Vanity Fair, ch. iii.
CHIMNEY-GLASS, s. Gardener's name, on the Bombay side of India, for the flower and plant Allamanda cathartica (Sir G. Birdwood).
CHINA, n.p. The European knowledge of this name in the forms Thinae and Sinae goes back nearly to the Christian era. The famous mention of the Sinim by the prophet Isaiah would carry us much further back, but we fear the possibility of that referring to the Chinese must be abandoned, as must be likewise, perhaps, the similar application of the name Chinas in ancient Sanskrit works. The most probable origin of the name—which is essentially a name applied by foreigners to the country—as yet suggested, is that put forward by Baron F. von Richthofen, that it comes from Jih-nan, an old name of Tongking, seeing that in Jih-nan lay the only port which was open for foreign trade with China at the beginning of our era, and that that province was then included administratively within the limits of China Proper (see Richthofen, China, i. 504-510; the same author's papers in the Trans. of the Berlin Geog. Soc. for 1876; and a paper by one of the present writers in Proc. R. Geog. Soc., November 1882.)
Another theory has been suggested by our friend M. Terrien de la Couperie in an elaborate note, of which we can but state the general gist. Whilst he quite accepts the suggestion that Kiao-chi or Tongking, anciently called Kiao-ti, was the Kattigara of Ptolemy's authority, he denies that Jih-nan can have been the origin of Sinae. This he does on two chief grounds: (l) That Jih-nan was not Kiao-chi, but a province a good deal further south, corresponding to the modern province of An (Nghé Ane, in the map of M. Dutreuil de Rhins, the capital of which is about 2° 17′ in lat. S. of Hanoi). This is distinctly stated in the Official Geography of Annam. An was one of the twelve provinces of Cochin China proper till 1820-41, when, with two others, it was transferred to Tongking. Also, in the Chinese Historical Atlas, Jih-nan lies in Chen-Ching, i.e. Cochin-China. (2) That the ancient pronunciation of Jih-nan, as indicated by the Chinese authorities of the Han period, was Nit-nam. It is still pronounced in Sinico-Annamite (the most archaic of the Chinese dialects) Nhut-nam, and in Cantonese Yat-nam. M. Terrien further points out that the export of Chinese goods, and the traffic with the south and west, was for several centuries B.C. monopolised by the State of Tsen (now pronounced in Sinico-Annamite Chen, and in Mandarin Tien), which corresponded to the centre and west of modern Yun-nan. The She-ki of Sze-ma Tsien (B.C. 91), and the Annals of the Han Dynasty afford interesting information on this subject. When the Emperor Wu-ti, in consequence of Chang-Kien's information brought back from Bactria, sent envoys to find the route followed by the traders of Shuh (i.e. Sze-chuen) to India, these envoys were detained by Tang-Kiang, King of Tsen, who objected to their exploring trade-routes through his territory, saying haughtily: "Has the Han a greater dominion than ours?"
M. Terrien conceives that as the only communication of this Tsen State with the Sea would be by the Song-Koi R., the emporium of sea-trade with that State would be at its mouth, viz. at Kiao-ti or Kattigara. Thus, he considers, the name of Tsen, this powerful and arrogant State, the monopoliser of trade-routes, is in all probability that which spread far and wide the name of Chīn, Sīn, Sinae, Thinae, and preserved its predominance in the mouths of foreigners, even when, as in the 2nd century of our era, the great Empire of the Han has extended over the Delta of the Song-Koi.
This theory needs more consideration than we can now give it. But it will doubtless have discussion elsewhere, and it does not disturb Richthofen's identification of Kattigara.
[Prof. Giles regards the suggestions of Richthofen and T. de la Couperie as mere guesses. From a recent reconsideration of the subject he has come to the conclusion that the name may possibly be derived from the name of a dynasty, Ch'in or Ts'in, which flourished B.C. 255-207, and became widely known in India, Persia, and other Asiatic countries, the final a being added by the Portuguese.]
c. A.D. 80-89.—"Behind this country (Chrysē) the sea comes to a termination somewhere in Thin, and in the interior of that country, quite to the north, there is a very great city called Thinae, from which raw silk and silk thread and silk stuffs are brought overland through Bactria to Barygaza, as they are on the other hand by the Ganges River to Limyricē. It is not easy, however, to get to this Thin, and few and far between are those who come from it...."—Periplus Maris Erythraei; see Müller, Geog. Gr. Min. i. 303.
c. 150—"The inhabited part of our earth is bounded on the east by the Unknown Land which lies along the region occupied by the easternmost races of Asia Minor, the Sinae and the natives of Sericē...."—Claudius Ptolemy, Bk. vii. ch. 5.
c. 545.—"The country of silk, I may mention, is the remotest of all the Indies, lying towards the left when you enter the Indian Sea, but a vast distance further off than the Persian Gulf or that island which the Indians call Selediba, and the Greeks Taprobane. Tzinitza (elsewhere Tzinista) is the name of the Country, and the Ocean compasses it round to the left, just as the same Ocean compasses Barbari (i.e. the Somāli Country) round to the right. And the Indian philosophers called Brachmans tell you that if you were to stretch a straight cord from Tzinitza through Persia to the Roman territory, you would just divide the world in halves."—Cosmas, Topog. Christ., Bk. II.
c. 641.—"In 641 the King of Magadha (Behar, &c.) sent an ambassador with a letter to the Chinese Court. The emperor ... in return directed one of his officers to go to the King ... and to invite his submission. The King Shiloyto (Siladitya) was all astonishment. 'Since time immemorial,' he asked his officer, 'did ever an ambassador come from Mohochintan?'.... The Chinese author remarks that in the tongue of the barbarians the Middle Kingdom is called Mohochintan (Mahā-Chīna-sthāna)."—From Cathay, &c., lxviii.
781.—"Adam Priest and Bishop and Pope of Tzinesthan.... The preachings of our Fathers to the King of Tzinia."—Syriac Part of the Inscription of Singanfu.
11th Century.—The "King of China" (Shinattarashan) appears in the list of provinces and monarchies in the great Inscription of the Tanjore Pagoda.
1128.—"Chīna and Mahāchīna appear in a list of places producing silk and other cloths, in the Abhilashitārthachintāmani of the Chālukya King."—Somesvaradiva (MS.)[61] Bk. III. ch. 6.
1298.—"You must know the Sea in which lie the Islands of those parts is called the Sea of Chin.... For, in the language in those Isles, when they say Chin, 'tis Manzi they mean."—Marco Polo, Bk. III. ch. iv.
c. 1300.—"Large ships, called in the language of Chin 'junks,' bring various sorts of choice merchandize and cloths...."—Rashíduddín, in Elliot, i. 69.
1516.—"... there is the Kingdom of China, which they say is a very extensive dominion, both along the coast of the sea, and in the interior...."—Barbosa, 204.
1563.—"R. Then Ruelius and Mathiolus of Siena say that the best camphor is from China, and that the best of all Camphors is that purified by a certain barbarian King whom they call King (of) China.
"O. Then you may tell Ruelius and Mathiolus of Siena that though they are so well acquainted with Greek and Latin, there's no need to make such a show of it as to call every body 'barbarians' who is not of their own race, and that besides this they are quite wrong in the fact ... that the King of China does not occupy himself with making camphor, and is in fact one of the greatest Kings known in the world."—Garcia De Orta, f. 45b.
c. 1590.—"Near to this is Pegu, which former writers called Cheen, accounting this to be the capital city."—Ayeen, ed. 1800, ii. 4; [tr. Jarrett, ii. 119]. (See MACHEEN.)
CHINA, s. In the sense of porcelain this word (Chīnī, &c.) is used in Asiatic languages as well as in English. In English it does not occur in Minshew (2nd ed. 1627), though it does in some earlier publications. [The earliest quotation in N.E.D. is from Cogan's Pinto, 1653.] The phrase China-dishes as occurring in Drake and in Shakspere, shows how the word took the sense of porcelain in our own and other languages. The phrase China-dishes as first used was analogous to Turkey-carpets. But in the latter we have never lost the geographical sense of the adjective. In the word turquoises, again, the phrase was no doubt originally pierres turquoises, or the like, and here, as in china dishes, the specific has superseded the generic sense. The use of arab in India for an Arab horse is analogous to china. The word is used in the sense of a china dish in Lane's Arabian Nights, iii. 492; [Burton, I. 375].