1525.—(Melequyaz) "holds the revenue of Crystna, which is in a town called Zaguete where there is a place of Pilgrimage of gentoos which is called Crysna...."—Lembrança das Cousas da India, 35.
1553.—"From the Diul estuary to the Point of Jaquete 38 leagues; and from the same Jaquete, which is the site of one of the principal temples of that heathenism, with a noble town, to our city Diu of the Kingdom of Guzarat, 58 leagues."—Barros, I. ix. 1.
1555.—"Whilst the tide was at its greatest height we arrived at the gulf of Chakad, where we descried signs of fine weather, such as sea-horses, great snakes, turtles, and sea-weeds."—Sidi 'Ali, p. 77.
[1563.—"Passed the point of Jacquette, where is that famous temple of the Resbutos (see RAJPOOT)."—Barros, IV. iv. 4.]
1726.—In Valentyn's map we find Jaquete marked as a town (at the west point of Kāthiawāṛ) and Enceada da Jaquete for the Gulf of Cutch.
1727.—"The next sea-port town to Baet, is Jigat. It stands on a Point of low Land, called Cape Jigat. The City makes a good Figure from the Sea, showing 4 or 5 high Steeples."—A. Hamilton, i. 135; [ed. 1744].
1813.—"Jigat Point ... on it is a pagoda; the place where it stands was formerly called Jigat More, but now by the Hindoos Dorecur (i.e. Dwarka, q.v.). At a distance the pagoda has very much the appearance of a ship under sail.... Great numbers of pilgrims from the interior visit Jigat pagoda...."—Milburn, i. 150.
1841.—"Jigat Point called also Dwarka, from the large temple of Dwarka standing near the coast."—Horsburgh, Directory, 5th ed., i. 480.
JADE, s. The well-known mineral, so much prized in China, and so wonderfully wrought in that and other Asiatic countries; the yashm of the Persians; nephrite of mineralogists.
The derivation of the word has been the subject of a good deal of controversy. We were at one time inclined to connect it with the yada-tāsh, the yada stone used by the nomads of Central Asia in conjuring for rain. The stone so used was however, according to P. Hyakinth, quoted in a note with which we were favoured by the lamented Prof. Anton Schiefner, a bezoar (q.v.).
Major Raverty, in his translation of the Ṭabaḳāt-i-Nāṣirī, in a passage referring to the regions of Ṭukhāristān and Bāmiān, has the following: "That tract of country has also been famed and celebrated, to the uttermost parts of the countries of the world, for its mines of gold, silver, rubies, and crystal, bejādah [jade], and other [precious] things" (p. 421). On bejādah his note runs: "The name of a gem, by some said to be a species of ruby, and by others a species of sapphire; but jade is no doubt meant." This interpretation seems however chiefly, if not altogether, suggested by the name; whilst the epithets compounded of bejāda, as given in dictionaries, suggest a red mineral, which jade rarely is. And Prof. Max Müller, in an interesting letter to the Times, dated Jan. 10, 1880, states that the name jade was not known in Europe till after the discovery of America, and that the jade brought from America was called by the Spaniards piedra de ijada, because it was supposed to cure pain in the groin (Sp. ijada); for like reasons to which it was called lapis nephriticus, whence nephrite (see Bailey, below). Skeat, s.v. says: "It is of unknown origin; but probably Oriental. Prof. Cowell finds yedá a material out of which ornaments are made, in the Divyávadána; but it does not seem to be Sanskrit." Prof. Müller's etymology seems incontrovertible; but the present work has afforded various examples of curious etymological coincidences of this kind. [Prof. Max Müller's etymology is now accepted by the N.E.D. and by Prof. Skeat in the new edition of his Concise Dict. The latter adds that ijada is connected with the Latin ilia.]
[1595.—"A kinde of greene stones, which the Spaniards call Piedras hijadas, and we vse for spleene stones."—Raleigh, Discov. Guiana, 24 (quoted in N.E.D.).]
1730.—"Jade, a greenish Stone, bordering on the colour of Olive, esteemed for its Hardness and Virtues by the Turks and Poles, who adorn their fine Sabres with it; and said to be a preservative against the nephritick Colick."—Bailey's Eng. Dict. s.v.
JADOO, s. Hind. from Pers. jādū, Skt. yātu; conjuring, magic, hocus-pocus.
[1826.—"'Pray, sir,' said the barber, 'is that Sanscrit, or what language?' 'May be it is jadoo,' I replied, in a solemn and deep voice."—Pandurang Hari, ed. 1873, i. 127.]
JADOOGUR, s. Properly Hind. jādūghar, 'conjuring-house' (see the last). The term commonly applied by natives to a Freemasons' Lodge, when there is one, at an English station. On the Bombay side it is also called Shaitān khāna (see Burton's Sind Revisited), a name consonant to the ideas of an Italian priest who intimated to one of the present writers that he had heard the raising of the devil was practised at Masonic meetings, and asked his friend's opinion as to the fact. In S. India the Lodge is called Talai-vĕṭṭa-Kovil, 'Cut-head Temple,' because part of the rite of initiation is supposed to consist in the candidate's head being cut off and put on again.
JAFNA, JAFNAPATÁM, n.p. The very ancient Tamil settlement, and capital of the Tamil kings on the singular peninsula which forms the northernmost part of Ceylon. The real name is, according to Emerson Tennent, Yalpannan, and it is on the whole probable that this name is identical with the Galiba (Prom.) of Ptolemy. [The Madras Gloss. gives the Tamil name as Yāzhppānam, from yazh-pānan, 'a lute-player'; "called after a blind minstrel of that name from the Chola country, who by permission of the Singhalese king obtained possession of Jaffna, then uninhabited, and introduced there a colony of the Tamul people."]
1553.—"... the Kingdom Triquinamalé, which at the upper end of its coast adjoins another called Jafanapatam, which stands at the northern part of the island."—Barros, III. ii. cap. i.
c. 1566.—In Cesare de' Federici it is written Gianifanpatan.—Ramusio, iii. 390v.
[JAFFRY, s. A screen or lattice-work, made generally of bamboo, used for various purposes, such as a fence, a support for climbing plants, &c. The ordinary Pers. ja'farī is derived from a person of the name of Ja'far; but Mr. Platts suggests that in the sense under consideration it may be a corr. of Ar. ẓafirat, ẓafir, 'a braided lock.'
[1832.—"Of vines, the branches must also be equally spread over the jaffry, so that light and heat may have access to the whole."—Trans. Agri. Hort. Soc. Ind. ii. 202.]
JAGGERY, s. Coarse brown (or almost black) sugar, made from the sap of various palms. The wild date tree (Phoenix sylvestris, Roxb.), Hind. khajūr, is that which chiefly supplies palm-sugar in Guzerat and Coromandel, and almost alone in Bengal. But the palmyra, the caryota, and the coco-palm all give it; the first as the staple of Tinnevelly and northern Ceylon; the second chiefly in southern Ceylon, where it is known to Europeans as the Jaggery Palm (kitūl of natives); the third is much drawn for toddy (q.v.) in the coast districts of Western India, and this is occasionally boiled for sugar. Jaggery is usually made in the form of small round cakes. Great quantities are produced in Tinnevelly, where the cakes used to pass as a kind of currency (as cakes of salt used to pass in parts of Africa, and in Western China), and do even yet to some small extent. In Bombay all rough unrefined sugar-stuff is known by this name; and it is the title under which all kinds of half-prepared sugar is classified in the tariff of the Railways there. The word jaggery is only another form of sugar (q.v.), being like it a corr. of the Skt. śarkarā, Konkani sakkarā, [Malayāl. chakkarā, whence it passed into Port. jagara, jagra].
1516.—"Sugar of palms, which they call xagara."—Barbosa, 59.
1553.—Exports from the Maldives "also of fish-oil, coco-nuts, and jágara, which is made from these after the manner of sugar."—Barros, Dec. III. liv. iii. cap. 7.
1561.—"Jagre, which is sugar of palm-trees."—Correa, Lendas, i. 2, 592.
1563.—"And after they have drawn this pot of çura, if the tree gives much they draw another, of which they make sugar, prepared either by sun or fire, and this they call jagra."—Garcia, f. 67.
c. 1567.—"There come every yeere from Cochin and from Cananor tenne or fifteene great Shippes (to Chaul) laden with great nuts ... and with sugar made of the selfe same nuts called Giagra."—Caesar Frederike, in Hakl. ii. 344.
1598.—"Of the aforesaid sura they likewise make sugar, which is called Iagra; they seeth the water, and set it in the sun, whereof it becometh sugar, but it is little esteemed, because it is of a browne colour."—Linschoten, 102; [Hak. Soc. ii. 49].
1616.—"Some small quantity of wine, but not common, is made among them; they call it Raak (see ARRACK), distilled from Sugar, and a spicy rinde of a tree called Jagra."—Terry, ed. 1665, p. 365.
1727.—"The Produce of the Samorin's Country is ... Cocoa-Nut, and that tree produceth Jaggery, a kind of sugar, and Copera (see COPRAH), or the kernels of the Nut dried."—A. Hamilton, i. 306; [ed. 1744, i. 308].
c. 1750-60.—"Arrack, a coarse sort of sugar called Jagree, and vinegar are also extracted from it" (coco-palm).—Grose, i. 47.
1807.—"The Tari or fermented juice, and the Jagory or inspissated juice of the Palmira tree ... are in this country more esteemed than those of the wild date, which is contrary to the opinion of the Bengalese."—F. Buchanan, Mysore, &c., i. 5.
1860.—"In this state it is sold as jaggery in the bazaars, at about three farthings per pound."—Tennent's Ceylon, iii. 524.
JAGHEER, JAGHIRE, s. Pers. jāgīr, lit. 'place-holding.' A hereditary assignment of land and of its rent as annuity.
[c. 1590.—"Farmán-i-zabíts are issued for ... appointments to jágírs, without military service."—Āīn, i. 261.
[1617.—"Hee quittes diuers small Jaggers to the King."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. ii. 449.]
c. 1666.—"... Not to speak of what they finger out of the Pay of every Horseman, and of the number of the Horses; which certainly amounts to very considerable Pensions, especially if they can obtain good Jah-ghirs, that is, good Lands for their Pensions."—Bernier, E.T. 66; [ed. Constable, 213].
1673.—"It (Surat) has for its Maintenance the Income of six Villages; over which the Governor sometimes presides, sometimes not, being in the Jaggea, or diocese of another."—Fryer, 120.
" "Jageah, an Annuity."—Ibid. Index, vi.
1768.—"I say, Madam, I know nothing of books; and yet I believe upon a land-carriage fishery, a stamp act, or a jaghire, I can talk my two hours without feeling the want of them."—Mr. Lofty, in The Good-Natured Man, Act ii.
1778.—"Should it be more agreeable to the parties, Sir Matthew will settle upon Sir John and his Lady, for their joint lives, a jagghire.
"Sir John.—A Jagghire?
"Thomas.—The term is Indian, and means an annual Income."—Foote, The Nabob, i. 1.
We believe the traditional stage pronunciation in these passages is Jag Hire (assonant in both syllables to Quag Mire); and this is also the pronunciation given in some dictionaries.
1778.—"... Jaghires, which were always rents arising from lands."—Orme, ed. 1803, ii. 52.
1809.—"He was nominally in possession of a larger jaghire."—Ld. Valentia, i. 401.
A territory adjoining Fort St. George was long known as the Jaghire, or the Company's Jaghire, and is often so mentioned in histories of the 18th century. This territory, granted to the Company by the Nabob of Arcot in 1750 and 1763, nearly answers to the former Collectorate of Chengalput and present Collectorate of Madras.
[In the following the reference is to the Jirgah or tribal council of the Pathan tribes on the N.W. frontier.
[1900.—"No doubt upon the occasion of Lord Curzon's introduction to the Waziris and the Mohmunds, he will inform their Jagirs that he has long since written a book about them."—Contemporary Rev. Aug. p. 282.]
JAGHEERDAR, s. P.—H. jāgīrdār, the holder of a jagheer.
[1813.—"... in the Mahratta empire the principal Jaghiredars, or nobles, appear in the field...."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. i. 328.]
1826.—"The Resident, many officers, men of rank ... jagheerdars, Brahmins, and Pundits, were present, assembled round my father."—Pandurang Hari, 389; [ed. 1873, ii. 259].
1883.—"The Sikhs administered the country by means of jagheerdars, and paid them by their jagheers: the English administered it by highly paid British officers, at the same time that they endeavoured to lower the land-tax, and to introduce grand material reforms."—Bosworth Smith, L. of Ld. Lawrence, i. 378.
JAIL-KHANA, s. A hybrid word for 'a gaol,' commonly used in the Bengal Presidency.
JAIN, s. and adj. The non-Brahmanical sect so called; believed to represent the earliest heretics of Buddhism, at present chiefly to be found in the Bombay Presidency. There are a few in Mysore, Canara, and in some parts of the Madras Presidency, but in the Middle Ages they appear to have been numerous on the coast of the Peninsula generally. They are also found in various parts of Central and Northern India and Behar. The Jains are generally merchants, and some have been men of enormous wealth (see Colebrooke's Essays, i. 378 seqq.; [Lassen, in Ind. Antiq. ii. 193 seqq., 258 seqq.]). The name is Skt. jaina, meaning a follower of jina. The latter word is a title applied to certain saints worshipped by the sect in the place of gods; it is also a name of the Buddhas. An older name for the followers of the sect appears to have been Nirgrantha, 'without bond,' properly the title of Jain ascetics only (otherwise Yatis), [and in particular of the Digambara or 'sky-clad,' naked branch]. (Burnell, S. Indian Palaeography, p. 47, note.)
[c. 1590.—"Jaina. The founder of this wonderful system was Jina, also called Arhat, or Arhant."—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, iii. 188.]
JALEEBOTE, s. Jālībōt. A marine corruption of jolly-boat (Roebuck). (See GALLEVAT.)
a. A title borne by certain chiefs in Kutch, in Kāthiāwāṛ, and on the lower Indus. The derivation is very obscure (see Elliot, i. 495). The title is probably Bilūch originally. There are several Jāms in Lower Sind and its borders, and notably the Jām of Las Bela State, a well-known dependency of Kelat, bordering the sea. [Mr. Longworth Dames writes: "I do not think the word is of Balochi origin, although it is certainly made use of in the Balochi language. It is rather Sindhi, in the broad sense of the word, using Sindhi as the natives do, referring to the tribes of the Indus valley without regard to the modern boundaries of the province of Sindh. As far as I know, it is used as a title, not by Baloches, but by indigenous tribes of Rājput or Jat origin, now, of course, all Musulmans. The Jām of Las Bela belongs to a tribe of this nature known as the Jāmhat. In the Dera Ghāzī Khān District it is used by certain local notables of this class, none of them Baloches. The principal tribe there using it is the Udhāna. It is also an honorific title among the Mochis of Dera Ghāzī Khān town."]
[c. 1590.—"On the Gujarat side towards the south is a Zamíndár of note whom they call Jám...."—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, ii. 250.
[1843.—See under DAWK.]
b. A nautical measure, Ar. zām, pl. azwām. It occurs in the form geme in a quotation of 1614 under JASK. It is repeatedly used in the Mohit of Sidi 'Ali, published in the J. As. Soc. Bengal. It would appear from J. Prinsep's remarks there that the word is used in various ways. Thus Baron J. Hammer writes to Prinsep: "Concerning the measure of azwām the first section of the IIId. chapter explains as follows: 'The zām is either the practical one ('arfī), or the rhetorical (iṣṭilāḥī—but this the acute Prinsep suggests should be aṣṭarlābī, 'pertaining to the divisions of the astrolabe'). The practical is one of the 8 parts into which day and night are divided; the rhetorical (but read the astrolabic) is the 8th part of an inch (iṣāba) in the ascension and descension of the stars; ...' an explanation which helps me not a bit to understand the true measure of a zām, in the reckoning of a ship's course." Prinsep then elucidates this: The zām in practical parlance is said to be the 8th part of day and night; it is in fact a nautical watch or Hindu pahar (see PUHUR). Again, it is the 8th part of the ordinary inch, like the jau or barleycorn of the Hindus (the 8th part of an angul or digit), of which jau, zām is possibly a corruption. Again, the iṣāba or inch, and the zām or ⅛ of an inch, had been transferred to the rude angle-instruments of the Arab navigators; and Prinsep deduces from statements in Sidi 'Ali's book that the iṣāba was very nearly equal to 96′ and the zām to 12′. Prinsep had also found on enquiry among Arab mariners, that the term zām was still well known to nautical people as 1⁄5 of a geographical degree, or 12 nautical miles, quite confirmatory of the former calculation; it was also stated to be still applied to terrestrial measurements (see J.A.S.B. v. 642-3).
1013.—"J'ai déjà parlé de Sérira (read Sarbaza) qui est située à l'extremité de l'île de Lâmeri, à cent-vingt zâmâ de Kala."—Ajāīb-al-Hind, ed. Van der Lith et Marcel Devic, 176.
" "Un marin m'a rapporté qu'il avait fait la traversée de Sérira (Sarbaza) à la Chine dans un Sambouq (see SAMBOOK). 'Nous avions parcouru,' dit-il, 'un espace de cinquante zâmâ, lorsqu'une tempête fondit sur notre embarcation.... Ayant fait de l'eau, nous remîmes à la voile vers le Senf, suivant ses instructions, et nous y abordâmes sains et saufs, après un voyage de quinze zâmâ."—Ibid. pp. 190-91.
1554.—"26th Voyage from Calicut to Kardafun" (see GUARDAFUI).
"... you run from Calicut to Kolfaini (i.e. Kalpeni, one of the Laccadive Ids.) two zāms in the direction of W. by S., the 8 or 9 zāms W.S.W. (this course is in the 9 degree channel through the Laccadives), then you may rejoice as you have got clear of the islands of Fúl, from thence W. by N. and W.N.W. till the pole is 4 inches and a quarter, and then true west to Kardafún."
* * * * *
"27th Voyage, from Diú to Malacca.
"Leaving Diú you go first S.S.E. till the pole is 5 inches, and side then towards the land, till the distance between it and the ship is six zāms; from thence you steer S.S.E. ... you must not side all at once but by degrees, first till the farkadain (β and γ in the Little Bear) are made by a quarter less than 8 inches, from thence to S.E. till the farkadain are 7¼ inches, from thence true east at a rate of 18 zāms, then you have passed Ceylon."—The Mohit, in J.A.S.B. v. 465.
The meaning of this last routier is: "Steer S.S.E. till you are in 8° N. Lat. (lat. of Cape Comorin); make then a little more easting, but keep 72 miles between you and the coast of Ceylon till you find the β and γ of Ursa Minor have an altitude of only 12° 24′ (i.e. till you are in N. Lat. 6° or 5°), and then steer due east. When you have gone 216 miles you will be quite clear of Ceylon."
1625.—"We cast anchor under the island of Kharg, which is distant from Cais, which we left behind us, 24 giam. Giam is a measure used by the Arab and Persian pilots in the Persian Gulf; and every giam is equal to 3 leagues; insomuch that from Cais to Kharg we had made 72 leagues."—P. della Valle, ii. 816.
JAMBOO, JUMBOO, s. The Rose-apple, Eugenia jambos, L. Jambosa vulgaris, Decand.; Skt. jambū, Hind. jam, jambū, jamrūl, &c. This is the use in Bengal, but there is great confusion in application, both colloquially and in books. The name jambū is applied in some parts of India to the exotic guava (q.v.), as well as to other species of Eugenia; including the jāmun (see JAMOON), with which the rose-apple is often confounded in books. They are very different fruits, though they have both been classed by Linnaeus under the genus Eugenia (see further remarks under JAMOON). [Mr. Skeat notes that the word is applied by the Malays both to the rose-apple and the guava, and Wilkinson (Dict. s.v.) notes a large number of fruits to which the name jambū is applied.]
Garcia de Orta mentions the rose-apple under the name Iambos, and says (1563) that it had been recently introduced into Goa from Malacca. This may have been the Eugenia Malaccensis, L., which is stated in Forbes Watson's Catalogue of nomenclature to be called in Bengal Malāka Jamrūī, and in Tamil Malākā maram i.e. 'Malacca tree.' The Skt. name jambū is, in the Malay language, applied with distinguishing adjectives to all the species.
[1598.—"The trees whereon the Iambos do grow are as great as Plumtrees."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. ii. 31.]
1672.—P. Vincenzo Maria describes the Giambo d'India with great precision, and also the Giambo di China—no doubt J. malaccensis—but at too great length for extract, pp. 351-352.
1673.—"In the South a Wood of Jamboes, Mangoes, Cocoes."—Fryer, 46.
1727.—"Their Jambo Malacca (at Goa) is very beautiful and pleasant."—A. Hamilton, i. 255; [ed. 1744, i. 258].
1810.—"The jumboo, a species of rose-apple, with its flower like crimson tassels covering every part of the stem."—Maria Graham, 22.
JAMES AND MARY, n.p. The name of a famous sand-bank in the Hoogly R. below Calcutta, which has been fatal to many a ship. It is mentioned under 1748, in the record of a survey of the river quoted in Long, p. 10. It is a common allegation that the name is a corruption of the Hind. words jal mari, with the supposed meaning of 'dead water.' But the real origin of the name dates, as Sir G. Birdwood has shown, out of India Office records, from the wreck of a vessel called the "Royal James and Mary," in September 1694, on that sand-bank (Letter to the Court, from Chuttanuttee, Dec. 19, 1694). [Report on Old Records, 90.] This shoal appears by name in a chart belonging to the English Pilot, 1711.
JAMMA, s. P.—H. jāma, a piece of native clothing. Thus, in composition, see PYJAMMAS. Also stuff for clothing, &c., e.g. mom-jama, wax-cloth. ["The jama may have been brought by the Aryans from Central Asia, but as it is still now seen it is thoroughly Indian and of ancient date."—Rajendralala Mitra, Indo-Aryans, i. 187 seq.
[1813.—"The better sort (of Hindus) wear ... a jama, or long gown of white calico, which is tied round the middle with a fringed or embroidered sash."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. i. 52].
JAMOON, s. Hind. jāmun, jāman, jāmlī, &c. The name of a poor fruit common in many parts of India, and apparently in E. Africa, the Eugenia jambolana, Lamk. (Calyptranthes jambolana of Willdenow, Syzygium jambolanum of Decand.) This seems to be confounded with the Eugenia jambos, or Rose-apple (see JAMBOO, above), by the author of a note on Leyden's Baber which Mr. Erskine justly corrects (Baber's own account is very accurate), by the translators of Ibn Batuta, and apparently, as regards the botanical name, by Sir R. Burton. The latter gives jamli as the Indian, and zam as the Arabic name. The name jambū appears to be applied to this fruit at Bombay, which of course promotes the confusion spoken of. In native practice the stones of this fruit have been alleged to be a cure for diabetes, but European trials do not seem to have confirmed this.
c. 13**.—"The inhabitants (of Mombasa) gather also a fruit which they call jamūn, and which resembles an olive; it has a stone like the olive, but has a very sweet taste."—Ibn Batuta, ii. 191. Elsewhere the translators write tchoumoûn (iii. 128, iv. 114, 229), a spelling indicated in the original, but surely by some error.
c. 1530.—"Another is the jaman.... It is on the whole a fine looking tree. Its fruit resembles the black grape, but has a more acid taste, and is not very good."—Baber, 325. The note on this runs: "This, Dr. Hunter says, is the Eugenia Jambolana, the rose-apple (Eugenia jambolana, but not the rose-apple, which is now called Eugenia jambu.—D.W.). The jâman has no resemblance to the rose-apple; it is more like an oblong sloe than anything else, but grows on a tall tree."
1563.—"I will eat of those olives,——, at least they look like such; but they are very astringent (ponticas) as if binding,——, and yet they do look like ripe Cordova olives.
"O. They are called jambolones, and grow wild in a wood that looks like a myrtle grove; in its leaves the tree resembles the arbutus; but like the jack, the people of the country don't hold this fruit for very wholesome."—Garcia, f. 111y.
1859.—"The Indian jamli.... It is a noble tree, which adorns some of the coast villages and plantations, and it produces a damson-like fruit, with a pleasant sub-acid flavour."—Burton, in J.R.G.S. ix. 36.
JANCADA, s. This name was given to certain responsible guides in the Nair country who escorted travellers from one inhabited place to another, guaranteeing their security with their own lives, like the Bhāts of Guzerat. The word is Malayāl. chaṅṅāḍam (i.e. changngāḍam, [the Madras Gloss. writes channātam, and derives it from Skt. sanghāta, 'union']), with the same spelling as that of the word given as the origin of jangar or jangada, 'a raft.' These jancadas or jangadas seem also to have been placed in other confidential and dangerous charges. Thus:
1543.—"This man who so resolutely died was one of the jangadas of the Pagode. They are called jangades because the kings and lords of those lands, according to a custom of theirs, send as guardians of the houses of the Pagodes in their territories, two men as captains, who are men of honour and good cavaliers. Such guardians are called jangadas, and have soldiers of guard under them, and are as it were the Counsellors and Ministers of the affairs of the pagodes, and they receive their maintenance from the establishment and its revenues. And sometimes the king changes them and appoints others."—Correa, iv. 328.
c. 1610.—"I travelled with another Captain ... who had with him these Jangai, who are the Nair guides, and who are found at the gates of towns to act as escort to those who require them.... Every one takes them, the weak for safety and protection, those who are stronger, and travel in great companies and well armed, take them only as witnesses that they are not aggressors in case of any dispute with the Nairs."—Pyrard de Laval, ch. xxv.; [Hak. Soc. i. 339, and see Mr. Gray's note in loco].
1672.—"The safest of all journeyings in India are those through the Kingdom of the Nairs and the Samorin, if you travel with Giancadas, the most perilous if you go alone. These Giancadas are certain heathen men, who venture their own life and the lives of their kinsfolk for small remuneration, to guarantee the safety of travellers."—P. Vincenzo Maria, 127.
See also Chungathum, in Burton's Goa, p. 198.
JANGAR, s. A raft. Port. jangada. ["A double platform canoe made by placing a floor of boards across two boats, with a bamboo railing." (Madras Gloss.).] This word, chiefly colloquial, is the Tamil-Malayāl. shangāḍam, channātam (for the derivation of which see JANCADA). It is a word of particular interest as being one of the few Dravidian words, [but perhaps ultimately of Skt. origin], preserved in the remains of classical antiquity, occurring in the Periplus as our quotation shows. Bluteau does not call the word an Indian term.
c. 80-90.—"The vessels belonging to these places (Camara, Poducē, and Sopatma on the east coast) which hug the shore to Limyricē (Dimyricē), and others also called Σάγγαρα, which consist of the largest canoes of single timbers lashed together; and again those biggest of all which sail to Chryse and Ganges, and are called Κολανδίοφωντα."—Periplus, in Müller's Geog. Gr. Min., i. "The first part of this name for boats or ships is most probably the Tam. kul̤inda = hollowed: the last ōḍam = boat."—Burnell, S.I. Palaeography, 612.
c. 1504.—"He held in readiness many jangadas of timber."—Correa, Lendas, I. i. 476.
c. 1540.—"... and to that purpose had already commanded two great Rafts (jãgadas), covered with dry wood, barrels of pitch and other combustible stuff, to be placed at the entering into the Port."—Pinto (orig. cap. xlvi.), in Cogan, p. 56.
1553.—"... the fleet ... which might consist of more than 200 rowing vessels of all kinds, a great part of them combined into jangadas in order to carry a greater mass of men, and among them two of these contrivances on which were 150 men."—Barros, II. i. 5.
1598.—"Such as stayed in the ship, some tooke bords, deals, and other peeces of wood, and bound them together (which ye Portingals cal Iangadas) every man what they could catch, all hoping to save their lives, but of all those there came but two men safe to shore."—Linschoten, p. 147; [Hak. Soc. ii. 181; and see Mr. Gray on Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 53 seq.].
1602.—"For his object was to see if he could rescue them in jangadas, which he ordered him immediately to put together of baulks, planks, and oars."—Couto, Dec. IV. liv. iv. cap. 10.
1756.—"... having set fire to a jungodo of Boats, these driving down towards the Fleet, compelled them to weigh."—Capt. Jackson, in Dalrymple's Or. Rep. i. 199.
c. 1790.—"Sangarie." See quotation under HACKERY.
c. 1793.—"Nous nous remîmes en chemin à six heures du matin, et passâmes la rivière dans un sangarie ou canot fait d'un palmier creusé."—Haafner, ii. 77.
JANGOMAY, ZANGOMAY, JAMAHEY, &c., n.p. The town and state of Siamese Laos, called by the Burmese Zimmé, by the Siamese Xiengmai or Kiang-mai, &c., is so called in narratives of the 17th century. Serious efforts to establish trade with this place were made by the E.I. Company in the early part of the 17th century, of which notice will be found in Purchas, Pilgrimage, and Sainsbury, e.g. in vol. i. (1614), pp. 311, 325; (1615) p. 425; (1617) ii. p. 90. The place has again become the scene of commercial and political interest; an English Vice-Consulate has been established; and a railway survey undertaken. [See Hallett, A Thousand Miles on an Elephant, 74 seqq.]
c. 1544.—"Out of this Lake of Singapamor ... do four very large and deep rivers proceed, whereof the first ... runneth Eastward through all the Kingdoms of Sornau and Siam ...; the Second, Jangumaa ... disimboking into the Sea by the Bar of Martabano in the Kingdom of Pegu...."—Pinto (in Cogan, 165).
1553.—(Barros illustrates the position of the different kingdoms of India by the figure of a (left) hand, laid with the palm downwards) "And as regards the western part, following always the sinew of the forefinger, it will correspond with the ranges of mountains running from north to south along which lie the kingdom of Avá, and Bremá, and Jangomá."—III. ii. 5.
c. 1587.—"I went from Pegu to Iamayhey, which is in the Countrey of the Langeiannes, whom we call Iangomes; it is five and twentie dayes iourney to Northeast from Pegu.... Hither to Iamayhey come many Merchants out of China, and bring great store of Muske, Gold, Silver, and many things of China worke."—R. Fitch, in Hakl. ii.
c. 1606.—"But the people, or most part of them, fled to the territories of the King of Jangoma, where they were met by the Padre Friar Francisco, of the Annunciation, who was there negotiating ..."—Bocarro, 136.
1612.—"The Siamese go out with their heads shaven, and leave long mustachioes on their faces; their garb is much like that of the Peguans. The same may be said of the Jangomas and the Laojoes" (see LAN JOHN).—Couto, V. vi. 1.
c. 1615.—"The King (of Pegu) which now reigneth ... hath in his time recovered from the King of Syam ... the town and kingdom of Zangomay, and therein an Englishman called Thomas Samuel, who not long before had been sent from Syam by Master Lucas Anthonison, to discover the Trade of that country by the sale of certaine goods sent along with him for that purpose."—W. Methold, in Purchas, v. 1006.
[1617.—"Jangama." See under JUDEA.
[1795.—"Zemee." See under SHAN.]
JAPAN, n.p. Mr. Giles says: "Our word is from Jeh-pun, the Dutch orthography of the Japanese Ni-pon." What the Dutch have to do with the matter is hard to see. ["Our word 'Japan' and the Japanese Nihon or Nippon, are alike corruptions of Jih-pen, the Chinese pronunciation of the characters (meaning) literally 'sun-origin.'" (Chamberlain, Things Japanese, 3rd ed. 221).] A form closely resembling Japán, as we pronounce it, must have prevailed, among foreigners at least, in China as early as the 13th century; for Marco Polo calls it Chipan-gu or Jipan-ku, a name representing the Chinese Zhi-păn-Kwe ('Sun-origin-Kingdom'), the Kingdom of the Sunrise or Extreme Orient, of which the word Nipon or Niphon, used in Japan, is said to be a dialectic variation. But as there was a distinct gap in Western tradition between the 14th century and the 16th, no doubt we, or rather the Portuguese, acquired the name from the traders at Malacca, in the Malay forms, which Crawfurd gives as Jăpung and Jăpang.
1298.—"Chipangu is an Island towards the east in the high seas, 1,500 miles distant from the Continent; and a very great Island it is. The people are white, civilized, and well-favoured. They are Idolaters, and dependent on nobody...."—Marco Polo, bk. iii. ch. 2.
1505.—"... and not far off they took a ship belonging to the King of Calichut; out of which they have brought me certain jewels of good value; including Mccccc. pearls worth 8,000 ducats; also three astrological instruments of silver, such as are not used by our astrologers, large and well-wrought, which I hold in the highest estimation. They say that the King of Calichut had sent the said ship to an island called Saponin to obtain the said instruments...."—Letter from the K. of Portugal (Dom Manuel) to the K. of Castille (Ferdinand). Reprint by A. Burnell, 1881, p. 8.
1521.—"In going by this course we passed near two very rich islands; one is in twenty degrees latitude in the antarctic pole, and is called Cipanghu."—Pigafetta, Magellan's Voyage, Hak. Soc., 67. Here the name appears to be taken from the chart or Mappe-Monde which was carried on the voyage. Cipanghu appears by that name on the globe of Martin Behaim (1492), but 20 degrees north, not south, of the equator.
1545.—"Now as for us three Portugals, having nothing to sell, we employed our time either in fishing, hunting, or seeing the Temples of these Gentiles, which were very sumptuous and rich, whereinto the Bonzes, who are their priests, received us very courteously, for indeed it is the custom of those of Jappon (do Japão) to be exceeding kind and courteous."—Pinto (orig. cap. cxxxiv.), in Cogan, E.T. p. 173.
1553.—"After leaving to the eastward the isles of the Lequios (see LEW CHEW) and of the Japons (dos Japões), and the great province of Meaco, which for its great size we know not whether to call it Island or Continent, the coast of China still runs on, and those parts pass beyond the antipodes of the meridian of Lisbon."—Barros, I. ix. 1.
1572.—
"Esta meia escondida, que responde
De longe a China, donde vem buscar-se,
He Japão, onde nasce la prata fina,
Que illustrada será co' a Lei divina."
Camões, x. 131.
By Burton:
"This Realm, half-shadowed, China's empery
afar reflecting, whither ships are bound,
is the Japan, whose virgin silver mine
shall shine still sheenier with the Law Divine."
1727.—"Japon, with the neighbouring Islands under its Dominions, is about the magnitude of Great Britain."—A. Hamilton, ii. 306; [ed. 1744, ii. 305].
JARGON, JARCOON, ZIRCON, s. The name of a precious stone often mentioned by writers of the 16th century, but respecting the identity of which there seems to be a little obscurity. The English Encyclopaedia, and the Times Reviewer of Emanuel's book On Precious Stones (1866), identify it with the hyacinth or jacinth; but Lord Stanley of Alderley, in his translation of Barbosa (who mentions the stone several times under the form giagonza and jagonza), on the authority of a practical jeweller identifies it with corundum. This is probably an error. Jagonza looks like a corruption of jacinthus. And Haüy's Mineralogy identifies jargon and hyacinth under the common name of zircon. Dana's Mineralogy states that the term hyacinth is applied to these stones, consisting of a silicate of zirconia, "which present bright colours, considerable transparency, and smooth shining surfaces.... The variety from Ceylon, which is colourless, and has a smoky tinge, and is therefore sold for inferior diamonds, is sometimes called jargon" (Syst. of Mineral., 3rd ed., 1850, 379-380; [Encycl. Britt. 9th ed. xxiv. 789 seq.]).
The word probably comes into European languages through the Span. azarcon, a word of which there is a curious history in Dozy and Engelmann. Two Spanish words and their distinct Arabic originals have been confounded in the Span. Dict. of Cobarruvias (1611) and others following him. Sp. zarca is 'a woman with blue eyes,' and this comes from Ar. zarḳā, fem. of azraḳ, 'blue.' This has led the lexicographers above referred to astray, and azarcon has been by them defined as a 'blue earth, made of burnt lead.' But azarcon really applies to 'red-lead,' or vermilion, as does the Port. zarcão, azarcão, and its proper sense is as the Dict. of the Sp. Academy says (after repeating the inconsistent explanation and etymology of Cobarruvias), "an intense orange-colour, Lat. color aureus." This is from the Ar. zarḳūn, which in Ibn Baithar is explained as synonymous with salīḳūn, and asranj, "which the Greeks call sandix," i.e. cinnabar or vermilion (see Sontheimer's Ebn Beithar, i. 44, 530). And the word, as Dozy shows, occurs in Pliny under the form syricum (see quotations below). The eventual etymology is almost certainly Persian, either zargūn, 'gold colour,' as Marcel Devic suggests, or āzargūn (perhaps more properly āẓargūn, from āẓar, 'fire'), 'flame-colour,' as Dozy thinks.