Hobson-Jobson

PIG-STICKING. This is Anglo-Indian hog-hunting, or what would be called among a people delighting more in lofty expression, 'the chase of the Wild Boar.' When, very many years since, one of the present writers, destined for the Bengal Presidency, first made acquaintance with an Indian mess-table, it was that of a Bombay regiment at Aden—in fact of that gallant corps which is now known as the 103rd Foot, or Royal Bombay Fusiliers. Hospitable as they were, the opportunity of enlightening an aspirant Bengalee on the short-comings of his Presidency could not be foregone. The chief counts of indictment were three: 1st. The inferiority of the Bengal Horse Artillery system; 2nd. That the Bengalees were guilty of the base effeminacy of drinking beer out of champagne glasses; 3rd. That in pig-sticking they threw the spear at the boar. The two last charges were evidently ancient traditions, maintaining their ground as facts down to 1840 therefore; and showed how little communication practically existed between the Presidencies as late as that year. Both the allegations had long ceased to be true, but probably the second had been true in the 18th century, as the third certainly had been. This may be seen from the quotation from R. Lindsay, and by the text and illustrations of Williamson's Oriental Field Sports (1807), [and much later (see below)]. There is, or perhaps we should say more diffidently there was, still a difference between the Bengal practice in pig-sticking, and that of Bombay. The Bengal spear is about 6½ feet long, loaded with lead at the butt so that it can be grasped almost quite at the end and carried with the point down, inclining only slightly to the front; the boar's charge is received on the right flank, when the point, raised to 45° or 50° of inclination, if rightly guided, pierces him in the shoulder. The Bombay spear is a longer weapon, and is carried under the armpit like a dragoon's lance. Judging from Elphinstone's statement below we should suppose that the Bombay as well as the Bengal practice originally was to throw the spear, but that both independently discarded this, the Qui-his adopting the short overhand spear, the Ducks the long lance.

1679.—"In the morning we went a hunting of wild Hoggs with Kisna Reddy, the chief man of the Islands" (at mouth of the Kistna) "and about 100 other men of the island (Dio) with lances and Three score doggs, with whom we killed eight Hoggs great and small, one being a Bore very large and fatt, of greate weight."—Consn. of Agent and Council of Fort St. Geo. on Tour. In Notes and Exts. No. II.

The party consisted of Streynsham Master "Agent of the Coast and Bay," with "Mr. Timothy Willes and Mr. Richard Mohun of the Councell, the Minister, the Chyrurgeon, the Schoolmaster, the Secretary, and two Writers, an Ensign, 6 mounted soldiers and a Trumpeter," in all 17 Persons in the Company's Service, and "Four Freemen, who went with the Agent's Company for their own pleasure, and at their own charges." It was a Tour of Visitation of the Factories.

1773.—The Hon. R. Lindsay does speak of the "Wild-boar chase"; but he wrote after 35 years in England, and rather eschews Anglo-Indianisms:

"Our weapon consisted only of a short heavy spear, three feet in length, and well poised; the boar being found and unkennelled by the spaniels, runs with great speed across the plain, is pursued on horseback, and the first rider who approaches him throws the javelin...."—Lives of the Lindsays, iii. 161.

1807.—"When (the hog) begins to slacken, the attack should be commenced by the horseman who may be nearest pushing on to his left side; into which the spear should be thrown, so as to lodge behind the shoulder blade, and about six inches from the backbone."—Williamson, Oriental Field Sports, p. 9. (Left must mean hog's right.) This author says that the bamboo shafts were 8 or 9 feet long, but that very short ones had formerly been in use; thus confirming Lindsay.

1816.—"We hog-hunt till two, then tiff, and hawk or course till dusk ... we do not throw our spears in the old way, but poke with spears longer than the common ones, and never part with them."—Elphinstone's Life, i. 311.

[1828.—"... the boar who had made good the next cane with only a slight scratch from a spear thrown as he was charging the hedge."—Orient. Sport. Mag. reprint 1873, i. 116.]

1848.—"Swankey of the Body-Guard himself, that dangerous youth, and the greatest buck of all the Indian army now on leave, was one day discovered by Major Dobbin, tête-à-tête with Amelia, and describing the sport of pigsticking to her with great humour and eloquence."—Vanity Fair, ii. 288.

1866.—"I may be a young pig-sticker, but I am too old a sportsman to make such a mistake as that."—Trevelyan, The Dawk Bungalow, in Fraser, lxxiii. 387.

1873.—"Pigsticking may be very good fun...."—A True Reformer, ch. i.

1876.—"You would perhaps like tiger-hunting or pig-sticking; I saw some of that for a season or two in the East. Everything here is poor stuff after that."—Daniel Deronda, ii. ch. xi.

1878.—"In the meantime there was a 'pig-sticking' meet in the neighbouring district."—Life in the Mofussil, i. 140.

PIG-TAIL, s. This term is often applied to the Chinaman's long plait of hair, by transfer from the queue of our grandfathers, to which the name was much more appropriate. Though now universal among the Chinese, this fashion was only introduced by their Manchu conquerors in the 17th century, and was "long resisted by the natives of the Amoy and Swatow districts, who, when finally compelled to adopt the distasteful fashion, concealed the badge of slavery beneath cotton turbans, the use of which has survived to the present day" (Giles, Glossary of Reference, 32). Previously the Chinese wore their unshaven back hair gathered in a net, or knotted in a chignon. De Rhodes (Rome, 1615, p. 5) says of the people of Tongking, that "like the Chinese they have the custom of gathering the hair in fine nets under the hat."

1879.—"One sees a single Sikh driving four or five Chinamen in front of him, having knotted their pigtails together for reins."—Miss Bird, Golden Chersonese, 283.

1616.—"Sometimes they boil pieces of flesh or hens, or other fowl, cut in pieces in their rice, which dish they call pillaw. As they order it they make it a very excellent and a very well tasted food."—Terry, in Purchas, ii. 1471.

c. 1630.—"The feast begins: it was compounded of a hundred sorts of pelo and candied dried meats."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1638, p. 138, [and for varieties, p. 310].

[c. 1660.—"... my elegant hosts were fully employed in cramming their mouths with as much Pelau as they could contain...."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 121.]

1673.—"The most admired Dainty wherewith they stuff themselves is Pullow, whereof they will fill themselves to the Throat and receive no hurt, it being so well prepared for the Stomach."—Fryer, 399. See also p. 93. At p. 404 he gives a recipe.

1682.—"They eate their pilaw and other spoone-meate withoute spoones, taking up their pottage in the hollow of their fingers."—Evelyn, Diary, June 19.

1687.—"They took up their Mess with their Fingers, as the Moors do their Pilaw, using no Spoons."—Dampier, i. 430.

1689.—"Palau, that is Rice boil'd ... with Spices intermixt, and a boil'd Fowl in the middle, is the most common Indian Dish."—Ovington, 397.

1711.—"They cannot go to the Price of a Pilloe, or boil'd Fowl and Rice; but the better sort make that their principal Dish."—Lockyer, 231.

1793.—"On a certain day ... all the Musulman officers belonging to your department shall be entertained at the charge of the Sircar, with a public repast, to consist of Pullao of the first sort."—Select Letters of Tippoo S., App. xlii.

c. 1820.—

"And nearer as they came, a genial savour

Of certain stews, and roast-meats, and pilaus,

Things which in hungry mortals' eyes find favour."—Don Juan, v. 47.

1848.—"'There's a pillau, Joseph, just as you like it, and Papa has brought home the best turbot in Billingsgate.'"—Vanity Fair, i. 20.

[1603.—"They (the Javans) are very great eaters—and they haue a certaine hearbe called bettaile (see BETEL) which they vsually have carryed with them wheresouer they goe, in boxes, or wrapped vp in a cloath like a sugar loafe: and also a nut called Pinange, which are both in operation very hott, and they eate them continually to warme them within, and keepe them from the fluxe. They do likewise take much tabacco, and also opium."—E. Scott, An Exact Discovrse, &c., of the East Indies, 1606, Sig. N. 2.

[1665.—"Their ordinary food ... is Rice, Wheat, Pinange...."—Sir T. Herbert, Travels, 1677, p. 365 (Stanf. Dict.).]

1726.—"But Shah Sousa gave him (viz. Van der Broek, an envoy to Rajmahal in 1655) good words, and regaled him with Pinang (a great favour), and promised that he should be amply paid for everything."—Valentijn, v. 165.

PINDARRY, s. Hind. pinḍārī, pinḍārā, but of which the more original form appears to be Mahr. penḍhārī, a member of a band of plunderers called in that language penḍhār and penḍhārā. The etymology of the word is very obscure. We may discard as a curious coincidence only, the circumstance observed by Mr. H. T. Prinsep, in the work quoted below (i. 37, note), that "Pindara seems to have the same reference to Pandour that Kuzāk has to Cossack." Sir John Malcolm observes that the most popular etymology among the natives ascribes the name to the dissolute habits of the class, leading them to frequent the shops dealing in an intoxicating drink called pinda. (One of the senses of penḍhā, according to Molesworth's Mahr. Dict., is 'a drink for cattle and men, prepared from Holcus sorghum' (see JOWAUR) 'by steeping it and causing it to ferment.') Sir John adds: 'Kurreem Khan' (a famous Pindarry leader) 'told me he had never heard of any other reason for the name; and Major Henley had the etymology confirmed by the most intelligent of the Pindarries of whom he enquired' (Central India, 2nd ed. i. 433). Wilson again considers the most probable derivation to be from the Mahr. penḍhā, but in the sense of a 'bundle of rice-straw,' and hara, 'who takes,' because the name was originally applied to horsemen who hung on to an army, and were employed in collecting forage. We cannot think either of the etymologies very satisfactory. We venture another, as a plausible suggestion merely. Both pinḍ-paṛnā in Hindi, and pinḍās-basneṅ in Mahr. signify 'to follow'; the latter being defined 'to stick closely to; to follow to the death; used of the adherence of a disagreeable fellow.' Such phrases would aptly apply to these hangers-on of an army in the field, looking out for prey. [The question has been discussed by Mr. W. Irvine in an elaborate note published in the Indian Antiq. of 1900. To the above three suggestions he adds two made by other authorities: 4. that the term was taken from the Beder race; 5. from Pinḍārā, pinḍ, 'a lump of food,' ār, 'bringer,' a plunderer. As to the fourth suggestion, he remarks that there was a Beder race dwelling in Mysore, Belary and the Nizam's territories. But the objection to this etymology is that as far back as 1748 both words, Bedar and Pinḍārī, are used by the native historian, Rām Singh Munshī, side by side, but applied to different bodies of men. Mr. Irvine's suggestion is that the word Pinḍārī, or more strictly Panḍhār, comes from a place or region called Pāndhār or Pandhār. This place is referred to by native historians, and seems to have been situated between Burhānpur and Handiya on the Nerbudda. There is good evidence to prove that large numbers of Pindāris were settled in this part of the country. Mr. Irvine sums up by saying: "If it were not for a passage in Grant Duff (H. of the Mahrattas, Bombay reprint, 157), I should have been ready to maintain that I had proved my case. My argument requires two things to make it irrefutable: (1) a very early connection between Pandhār and the Pindhāris; (2) that the Pindhāris had no early home or settlement outside Pandhār. As to the first point, the recorded evidence seems to go no further back than 1794, when Sendhiah granted them lands in Nimār; whereas before that time the name had become fixed, and had even crept into Anglo-Indian vocabularies. As to the second point, Grant Duff says, and he if anybody must have known, that "there were a number of Pindhāris about the borders of Mahārāshtra and the Carnatic...." Unless these men emigrated from Khandesh about 1726 (that is a hundred years before 1826, the date of Grant Duff's book), their presence in the South with the same name tends to disprove any special connection between their name, Pindhāri, and a place, Pindhār, several hundred miles from their country. On the other hand, it is a very singular coincidence that men known as Pindhāris should have been newly settled about 1794 in a country which had been known as Pandhār at least ninety years before they thus occupied it. Such a mere fortuitous connection between Pandhār and the Pindhāris is so extraordinary that we may call it an impossibility. A fair inference is that the region Pandhār was the original home of the Pindhāris, that they took their name from it, and that grants of land between Burhānpur and Handiya were made to them in what had always been their home-country, namely Pandhār."]

The Pinḍārīs seem to have grown up in the wars of the late Mahommedan dynasties in the Deccan, and in the latter part of the 17th century attached themselves to the Mahrattas in their revolt against Aurangzīb; the first mention which we have seen of the name occurs at this time. For some particulars regarding them we refer to the extract from Prinsep below. During and after the Mahratta wars of Lord Wellesley's time many of the Pinḍārī leaders obtained grants of land in Central India from Sindia and Holkar, and in the chaos which reigned at that time outside the British territory their raids in all directions, attended by the most savage atrocities, became more and more intolerable; these outrages extended from Bundelkhand on the N.E., Kadapa on the S., and Orissa on the S.E., to Guzerat on the W., and at last repeatedly violated British territory. In a raid made upon the coast extending from Masulipatam northward, the Pinḍārīs in ten days plundered 339 villages, burning many, killing and wounding 682 persons, torturing 3600, and carrying off or destroying property to the amount of £250,000. It was not, however, till 1817 that the Governor-General, the Marquis of Hastings, found himself armed with permission from home, and in a position to strike at them effectually, and with the most extensive strategic combinations ever brought into action in India. The Pinḍārīs were completely crushed, and those of the native princes who supported them compelled to submit, whilst the British power for the first time was rendered truly paramount throughout India.

1706-7.—"Zoolfecar Khan, after the rains pursued Dhunnah, who fled to the Beejapore country, and the Khan followed him to the banks of the Kistnah. The Pinderrehs took Velore, which however was soon retaken.... A great caravan, coming from Aurungabad, was totally plundered and everything carried off, by a body of Mharattas, at only 12 coss distance from the imperial camp."—Narrative of a Bondeela Officer, app. to Scott's Tr. of Firishta's H. of Deccan, ii. 122. [On this see Malcolm, Central India, 2nd ed. i. 426. Mr. Irvine in the paper quoted above shows that it is doubtful if the author really used the word. "By a strange coincidence the very copy used by J. Scott is now in the British Museum. On turning to the passage I find 'Peḍā Baḍar,' a well-known man of the period, and not Pindārā or Pinderreh at all."]

1762.—"Siwaee Madhoo Rao ... began to collect troops, stores, and heavy artillery, so that he at length assembled near 100,000 horse, 60,000 Pindarehs, and 50,000 matchlock foot.... In reference to the Pindarehs, it is not unknown that they are a low tribe of robbers entertained by some of the princes of the Dakhan, to plunder and lay waste the territories of their enemies, and to serve for guides."—H. of Hydur Naik, by Meer Hassan Ali Khan, 149. [Mr. Irvine suspects that this may be based on a misreading as in the former quotation. The earliest undoubted mention of the name in native historians is by Rām Singh (1748). There is a doubtful reference in the Tārīkh-i-Muhammadī (1722-23)].

1784.—"Bindarras, who receive no pay, but give a certain monthly sum to the commander-in-chief for permission to maraud, or plunder, under sanction of his banners."—Indian Vocabulary, s.v.

1803.—"Depend upon it that no Pindarries or straggling horse will venture to your rear, so long as you can keep the enemy in check, and your detachment well in advance."—Wellington, ii. 219.

1823.—"On asking an intelligent old Pindarry, who came to me on the part of Kurreem Khan, the reason of this absence of high character, he gave me a short and shrewd answer: 'Our occupation' (said he) 'was incompatible with the fine virtues and qualities you state; and I suppose if any of our people ever had them, the first effect of such good feeling would be to make him leave our community.'"—Sir John Malcolm, Central India, i. 436.

[ " "He had ascended on horseback ... being mounted on a Pindaree pony, an animal accustomed to climbing."—Hoole, Personal Narrative, 292.]

1825.—"The name of Pindara is coeval with the earliest invasion of Hindoostan by the Mahrattas.... The designation was applied to a sort of sorry cavalry that accompanied the Pêshwa's armies in their expeditions, rendering them much the same service as the Cossacks perform for the armies of Russia.... The several leaders went over with their bands from one chief to another, as best suited their private interests, or those of their followers.... The rivers generally became fordable by the close of the Dussera. The horses then were shod, and a leader of tried courage and conduct having been chosen as Luhbureea, all that were inclined set forth on a foray or Luhbur, as it was called in the Pindaree nomenclature; all were mounted, though not equally well. Out of a thousand, the proportion of good cavalry might be 400: the favourite weapon was a bamboo spear ... but ... it was a rule that every 15th or 20th man of the fighting Pindarees should be armed with a matchlock. Of the remaining 600, 400 were usually common looteas (see LOOTY), indifferently mounted, and armed with every variety of weapon, and the rest, slaves, attendants, and camp-followers, mounted on tattoos, or wild ponies, and keeping up with the luhbur in the best manner they could."—Prinsep, Hist. of Pol. and Mil. Transactions (1813-1823), i. 37, note.

1829.—"The person of whom she asked this question said 'Brinjaree' (see BRINJARRY) ... but the lady understood him Pindaree, and the name was quite sufficient. She jumped out of the palanquin and ran towards home, screaming, 'Pindarees, Pindarees.'"—Mem. of John Shipp, ii. 281.

[1861.—

"So I took to the hills of Malwa, and the free Pindaree life."]

Sir A. Lyall, The Old Pindaree.

PINE-APPLE. (See ANANAS.) [The word has been corrupted by native weavers into pinaphal or minaphal, as the name of a silk fabric, so called because of the pine-apple pattern on it. (See Yusuf Ali, Mon. on Silk, 99.)]

PINJRAPOLE, s. A hospital for animals, existing perhaps only in Guzerat, is so called. Guz. pinjrāpor or pinjrapol, [properly a cage (pinjra) for the sacred bull (pola) released in the name of Siva]. See Heber, ed. 1844, ii. 120, and Ovington, 300-301; [P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 67, 70. Forbes (Or. Mem. 2nd ed. i. 156) describes "the Banian hospital" at Surat; but they do not use this word, which Molesworth says is quite modern in Mahr.]

1808.—"Every marriage and mercantile transaction among them is taxed with a contribution for the Pinjrapole ostensibly."—R. Drummond.

a. A 'painted' (or 'spotted') cloth, i.e. chintz (q.v.). Though the word was applied, we believe, to all printed goods, some of the finer Indian chintzes were, at least in part, finished by hand-painting.

1579.—"With cloth of diverse colours, not much unlike our vsuall pentadoes."—Drake, World Encompassed, Hak. Soc. 143.

[1602.—"... some fine pinthadoes."—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 34.]

1602-5.—"... about their loynes a fine Pintadoe."—Scot's Discourse of Iava, in Purchas, i. 164.

1606.—"Heare the Generall deliuered a Letter from the KINGS MAIESTIE of ENGLAND, with a fayre standing Cuppe, and a cover double gilt, with divers of the choicest Pintadoes, which hee kindly accepted of."—Middleton's Voyage, E. 3.

[1610.—"Pintadoes of divers sorts will sell.... The names are Sarassa, Berumpury, large Chaudes, Selematt Cambaita, Selematt white and black, Cheat Betime and divers others."—Danvers, Letters, i. 75.

c. 1630.—"Also they stain Linnen cloth, which we call pantadoes."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1677, p. 304.]

1665.—"To Woodcott ... where was a roome hung with Pintado, full of figures greate and small, prettily representing sundry trades and occupations of the Indians."—Evelyn's Diary, Dec. 30.

c. 1759.—"The chintz and other fine painted goods, will, if the market is not overstocked, find immediate vent, and sell for 100 p. cent."—Letter from Pegu, in Dalrymple, Or. Rep. i. 120.

b. A name (not Anglo-Indian) for the Guinea-fowl. This may have been given from the resemblance of the speckled feathers to a chintz. But in fact pinta in Portuguese is 'a spot,' or fleck, so that probably it only means speckled. This is the explanation of Bluteau. [The word is more commonly applied to the cape Pigeon. See Mr. Gray's note on Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 21, who quotes from Fryer, p. 12.]

1610.—"The fifth (mode of Hindu marriage) is the Pisácha-viváha, when the lover, without obtaining the sanction of the girl's parents, takes her home by means of talismans, incantations, and such like magical practices, and then marries her. Pisách, in Sanskrit, is the name of a demon, which takes whatever person it fixes on, and as the above marriage takes place after the same manner, it has been called by this name."—The Dabistán, ii. 72; [See Manu, iii. 34].

c. 1780.—"'Que demandez-vous?' leur criai-je d'un ton de voix rude. 'Pourquoi restez-vous là à m'attendre? et d'où vient que ces autres femmes se sont enfuies, comme si j'étois un Péschaseh (esprit malin), ou une bête sauvage qui voulût vous devorer?'"—Haafner, ii. 287.

1801.—"They believe that such men as die accidental deaths become Pysáchi, or evil spirits, and are exceedingly troublesome by making extraordinary noises, in families, and occasioning fits and other diseases, especially in women."—F. Buchanan's Mysore, iii. 17.

1816.—"Whirlwinds ... at the end of March, and beginning of April, carry dust and light things along with them, and are called by the natives peshashes or devils."—Asiatic Journal, ii. 367.

1819.—"These demons or peisaches are the usual attendants of Shiva."—Erskine on Elephanta, in Bo. Lit. Soc. Trans. i. 219.

1827.—"As a little girl was playing round me one day with her white frock over her head, I laughingly called her Pisashee, the name which the Indians give to their white devil. The child was delighted with so fine a name, and ran about the house crying out to every one she met, I am the Pisashee, I am the Pisashee. Would she have done so, had she been wrapt in black, and called witch or devil instead? No: for, as usual, the reality was nothing, the sound and colour everthing."—J. C. Hare, in Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1st Series, ed. 1838, p. 7.

PISANG, s. This is the Malay word for plantain or banana (qq.v.). It is never used by English people, but is the usual word among the Dutch, and common also among the Germans, [Norwegians and Swedes, who probably got it through the Dutch.]

1651.—"Les Cottewaniens vendent des fruits, come du Pisang, &c."—A. Roger, La Porte Ouverte, p. 11.

c. 1785.—"Nous arrivâmes au grand village de Colla, où nous vîmes de belles allées de bananiers ou pisang...."—Haafner, ii. 85.

[1875.—"Of the pisang or plantain ... there are over thirty kinds, of which, the Pisang-mas, or golden plantain, so named from its colour, though one of the smallest, is nevertheless most deservedly prized."—Thomson, The Straits of Malacca, 8.]

PISHPASH, s. Apparently a factitious Anglo-Indian word, applied to a slop of rice-soup with small pieces of meat in it, much used in the Anglo-Indian nursery. [It is apparently P. pash-pash, 'shivered or broken in pieces'; from Pers. pashīdan.]

1834.—"They found the Secretary disengaged, that is to say, if surrounded with huge volumes of Financial Reports on one side, and a small silver tray holding a mess of pishpash on the other, can be called disengaged."—The Baboo, &c. i. 85.

[1833.—"... he sat in the palanquin, which was filled with water up to his neck, whilst everything he had in his batara (or 'trunk') was soaked with wet...."—Travels of Dr. Wolff, ii. 198.]

1849.—"The attention of the staff was called to the necessity of putting their pitarahs and property in the Bungalow, as thieves abounded. 'My dear Sir,' was the reply, 'we are quite safe; we have nothing.'"—Delhi Gazette, Nov. 7.

1853.—"It was very soon settled that Oakfield was to send to the dák bungalow for his petarahs, and stay with Staunton for about three weeks."—W. D. Arnold, Oakfield, i. 223.

The botanical name Musa represents the Ar. mauz, and that again is from the Skt. mocha. The specific name sapientum arises out of a misunderstanding of a passage in Pliny, which we have explained under the head Jack. The specific paradisaica is derived from the old belief of Oriental Christians (entertained also, if not originated by the Mahommedans) that this was the tree from whose leaves Adam and Eve made themselves aprons. A further mystical interest attached also to the fruit, which some believed to be the forbidden apple of Eden. For in the pattern formed by the core or seeds, when the fruit was cut across, our forefathers discerned an image of the Cross, or even of the Crucifix. Medieval travellers generally call the fruit either Musa or 'Fig of Paradise,' or sometimes 'Fig of India,' and to this day in the W. Indies the common small plantains are called 'figs.' The Portuguese also habitually called it 'Indian Fig.' And this perhaps originated some confusion in Milton's mind, leading him to make the Banyan (Ficus Indica of Pliny, as of modern botanists) the Tree of the aprons, and greatly to exaggerate the size of the leaves of that ficus.

The name banana is never employed by the English in India, though it is the name universal in the London fruit-shops, where this fruit is now to be had at almost all seasons, and often of excellent quality, imported chiefly, we believe, from Madeira, [and more recently from Jamaica. Mr. Skeat adds that in the Strait Settlements the name plantain seems to be reserved for those varieties which are only eatable when cooked, but the word banana is used indifferently with plantain, the latter being on the whole perhaps the rarer word].

The name plantain is no more originally Indian than is banana. It, or rather platano, appears to have been the name under which the fruit was first carried to the W. Indies, according to Oviedo, in 1516; the first edition of his book was published in 1526. That author is careful to explain that the plant was improperly so called, as it was quite another thing from the platanus described by Pliny. Bluteau says the word is Spanish. We do not know how it came to be applied to the Musa. [Mr. Guppy (8 ser. Notes & Queries, viii. 87) suggests that "the Spaniards have obtained platano from the Carib and Galibi words for banana, viz., balatanna and palatana, by the process followed by the Australian colonists when they converted a native name for the casuarina trees into 'she-oak'; and that we can thus explain how platano came in Spanish to signify both the plane-tree and the banana." Prof. Skeat (Concise Dict. s.v.) derives plantain from Lat. planta, 'a plant'; properly 'a spreading sucker or shoot'; and says that the plantain took its name from its spreading leaf.] The rapid spread of the plantain or banana in the West, whence both names were carried back to India, is a counterpart to the rapid diffusion of the ananas in the Old World of Asia. It would seem from the translation of Mendoça that in his time (1585) the Spaniards had come to use the form plantano, which our Englishmen took up as plantan and plantain. But even in the 1736 edition of Bailey's Dict. the only explanation of plantain given is as the equivalent of the Latin plantago, the field-weed known by the former name. Platano and Plantano are used in the Philippine Islands by the Spanish population.

1336.—"Sunt in Syriâ et Aegypto poma oblonga quae Paradisi nuncupantur optimi saporis, mollia, in ore cito dissolubilia: per transversum quotiescumque ipsa incideris invenies Crucifixum ... diu non durant, unde per mare ad nostras partes duci non possunt incorrupta."—Gul. de Boldensele.

c. 1350.—"Sunt enim in orto illo Adae de Seyllano primo musae, quas incolae ficus vocant ... et istud vidimus oculis nostris quod ubicunque inciditur per transversum, in utrâque parte incisurae videtur ymago hominis crucifixi ... et de istis foliis ficûs Adam et Eva fecerunt sibi perizomata...."—John de' Marignolli, in Cathay, &c. p. 352.

1384.—"And there is again a fruit which many people assert to be that regarding which our first father Adam sinned, and this fruit they call Muse ... in this fruit you see a very great miracle, for when you divide it anyway, whether lengthways or across, or cut it as you will, you shall see inside, as it were, the image of the Crucifix; and of this we comrades many times made proof."—Viaggio di Simone Sigoli (Firenze, 1862, p. 160).

1526 (tr. 1577).—"There are also certayne plantes whiche the Christians call Platani. In the myddest of the plant, in the highest part thereof, there groweth a cluster with fourtie or fiftie platans about it.... This cluster ought to be taken from the plant, when any one of the platans begins to appeare yelowe, at which time they take it, and hang it in their houses, where all the cluster waxeth rype, with all his platans."—Oviedo, transl. in Eden's Hist. of Travayle, f. 208.

1552 (tr. 1582).—"Moreover the Ilande (of Mombas) is verye pleasaunt, having many orchards, wherein are planted and are groweing ... Figges of the Indias...."—Castañeda, by N. L., f. 22.

1579.—"... a fruit which they call Figo (Magellane calls it a figge of a span long, but it is no other than that which the Spaniards and Portingalls have named Plantanes)."—Drake's Voyage, Hak. Soc. p. 142.

1585 (tr. 1588).—"There are mountaines very thicke of orange trees, siders [i.e. cedras, 'citrons'], limes, plantanos, and palmas."—Mendoça, by R. Parke, Hak. Soc. ii. 330.

1588.—"Our Generall made their wiues to fetch vs Plantans, Lymmons, and Oranges, Pine-apples, and other fruits."—Voyage of Master Thomas Candish, in Purchas, i. 64.

1588 (tr. 1604).—"... the first that shall be needefulle to treate of is the Plantain (Platano), or Plantano, as the vulgar call it.... The reason why the Spaniards call it platano (for the Indians had no such name), was, as in other trees for that they have found some resemblance of the one with the other, even as they called some fruites prunes, pines, and cucumbers, being far different from those which are called by those names in Castille. The thing wherein was most resemblance, in my opinion, between the platanos at the Indies and those which the ancients did celebrate, is the greatnes of the leaves.... But, in truth, there is no more comparison nor resemblance of the one with the other than there is, as the Proverb saith, betwixt an egge and a chesnut."—Joseph de Acosta, transl. by E. G., Hak. Soc. i. 241.

1593.—"The plantane is a tree found in most parts of Afrique and America, of which two leaves are sufficient to cover a man from top to toe."—Hawkins, Voyage into the South Sea, Hak. Soc. 49.

1610.—"... and every day failed not to send each man, being one and fiftie in number, two cakes of white bread, and a quantitie of Dates and Plantans...."—Sir H. Middleton, in Purchas, i. 254.

c. 1610.—"Ces Gentils ayant pitié de moy, il y eut vne femme qui me mit ... vne seruiete de feuilles de plantane accommodées ensemble auec des espines, puis me ietta dessus du rys cuit auec vne certaine sauce qu'ils appellent caril (see CURRY)...."—Mocquet, Voyages, 292.

[ " "They (elephants) require ... besides leaves of trees, chiefly of the Indian fig, which we call Bananes and the Turks plantenes."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 345.]

1616.—"They have to these another fruit we English there call a Planten, of which many of them grow in clusters together ... very yellow when they are Ripe, and then they taste like unto a Norwich Pear, but much better."—Terry, ed. 1665, p. 360.

c. 1635.—

"... with candy Plantains and the juicy Pine,

On choicest Melons and sweet Grapes they dine,

And with Potatoes fat their wanton wine."

Waller, Battle of the Summer Islands.

c. 1635.—

"Oh how I long my careless Limbs to lay

Under the Plantain's Shade; and all the Day

With amorous Airs my Fancy entertain."

Waller, Battle of the Summer Islands.

c. 1660.—

"The Plant (at Brasil Bacone call'd) the Name

Of the Eastern Plane-tree takes, but not the same:

Bears leaves so large, one single Leaf can shade

The Swain that is beneath her Covert laid;

Under whose verdant Leaves fair Apples grow,

Sometimes two Hundred on a single Bough...."

Cowley, of Plants, Bk. v.

1664.—

"Wake, Wake Quevera! Our soft rest must cease,

And fly together with our country's peace.

No more must we sleep under plantain shade,

Which neither heat could pierce nor cold invade;

Where bounteous Nature never feels decay,

And opening buds drive falling fruits away."

Dryden, Prologue to the Indian Queen.

1673.—"Lower than these, but with a Leaf far broader, stands the curious Plantan, loading its tender Body with a Fruit, whose clusters emulate the Grapes of Canaan, which burthened two men's shoulders."—Fryer, 19.

1686.—"The Plantain I take to be King of all Fruit, not except the Coco itself."—Dampier, i. 311.

1689.—"... and now in the Governour's Garden (at St. Helena) and some others of the Island are quantities of Plantins, Bonanoes, and other delightful Fruits brought from the East...."—Ovington, 100.

1764.—

"But round the upland huts, bananas plant;

A wholesome nutriment bananas yield,

And sunburnt labour loves its breezy shade,

Their graceful screen let kindred plantanes join,

And with their broad vans shiver in the breeze."

Grainger, Bk. iv.

1805.—"The plantain, in some of its kinds, supplies the place of bread."—Orme, Fragments, 479.

PLASSEY, n.p. The village Palāsī, which gives its name to Lord Clive's famous battle (June 23, 1757). It is said to take its name from the pālas (or dhawk) tree.