1859.—"The skins of anacondas offered at Bangkok come from the northern provinces."—D. O. King, in J. R. G. Soc., xxx. 184.
ANANAS, s. The Pine-apple (Ananassa sativa, Lindl.; Bromelia Ananas, L.), a native of the hot regions of Mexico and Panama. It abounded, as a cultivated plant, in Hispaniola and all the islands according to Oviedo. The Brazilian Nana, or perhaps Nanas, gave the Portuguese Ananas or Ananaz. This name has, we believe, accompanied the fruit whithersoever, except to England, it has travelled from its home in America. A pine was brought home to Charles V., as related by J. D'Acosta below. The plant is stated to have been first, in Europe, cultivated at Leyden about 1650 (?). In England it first fruited at Richmond, in Sir M. Decker's garden, in 1712.[28] But its diffusion in the East was early and rapid. To one who has seen the hundreds of acres covered with pine-apples on the islands adjoining Singapore, or their profusion in a seemingly wild state in the valleys of the Kasia country on the eastern borders of Bengal, it is hard to conceive of this fruit as introduced in modern times from another hemisphere. But, as in the case of tobacco, the name bewrayeth its true origin, whilst the large natural family of plants to which it belongs is exclusively American. The names given by Oviedo, probably those of Hispaniola, are Iaiama as a general name, and Boniana and Aiagua for two species. Pine-apples used to cost a pardao (a coin difficult to determine the value of in those days) when first introduced in Malabar, says Linschoten, but "now there are so many grown in the country, that they are good cheape" (91); [Hak. Soc. ii. 19]. Athanasius Kircher, in the middle of the 17th century, speaks of the ananas as produced in great abundance in the Chinese provinces of Canton, Kiangsu and Fuhkien. In Ibn Muhammad Wali's H. of the Conquest of Assam, written in 1662, the pine-apples of that region are commended for size and flavour. In the last years of the preceding century Carletti (1599) already commends the excellent ananas of Malacca. But even some 20 or 30 years earlier the fruit was grown profusely in W. India, as we learn from Chr. d'Acosta (1578). And we know from the Āīn that (about 1590) the ananas was habitually served at the table of Akbar, the price of one being reckoned at only 4 dams, or 1⁄10 of a rupee; whilst Akbar's son Jahāngīr states that the fruit came from the sea-ports in the possession of the Portuguese.—(See Āīn, i. 66-68.)
In Africa too, this royal fruit has spread, carrying the American name along with it. "The Mānānāzi[29] or pine-apple," says Burton, "grows luxuriantly as far as 3 marches from the coast (of Zanzibar). It is never cultivated, nor have its qualities as a fibrous plant been discovered." (J.R.G.S. xxix. 35). On the Ile Ste Marie, of Madagascar, it grew in the first half of the 17th century as manasse (Flacourt, 29).
Abul Faẓl, in the Āīn, mentions that the fruit was also called kaṭhal-i-safarī, or 'travel jack-fruit,' "because young plants put into a vessel may be taken on travels and will yield fruits." This seems a nonsensical pretext for the name, especially as another American fruit, the Guava, is sometimes known in Bengal as the Safarī-ām, or 'travel mango.' It has been suggested by one of the present writers that these cases may present an uncommon use of the word safarī in the sense of 'foreign' or 'outlandish,' just as Clusius says of the pine-apple in India, "peregrinus est hic fructus," and as we begin this article by speaking of the ananas as having 'travelled' from its home in S. America. In the Tesoro of Cobarruvias (1611) we find "Çafari, cosa de Africa o Argel, como grenada" ('a thing from Africa or Algiers, such as a pomegranate'). And on turning to Dozy and Eng. we find that in Saracenic Spain a renowned kind of pomegranate was called rommān safarī: though this was said to have its name from a certain Safar ibn-Obaid al Kilāi, who grew it first. One doubts here, and suspects some connection with the Indian terms, though the link is obscure. The lamented Prof. Blochmann, however, in a note on this suggestion, would not admit the possibility of the use of safarī for 'foreign.' He called attention to the possible analogy of the Ar. safarjal for 'quince.' [Another suggestion may be hazarded. There is an Ar. word, āsāfīriy, which the dicts. define as 'a kind of olive.' Burton (Ar. Nights, iii. 79) translates this as 'sparrow-olives,' and says that they are so called because they attract sparrows (āsāfīr). It is perhaps possible that this name for a variety of olive may have been transferred to the pine-apple, and on reaching India, have been connected by a folk etymology with safarī applied to a 'travelled' fruit.] In Macassar, according to Crawfurd, the ananas is called Pandang, from its strong external resemblance, as regards fruit and leaves, to the Pandanus. Conversely we have called the latter screw-pine, from its resemblance to the ananas, or perhaps to the pine-cone, the original owner of the name. Acosta again (1578) describes the Pandanus odoratissima as the 'wild ananas,' and in Malayālam the pine-apple is called by a name meaning 'pandanus-jack-fruit.'
The term ananas has been Arabized, among the Indian pharmacists at least, as 'aīn-un-nās 'the eye of man'; in Burmese nan-na-si, and in Singhalese and Tamil as annāsi (see Moodeen Sheriff).
We should recall attention to the fact that pine-apple was good English long before the discovery of America, its proper meaning being what we have now been driven (for the avoiding of confusion) to call a pine-cone. This is the only meaning of the term 'pine-apple' in Minsheu's Guide into Tongues (2nd ed. 1627). And the ananas got this name from its strong resemblance to a pine-cone. This is most striking as regards the large cones of the Stone-Pine of S. Europe. In the following three first quotations 'pine-apple' is used in the old sense:
1563.—"To all such as die so, the people erecteth a chappell, and to each of them a pillar and pole made of Pine-apple for a perpetuall monument."—Reports of Japan, in Hakl. ii. 567.
" "The greater part of the quadrangle set with savage trees, as Okes, Chesnuts, Cypresses, Pine-apples, Cedars."—Reports of China, tr. by R. Willes, in Hakl. ii. 559.
1577.—"In these islandes they found no trees knowen vnto them, but Pine-apple trees, and Date trees, and those of marueylous heyght, and exceedyng hardé."—Peter Martyr, in Eden's H. of Trauayle, fol. 11.
Oviedo, in H. of the (Western) Indies, fills 2½ folio pages with an enthusiastic description of the pine-apple as first found in Hispaniola, and of the reason why it got this name (pina in Spanish, pigna in Ramusio's Italian, from which we quote). We extract a few fragments.
1535.—"There are in this iland of Spagnuolo certain thistles, each of which bears a Pigna, and this is one of the most beautiful fruits that I have seen.... It has all these qualities in combination, viz. beauty of aspect, fragrance of colour, and exquisite flavour. The Christians gave it the name it bears (Pigna) because it is, in a manner, like that. But the pine-apples of the Indies of which we are speaking are much more beautiful than the pigne [i.e. pine-cones] of Europe, and have nothing of that hardness which is seen in those of Castile, which are in fact nothing but wood," &c.—Ramusio, iii. f. 135 v.
1564.—"Their pines be of the bigness of two fists, the outside whereof is of the making of a pine-apple [i.e. pine-cone], but it is softe like the rinde of a cucomber, and the inside eateth like an apple, but it is more delicious than any sweet apple sugared."—Master John Hawkins, in Hakl. iii. 602.
1575.—"Aussi la plus part des Sauuages s'en nourrissent vne bonne partie de l'année, comme aussi ils font d'vne autre espece de fruit, nom̃é Nana, qui est gros com̃e vne moyenne citrouille, et fait autour comme vne pomme de pin...."—A. Thevet, Cosmographie Vniverselle, liv. xxii. ff. 935 v., 936 (with a pretty good cut).
1590.—"The Pines, or Pine-apples, are of the same fashion and forme outwardly to those of Castille, but within they wholly differ.... One presented one of these Pine-apples to the Emperour Charles the fift, which must have cost much paine and care to bring it so farre, with the plant from the Indies, yet would he not trie the taste."—Jos. de Acosta, E. T. of 1604 (Hak. Soc.), 236-7.
1595.—"... with diuers sortes of excellent fruits and rootes, and great abundance of Pinas, the princesse of fruits that grow vnder the Sun."—Ralegh, Disc. of Guiana (Hak. Soc.), 73.
c. 1610.—"Ananats, et plusieurs autres fruicts."—P. de Laval, i. 236 [Hak. Soc. i. 328].
1616.—"The ananas or Pine, which seems to the taste to be a pleasing compound, made of strawberries, claret-wine, rose-water, and sugar, well tempered together."—Terry, in Purchas, ii. 1469.
1623.—"The ananas is esteemed, and with reason, for it is of excellent flavour, though very peculiar, and rather acid than otherwise, but having an indescribable dash of sweetness that renders it agreeable. And as even these books (Clusius, &c.) don't mention it, if I remember rightly, I will say in brief that when you regard the entire fruit externally, it looks just like one of our pine-cones (pigna), with just such scales, and of that very colour."—P. della Valle, ii. 582 [Hak. Soc., i. 135].
1631.—Bontius thus writes of the fruit:—
"Qui legitis Cynaras, atque Indica dulcia fraga,
Ne nimis haec comedas, fugito hinc, latet anguis in herbâ."
Lib. vi. cap. 50, p. 145.
1661.—"I first saw the famous Queen Pine brought from Barbados and presented to his Majestie; but the first that were ever seen in England were those sent to Cromwell House foure years since."—Evelyn's Diary, July 19.
[c. 1665.—"Among other fruits, they preserve large citrons, such as we have in Europe, a certain delicate root about the length of sarsaparilla, that common fruit of the Indies called amba, another called ananas...."—Bernier (ed. Constable), 438.]
1667.—"Ie peux à très-juste titre appeller l'Ananas le Roy des fruits, parcequ'il est le plus beau, et le meilleur de tous ceux qui sont sur la terre. C'est sans doute pour cette raison le Roy des Roys luy a mis une couronne sur la teste, qui est comme une marque essentielle de sa Royaute, puis qu'à la cheute du pere, il produit un ieune Roy qui luy succede en toutes ses admirables qualitez."—P. Du Tertre, Hist. Gén. des Antilles Habitées par les François, ii. 127.
1668.—"Standing by his Majesty at dinner in the Presence, there was of that rare fruit call'd the King-pine, grown in the Barbadoes and the West indies, the first of them I have ever seene. His Majesty having cut it up was pleas'd to give me a piece off his owne plate to taste of, but in my opinion it falls short of those ravishing varieties of deliciousness describ'd in Capt. Ligon's history and others."—Evelyn, July 19.
1673.—"The fruit the English call Pine-Apple (the Moors Ananas) because of the Resemblance."—Fryer, 182.
1716.—"I had more reason to wonder that night at the King's table" (at Hanover) "to see a present from a gentleman of this country ... what I thought, worth all the rest, two ripe Ananasses, which to my taste are a fruit perfectly delicious. You know they are naturally the growth of the Brazil, and I could not imagine how they came here but by enchantment."—Lady M. W. Montagu, Letter XIX.
1727.—
"Oft in humble station dwells
Unboastful worth, above fastidious pomp;
Witness, thou best Anana, thou the pride
Of vegetable life, beyond whate'er
The poets imaged in the golden age."
Thomson, Summer.
The poet here gives the word an unusual form and accent.
c. 1730.—"They (the Portuguese) cultivate the skirts of the hills, and grow the best products, such as sugar-cane, pine-apples, and rice."—Khāfī Khān, in Elliot, vii. 345.
A curious question has been raised regarding the ananas, similar to that discussed under CUSTARD-APPLE, as in the existence of the pine-apple to the Old World, before the days of Columbus.
In Prof. Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies (i. 578), it is stated in reference to ancient Assyria: "Fruits ... were highly prized; amongst those of most repute were pomegranates, grapes, citrons, and apparently pine-apples." A foot-note adds: "The representation is so exact that I can hardly doubt the pine-apple being intended. Mr Layard expresses himself on this point with some hesitation (Nineveh and Babylon, p. 338)." The cut given is something like the conventional figure of a pine-apple, though it seems to us by no means very exact as such. Again, in Winter Jones's tr. of Conti (c. 1430) in India in the 15th Century, the traveller, speaking of a place called Panconia (read Pauconia apparently Pegu) is made to say: "they have pine-apples, oranges, chestnuts, melons, but small and green, white sandal-wood and camphor."
We cannot believe that in either place the object intended was the Ananas, which has carried that American name with it round the world. Whatever the Assyrian representation was intended for, Conti seems to have stated, in the words pinus habent (as it runs in Poggio's Latin) merely that they had pine-trees. We do not understand on what ground the translator introduced pine-apples. If indeed any fruit was meant, it might have been that of the screw-pine, which though not eaten might perhaps have been seen in the bazars of Pegu, as it is used for some economical purposes. But pinus does not mean a fruit at all. 'Pine-cones' even would have been expressed by pineas or the like. [A reference to Mr L. W. King was thus answered: "The identity of the tree with the date-palm is, I believe, acknowledged by all naturalists who have studied the trees on the Assyrian monuments, and the 'cones' held by the winged figures have obviously some connection with the trees. I think it was Prof. Tylor of Oxford (see Academy, June 8, 1886, p. 283) who first identified the ceremony with the fertilization of the palm, and there is much to be said for his suggestion. The date-palm was of very great use to the Babylonians and Assyrians, for it furnished them with food, drink, and building materials, and this fact would explain the frequent repetition on the Assyrian monuments of the ceremony of fertilisation. On the other hand, there is no evidence, so far as I know, that the pine-apple was extensively grown in Assyria." Also see Maspero, Dawn of Civ. 556 seq.; on the use of the pine-cone in Greece, Fraser, Pausanias, iii. 65.]
ANCHEDIVA, ANJEDIVA, n.p. A small island off the W. coast of India, a little S. of Carwar, which is the subject of frequent and interesting mention in the early narratives. The name is interpreted by Malayālim as añju-dīvu, 'Five Islands,' and if this is correct belongs to the whole group. This may, however, be only an endeavour to interpret an old name, which is perhaps traceable in Αἰγιδίων Νῆσος of Ptolemy. It is a remarkable example of the slovenliness of English professional map-making that Keith Johnston's Royal Atlas map of India contains no indication of this famous island. [The Times Atlas and Constable's Hand Atlas also ignore it.] It has, between land surveys and sea-charts, been omitted altogether by the compilers. But it is plain enough in the Admiralty charts; and the way Mr Birch speaks of it in his translation of Alboquerque as an "Indian seaport, no longer marked on the maps," is odd (ii. 168).
c. 1345.—Ibn Batuta gives no name, but Anjediva is certainly the island of which he thus speaks: "We left behind us the island (of Sindābūr or Goa), passing close to it, and cast anchor by a small island near the mainland, where there was a temple, with a grove and a reservoir of water. When we had landed on this little island we found there a Jogi leaning against the wall of a Budkhānah or house of idols."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 63.
The like may be said of the Roteiro of V. da Gama's voyage, which likewise gives no name, but describes in wonderful correspondence with Ibn Batuta; as does Correa, even to the Jogi, still there after 150 years!
1498.—"So the Captain-Major ordered Nicolas Coello to go in an armed boat, and see where the water was; and he found in the same island a building, a church of great ashlar-work, which had been destroyed by the Moors, as the country people said, only the chapel had been covered with straw, and they used to make their prayers to three black stones in the midst of the body of the chapel. Moreover they found, just beyond the church, a tanque of wrought ashlar, in which we took as much water as we wanted; and at the top of the whole island stood a great tanque of the depth of 4 fathoms, and moreover we found in front of the church a beach where we careened the ship."—Roteiro, 95.
1510.—"I quitted this place, and went to another island which is called Anzediva.... There is an excellent port between the island and the mainland, and very good water is found in the said island."—Varthema, 120.
c. 1552.—"Dom Francesco de Almeida arriving at the Island of Anchediva, the first thing he did was to send João Homem with letters to the factors of Cananor, Cochin, and Coulão...."—Barros, I. viii. 9.
c. 1561.—"They went and put in at Angediva, where they enjoyed themselves much; there were good water springs, and there was in the upper part of the island a tank built with stone, with very good water, and much wood; ... there were no inhabitants, only a beggar man whom they called Joguedes...."—Correa, Hak. Soc. 239.
1727.—"In January, 1664, my Lord (Marlborough) went back to England ... and left Sir Abraham with the rest, to pass the westerly Monsoons, in some Port on the Coast, but being unacquainted, chose a desolate Island called Anjadwa, to winter at.... Here they stayed from April to October, in which time they buried above 200 of their Men."—A. Hamilton, i. 182. At p. 274 the name is printed more correctly Anjediva.
ANDAMAN, n.p. The name of a group of islands in the Bay of Bengal, inhabited by tribes of a negrito race, and now partially occupied as a convict settlement under the Government of India. The name (though perhaps obscurely indicated by Ptolemy—see H. Y. in P.R.G.S. 1881, p. 665) first appears distinctly in the Ar. narratives of the 9th century. [The Ar. dual form is said to be from Agamitae, the Malay name of the aborigines.] The persistent charge of cannibalism seems to have been unfounded. [See E. H. Man, On the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, Intro. xiii. 45.]
A.D. 851.—"Beyond are two islands divided by a sea called Andāmān. The natives of these isles devour men alive; their hue is black, their hair woolly; their countenance and eyes have something frightful in them ... they go naked, and have no boats...."—Relation des Voyages, &c. par Reinaud, i. 8.
c. 1050.—These islands are mentioned in the great Tanjore temple-inscription (11th cent.) as Tīmaittīvu, 'Islands of Impurity,' inhabited by cannibals.
c. 1292.—"Angamanain is a very large Island. The people are without a King and are idolators, and are no better than wild beasts ... they are a most cruel generation, and eat everybody that they can catch if not of their own race."—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. c. 13.
c. 1430.—"... leaving on his right hand an island called Andemania, which means the island of Gold, the circumference of which is 800 miles. The inhabitants are cannibals. No travellers touch here unless driven to do so by bad weather, for when taken they are torn to pieces and devoured by these cruel savages."—Conti, in India in XV. Cent., 8.
c. 1566.—"Da Nicubar sinò a Pegu é vna catena d'Isole infinite, delle quali molte sono habitate da gente seluaggia, e chiamansi Isole d'Andeman ... e se per disgratia si perde in queste Isole qualche naue, come già se n'ha perso, non ne scampa alcuno, che tutti gli amazzano, e mangiano."—Cesare de' Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 391.
1727.—"The Islands opposite the Coast of Tanacerin are the Andemans. They lie about 80 leagues off, and are surrounded by many dangerous Banks and Rocks; they are all inhabited with Canibals, who are so fearless that they will swim off to a Boat if she approach near the shore, and attack her with their wooden Weapons...."—A. Hamilton, ii. 65.
ANDOR, s. Port. 'a litter,' and used in the old Port. writers for a palankin. It was evidently a kind of Muncheel or Dandy, i.e. a slung hammock rather than a palankin. But still, as so often is the case, comes in another word to create perplexity. For andas is, in Port., a bier or a litter, appearing in Bluteau as a genuine Port. word, and the use of which by the writer of the Roteiro quoted below shows that it is so indeed. And in defining Andor the same lexicographer says: "A portable vehicle in India, in those regions where they do not use beasts, as in Malabar and elsewhere. It is a kind of contrivance like an uncovered Andas, which men bear on their shoulders, &c.... Among us Andor is a machine with four arms in which images or reliques of the saints are borne in processions." This last term is not, as we had imagined an old Port. word. It is Indian, in fact Sanskrit, hindola, 'a swing, a swinging cradle or hammock,' whence also Mahr. hinḍolā, and H. hinḍolā or hanḍolā. It occurs, as will be seen, in the old Ar. work about Indian wonders, published by MM. Van der Lith and Marcel Devic. [To this Mr Skeat adds that in Malay andor means 'a buffalo-sledge for carting rice,' &c. It would appear to be the same as the Port. word, though it is hard to say which is the original.]
1013.—"Le même m'a conté qu'à Sérendîb, les rois et ceux qui se comportent à la façon des rois, se font porter dans le handoul (handūl) qui est semblable à une litière, soutenu sur les épaules de quelques piétons."—Kitāb 'Ajāīb-al Hind, p. 118.
1498.—"After two days had passed he (the Catual [Cotwal]) came to the factory in an andor which men carried on their shoulders, and these (andors) consist of great canes which are bent overhead and arched, and from these are hung certain cloths of a half fathom wide, and a fathom and a half long, and at the ends are pieces of wood to bear the cloth which hangs from the cane; and laid over the cloth there is a great mattrass of the same size, and this all made of silk-stuff wrought with gold-thread, and with many decorations and fringes and tassels; whilst the ends of the cane are mounted with silver, all very gorgeous, and rich, like the lords who travel so."—Correa, i. 102.
1498.—"Alii trouveram ao capitam mor humas andas d'omeens em que os onrrados, custumam em a quella terra d'andar, e alguns mercadores se as querem ter pagam por ello a elrey certa cousa."—Roteiro, pp. 54-55. I.e. "There they brought for the Captain-Major certain andas, borne by men, in which the persons of distinction in that country are accustomed to travel, and if any merchants desire to have the same they pay to the King for this a certain amount."
1505.—"Il Re se fa portare in vna Barra quale chiamono Andora portata da homini."—Italian version of Dom Manuel's Letter to the K. of Castille. (Burnell's Reprint) p. 12.
1552.—"The Moors all were on foot, and their Captain was a valiant Turk, who as being their Captain, for the honour of the thing was carried in an Andor on the shoulders of 4 men, from which he gave his orders as if he were on horseback."—Barros, II. vi. viii.
[1574.—See quotation under PUNDIT.]
1623.—Della Valle describes three kinds of shoulder-borne vehicles in use at Goa: (1) reti or nets, which were evidently the simple hammock, muncheel or dandy; (2) the andor; and (3) the palankin. "And these two, the palankins and the andors, also differ from one another, for in the andor the cane which sustains it is, as it is in the reti, straight; whereas in the palankin, for the greater convenience of the inmate, and to give more room for raising his head, the cane is arched upward like this, Ω. For this purpose the canes are bent when they are small and tender. And those vehicles are the most commodious and honourable that have the curved canes, for such canes, of good quality and strength to bear the weight, are not numerous; so they sell for 100 or 120 pardaos each, or about 60 of our scudi."—P. della Valle, ii. 610.
c. 1760.—"Of the same nature as palankeens, but of a different name, are what they call andolas ... these are much cheaper, and less esteemed."—Grose, i. 155.
ANDRUM, s. Malayāl. āndram. The form of hydrocele common in S. India. It was first described by Kaempfer, in his Decas, Leyden, 1694.—(See also his Amoenitates Exoticae, Fascic. iii. pp. 557 seqq.)
ANGELY-WOOD, s. Tam. anjilī-, or anjalī-maram; artocarpus hirsuta Lam. [in Malabar also known as Iynee (áyini) (Logan, i. 39)]. A wood of great value on the W. Coast, for shipbuilding, house-building, &c.
c. 1550.—"In the most eminent parts of it (Siam) are thick Forests of Angelin wood, whereof thousands of ships might be made."—Pinto, in Cogan, p. 285; see also p. 64.
1598.—"There are in India other wonderfull and thicke trees, whereof Shippes are made: there are trees by Cochiin, that are called Angelina, whereof certaine scutes or skiffes called Tones [Doney] are made ... it is so strong and hard a woode that Iron in tract of time would bee consumed thereby by reason of the hardness of the woode."—Linschoten, ch. 58 [Hak. Soc. ii. 56].
1644.—"Another thing which this province of Mallavar produces, in abundance and of excellent quality, is timber, particularly that called Angelim, which is most durable, lasting many years, insomuch that even if you desire to build a great number of ships, or vessels of any kind ... you may make them all in a year."—Bocarro, MS. f. 315.
ANGENGO, n.p. A place on the Travancore coast, the site of an old English Factory; properly said to be Añju-tengu, Añchutennu, Malayāl.; the trivial meaning of which would be "five cocoa-nuts." This name gives rise to the marvellous rhapsody of the once famous Abbé Raynal, regarding "Sterne's Eliza," of which we quote below a few sentences from the 3½ pages of close print which it fills.
1711.—"... Anjengo is a small Fort belonging to the English East India Company. There are about 40 Soldiers to defend it ... most of whom are Topazes, or mungrel Portuguese."—Lockyer, 199.
1782.—"Territoire d'Anjinga; tu n'es rien; mais tu as donné naissance à Eliza. Un jour, ces entrepôts ... ne subsisteront plus ... mais si mes écrits ont quelque durée, le nom d'Anjinga restera dans le mémoire des hommes ... Anjinga, c'est à l'influence de ton heureux climat qu'elle devoit, sans doute, cet accord presqu'incompatible de volupté et de décence qui accompagnoit toute sa personne, et qui se mêloit à tous ses mouvements, &c., &c."—Hist. Philosophique des Deux Indes, ii. 72-73.
ANICUT, s. Used in the irrigation of the Madras Presidency for the dam constructed across a river to fill and regulate the supply of the channels drawn off from it; the cardinal work in fact of the great irrigation systems. The word, which has of late years become familiar all over India, is the Tam. comp. aṉai-kaṭṭu, 'Dam-building.'
1776.—"Sir—We have received your letter of the 24th. If the Rajah pleases to go to the Anacut, to see the repair of the bank, we can have no objection, but it will not be convenient that you should leave the garrison at present."—Letter from Council at Madras to Lt.-Col. Harper, Comm. at Tanjore, in E. I. Papers, 1777, 4to, i. 836.
1784.—"As the cultivation of the Tanjore country appears, by all the surveys and reports of our engineers employed in that service, to depend altogether on a supply of water by the Cauvery, which can only be secured by keeping the Anicut and banks in repair, we think it necessary to repeat to you our orders of the 4th July, 1777, on the subject of these repairs."—Desp. of Court of Directors, Oct. 27th, as amended by Bd. of Control, in Burke, iv. 104.
1793.—"The Annicut is no doubt a judicious building, whether the work of Solar Rajah or anybody else."—Correspondence between A. Ross, Esq., and G. A. Ram, Esq., at Tanjore, on the subject of furnishing water to the N. Circars. In Dalrymple, O. R., ii. 459.
1862.—"The upper Coleroon Anicut or weir is constructed at the west end of the Island of Seringham."—Markham, Peru & India, 426.
[1883.—"Just where it enters the town is a large stone dam called Fischer's Anaikat."—Lefanu, Man. of Salem, ii. 32.]
ANILE, NEEL, s. An old name for indigo, borrowed from the Port. anil. They got it from the Ar. al-nīl, pron. an-nīl; nīl again being the common name of indigo in India, from the Skt. nīla, 'blue.' The vernacular (in this instance Bengali) word appears in the title of a native satirical drama Nīl-Darpan, 'The Mirror of Indigo (planting),' famous in Calcutta in 1861, in connection with a cause célèbre, and with a sentence which discredited the now extinct Supreme Court of Calcutta in a manner unknown since the days of Impey.
"Neel-walla" is a phrase for an Indigo-planter [and his Factory is "Neel-kothee"].
1501.—Amerigo Vespucci, in his letter from the Id. of Cape Verde to Lorenzo di Piero Francesco de' Medici, reporting his meeting with the Portuguese Fleet from India, mentions among other things brought "anib and tuzia," the former a manifest transcriber's error for anil.—In Baldelli Boni, 'Il Milione,' p. lvii.
1516.—In Barbosa's price list of Malabar we have:
"Anil nadador (i.e. floating; see Garcia below) very good,
per farazola ... fanams 30.
Anil loaded, with much sand,
per farazola ... fanams 18 to 20."
In Lisbon Collection, ii. 393.
1525.—"A load of anyll in cakes which weighs 3½ maunds, 353 tangas."—Lembrança, 52.
1563.—"Anil is not a medicinal substance but an article of trade, so we have no need to speak thereof.... The best is pure and clear of earth, and the surest test is to burn it in a candle ... others put it in water, and if it floats then they reckon it good."—Garcia, f. 25 v.
1583.—"Neel, the churle 70 duckats, and a churle is 27 rottles and a half of Aleppo."—Mr Iohn Newton, in Hakl. ii. 378.
1583.—"They vse to pricke the skinne, and to put on it a kind of anile, or blacking which doth continue alwayes."—Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 395.
c. 1610.—"... l'Anil ou Indique, qui est vne teinture bleüe violette, dont il ne s'en trouue qu'à Cambaye et Suratte."—Pyrard de Laval, ii. 158; [Hak. Soc. ii. 246].
[1614.—"I have 30 fardels Anil Geree." Foster, Letters, ii. 140. Here Geree is probably H. jaṛi (from jaṛ, 'the root'), the crop of indigo growing from the stumps of the plants left from the former year.]
1622.—"E conforme a dita pauta se dispachará o dito anil e canella."—In Archiv. Port. Orient., fasc. 2, 240.
1638.—"Les autres marchandises, que l'on y débite le plus, sont ... du sel ammoniac, et de l'indigo, que ceux de pais appellent Anil."—Mandelslo, Paris, 1659, 138.
1648.—"... and a good quantity of Anil, which, after the place where most of it is got, is called Chirchees Indigo."—Van Twist, 14. Sharkej or Sirkej, 5 m. from Ahmedabad. "Cirquez Indigo" (1624) occurs in Sainsbury, iii. 442. It is the "Sercase" of Forbes [Or. Mem. 2nd ed. ii. 204]. The Dutch, about 1620, established a factory there on account of the indigo. Many of the Sultans of Guzerat were buried there (Stavorinus, iii. 109). Some account of the "Sarkhej Rozas," or Mausolea, is given in H. Brigg's Cities of Gujaráshtra (Bombay, 1849, pp. 274, seqq.). ["Indigo of Bian (Biana) Sicchese" (1609), Danvers, Letters, i. 28; "Indico, of Laher, here worth viijs the pounde Serchis."—Birdwood, Letter Book, 287.]
1653.—"Indico est un mot Portugais, dont l'on appelle une teinture bleüe qui vient des Indes Orientales, qui est de contrabande en France, les Turqs et les Arabes la nomment Nil."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, 543.
[1670.—"The neighbourhood of Delhi produces Anil or Indigo."—Bernier (ed. Constable), 283.]
ANNA, s. Properly H. āna, ānah, the 16th part of a rupee. The term belongs to the Mohammedan monetary system (RUPEE). There is no coin of one anna only, so that it is a money of account only. The term anna is used in denoting a corresponding fraction of any kind of property, and especially in regard to coparcenary shares in land, or shares in a speculation. Thus a one-anna share is 1⁄16 of such right, or a share of 1⁄16 in the speculation; a four-anna is ¼, and so on. In some parts of India the term is used as subdivision (1⁄16) of the current land measure. Thus, in Saugor, the anna = 16 rūsīs, and is itself 1⁄16 of a kancha (Elliot, Gloss. s.v.). The term is also sometimes applied colloquially to persons of mixt parentage. 'Such a one has at least 2 annas of dark blood,' or 'coffee-colour.' This may be compared with the Scotch expression that a person of deficient intellect 'wants twopence in the shilling.'
1708.—"Provided ... that a debt due from Sir Edward Littleton ... of 80,407 Rupees and Eight Annas Money of Bengal, with Interest and Damages to the said English Company shall still remain to them...."—Earl of Godolphin's Award between the Old and the New E. I. Co., in Charters, &c., p. 358.
1727.—"The current money in Surat:
Bitter Almonds go 32 to a Pice:
1 Annoe is 4 Pice.
1 Rupee 16 Annoes.
* * * * *
In Bengal their Accounts are kept in Pice:
12 to an Annoe.
16 Annoes to a Rupee."
A. Hamilton, ii. App. pp. 5, 8.
ANT, WHITE, s. The insect (Termes bellicosus of naturalists) not properly an ant, of whose destructive powers there are in India so many disagreeable experiences, and so many marvellous stories. The phrase was perhaps taken up by the English from the Port. formigas branchas, which is in Bluteau's Dict. (1713, iv. 175). But indeed exactly the same expression is used in the 14th century by our medieval authority. It is, we believe, a fact that these insects have been established at Rochelle in France, for a long period, and more recently at St. Helena. They exist also at the Convent of Mt. Sinai, and a species in Queensland.
A.D. c. 250.—It seems probable that Aelian speaks of White Ants.—"But the Indian ants construct a kind of heaped-up dwellings, and these not in depressed or flat positions easily liable to be flooded, but in lofty and elevated positions...."—De Nat. Animal. xvi. cap. 15.
c. 1328.—"Est etiam unum genus parvissimarum formicarum sicut lana albarum, quarum durities dentium tanta est quod etiam ligna rodunt et venas lapidum; et quotquot breviter inveniunt siccum super terram, et pannos laneos, et bombycinos laniant; et faciunt ad modum muri crustam unam de arenâ minutissimâ, ita quod sol non possit eas tangere; et sic remanent coopertae; verum est quod si contingat illam crustam frangi, et solem eas tangere, quam citius moriuntur."—Fr. Jordanus, p. 53.
1679.—"But there is yet a far greater inconvenience in this Country, which proceeds from the infinite number of white Emmets, which though they are but little, have teeth so sharp, that they will eat down a wooden Post in a short time. And if great care be not taken in the places where you lock up your Bales of Silk, in four and twenty hours they will eat through a Bale, as if it had been saw'd in two in the middle."—Tavernier's Tunquin, E. T., p. 11.
1688.—"Here are also abundance of Ants of several sorts, and Wood-lice, called by the English in the East Indies, White Ants."—Dampier, ii. 127.
1713.—"On voit encore des fourmis de plusieurs espèces; la plus pernicieuse est celle que les Européens ont nommé fourmi blanche."—Lettres Edifiantes, xii. 98.
1727.—"He then began to form Projects how to clear Accounts with his Master's Creditors, without putting anything in their Pockets. The first was on 500 chests of Japon Copper ... and they were brought into Account of Profit and Loss, for so much eaten up by the White Ants."—A. Hamilton, ii. 169.
1751.—"... concerning the Organ, we sent for the Revd. Mr. Bellamy, who declared that when Mr. Frankland applied to him for it that he told him that it was not in his power to give it, but wished it was removed from thence, as Mr. Pearson informed him it was eaten up by the White Ants."—Ft. Will. Cons., Aug. 12. In Long, 25.
1789.—"The White Ant is an insect greatly dreaded in every house; and this is not to be wondered at, as the devastation it occasions is almost incredible."—Munro, Narrative, 31.
1876.—"The metal cases of his baggage are disagreeably suggestive of White Ants, and such omnivorous vermin."—Sat. Review, No. 1057, p. 6.
APĪL, s. Transfer of Eng. 'Appeal'; in general native use, in connection with our Courts.
1872.—"There is no Sindi, however wild, that cannot now understand 'Rasíd' (receipt) [Raseed] and 'Apīl' (appeal)."—Burton, Sind Revisited, i. 283.
APOLLO BUNDER, n.p. A well-known wharf at Bombay. A street near it is called Apollo Street, and a gate of the Fort leading to it 'the Apollo Gate.' The name is said to be a corruption, and probably is so, but of what it is a corruption is not clear. The quotations given afford different suggestions, and Dr Wilson's dictum is entitled to respect, though we do not know what pālawā here means. Sir G. Birdwood writes that it used to be said in Bombay, that Apollo-bandar was a corr. of palwa-bandar, because the pier was the place where the boats used to land palwa fish. But we know of no fish so called; it is however possible that the palla or Sable-fish (Hilsa) is meant, which is so called in Bombay, as well as in Sind. [The Āīn (ii. 338) speaks of "a kind of fish called palwah which comes up into the Indus from the sea, unrivalled for its fine and exquisite flavour," which is the Hilsa.] On the other hand we may observe that there was at Calcutta in 1748 a frequented tavern called the Apollo (see Long, p. 11). And it is not impossible that a house of the same name may have given its title to the Bombay street and wharf. But Sir Michael Westropp's quotation below shows that Pallo was at least the native representation of the name more than 150 years ago. We may add that a native told Mr W. G. Pedder, of the Bombay C.S., from whom we have it, that the name was due to the site having been the place where the "poli" cake, eaten at the Holi festival, was baked. And so we leave the matter.
[1823.—"Lieut. Mudge had a tent on Apollo-green for astronomical observations."—Owen, Narrative, i. 327.]
1847.—"A little after sunset, on 2nd Jan. 1843, I left my domicile in Ambrolie, and drove to the Pálawá bandar, which receives from our accommodative countrymen the more classical name of Apollo pier."—Wilson, Lands of the Bible, p. 4.
1860.—"And atte what place ye Knyghte came to Londe, theyre ye ffolke ... worschyppen II Idolys in cheefe. Ye ffyrste is Apollo, wherefore yē cheefe londynge place of theyr Metropole is hyght Apollo-Bundar...."—Ext. from a MS. of Sir John Mandeville, lately discovered. (A friend here queries: 'By Mr. Shapira?')
1877.—"This bunder is of comparatively recent date. Its name 'Apollo' is an English corruption of the native word Pallow (fish), and it was probably not extended and brought into use for passenger traffic till about the year 1819...."—Maclean, Guide to Bombay, 167. The last work adds a note: "Sir Michael Westropp gives a different derivation....: Polo, a corruption of Pálwa, derived from Pál, which inter alia means a fighting vessel, by which kind of craft the locality was probably frequented. From Pálwa or Pálwar, the bunder now called Apollo is supposed to take its name. In the memorial of a grant of land, dated 5th Dec., 1743, the pákhádé in question is called Pallo."—High Court Reports, iv. pt. 3.
[1880.—"His mind is not prehensile like the tail of the Apollo Bundar."—Aberigh-Mackay, Twenty-one Days in India, p. 141.]
APRICOT, s. Prunus Armeniaca, L. This English word is of curious origin, as Dozy expounds it. The Romans called it Malum Armeniacum, and also (Persicum?) praecox, or 'early.' Of this the Greeks made πραικόκκιον, &c., and the Arab conquerors of Byzantine provinces took this up as birḳōḳ and barḳōḳ, with the article al-barḳōḳ, whence Sp. albarcoque, Port. albricoque, alboquorque, Ital. albercocca, albicocca, Prov. aubricot, ambricot, Fr. abricot, Dutch abricock, abrikoos, Eng. apricock, apricot. Dozy mentions that Dodonaeus, an old Dutch writer on plants, gives the vernacular name as Vroege Persen, 'Early Peaches,' which illustrates the origin. In the Cyprus bazars, apricots are sold as χρυσόμηλα; but the less poetical name of 'kill-johns' is given by sailors to the small hard kinds common to St. Helena, the Cape, China, &c. Zard ālū [aloo] (Pers.) 'yellow-plum' is the common name in India.