1770.—"As the young man (Nānak) was early introduced to the knowledge of the most esteemed writings of the Mussulmen ... he made it a practice in his leisure hours to translate literally or virtually, as his mind prompted him, such of their maxims as made the deepest impression on his heart. This was in the idiom of Pendjab, his maternal language. Little by little he strung together these loose sentences, reduced them into some order, and put them in verses.... His collection became numerous; it took the form of a book which was entitled Grenth."—Seir Mutaqherin, i. 89.

1798.—"A book entitled the Grunth ... is the only typical object which the Sicques have admitted into their places of worship."—G. Forster's Travels, i. 255.

1817.—"The fame of Nannak's book was diffused. He gave it a new name, Kirrunt."—Mill's Hist. ii. 377.

c. 1831.—"... Au centre du quel est le temple d'or où est gardé le Grant ou livre sacré des Sikes."—Jacquemont, Correspondance, ii. 166.

[1838.—"There was a large collection of priests, sitting in a circle, with the Grooht, their holy book, in the centre...."—Miss Eden, Up the Country, ii. 7.]

GRUNTHEE, s. Panj. granthī from granth (see GRUNTH). A sort of native chaplain attached to Sikh regiments. [The name Granthī appears among the Hindi mendicant castes of the Panjab in Mr. Maclagan's Census Rep., 1891, p. 300.]

GRUNTHUM, s. This (grantham) is a name, from the same Skt. word as the last, given in various odd forms to the Sanskrit language by various Europeans writing in S. India during the 16th and 17th centuries. The term properly applied to the character in which the Sanskrit books were written.

1600.—"In these verses is written, in a particular language, called Gerodam, their Philosophy and Theology, which the Bramens study and read in Universities all over India."—Lucena, Vida do Padre F. Xavier, 95.

1646.—"Cette langue correspond à la nostre Latine, parceque les seules Lettrés l'apprennent; il se nomment Guirindans."—Barretto, Rel. de la Prov. de la Malabar, 257.

1727.—"... their four law-books, Sama Vedam, Urukku Vedam, Edirwarna Vedam, and Adir Vedam, which are all written in the Girandams, and are held in high esteem by the Bramins."—Valentijn, v. (Ceylon), 399.

 "  "Girandam (by others called Kerendum, and also Sanskrits) is the language of the Bramins and the learned."—Ibid. 386.

1753.—"Les Indiens du pays se donnent le nom de Tamules, et on sait que la langue vulgaire différente du Sanskret, et du Grendam, qui sont les langues sacrées, porte le même nom."—D'Anville, 117.

GUANA, IGUANA, s. This is not properly an Indian term, nor the name of an Indian species, but, as in many other cases, it has been applied by transfer from superficially resembling genera in the new Indies, to the old. The great lizards, sometimes called guanas in India, are apparently monitors. It must be observed, however, that approximating Indian names of lizards have helped the confusion. Thus the large monitor to which the name guana is often applied in India, is really called in Hindi goh (Skt. godhā), Singhalese goyā. The true iguana of America is described by Oviedo in the first quotation under the name of iuana. [The word is Span. iguana, from Carib iwana, written in early writers hiuana, igoana, iuanna or yuana. See N.E.D. and Stanf. Dict.]

c. 1535.—"There is in this island an animal called Iuana, which is here held to be amphibious (neutrale), i.e. doubtful whether fish or flesh, for it frequents the rivers and climbs the trees as well.... It is a Serpent, bearing to one who knows it not a horrid and frightful aspect. It has the hands and feet like those of a great lizard, the head much larger, but almost of the same fashion, with a tail 4 or 5 palms in length.... And the animal, formed as I have described, is much better to eat than to look at," &c.—Oviedo, in Ramusio, iii. f. 156v, 157.

c. 1550.—"We also used to catch some four-footed animals called iguane, resembling our lizards in shape ... the females are most delicate food."—Girolami Benzoni, p. 140.

1634.—"De Lacertae quâdam specie, Incolis Liguan. Est ... genus venenosissimum," &c.—Jac. Bontii, Lib. v. cap. 5. p. 57. (See GECKO.)

1673.—"Guiana, a Creature like a Crocodile, which Robbers use to lay hold on by their Tails, when they clamber Houses."—Fryer, 116.

1681.—Knox, in his Ceylon, speaks of two creatures resembling the Alligator—one called Kobbera guion, 5 or 6 feet long, and not eatable; the other called tolla guion, very like the former, but "which is eaten, and reckoned excellent meat ... and I suppose it is the same with that which in the W. Indies is called the guiana" (pp. 30, 31). The names are possibly Portuguese, and Kobbera guion may be Cobra-guana.

1704.—"The Guano is a sort of Creature, some of which are found on the land, some in the water ... stewed with a little Spice they make good Broth."—Funnel, in Dampier, iv. 51.

1711.—"Here are Monkeys, Gaunas, Lissards, large Snakes, and Alligators."—Lockyer, 47.

1780.—"They have here an amphibious animal called the guana, a species of the crocodile or alligator, of which soup is made equal to that of turtle. This I take upon hearsay, for it is to me of all others the most loathsome of animals, not less so than the toad."—Munro's Narrative, 36.

c. 1830.—"Had I known I was dining upon a guana, or large wood-lizard, I scarcely think I would have made so hearty a meal."—Tom Cringle (ed. 1863), 178.

1879.—"Captain Shaw asked the Imaum of one of the mosques of Malacca about alligator's eggs, a few days ago, and his reply was, that the young that went down to the sea became alligators, and those that came up the river became iguanas."—Miss Bird, Golden Chersonese, 200.

1881.—"The chief of Mudhol State belongs to the Bhonslá family.... The name, however, has been entirely superseded by the second designation of Ghorpade, which is said to have been acquired by one of the family who managed to scale a fort previously deemed impregnable, by fastening a cord around the body of a ghorpad or iguana."—Imperial Gazetteer, vi. 437.

1883.—"Who can look on that anachronism, an iguana (I mean the large monitor which Europeans in India generally call an iguana, sometimes a guano!) basking, four feet long, on a sunny bank ..."—Tribes on My Frontier, 36.

1885.—"One of my moonshis, José Prethoo, a Concani of one of the numerous families descended from Xavier's converts, gravely informed me that in the old days iguanas were used in gaining access to besieged places; for, said he, a large iguana, sahib, is so strong that if 3 or 4 men laid hold of its tail he could drag them up a wall or tree!"—Gordon Forbes, Wild Life in Canara, 56.

GUARDAFUI, CAPE, n.p. The eastern horn of Africa, pointing towards India. We have the name from the Portuguese, and it has been alleged to have been so called by them as meaning, 'Take you heed!' (Gardez-vous, in fact.) But this is etymology of the species that so confidently derives 'Bombay' from Boa Bahia. Bruce, again (see below), gives dogmatically an interpretation which is equally unfounded. We must look to history, and not to the 'moral consciousness' of anybody. The country adjoining this horn of Africa, the Regio Aromatum of the ancients, seems to have been called by the Arabs Hafūn, a name which we find in the Periplus in the shape of Opōnē. This name Hafūn was applied to a town, no doubt the true Opōnē, which Barbosa (1516) mentions under the name of Afuni, and it still survives in those of two remarkable promontories, viz. the Peninsula of Rās Hafūn (the Chersonnesus of the Periplus, the Zingis of Ptolemy, the Cape d'Affui and d'Orfui of old maps and nautical directories), and the cape of Jard-Hafūn (or according to the Egyptian pronunciation, Gard-Hafūn), i.e. Guardafui. The nearest possible meaning of jard that we can find is 'a wide or spacious tract of land without herbage.' Sir R. Burton (Commentary on Camõens, iv. 489) interprets jard as = Bay, "from a break in the dreadful granite wall, lately provided by Egypt with a lighthouse." The last statement is unfortunately an error. The intended light seems as far off as ever. [There is still no lighthouse, and shipowners differ as to its advantage; see answer by Secretary of State, in House of Commons, Times, March 14, 1902.] We cannot judge of the ground of his interpretation of jard.

An attempt has been made to connect the name Hafūn with the Arabic af'a, 'pleasant odours.' It would then be the equivalent of the ancient Reg. Aromatum. This is tempting, but very questionable. We should have mentioned that Guardafui is the site of the mart and Promontory of the Spices described by the author of the Periplus as the furthest point and abrupt termination of the continent of Barbarice (or eastern Africa), towards the Orient (τὸ τῶν Ἀρωματών ἐμπόριον καὶ ἀκρωτήριον τελευταῖον τῆς βαρβαρικῆς ἠπείρου πρὸς ἀνατολὴν ἀποκόπον).

According to C. Müller our Guardafui is called by the natives Rās Aser; their Rās Jardafūn being a point some 12 m. to the south, which on some charts is called Rās Shenarif, and which is also the Τάβαι of the Periplus (Geog. Gr. Minores, i. 263).

1516.—"And that the said ships from his ports (K. of Coulam's) shall not go inwards from the Strait and Cape of Guoardaffuy, nor go to Adem, except when employed in our obedience and service ... and if any vessel or Zambuque is found inward of the Cape of Guoardaffuy it shall be taken as good prize of war."—Treaty between Lopo Soares and the K. of Caulam, in Botelho, Tombo, 33.

 "  "After passing this place (Afuni) the next after it is Cape Guardafun, where the coast ends, and trends so as to double towards the Red Sea."—Barbosa, 16.

c. 1530.—"This province, called of late Arabia, but which the ancients called Trogloditica, begins at the Red Sea and the country of the Abissines, and finishes at Magadasso ... others say it extends only to the Cape of Guardafuni."—Sommario de' Regni, in Ramusio, i. f. 325.

1553.—"Vicente Sodre, being despatched by the King, touched at the Island of Çocotora, where he took in water, and thence passed to the Cape of Guardafu, which is the most easterly land of Africa."—De Barros, I. vii. cap. 2.

1554.—"If you leave Dábúl at the end of the season, you direct yourselves W.S.W. till the pole is four inches and an eighth, from thence true west to Kardafún."—Sidi 'Ali Kapudān, The Mohit, in J. As. Soc. Ben., v. 464.

 "  "You find such whirlpools on the coasts of Kardafūn...."—The same, in his narrative, Journ. As. ser. 1. tom. ix. p. 77.

1572.—

"O Cabo vê já Aromata chamado,

E agora Guardafú, dos moradores,

Onde começa a boca do affamado

Mar Roxo, que do fundo toma as cores."

Camões, x. 97.

Englished by Burton:

"The Cape which Antients 'Aromatic' clepe

behold, yclept by Moderns Guardafú;

where opes the Red Sea mouth, so wide and deep,

the Sea whose ruddy bed lends blushing hue."

1602.—"Eitor da Silveira set out, and without any mishap arrived at the Cape of Gardafui."—Couto, IV. i. 4.

1727.—"And having now travell'd along the Shore of the Continent, from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Guardafoy, I'll survey the Islands that lie in the Ethiopian Sea."—A. Hamilton, i. 15; [ed. 1744].

1790.—"The Portuguese, or Venetians, the first Christian traders in these parts, have called it Gardefui, which has no signification in any language. But in that part of the country where it is situated, it is called Gardefan and means the Straits of Burial, the reason of which will be seen afterwards."—Bruce's Travels, i. 315.

[1823.—"... we soon obtained sight of Cape Gardafui.... It is called by the natives Ras Assere, and the high mountain immediately to its south is named Gibel Jordafoon.... Keeping about nine miles off shore we rounded the peninsula of Hafoon.... Hafoon appears like an island, and belongs to a native Somauli prince...."—Owen, Narr. i. 353.]

GUAVA, s. This fruit (Psidium Guayava, L., Ord. Myrtaceae; Span. guayava, Fr. goyavier, [from Brazilian guayaba, Stanf. Dict.]), Guayabo pomifera Indica of Caspar Bauhin, Guayava of Joh. Bauhin, strangely appears by name in Elliot's translation from Amīr Khosrū, who flourished in the 13th century: "He who has placed only guavas and quinces in his throat, and has never eaten a plantain, will say it is like so much jujube" (iii. 556). This must be due to some ambiguous word carelessly rendered. The fruit and its name are alike American. It appears to be the guaiabo of Oviedo in his History of the Indies (we use the Italian version in Ramusio, iii. f. 141v). There is no mention of the guava in either De Orta or Acosta. Amrūd, which is the commonest Hindustani (Pers.) name for the guava, means properly 'a pear'; but the fruit is often called safarī ām, 'journey mango' (respecting which see under ANANAS). And this last term is sometimes vulgarly corrupted into supārī ām (areca-mango!). In the Deccan (according to Moodeen Sheriff) and all over Guzerat and the Central Provinces (as we are informed by M.-Gen. Keatinge), the fruit is called jām, Mahr. jamba, which is in Bengal the name of Syzigium jambolanum (see JAMOON), and in Guzerāti jāmrūd, which seems to be a factitious word in imitation of āmrūd.

The guava, though its claims are so inferior to those of the pine-apple (indeed except to stew, or make jelly, it is nobis judicibus, an utter impostor), [Sir Joseph Hooker annotates: "You never ate good ones!"] must have spread like that fruit with great rapidity. Both appear in Blochmann's transl. of the Āīn (i. 64) as served at Akbar's table; though when the guava is named among the fruits of Tūrān, doubts again arise as to the fruit intended, for the word used, amrūd, is ambiguous. In 1688 Dampier mentions guavas at Achin, and in Cochin China. The tree, like the custard-apple, has become wild in some parts of India. See Davidson, below.

c. 1550.—"The guaiava is like a peach-tree, with a leaf resembling the laurel ... the red are better than the white, and are well-flavoured."—Girol. Benzoni, p. 88.

1658.—There is a good cut of the guava, as guaiaba, in Piso, pp. 152-3.

1673.—"... flourish pleasant Tops of Plantains, Cocoes, Guiavas, a kind of Pear."—Fryer, 40.

1676.—"The N.W. part is full of Guaver Trees of the greatest variety, and their Fruit the largest and best tasted I have met with."—Dampier, ii. 107.

1685.—"The Guava ... when the Fruit is ripe, it is yellow, soft, and very pleasant. It bakes well as a Pear."—Ibid. i. 222.

c. 1750-60.—"Our guides too made us distinguish a number of goyava, and especially plumb-trees."—Grose, i. 20.

1764.—

"A wholesome fruit the ripened guava yields,

Boast of the housewife."

Grainger, Bk. i.

1843.—"On some of these extensive plains (on the Mohur R. in Oudh) we found large orchards of the wild Guava ... strongly resembling in their rough appearance the pear-trees in the hedges of Worcestershire."—Col. C. J. Davidson, Diary of Travels, ii. 271.

GUBBER, s. This is some kind of gold ducat or sequin; Milburn says 'a Dutch ducat.' It may have adopted this special meaning, but could hardly have held it at the date of our first quotation. The name is probably gabr (dīnār-i-gabr), implying its being of infidel origin.

c. 1590.—"Mirza Jani Beg Sultán made this agreement with his soldiers, that every one who should bring in an enemy's head should receive 500 gabars, every one of them worth 12 mírís ... of which 72 went to one tanka."—Táríkh-i-Táhiri, in Elliot, i. 287.

1711.—"Rupees are the most current Coin; they have Venetians, Gubbers, Muggerbees, and Pagodas."—Lockyer, 201.

 "  "When a Parcel of Venetian Ducats are mixt with others the whole goes by the name of Chequeens at Surat, but when they are separated, one sort is called Venetians, and all the others Gubbers indifferently."—Ibid. 242.

1762.—"Gold and Silver Weights:

oz. dwts. grs.
100 Venetian Ducats 11 0 5
10 (100?) Gubbers 10 17 12 ."
Brooks, Weights and Measures.

GUBBROW, v. To bully, to dumbfound, and perturb a person. Made from ghabrāo, the imperative of ghabrānā. The latter, though sometimes used transitively, is more usually neuter, 'to be dumbfounded and perturbed.'

GUDDA, s. A donkey, literal and metaphorical. H. gadhā: [Skt. gardabha, 'the roarer']. The coincidence of the Scotch cuddy has been attributed to a loan from H. through the gypsies, who were the chief owners of the animal in Scotland, where it is not common. On the other hand, this is ascribed to a nickname Cuddy (for Cuthbert), like the English Neddy, similarly applied. [So the N.E.D. with hesitation.] A Punjab proverbial phrase is gadōṅ khurkī, "Donkeys' rubbing" their sides together, a sort of 'claw me and I'll claw thee.'

GUDDY, GUDDEE, s. H. gaddī, Mahr. gādī. 'The Throne.' Properly it is a cushion, a throne in the Oriental sense, i.e. the seat of royalty, "a simple sheet, or mat, or carpet on the floor, with a large cushion or pillow at the head, against which the great man reclines" (Wilson). "To be placed on the guddee" is to succeed to the kingdom. The word is also used for the pad placed on an elephant's back.

[1809.—"Seendhiya was seated nearly in the centre, on a large square cushion covered with gold brocade; his back supported by a round bolster, and his arms resting upon two flat cushions; all covered with the same costly material, and forming together a kind of throne, called a musnud, or guddee."—Broughton, Letters from a Mahratta Camp, ed. 1892, p. 28.]

GUDGE, s. P.—H. gaz, and corr. gaj; a Persian yard measure or thereabouts; but in India applied to measures of very varying lengths, from the hāth, or natural cubit, to the English yard. In the Āīn [ed. Jarrett, ii. 58 seqq.] Abu'l Faẓl details numerous gaz which had been in use under the Caliphs or in India, varying from 18 inches English (as calculated by J. Prinsep) to 52⅛. The Ilāhī gaz of Akbar was intended to supersede all these as a standard; and as it was the basis of all records of land-measurements and rents in Upper India, the determination of its value was a subject of much importance when the revenue surveys were undertaken about 1824. The results of enquiry were very discrepant, however, and finally an arbitrary value of 33 inches was assumed. The bīghā (see BEEGAH), based on this, and containing 3600 square gaz = ⅝ of an acre, is the standard in the N.W.P., but statistics are now always rendered in acres. See Gladwin's Ayeen (1800) i. 302, seqq.; Prinsep's Useful Tables, ed. Thomas, 122; [Madras Administration Manual, ii. 505.]

[1532.—"... and if in quantity the measure and the weight, and whether ells, roods or gazes."—Archiv. Port. Orient. f. 5, p. 1562.]

1754.—"Some of the townsmen again demanded of me to open my bales, and sell them some pieces of cloth; but ... I rather chose to make several of them presents of 2¼ gaz of cloth, which is the measure they usually take for a coat."—Hanway, i. 125.

1768-71.—"A gess or goss is 2 cobidos, being at Chinsurah 2 feet and 10 inches Rhineland measure."—Stavorinus, E.T. i. 463.

1814.—"They have no measures but the gudge, which is from their elbow to the end of the middle finger, for measuring length."—Pearce, Acc. of the Ways of the Abyssinians, in Tr. Lit. Soc. Bo. ii. 56.

GUICOWAR, n.p. Gāekwār, the title of the Mahratta kings of Guzerat, descended from Dāmāji and Pīlājī Gāekwār, who rose to distinction among Mahratta warriors in the second quarter of the 18th century. The word means 'Cowherd.'

[1813.—"These princes were all styled Guickwar, in addition to their family name ... the word literally means a cow-keeper, which, although a low employment in general, has, in this noble family among the Hindoos, who venerate that animal, become a title of great importance."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. i. 375.]

GUINEA-CLOTHS, GUINEA-STUFFS, s. Apparently these were piece-goods bought in India to be used in the West African trade. [On the other hand, Sir G. Birdwood identifies them with gunny (Report on old Recs., 224). The manufacture still goes on at Pondicherry.] These are presumably the Negros-tücher of Baldaeus (1672), p. 154.

[1675.—"Guinea-stuffs," in Birdwood, ut supra.]

1726.—We find in a list of cloths purchased by the Dutch Factory at Porto Novo, Guinees Lywaat, and Negros-Kleederen ('Guinea linens and Negro's clothing').—See Valentijn, Chorom. 9.

1813.—"The demand for Surat piece-goods has been much decreased in Europe ... and from the abolition of the slave trade, the demand for the African market has been much reduced.... Guinea stuffs, 4½ yards each (per ton) 1200 (pieces)."—Milburn, i. 289.

[1878.—"The chief trades of Pondicherry are, spinning, weaving and dyeing the cotton stuffs known by the name of Guinees."—Garstin, Man. of S. Arcot, 426.]

[GUINEA DEER, s. An old name for some species of Chevrotain, in the quotation probably the Tragulus meminna or Mouse Deer (Blanford, Mammalia, 555).

[1755.—"Common deer they have here (in Ceylon) in great abundance, and also Guinea Deer."—Ives, 57.]

GUINEA-FOWL. There seems to have been, in the 16th century, some confusion between turkeys and Guinea-fowl. See however under TURKEY. The Guinea-fowl is the Meleagris of Aristotle and others, the Afra avis of Horace.

GUINEA-PIG, s. This was a nickname given to midshipmen or apprentices on board Indiamen in the 18th century, when the command of such a vessel was a sure fortune, and large fees were paid to the captain with whom the youngsters embarked. Admiral Smyth, in his Sailor's Handbook, 1867, defines: 'The younger midshipmen of an Indiaman.'

[1779.—"I promise you, to me it was no slight penance to be exposed during the whole voyage to the half sneering, satirical looks of the mates and guinea-pigs."—Macintosh, Travels, quoted in Carey, Old Days, i. 73.]

GUINEA-WORM, s. A parasitic worm (Filaria Medinensis) inhabiting the subcutaneous cellular tissue of man, frequently in the leg, varying from 6 inches to 12 feet in length, and common on the Pers. Gulf, in Upper Egypt, Guinea, &c. It is found in some parts of W. India. "I have known," writes M.-Gen. Keatinge, "villages where half the people were maimed by it after the rains. Matunga, the Head Quarters of the Bombay Artillery, was abandoned, in great measure, on account of this pest." [It is the disease most common in the Damoh District (C. P. Gazetteer, 176, Sleeman, Rambles, &c., ed. V. A. Smith, i. 94). It is the rāshta, reshta of Central Asia (Schuyler, Turkistan, i. 147; Wolff, Travels, ii. 407).] The reason of the name is shown by the quotation from Purchas respecting its prevalence in Guinea. The disease is graphically described by Agatharchides in the first quotation.

B.C. c. 113.—"Those about the Red Sea who are stricken with a certain malady, as Agatharchides relates, besides being afflicted with other novel and unheard-of symptoms, of which one is that small snake-like worms (δρακόντια μικρὰ) eat through the legs and arms, and peep out, but when touched instantly shrink back again, and winding among the muscles produce intolerable burning pains."—In Dubner's ed. of Plutarch, iv. 872, viz. Table Discussions, Bk. VIII. Quest. ix. 3.

1600.—"The wormes in the legges and bodies trouble not euery one that goeth to those Countreys, but some are troubled with them and some are not"—(a full account of the disease follows).—Descn. of Guinea, in Purchas, ii. 963.

c. 1630.—"But for their water ... I may call it Aqua Mortis ... it ingenders small long worms in the legges of such as use to drink it ... by no potion, no unguent to be remedied: they have no other way to destroy them, save by rowling them about a pin or peg, not unlike the treble of Theorbo."—Sir T. Herbert, p. 128.

1664.—"... nor obliged to drink of those naughty waters ... full of nastiness of so many people and beasts ... that do cause such fevers, which are very hard to cure, and which breed also certain very dangerous worms in the legs ... they are commonly of the bigness and length of a small Vial-string ... and they must be drawn out little by little, from day to day, gently winding them about a little twig about the bigness of a needle, for fear of breaking them."—Bernier, E.T. 114; [ed. Constable, 355].

1676.—"Guinea Worms are very frequent in some Places of the West Indies ... I rather judge that they are generated by drinking bad water."—Dampier, ii. 89-90.

1712.—"Haec vita est Ormusiensium, imò civium totius littoris Persici, ut perpetuas in corpore calamitates ferant ex coeli intemperie: modo sudore diffluunt; modo vexantur furunculis; nunc cibi sunt, mox aquae inopes; saepè ventis urentibus, semper sole torrente, squalent et quis omnia recenseat? Unum ex aerumnis gravioribus induco: nimirum Lumbricorum singulare genus, quod non in intestinis, sed in musculis per corporis ambitum natales invenit. Latini medici vermem illum nomine donant τοῦ δρακοντίου, s. Dracunculi.... Guineenses nigritae linguâ suâ ... vermes illos vocant Ickòn, ut produnt reduces ex aurifero illo Africae littore...."—Kaempfer, Amoen. Exot., 524-5. Kaempfer speculates as to why the old physicians called it dracunculus; but the name was evidently taken from the δρακόντιον of Agatharchides, quoted above.

1768.—"The less dangerous diseases which attack Europeans in Guinea are, the dry belly-ache, and a worm which breeds in the flesh.... Dr. Rouppe observes that the disease of the Guinea-worm is infectious."—Lind on Diseases of Hot Climates, pp. 53, 54.

1774.—See an account of this pest under the name of "le ver des nerfs (Vena Medinensis)," in Niebuhr, Desc. de l'Arabie, 117. The name given by Niebuhr is, as we learn from Kaempfer's remarks, 'araḳ Medīnī, the Medina nerve (rather than vein).

[1821.—"The doctor himself is just going off to the Cape, half-dead from the Kotah fever; and, as if that were not enough, the narooa, or guinea-worm, has blanched his cheek and made him a cripple."—Tod, Annals, ed. 1884, ii. 743.]

GUJPUTTY, n.p. (See COSPETIR.)

GUM-GUM, s. We had supposed this word to be an invention of the late Charles Dickens, but it seems to be a real Indian, or Anglo-Indian, word. The nearest approximation in Shakespear's Dict. is gamak, 'sound of the kettledrum.' But the word is perhaps a Malay plural of gong originally; see the quotation from Osbeck. [The quotations from Bowdich and Medley (from Scott, Malay Words, p. 53) perhaps indicate an African origin.]

[1659.—"... The roar of great guns, the sounding of trumpets, the beating of drums, and the noise of the gomgommen of the Indians."—From the account of the Dutch attack (1659) on a village in Ceram, given in Wouter Schouten, Reistogt nadr en door Oostindiën, 4th ed. 1775, i. 55. In the Dutch version, "en het geraas van de gomgommen der Indiäanen." The French of 1707 (i. 92) has "au bruit du canon, des trompettes, des tambour et des gomgommes Indiennes."

[1731.—"One of the Hottentot Instruments of Musick is common to several Negro Nations, and is called both by Negroes and Hottentots, gom-gom ... is a Bow of Iron, or Olive Wood, strung with twisted Sheep-Gut or Sinews."—Medley, tr. Kolben's Cape of Good Hope, i. 271.]

c. 1750-60.—"A music far from delightful, consisting of little drums they call Gumgums, cymbals, and a sort of fife."—Grose, i. 139.

1768-71.—"They have a certain kind of musical instruments called gom-goms, consisting in hollow iron bowls, of various sizes and tones, upon which a man strikes with an iron or wooden stick ... not unlike a set of bells."—Stavorinus, E.T. i. 215. See also p. 65.

1771.—"At night we heard a sort of music, partly made by insects, and partly by the noise of the Gungung."—Osbeck, i. 185.

[1819.—"The gong-gongs and drums were beat all around us."—Bowdich, Mission to Ashantee, i. 7, 136.]

1836.—"'Did you ever hear a tom-tom, Sir?' sternly enquired the Captain....

'A what?' asked Hardy, rather taken aback.

'A tom-tom.'

'Never!'

'Nor a gum-gum?'

'Never!'

'What is a gum-gum?' eagerly enquired several young ladies."—Sketches by Boz, The Steam Excursion.

[GUNGE, s. Hind. ganj, 'a store, store-house, market.'

[1762.—See under GOMASTA.

[1772.—"Gunge, a market principally for grain."—Verelst, View of Bengal, Gloss. s.v.

[1858.—"The term Gunge signifies a range of buildings at a place of traffic, for the accommodation of merchants and all persons engaged in the purchase and sale of goods, and for that of their goods and of the shopkeepers who supply them."—Sleeman, Journey through Oudh, i. 278.]

GUNJA, s. Hind. gānjhā, gānjā. The flowering or fruiting shoots of the female plant of Indian hemp (Cannabis sativa, L., formerly distinguished as C. indica), used as an intoxicant. (See BANG.)

[c. 1813.—"The natives have two proper names for the hemp (Cannabis sativa), and call it Gangja when young, and Siddhi when the flowers have fully expanded."—Buchanan, Eastern India, ii. 865.]

1874.—"In odour and the absence of taste, ganjá resembles bhang. It is said that after the leaves which constitute bhang have been gathered, little shoots sprout from the stem, and that these, picked off and dried, form what is called ganjá."—Hanbury & Flückiger, 493.

GUNNY, GUNNY-BAG, s. From Skt. goṇi, 'a sack'; Hind. and Mahr. goṇ, goṇī, 'a sack, sacking.' The popular and trading name of the coarse sacking and sacks made from the fibre of jute, much used in all Indian trade. Ṭāṭ is a common Hind. name for the stuff. [With this word Sir G. Birdwood identifies the forms found in the old records—"Guiny Stuffes (1671)," "Guynie stuffs," "Guinea stuffs," "Gunnys" (Rep. on Old Records, 26, 38, 39, 224); but see under GUINEA-CLOTHS.]

c. 1590.—"Sircar Ghoraghat produces raw silk, gunneys, and plenty of Tanghion horses."—Gladwin's Ayeen, ed. 1800, ii. 9; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 123]. (But here, in the original, the term is pārchah-i-ṭāṭband.)

1693.—"Besides the aforenamed articles Goeny-sacks are collected at Palicol."—Havart (3), 14.

1711.—"When Sugar is pack'd in double Goneys, the outer Bag is always valued in Contract at 1 or 1½ Shahee."—Lockyer, 244.

1726.—In a list of goods procurable at Daatzerom: "Goeni-zakken (Gunny bags)."—Valentijn, Chor. 40.

1727.—"Sheldon ... put on board some rotten long Pepper, that he could dispose of in no other Way, and some damaged Gunnies, which are much used in Persia for embaling Goods, when they are good in their kind."—A. Hamilton, ii. 15; [ed. 1744].

1764.—"Baskets, Gunny bags, and dubbers ... Rs. 24."—In Long, 384.

1785.—"We enclose two parwanehs ... directing them each to despatch 1000 goonies of grain to that person of mighty degree."—Tippoo's Letters, 171.

1885.—"The land was so covered with them (plover) that the hunters shot them with all kind of arms. We counted 80 birds in the gunny-sack that three of the soldiers brought in."—Boots and Saddles, by Mrs. Custer, p. 37. (American work.)

GUNTA, s. Hind. ghanṭā, 'a bell or gong.' This is the common term for expressing an European hour in modern Hindūstānī. [See PANDY.]

GUP, s. Idle gossip. P.—H. gap, 'prattle, tattle.' The word is perhaps an importation from Tūrān. Vambéry gives Orient. Turki gep, geb, 'word, saying, talk'; which, however, Pavet de Courteille suggests to be a corruption from the Pers. guftan, 'to say'; of which, indeed, there is a form guptan. [So Platts, who also compares Skt. jalpa, which is the Bengali golpo, 'babble.'] See quotation from Schuyler showing the use in Turkistan. The word is perhaps best known in England through an unamiable account of society in S. India, published under the name of "Gup," in 1868.

1809-10.—"They (native ladies) sit on their cushions from day to day, with no other ... amusement than hearing the 'gup-gup,' or gossip of the place."—Mrs. Sherwood's Autobiog. 357.

1876.—"The first day of mourning goes by the name of gup, i.e. commemorative talk."—Schuyler's Turkistan, i. 151.

GUREEBPURWUR, GURREEBNUWAUZ, ss. Ar.—P. Gharībpārwar, Gharībnawāz, used in Hind. as respectful terms of address, meaning respectively 'Provider of the Poor!' 'Cherisher of the Poor!'

1726.—"Those who are of equal condition bend the body somewhat towards each other, and lay hold of each other by the beard, saying Grab-anemoas, i.e. I wish you the prayers of the poor."—Valentijn, Chor. 109, who copies from Van Twist (1648), p. 55.

1824.—"I was appealed to loudly by both parties, the soldiers calling on me as 'Ghureeb purwur,' the Goomashta, not to be outdone, exclaiming 'Donai, Lord Sahib! Donai! Rajah!'" (Read Dohāī and see DOAI).—Heber, i. 266. See also p. 279.

1867.—"'Protector of the poor!' he cried, prostrating himself at my feet, 'help thy most unworthy and wretched slave! An unblest and evil-minded alligator has this day devoured my little daughter. She went down to the river to fill her earthen jar with water, and the evil one dragged her down, and has devoured her. Alas! she had on her gold bangles. Great is my misfortune!'"—Lt.-Col. Lewin, A Fly on the Wheel, p. 99.

GURJAUT, n.p. The popular and official name of certain forest tracts at the back of Orissa. The word is a hybrid, being the Hind. gaṛh, 'a fort,' Persianised into a plural gaṛhjāt, in ignorance of which we have seen, in quasi-official documents, the use of a further English plural, Gurjauts or gaṛhjāts, which is like 'fortses.' [In the quotation below, the writer seems to think it a name of a class of people.] This manner of denominating such tracts from the isolated occupation by fortified posts seems to be very ancient in that part of India. We have in Ptolemy and the Periplus Dosarēnē or Dēsarēnē, apparently representing Skt. Daśāṛṇa, quasi daśan ṛiṇa, 'having Ten Forts,' which the lists of the Bṛhat Sanhitā shew us in this part of India (J. R. As. Soc., N.S., v. 83). The forest tract behind Orissa is called in the grant of an Orissa king, Nava Koti, 'the Nine Forts' (J.A.S.B. xxxiii. 84); and we have, in this region, further in the interior, the province of Chattīsgaṛh, '36 Forts.'

[1820.—"At present nearly one half of this extensive region is under the immediate jurisdiction of the British Government; the other possessed by tributary zemindars called Ghurjauts, or hill chiefs...."—Hamilton, Description of Hindustan, ii. 32.]

GURRY.

a. A little fort; Hind. gaṛhī. Also Gurr, i.e. gaṛh, 'a fort.'

b. See GHURRY.

a.

1693.—"... many of his Heathen Nobles, only such as were befriended by strong Gurrs, or Fastnesses upon the Mountains...."—Fryer, 165.

1786.—"... The Zemindars in 4 pergunnahs are so refractory as to have forfeited (read fortified) themselves in their gurries, and to refuse all payments of revenue."—Articles against W. Hastings, in Burke, vii. 59.

[1835.—"A shot was at once fired upon them from a high Ghurree."—Forbes, Rās Mālā, ed. 1878, p. 521.]

GUTTA PERCHA, s. This is the Malay name Gatah Pertja, i.e. 'Sap of the Percha,' Dichopsis Gutta, Benth. (Isonandra Gutta, Hooker; N.O. Sapotaceae). Dr. Oxley writes (J. Ind. Archip. i. 22) that percha is properly the name of a tree which produces a spurious article; the real gutta p. is produced by the túbau. [Mr. Maxwell (Ind. Ant. xvii. 358) points out that the proper reading is taban.] The product was first brought to notice in 1843 by Dr. Montgomery. It is collected by first ringing the tree and then felling it, and no doubt by this process the article will speedily become extinct. The history of G. P. is, however, far from well known. Several trees are known to contribute to the exported article; their juices being mixed together. [Mr. Scott (Malay Words, 55 seqq.) writes the word getah percha, or getah perchah, 'gum of percha,' and remarks that it has been otherwise explained as meaning 'gum of Sumatra,' "there being another word percha, a name of Sumatra, as well as a third word percha, 'a rag, a remnant.'" Mr. Maxwell (loc. cit.) writes: "It is still uncertain whether there is a gutta-producing tree called Percha by the Malays. My experience is that they give the name of Perchah to that kind of getah taban which hardens into strips in boiling. These are stuck together and made into balls for export."]

[1847.—"Gutta Percha is a remarkable example of the rapidity with which a really useful invention becomes of importance to the English public. A year ago it was almost unknown, but now its peculiar properties are daily being made more available in some new branch of the useful or ornamental arts."—Mundy, Journal, in Narrative of Events in Borneo and Celebes, ii. 342 seq. (quoted by Scott, loc. cit.).]

1868.—"The late Mr. d'Almeida was the first to call the attention of the public to the substance now so well known as gutta-percha. At that time the Isonandra Gutta was an abundant tree in the forests of Singapore, and was first known to the Malays, who made use of the juice which they obtained by cutting down the trees.... Mr. d'Almeida ... acting under the advice of a friend, forwarded some of the substance to the Society of Arts. There it met with no immediate attention, and was put away uncared for. A year or two afterwards Dr. Montgomery sent specimens to England, and bringing it under the notice of competent persons, its value was at once acknowledged.... The sudden and great demand for it soon resulted in the disappearance of all the gutta-percha trees on Singapore Island."—Collingwood, Rambles of a Naturalist, pp. 268-9.

GUZZY, s. Pers. and Hind. gazī; perhaps from its having been woven of a gaz (see GUDGE) in breadth. A very poor kind of cotton cloth.