[1885.—"Two hog-deer were brought forward, very curious-shaped animals that I had never seen before."—Lady Dufferin, Viceregal Life, 146.]
HOG-PLUM, s. The austere fruit of the amrā (Hind.), Spondias mangifera, Pers. (Ord. Terebinthaceae), is sometimes so called; also called the wild mango. It is used in curries, pickles, and tarts. It is a native of various parts of India, and is cultivated in many tropical climates.
1852.—"The Karens have a tradition that in those golden days when God dwelt with men, all nations came before him on a certain day, each with an offering from the fruits of their lands, and the Karens selected the hog's plum for this oblation; which gave such offence that God cursed the Karen nation and placed it lowest...."—Mason's Burmah, ed. 1860, p. 461.
HOKCHEW, HOKSIEU, AUCHEO, etc., n.p. These are forms which the names of the great Chinese port of Fuh-chau, the capital of Fuh-kien, takes in many old works. They, in fact, imitate the pronunciation in the Fuh-kien dialect, which is Hok-chiu; Fuh-kien similarly being called Hoh-kien.
1585.—"After they had travelled more than halfe a league in the suburbs of the cittie of Aucheo, they met with a post that came from the vizroy."—Mendoza, ii. 78.
1616.—"Also this day arrived a small China bark or soma from Hochchew, laden with silk and stuffes."—Cocks, i. 219.
HOME. In Anglo-Indian and colonial speech this means England.
1837.—"Home always means England; nobody calls India home—not even those who have been here thirty years or more, and are never likely to return to Europe."—Letters from Madras, 92.
1865.—"You may perhaps remember how often in times past we debated, with a seriousness becoming the gravity of the subject, what article of food we should each of us respectively indulge in, on our first arrival at home."—Waring, Tropical Resident, 154.
So also in the West Indies:
c. 1830.—"... 'Oh, your cousin Mary, I forgot—fine girl, Tom—may do for you at home yonder' (all Creoles speak of England as home, although they may never have seen it)."—Tom Cringle, ed. 1863, 238.
HONG, s. The Chinese word is hang, meaning 'a row or rank'; a house of business; at Canton a warehouse, a factory, and particularly applied to the establishments of the European nations ("Foreign Hongs"), and to those of the so-called "Hong-Merchants." These were a body of merchants who had the monopoly of trade with foreigners, in return for which privilege they became security for the good behaviour of the foreigners, and for their payment of dues. The guild of these merchants was called 'The Hong.' The monopoly seems to have been first established about 1720-30, and it was terminated under the Treaty of Nanking, in 1842. The Hong merchants are of course not mentioned in Lockyer (1711), nor by A. Hamilton (in China previous to and after 1700, pubd. 1727). The latter uses the word, however, and the rudiments of the institution may be traced not only in this narrative, but in that of Ibn Batuta.
c. 1346.—"When a Musulman trader arrives in a Chinese city, he is allowed to choose whether he will take up his quarters with one of the merchants of his own faith settled in the country, or will go to an inn. If he prefers to go and lodge with a merchant, they count all his money and confide it to the merchant of his choice; the latter then takes charge of all expenditure on account of the stranger's wants, but acts with perfect integrity...."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 265-6.
1727.—"When I arrived at Canton the Hapoa (see HOPPO) ordered me lodgings for myself, my Men, and Cargo, in (a) Haung or Inn belonging to one of his Merchants ... and when I went abroad, I had always some Servants belonging to the Haung to follow me at a Distance."—A. Hamilton, ii. 227; [ed. 1744].
1782.—"... l'Opeou (see HOPPO) ... s'embarque en grande ceremonie dans une galère pavoisée, emmenant ordinairement avec lui trois ou quatre Hanistes."—Sonnerat, ii. 236.
" "... Les loges Européennes s'appellent hams."—Ibid. 245.
1783.—"It is stated indeed that a monopolizing Company in Canton, called the Cohong, had reduced commerce there to a desperate state."—Report of Com. on Affairs of India, Burke, vi. 461.
1797.—"A Society of Hong, or united merchants, who are answerable for one another, both to the Government and the foreign nations."—Sir G. Staunton, Embassy to China, ii. 565.
1882.—"The Hong merchants (collectively the Co-hong) of a body corporate, date from 1720."—The Fankwae at Canton, p. 34.
Cohong is, we believe, though speaking with diffidence, an exogamous union between the Latin co- and the Chinese hong. [Mr. G. T. Gardner confirms this explanation, and writes: "The term used in Canton itself is invariable: 'The Thirteen Hong,' or 'The Thirteen Firms'; and as these thirteen firms formed an association that had at one time the monopoly of the foreign trade, and as they were collectively responsible to the Chinese Government for the conduct of the trade, and to the foreign merchants for goods supplied to any one of the firms, some collective expression was required to denote the co-operation of the Thirteen Firms, and the word Cohang, I presume, was found most expressive."]
HONG-BOAT, s. A kind of sampan (q.v.) or boat, with a small wooden house in the middle, used by foreigners at Canton. "A public passenger-boat (all over China, I believe) is called Hang-chwen, where chwen is generically 'vessel,' and hang is perhaps used in the sense of 'plying regularly.' Boats built for this purpose, used as private boats by merchants and others, probably gave the English name Hong-boat to those used by our countrymen at Canton" (Note by Bp. Moule).
[1878.—"The Koong-Sze Teng, or Hong-Mee-Teng, or hong boats are from thirty to forty feet in length, and are somewhat like the gondolas of Venice. They are in many instances carved and gilded, and the saloon is so spacious as to afford sitting room for eight or ten persons. Abaft the saloon there is a cabin for the boatmen. The boats are propelled by a large scull, which works on a pivot made fast in the stern post."—Gray, China, ii. 273.]
HONG KONG, n.p. The name of this flourishing settlement is hiang-kiang, 'fragrant waterway' (Bp. Moule).
HONORE, ONORE, n.p. Honāvar, a town and port of Canara, of ancient standing and long of piratical repute. The etymology is unknown to us (see what Barbosa gives as the native name below). [A place of the same name in the Bellary District is said to be Can. Honnūru, honnu, 'gold,' ūru, 'village.'] Vincent has supposed it to be the Νάουρα of the Periplus, "the first part of the pepper-country Λιμυρικὴ,"—for which read Διμυρικὴ, the Tamil country or Malabar. But this can hardly be accepted, for Honore is less than 5000 stadia from Barygaza, instead of being 7000 as it ought to be by the Periplus, nor is it in the Tamil region. The true Νάουρα must have been Cannanore, or Pudopatana, a little south of the last. [The Madras Gloss. explains Νάουρα as the country of the Nairs.] The long defence of Honore by Captain Torriano, of the Bombay Artillery, against the forces of Tippoo, in 1783-1784, is one of the most noble records of the Indian army. (See an account of it in Forbes, Or. Mem. iv. 109 seqq.; [2nd ed. ii. 455 seqq.]).
c. 1343.—"Next day we arrived at the city of Hinaur, beside a great estuary which big ships enter.... The women of Hinaur are beautiful and chaste ... they all know the Ḳurān al-'Azīm by heart. I saw at Hinaur 13 schools for the instruction of girls and 23 for boys,—such a thing as I have seen nowhere else. The inhabitants of Maleibār pay the Sultan ... a fixed annual sum from fear of his maritime power."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 65-67.
1516.—"... there is another river on which stands a good town called Honor; the inhabitants use the language of the country, and the Malabars call it Ponou-aram (or Ponaram, in Ramusio); here the Malabars carry on much traffic.... In this town of Onor are two Gentoo corsairs patronised by the Lord of the Land, one called Timoja and the other Raogy, each of whom has 5 or 6 very big ships with large and well-armed crews."—Barbosa, Lisbon ed. 291.
1553.—"This port (Onor) and that of Baticalá ... belonged to the King of Bisnaga, and to this King of Onor his tributary, and these ports, less than 40 years before were the most famous of all that coast, not only for the fertility of the soil and its abundance in provisions ... but for being the ingress and egress of all merchandize for the kingdom of Bisnaga, from which the King had a great revenue; and principally of horses from Arabia...."—Barros, I. viii. cap. x. [And see P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. ii. 202; Comm. Dalboquerque, Hak. Soc. i. 148.]
HOOGLY, HOOGHLEY, n.p. Properly Hūglī, [and said to take its name from Beng. hoglā, 'the elephant grass' (Typha angustifolia)]: a town on the right bank of the Western Delta Branch of the Ganges, that which has long been known from this place as the Hoogly River, and on which Calcutta also stands, on the other bank, and 25 miles nearer the sea. Hoogly was one of the first places occupied by Europeans in the interior of Bengal; first by the Portuguese in the first half of the 16th century. An English factory was established here in 1640; and it was for some time their chief settlement in Bengal. In 1688 a quarrel with the Nawab led to armed action, and the English abandoned Hoogly; but on the arrangement of peace they settled at Chatānatī (Chuttanutty), now Calcutta.
[c. 1590.—"In the Sarkár of Satgáon , there are two ports at a distance of half a kos from each other; the one is Sátgáon, the other Húglí: the latter the chief; both are in possession of the Europeans."—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, ii. 125.]
1616.—"After the force of dom Francisco de Menezes arrived at Sundiva as we have related, there came a few days later to the same island 3 sanguicels, right well equipped with arms and soldiers, at the charges of Manuel Viegas, a householder and resident of Ogolim, or Porto Pequeno, where dwelt in Bengala many Portuguese, 80 leagues up the Ganges, in the territory of the Mogor, under his ill faith that every hour threatened their destruction."—Bocarro, Decada, 476.
c. 1632.—"Under the rule of the Bengális a party of Frank merchants ... came trading to Sátgánw (see PORTO PEQUENO); one kos above that place they occupied some ground on the bank of the estuary.... In course of time, through the ignorance and negligence of the rulers of Bengal, these Europeans increased in number, and erected substantial buildings, which they fortified.... In due course a considerable place grew up, which was known by the name of the Port of Húglí.... These proceedings had come to the notice of the Emperor (Sháh Jehán), and he resolved to put an end to them," &c.—'Abdul Ḥamīd Lāhorī, in Elliot, vii. 31-32.
1644.—"The other important voyage which used to be made from Cochim was that to Bengalla, when the port and town of Ugolim were still standing, and much more when we had the Porto Grande (q.v.) and the town of Diangâ; this used to be made by so many ships that often in one monsoon there came 30 or more from Bengalla to Cochim, all laden with rice, sugar, lac, iron, salt-petre, and many kinds of cloths both of grass and cotton, ghee (manteyga), long pepper, a great quantity of wax, besides wheat and many things besides, such as quilts and rich bedding; so that every ship brought a capital of more than 20,000 xerafins. But since these two possessions were lost, and the two ports were closed, there go barely one or two vessels to Orixa."—Bocarro, MS., f. 315.
1665.—"O Rey de Arracão nos tomou a fortaleza de Sirião em Pegù; O grão Mogor a cidade do Golim em Bengala."—P. Manoel Godinho, Relação, &c.
c. 1666.—"The rest they kept for their service to make Rowers of them; and such Christians as they were themselves, bringing them up to robbing and killing; or else they sold them to the Portugueses of Goa, Ceilan, St. Thomas, and others, and even to those that were remaining in Bengall at Ogouli, who were come thither to settle themselves there by favour of Jehan-Guyre, the Grandfather of Aureng-Zebe...."—Bernier, E.T. 54; [ed. Constable, 176].
1727.—"Hughly is a Town of large Extent, but ill built. It reaches about 2 Miles along the River's Side, from the Chinchura before mentioned to the Bandel, a Colony formerly settled by the Portuguese, but the Mogul's Fouzdaar governs both at present."—A. Hamilton, ii. 19; [ed. 1744].
1753.—"Ugli est une forteresse des Maures.... Ce lieu étant le plus considérable de la contrée, des Européens qui remontent le Gange, lui ont donné le nom de rivière d'Ugli dans sa partie inférieure...."—D'Anville, p. 64.
HOOGLY RIVER, n.p. See preceding. The stream to which we give this name is formed by the combination of the delta branches of the Ganges, viz., the Baugheruttee, Jalinghee, and Matabanga (Bhāgirathī, Jalangī, and Mātābhāngā), known as the Nuddeea (Nadiyā) Rivers.
HOOKA, s. Hind. from Arab. ḥuḳḳah, properly 'a round casket.' The Indian pipe for smoking through water, the elaborated hubble-bubble (q.v.). That which is smoked in the hooka is a curious compound of tobacco, spice, molasses, fruit, &c. [See Baden-Powell, Panjab Products, i. 290.] In 1840 the hooka was still very common at Calcutta dinner-tables, as well as regimental mess-tables, and its bubble-bubble-bubble was heard from various quarters before the cloth was removed—as was customary in those days. Going back further some twelve or fifteen years it was not very uncommon to see the use of the hooka kept up by old Indians after their return to Europe; one such at least, in the recollection of the elder of the present writers in his childhood, being a lady who continued its use in Scotland for several years. When the second of the present writers landed first at Madras, in 1860, there were perhaps half-a-dozen Europeans at the Presidency who still used the hooka; there is not one now (c. 1878). A few gentlemen at Hyderabad are said still to keep it up. [Mrs. Mackenzie writing in 1850 says: "There was a dinner party in the evening (at Agra), mostly civilians, as I quickly discovered by their huqas. I have never seen the huqa smoked save at Delhi and Agra, except by a very old general officer at Calcutta." (Life in the Mission, ii. 196). In 1837 Miss Eden says: "the aides-de-camp and doctor get their newspapers and hookahs in a cluster on their side of the street." (Up the Country, i. 70). The rules for the Calcutta Subscription Dances in 1792 provide: "That hookers be not admitted to the ball room during any part of the night. But hookers might be admitted to the supper rooms, to the card rooms, to the boxes in the theatre, and to each side of the assembly room, between the large pillars and the walls."—Carey, Good Old Days, i. 98.] "In former days it was a dire offence to step over another person's hooka-carpet and hooka-snake. Men who did so intentionally were called out." (M.-Gen. Keatinge).
1768.—"This last Season I have been without Company (except that of my Pipe or Hooker), and when employed in the innocent diversion of smoaking it, have often thought of you, and Old England."—MS. Letter of James Rennell, July 1.
1782.—"When he observes that the gentlemen introduce their hookas and smoak in the company of ladies, why did he not add that the mixture of sweet-scented Persian tobacco, sweet herbs, coarse sugar, spice, etc., which they inhale ... comes through clean water, and is so very pleasant, that many ladies take the tube, and draw a little of the smoak into their mouths."—Price's Tracts, vol. i. p. 78.
1783.—"For my part, in thirty years' residence, I never could find out one single luxury of the East, so much talked of here, except sitting in an arm-chair, smoaking a hooka, drinking cool water (when I could get it), and wearing clean linen."—(Jos. Price), Some Observations on a late Publication, &c., 79.
1789.—"When the cloth is removed, all the servants except the hookerbedar retire, and make way for the sea breeze to circulate, which is very refreshing to the Company, whilst they drink their wine, and smoke the hooker, a machine not easily described...."—Munro's Narrative, 53.
1828.—"Every one was hushed, but the noise of that wind ... and the occasional bubbling of my own hookah, which had just been furnished with another chillum."—The Kuzzilbash, i. 2.
c. 1849.—See Sir C. Napier, quoted under GRAM-FED.
c. 1858.—
"Son houka bigarré d'arabesques fleuries."
Leconte de Lisle, Poèmes Barbares.
1872.—"... in the background the carcase of a boar with a cluster of villagers sitting by it, passing a hookah of primitive form round, for each to take a pull in turn."—A True Reformer, ch. i.
1874.—"... des houkas d'argent emaillé et ciselé...."—Franz, Souvenir d'une Cosaque, ch. iv.
HOOKA-BURDAR, s. Hind. from Pers. huḳḳa-bardār, 'hooka-bearer'; the servant whose duty it was to attend to his master's hooka, and who considered that duty sufficient to occupy his time. See Williamson, V.M. i. 220.
[1779.—"Mr. and Mrs. Hastings present their compliments to Mr. —— and request the favour of his company to a concert and supper on Thursday next. Mr. —— is requested to bring no servants except his Houccaburdar."—In Carey, Good Old Days, i. 71.]
1789.—"Hookerbedar." (See under HOOKA.)
1801.—"The Resident ... tells a strange story how his hookah-burdar, after cheating and robbing him, proceeded to England, and set up as the Prince of Sylhet, took in everybody, was waited upon by Pitt, dined with the Duke of York, and was presented to the King."—Elphinstone, in Life, i. 34.
HOOKUM, s. An order; Ar.—H. ḥukm. (See under HAKIM.)
[1678.—"The King's hookim is of as small value as an ordinary Governour's."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. xlvi.
[1880.—"Of course Raja Joe Hookham will preside."—Ali Baba, 106.]
HOOLUCK, s. Beng. hūlak? The word is not in the Dicts., [but it is possibly connected with ulūk, Skt. ulūka, 'an owl,' both bird and animal taking their name from their wailing note]. The black gibbon (Hylobates hoolook, Jerd.; [Blanford, Mammalia, 5]), not unfrequently tamed on our E. frontier, and from its gentle engaging ways, and plaintive cries, often becoming a great pet. In the forests of the Kasia Hills, when there was neither sound nor sign of a living creature, by calling out hoo! hoo! one sometimes could wake a clamour in response from the hoolucks, as if hundreds had suddenly started to life, each shouting hoo! hoo! hoo! at the top of his voice.
c. 1809.—"The Hulluks live in considerable herds; and although exceedingly noisy, it is difficult to procure a view, their activity in springing from tree to tree being very great; and they are very shy."—Buchanan's Rungpoor, in Eastern India, iii. 563.
1868.—"Our only captive this time was a huluq monkey, a shy little beast, and very rarely seen or caught. They have black fur with white breasts, and go about usually in pairs, swinging from branch to branch with incredible agility, and making the forest resound with their strange cachinatory cry...."—T. Lewin, A Fly on the Wheel, 374.
1884.—"He then ... describes a gibbon he had (not an historian nor a book, but a specimen of Hylobates hooluck) who must have been wholly delightful. This engaging anthropoid used to put his arm through Mr. Sterndale's, was extremely clean in his habits ('which,' says Mr. Sterndale thoughtfully and truthfully, 'cannot be said of all the monkey tribe'), and would not go to sleep without a pillow. Of course he died of consumption. The gibbon, however, as a pet has one weakness, that of 'howling in a piercing and somewhat hysterical fashion for some minutes till exhausted.'"—Saty. Review, May 31, on Sterndale's Nat. Hist. of Mammalia of India, &c.
HOOLY, s. Hind. holī (Skt. holākā), [perhaps from the sound made in singing]. The spring festival, held at the approach of the vernal equinox, during the 10 days preceding the full moon of the month P'hālguṇa. It is a sort of carnival in honour of Kṛishna and the milkmaids. Passers-by are chaffed, and pelted with red powder, or drenched with yellow liquids from squirts. Songs, mostly obscene, are sung in praise of Kṛishna, and dances performed round fires. In Bengal the feast is called ḍol jātrā, or 'Swing-cradle festival.' [On the idea underlying the rite, see Frazer, Golden Bough, 2nd ed. iii. 306 seq.]
c. 1590.—"Here is also a place called Cheramutty, where, during the feast of the Hooly, flames issue out of the ground in a most astonishing manner."—Gladwin's Ayeen Akbery, ii. 34; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 173].
[1671.—"In Feb. or March they have a feast the Romanists call Carnival, the Indians Whoolye."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. cccxiv.]
1673.—"... their Hooly, which is at their other Seed-Time."—Fryer, 180.
1727.—"One (Feast) they kept on Sight of a New Moon in February, exceeded the rest in ridiculous Actions and Expense; and this they called the Feast of Wooly, who was ... a fierce fellow in a War with some Giants that infested Sindy...."—A. Hamilton, i. 128; [ed. 1744, i. 129].
1808.—"I have delivered your message to Mr. H. about April day, but he says he understands the learned to place the Hooly as according with May day, and he believes they have no occasion in India to set apart a particular day in the year for the manufacture...."—Letter from Mrs. Halhed to W. Hastings, in Cal. Review, xxvi. 93.
1809.—"... We paid the Muha Raj (Sindhia) the customary visit at the Hohlee. Everything was prepared for playing; but at Captain C.'s particular request, that part of the ceremony was dispensed with. Playing the Hohlee consists in throwing about a quantity of flour, made from a water-nut called singara, and dyed with red sanders; it is called abeer; and the principal sport is to cast it into the eyes, mouth, and nose of the players, and to splash them all over with water tinged of an orange colour with the flowers of the dak (see DHAWK) tree."—Broughton's Letters, p. 87; [ed. 1892, p. 65 seq.].
HOON, s. A gold Pagoda (coin), q.v. Hind. hūn, "perhaps from Canar. honnu (gold)"—Wilson. [See Rice, Mysore, i. 801.]
1647.—"A wonderfully large diamond from a mine in the territory of Golkonda had fallen into the hands of Kutbu-l-Mulk; whereupon an order was issued, directing him to forward the same to Court; when its estimated value would be taken into account as part of the two lacs of huns which was the stipulated amount of his annual tribute."—'Ināyat Khān, in Elliot, vii. 84.
1879.—"In Exhibit 320 Ramji engages to pay five hons (= Rs. 20) to Vithoba, besides paying the Government assessment."—Bombay High Court Judgment, Jan. 27, p. 121.
HOONDY, s. Hind. hunḍī, hunḍavī; Mahr. and Guj. huṇḍī. A bill of exchange in a native language.
1810.—"Hoondies (i.e. bankers' drafts) would be of no use whatever to them."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 530.
HOONIMAUN, s. The great ape; also called Lungoor.
1653.—"Hermand est vn singe que les Indou tiennent pour Sainct."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, p. 541.
HOOWA. A peculiar call (hūwa) used by the Singhalese, and thence applied to the distance over which this call can be heard. Compare the Australian coo-ee.
HOPPER, s. A colloquial term in S. India for cakes (usually of rice-flour), somewhat resembling the wheaten chupatties (q.v.) of Upper India. It is the Tamil appam, [from appu, 'to clap with the hand.' In Bombay the form used is ap.]
1582.—"Thus having talked a while, he gave him very good entertainment, and commanded to give him certaine cakes, made of the flower of Wheate, which the Malabars do call Apes, and with the same honnie."—Castañeda (by N.L.), f. 38.
1606.—"Great dishes of apas."—Gouvea, f. 48v.
1672.—"These cakes are called Apen by the Malabars."—Baldaeus, Afgoderye (Dutch ed.), 39.
c. 1690.—"Ex iis (the chestnuts of the Jack fruit) in sole siccatis farinam, ex eaque placentas, apas dictas, conficiunt."—Rheede, iii.
1707.—"Those who bake oppers without permission will be subject to severe penalty."—Thesavaleme (Tamil Laws of Jaffna), 700.
[1826.—"He sat down beside me, and shared between us his coarse brown aps."—Pandurang Hari, ed. 1873, i. 81.]
1860.—"Appas (called hoppers by the English) ... supply their morning repast."—Tennent's Ceylon, ii. 161.
HOPPO, s. The Chinese Superintendent of Customs at Canton. Giles says: "The term is said to be a corruption of Hoo poo, the Board of Revenue, with which office the Hoppo, or Collector of duties, is in direct communication." Dr. Williams gives a different account (see below). Neither affords much satisfaction. [The N.E.D. accepts the account given in the quotation from Williams.]
1711.—"The Hoppos, who look on Europe Ships as a great Branch of their Profits, will give you all the fair words imaginable."—Lockyer, 101.
1727.—"I have staid about a Week, and found no Merchants come near me, which made me suspect, that there were some underhand dealings between the Hapoa and his Chaps, to my Prejudice."—A. Hamilton, ii. 228; [ed. 1744, ii. 227]. (See also under HONG.)
1743.—"... just as he (Mr. Anson) was ready to embark, the Hoppo or Chinese Custom-house officer of Macao refused to grant a permit to the boat."—Anson's Voyage, 9th ed. 1756, p. 355.
1750-52.—"The hoppo, happa, or first inspector of customs ... came to see us to-day."—Osbeck, i. 359.
1782.—"La charge d'Opeou répond à celle d'intendant de province."—Sonnerat, ii. 236.
1797.—"... the Hoppo or mandarine more immediately connected with Europeans."—Sir G. Staunton, i. 239.
1842 (?).—"The term hoppo is confined to Canton, and is a corruption of the term hoi-po-sho, the name of the officer who has control over the boats on the river, strangely applied to the Collector of Customs by foreigners."—Wells Williams, Chinese Commercial Guide, 221.
[1878.—"The second board or tribunal is named hoopoo, and to it is entrusted the care and keeping of the imperial revenue."—Gray, China, i. 19.]
1882.—"It may be as well to mention here that the 'Hoppo' (as he was incorrectly styled) filled an office especially created for the foreign trade at Canton.... The Board of Revenue is in Chinese 'Hoo-poo,' and the office was locally misapplied to the officer in question."—The Fankwae at Canton, p. 36.
HORSE-KEEPER, s. An old provincial English term, used in the Madras Presidency and in Ceylon, for 'groom.' The usual corresponding words are, in N. India, syce (q.v.), and in Bombay ghorāwālā (see GORAWALLAH).
1555.—"There in the reste of the Cophine made for the nones thei bewrie one of his dierest lemmans, a waityng manne, a Cooke, a Horse-keeper, a Lacquie, a Butler, and a Horse, whiche thei al at first strangle, and thruste in."—W. Watreman, Fardle of Faciouns, N. 1.
1609.—"Watermen, Lackeyes, Horse-keepers."—Hawkins, in Purchas, i. 216.
1673.—"On St. George's Day I was commanded by the Honourable Gerald Aungier ... to embarque on a Bombaim Boat ... waited on by two of the Governor's servants ... an Horsekeeper...."—Fryer, 123.
1698.—"... followed by his boy ... and his horsekeeper."—In Wheeler, i. 300.
1829.—"In my English buggy, with lamps lighted and an English sort of a nag, I might almost have fancied myself in England, but for the black horse-keeper alongside of me."—Mem. of Col. Mountain, 87.
1837.—"Even my horse pretends he is too fine to switch off his own flies with his own long tail, but turns his head round to order the horsekeeper ... to wipe them off for him."—Letters from Madras, 50.
HORSE-RADISH TREE, s. This is a common name, in both N. and S. India, for the tree called in Hind. sahajnā; Moringa pterygosperma, Gaertn., Hyperanthera Moringa, Vahl. (N. O. Moringaceae), in Skt. sobhānjana. Sir G. Birdwood says: "A marvellous tree botanically, as no one knows in what order to put it; it has links with so many; and it is evidently a 'head-centre' in the progressive development of forms." The name is given because the scraped root is used in place of horse-radish, which it closely resembles in flavour. In S. India the same plant is called the Drumstick-tree (q.v.), from the shape of the long slender fruit, which is used as a vegetable, or in curry, or made into a native pickle "most nauseous to Europeans" (Punjab Plants). It is a native of N.W. India, and also extensively cultivated in India and other tropical countries, and is used also for many purposes in the native pharmacopœia. [See MYROBALAN.]
HOSBOLHOOKUM, &c. Properly (Ar. used in Hind.) ḥasb-ul-ḥukm, literally 'according to order'; these words forming the initial formula of a document issued by officers of State on royal authority, and thence applied as the title of such a document.
[1678.—"Had it bin another King, as Shajehawn, whose phirmaund (see FIRMAUN) and hasbullhookims were of such great force and binding."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. xlvi.]
" "... the other given in the 10th year of Oranzeeb, for the English to pay 2 per cent. at Surat, which the Mogul interpreted by his order, and Husbull Hookum (id est, a word of command by word of mouth) to his Devan in Bengall, that the English were to pay 2 per cent. custom at Surat, and in all other his dominions to be custom free."—Ft. St. Geo. Consns., 17th Dec., in Notes and Exts., Pt. I. pp. 97-98.
1702.—"The Nabob told me that the great God knows that he had ever a hearty respect for the English ... saying, here is the Hosbulhocum, which the king has sent me to seize Factories and all their effects."—In Wheeler, i. 387.
1727.—"The Phirmaund is presented (by the Goosberdaar (Goorzburdar), or Hosbalhouckain, or, in English, the King's Messenger) and the Governor of the Province or City makes a short speech."—A. Hamilton, i. 230; [ed. 1744, i. 233].
1757.—"This Treaty was conceived in the following Terms. I. Whatever Rights and Privileges the King had granted the English Company, in their Phirmaund, and the Hushulhoorums (sic), sent from Delly, shall not be disputed."—Mem. of the Revolution in Bengal, pp. 21-22.
1759.—"Housbul-hookum (under the great seal of the Nabob Vizier, Ulmah Maleck, Nizam al Mulack Bahadour). Be peace unto the high and renowned Mr. John Spencer ..."—In Cambridge's Acct. of the War, &c., 229.
1761.—"A grant signed by the Mogul is called a Phirmaund (farmān). By the Mogul's Son, a Nushawn (nishān). By the Nabob a Perwanna (parwāna). By the Vizier, a Housebul-hookum."—Ibid. 226.
1769.—"Besides it is obvious, that as great a sum might have been drawn from that Company without affecting property ... or running into his golden dream of cockets on the Ganges, or visions of Stamp duties, Perwannas, Dusticks, Kistbundees and Husbulhookums."—Burke, Obsns. on a late Publication called "The Present State of the Nation."
HOT-WINDS, s. This may almost be termed the name of one of the seasons of the year in Upper India, when the hot dry westerly winds prevail, and such aids to coolness as the tatty and thermantidote (q.v.) are brought into use. May is the typical month of such winds.
1804.—"Holkar appears to me to wish to avoid the contest at present; and so does Gen. Lake, possibly from a desire to give his troops some repose, and not to expose the Europeans to the hot winds in Hindustan."—Wellington, iii. 180.
1873.—"It's no use thinking of lunch in this roaring hot wind that's getting up, so we shall be all light and fresh for another shy at the pigs this afternoon."—The True Reformer, i. p. 8.
HOWDAH, vulg. HOWDER, &c., s. Hind. modified from Ar. haudaj. A great chair or framed seat carried by an elephant. The original Arabic word haudaj is applied to litters carried by camels.
c. 1663.—"At other times he rideth on an Elephant in a Mik-dember or Hauze ... the Mik-dember being a little square House or Turret of Wood, is always painted and gilded; and the Hauze, which is an Oval seat, having a Canopy with Pillars over it, is so likewise."—Bernier, E.T. 119; [ed. Constable, 370].
c. 1785.—"Colonel Smith ... reviewed his troops from the houdar of his elephant."—Carraccioli's L. of Clive, iii. 133.
A popular rhyme which was applied in India successively to Warren Hastings' escape from Benares in 1781, and to Col. Monson's retreat from Malwa in 1804, and which was perhaps much older than either, runs:
"Ghoṛe par hauda, hāthī par jīn
Jaldī bhāg-gāyā { Warren Hastīn!
{ Kornail Munsīn!"
which may be rendered with some anachronism in expression:
"Horses with howdahs, and elephants saddled
Off helter skelter the Sahibs skedaddled."
[1805.—"Houza, howda." See under AMBAREE.]
1831.—
"And when they talked of Elephants,
And riding in my Howder,
(So it was called by all my aunts)
I prouder grew and prouder."
H. M. Parker, in Bengal Annual, 119.
1856.—
"But she, the gallant lady, holding fast
With one soft arm the jewelled howdah's side,
Still with the other circles tight the babe
Sore smitten by a cruel shaft ..."
The Banyan Tree, a Poem.
1863.—"Elephants are also liable to be disabled ... ulcers arise from neglect or carelessness in fitting on the howdah."—Sat. Review, Sept. 6, 312.
HUBBA, s. A grain; a jot or tittle. Ar. ḥabba.
1786.—"For two years we have not received a hubba on account of our tunkaw, though the ministers have annually charged a lac of rupees, and never paid us anything."—In Art. agst. Hastings, Burke, vii. 141.
[1836.—"The habbeh (or grain of barley) is the 48th part of dirhem, or third of a keerat ... or in commerce fully equal to an English grain."—Lane, Mod. Egypt., ii. 326.]
HUBBLE-BUBBLE, s. An onomatopoeia applied to the hooka in its rudimentary form, as used by the masses in India. Tobacco, or a mixture containing tobacco amongst other things, is placed with embers in a terra-cotta chillum (q.v.), from which a reed carries the smoke into a coconut shell half full of water, and the smoke is drawn through a hole in the side, generally without any kind of mouth-piece, making a bubbling or gurgling sound. An elaborate description is given in Terry's Voyage (see below), and another in Govinda Samanta, i. 29 (1872).
1616.—"... they have little Earthen Pots ... having a narrow neck and an open round top, out of the belly of which comes a small spout, to the lower part of which spout they fill the Pot with water: then putting their Tobacco loose in the top, and a burning coal upon it, they having first fastned a very small strait hollow Cane or Reed ... within that spout ... the Pot standing on the ground, draw that smoak into their mouths, which first falls upon the Superficies of the water, and much discolours it. And this way of taking their Tobacco, they believe makes it much more cool and wholsom."—Terry, ed. 1665, p. 363.
c. 1630.—"Tobacco is of great account here; not strong (as our men love), but weake and leafie; suckt out of long canes call'd hubble-bubbles ..."—Sir. T. Herbert, 28.
1673.—"Coming back I found my troublesome Comrade very merry, and packing up his Household Stuff, his Bang bowl, and Hubble-bubble, to go along with me."—Fryer, 127.
1673.—"... bolstered up with embroidered Cushions, smoaking out of a silver Hubble-bubble."—Fryer, 131.
1697.—"... Yesterday the King's Dewan, and this day the King's Buxee ... arrived ... to each of whom sent two bottles of Rose-water, and a glass Hubble-bubble, with a compliment."—In Wheeler, i. 318.
c. 1760.—See Grose, i. 146.
1811.—"Cette manière de fumer est extrêmement commune ... on la nomme Hubbel de Bubbel."—Solvyns, tom. iii.
1868.—"His (the Dyak's) favourite pipe is a huge Hubble-bubble."—Wallace, Mal. Archip., ed. 1880, p. 80.
HUBSHEE, n.p. Ar. Ḥabashī, P. Ḥabshī, 'an Abyssinian,' an Ethiopian, a negro. The name is often specifically applied to the chief of Jinjīra on the western coast, who is the descendant of an Abyssinian family.