1690.—"The Gold Moor, or Gold Roupie, is valued generally at 14 of Silver; and the Silver Roupie at Two Shillings Three Pence."—Ovington, 219.
1726.—"There is here only also a State mint where gold Moors, silver Ropyes, Peysen and other money are struck."—Valentijn, v. 166.
1758.—"80,000 rupees, and 4000 gold mohurs, equivalent to 60,000 rupees, were the military chest for immediate expenses."—Orme, ed. 1803, ii. 364.
[1776.—"Thank you a thousand times for your present of a parcel of morahs."—Mrs. P. Francis, to her husband, in Francis Letters, i. 286.]
1779.—"I then took hold of his hand: then he (Francis) took out gold mohurs: and offered to give them to me: I refused them; he said 'Take that (offering both his hands to me), 'twill make you great men, and I will give you 100 gold mohurs more.'"—Evidence of Rambux Jemadar, on Trial of Grand v. Francis, quoted in Echoes of Old Calcutta, 228.
1785.—"Malver, hairdresser from Europe, proposes himself to the ladies of the settlement to dress Hair daily, at two gold mohurs per month, in the latest fashion with gauze flowers, &c. He will also instruct the slaves at a moderate price."[167]—In Seton-Karr, i. 119.
1797.—"Notwithstanding he (the Nabob) was repeatedly told that I would accept nothing, he had prepared 5 lacs of rupees and 8000 gold Mohurs for me, of which I was to have 4 lacs, my attendants one, and your Ladyship the gold."—Letter in Mem. of Lord Teignmouth, i. 410.
1809.—"I instantly presented to her a nazur (see NUZZER) of nineteen gold mohurs in a white handkerchief."—Lord Valentia, i. 100.
1811.—"Some of his fellow passengers ... offered to bet with him sixty gold mohurs."—Morton's Life of Leyden, 83.
1829.—"I heard that a private of the Company's Foot Artillery passed the very noses of the prize-agents, with 500 gold mohurs (sterling 1000l.) in his hat or cap."—John Shipp, ii. 226.
[c. 1847.—"The widow is vexed out of patience, because her daughter Maria has got a place beside Cambric, the penniless curate, and not by Colonel Goldmore, the rich widower from India."—Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ed. 1879, p. 71.]
MOHURRER, MOHRER, &c., s. A writer in a native language. Ar. muḥarrir, 'an elegant, correct writer.' The word occurs in Grose (c. 1760) as 'Mooreis, writers.'
[1765.—"This is not only the custom of the heads, but is followed by every petty Mohooree in each office."—Verelst, View of Bengal, App. 217.]
MOHURRUM, s. Ar. Muḥarram ('sacer'), properly the name of the 1st month of the Mahommedan lunar year. But in India the term is applied to the period of fasting and public mourning observed during that month in commemoration of the death of Hassan and of his brother Husain (A.D. 669 and 680) and which terminates in the ceremonies of the 'Ashūrā-a, commonly however known in India as "the Mohurrum." For a full account of these ceremonies see Herklots, Qanoon-e-Islam, 2nd ed. 98-148. [Perry, Miracle Play of Hasan and Husain.] And see in this book HOBSON-JOBSON.
1869.—"Fête du Martyre de Huçain.... On la nomme généralement Muharram du nom du mois ... et plus spécialement Dahâ, mot persan dérivé de dah 'dix,' ... les dénominations viennent de ce que la fête de Huçain dure dix jours."—Garcin de Tassy, Rel. Mus. p. 31.
MOHWA, MHOWA, MOWA, s. Hind. &c. mahuā, mahwā, Skt. madhūka, the large oak-like tree Bassia latifolia,[168] Roxb. (N. O. Sapotaceae), also the flower of this tree from which a spirit is distilled and the spirit itself. It is said that the Mahwā flower is now largely exported to France for the manufacture of liqueurs. The tree, in groups, or singly, is common all over Central India in the lower lands, and, more sparsely, in the Gangetic provinces. "It abounds in Guzerat. When the flowers are falling the Hill-men camp under the trees to collect them. And it is a common practice to sit perched on one of the trees in order to shoot the large deer which come to feed on the fallen mhowa. The timber is strong and durable." (M.-Gen. R. H. Keatinge).
c. 1665.—"Les bornes du Mogolistan et de Golconde sont plantées à environ un lieue et demie de Calvar. Ce sont des arbres qu'on appelle Mahoua; ils marquent la dernière terre du Mogol."—Thevenot, v. 200.
1810.—"... the number of shops where Toddy, Mowah, Pariah Arrack, &c., are served out, absolutely incalculable."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 153.
1814.—"The Mowah ... attains the size of an English oak ... and from the beauty of its foliage, makes a conspicuous appearance in the landscape."—Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 452; [2nd ed. ii. 261, reading Mawah].
1871.—"The flower ... possesses considerable substance, and a sweet but sickly taste and smell. It is a favourite article of food with all the wild tribes, and the lower classes of Hindus; but its main use is in the distillation of ardent spirits, most of what is consumed being Mhowa. The spirit, when well made, and mellowed by age, is by no means of despicable quality, resembling in some degree Irish whisky. The luscious flowers are no less a favourite food of the brute creation than of man...."—Forsyth, Highlands of C. India, 75.
MOLE-ISLAM, n.p. The title applied to a certain class of rustic Mahommedans or quasi-Mahommedans in Guzerat, said to have been forcibly converted in the time of the famous Sultan Mahmūd Bigarra, Butler's "Prince of Cambay." We are ignorant of the true orthography or meaning of the term. [In the E. Panjab the descendants of Jats forcibly converted to Islam are known as Mūla, or 'unfortunate' (Ibbetson, Punjab Ethnography, p. 142). The word is derived from the nakshatra or lunar asterism of Mūl, to be born in which is considered specially unlucky.]
[1808.—"Mole-Islams." See under GRASSIA.]
MOLEY, s. A kind of (so-called wet) curry used in the Madras Presidency, a large amount of coco-nut being one of the ingredients. The word is a corruption of 'Malay'; the dish being simply a bad imitation of one used by the Malays.
[1885.—"Regarding the Ceylon curry.... It is known by some as the 'Malay curry,' and it is closely allied to the moli of the Tamils of Southern India." Then follows the recipe.—Wyvern, Culinary Jottings, 5th ed., 299.]
MOLLY, or (better) MALLEE, s. Hind. mālī, Skt. mālika, 'a garland-maker,' or a member of the caste which furnishes gardeners. We sometimes have heard a lady from the Bengal Presidency speak of the daily homage of "the Molly with his dolly," viz. of the mālī with his dālī.
1759.—In a Calcutta wages tariff of this year we find—
"House Molly 4 Rs."
In Long, 182.
MOLUCCAS, n.p. The 'Spice Islands,' strictly speaking the five Clove Islands, lying to the west of Gilolo, and by name Ternate (Tarnāti), Tidore (Tidori), Mortir, Makian, and Bachian. [See Mr. Gray's note on Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 166.] But the application of the name has been extended to all the islands under Dutch rule, between Celebes and N. Guinea. There is a Dutch governor residing at Amboyna, and the islands are divided into 4 residencies, viz. Amboyna, Banda, Ternate and Manado. The origin of the name Molucca, or Maluco as the Portuguese called it, is not recorded; but it must have been that by which the islands were known to the native traders at the time of the Portuguese discoveries. The early accounts often dwell on the fact that each island (at least three of them) had a king of its own. Possibly they got the (Ar.) name of Jazīrat-al-Mulūk, 'The Isles of the Kings.'
Valentijn probably entertained the same view of the derivation. He begins his account of the islands by saying:
"There are many who have written of the Moluccos and of their Kings, but we have hitherto met with no writer who has given an exact view of the subject" (Deel, i. Mol. 3).
And on the next page he says:
"For what reason they have been called Moluccos we shall not here say; for we shall do this circumstantially when we shall speak of the Molukse Kings and their customs."
But we have been unable to find the fulfilment of this intention, though probably it exists in that continent of a work somewhere. We have also seen a paper by a writer who draws much from the quarry of Valentijn. This is an article by Dr. Van Muschenbroek in the Proceedings of the International Congress of Geog. at Venice in 1881 (ii. pp. 596, seqq.), in which he traces the name to the same origin. He appears to imply that the chiefs were known among themselves as Molokos, and that this term was substituted for the indigenous Kolano, or King. "Ce nom, ce titre restèrent, et furent même peu à peu employés, non seulement pour les chefs, mais aussi pour l'état même. A la longue les îles et les états des Molokos devinrent les îles et les états Molokos." There is a good deal that is questionable, however, in this writer's deductions and etymologies. [Mr. Skeat remarks: "The islands appear to be mentioned in the Chinese history of the Tang dynasty (618-696) as Mi-li-ku, and if this be so the name is perhaps too old to be Arab."]
c. 1430.—"Has (Javas) ultra xv dierum cursu duae reperiuntur insulae, orientem versus. Altera Sandai appellatur, in qua nuces muscatae et maces; altera Bandam nomine, in qua sola gariofali producuntur."—N. Conti, in Poggius.
1501.—The earliest mention of these islands by this name, that we know, is in a letter of Amerigo Vespucci (quoted under CANHAMEIRA), who in 1501, among the places heard of by Cabral's fleet, mentions the Maluche Islands.
1510.—"We disembarked in the island of Monoch, which is much smaller than Bandan; but the people are worse.... Here the cloves grow, and in many other neighbouring islands, but they are small and uninhabited."—Varthema, 246.
1514.—"Further on is Timor, whence comes sandalwood, both the white and the red; and further on still are the Maluc, whence come the cloves. The bark of these trees I am sending you; an excellent thing it is; and so are the flowers."—Letter of Giovanni da Empoli, in Archivio Stor. Ital., p. 81.
1515.—"From Malacca ships and junks are come with a great quantity of spice, cloves, mace, nut (meg), sandalwood, and other rich things. They have discovered the five Islands of Cloves; two Portuguese are lords of them, and rule the land with the rod. 'Tis a land of much meat, oranges, lemons, and clove-trees, which grow there of their own accord, just as trees in the woods with us.... God be praised for such favour, and such grand things!"—Another letter of do., ibid. pp. 85-86.
1516.—"Beyond these islands, 25 leagues towards the north-east, there are five islands, one before the other, which are called the islands of Maluco, in which all the cloves grow.... Their Kings are Moors, and the first of them is called Bachan, the second Maquian, the third is called Motil, the fourth Tidory, and the fifth Ternaty ... every year the people of Malaca and Java come to these islands to ship cloves...."—Barbosa, 201-202.
1518.—"And it was the monsoon for Maluco, dom Aleixo despatched dom Tristram de Meneses thither, to establish the trade in clove, carrying letters from the King of Portugal, and presents for the Kings of the isles of Ternate and Tidore where the clove grows."—Correa, ii. 552.
1521.—"Wednesday the 6th of November ... we discovered four other rather high islands at a distance of 14 leagues towards the east. The pilot who had remained with us told us these were the Maluco islands, for which we gave thanks to God, and to comfort ourselves we discharged all our artillery ... since we had passed 27 months all but two days always in search of Maluco."—Pigafetta, Voyage of Magellan, Hak. Soc. 124.
1553.—"We know by our voyages that this part is occupied by sea and by land cut up into many thousand islands, these together, sea and islands, embracing a great part of the circuit of the Earth ... and in the midst of this great multitude of islands are those called Maluco.... (These) five islands called Maluco ... stand all within sight of one another embracing a distance of 25 leagues ... we do not call them Maluco because they have no other names; and we call them five because in that number the clove grows naturally.... Moreover we call them in combination Maluco, as here among us we speak of the Canaries, the Terceiras, the Cabo-Verde islands, including under these names many islands each of which has a name of its own."—Barros, III. v. 5.
" "... li molti viaggi dalla città di Lisbona, e dal mar rosso a Calicut, et insino alle Molucche, done nascono le spezierie."—G. B. Ramusio, Pref. sopra il Libro del Magn. M. Marco Polo.
1665.—
"As when far off at sea a fleet descried
Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds
Close sailing from Bengala, or the Isles
Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring
Their spicy drugs...."
Paradise Lost, ii. 636-640.
MONE, n.p. Mōn or Mūn, the name by which the people who formerly occupied Pegu, and whom we call Talaing, called themselves. See TALAING.
MONEGAR, s. The title of the headman of a village in the Tamil country; the same as pāṭīl (see PATEL) in the Deccan, &c. The word is Tamil maṇi yakkāran, 'an overseer,' maniyam, 'superintendence.'
1707.—"Ego Petrus Manicaren, id est Villarum Inspector...."—In Norbert, Mem. i. 390, note.
1717.—"Towns and villages are governed by inferior Officers ... maniakarer (Mayors or Bailiffs) who hear the complaints."—Phillips, Account, &c., 83.
1800.—"In each Hobly, for every thousand Pagodas (335l. 15s. 10¼d.) rent that he pays, there is also a Munegar, or a Tahsildar (see TAHSEELDAR) as he is called by the Mussulmans."—Buchanan's Mysore, &c., i. 276.
MONKEY-BREAD TREE, s. The Baobab, Adansonia digitata, L. "a fantastic-looking tree with immense elephantine stem and small twisted branches, laden in the rains with large white flowers; found all along the coast of Western India, but whether introduced by the Mahommedans from Africa, or by ocean-currents wafting its large light fruit, full of seed, across from shore to shore, is a nice speculation. A sailor once picked up a large seedy fruit in the Indian Ocean off Bombay, and brought it to me. It was very rotten, but I planted the seeds. It turned out to be Kigelia pinnata of E. Africa, and propagated so rapidly that in a few years I introduced it all over the Bombay Presidency. The Baobab however is generally found most abundant about the old ports frequented by the early Mahommedan traders." (Sir G. Birdwood, MS.) We may add that it occurs sparsely about Allahabad, where it was introduced apparently in the Mogul time; and in the Gangetic valley as far E. as Calcutta, but always planted. There are, or were, noble specimens in the Botanic Gardens at Calcutta, and in Mr. Arthur Grote's garden at Alipūr. [See Watt, Econ. Dict. i. 105.]
MONSOON, s. The name given to the periodical winds of the Indian seas, and of the seasons which they affect and characterize. The original word is the Ar. mausim, 'season,' which the Portuguese corrupted into monção, and our people into monsoon. Dictionaries (except Dr. Badger's) do not apparently give the Arabic word mausim the technical sense of monsoon. But there can be no doubt that it had that sense among the Arab pilots from whom the Portuguese adopted the word. This is shown by the quotations from the Turkish Admiral Sidi 'Ali. "The rationale of the term is well put in the Beirūt Moḥīt, which says: 'Mausim is used of anything that comes round but once a year, like the festivals. In Lebanon the mausim is the season of working with the silk,'—which is the important season there, as the season of navigation is in Yemen." (W. R. S.)
The Spaniards in America would seem to have a word for season in analogous use for a recurring wind, as may be gathered from Tom Cringle.[169] The Venetian, Leonardo Ca' Masser (below) calls the monsoons li tempi. And the quotation from Garcia De Orta shows that in his time the Portuguese sometimes used the word for season without any apparent reference to the wind. Though monção is general with the Portuguese writers of the 16th century, the historian Diogo de Couto always writes moução, and it is possible that the n came in, as in some other cases, by a habitual misreading of the written u for n. Linschoten in Dutch (1596) has monssoyn and monssoen (p. 8; [Hak. Soc. i. 33]). It thus appears probable that we get our monsoon from the Dutch. The latter in modern times seem to have commonly adopted the French form mousson. [Prof. Skeat traces our monsoon from Ital. monsone.] We see below (Ces. Feder.) that Monsoon was used as synonymous with "the half year," and so it is still in S. India.
1505.—"De qui passano el colfo de Colocut che sono leghe 800 de pacizo (? passeggio): aspettano li tempi che sono nel principio dell'Autuno, e con le cole fatte (?) passano."—Leonardo di Ca' Masser, 26.
[1512.—"... because the mauçam for both the voyages is at one and the same time."—Albuquerque, Cartas, p. 30.]
1553.—"... and the more, because the voyage from that region of Malaca had to be made by the prevailing wind, which they call monção, which was now near its end. If they should lose eight days they would have to wait at least three months for the return of the time to make the voyage."—Barros, Dec. II. liv. ii. cap. iv.
1554.—"The principal winds are four, according to the Arabs, ... but the pilots call them by names taken from the rising and setting of certain stars, and assign them certain limits within which they begin or attain their greatest strength, and cease. These winds, limited by space and time, are called Mausim."—The Mohit, by Sidi 'Ali Kapudān, in J. As. Soc. Beng. iii. 548.
" "Be it known that the ancient masters of navigation have fixed the time of the monsoon (in orig. doubtless mausim), that is to say, the time of voyages at sea, according to the year of Yazdajird, and that the pilots of recent times follow their steps...." (Much detail on the monsoons follows.)—Ibid.
1563.—"The season (monção) for these (i.e. mangoes) in the earlier localities we have in April, but in the other later ones in May and June; and sometimes they come as a rodolho (as we call it in our own country) in October and November."—Garcia, f. 134v.
1568.—"Come s'arriua in vna città la prima cosa si piglia vna casa a fitto, ò per mesi ò per anno, seconda che si disegnà di starui, e nel Pegù è costume di pigliarla per Moson, cioè per sei mesi."—Ces. Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 394.
1585-6.—"But the other goods which come by sea have their fixed season, which here they call Monzão."—Sassetti, in De Gubernatis, p. 204.
1599.—"Ora nell' anno 1599, essendo venuta la Mansone a proposito, si messero alla vela due navi Portoghesi, le quali eran venute dalla città di Goa in Amacao (see MACAO)."—Carletti, ii. 206.
c. 1610.—"Ces Monssons ou Muessons sont vents qui changent pour l'Esté ou pour l'Hyver de six mois en six mois."—Pyrard de Laval, i. 199; see also ii. 110; [Hak. Soc. i. 280; in i. 257 Monsons; in ii. 175, 235, Muesons].
[1615.—"I departed for Bantam having the time of the year and the opportunity of the Monethsone."—Foster, Letters, iii. 268.
[ " "The Monthsone will else be spent."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. i. 36.]
1616.—"... quos Lusitani patriâ voce Moncam indigetant."—Jarric, i. 46.
" Sir T. Roe writes Monson.
1627.—"Of Corea hee was also told that there are many bogges, for which cause they have Waggons with broad wheeles, to keepe them from sinking, and obseruing the Monson or season of the wind ... they have sayles fitted to these waggons, and so make their Voyages on land."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 602.
1634.—
"Partio, vendo que o tempo em vao gastava,
E que a monção di navegar passava."
Malaca, Conquistada, iv. 75.
1644.—"The winds that blow at Diu from the commencement of the change of season in September are sea-breezes, blowing from time to time from the S., S.W., or N.W., with no certain Monsam wind, and at that time one can row across to Dio with great facility."—Bocarro, MS.
c. 1665.—"... and it would be true to say, that the sun advancing towards one Pole, causeth on that side two great regular currents, viz., that of the Sea, and that of the Air which maketh the Mounson-wind, as he causeth two opposite ones, when he returns towards the other Pole."—Bernier, E.T. 139-40; [ed. Constable, 436; see also 109].
1673.—"The northern Monsoons (if I may so say, being the name imposed by the first Observers, i.e. Motiones) lasting hither."—Fryer, 10.
" "A constellation by the Portugals called Rabodel Elephanto (see ELEPHANTA, b.) known by the breaking up of the Munsoons, which is the last Flory this Season makes."—Ibid. 48. He has also Mossoons or Monsoons, 46.
1690.—"Two Mussouns are the Age of a Man."—Bombay Proverb in Ovington's Voyage, 142.
[ " "Mussoans." See under ELEPHANTA, b.]
1696.—"We thought it most advisable to remain here, till the next Mossoon."—Bowyear, in Dalrymple, i. 87.
1783.—"From the Malay word moossin, which signifies season."—Forrest, V. to Mergui, 95.
" "Their prey is lodged in England; and the cries of India are given to seas and winds, to be blown about, in every breaking up of the monsoon, over a remote and unhearing ocean."—Burke's Speech on Fox's E.I. Bill, in Works, iii. 468.
[MOOBAREK, adj. Ar. mubārak, 'blessed, happy'; as an interjection, 'Welcome!' 'Congratulations to you!'
[1617.—"... a present ... is called Mombareck, good Newes, or good Successe."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. ii. 413.
[1812.—"Bombareek ... which by sailors is also called Bombay Rock, is derived originally from 'moobarek,' 'happy, fortunate.'"—Morier, Journey through Persia, 6.]
MOOCHULKA, s. Hind. muchalkā or muchalka. A written obligation or bond. For technical uses see Wilson. The word is apparently Turki or Mongol.
c. 1267.—"Five days thereafter judgment was held on Husamuddin the astrologer, who had executed a muchilkai that the death of the Khalif would be the calamity of the world."—Hammer's Golden Horde, 166.
c. 1280.—"When he (Kubilai Kaan) approached his 70th year, he desired to raise in his own lifetime, his son Chimkin to be his representative and declared successor.... The chiefs ... represented ... that though the measure ... was not in accordance with the Yasa and customs of the world-conquering hero Chinghiz Kaan, yet they would grant a muchilka in favour of Chimkin's Kaanship."—Wassáf's History, Germ. by Hammer, 46.
c. 1360.—"He shall in all divisions and districts execute muchilkas to lay no burden on the subjects by extraordinary imposts, and irregular exaction of supplies."—Form of the Warrant of a Territorial Governor under the Mongols, in the above, App. p. 468.
1818.—"You were present at the India Board when Lord B—— told me that I should have 10,000 pagodas per annum, and all my expenses paid.... I never thought of taking a muchalka from Lord B——, because I certainly never suspected that my expenses would ... have been restricted to 500 pagodas, a sum which hardly pays my servants and equipage."—Munro to Malcolm, in Munro's Life, &c., iii. 257.
MOOCHY, s. One who works in leather, either as shoemaker or saddler. It is the name of a low caste, Hind. mochī. The name and caste are also found in S. India, Telug. muchche. These, too, are workers in leather, but also are employed in painting, gilding, and upholsterer's work, &c.
[1815.—"Cow-stealing ... is also practised by ... the Mootshee or Shoemaker cast."—Tytler, Considerations, i. 103.]
MOOKTEAR, s. Properly Hind. from Ar. mukhtār, 'chosen,' but corruptly mukhtyār. An authorised agent; an attorney. Mukhtyār-nāma, 'a power of attorney.'
1866.—"I wish he had been under the scaffolding when the roof of that new Cutcherry he is building fell in, and killed two mookhtars."—The Dawk Bungalow (by G. O. Trevelyan), in Fraser's Mag. lxxiii. p. 218.
1878.—"These were the mookhtyars, or Criminal Court attorneys, teaching the witnesses what to say in their respective cases, and suggesting answers to all possible questions, the whole thing having been previously rehearsed at the mookhtyar's house."—Life in the Mofussil, f. 90.
1885.—"The wily Bengali muktears, or attorneys, were the bane of the Hill Tracts, and I never relaxed in my efforts to banish them from the country."—Lt.-Col. T. Lewin, A Fly on the Wheel, p. 336.
MOOLLAH, s. Hind. mullā, corr. from Ar. maulā, a der. from wilā, 'propinquity.' This is the legal bond which still connects a former owner with his manumitted slave; and in virtue of this bond the patron and client are both called maulā. The idea of patronage is in the other senses; and the word comes to mean eventually 'a learned man, a teacher, a doctor of the Law.' In India it is used in these senses, and for a man who reads the Ḳorān in a house for 40 days after a death. When oaths were administered on the Ḳorān, the servitor who held the book was called Mullā Ḳorānī. Mullā is also in India the usual Mussulman term for 'a schoolmaster.'
1616.—"Their Moolaas employ much of their time like Scriueners to doe businesse for others."—Terry, in Purchas, ii. 1476.
[1617.—"He had shewed it to his Mulaies."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. ii. 417.]
1638.—"While the Body is let down into the grave, the kindred mutter certain Prayers between their Teeth, and that done all the company returns to the house of the deceased, where the Mollas continue their Prayers for his Soul, for the space of two or three days...."—Mandelslo, E.T. 63.
1673.—"At funerals, the Mullahs or Priests make Orations or Sermons, after a Lesson read out of the Alchoran."—Fryer, 94.
1680.—"The old Mulla having been discharged for misconduct, another by name Cozzee (see CAZEE) Mahmud entertained on a salary of 5 Pagodas per mensem, his duties consisting of the business of writing letters, &c., in Persian, besides teaching the Persian language to such of the Company's servants as shall desire to learn it."—Ft. St. Geo. Consn. March 11. Notes and Exts. No. iii. p. 12; [also see Pringle, Diary, Ft. St. Geo., 1st ser. ii. 2, with note].
1763.—"The Mulla in Indostan superintends the practice, and punishes the breach of religious duties."—Orme, reprint, i. 26.
1809.—"The British Government have, with their usual liberality, continued the allowance for the Moolahs to read the Koran."—Ld. Valentia, i. 423.
[1842.—See the classical account of the Moollahs of Kabul in Elphinstone's Caubul, ed. 1842, i. 281 seqq.]
1879.—"... struck down by a fanatical crowd impelled by a fierce Moola."—Sat. Rev. No. 1251, p. 484.
MOOLVEE, s. Popular Hind. mulvī, Ar. maulavī, from same root as mullā (see MOOLLAH). A Judge, Doctor of the Law, &c. It is a usual prefix to the names of learned men and professors of law and literature. (See LAW-OFFICER.)
1784.—
"A Pundit in Bengal or Molavee
May daily see a carcase burn;
But you can't furnish for the soul of ye
A dirge sans ashes and an urn."
N. B. Halhed, see Calc. Review, xxvi. 79.
MOONAUL, s. Hind. munāl or monāl (it seems to be in no dictionary); [Platts gives "Munāl (dialec.)"]. The Lopophorus Impeyanus, most splendid perhaps of all game-birds, rivalling the brilliancy of hue, and the metallic lustre of the humming-birds on the scale of the turkey. "This splendid pheasant is found throughout the whole extent of the Himalayas, from the hills bordering Afghanistan as far east as Sikkim, and probably also to Bootan" (Jerdon). "In the autumnal and winter months numbers are generally collected in the same quarter of the forest, though often so widely scattered that each bird appears to be alone" (Ibid.). Can this last circumstance point to the etymology of the name as connected with Skt. muni, 'an eremite'?
It was pointed out in a note on Marco Polo (1st ed. i. 246, 2nd ed. i. 272), that the extract which is given below from Aelian undoubtedly refers to the Munāl. We have recently found that this indication had been anticipated by G. Cuvier, in a note on Pliny (tom. vii. p. 409 of ed. Ajasson de Grandsagne, Paris, 1830). It appears from Jerdon that Monaul is popularly applied by Europeans at Darjeeling to the Sikkim horned pheasant Ceriornis satyra, otherwise sometimes called 'Argus Pheasant' (q.v.).
c. A.D. 350.—"Cocks too are produced there of a kind bigger than any others. These have a crest, but instead of being red like the crest of our cocks, this is variegated like a coronet of flowers. The tail-feathers moreover are not arched, or bent into a curve (like a cock's), but flattened out. And this tail they trail after them as a peacock does, unless when they erect it, and set it up. And the plumage of these Indian cocks is golden, and dark blue, and of the hue of the emerald."—De Nat. Animal. xvi. 2.
MOON BLINDNESS. This affection of the eyes is commonly believed to be produced by sleeping exposed to the full light of the moon. There is great difference of opinion as to the facts, some quoting experience as incontrovertible, others regarding the thing merely as a vulgar prejudice, without substantial foundation. Some remarks will be found in Collingwood's Rambles of a Naturalist, pp. 308-10. The present writer has in the East twice suffered from a peculiar affection of the eyes and face, after being in sleep exposed to a bright moon, but he would hardly have used the term moon-blindness.
MOONG, MOONGO, s. Or. 'green-gram'; Hind. mūng, [Skt. mudga]. A kind of vetch (Phaseolus Mungo, L.) in very common use over India; according to Garcia the mesce (māsh?) of Avicenna. Garcia also says that it was popularly recommended as a diet for fever in the Deccan; [and is still recommended for this purpose by native physicians (Watt, Econ. Dict. vi. pt. i. 191)].
c. 1336.—"The munj again is a kind of māsh, but its grains are oblong and the colour is light green. Munj is cooked along with rice, and eaten with butter. This is what they call Kichrī (see KEDGEREE), and it is the diet on which one breakfasts daily."—Ibn Batuta, iii. 131.
1557.—"The people were obliged to bring hay, and corn, and mungo, which is a certain species of seed that they feed horses with."—Albuquerque, Hak. Soc. ii. 132.
1563.—"Servant-maid.—That girl that you brought from the Deccan asks me for mungo, and says that in her country they give it them to eat, husked and boiled. Shall I give it her?
"Orta.—Give it her since she wishes it; but bread and a boiled chicken would be better. For she comes from a country where they eat bread, and not rice."—Garcia, f. 145.
[1611.—"... for 25 maunds Moong, 28 m. 09 p."—Danvers, Letters, i. 141.]
MOONGA, MOOGA, s. Beng. mūgā. A kind of wild silk, the produce of Antheraea assama, collected and manufactured in Assam. ["Its Assamese name is said to be derived from the amber munga, 'coral' colour of the silk, and is frequently used to denote silk in general" (B. C. Allen, Mono. on the Silk Cloths of Assam, 1899, p. 10).] The quotations in elucidation of this word may claim some peculiar interest. That from Purchas is a modern illustration of the legends which reached the Roman Empire in classic times, of the growth of silk in the Seric jungles ("velleraque ut foliis depectunt tenuia Seres"); whilst that from Robert Lindsay may possibly throw light on the statements in the Periplus regarding an overland importation of silk from Thin into Gangetic India.
1626.—"... Moga which is made of the bark of a certaine tree."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 1005.
c. 1676.—"The kingdom of Asem is one of the best countries of all Asia.... There is a sort of Silk that is found under the trees, which is spun by a Creature like our Silk-worms, but rounder, and which lives all the year long under the trees. The Silks which are made of this Silk glist'n very much, but they fret presently."—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 187-8; [ed. Ball, ii. 281].
1680.—"The Floretta yarn or Muckta examined and priced.... The Agent informed 'that 'twas called Arundee, made neither with cotton nor silke, but of a kind of Herba spun by a worme that feeds upon the leaves of a stalke or tree called Arundee which bears a round prickly berry, of which oyle is made; vast quantitys of this cloth is made in the country about Goora Ghaut beyond Seripore Mercha; where the wormes are kept as silke wormes here; twill never come white, but will take any colour'" &c.—Ft. St. Geo. Agent on Tour, Consn., Nov. 19. In Notes and Exts., No. iii. p. 58. Araṇḍī or reṇḍī is the castor-oil plant, and this must be the Attacus ricini, Jones, called in H. Arrindi, Arrindiaria (?) and in Bengali Eri, Eria, Erindy, according to Forbes Watson's Nomenclature, No. 8002, p. 371. [For full details see Allen, Mono. pp. 5, seqq.].
1763.—"No duties have ever yet been paid on Lacks, Mugga-dooties, and other goods brought from Assam."—In Van Sittart, i. 249.
c. 1778.—"... Silks of a coarse quality, called Moonga dutties, are also brought from the frontiers of China for the Malay trade."—Hon. R. Lindsay, in Lives of the Lindsays, iii. 174.
MOONSHEE, s. Ar. munshi, but written in Hind. munshī. The verb insha, of which the Ar. word is the participle, means 'to educate' a youth, as well as 'to compose' a written document. Hence 'a secretary, a reader, an interpreter, a writer.' It is commonly applied by Europeans specifically to a native teacher of languages, especially of Arabic, Persian, and Urdū, though the application to a native amanuensis in those tongues, and to any respectable, well-educated native gentleman is also common. The word probably became tolerably familiar in Europe through a book of instruction in Persian bearing the name (viz. "The Persian Moonshee, by F. Gladwyn," 1st ed. s.a., but published in Calcutta about 1790-1800).
1777.—"Moonshi. A writer or secretary."—Halhed, Code, 17.
1782.-"The young gentlemen exercise themselves in translating ... they reason and dispute with their munchees (tutors) in Persian and Moors...."—Price's Tracts, i. 89.
1785.—"Your letter, requiring our authority for engaging in your service a Mûnshy, for the purpose of making out passports, and writing letters, has been received."—Tippoo's Letters, 67.
" "A lasting friendship was formed between the pupil and his Moonshee.... The Moonshee, who had become wealthy, afforded him yet more substantial evidence of his recollection, by earnestly requesting him, when on the point of leaving India, to accept a sum amounting to £1600, on the plea that the latter (i.e. Shore) had saved little."—Mem. of Lord Teignmouth, i. 32-33.
1814.—"They presented me with an address they had just composed in the Hindoo language, translated into Persian by the Durbar munsee."—Forbes, Or. Mem. iii. 365; [2nd ed. ii. 344].
1817.—"Its authenticity was fully proved by ... and a Persian Moonshee who translated."—Mill, Hist. v. 127.
1828.—"... the great Moonshi of State himself had applied the whole of his genius to selecting such flowers of language as would not fail to diffuse joy, when exhibited in those dark and dank regions of the north."—Hajji Baba in England, i. 39.
1867.—"When the Mirza grew up, he fell among English, and ended by carrying his rupees as a Moonshee, or a language-master, to that infidel people."—Select Writings of Viscount Strangford, i. 265.
MOONSIFF, s. Hind. from Ar. munṣif, 'one who does justice' (inṣāf), a judge. In British India it is the title of a native civil judge of the lowest grade. This office was first established in 1793.
1812.—"... munsifs, or native justices."—Fifth Report, p. 32.
[1852.—"'I wonder, Mr. Deputy, if Providence had made you a Moonsiff, instead of a Deputy Collector, whether you would have been more lenient in your strictures upon our system of civil justice?'"—Raikes, Notes on the N.W. Provinces, 155.]
MOOR, MOORMAN, s. (and adj. MOORISH). A Mahommedan; and so from the habitual use of the term (Mouro), by the Portuguese in India, particularly a Mahommedan inhabitant of India.
In the Middle Ages, to Europe generally, the Mahommedans were known as the Saracens. This is the word always used by Joinville, and by Marco Polo. Ibn Batuta also mentions the fact in a curious passage (ii. 425-6). At a later day, when the fear of the Ottoman had made itself felt in Europe, the word Turk was that which identified itself with the Moslem, and thus we have in the Collect for Good Friday,—"Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics." But to the Spaniards and Portuguese, whose contact was with the Musulmans of Mauritania who had passed over and conquered the Peninsula, all Mahommedans were Moors. So the Mahommedans whom the Portuguese met with on their voyages to India, on what coast soever, were alike styled Mouros; and from the Portuguese the use of this term, as synonymous with Mahommedan, passed to Hollanders and Englishmen.
The word then, as used by the Portuguese discoverers, referred to religion, and implied no nationality. It is plain indeed from many passages that the Moors of Calicut and Cochin were in the beginning of the 16th century people of mixt race, just as the Moplahs (q.v.) are now. The Arab, or Arabo-African occupants of Mozambique and Melinda, the Sumālis of Magadoxo, the Arabs and Persians of Kalhāt and Ormuz, the Boras of Guzerat, are all Mouros to the Portuguese writers, though the more intelligent among these are quite conscious of the impropriety of the term. The Moors of the Malabar coast were middlemen, who had adopted a profession of Islam for their own convenience, and in order to minister for their own profit to the constant traffic of merchants from Ormuz and the Arabian ports. Similar influences still affect the boatmen of the same coast, among whom it has become a sort of custom in certain families, that different members should profess respectively Mahommedanism, Hinduism, and Christianity.
The use of the word Moor for Mahommedan died out pretty well among educated Europeans in the Bengal Presidency in the beginning of the last century, or even earlier, but probably held its ground a good deal longer among the British soldiery, whilst the adjective Moorish will be found in our quotations nearly as late as 1840. In Ceylon, the Straits, and the Dutch Colonies, the term Moorman for a Musalman is still in common use. Indeed the word is still employed by the servants of Madras officers in speaking of Mahommedans, or of a certain class of these. Moro is still applied at Manilla to the Musulman Malays.