i. 1) remarks that the name is not in use in the district itself except

among foreigners and English-speaking natives; the ordinary name is _Malayālam_ or _Malāyam_, 'the Hill Country.']

c. 545.—"The imports to Taprobane are silk, aloeswood, cloves, sandalwood.... These again are passed on from Sielediba to the marts on this side, such as Μαλὲ, where the pepper is grown.... And the most notable places of trade are these, Sindu ... and then the five marts of Μαλὲ, from which the pepper is exported, viz., _Parti_, _Mangaruth_, _Salopatana_, _Nalopatana_, and _Pudopatana_."—_Cosmas_, Bk. xi. In _Cathay_, &c., p. clxxviii.

c. 645.—"To the south this kingdom is near the sea. There rise the mountains called MO-LA-YE (_Malaya_), with their precipitous sides, and their lofty summits, their dark valleys and their deep ravines. On these mountains grows the white sandalwood."—_Hwen T'sang_, in _Julien_, iii. 122.

851.—"From this place (Maskat) ships sail for India, and run for Kaulam-MALAI; the distance from Maskat to Kaulam-MALAI is a month's sail with a moderate wind."—_Relation_, &c., tr. by _Reinaud_, i. 15. The same work at p. 15 uses the expression "Country of Pepper" (_Balad-ul-falfal_).

890.—"From Sindán to MALÍ is five days' journey; in the latter pepper is to be found, also the bamboo."—_Ibn Khurdádba_, in _Elliot_, i. 15.

c. 1030.—"You enter then on the country of Lárán, in which is Jaimúr (see under CHOUL), then MALIAH, then Kánchí, then Dravira (see DRAVIDIAN)."—_Al-Birúni_, in _Reinaud, Fragmens_, 121.

c. 1150.—"Fandarina (see PANDARANI) is a town built at the mouth of a river which comes from MANÍBÁR, where vessels from India and Sind cast anchor."—_Idrisi_, in _Elliot_, i. 90.

c. 1200.—"Hari sports here in the delightful spring ... when the breeze from MALAYA is fragrant from passing over the charming _lavanga_" (cloves).—_Gīta Govinda._

1270.—"MALIBAR is a large country of India, with many cities, in which pepper is produced."—_Kazwīnī_, in _Gildemeister_, 214.

1293.—"You can sail (upon that sea) between these islands and Ormes, and (from Ormes) to those parts which are called (MINIBAR), is a distance of 2,000 miles, in a direction between south and south-east; then 300 miles between east and south-east from MINIBAR to Maabar" (see MABAR).—Letter of _Fr. John of Montecorvino_, in _Cathay_, i. 215.

1298.—"MELIBAR is a great kingdom lying towards the west.... There is in this kingdom a great quantity of pepper."—_Marco Polo_, Bk. iii. ch. 25.

c. 1300.—"Beyond Guzerat are Kankan (see CONCAN) and TĀNA; beyond them the country of MALÍBÁR, which from the boundary of Karoha to Kúlam (probably from _Gheriah_ to QUILON) is 300 parasangs in length."—_Rashíduddín_, in _Elliot_, i. 68.

c. 1320.—"A certain traveller states that India is divided into three parts, of which the first, which is also the most westerly, is that on the confines of Kerman and Sind, and is called Gūzerāt; the second MANĪBĀR, or the Land of Pepper, east of Gūzerāt."—_Abulfeda_, in _Gildemeister_, 184.

c. 1322.—"And now that ye may know how pepper is got, let me tell you that it groweth in a certain empire, whereunto I came to land, the name whereof is MINIBAR."—_Friar Odoric_, in _Cathay_, &c., 74.

c. 1343.—"After 3 days we arrived in the country of the MULAIBĀR, which is the country of Pepper. It stretches in length a distance of two months' march along the sea-shore."—_Ibn Batuta_, iv. 71.

c. 1348-49.—"We embarked on board certain junks from Lower India, which is called MINUBAR."—_John de' Marignolli_, in _Cathay_, 356.

c. 1420-30.—"... Departing thence he ... arrived at a noble city called Coloen.... This province is called MELIBARIA, and they collect in it the ginger called by the natives _colombi_, pepper, brazil-wood, and the cinnamon, called _canella grossa_."—_Conti_, corrected from Jones's tr. in _India in XVth Cent._ 17-18.

c. 1442.—"The coast which includes Calicut with some neighbouring ports, and which extends as far as (Kael), a place situated opposite to the Island of Serendib ... bears the general name of MELĪBĀR."—_Abdurrazzāk_, _ibid._ 19.

1459.—Fra Mauro's great Map has MILIBAR.

1514.—"In the region of India called MELIBAR, which province begins at Goa, and extends to Cape Comedis (COMORIN)...."—Letter of _Giov. da Empoli_, 79. It is remarkable to find this Florentine using this old form in 1514.

1516.—"And after that the Moors of Meca discovered India, and began to navigate near it, which was 610 years ago, they used to touch at this country of MALABAR on account of the pepper which is found there."—_Barbosa_, 102.

1553.—"We shall hereafter describe particularly the position of this city of Calecut, and of the country of MALAUAR in which it stands."—_Barros_, Dec. I. iv. c. 6. In the following chapter he writes MALABAR.

1554.—"_From Diu to the Islands of Dib._ Steer first S.S.E., the pole being made by five inches, side towards the land in the direction of E.S.E. and S.E. by E. till you see the mountains of MONÍBÁR."—_The Mohit_, in _J. As. Soc. Ben._ v. 461.

1572.—

"Esta provincia cuja porto agora Tomado tendes, MALABAR se chama: Do culto antiguo os idolos adora, Que cà por estas partes se derrama." _Camões_, vii. 32.

By Burton:

"This province, in whose Ports your ships have tane refuge, the MALABAR by name is known; its ántique rite adoreth idols vain, Idol-religion being broadest sown."

Since De Barros MALABAR occurs almost universally.

[1623.—"... MAHABAR Pirates...."—_P. della Valle_, Hak. Soc. i. 121.]

1877.—The form MALIBAR is used in a letter from Athanasius Peter III., "Patriarch of the Syrians of Antioch" to the Marquis of Salisbury, dated Cairo, July 18.

MALABAR, n.p.

B. This word, through circumstances which have been fully elucidated by Bishop Caldwell in his _Comparative Grammar_ (2nd ed. 10-12), from which we give an extract below,[158] was applied by the Portuguese not only to the language and people of the country thus called, but also to the _Tamil_ language and the people speaking Tamil. In the quotations following, those under _A_ apply, or may apply, to the proper people or language of Malabar (see MALAYALAM); those under _B_ are instances of the misapplication to Tamil, a misapplication which was general (see _e.g._ in _Orme_, _passim_) down to the beginning of the last century, and which still holds among the more ignorant Europeans and Eurasians in S. India and Ceylon.

(_A._)

1552.—"A lingua dos Gentios de Canara e MALABAR."—_Castanheda_, ii. 78.

1572.—

"Leva alguns MALABARES, que tomou Por força, dos que o Samorim mandara." _Camões_, ix. 14.

[By Aubertin:

"He takes some Malabars he kept on board By force, of those whom Samorin had sent ..."]

1582.—"They asked of the MALABARS which went with him what he was?"—_Castañeda_, (tr. by N. L.) f. 37_v_.

1602.—"We came to anchor in the Roade of Achen ... where we found sixteene or eighteene saile of shippes of diuers Nations, some _Goserats_, some of _Bengala_, some of _Calecut_, called MALABARES, some _Pegues_, and some _Patanyes_."—_Sir J. Lancaster_, in _Purchas_, i. 153.

1606.—In _Gouvea_ (_Synodo_, ff. 2_v_, 3, &c.) MALAVAR means the _Malayālam_ language.

(_B._)

1549.—"Enrico Enriques, a Portuguese priest of our Society, a man of excellent virtue and good example, who is now in the Promontory of Comorin, writes and speaks the MALABAR tongue very well indeed."—Letter of _Xavier_, in Coleridge's _Life_, ii. 73.

1680.—"Whereas it hath been hitherto accustomary at this place to make sales and alienations of houses in writing in the Portuguese, Gentue, and MALLABAR languages, from which some inconveniences have arisen...."—_Ft. St. Geo. Consn._, Sept 9, in _Notes and Extracts_, No. iii. 33.

[1682.—"An order in English Portuguez Gentue & MALLABAR for the preventing the transportation of this Countrey People and makeing them slaves in other Strange Countreys...."—_Pringle, Diary Ft. St. Geo._, 1st ser. i. 87.]

1718.—"This place (Tranquebar) is altogether inhabited by MALABARIAN Heathens."—_Propn. of the Gospel in the East_, Pt. i. (3rd ed.), p. 18.

" "Two distinct languages are necessarily required; one is the _Damulian_, commonly called MALABARICK."—_Ibid._ Pt. iii. 33.

1734.—"Magnopere commendantes zelum, ac studium Missionariorum, qui libros sacram Ecclesiae Catholicae doctrinam, rerumque sacrarum monumenta continentes, pro Indorum Christi fidelium eruditione in linguam MALABARICAM seu Tamulicam transtulere."—_Brief of Pope Clement XII._, in _Norbert_, ii. 432-3. These words are adopted from Card. Tournon's decree of 1704 (see _ibid._ i. 173).

c. 1760.—"Such was the ardent zeal of M. Ziegenbalg that in less than a year he attained a perfect knowledge of the MALABARIAN tongue.... He composed also a MALABARIAN dictionary of 20,000 words."—_Grose_, i. 261.

1782.—"Les habitans de la côte de Coromandel sont appellés _Tamouls_; les Européens les nomment improprement MALABARS."—_Sonnerat_, i. 47.

1801.—"From Niliseram to the Chandergerry River no language is understood but the MALABARS of the Coast."—_Sir T. Munro_, in _Life_, i. 322.

In the following passage the word MALABARS is misapplied still further, though by a writer usually most accurate and intelligent:

1810.—"The language spoken at Madras is the _Talinga_, here called MALABARS."—_Maria Graham_, 128.

1860.—"The term 'MALABAR' is used throughout the following pages in the comprehensive sense in which it is applied in the Singhalese Chronicles to the continental invaders of Ceylon; but it must be observed that the adventurers in these expeditions, who are styled in the _Mahawanso_ '_damilos_,' or Tamils, came not only from ... 'Malabar,' but also from all parts of the Peninsula as far north as Cuttack and Orissa."—_Tennent's Ceylon_, i. 353.

MALABAR-CREEPER, s. _Argyreia malabarica_, Choisy.

[MALABAR EARS, s. The seed vessels of a tree which Ives calls _Codaga palli_.

1773.—"From their shape they are called MALABAR-EARS, on account of the resemblance they bear to the ears of the women of the Malabar coast, which from the large slit made in them and the great weight of ornamental rings put into them, are rendered very large, and so long that sometimes they touch the very shoulders."—_Ives_, 465.

MALABAR HILL, n.p. This favourite site of villas on Bombay Island is stated by Mr. Whitworth to have acquired its name from the fact that the Malabar pirates, who haunted this coast, used to lie behind it.

[1674.—"On the other side of the great Inlet, to the Sea, is a great Point abutting against Old Woman's Island, and is called MALABAR-HILL ... the remains of a stupendous Pagod, near a Tank of Fresh Water, which the Malabars visited it mostly for."—_Fryer_, 68 _seq._]

[MALABAR OIL, s. "The ambiguous term 'MALABAR OIL' is applied to a mixture of the oil obtained from the livers of several kinds of fishes frequenting the Malabar Coast of India and the neighbourhood of Karachi."—_Watt, Econ. Dict._ v. 113.]

MALABAR RITES. This was a name given to certain heathen and superstitious practices which the Jesuits of the Madura, Carnatic, and Mysore Missions permitted to their converts, in spite of repeated prohibitions by the Popes. And though these practices were finally condemned by the Legate Cardinal de Tournon in 1704, they still subsist, more or less, among native Catholic Christians, and especially those belonging to the (so-called) Goa Churches. These practices are generally alleged to have arisen under Father de' Nobili ("Robertus de Nobilibus"), who came to Madura about 1606. There can be no doubt that the aim of this famous Jesuit was to present Christianity to the people under the form, as it were, of a Hindu translation!

The nature of the practices of which we speak may be gathered from the following particulars of their prohibition. In 1623 Pope Gregory XV., by a constitution dated 31st January, condemned the following:—1. The investiture of Brahmans and certain other castes with the sacred thread, through the agency of Hindu priests, and with Hindu ceremonies. For these Christian ceremonies were to be substituted; and the thread was to be regarded as only a civil badge. 2. The ornamental use of sandalwood paste was permitted, but not its superstitious use, _e.g._, in mixture with cowdung ashes, &c., for ceremonial purification. 3. Bathing as a ceremonial purification. 4. The observance of caste, and the refusal of high-caste Christians to mix with low-caste Christians in the churches was disapproved.

The quarrels between Capuchins and Jesuits later in the 17th century again brought the Malabar Rites into notice, and Cardinal de Tournon was sent on his unlucky mission to determine these matters finally. His decree (June 23, 1704) prohibited:—1. A mutilated form of baptism, in which were omitted certain ceremonies offensive to Hindus, specifically the use of '_saliva, sal, et insufflatio_.' 2. The use of Pagan names. 3. The Hinduizing of Christian terms by translation. 4. Deferring the baptism of children. 5. Infant marriages. 6. The use of the Hindu _tali_ (see TALEE). 7. Hindu usages at marriages. 8. Augury at marriages, by means of a coco-nut. 9. The exclusion of women from churches during certain periods. 10. Ceremonies on a girl's attainment of puberty. 11. The making distinctions between Pariahs and others. 12. The assistance of Christian musicians at heathen ceremonies. 13. The use of ceremonial washings and bathings. 14. The use of cowdung-ashes. 15. The reading and use of Hindu books.

With regard to No. 11 it may be observed that in South India the distinction of castes still subsists, and the only Christian Mission in that quarter which has really succeeded in abolishing caste is that of the Basel Society.

MALABATHRUM, s. There can be very little doubt that this classical export from India was the dried leaf of various species of Cinnamomum, which leaf was known in Skt. as _tamāla-pattra_. Some who wrote soon after the Portuguese discoveries took, perhaps not unnaturally, the _pān_ or betel-leaf for the _malabathrum_ of the ancients; and this was maintained by Dean Vincent in his well-known work on the _Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients_, justifying this in part by the Ar. name of the betel, _tambūl_, which is taken from Skt. _tāmbūla_, betel; _tāmbūla-pattra_, betel-leaf. The _tamāla-pattra_, however, the produce of certain wild spp. of Cinnamomum, obtained both in the hills of Eastern Bengal and in the forests of Southern India, is still valued in India as a medicine and aromatic, though in no such degree as in ancient times, and it is usually known in domestic economy as TEJPĀT, or corruptly _tezpāt_, _i.e._ 'pungent leaf.' The leaf was in the Arabic Materia Medica under the name of _sādhaj_ or _sādhajī Hindī_, as was till recently in the English Pharmacopœia as _Folium indicum_, which will still be found in Italian drug-shops. The matter is treated, with his usual lucidity and abundance of local knowledge, in the _Colloquios_ of Garcia de Orta, of which we give a short extract. This was evidently unknown to Dean Vincent, as he repeats the very errors which Garcia dissipates. Garcia also notes that confusion of _Malabathrum_ and _Folium indicum_ with spikenard, which is traceable in Pliny as well as among the Arab pharmacologists. The ancients did no doubt apply the name _Malabathrum_ to some other substance, an unguent or solid extract. Rheede, we may notice, mentions that in his time in Malabar, oils in high medical estimation were made from both leaves and root of the "wild cinnamon" of that coast, and that from the root of the same tree a _camphor_ was extracted, having several of the properties of real camphor and more fragrance. (See a note by one of the present writers in _Cathay_, &c., pp. cxlv.-xlvi.) The name _Cinnamon_ is properly confined to the tree of Ceylon (_C. Zeylanicum_). The other _Cinnamoma_ are properly _Cassia barks_. [See _Watt. Econ. Dict._ ii. 317 _seqq._]

c. A.D. 60.—"Μαλάβαθρον ἔνιοι ὑπολάμβάνουσιν εἶναι τῆς Ἰνδικῆς νάρδου φύλλον, πλανώμενοι ὑπὸ τῆς κατὰ τὴν ὀσμὴν, ἐμφερειας, ... ἴδιον γαρ ἐστι γένος φυόμενον ἐν τοῖς Ἰνδικοῖς τέλμασι, φύλλον ὃν ἐπινηχόμενον ὕδατι."—_Dioscorides, Mat. Med._ i. 11.

c. A.D. 70.—"We are beholden to Syria for Malabathrum. This is a tree that beareth leaves rolled up round together, and seeming to the eie withered. Out of which there is drawn and pressed an Oile for perfumers to use.... And yet there commeth a better kind thereof from India.... The rellish thereof ought to resemble Nardus at the tongue end. The perfume or smell that ... the leafe yeeldeth when it is boiled in wine, passeth all others. It is straunge and monstrous which is observed in the price; for it hath risen from one denier to three hundred a pound."—_Pliny_, xii. 26, in _Ph. Holland_.

c. A.D. 90.—"... Getting rid of the fibrous parts, they take the leaves and double them up into little balls, which they stitch through with the fibres of the withes. And these they divide into three classes.... And thus originate the three qualities of MALABATHRUM, which the people who have prepared them carry to India for sale."—_Periplus_, near the end. [Also see _Yule, Intro. Gill, River of Golden Sand_, ed. 1883, p. 89.]

1563.—"_R._ I remember well that in speaking of betel you told me that it was not _folium indu_, a piece of information of great value to me; for the physicians who put themselves forward as having learned much from these parts, assert that they are the same; and what is more, the modern writers ... call betel in their works _tembul_, and say that the Moors give it this name....

"_O._ That the two things are different as I told you is clear, for Avicenna treats them in two different chapters, viz., in 259, which treats of _folium indu_, and in 707, which treats of _tambul_ ... and the _folium indu_ is called by the Indians TAMALAPATRA, which the Greeks and Latins corrupted into MALABATHRUM," &c.—_Garcia_, ff. 95_v_, 96.

c. 1690.—"Hoc Tembul seu Sirium, licet vulgatissimum in India sit folium, distinguendum est a _Folio Indo_ seu MALABATHRO, Arabibus _Cadegi Hindi_, in Pharmacopoeis, et Indis, _Tamala-patra_ et _folio Indo_ dicto,... A nostra autem natione intellexi MALABATHRUM nihil aliud esse quam folium canellae, seu cinnamomi sylvestris."—_Rumphius_, v. 337.

c. 1760.—"... quand l'on considère que les Indiens appellent notre feuille Indienne TAMALAPATRA on croit d'apercevoir que le mot Grec μαλάβατρον en a été anciennement dérivé."—(_Diderot_) _Encyclopédie_, xx. 846.

1837.—(MALATROON is given in Arabic works of Materia Medica as the Greek of _Sādhaj_, and _tuj_ and _tej-pat_ as the Hindi synonymes). "By the latter names may be obtained everywhere in the bazars of India, the leaves of _Cinn. Tamala_ and of _Cinn. albiflorum_."—_Royle, Essay on Antiq. of Hindoo Medicine_, 85.

MALACCA, n.p. The city which gives its name to the Peninsula and the Straits of Malacca, and which was the seat of a considerable Malay monarchy till its capture by the Portuguese under D'Alboquerque in 1511. One naturally supposes some etymological connection between _Malay_ and _Malacca_. And such a connection is put forward by De Barros and D'Alboquerque (see below, and also under MALAY). The latter also mentions an alternative suggestion for the origin of the name of the city, which evidently refers to the Ar. _mulāḳāt_, 'a meeting.' This last, though it appears also in the _Sijara Malayu_, may be totally rejected. Crawfurd is positive that the place was called from the word _malaka_, the Malay name of the _Phyllanthus emblica_, or emblic MYROBALAN (q.v.), "a tree said to be abundant in that locality"; and this, it will be seen below, is given by Godinho de Eredia as the etymology. _Malaka_ again seems to be a corruption of the Skt. _amlaka_, from _amla_, 'acid.' [Mr. Skeat writes: "There can be no doubt that Crawfurd is right, and that the place was named from the tree. The suggested connection between _Malayu_ and _Malaka_ appears impossible to me, and, I think, would do so to any one acquainted with the laws of the language. I have seen the _Malaka_ tree myself and eaten its fruit. Ridley in his Botanical Lists has _laka-laka_ and _malaka_ which he identifies as _Phyllanthus emblica_, L. and _P. pectinatus Hooker_ (_Euphorbiaceae_). The two species are hardly distinct, but the latter is the commoner form. The fact is that the place, as is so often the case among the Malays, must have taken its name from the Sungei _Malaka_, or _Malaka_ River."]

1416.—"There was no King but only a chief, the country belonging to Siam.... In the year 1409, the imperial envoy Cheng Ho brought an order from the emperor and gave to the chief two silver seals, ... he erected a stone and raised the place to a city, after which the land was called the Kingdom of MALACCA (_Moa-la-ka_).... Tin is found in the mountains ... it is cast into small blocks weighing 1 catti 8 taels ... ten pieces are bound together with rattan and form a small bundle, whilst 40 pieces make a large bundle. In all their trading ... they use these pieces of tin instead of money."—_Chinese Annals_, in _Groenveldt_, p. 123.

1498.—"MELEQUA ... is 40 days from Qualecut with a fair wind ... hence proceeds all the clove, and it is worth there 9 crusados for a BAHAR (q.v.), and likewise nutmeg other 9 crusados the bahar; and there is much porcelain and much silk, and much tin, of which they make money, but the money is of large size and little value, so that it takes 3 farazalas (see FRAZALA) of it to make a crusado. Here too are many large parrots all red like fire."—_Roteiro de V. da Gama_, 110-111.

1510.—"When we had arrived at the city of MELACHA, we were immediately presented to the Sultan, who is a Moor ... I believe that more ships arrive here than in any other place in the world...."—_Varthema_, 224.

1511.—"This Paremiçura gave the name of MALACA to the new colony, because in the language of Java, when a man of Palimbão flees away they call him _Malayo_.... Others say that it was called Malaca because of the number of people who came there from one part and the other in so short a space of time, for the word _Malaca_ also signifies to _meet_.... Of these two opinions let each one accept that which he thinks to be the best, for this is the truth of the matter."—_Commentaries of Alboquerque_, E.T. by Birch, iii. 76-77.

1516.—"The said Kingdom of Ansyane (see SIAM) throws out a great point of land into the sea, which makes there a cape, where the sea returns again towards China to the north; in this promontory is a small kingdom in which there is a large city called MALACA."—_Barbosa_, 191.

1553.—"A son of Paramisora called Xaquem Darxa, (_i.e._ _Sikandar Shāh_) ... to form the town of MALACA, to which he gave that name in memory of the banishment of his father, because in his vernacular tongue (Javanese) this was as much as to say 'banished,' and hence the people are called MALAIOS."—_De Barros_, II. vi. 1.

" "That which he (Alboquerque) regretted most of all that was lost on that vessel, was two lions cast in iron, a first-rate work, and most natural, which the King of China had sent to the King of MALACA, and which King Mahamed had kept, as an honourable possession, at the gate of his Palace, whence Affonso Alboquerque carried them off, as the principal item of his triumph on the capture of the city."—_Ibid._ II. vii. 1.

1572.—

"Nem tu menos fugir poderás deste Postoque rica, e postoque assentada Là no gremio da Aurora, onde nasceste, Opulenta MALACA nomeada! Assettas venenosas, que fizeste, Os crises, com que j'á te vejo armada, Malaios namorados, Jaos valentes, Todos farás ao Luso obedientes." _Camões_, x. 44.

By Burton:

"Nor shalt thou 'scape the fate to fall his prize, albeit so wealthy, and so strong thy site there on Aurora's bosom, whence thy rise, thou Home of Opulence, Malacca hight! The poysoned arrows which thine art supplies, the Krises thirsting, as I see, for fight, th' enamoured Malay-men, the Javan braves, all of the Lusian shall become the slaves."

1612.—"The Arabs call it _Malakat_, from collecting all merchants."—_Sijara Malayu_, in _J. Ind. Arch._ v. 322.

1613.—"MALACA significa _Mirabolanos_, fructa de hua arvore, plantada ao longo de hum ribeiro chamado Aerlele."—_Godinho de Eredia_, f. 4.

MALADOO, s. _Chicken maladoo_ is an article in the Anglo-Indian menu. It looks like a corruption from the French _cuisine_, but of what? [_Maladoo_ or _Manadoo_, a lady informs me, is cold meat, such as chicken or mutton, cut into slices, or pounded up and re-cooked in batter. The Port. _malhado_, 'beaten-up,' has been suggested as a possible origin for the word.]

MALAY, n.p. This is in the Malay language an adjective, _Malāyu_; thus _orang Malāyu_, 'a Malay'; _tāna_ [_tānah_] _Malāyu_, 'the Malay country'; _bahāsa_ [_bhāsa_] _Malāyu_, 'the Malay language.'

In Javanese the word _malāyu_ signifies 'to run away,' and the proper name has traditionally been derived from this, in reference to the alleged foundation of MALACCA by Javanese fugitives; but we can hardly attach importance to this. It may be worthy at least of consideration whether the name was not of foreign, _i.e._ of S. Indian origin, and connected with the _Malāya_ of the Peninsula (see under MALABAR). [Mr. Skeat writes: "The tradition given me by Javanese in the Malay States was that the name was applied to Javanese refugees, who peopled the S. of Sumatra. Whatever be the original meaning of the word, it is probable that it started its life-history as a river-name in the S. of Sumatra, and thence became applied to the district through which the river ran, and so to the people who lived there; after which it spread with the Malay dialect until it included not only many allied, but also many foreign, tribes; all Malay-speaking tribes being eventually called Malays without regard to racial origin. A most important passage in this connection is to be found in Leyden's Tr. of the '_Malay Annals_' (1821), p. 20, in which direct reference to such a river is made: 'There is a country in the land of Andalás named Paralembang, which is at present denominated Palembang, the raja of which was denominated Damang Lebar Dawn (chieftain Broad-leaf), who derived his origin from Raja Sulan (Chulan?), whose great-grandson he was. The name of its river Muartatang, into which falls another river named Sungey MALAYU, near the source of which is a mountain named the mountain Sagantang Maha Miru.' Here Palembang is the name of a well-known Sumatran State, often described as the original home of the Malay race. In standard Malay '_Damang Lebar Dawn_' would be '_Dĕmang Lebar Daun_.' Raja Chulan is probably some mythical Indian king, the story being evidently derived from Indian traditions. 'Muartatang' may be a mistake for _Muar Tenang_, which is a place one heard of in the Peninsula, though I do not know for certain where it is. 'Sungey Malayu' simply means 'River Malayu.' 'Sagantang Maha Miru' is, I think, a mistake for _Sa-guntang Maha Miru_, which is the name used in the Peninsula for the sacred central mountain of the world on which the episode related in the _Annals_ occurred" (see Skeat, _Malay Magic_, p. 2).]

It is a remarkable circumstance, which has been noted by Crawfurd, that a name which appears on Ptolemy's Tables as on the coast of the Golden Chersonese, and which must be located somewhere about Maulmain, is Μαλεοῦ Κῶλον, words which in Javanese (_Malāyu-Kulon_) would signify "Malays of the West." After this the next (possible) occurrence of the name in literature is in the _Geography_ of Edrisi, who describes _Malai_ as a great island in the eastern seas, or rather as occupying the position of the _Lemuria_ of Mr. Sclater, for (in partial accommodation to the Ptolemaic theory of the Indian Sea) it stretched eastward nearly from the coast of Zinj, _i.e._ of Eastern Africa, to the vicinity of China. Thus it must be uncertain without further accounts whether it is an adumbration of the great Malay islands (as is on the whole probable) or of the Island of the Malagashes (Madagascar), if it is either. We then come to Marco Polo, and after him there is, we believe, no mention of the Malay name till the Portuguese entered the seas of the Archipelago.

[A.D. 690.—Mr. Skeat notes: "I Tsing speaks of the 'MOLO-YU country,' _i.e._ the district W. or N.W. of Palembang in Sumatra."]

c. 1150.—"The Isle of MALAI is very great.... The people devote themselves to very profitable trade; and there are found here elephants, rhinoceroses, and various aromatics and spices, such as clove, cinnamon, nard ... and nutmeg. In the mountains are mines of gold, of excellent quality ... the people also have windmills."—_Edrisi_, by _Jaubert_, i. 945.

c. 1273.—A Chinese notice records under this year that tribute was sent from Siam to the Emperor. "The Siamese had long been at war with the MALIYI, or MALIURH, but both nations laid aside their feud and submitted to China."—Notice by Sir T. Wade, in _Bowring's Siam_, i. 72.

c. 1292.—"You come to an Island which forms a kingdom, and is called MALAIUR. The people have a king of their own, and a peculiar language. The city is a fine and noble one, and there is a great trade carried on there. All kinds of spicery are to be found there."—_Marco Polo_, Bk. iii. ch. 8.

c. 1539.—"... as soon as he had delivered to him the letter, it was translated into the _Portugal_ out of the MALAYAN tongue wherein it was written."—_Pinto_, E.T. p. 15.

1548.—"... having made a breach in the wall twelve fathom wide, he assaulted it with 10,000 strangers, _Turks_, _Abyssins_, _Moors_, _Malauares_, _Achems_, _Jaos_, and MALAYOS."—_Ibid._ p. 279.

1553.—"And so these Gentiles like the Moors who inhabit the sea-coasts of the Island (Sumatra), although they have each their peculiar language, almost all can speak the MALAY of Malacca as being the most general language of those parts."—_Barros_, III. v. 1.

" "Everything with them is to be a gentleman; and this has such prevalence in those parts that you will never find a native MALAY, however poor he may be, who will set his hand to lift a thing of his own or anybody else's; every service must be done by slaves."—_Ibid._ II. vi. 1.

1610.—"I cannot imagine what the _Hollanders_ meane, to suffer these MALAYSIANS, _Chinesians_, and _Moores_ of these countries, and to assist them in their free trade thorow all the _Indies_, and forbid it their owne seruants, countrymen, and Brethern, upon paine of death and losse of goods."—_Peter Williamson Floris_, in _Purchas_, i. 321.

[Mr. Skeat writes: "The word _Malaya_ is now often applied by English writers to the Peninsula as a whole, and from this the term MALAYSIA as a term of wider application (_i.e._ to the Archipelago) has been coined (see quotation of 1610 above). The former is very frequently miswritten by English writers as '_Malay_,' a barbarism which has even found place on the title-page of a book—'Travel and Sport in Burma, Siam and MALAY, by John Bradley, London, 1876.'"]

MALAYĀLAM. This is the name applied to one of the cultivated Dravidian languages, the closest in its relation to the Tamil. It is spoken along the Malabar coast, on the Western side of the GHAUTS (or _Malāya_ mountains), from the Chandragiri River on the North, near Mangalore (entering the sea in 12° 29′), beyond which the language is, for a limited distance, _Tulu_, and then Canarese, to Trevandrum on the South (lat. 8° 29′), where Tamil begins to supersede it. Tamil, however, also intertwines with Malayālam all along Malabar. The term _Malayālam_ properly applies to territory, not language, and might be rendered "Mountain region" [See under MALABAR, and _Logan, Man. of Malabar_, i. 90.]

MALDIVES, MALDIVE ISLDS., n.p. The proper form of this name appears to be _Male-dīva_; not, as the estimable Garcia de Orta says, _Nale_-dīva; whilst the etymology which he gives is certainly wrong, hard as it may be to say what is the right one. The people of the islands formerly designated themselves and their country by a form of the word for 'island' which we have in the Skt. _dvīpa_ and the Pali _dīpo_. We find this reflected in the _Divi_ of Ammianus, and in the _Dīva_ and _Dība_-jāt (Pers. plural) of old Arab geographers, whilst it survives in letters of the 18th century addressed to the Ceylon Government (Dutch) by the Sultan of the Isles, who calls his kingdom _Divehi Rajjé_, and his people _Divehe mīhun_. Something like the modern form first appears in Ibn Batuta. He, it will be seen, in his admirable account of these islands, calls them, as it were, _Mahal_-dives, and says they were so called from the chief group _Mahal_, which was the residence of the Sultan, indicating a connection with _Mahal_, 'a palace.' This form of the name looks like a foreign 'striving after meaning.' But Pyrard de Laval, the author of the most complete account in existence, also says that the name of the islands was taken from _Malé_, that on which the King resided. Bishop Caldwell has suggested that these islands were the _dives_, or islands, of _Malé_, as _Malebār_ (see MALABAR) was the coast-tract or continent, of _Malé_. It is, however, not impossible that the true etymology was from _mālā_, 'a garland or necklace,' of which their configuration is highly suggestive. [The _Madras Gloss._ gives Malayāl. _māl_, 'black,' and _dvīpa_, 'island,' from the dark soil. For a full account of early notices of the Maldives, see Mr. Gray's note on _Pyrard de Laval_, Hak. Soc. ii. 423 _seqq._] Milburn (_Or. Commmerce_, i. 335) says: "This island was (these islands were) discovered by the Portuguese in 1507." Let us see!

A.D. 362.—"Legationes undique solito ocius concurrebant; hinc Transtigritanis pacem obsecrantibus et Armeniis, inde nationibus Indicis certatim cum donis optimates mittentibus ante tempus, ab usque DIVIS et Serendivis."—_Ammian. Marcellinus_, xxii. 3.

c. 545.—"And round about it (_Sielediba_ or _Taprobane_, _i.e._ Ceylon) there are a number of small islands, in all of which you find fresh water and coco-nuts. And these are almost all set close to one another."—_Cosmas_, in _Cathay_, &c., clxxvii.

851.—"Between this Sea (of Horkand) and the Sea called Lāravi there is a great number of isles; their number, indeed, it is said, amounts to 1,900; ... the distance from island to island is 2, 3, or 4 parasangs. They are all inhabited, and all produce coco-palms.... The last of these islands is Serendīb, in the Sea of Horkand; it is the chief of all; they give the islands the name of DĪBAJĀT" (_i.e._ _Dības_).—_Relation_, &c., tr. by _Reinaud_, i. 4-5.

c. 1030.—"The special name of DĪVA is given to islands which are formed in the sea, and which appear above water in the form of accumulations of sand; these sands continually augment, spread, and unite, till they present a firm aspect ... these islands are divided into two classes, according to the nature of their staple product. Those of one class are called DĪVA-_Kūzah_ (or the Cowry Divahs), because of the cowries which are gathered from coco-branches planted in the sea. The others are called DĪVA-_Kanbar_, from the word _kanbar_ (see COIR), which is the name of the twine made from coco-fibres, with which vessels are stitched."—_Al-Birūnī_, in _Reinaud, Fragmens_, 124.

1150.—See also _Edrisi_, in Jaubert's Transl. i. 68. But the translator prints a bad reading, _Raibiḥāt_, for DĪBAJĀT.

c. 1343.—"Ten days after embarking at Calecut we arrived at the Islands called DHĪBAT-AL-MAHAL.... These islands are reckoned among the wonders of the World; there are some 2000 of them. Groups of a hundred, or not quite so many, of these islands are found clustered into a ring, and each cluster has an entrance like a harbour-mouth, and it is only there that ships can enter.... Most of the trees that grow on these islands are coco-palms.... They are divided into regions or groups ... among which are distinguished ... 3^o MAHAL, the group which gives a name to the whole, and which is the residence of the Sultans."—_Ibn Batuta_, iv. 110 _seqq._

1442.—Abdurrazzak also calls them "the isles of DĪVA-MAHAL."—In _Not. et Exts._ xiv. 429.

1503.—"But Dom Vasco ... said that things must go on as they were to India, and there he would inquire into the truth. And so arriving in the Gulf (_golfão_) where the storm befel them, all were separated, and that vessel which steered badly, parted company with the fleet, and found itself at one of the first islands of MALDIVA, at which they stopped some days enjoying themselves. For the island abounded in provisions, and the men indulged to excess in eating cocos, and fish, and in drinking bad stagnant water, and in disorders with women; so that many died."—_Correa_, i. 347.

[1512.—"Mafamede Maçay with two ships put into the MALDIVE islands (ilhas de MALDIVA)."—_Albuquerque, Cartas_, p. 30.]

1563.—"_R._ Though it be somewhat to interrupt the business in hand,—why is that chain of islands called 'Islands of MALDIVA'?

"_O._ In this matter of the nomenclature of lands and seas and kingdoms, many of our people make gerat mistakes even in regard to our own lands; how then can you expect that one can give you the rationale of etymologies of names in foreign tongues? But, nevertheless, I will tell you what I have heard say. And that is that the right name is not MALDIVA, but _Nalediva_; for _nale_ in Malabar means 'four,' and _diva_ 'island,' so that in the Malabar tongue the name is as much as to say 'Four Isles.'... And in the same way we call a certain island that is 12 leagues from Goa _Angediva_ (see ANCHEDIVA), because there are five in the group, and so the name in Malabar means 'Five Isles,' for _ange_ is 'five.' But these derivations rest on common report, I don't detail them to you as demonstrable facts."—_Garcia, Colloquios_, f. 11.

1572.—"Nas ilhas de MALDIVA." (See COCO-DE-MER.)

c. 1610.—"Ce Royaume en leur langage s'appelle MALÉ-_ragué_, Royaume de Malé, et des autres peuples de l'Inde il s'appelle MALÉ-DIVAR, et les peuples DIUES ... L'Isle principale, comme j'ay dit, s'appelle MALÉ, qui donne le nom à tout le reste des autres; car le mot DIUES signifie vn nombre de petites isles amassées."—_Pyrard de Laval_, i. 63, 68, ed. 1679. [Hak. Soc. i. 83, 177.]

1683.—"Mr. Beard sent up his Couries, which he had received from ye MAULDIVAS, to be put off and passed by Mr. Charnock at Cassumbazar."—_Hedges, Diary_, Oct. 2; [Hak. Soc. i. 122].

MALUM, s. In a ship with English officers and native crew, the mate is called _mālum sāhib_. The word is Ar. _mu'allim_, literally 'the Instructor,' and is properly applied to the pilot or sailing-master. The word may be compared, thus used, with our 'master' in the Navy. In regard to the first quotation we may observe that _Nākhuda_ (see NACODA) is, rather than _Mu'allim_, 'the captain'; though its proper meaning is the owner of the ship; the two capacities of owner and skipper being doubtless often combined. The distinction of _Mu'allim_ from _Nākhuda_ accounts for the former title being assigned to the mate.

1497.—"And he sent 20 cruzados in gold, and 20 testoons in silver for the MALEMOS, who were the pilots, for of these coins he would give each month whatever he (the Sheikh) should direct."—_Correa_, i. 38 (E.T. by _Ld. Stanley of Alderley_, 88). On this passage the Translator says: "The word is perhaps the Arabic for an instructor, a word in general use all over Africa." It is curious that his varied experience should have failed to recognise the habitual marine use of the term.

1541.—"Meanwhile he sent three CATURS (q.v.) to the Port of the MALEMS (_Porto dos Malemos_) in order to get some pilot.... In this Port of the _Bandel of the_ MALEMS the ships of the Moors take pilots when they enter the Straits, and when they return they leave them here again."[159]—_Correa_, iv. 168.

1553.—"... among whom (at Melinda) came a Moor, a Guzarate by nation, called MALEM Cana, who, as much for the satisfaction he had in conversing with our people, as to please the King, who was inquiring for a pilot to give them, agreed to accompany them."—_Barros_, I. iv. 6.

c. 1590.—"MU'ALLIM or Captain. He must be acquainted with the depths and shallow places of the Ocean, and must know astronomy. It is he who guides the ship to her destination, and prevents her falling into dangers."—_Āīn_, ed. _Blochmann_, i. 280.

[1887.—"The second class, or MALUMIS, are sailors."—_Logan, Malabar_, ii. ccxcv.]

MAMIRAN, MAMIRA, s. A medicine from old times of much repute in the East, especially for eye-diseases, and imported from Himalayan and Trans-Himalayan regions. It is a popular native drug in the Punjab bazars, where it is still known as _mamīra_, also as _pīlīārī_. It seems probable that the name is applied to bitter roots of kindred properties but of more than one specific origin. Hanbury and Flückiger describe it as the rhizome of _Coptis Teeta_, Wallich, _tīta_ being the name of the drug in the Mishmi country at the head of the Assam Valley, from which it is imported into Bengal. But Stewart states explicitly that the _mamīra_ of the Punjab bazars is now "known to be" mostly, if not entirely, derived from _Thalictrum foliosum_ D.C., a tall plant which is common throughout the temperate Himālaya (5000 to 8000 feet) and on the Kasia Hills, and is exported from Kumaun under the name of MOMIRI. [See _Watt, Econ. Dict._ vi. pt. iv. 42 _seq._] "The MAMIRA of the old Arab writers was identified with Χελιδόνιον μέγα, by which, however, Löw (_Aram. Pflanzennamen_, p. 220) says they understood _curcuma longa_." W.R.S.

c. A.D. 600-700.—"Μαμιράς, οἷον ῥιζίον τι πόας ἐστὶν ἔχον ὥσπερ κονδύλους πυκνοὺς, ὄπος οὐλας τε καὶ λευκώματα λεπτύνειν πεπιστεύεται, δηλονότι ῥυπτικῆς ὑπάρχον δυνάμεως."—_Pauli Aeginetae Medici_, Libri vii., Basileae 1538. Lib. vii. cap. iii. sect. 12 (p. 246).

c. 1020.—"MEMIREM quid est? Est lignum sicut nodi declinans ad nigredinem ... mundificat albuginem in oculis, et acuit visum: quum ex eo fit collyrium et abstergit humiditatem grossam...." &c.—_Avicennae Opera_, Venet. 1564, p. 345 (lib. ii. tractat. ii.).

The glossary of Arabic terms by Andreas de Alpago of Belluno, attached to various early editions of Avicenna, gives the following interpretation: "MEMIREM est radix nodosa, non multum grossa, citrini coloris, sicut curcuma; minor tamen est et subtilior, et asportatur ex Indiâ, et apud physicos orientales est valde nota, et usitatur in passionibus oculi."

c. 1100.—"MEMIRAM Arabibus, χελιδόνιον μέγα Graecis," &c.—_Io. Serapionis de Simpl. Medicam. Historia_, Lib. iv. cap. lxxvi. (ed. Ven. 1552, f. 106).

c. 1200.—"Some maintain that this plant (_'urūk al-ṣábaghīn_) is the small _kurkum_ (TURMERIC), and others that it is MAMĪRĀN.... The _kurkum_ is brought to us from India.... The MAMĪRĀN is imported from China, and has the same properties as _kurkum_."—_Ibn Baithar_, ii. 186-188.

c. 1550.—"But they have a much greater appreciation of another little root which grows in the mountains of Succuir (_i.e._ Suchau in Shensi), where the rhubarb grows, and which they call MAMBRONI-Chini (i.e. MAMĪRĀN-_i-Chīnī_). This is extremely dear, and is used in most of their ailments, but especially when the eyes are affected. They grind it on a stone with rose water, and anoint the eyes with it. The result is wonderfully beneficial."—_Hajji Mahommed's Account of Cathay_, in _Ramusio_, ii. f. 15_v_.

c. 1573.—(At Aleppo). "MAMIRANITCHINI, good for eyes as they say."—_Rauwolff_, in Ray's 2nd ed. p. 114.

Also the following we borrow from Dozy's _Suppl. aux Dictt. Arabes_:—

1582.—"Mehr haben ihre Krämer kleine würtzelein zu verkaufen MAMIRANI tchini genennet, in gebresten der Augen, wie sie fürgeben ganz dienslich; diese seind gelblecht wie die Curcuma umb ein zimlichs lenger, auch dünner und knopffet das solche unseren weisz wurtzlen sehr ehnlich, und wol für das rechte mamiran mögen gehalten werden, dessen sonderlich Rhases an mehr orten gedencket."—_Rauwolff, Aigentliehe Beschreibung der Raisz_, 126.

c. 1665.—"These caravans brought back _Musk_, _China-wood_, _Rubarb_, and MAMIRON, which last is a small root exceeding good for ill eyes."—_Bernier_, E.T. 136; [ed. _Constable_, 426].

1862.—"Imports from Yarkand and Changthan, through Leh to the Punjab ... MAMIRAN-_i-Chini_ (a yellow root, medicine for the eyes) ..."—_Punjaub Trade Report_, App. xxiv. p. ccxxxiii.

MAMLUTDAR, s. P.—H. _mu'āmalatdār_ (from Ar. _mu'āmala_, 'affairs, business'), and in Mahr. _māmlatdār_. Chiefly used in Western India. Formerly it was the designation, under various native governments, of the chief civil officer of a district, and is now in the Bombay Presidency the title of a native civil officer in charge of a TALOOK, corresponding nearly to the TAHSEELDAR of a pergunna in the Bengal Presidency, but of a status somewhat more important.

[1826.—"I now proceeded to the MAAMULUT-DAR, or farmer of the district...."—_Pandurang Hari_, ed. 1873, i. 42.]

MAMOOL, s.; MAMOOLEE, adj. Custom, Customary. Ar.—H. _ma'mūl_. The literal meaning is 'practised,' and then 'established, customary.' _Ma'mūl_ is, in short, 'precedent,' by which all Orientals set as much store as English lawyers, _e.g._ "And Laban said, It must not so be done in our country (_lit._ It is not so done in our place) to give the younger before the firstborn."—_Genesis_ xxix. 26.

MAMOOTY, MAMOTY, MOMATTY, s. A digging tool of the form usual all over India, _i.e._ not in the shape of a spade, but in that of a hoe, with the helve at an acute angle with the blade. [See FOWRA.] The word is of S. Indian origin, Tamil _manvĕtti_, 'earth-cutter'; and its vernacular use is confined to the Tamil regions, but it has long been an established term in the list of ordnance stores all over India, and thus has a certain prevalence in Anglo-Indian use beyond these limits.

[1782.—"He marched ... with two battalions of sepoys ... who were ordered to make a show of entrenching themselves with MAMUTIES...."—Letter of _Ld. Macartney_, in _Forrest, Selections_, iii. 855.]

[1852.—"... by means of a MOMETTY or hatchet, which he ran and borrowed from a husbandman ... this fellow dug ... a reservoir...."—_Neale, Narrative of Residence in Siam_, 138.]

MANCHUA, s. A large cargo-boat, with a single mast and a square sail, much used on the Malabar coast. This is the Portuguese form; the original Malayālam word is _manji_, [_manchi_, Skt. _maṇcha_, 'a cot,' so called apparently from its raised platform for cargo,] and nowadays a nearer approach to this, _manjee_, &c., is usual.

c. 1512.—"So he made ready two MANCHUAS, and one night got into the house of the King, and stole from him the most beautiful woman that he had, and, along with her, jewels and a quantity of money."—_Correa_, i. 281.

1525.—"Quatro LANCHARAS (q.v.) grandes e seis _qualaluzes_ (see CALALUZ) e MANCHUAS que se remam muyto."—_Lembrança das Cousas de India_, p. 8.

1552.—"MANCHUAS que sam navios de remo."—_Castanheda_, ii. 362.

c. 1610.—"Il a vne petite Galiote, qu'ils appellent MANCHOUËS, fort bien couverte ... et faut huit ou neuf hommes seulement pour la mener."—_Pyrard de Laval_, ii. 26; [Hak. Soc. ii. 42].

[1623.—"... boats which they call MANEIVE, going with 20 or 24 Oars."—_P. della Valle_, Hak. Soc. ii. 211; MANCINA in ii. 217.

[1679.—"I commanded the SHIBBARS and MANCHUAS to keepe a little ahead of me."—_Yule, Hedges' Diary_, Hak. Soc. ii. clxxxiv.]

1682.—"Ex hujusmodi arboribus excavatis naviculas Indi conficiunt, quas MANSJOAS appellant, quarum nonullae longitudine 80, latitudine 9 pedum mensuram superant."—_Rheede, Hort. Malabar_, iii. 27.

[1736.—"All ships and vessels ... as well as the MUNCHUAS appertaining to the Company's officers."—Treaty, in _Logan, Malabar_, ii. 31.

MANDADORE, s. Port. _mandador_, 'one who commands.'

1673.—"Each of which Tribes have a MANDADORE or Superintendent."—_Fryer_, 67.

MANDALAY, MANDALÉ, n.p. The capital of the King of Burmah, founded in 1860, 7 miles north of the preceding capital Amarapura, and between 2 and 3 miles from the left bank of the Irawadi. The name was taken from that of a conical isolated hill, rising high above the alluvial plain of the Irawadi, and crowned by a gilt pagoda. The name of the hill (and now of the city at its base) probably represents _Mandara_, the sacred mountain which in Hindu mythology served the gods as a churning-staff at the churning of the sea. The hill appears as _Mandiye-taung_ in Major Grant Allan's Map of the Environs of Amarapura (1855), published in the Narrative of Major Phayre's Mission, but the name does not occur in the Narrative itself.

[1860.—See the account of MANDELAY in _Mason, Burmah_, 14 _seqq._]

1861.—"Next morning the son of my friendly host accompanied me to the MANDALAY Hill, on which there stands in a gilt chapel the image of Shwesayatta, pointing down with outstretched finger to the Palace of MANDALAY, interpreted as the divine command there to build a city ... on the other side where the hill falls in an abrupt precipice, sits a gigantic Buddha gazing in motionless meditation on the mountains opposite. There are here some caves in the hard rock, built up with bricks and whitewashed, which are inhabited by eremites...."—_Bastian's Travels_ (German), ii. 89-90.

MANDARIN, s. Port. _Mandarij_, _Mandarim_. Wedgwood explains and derives the word thus: "A Chinese officer, a name first made known to us by the Portuguese, and like the Indian _caste_, erroneously supposed to be a native term. From Portuguese _mandar_, to hold authority, command, govern, &c." So also T. Hyde in the quotation below. Except as regards the word having been first made known to us by the Portuguese, this is an old and persistent mistake. What sort of form would _mandarij_ be as a derivative from _mandar_? The Portuguese might have applied to Eastern officials some such word as _mandador_, which a preceding article (see MANDADORE) shows that they did apply in certain cases. But the parallel to the assumed origin of _mandarin_ from _mandar_ would be that English voyagers on visiting China, or some other country in the far East, should have invented, as a title for the officials of that country, a new and abnormal derivation from 'order,' and called them _orderumbos_.

The word is really a slight corruption of Hind. (from Skt.) _mantri_, 'a counsellor, a Minister of State,' for which it was indeed the proper old pre-Mahommedan term in India. It has been adopted, and specially affected in various Indo-Chinese countries, and particularly by the Malays, among whom it is habitually applied to the highest class of public officers (see _Crawfurd's Malay Dict._ s.v. [and Klinkert, who writes _manteri_, colloquially _mentri_]). Yet Crawfurd himself, strange to say, adopts the current explanation as from the Portuguese (see _J. Ind. Archip._ iv. 189). [Klinkert adopts the Skt. derivation.] It is, no doubt, probable that the instinctive "striving after meaning" may have shaped the corruption of _mantri_ into a semblance of _mandar_. Marsden is still more oddly perverse, _videns meliora, deteriora secutus_, when he says: "The officers next in rank to the Sultan are _Mantree_, which some apprehend to be a corruption of the word _Mandarin_, a title of distinction among the Chinese" (_H. of Sumatra_, 2nd ed. 285). Ritter adopts the etymology from _mandar_, apparently after A. W. Schlegel.[160] The true etymon is pointed out in _Notes and Queries in China and Japan_, iii. 12, and by one of the present writers in _Ocean Highways_ for Sept. 1872, p. 186. Several of the quotations below will show that the earlier applications of the title have no reference to China at all, but to officers of state, not only in the Malay countries, but in Continental India. We may add that _mantri_ (see MUNTREE) is still much in vogue among the less barbarous Hill Races on the Eastern frontier of Bengal (_e.g._ among the _Kasias_ (see COSSYA) as a denomination for their petty dignitaries under the chief. Gibbon was perhaps aware of the true origin of _mandarin_; see below.

c. A.D. 400 (?).—"The King desirous of trying cases must enter the assembly composed in manner, together with Brahmans who know the Vedas, and MANTRINS (or counsellors)."—_Manu_, viii. 1.

[1522.—"... and for this purpose he sent one of his chief MANDARINS (_mandarim_)."—India Office MSS. in an Agreement made by the Portuguese with the "_Rey de Sunda_," this Sunda being that of the Straits.]

1524.—(At the Moluccas) "and they cut off the heads of all the dead Moors, and indeed fought with one another for these, because whoever brought in seven heads of enemies, they made him a knight, and called him MANDERYM, which is their name for Knight."—_Correa_, ii. 808.

c. 1540.—"... the which corsairs had their own dealings with the MANDARINS of those ports, to whom they used to give many and heavy bribes to allow them to sell on shore what they plundered on the sea."—_Pinto_, cap. 1.

1552.—(At Malacca) "whence subsist the King and the Prince with their MANDARINS, who are the gentlemen."—_Castanheda_, iii. 207.

" (In China). "There are among them degrees of honour, and according to their degrees of honour is their service; gentlemen (_fidalgos_) whom they call MANDARINS ride on horseback, and when they pass along the streets the common people make way for them."—_Ibid._ iv. 57.

1553.—"Proceeding ashore in two or three boats dressed with flags and with a grand blare of trumpets (this was at Malacca in 1508-9).... Jeronymo Teixeira was received by many MANDARIJS of the King, these being the most noble class of the city."—_De Barros_, Dec. II. liv. iv. cap. 3.

" "And he being already known to the MANDARIJS (at Chittagong, in Bengal), and held to be a man profitable to the country, because of the heavy amounts of duty that he paid, he was regarded like a native."—_Ibid._ Dec. IV. liv. ix. cap. 2.

" "And from these _Cellates_ and native Malays come all the MANDARINS, who are now the gentlemen (_fidalgos_) of Malaca."—_Ibid._ II. vi. 1.

1598.—"They are called ... MANDORIJNS, and are always borne in the streetes, sitting in chariots which are hanged about with Curtaines of Silke, covered with Clothes of Gold and Silver, and are much given to banketing, eating and drinking, and making good cheare, as also the whole land of China."—_Linschoten_, 39; [Hak. Soc. i. 135].

1610.—"The MANDORINS (officious officers) would have interverted the king's command for their own covetousnesse" (at Siam).—_Peter Williamson Floris_, in _Purchas_, i. 322.

1612.—"Shah Indra Brama fled in like manner to Malacca, where they were graciously received by the King, Mansur Shah, who had the Prince converted to Islamism, and appointed him to be a MANTOR."—_Sijara Malayu_, in _J. Ind. Arch._ v. 730.

c. 1663.—"Domandò il Signor Carlo se MANDARINO è voce Chinese. Disse esser Portoghese, e che in Chinese si chiamano _Quoan_, che signifia signoreggiare, comandare, gobernare."—_Viaggio del P. Gio. Grueber_, in _Thevenot, Divers Voyages_.

1682.—In the Kingdome of Patane (on E. coast of Malay Peninsula) "The King's counsellors are called MENTARY."—_Nieuhof, Zee en Lant-Reize_, ii. 64.

c. 1690.—"MANDARINORUM autem nomine intelliguntur omnis generis officiarii, qui a _mandando_ appellantur _mandarini_ linguâ Lusitanicâ, quae unica Europaea est in oris Chinensibus obtinens."—_T. Hyde, De Ludis Orientalibus_, in _Syntagmata_, Oxon. 1767, ii. 266.

1719.—"... one of the MANDARINS, a kind of viceroy or principal magistrate in the province where they reside."—_Robinson Crusoe_, Pt. ii.

1726.—"MANTRÍS. Councillors. These give rede and deed in things of moment, and otherwise are in the Government next to the King...." (in Ceylon).—_Valentijn, Names_, &c., 6.

1727.—"Every province or city (Burma) has a MANDEREEN or Deputy residing at Court, which is generally in the City of Ava, the present Metropolis."—_A. Hamilton_, ii. 43, [ed. 1744, ii. 42].

1774.—"... presented to each of the Batchian MANTERIES as well as the two officers a scarlet coat."—_Forrest, V. to N. Guinea_, p. 100.

1788.—"... Some words notoriously corrupt are fixed, and as it were naturalized in the vulgar tongue ... and we are pleased to blend the three Chinese monosyllables _Con-fû-tzee_ in the respectable name of Confucius, or even to adopt the Portuguese corruption of MANDARIN."—_Gibbon_, Preface to his 4th volume.

1879.—"The MENTRÍ, the Malay Governor of Larut ... was powerless to restore order."—_Miss Bird, Golden Chersonese_, 267.

Used as an adjective:

[c. 1848.—"The MANDARIN-boat, or 'Smug-boat,' as it is often called by the natives, is the most elegant thing that floats."—_Berncastle, Voyage to China_, ii. 71.

[1878.—"The Cho-Ka-Shun, or boats in which the MANDARINS travel, are not unlike large floating caravans."—_Gray, China_, ii. 270.]

MANDARIN LANGUAGE, s. The language spoken by the official and literary class in China, as opposed to local dialects. In Chinese it is called _Kuan-Hua_. It is substantially the language of the people of the northern and middle zones of China, extending to Yun-nan. It is not to be confounded with the literary style which is used in books. [See _Ball, Things Chinese_, 169 _seq._]

1674.—"The Language ... is called _Quenhra_ (_hua_), or the LANGUAGE OF MANDARINES, because as they spread their command they introduced it, and it is used throughout all the Empire, as Latin in Europe. It is very barren, and as it has more Letters far than any other, so it has fewer words."—_Faria y Sousa_, E.T. ii. 468.

MANGALORE, n.p. The only place now well known by this name is (A) _Mangaḷ-ūr_, a port on the coast of Southern Canara and chief town of that district, in lat. 12° 51′ N. In Mīr Husain Ali's _Life of Haidar_ it is called "_Gorial Bunder_," perhaps a corr. of _Kandiāl_, which is said in the _Imp. Gaz._ to be the modern native name. [There is a place called _Gurupura_ close by; see _Madras Gloss._ s.v. _Goorpore_.] The name in this form is found in an inscription of the 11th century, whatever may have been its original form and etymology. [The present name is said to be taken from the temple of _Mangalā_ Devī.] But the name in approximate forms (from _mañgala_, 'gladness') is common in India. One other port (B) on the coast of Peninsular Guzerat was formerly well known, now commonly called _Mungrole_. And another place of the name (C) _Manglavar_ in the valley of Swat, north of Peshāwar, is mentioned by Hwen T'sang as a city of Gandhāra. It is probably the same that appears in Skt. literature (see _Williams_, s.v. _Mangala_) as the capital of Udyāna.

A. MANGALORE of Canara.

c. 150.—"Μεταξὺ δὲ τοῦ Ψευδοστόμου καὶ τοῦ Βάριος πόλεις αἵδε· Μαγγάνουρ."—_Ptolemy_, VII. i. 86.

c. 545.—"And the most notable places of trade are these ... and then the five ports of Malé from which pepper is exported, to wit, Parti, MANGARUTH...."—_Cosmas_, in _Cathay_, &c. clxxvii.

[c. 1300.—"MANJARUR." See under SHINKALI.]

c. 1343.—"Quitting Fākanūr (see BACANORE) we arrived after three days at the city of MANJARŪR, which is large and situated on an estuary.... It is here that most of the merchants of Fars and Yemen land; pepper and ginger are very abundant."—_Ibn Batuta_, iv. 79-80.

1442.—"After having passed the port of Bendinaneh (see PANDARANI) situated on the coast of Melibar, (he) reached the port of MANGALOR, which forms the frontier of the kingdom of Bidjanagar...."—_Abdurrazzāk_, in _India in the XVth Cent._, 20.

1516.—"There is another large river towards the south, along the sea-shore, where there is a very large town, peopled by Moors and Gentiles, of the kingdom of Narsinga, called MANGALOR.... They also ship there much rice in Moorish ships for Aden, also pepper, which thenceforward the earth begins to produce."—_Barbosa_, 83.

1727.—"The Fields here bear two Crops of Corn yearly in the Plains; and the higher Grounds produce Pepper, Bettle-nut, Sandalwood, Iron and Steel, which make MANGULORE a Place of pretty good Trade."—_A. Hamilton_, i. 285, [ed. 1744].

B. MANGALOR or MUNGROLE in Guzerat.

c. 150.—

"Συραστρηνῆς ... Συράστρα κώμη Μοηόγλωσσοη εμποριον ..." _Ptolemy_, VII. i. 3.

1516.—"... there is another town of commerce, which has a very good port, and is called _Surati_ MANGALOR, where also many ships of Malabar touch."—_Barbosa_, 59.

1536.—"... for there was come another CATUR with letters, in which the Captain of Diu urgently called for help; telling how the King (of Cambay) had equipped large squadrons in the Ports of the Gulf ... alleging ... that he was sending them to MANGALOR to join others in an expedition against Sinde ... and that all this was false, for he was really sending them in the expectation that the Rumis would come to MANGALOR next September...."—_Correa_, iv. 701.

1648.—This place is called MANGEROL by _Van Twist_, p. 13.

1727.—"The next maritime town is MANGAROUL. It admits of Trade, and affords coarse Callicoes, white and died, Wheat, Pulse, and Butter for export."—_A. Hamilton_, i. 136, [ed. 1744].

C. MANGLAVAR in Swat.

c. 630.—"Le royaume de Ou-tchang-na (Oudyâna) a environ 5000 _li_ de tour ... on compte 4 ou 5 villes fortifiées. La pluspart des rois de ce pays ont pris pour capitale la ville de MOUNG-KIE-LI (Moungali).... La population est fort nombreuse."—_Hwen T'sang_, in _Pèl. Bouddh._ ii. 131-2.

1858.—"Mongkieli se retrouve dans MANGLAVOR (in Sanskrit Mañgala-poura) ... ville située près de la rive gauche de la rivière de Svat, et qui a été longtemps, au rapport des indigènes, la capitale du pays."—_Vivien de St. Martin_, _Ibid._ iii. 314-315.

MANGELIN, s. A small weight, corresponding in a general way to a CARAT (q.v.), used in the S. of India and in Ceylon for weighing precious stones. The word is Telegu _maṇjāḷi_; in Tamil _maṇjāḍi_, [from Skt. _manju_, 'beautiful']; the seed of the _Adenanthera pavonina_ (Compare RUTTEE). On the origin of this weight see Sir W. Elliot's _Coins of S. India_. The _maṇjāḍi_ seed was used as a measure of weight from very early times. A parcel of 50 taken at random gave an average weight of 4.13 grs. Three parcels of 10 each, selected by eye as large, gave average 5.02 and 5.03 (_op. cit._ p. 47).

1516.—Diamonds "... sell by a weight which is called a MANGIAR, which is equal to 2 _tare_ and ⅔, and 2 _tare_ make a carat of good weight, and 4 _tare_ weigh one fanam."—_Barbosa_, in _Ramusio_, i. f. 321_v_.

1554.—(In Ceylon) "A _calamja_ contains 20 MAMGELINS, each MAMGELIM 8 grains of rice; a Portugues of gold weighs 8 calamjas and 2 MANGELINS."—_A. Nunez_, 35.

1584.—"There is another sort of weight called MANGIALLINO, which is 5 graines of Venice weight, and therewith they weigh diamants and other jewels."—_Barret_, in _Hakl._ ii. 409.

1611.—"Quem não sabe a grandeza das minas de finissimos diamantes do Reyno de Bisnaga, donde cada dia, e cada hora se tiram peças de tamanho de hum ovo, e muitas de sessenta e oitenta MANGELINS."—_Couto, Dialogo do Soldato Pratico_, 154.

1665.—"Le poids principal des Diamans est le MANGELIN; il pèse cinq grains et trois cinquièmes."—_Thevenot_, v. 293.

1676.—"At the mine of _Raolconda_ they weigh by MANGELINS, a MANGELIN being one _Carat_ and three quarters, that is 7 grains.... At the Mine of Soumelpore in Bengal they weigh by _Rati's_ (see RUTTEE), and the _Rati_ is ⅞ of a _Carat_, or 3½ grains. In the Kingdoms of _Golconda_ and _Visapour_, they make use of MANGELINS, but a MANGELIN in those parts is not above 1 carat and ⅜. The _Portugals_ in _Goa_ make use of the same Weights in _Goa_; but a MANGELIN there is not above 5 grains."—_Tavernier_, E.T. ii. 141; [ed. _Ball_, ii. 87, and see ii. 433.]

MANGO, s. The royal fruit of the _Mangifera indica_, when of good quality is one of the richest and best fruits in the world. The original of the word is Tamil _mān-kāy_ or _mān-gāy_, _i.e._ _mān_ fruit (the tree being _māmarum_, '_mān_-tree'). The Portuguese formed from this _manga_, which we have adopted as _mango_. The tree is wild in the forests of various parts of India; but the fruit of the wild tree is uneatable.

The word has sometimes been supposed to be Malay; but it was in fact introduced into the Archipelago, along with the fruit itself, from S. India. Rumphius (_Herb. Amboyn._ i. 95) traces its then recent introduction into the islands, and says that it is called (_Malaicè_) "_mangka_, vel vulgo _Manga_ et _Mapelaam_." This last word is only the Tamil _Māpaḷam_, _i.e._ '_mān_ fruit' again. The close approximation of the Malay _mangka_ to the Portuguese form might suggest that the latter name was derived from Malacca. But we see _manga_ already used by Varthema, who, according to Garcia, never really went beyond Malabar. [Mr. Skeat writes: "The modern standard Malay word is _mangga_, from which the Port. form was probably taken. The other Malay form quoted from Rumphius is in standard Malay _mapĕlam_, with _mĕpĕlam_, _hĕmpĕlam_, _ampĕlam_, and _'pĕlam_ or _'plam_ as variants. The Javanese is _pĕlĕm_."]

The word has been taken to Madagascar, apparently by the Malayan colonists, whose language has left so large an impression there, in the precise shape _mangka_. Had the fruit been an Arab importation it is improbable that the name would have been introduced in that form.

The N. Indian names are _Ām_ and _Amba_, and variations of these we find in several of the older European writers. Thus Fr. Jordanus, who had been in the Konkan, and appreciated the progenitors of the Goa and Bombay Mango (c. 1328), calls the fruit _Aniba_. Some 30 years later John de' Marignolli calls the tree "_amburan_, having a fruit of excellent fragrance and flavour, somewhat like a peach" (_Cathay_, &c., ii. 362). Garcia de Orta shows how early the Bombay fruit was prized. He seems to have been the owner of the parent tree. The Skt. name is _Amra_, and this we find in Hwen T'sang (c. 645) phoneticised as _'An-mo-lo_.

The mango is probably the fruit alluded to by Theophrastus as having caused dysentery in the army of Alexander. (See the passage s.v. JACK).

c. 1328.—"Est etiam alia arbor quae fructus facit ad modum pruni, grosissimos, qui vocantur _Aniba_. Hi sunt fructus ita dulces et amabiles, quod ore tenus exprimi hoc minimè possit."—_Fr. Jordanus_, in _Rec. de Voyages_, &c., iv. 42.

c. 1334.—"The mango tree (_'anba_) resembles an orange-tree, but is larger and more leafy; no other tree gives so much shade, but this shade is unwholesome, and whoever sleeps under it gets fever."—_Ibn Batuta_, iii. 125. At ii. 185 he writes _'anbā_. [The same charge is made against the tamarind; see _Burton, Ar. Nights_, iii. 81.]

c. 1349.—"They have also another tree called _Amburan_, having a fruit of excellent fragrance and flavour, somewhat like a peach."—_John de' Marignolli_, in _Cathay_, &c., 362.

1510.—"Another fruit is also found here, which is called _Amba_, the stem of which is called MANGA," &c.—_Varthema_, 160-161.

c. 1526.—"Of the vegetable productions peculiar to Hindustân one is the mango (_ambeh_).... Such mangoes as are good are excellent...." &c.—_Baber_, 324.

1563.—"_O._ Boy! go and see what two vessels those are coming in—you see them from the varanda here—and they seem but small ones.

"_Servant._ I will bring you word presently.

* * * * *

"_S._ Sir! it is Simon Toscano, your tenant in Bombay, and he brings this hamper of MANGAS for you to make a present to the Governor, and says that when he has moored the boat he will come here to stop.

"_O._ He couldn't have come more à propos. I have a MANGA-tree (_mangueira_) in that island of mine which is remarkable for both its two crops, one at this time of year, the other at the end of May, and much as the other crop excels this in quality for fragrance and flavour, this is just as remarkable for coming out of season. But come, let us taste them before His Excellency. Boy! take out six MANGAS."—_Garcia_, ff. 134_v_, 135. This author also mentions that the MANGAS of Ormuz were the most celebrated; also certain MANGAS of Guzerat, not large, but of surpassing fragrance and flavour, and having a very small stone. Those of Balaghat were both excellent and big; the Doctor had seen two that weighed 4 _arratel_ and a half (4-1/5 lbs.); and those of Bengal, Pegu, and Malacca were also good.

[1569.—"There is much fruit that comes from Arabia and Persia, which they call mangoes (MANGAS), which is very good fruit."—_Cronica dos Reys Dormuz_, translated from the Arabic in 1569.]

c. 1590.—"The Mangoe (_Anba_).... This fruit is unrivalled in colour, smell, and taste; and some of the _gourmands_ of Túrán and Irán place it above musk melons and grapes.... If a half-ripe mango, together with its stalk to a length of about two fingers, be taken from the tree, and the broken end of its stalk be closed with warm wax, and kept in butter or honey, the fruit will retain its taste for two or three months."—_Āīn_, ed. _Blochmann_, i. 67-68.

[1614.—"Two jars of MANGES at rupees 4½."—_Foster, Letters_, iii. 41.

[1615.—"George Durois sent in a present of two pottes of MANGEAS."—_Cocks's Diary_, Hak. Soc. i. 79.]

" "There is another very licquorish fruit called AMANGUES growing on trees, and it is as bigge as a great quince, with a very great stone in it."—_De Monfart_, 20.

1622.—P. della Valle describes the tree and fruit at Miná (_Minao_) near Hormuz, under the name of _Amba_, as an exotic introduced from India. Afterwards at Goa he speaks of it as "MANGA or _amba_."—ii. pp. 313-14, and 581; [Hak. Soc. i. 40].

1631.—"Alibi vero commemorat MANGAE speciem fortis admodum odoris, Terebinthinam scilicet, et Piceae arboris lacrymam redolentes, quas propterea nostri _stinkers_ appellant."—_Piso_ on _Bontius, Hist. Nat._ p. 95.

[1663.—"_Ambas_, or MANGUES, are in season during two months in summer, and are plentiful and cheap; but those grown at Delhi are indifferent. The best come from _Bengale_, Golkonda, and Goa, and these are indeed excellent. I do not know any sweet-meat more agreeable."—_Bernier_, ed. _Constable_, 249.]

1673.—Of the Goa MANGO,[161] Fryer says justly: "When ripe, the Apples of the _Hesperides_ are but Fables to them; for Taste, the Nectarine, Peach, and Apricot fall short...."—p. 182.

1679.—"MANGO and SAIO (see SOY), two sorts of sauces brought from the East Indies."—_Locke's Journal_, in _Ld. King's Life_, 1830, i. 249.

1727.—"The _Goa_ MANGO is reckoned the largest and most delicious to the taste of any in the world, and I may add, the wholesomest and best tasted of any Fruit in the World."—_A. Hamilton_, i. 255, [ed. 1744, i. 258].

1883.—"... the unsophisticated ryot ... conceives that cultivation could only emasculate the pronounced flavour and firm fibrous texture of that prince of fruits, the wild MANGO, likest a ball of tow soaked in turpentine."—_Tribes on My Frontier_, 149.

The name has been carried with the fruit to Mauritius and the West Indies. Among many greater services to India the late Sir Proby Cautley diffused largely in Upper India the delicious fruit of the Bombay mango, previously rare there, by creating and encouraging groves of grafts on the banks of the Ganges and Jumna canals. It is especially true of this fruit (as Sultan Baber indicates) that excellence depends on the variety. The common mango is coarse and strong of turpentine. Of this only an evanescent suggestion remains to give peculiarity to the finer varieties. [A useful account of these varieties, by Mr. Maries, will be found in _Watt, Econ. Dict._ v. 148 _seqq._]

MANGO-BIRD, s. The popular Anglo-Indian name of the beautiful golden oriole (_Oriolus aureus_, Jerdon). Its "loud mellow whistle" from the mango-groves and other gardens, which it affects, is associated in Upper India with the invasion of the hot weather.

1878.—"The MANGO-BIRD glances through the groves, and in the early morning announces his beautiful but unwelcome presence with his merle melody."—_Ph. Robinson, In My Indian Garden_, 59.

MANGO-FISH, s. The familiar name of an excellent fish (_Polynemus Visua_ of Buchanan, _P. paradiseus_ of Day), in flavour somewhat resembling the smelt, but, according to Dr. Mason, nearly related to the mullets. It appears in the Calcutta market early in the hot season, and is much prized, especially when in roe. The Hindustani name is _tapsī_ or _tapassī_, 'an ascetic,' or 'penitent,' but we do not know the _rationale_ of the name. Buchanan says that it is owing to the long fibres (or free rays), proceeding from near the head, which lead the natives to associate it with penitents who are forbidden to shave. [Dr. Grierson writes: "What the connection of the fish with a hermit was I never could ascertain, unless it was that like wandering Fakīrs, they disappear directly the rains begin. Compare the _uposatha_ of the Buddhists." But _tapasya_ means 'produced by heat,' and is applied to the month Phāgun (Feb.-March) when the fish appears; and this may be the origin of the name.]

1781.—"The BOARD OF TRUSTIES Assemble on Tuesday at the New Tavern, where the Committee meet to eat MANGOE FISH for the benefit of the Subscribers and on other special affairs."—_Hickey's Bengal Gazette_, March 3.

[1820.—"... the MANGOE FISH (so named from its appearing during the mangoe season).... By the natives they are named the _Tapaswi_ (penitent) fish, (abbreviated by Europeans to _Tipsy_) from their resembling a class of religious penitents, who ought never to shave."—_Hamilton, Des. of Hindostan_, i. 58.]

MANGO-SHOWERS, s. Used in Madras for showers which fall in March and April, when the mangoes begin to ripen.

MANGO-TRICK. One of the most famous tricks of Indian jugglers, in which they plant a mango-stone, and show at brief intervals the tree shooting above ground, and successively producing leaves, flowers, and fruit. It has often been described, but the description given by the Emperor Jahāngīr in his _Autobiography_ certainly surpasses all in its demand on our belief.

c. 1610.—"... Khaun-e-Jehaun, one of the nobles present, observed that if they spoke truly he should wish them to produce for his conviction a mulberry-tree. The men arose without hesitation, and having in ten separate spots set some seed in the ground, they recited among themselves ... when instantly a plant was seen springing from each of the ten places, and each proved the tree required by Khaun-e-Jehaun. In the same manner they produced a mango, an apple-tree, a cypress, a pine-apple, a fig-tree, an almond, a walnut ... open to the observation of all present, the trees were perceived gradually and slowly springing from the earth, to the height of one or perhaps of two cubits.... Then making a sort of procession round the trees as they stood ... in a moment there appeared on the respective trees a sweet mango without the rind, an almond fresh and ripe, a large fig of the most delicious kind ... the fruit being pulled in my presence, and every one present was allowed to taste it. This, however, was not all; before the trees were removed there appeared among the foliage birds of such surpassing beauty, in colour and shape, and melody and song, as the world never saw before.... At the close of the operation, the foliage, as in autumn, was seen to put on its variegated tints, and the trees gradually disappeared into the earth...."—_Mem. of the Emp. Jehanguier_, tr. by _Major D. Price_, pp. 96-97.

c. 1650.—"Then they thrust a piece of stick into the ground, and ask'd the Company what Fruit they would have. One told them he would have _Mengues_; then one of the Mountebanks hiding himself in the middle of a Sheet, stoopt to the ground five or six times one after another. I was so curious to go upstairs, and look out of a window, to see if I could spy what the Mountebank did, and perceived that after he had cut himself under the armpits with a Razor, he rubb'd the stick with his Blood. After the two first times that he rais'd himself, the stick seemed to the very eye to grow. The third time there sprung out branches with young buds. The fourth time the tree was covered with leaves; and the fifth time it bore flowers.... The English Minister protested that he could not give his consent that any Christian should be Spectator of such delusions. So that as soon as he saw that these Mountebanks had of a dry stick, in less than half-an-hour, made a Tree four or five foot high, that bare leaves and flowers as in the Spring-time: he went about to break it, protesting that he would not give the Communion to any person that should stay any longer to see those things."—_Tavernier, Travels made English_, by J.P., ii. 36; [ed. _Ball_, i. 67, _seq._].

1667.—"When two of these _Jauguis_ (see JOGEE) that are eminent, do meet, and you stir them up on the point and power of their knowledge or _Jauguisme_, you shall see them do such tricks out of spight to one another, that I know not if _Simon Magus_ could have outdone them. For they divine what one thinketh, make the Branch of a Tree blossome and bear fruit in less than an hour, hatch eggs in their bosome in less than half a quarter of an hour, and bring forth such birds as you demand.... _I mean, if what is said of them is true_.... For, as for me, I am with all my curiosity none of those happy Men, that are present at, and see these great feats."—_Bernier_, E.T. 103; [ed. _Constable_, 321].

1673.—"Others presented a Mock-Creation of a Mango-Tree, arising from the Stone in a short space (which they did in Hugger-Mugger, being very careful to avoid being discovered) with Fruit Green and Ripe; so that a Man must stretch his Fancy, to imagine it Witchcraft; though the common Sort think no less."—_Fryer_, 192.

1690.—"Others are said to raise a Mango-Tree, with ripe Fruit upon its Branches, in the space of one or two Hours. To confirm which Relation, it was affirmed confidently to me, that a Gentleman who had pluckt one of these Mangoes, fell sick upon it, and was never well as long as he kept it 'till he consulted a _Bramin_ for his Health, who prescrib'd his only Remedy would be the restoring of the Mango, by which he was restor'd to his Health again."—_Ovington_, 258-259.

1726.—"They have some also who will show you the kernel of a mango-fruit, or may be only a twig, and ask if you will see the fruit or this stick planted, and in a short time see a tree grow from it and bear fruit: after they have got their answer the jugglers (_Koorde-danssers_) wrap themselves in a blanket, stick the twig into the ground, and then put a basket over them (&c. &c.).

"There are some who have prevailed on these jugglers by much money to let them see how they have accomplished this.

"These have revealed that the jugglers made a hole in their bodies under the armpits, and rubbed the twig with the blood from it, and every time that they stuck it in the ground they wetted it, and in this way they clearly saw it to grow and to come to the perfection before described.

"This is asserted by a certain writer who has seen it. But this can't move me to believe it!"—_Valentijn_, v. (_Chorom._) 53.

Our own experience does not go beyond Dr. Fryer's, and the hugger-mugger performance that he disparages. But many others have testified to more remarkable skill. We once heard a traveller of note relate with much spirit such an exhibition as witnessed in the Deccan. The narrator, then a young officer, determined with a comrade, at all hazards of fair play or foul, to solve the mystery. In the middle of the trick one suddenly seized the conjuror, whilst the other uncovered and snatched at the mango-plant. But lo! it came from the earth _with a root_, and the mystery was darker than ever! We tell the tale as it was told.

It would seem that the trick was not unknown in European conjuring of the 16th or 17th centuries, _e.g._

1657.—"... trium horarum spatio arbusculam veram spitamae longitudine e mensâ facere enasci, ut et alias arbores frondiferas et fructiferas."—_Magia Universalis_, of _P. Gaspar Schottus e Soc. Jes._, Herbipoli, 1657, i. 32.

MANGOSTEEN, s. From Malay _manggusta_ (Crawfurd), or _manggistan_ (Favre), in Javanese _Manggis_. [Mr. Skeat writes: "The modern standard Malay form used in the W. coast of the Peninsula is _manggis_, as in Javanese, the forms _manggusta_ and _manggistan_ never being heard there. The Siamese form _maangkhut_ given in M‘Farland's _Siamese Grammar_ is probably from the Malay _manggusta_. It was very interesting to me to find that some distinct trace of this word was still preserved in the name of this fruit at Patani-Kelantan on the E. coast, where it was called _bawah 'seta_ (or _'setar_), _i.e._ the '_setar_ fruit,' as well as occasionally _mestar_ or _mesetar_, clearly a corruption of some such old form as _manggistar_."] This delicious fruit is known throughout the Archipelago, and in Siam, by modifications of the same name; the delicious fruit of the _Garcinia Mangostana_ (Nat. Ord. _Guttiferae_). It is strictly a tropical fruit, and, in fact, near the coast does not bear fruit further north than lat. 14°. It is a native of the Malay Peninsula and the adjoining islands.

1563.—"_R._ They have bragged much to me of a fruit which they call MANGOSTANS; let us hear what you have to say of these.

"_O._ What I have heard of the MANGOSTAN is that 'tis one of the most delicious fruits that they have in these regions...."—_Garcia_, f. 151_v_.

1598.—"There are yet other fruites, as ... MANGOSTAINE [in Hak. Soc. MANGESTAINS] ... but because they are of small account I thinke it not requisite to write severallie of them."—_Linschoten_, 96; [Hak. Soc. ii. 34].

1631.—

"Cedant Hesperii longe hinc, mala aurea, fructus, Ambrosiâ pascit MANGOSTAN et nectare divos—— ... Inter omnes Indiae fructus longe sapidissimus." _Jac. Bontii_, lib. vi. cap. 28, p. 115.

1645.—"Il s'y trouue de plus vne espece de fruit propre du terroir de Malaque, qu'ils nomment MANGOSTANS."—_Cardim, Rel. de la Prov. de Japon_, 162.

[1662.—"The MANGOSTHAN is a Fruit growing by the Highwayes in _Java_, upon bushes, like our Sloes."—_Mandelslo_, tr. _Davies_, Bk. ii. 121 (_Stanf. Dict._).]

1727.—"The MANGOSTANE is a delicious Fruit, almost in the Shape of an Apple, the Skin is thick and red, being dried it is a good Astringent. The Kernels (if I may so call them) are like Cloves of Garlick, of a very agreeable Taste, but very cold."—_A. Hamilton_, ii. 80 [ed. 1744].

MANGROVE, s. The sea-loving genera _Rhizophora_ and _Avicennia_ derive this name, which applies to both, from some happy accident, but from which of two sources may be doubtful. For while the former genus is, according to Crawfurd, called by the Malays _manggi-manggi_, a term which he supposes to be the origin of the English name, we see from Oviedo that one or other was called _mangle_ in S. America, and in this, which is certainly the origin of the French _manglier_, we should be disposed also to seek the derivation of the English word. Both genera are universal in the tropical tidal estuaries of both Old World and New. Prof. Sayce, by an amusing slip, or oversight probably of somebody else's slip, quotes from Humboldt that "maize, _mangle_, hammock, canoe, tobacco, are all derived through the medium of the Spanish from the Haytian _mahiz_, mangle, _hamaca_, _canoa_, and _tabaco_." It is, of course, the French and not the English _mangle_ that is here in question. [Mr. Skeat observes: "I believe the old English as well as French form was _mangle_, in which case Prof. Sayce would be perfectly right. Mangrove is probably _mangle-grove_. The Malay _manggi-manggi_ is given by Klinkert, and is certainly on account of the reduplication, native. But I never heard it in the Peninsula, where _mangrove_ is always called _bakau_."] The mangrove abounds on nearly all the coasts of further India, and also on the sea margin of the Ganges Delta, in the backwaters of S. Malabar, and less luxuriantly on the Indus mouths.

1535.—"Of the Tree called MANGLE.... These trees grow in places of mire, and on the shores of the sea, and of the rivers, and streams, and torrents that run into the sea. They are trees very strange to see ... they grow together in vast numbers, and many of their branches seem to turn down and change into roots ... and these plant themselves in the ground like stems, so that the tree looks as if it had many legs joining one to the other."—_Oviedo_, in _Ramusio_, iii. f. 145_v_.

" "So coming to the coast, embarked in a great Canoa with some 30 Indians, and 5 Christians, whom he took with him, and coasted along amid solitary places and islets, passing sometimes into the sea itself for 4 or 5 leagues,—among certain trees, lofty, dense and green, which grow in the very sea-water, and which they call MANGLE."—_Ibid._ f. 224.

1553.—"... by advice of a Moorish pilot, who promised to take the people by night to a place where water could be got ... and either because the Moor desired to land many times on the shore by which he was conducting them, seeking to get away from the hands of those whom he was conducting, or because he was really perplext by its being night, and in the middle of a great growth of _mangrove_ (MANGUES) he never succeeded in finding the wells of which he spoke."—_Barros_, I. iv. 4.

c. 1830.—"'Smite my timbers, do the trees bear shellfish?' The tide in the Gulf of Mexico does not ebb and flow above two feet except in the springs, and the ends of the drooping branches of the MANGROVE trees that here cover the shore, are clustered, within the wash of the water, with a small well-flavoured oyster."—_Tom Cringle_, ed. 1863, 119.

MANILLA-MAN, s. This term is applied to natives of the Philippines, who are often employed on shipboard, and especially furnish the quartermasters (SEACUNNY, q.v.) in Lascar crews on the China voyage. But _Manilla-man_ seems also, from Wilson, to be used in S. India as a hybrid from Telug. _manelā vādu_, 'an itinerant dealer in coral and gems'; perhaps in this sense, as he says, from Skt. _maṇi_, 'a jewel,' but with some blending also of the Port. _manilha_, 'a bracelet.' (Compare COBRA-MANILLA.)

MANJEE, s. The master, or steersman, of a boat or any native river-craft; Hind. _mānjhī_, Beng. _mājī_ and _mājhī_, [all from Skt. _madhya_, 'one who stands in the middle']. The word is also a title borne by the head men among the Pahāris or Hill-people of Rājmahal (_Wilson_), [and as equivalent for _Majhwār_, the name of an important Dravidian tribe on the borders of the N.W. Provinces and Chota Nāgpur].

1683.—"We were forced to track our boat till 4 in the Afternoon, when we saw a great black cloud arise out of ye North with much lightning and thunder, which made our MANGEE or Steerman advise us to fasten our boat in some Creeke."—_Hedges, Diary_, Hak. Soc. i. 88.

[1706.—"MANJEE." See under HARRY.]

1781.—"This is to give notice that the principal Gaut MANGIES of Calcutta have entered into engagements at the Police Office to supply all Persons that apply there with Boats and _Budgerows_, and to give security for the _Dandies_."—_India Gazette_, Feb. 17.

1784.—"Mr. Austin and his head bearer, who were both in the room of the budgerow, are the only persons known to be drowned. The MANJEE and dandees have not appeared."—In _Seton-Karr_, i. 25.

1810.—"Their MANJIES will not fail to take every advantage of whatever distress, or difficulty, the passenger may labour under."—_Williamson, V. M._ i. 148.

For the Pahari use, see _Long's Selections_, p. 561.

[1864.—"The Khond chiefs of villages and Mootas are termed MAJI instead of Mulliko as in Goomsur, or Khonro as in Boad...."—_Campbell, Wild Tribes of Khondistan_, 120.]

MANNICKJORE, s. Hind. _mānikjoṛ_; the white-necked stork (_Ciconia leucocephala_, Gmelin); sometimes, according to Jerdon, called in Bengal the 'Beef-steak bird,' because palatable when cooked in that fashion. "The name of _Manikjor_ means the companion of Manik, a Saint, and some Mussulmans in consequence abstain from eating it" (_Jerdon_). [Platts derives it from _mānik_, 'a ruby.']

[1840.—"I reached the jheel, and found it to contain many MANICKCHORS, ibis, paddy birds, &c...."—_Davidson, Travels in Upper India_, ii. 165.]

MANUCODIATA. (See BIRD OF PARADISE.)

MARAMUT, MURRUMUT, s. Hind. from Ar. _maramma(t)_, 'repair.' In this sense the use is general in Hindustani (in which the terminal _t_ is always pronounced, though not by the Arabs), whether as applied to a stocking, a fortress, or a ship. But in Madras Presidency the word had formerly a very specialised sense as the recognised title of that branch of the Executive which included the conservation of irrigation tanks and the like, and which was worked under the District Civil Officers, there being then no separate department of the State in charge of Civil Public Works. It is a curious illustration of the wide spread at one time of Musulman power that the same Arabic word, in the form MARAMA, is still applied in Sicily to a standing committee charged with repairs to the Duomo or Cathedral of Palermo. An analogous instance of the wide grasp of the Saracenic power is mentioned by one of the Musulman authors whom Amari quotes in his History of the Mahommedan rule in Sicily. It is that the Caliph Al-Māmūn, under whom conquest was advancing in India and in Sicily simultaneously, ordered that the idols taken from the infidels in India should be sent for sale to the infidels in Sicily!

[1757.—"On the 6th the Major (Eyre Coote) left _Muxadabad_ with ... 10 MARMUTTY men, or pioneers to clear the road."—_Ives_, 156.

[1873.—"For the actual execution of works there was a MARAMAT Department constituted under the Collector."—_Boswell, Man. of Nellore_, 642.]

MARGOSA, s. A name in the S. of India and Ceylon for the _Nīm_ (see NEEM) tree. The word is a corruption of Port. _amargosa_, 'bitter,' indicating the character of the tree. This gives rise to an old Indian proverb, traceable as far back as the _Jātakas_, that you cannot sweeten the _nīm_ tree though you water it with syrup and ghee (_Naturam expellas furcâ_, &c.).

1727.—"The wealth of an evil man shall another evil man take from him, just as the crows come and eat the fruit of the MARGOISE tree as soon as it is ripe."—Apophthegms translated in _Valentijn_, v. (Ceylon) 390.

1782.—"... ils lavent le malade avec de l'eau froide, ensuite ils le frottent rudement avec de la feuille de MARGOSIER."—_Sonnerat_, i. 208.

1834.—"Adjacent to the Church stand a number of tamarind and MARGOSA trees."—_Chitty, Ceylon Gazetteer_, 183.

MARKHORE, s. Pers. _mār-khōr_, 'snake-eater.' A fine wild goat of the Western Himālaya; _Capra megaceros_, Hutton.

[1851.—"Hence the people of the country call it the MARKHOR (eater of serpents)."—_Edwardes, A Year on the Punjab Frontier_, i. 474.

[1895.—"Never more would he chase the ibex and MAKOR."—_Mrs. Croker, Village Tales_, 112.]

MARTABAN, n.p. This is the conventional name, long used by all the trading nations, Asiatic and European, for a port on the east of the Irawadi Delta and of the Sitang estuary, formerly of great trade, but now in comparative decay. The original name is Talaing, _Mūt-ta-man_, the meaning of which we have been unable to ascertain.

1514.—"... passed then before MARTAMAN, the people also heathens; men expert in everything, and first-rate merchants; great masters of accounts, and in fact the greatest in the world. They keep their accounts in books like us. In the said country is great produce of lac, cloths, and provisions."—_Letter of Giov. da Empoli_, p. 80.

1545.—"At the end of these two days the King ... caused the Captains that were at the Guard of the Gates to leave them and retire; whereupon the miserable City of MARTABANO was delivered to the mercy of the Souldiers ... and therein showed themselves so cruel-minded, that the thing they made least reckoning of was to kill 100 men for a crown."—_Pinto_, in _Cogan_, 203.

1553.—"And the towns which stand outside this gulf of the Isles of Pegu (of which we have spoken) and are placed along the coast of that country, are Vagara, MARTABAN, a city notable in the great trade that it enjoys, and further on Rey, Talaga, and Tavay."—_Barros_, I. ix. 1.

1568.—"Trouassimo nella città di MARTAUAN intorno a nouanta Portoghesi, tra mercadanti e huomini vagabondi, li quali stauano in gran differenza co' Rettorì della città."—_Ces. Federici_, in _Ramusio_, iii. 393.

1586.—"The city of MARTABAN hath its front to the south-east, south, and south-west, and stands on a river which there enters the sea ... it is a city of Mauparagia, a Prince of the King of Pegu's."—_Gasparo Balbi_, f. 129_v_, 130_v_.

1680.—"That the English may settle ffactorys at Serian, Pegu, and Ava ... and alsoe that they may settle a ffactory in like manner at MORTAVAN...."—_Articles to be proposed to the King of Barma and Pegu_ in _Notes and Exts._, No. iii. p. 8.

1695.—"Concerning _Bartholomew Rodrigues_.... I am informed and do believe he put into MORTAVAN for want of _wood_ and _water_, and was there seized by the _King's officers_, because not bound to that Place."—_Governor Higginson_, in _Dalrymple, Or. Repert._ ii. 342-3.

MARTABAN, s. This name was given to vessels of a peculiar pottery, of very large size, and glazed, which were famous all over the East for many centuries, and were exported from Martaban. They were sometimes called _Pegu jars_, and under that name specimens were shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851. We have not been able to obtain recent information on the subject of this manufacture. The word appears to be now obsolete in India, except as a colloquial term in Telegu. [The word is certainly not obsolete in Upper India: "The '_martaban_' (Plate ii. fig. 10) is a small deep jar with an elongated body, which is used by Hindus and Muhammadans to keep pickles and acid articles" (_Hallifax, Mono. of Punjab Pottery_, p. 9). In the endeavour to supply a Hindi derivation it has been derived from _imrita-bān_, 'the holder of the water of immortality.' In the _Arabian Nights_ the word appears in the form _bartaman_, and is used for a crock in which gold is buried. (_Burton_, xi. 26). Mr. Bell saw some large earthenware jars at Malé, some about 2 feet high, called _rumba_; others larger and barrel-shaped, called MĀTABĀN. (_Pyrard_, Hak. Soc. i. 259.) For the modern manufacture, see _Scott, Gazetteer of Upper Burma_, 1900, Pt. i. vol. ii. 399 _seq._]

c. 1350.—"Then the Princess made me a present consisting of dresses, of two elephant-loads of rice, of two she-buffaloes, ten sheep, four _rotls_ of cordial syrup, and four MARTABĀNS, or huge jars, filled with pepper, citron, and mango, all prepared with salt, as for a sea-voyage."—_Ibn Batuta_, iv. 253.

(?).—"Un grand bassin de MARTABANI."—1001 _Jours_, ed. Paris 1826, ii. 19. We do not know the date of these stories. The French translator has a note explaining "porcelaine verte."

1508.—"The lac (_lacre_) which your Highness desired me to send, it will be a piece of good luck to get, because these ships depart early, and the vessels from Pegu and MARTABAN come late. But I hope for a good quantity of it, as I have given orders for it."—_Letter_ from the Viceroy _Dom Francisco Almeida_ to the King. In _Correa_, i. 900.

1516.—"In this town of MARTABAN are made very large and beautiful porcelain vases, and some of glazed earthenware of a black colour, which are highly valued among the Moors, and they export them as merchandize."—_Barbosa_, 185.

1598.—"In this towne many of the great earthen pots are made, which in India are called MARTAUANAS, and many of them carryed throughout all India, of all sortes both small and great; some are so great that they will hold full two pipes of water. The cause why so many are brought into India is for that they vse them in every house, and in their shippes insteede of caskes."—_Linschoten_, p. 30; [Hak. Soc. i. 101; see also i. 28, 268].

c. 1610.—"... des iarres les plus belles, les mieux vernis et les mieux façonnées que j'aye veu ailleurs. Il y en a qui tiennent autant qu'vne pippe et plus. Elles se font au Royaume de MARTABANE, d'ou on les apporte, et d'où elles prennent leur nom par toute l'Inde."—_Pyrard de Laval_, i. 179; [Hak. Soc. i. 259].

1615.—"Vasa figulina quae vulgo MARTABANIA dicuntur per Indiam nota sunt.... Per Orientem omnem, quin et Lusitaniam, horum est usus."—_Jarric, Thesaurus Rer. Indic._ pt. ii. 389.

1673.—"Je vis un vase d'une certaine terre verte qui vient des Indes, dont les Turcs ... font un grand estime, et qu'ils acheptent bien cher à cause de la propriété qu'elle a de se rompre à la présence du poison.... Ceste terre se nomme MERDEBANI."—_Journal d' Ant. Galland_, ii. 110.

1673.—"... to that end offer Rice, Oyl, and Cocoe-Nuts in a thick Grove, where they piled an huge Heap of long Jars like MORTIVANS."—_Fryer_, 180.

1688.—"They took it out of the cask, and put it into earthen Jars that held about eight Barrels apiece. These they call MONTABAN Jars, from a town of that name in Pegu, whence they are brought, and carried all over India."—_Dampier_, ii. 98.

c. 1690.—"Sunt autem haec vastissimae ac turgidae ollae in regionibus MARTAVANA et Siama confectae, quae per totam transferuntur Indiam ad varios liquores conservandos."—_Rumphius_, i. ch. iii.

1711.—"... _Pegu_, _Quedah_, _Jahore_ and all their own Coasts, whence they are plentifully supply'd with several Necessarys, they otherwise must want; As Ivory, Beeswax, MORTIVAN and small Jars, Pepper, &c."—_Lockyer_, 35.

1726.—"... and the MARTAVAANS containing the water to drink, when empty require two persons to carry them."—_Valentijn_, v. 254.

" "The goods exported hitherward (from Pegu) are ... glazed pots (called MARTAVANS after the district where they properly belong), both large and little."—_Ibid._ v. 128.

1727.—"MARTAVAN was one of the most flourishing Towns for Trade in the East.... They make earthen Ware there still, and glaze them with Lead-oar. I have seen some Jars made there that could contain two Hogsheads of Liquor."—_A. Hamilton_, i. 63, [ed. 1744, ii. 62].

1740.—"The Pay Master is likewise ordered ... to look out for all the PEGU JARS in Town, or other vessels proper for keeping water."—In _Wheeler_, iii. 194.

Such jars were apparently imitated in other countries, but kept the original name. Thus Baillie Fraser says that "certain jars called MARTABAN were manufactured in Oman."—_Journey into Khorasan_, 18.

1851.—"Assortment of PEGU JARS as used in the Honourable Company's Dispensary at Calcutta."

"Two large PEGU JARS from Moulmein."—_Official Catal._ Exhibition of 1851, ii. 921.

MARTIL, MARTOL, s. A hammer. Hind. _mārtol_, from Port. _martello_, but assisted by imaginary connection with Hind. _mār-nā_, 'to strike.'

MARTINGALE, s. This is no specially Anglo-Indian word; our excuse for introducing it is the belief that it is of Arabic origin. Popular assumption, we believe, derives the name from a mythical Colonel Martingale. But the word seems to come to us from the French, in which language, besides the English use, Littré gives _chauses à la martingale_ as meaning "culottes dont le pont était placé par derriere," and this he strangely declares to be the true and original meaning of the word. His etymology, after Ménage, is from _Martigues_ in Provence, where, it is alleged, breeches of this kind were worn. Skeat seems to accept these explanations. [But see his _Concise Dict._, where he inclines to the view given in this article, and adds: "I find Arab. _rataka_ given by Richardson as a verbal root, whence _ratak_, going with a short quick step."] But there is a Span. word _al-martaga_, for a kind of bridle, which Urrea quoted by Dozy derives from verb Arab. _rataka_, "qui, à la IVe forme signifie 'effecit ut brevibus assibus incederet.'" This is precisely the effect of a martingale. And we venture to say that probably the word bore its English meaning originally also in French and Spanish, and came from Arabic direct into the latter tongue. Dozy himself, we should add, is inclined to derive the Span. word from _al-mirta'a_, 'a halter.'

MARWÁREE, n.p. and s. This word _Mārwāṛī_, properly a man of the Mārwār [Skt. _maru_, 'desert'], or Jodhpur country in Rājputāna, is used in many parts of India as synonymous with Banya (see BANYAN) or SOWCAR, from the fact that many of the traders and money-lenders have come originally from Mārwār, most frequently Jains in religion. Compare the Lombard of medieval England, and the _caorsino_ of Dante's time.

[1819.—"Miseries seem to follow the footsteps of the MARWAREES."—_Tr. Lit. Soc. Bo._ i. 297.

[1826.—"One of my master's under-shopmen, Sewchund, a MARWARRY."—_Pandurang Hari_, ed. 1873, i. 233.]

MARYACAR, n.p. According to R. Drummond and a MS. note on the India Library copy of his book R. Catholics in Malabar were so called. _Marya Karar_, or 'Mary's People.' [The word appears to be really _marakkar_, of which two explanations are given. Logan (_Malabar_, i. 332 note) says that _Marakkar_ means 'doer or follower of the Law' (_marggam_), and is applied to a foreign religion, like that of Christians and Mohammedans. The _Madras Gloss._ (iii. 474) derives it from Mal. _marakkalam_, 'boat,' and _kar_, a termination showing possession, and defines it as a "titular appellation of the MOPLAH Mahommedans on the S.W. coast."]

MASCABAR, s. This is given by C. P. Brown (MS. notes) as an Indo-Portuguese word for 'the last day of the month,' quoting _Calcutta Review_, viii. 345. He suggests as its etymon Hind. _mās-ke-ba'ad_, 'after a month.' [In N. Indian public offices the _māskabār_ is well known as the monthly statement of cases decided during the month. It has been suggested that it represents the Port. _mes-acabar_, 'end of the month'; but according to Platts, it is more probably a corruption of Hind. _māsik-wār_ or _mās-kā-wār_.]

MASH, s. Hind. _māsh_, [Skt. _māsha_, 'a bean']; _Phaseolus radiatus_, Roxb. One of the common Hindu pulses. [See MOONG.]

MASKEE. This is a term in Chinese "pigeon," meaning 'never mind,' '_n'importe_,' which is constantly in the mouths of Europeans in China. It is supposed that it may be the corruption or ellipsis of a Portuguese expression, but nothing satisfactory has been suggested. [Mr. Skeat writes: "Surely this is simply Port. _mas que_, probably imported direct through Macao, in the sense of 'although, even, in spite of,' like French _malgre_. And this seems to be its meaning in 'pigeon':

"That nightey tim begin chop-chop, One young man walkee—no can stop. MASKEE snow, MASKEE ice! He cally flag with chop so nice— Topside Galow! '_Excelsior_,' in 'pigeon.'"]

MASULIPATAM, n.p. This coast town of the Madras Presidency is sometimes vulgarly called _Machhli-patan_ or _Machhli-bandar_, or simply _Bandar_ (see BUNDER, 2); and its name explained (Hind. _machhlī_, 'fish') as Fish-town, [the _Madras Gloss._ says from an old tradition of a whale being stranded on the shore.] The etymology may originally have had such a connection, but there can be no doubt that the name is a trace of the Μαισωλία and Μαισώλου ποταμοῦ ἐκβολαὶ which we find in Ptolemy's Tables; and of the Μασαλία producing muslins, in the _Periplus_. [In one of the old Logs the name is transformed into _Mesopotamia_ (_J. R. As. Soc._, Jan. 1900, p. 158). In a letter of 1605-6 it appears as _Mesepatamya_ (_Birdwood, First Letter Book_, 73).

[1613.—"Concerning the Darling was departed for MOSSAPOTAM."—_Foster, Letters_, ii. 14.

[1615.—"Only here are no returns of any large sum to be employed, unless a factory at MESSEPOTAN."—_Ibid._ iv. 5.]

1619.—"Master Methwold came from MISSULAPATAM in one of the country Boats."—_Pring_, in _Purchas_, i. 638.

[1623.—"MISLIPATAN." _P. della Valle_, Hak. Soc. i. 148.

[c. 1661.—"It was reported, at one time, that he was arrived at MASSIPATAM...."—_Bernier_, ed. _Constable_, 112.]

c. 1681.—"The road between had been covered with brocade velvet, and MACHLIBENDER chintz."—_Seir Mutaqherin_, iii. 370.

1684.—"These sort of Women are so nimble and active that when the present king went to see MASLIPATAN, nine of them undertook to represent the figure of an Elephant; four making the four feet, four the body, and one the trunk; upon which the King, sitting in a kind of Throne, made his entry into the City."—_Tavernier_, E.T. ii. 65; [ed. _Ball_, i. 158].

1789.—"MASULIPATAM, which last word, by the bye, ought to be written MACHLIPATAN (Fish-town), because of a Whale that happened to be stranded there 150 years ago."—Note on _Seir Mutaqherin_, iii. 370.

c. 1790.—"... cloths of great value ... from the countries of Bengal, Bunaras, China, Kashmeer, Boorhanpoor, MUTCHLIPUTTUN, &c."—_Meer Hussein Ali, H. of Hydur Na'ik_, 383.

MATE, MATY, s. An assistant under a head servant; in which sense or something near it, but also sometimes in the sense of a 'head-man,' the word is in use almost all over India. In the Bengal Presidency we have a _mate-bearer_ for the assistant body-servant (see BEARER); the _mate_ attendant on an elephant under the mahout; a _mate_ (head) of COOLIES or JOMPONNIES (qq.v.) (see JOMPON), &c. And in Madras the _maty_ is an under-servant, whose business it is to clean crockery, knives, &c., to attend to lamps, and so forth.

The origin of the word is obscure, if indeed it has not more than one origin. Some have supposed it to be taken from the English word in the sense of comrade, &c.; whilst Wilson gives _meṭṭi_ as a distinct Malayālam word for an inferior domestic servant, [which the _Madras Gloss._ derives from Tamil _mel_, 'high']. The last word is of very doubtful genuineness. Neither derivation will explain the fact that the word occurs in the _Āīn_, in which the three classes of attendants on an elephant in Akbar's establishment are styled respectively _Mahāwat_, _Bhoī_, and _Meth_; two of which terms would, under other circumstances, probably be regarded as corruptions of English words. This use of the word we find in Skt. dictionaries as _meṭha_, _meṇṭha_, and _meṇḍa_, 'an elephant-keeper or feeder.' But for the more general use we would query whether it may not be a genuine Prakrit form from Skt. _mitra_, 'associate, friend'? We have in Pali _metta_, 'friendship,' from Skt. _maitra_.

c. 1590.—"A MET'H fetches fodder and assists in caparisoning the elephant. MET'HS of all classes get on the march 4 _dáms_ daily, and at other times 3½."—_Āīn_, ed. _Blochmann_, i. 125.

1810.—"In some families MATES or assistants are allowed, who do the drudgery."—_Williamson, V. M._ i. 241.

1837.—"One MATEE."—See _Letters from Madras_, 106.

1872.—"At last the morning of our departure came. A crowd of porters stood without the veranda, chattering and squabbling, and the MATE distributed the boxes and bundles among them."—_A True Reformer_, ch. vi.

1873.—"To procure this latter supply (of green food) is the daily duty of one of the attendants, who in Indian phraseology is termed a MATE, the title of Mahout being reserved for the head keeper" (of an elephant).—_Sat. Rev._ Sept. 6, 302.

MATRANEE, s. Properly Hind. from Pers. _mihtarānī_; a female sweeper (see MEHTAR). [In the following extract the writer seems to mean _Bhaṭhiyāran_ or _Bhaṭhiyārin_, the wife of a _Bhaṭhiyāra_ or inn-keeper.

[1785.—"... a handsome serai ... where a number of people, chiefly women, called METRAHNEES, take up their abode to attend strangers on their arrival in the city."—_Diary_, in _Forbes, Or. Mem._ 2nd ed. ii. 404.]

MATROSS, s. An inferior class of soldier in the Artillery. The word is quite obsolete, and is introduced here because it seems to have survived a good deal longer in India than in England, and occurs frequently in old Indian narratives. It is Germ. _matrose_, Dutch _matroos_, 'a sailor,' identical no doubt with Fr. _matelot_. The origin is so obscure that it seems hardly worth while to quote the conjectures regarding it. In the establishment of a company of Royal Artillery in 1771, as given in Duncan's Hist. of that corps, we have besides sergeants and corporals, "4 Bombardiers, 8 Gunners, 34 _Matrosses_, and 2 Drummers." A definition of the Matross is given in our 3rd quotation. We have not ascertained when the term was disused in the R.A. It appears in the Establishment as given by Grose in 1801 (_Military Antiq._ i. 315). As far as Major Duncan's book informs us, it appears first in 1639, and has disappeared by 1793, when we find the men of an artillery force divided (excluding sergeants, corporals, and bombardiers) into First Gunners, _Second Gunners_, and Military Drivers.

1673.—"There being in pay for the Honourable East India Company of English and Portuguese, 700, reckoning the MONTROSSES and Gunners."—_Fryer_, 38.

1745.—"... We were told with regard to the Fortifications, that no Expense should be grudged that was necessary for the Defence of the Settlement, and in 1741, a Person was sent out in the character of an Engineer for our Place; but ... he lived not to come among us; and therefore, we could only judge of his Merit and Qualifications by the Value of his Stipend, Six Pagodas a Month, or about Eighteen Pence a Day, scarce the Pay of a common MATROSS...."—Letter from _Mr. Barnett_ to the _Secret Committee_, in _Letter to a Proprietor of the E.I. Co._, p. 45.

1757.—"I have with me one Gunner, one MATROSS, and two Lascars."—Letter in _Dalrymple, Or. Repert._ i. 203.

1779.—"MATROSSES are properly apprentices to the gunner, being soldiers in the royal regiment of artillery, and next to them; they assist in loading, firing, and spunging the great guns. They carry firelocks, and march along with the guns and store-waggons, both as a guard, and to give their assistance in every emergency."—_Capt. G. Smith's Universal Military Dictionary._

1792.—"Wednesday evening, the 25th inst., a MATROSS of Artillery deserted from the Mount, and took away with him his firelock, and nine rounds of powder and ball."—_Madras Courier_, Feb. 2.

[1800.—"A serjeant and two MATROSSES employed under a general committee on the captured military stores in Seringapatam."—_Wellington Suppl. Desp._ ii. 32 (_Stanf. Dict._).]

MATT, s. Touch (of gold). Tamil _mā_RR_u_ (pron. _māṭṭu_), perhaps from Skt. _mātra_, 'measure.' Very pure gold is said to be 9 _mā_RR_u_, inferior gold of 5 or 6 _mā_RR_u_.

[1615.—"Tecalls the MATTE Janggamay 8 is Sciam 7½."—_Foster, Letters_, iii. 156.

[1680.—"MATT." See under BATTA.]

1693.—"Gold, purified from all other metals ... by us is reckoned as of four-and-Twenty _Carats_, but by the blacks is here divided and reckoned as of ten MAT."—_Havart_, 106.

1727.—At Mocha ... "the Coffee Trade brings in a continual Supply of Silver and Gold ... from _Turkey_, Ebramies and Mograbis, Gold of low MATT."—_A. Hamilton_, i. 43, [ed. 1744].

1752.—"... to find the Value of the Touch in Fanams, multiply the MATT by 10, and then by 8, which gives it in Fanams."—_T. Brooks_, 25.

The same word was used in Japan for a measure, sometimes called a fathom.

[1614.—"The MATT which is about two yards."—_Foster, Letters_, ii. 3.]

MAUMLET, s. Domestic Hind. _māmlat_, for 'omelet'; [_Māmlēt_ is 'marmalade'].

MAUND, s. The authorised Anglo-Indian form of the name of a weight (Hind. _man_, Mahr. _maṇ_), which, with varying values, has been current over Western Asia from time immemorial. Professor Sayce traces it (_mana_) back to the Accadian language.[162] But in any case it was the Babylonian name for 1/80 of a talent, whence it passed, with the Babylonian weights and measures, almost all over the ancient world. Compare the _men_ or _mna_ of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions, preserved in the _emna_ or _amna_ of the Copts, the Hebrew _māneh_, the Greek μνᾶ, and the Roman _mina_. The introduction of the word into India may have occurred during the extensive commerce of the Arabs with that country during the 8th and 9th centuries; possibly at an earlier date. Through the Arabs also we find an old Spanish word _almena_, and in old French _almène_, for a weight of about 20 lbs. (_Marcel Devic_).

The quotations will show how the Portuguese converted _man_ into _mão_, of which the English made _maune_, and so (probably by the influence of the old English word _maund_)[163] our present form, which occurs as early as 1611. Some of the older travellers, like Linschoten, misled by the Portuguese _mão_, identified it with the word for 'hand' in that language, and so rendered it.

The values of the _man_ as weight, even in modern times, have varied immensely, _i.e._ from little more than 2 _lbs._ to upwards of 160. The 'Indian Maund,' which is the standard of weight in British India, is of 40 _sers_, each _ser_ being divided into 16 _chhiṭāks_; and this is the general scale of sub-division in the local weights of Bengal, and Upper and Central India, though the value of the _ser_ varies. That of the standard _ser_ is 80 TOLAS (q.v.) or rupee-weights, and thus the _maund_ = 82-2/7 _lbs._ avoirdupois. The Bombay maund (or _man_) of 48 _sers_ = 28 _lbs._; the Madras one of 40 _sers_ = 25 _lbs._ The Palloda _man_ of Aḥmadnagar contained 64 _sers_, and was = 163¼ _lbs._ This is the largest _man_ we find in the '_Useful Tables_.' The smallest Indian _man_ again is that of Colachy in Travancore, and that = 18 _lbs._ 12 _oz._ 13 _dr._ The Persian _Tabrīzī man_ is, however, a little less than 7 _lbs._; the _man shāhī_ twice that; the smallest of all on the list named is the Jeddah _man_ = 2 _lbs._ 3 _oz._ 9¾ _dr._

B.C. 692.—In the "Eponymy of Zazai," a house in Nineveh, with its shrubbery and gates, is sold for one MANEH of silver according to the royal standard. Quoted by _Sayce_, u.s.

B.C. 667.—We find Nergal-sarra-nacir lending "four MANEHS of silver, according to the MANEH of Carchemish."—_Ibid._

c. B.C. 524.—"Cambyses received the Libyan presents very graciously, but not so the gifts of the Cyrenaeans. They had sent no more than 500 MINAE of silver, which Cambyses, I imagine, thought too little. He therefore snatched the money from them, and with his own hand scattered it among the soldiers."—_Herodot._ iii. ch. 13 (E.T. by _Rawlinson_).

c. A.D. 70.—"Et quoniam in mensuris quoque ac ponderibus crebro Graecis nominibus utendum est, interpretationem eorum semel in hoc loco ponemus: ... MNA, quam nostri MINAM vocant pendet drachmas Atticas c."—_Pliny_, xxi., at end.

c. 1020.—"The gold and silver ingots amounted to 700,400 MANS in weight."—_Al 'Utbi_, in _Elliot_, ii. 35.

1040.—"The Amír said:—'Let us keep fair measure, and fill the cups evenly.'... Each goblet contained half a MAN."—_Baihaki_, _ibid._ ii. 144.

c. 1343.—

"The MENA of Sarai makes in Genoa weight lb. 6 oz. 2 The MENA of Organci (_Urghanj_) in Genoa lb. 3 oz. 9 The MENA of Oltrarre (_Otrār_) in Genoa lb. 3 oz. 9 The MENA of Armalecho (_Al-maligh_) in Genoa lb. 2 oz. 8 The MENA of Camexu (_Kancheu_ in N.W. China) lb. 2" _Pegolotti_, 4.

1563.—"The value of stones is only because people desire to have them, and because they are scarce, but as for virtues, those of the loadstone, which staunches blood, are very much greater and better attested than those of the emerald. And yet the former sells by MAOS, which are in Cambay ... equal to 26 _arratels_ each, and the latter by _ratis_, which weigh 3 grains of wheat."—_Garcia_, f. 159_v_.

1598.—"They have another weight called MAO, which is a Hand, and is 12 pounds."—_Linschoten_, 69; [Hak. Soc. i. 245].

1610.—"He was found ... to have sixtie MAUNES in Gold, and euery MAUNE is five and fiftie pound weight."—_Hawkins_, in _Purchas_, i. 218.

1611.—"Each MAUND being three and thirtie pound English weight."—_Middleton_, _ibid._ i. 270.

[1645.—"As for the weights, the ordinary MAND is 69 _livres_, and the _livre_ is of 16 _onces_; but the MAND, which is used to weigh indigo, is only 53 _livres_. At Surat you speak of a _seer_, which is 1¾ _livres_, and the _livre_ is 16 _onces_."—_Tavernier_, ed. _Ball_, i. 38.]

c. 1665.—"Le MAN pese quarante livres par toutes les Indes, mais ces livres ou _serres_ sont differentes selon les Pais."—_Thevenot_, v. 54.

1673.—"A _Lumbrico_ (Sconce) of pure Gold, weighing about one MAUND and a quarter, which is Forty-two pounds."—_Fryer_, 78.

"

"The Surat MAUND ... is 40 _Sear_, of 20 _Pice_ the _Sear_, which is 37_l._ The Pucka MAUND at _Agra_ is double as much, where is also the Ecbarry MAUND which is 40 _Sear_, of 30 _Pice_ to the _Sear_...." _Ibid._ 205.

1683.—"Agreed with Chittur Mullsaw and Muttradas, Merchants of this place (Hugly), for 1,500 Bales of ye best Tissinda Sugar, each bale to weigh 2 MAUNDS, 6½ _Seers_, Factory weight."—_Hedges, Diary_, April 5; [Hak. Soc. i. 75].

1711.—"Sugar, Coffee, Tutanague, all sorts of Drugs, &c., are sold by the MAUND Tabrees; which in the Factory and Custom house is nearest 6¾_l._ _Avoirdupoiz_.... Eatables, and all sorts of Fruit ... &c. are sold by the MAUND _Copara_ of 7¾_l._... The MAUND Shaw is two MAUNDS _Tabrees_, used at Ispahan."—_Lockyer_, 230.

c. 1760.—Grose says, "the MAUND they weigh their indicos with is only 53 _lb._" He states the _maund_ of Upper India as 69 _lb._; at Bombay, 28 _lb._; at Goa, 14 _lb._; at Surat, 37½ _lb._; at Coromandel, 25 _lb._; in Bengal, 75 _lb._

1854.—"... You only consent to make play when you have packed a good MAUND of traps on your back."—_Life of Lord Lawrence_, i. 433.

MAYLA, s. Hind. _melā_, 'a fair,' almost always connected with some religious celebration, as were so many of the medieval fairs in Europe. The word is Skt. _mela_, _melaka_, 'meeting, concourse, assembly.'

[1832.—"A party of foreigners ... wished to see what was going on at this far-famed _mayllah_...."—_Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali, Observations_, ii. 321-2.]

1869.—"Le MELA n'est pas précisément une foire telle que nous l'entendent; c'est le nom qu'on donne aux réunions de pèlerins et des marchands qui ... se rendent dans les lieux considérés comme sacrés, aux fêtes de certaine dieux indiens et des personnages reputés saints parmi les musulmans."—_Garcin de Tassy, Rel. Mus._ p. 26.

MAZAGONG, MAZAGON, n.p. A suburb of Bombay, containing a large Portuguese population. [The name is said to be originally _Maheśa-grāma_, 'the village of the Great Lord,' Śiva.]

1543.—

"MAZAGUÃO, por 15,000 _fedeas_, MONBAYM (Bombay), por 15,000." _S. Botelho, Tombo_, 149.

1644.—"Going up the stream from this town (Mombaym, _i.e._ Bombay) some 2 leagues, you come to the aldea of MAZAGAM."—_Bocarro_, MS. f. 227.

1673.—"... for some miles together, till the Sea break in between them; over against which lies MASSEGOUNG, a great Fishing Town.... The Ground between this and the Great Breach is well ploughed and bears good Batty. Here the Portugals have another Church and Religious House belonging to the Franciscans."—_Fryer_, p. 67.

[MEARBAR, s. Pers. _mīrbaḥr_, 'master of the bay,' a harbour-master. _Mīrbaḥrī_, which appears in _Botelho_ (_Tombo_, p. 56) as MIRABARY, means 'ferry dues.'

[1675.—"There is another hangs up at the daily Waiters, or MEERBAR'S CHOULTRY, by the Landing-place...."—_Fryer_, 98.]

[1682.—"... ordering them to bring away ye boat from ye MEARBAR."—_Hedges, Diary_, Hak. Soc. i. 34.]

MECKLEY, n.p. One of the names of the State of MUNNEEPORE.

MEEANA, MYANNA, s. H.—P. _mīyāna_, 'middle-sized.' The name of a kind of palankin; that kind out of which the palankin used by Europeans has been developed, and which has been generally adopted in India for the last century. [Buchanan Hamilton writes: "The lowest kind of palanquins, which are small litters suspended under a straight bamboo, by which they are carried, and shaded by a frame covered with cloth, do not admit the passenger to lie at length, and are here called MIYANA, or _Mahapa_. In some places, these terms are considered as synonymous, in others the _Miyana_ is open at the sides, while the _Mahapa_, intended for women, is surrounded with curtains." (_Eastern India_, ii. 426).] In _Williamson's Vade Mecum_ (i. 319) the word is written MOHANNAH.

1784.—"... an entire new MYANNAH, painted and gilt, lined with orange silk, with curtains and bedding complete."—In _Seton-Karr_, i. 49.

" "Patna common chairs, couches and teapoys, two MAHANA palanquins."—_Ibid._ 62.

1793.—"To be sold ... an Elegant New Bengal MEANA, with Hair Bedding and furniture."—_Bombay Courier_, Nov. 2.

1795.—"For Sale, an Elegant Fashionable New MEANNA from Calcutta."—_Ibid._ May 16.

MEERASS, s., MEERASSY, adj., MEERASSIDAR, s. 'Inheritance,' 'hereditary,' 'a holder of hereditary property.' Hind. from Arab. _mīrās̤_, _mīrās̤ī_, _mīrās̤dār_; and these from _waris̤_, 'to inherit.'

1806.—"Every MEERASSDAR in Tanjore has been furnished with a separate POTTAH (q.v.) for the land held by him."—_Fifth Report_ (1812), 774.

1812.—"The term MEERASSEE ... was introduced by the Mahommedans."—_Ibid._ 136.

1877.—"All MIRAS rights were reclaimable within a forty years' absence."—_Meadows Taylor, Story of My Life_, ii. 211.

" "I found a great proportion of the occupants of land to be MIRASDARS,—that is, persons who held their portions of land in hereditary occupancy."—_Ibid._ 210.

MEHAUL, s. Hind. from Arab. _maḥāll_, being properly the pl. of Arab. _maḥall_. The word is used with a considerable variety of application, the explanation of which would involve a greater amount of technical detail than is consistent with the purpose of this work. On this _Wilson_ may be consulted. But the most usual Anglo-Indian application of _maḥāll_ (used as a singular and generally written, incorrectly, _maḥāl_) is to 'an estate,' in the Revenue sense, _i.e._ 'a parcel or parcels of land separately assessed for revenue.' The sing. _maḥall_ (also written in the vernaculars _maḥal_, and _maḥāl_) is often used for a palace or important edifice, _e.g._ (see SHISHMUHULL, TAJ-MAHAL).

MEHTAR, s. A sweeper or scavenger. This name is usual in the Bengal Presidency, especially for the domestic servant of this class. The word is Pers. comp. _mihtar_ (Lat. _major_), 'a great personage,' 'a prince,' and has been applied to the class in question in irony, or rather in consolation, as the domestic tailor is called CALEEFA. But the name has so completely adhered in this application, that all sense of either irony or consolation has perished; _mehtar_ is a sweeper and nought else. His wife is the MATRANEE. It is not unusual to hear two _mehtars_ hailing each other as _Mahārāj_! In Persia the menial application of the word seems to be different (see below). The same class of servant is usually called in W. India _bhangī_ (see BUNGY), a name which in Upper India is applied to the caste generally and specially to those not in the service of Europeans. [Examples of the word used in the honorific sense will be found below.]

c. 1800.—"MAITRE." See under BUNOW.

1810.—"The MATER, or sweeper, is considered the lowest menial in every family."—_Williamson, V. M._ i. 276-7.

1828.—"... besides many MEHTARS or stable-boys."—_Hajji Baba in England_, i. 60.

[In the honorific sense:

[1824.—"In each of the towns of Central India, there is ... a MEHTUR, or head of every other class of the inhabitants down to the lowest."—_Malcolm, Central India_, 2nd ed. i. 555.

[1880.—"On the right bank is the fort in which the MIHTER or Bādshāh, for he is known by both titles, resides."—_Biddulph, Tribes of the Hindoo Kush_, 61.]

MELINDE, MELINDA, n.p. The name (_Malinda_ or _Malindī_) of an Arab town and State on the east coast of Africa, in S. lat. 3° 9′; the only one at which the expedition of Vasco da Gama had amicable relations with the people, and that at which they obtained the pilot who guided the squadron to the coast of India.

c. 1150.—"MELINDE, a town of the Zendj, ... is situated on the sea-shore at the mouth of a river of fresh water.... It is a large town, the people of which ... draw from the sea different kinds of fish, which they dry and trade in. They also possess and work mines of iron."—_Edrisi_ (_Jaubert_), i. 56.

c. 1320.—See also _Abulfeda_, by _Reinaud_, ii. 207.

1498.—"And that same day at sundown we cast anchor right opposite a place which is called MILINDE, which is 30 leagues from Mombaça.... On Easter Day those Moors whom we held prisoners, told us that in the said town of MILINDE were stopping four ships of Christians who were Indians, and that if we desired to take them these would give us, instead of themselves, Christian Pilots."—_Roteiro of Vasco da Gama_, 42-3.

1554.—"As the King of MELINDE pays no tribute, nor is there any reason why he should, considering the many tokens of friendship we have received from him, both on the first discovery of these countries, and to this day, and which in my opinion we repay very badly, by the ill treatment which he has from the Captains who go on service to this Coast."—_Simão Botelho, Tombo_, 17.

c. 1570.—"Di Chiaul si negotia anco per la costa de' MELINDI in Ethiopia."—_Cesare de Federici_ in _Ramusio_, iii. 396_v_.

1572.—

"Quando chegava a frota áquella parte Onde o reino MELINDE já se via, De toldos adornada, e leda de arte: Que bem mostra estimar a sancta dia Treme a bandeira, voa o estandarte, A cor purpurea ao longe apparecia, Soam os atambores, e pandeiros: E assi entravam ledos e guerreiros." _Camões_, ii. 73.

By Burton:

"At such a time the Squadron neared the part where first MELINDE'S goodly shore unseen, in awnings drest and prankt with gallant art, to show that none the Holy Day misween: Flutter the flags, the streaming Estandart gleams from afar with gorgeous purple sheen, tom-toms and timbrels mingle martial jar: thus past they forwards with the pomp of war."

1610.—P. Texeira tells us that among the "Moors" at Ormuz, Alboquerque was known only by the name of MALANDY, and that with some difficulty he obtained the explanation that he was so called because he came thither from the direction of MELINDE, which they call MALAND.—_Relacion de los Reyes de Harmuz_, 45.

[1823.—Owen calls the place MALEENDA and gives an account of it.—_Narrative_, i. 399 _seqq._]

1859.—"As regards the immigration of the Wagemu (Ajemi, or Persians), from whom the ruling tribe of the Wasawahili derives its name, they relate that several Shaykhs, or elders, from Shiraz emigrated to Shangaya, a district near the Ozi River, and founded the town of MALINDI (_Melinda_)."—_Burton_, in _J.R.G.S._ xxix. 51.

MELIQUE VERIDO, n.p. The Portuguese form of the style of the princes of the dynasty established at Bīdar in the end of the 15th century, on the decay of the Bāhmani kingdom. The name represents 'Malik Barīd.' It was apparently only the third of the dynasty, 'Ali, who first took the title of ('Ali) Barīd Shāh.

1533.—"And as the _folosomia_ (?) of Badur was very great, as well as his presumption, he sent word to Yzam Maluco (NIZAMALUCO) and to VERIDO (who were great Lords, as it were Kings, in the Decanim, that lies between the Balgat and Cambaya) ... that they must pay him homage, or he would hold them for enemies, and would direct war against them, and take away their dominions."—_Correa_, iii. 514.

1563.—"And these regents ... concerted among themselves ... that they should seize the King of Daquem in Bedar, which is the chief city and capital of the Decan; so they took him and committed him to one of their number, by name VERIDO; and then he and the rest, either in person or by their representatives, make him a SALAAM (_çalema_) at certain days of the year.... The VERIDO who died in the year 1510 was a Hungarian by birth, and originally a Christian, as I have heard on sure authority."—_Garcia_, f. 35 and 35_v_.

c. 1601.—"About this time a letter arrived from the Prince Sultán Dániyál, reporting that (Malik) Ambar had collected his troops in Bidar, and had gained a victory over a party which had been sent to oppose him by MALIK BARĪD."—_Ináyat Ullah_, in _Elliot_, vi. 104.

MEM-SAHIB, s. This singular example of a hybrid term is the usual respectful designation of a European married lady in the Bengal Presidency; the first portion representing _ma'am_. _Madam Sahib_ is used at Bombay; _Doresani_ (see DORAY) in Madras. (See also BURRA BEEBEE.)

MENDY, s. Hind. _mehndī_, [_meṅhdī_, Skt. _mendhikā_;] the plant _Lawsonia alba_, Lam., of the N. O. _Lythraceae_, strongly resembling the English privet in appearance, and common in gardens. It is the plant whose leaves afford the _henna_, used so much in Mahommedan countries for dyeing the hands, &c., and also in the process of dyeing the hair. _Mehndī_ is, according to Royle, the _Cyprus_ of the ancients (see _Pliny_, xii. 24). It is also the _camphire_ of Canticles i. 14, where the margin of A.V. has erroneously _cypress_ for _cyprus_.

[1813.—"After the girls are betrothed, the ends of the fingers and nails are dyed red, with a preparation from the MENDEY, or hinna shrub."—_Forbes, Or. Mem._ 2nd ed. i. 55; also see i. 22.]

c. 1817.—"... his house and garden might be known from a thousand others by their extraordinary neatness. His garden was full of trees, and was well fenced round with a ditch and MINDEY hedge."—_Mrs. Sherwood's Stories_, ed. 1873, p. 71.

MERCÁLL, MARCÁL, s. Tam. _marakkāl_, a grain measure in use in the Madras Presidency, and formerly varying much in different localities, though the most usual was = 12 _sers_ of grain. [Also known as _toom_.] Its standard is fixed since 1846 at 800 cubic inches, and = 1/400 of a GARCE (q.v.).

1554.—(Negapatam) "Of ghee (_mamteiga_) and oil, one MERCAR is = 2½ _canadas_" (a Portuguese measure of about 3 pints).—_A. Nunez_, 36.

1803.—"... take care to put on each bullock full six MERCALLS or 72 seers."—_Wellington Desp._, ed. 1837, ii. 85.

MERGUI, n.p. The name by which we know the most southern district of Lower Burma with its town; annexed with the rest of what used to be called the "Tenasserim Provinces" after the war of 1824-26. The name is probably of Siamese origin; the town is called by the Burmese _Beit_ (_Sir A. Phayre_).

1568.—"_Tenasari_ la quale è Città delle regioni del regno di Sion, posta infra terra due o tre maree sopra vn gran fiume ... ed oue il fiume entra in mare e vna villa chiamata MERGI, nel porto della quale ogn' anno si caricano alcune navi di _verzino_ (see BRAZIL-_wood_ and SAPPAN-_wood_), di NIPA (q.v.), di _belzuin_ (see BENJAMIN), e qualche poco di garofalo, macis, noci...."—_Ces. Federici_, in _Ramusio_, iii. 327_v_.

[1684-5.—"A Country Vessel belonging to Mr. Thomas Lucas arriv'd in this Road from MERGE."—_Pringle, Diary, Ft. St. Geo._, 1st ser. iv. 19.

[1727.—"MERJEE." See under TENASSERIM.]

MILK-BUSH, MILK-HEDGE, s. _Euphorbia Tirucalli_, L., often used for hedges on the Coromandel coast. It abounds in acrid milky juices.

c. 1590.—"They enclose their fields and gardens with hedges of the _zekoom_ (_zaḳḳum_) tree, which is a strong defence against cattle, and makes the country almost impenetrable by an army."—_Ayeen_, ed. _Gladwin_, ii. 68; [ed. _Jarrett_, ii. 239].

[1773.—"MILKY HEDGE. This is rather a shrub, which they plant for hedges on the coast of Coromandel...."—_Ives_, 462.]

1780.—"Thorn hedges are sometimes placed in gardens, but in the fields the MILK BUSH is most commonly used ... when squeezed emitting a whitish juice like milk, that is deemed a deadly poison.... A horse will have his head and eyes prodigiously swelled from standing for some time under the shade of a milk hedge."—_Munro's Narr._ 80.

1879.—

"So saying, Buddh Silently laid aside sandals and staff, His sacred thread, turban, and cloth, and came Forth from behind the MILK-BUSH on the sand...." _Sir E. Arnold, Light of Asia_, Bk. v.

c. 1886.—"The MILK-HEDGE forms a very distinctive feature in the landscape of many parts of Guzerat. Twigs of the plant thrown into running water kill the fish, and are extensively used for that purpose. Also charcoal from the stems is considered the best for making gunpowder."—_M.-Gen. R. H. Keatinge._

MINCOPIE, n.p. This term is attributed in books to the Andaman islanders as their distinctive name for their own race. It originated with a vocabulary given by Lieut. Colebrooke in vol. iv. of the _Asiatic Researches_, and was certainly founded on some misconception. Nor has the possible origin of the mistake been ascertained. [Mr. Man (_Proc. Anthrop. Institute_, xii. 71) suggests that it may have been a corruption of the words _min kaich!_ 'Come here!']

MINICOY, n.p. _Minikai_; [Logan (_Malabar_, i. 2) gives the name as _Menakāyat_, which the _Madras Gloss._ derives from Mal. _min_, 'fish,' _kayam_, 'deep pool.' The natives call it _Maliku_ (note by Mr. Gray on the passage from _Pyrard_ quoted below).] An island intermediate between the Maldive and the Laccadive group. Politically it belongs to the latter, being the property of the Ali Raja of Cannanore, but the people and their language are Maldivian. The population in 1871 was 2800. One-sixth of the adults had perished in a cyclone in 1867. A lighthouse was in 1883 erected on the island. This is probably the island intended for _Mulkee_ in that ill-edited book the E.T. of _Tuhfat al-Mujāhidīn_. [Mr. Logan identifies it with the "female island" of Marco Polo. (_Malabar_, i. 287.)]

[c. 1610.—"... a little island named MALICUT."—_Pyrard de Laval_, Hak. Soc. i. 322.]

MISCALL, s. Ar. _mis̤ḳāl_ (_mithḳāl_, properly). An Arabian weight, originally that of the Roman _aureus_ and the gold _dīnār_; about 73 grs.

c. 1340.—"The prince, violently enraged, caused this officer to be put in prison, and confiscated his goods, which amounted to 437,000,000 MITHKALS of gold. This anecdote serves to attest at once the severity of the sovereign and the extreme wealth of the country."—_Shihābuddīn_, in _Not. et Ext._, xiii. 192.

1502.—"Upon which the King (of Sofala) showed himself much pleased ... and gave them as a present for the Captain-Major a mass of strings of small golden beads which they call _pingo_, weighing 1000 MATICALS, every MATICAL being worth 500 _reis_, and gave for the King another that weighed 3000 _maticals_...."—_Correa_, i. 274.

MISREE, s. Sugar candy. _Miṣrī_, 'Egyptian,' from _Miṣr_, Egypt, the _Mizraim_ of the Hebrews, showing the original source of supply. [We find the _Miṣrī_ or 'sugar of Egypt' in the _Arabian Nights_ (_Burton_, xi. 396).] (See under SUGAR.)

1810.—"The sugar-candy made in India, where it is known by the name of MISCERY, bears a price suited to its quality.... It is usually made in small conical pots, whence it concretes into masses, weighing from 3 to 6 lbs. each."—_Williamson, V. M._ ii. 134.

MISSAL, s. Hind. from Ar. _mis̤l_, meaning 'similitude.' The body of documents in a particular case before a court. [The word is also used in its original sense of a 'clan.']

[1861.—"The martial spirit of the Sikhs thus aroused ... formed itself into clans or confederacies called MISLS...."—_Cave-Brown, Punjab and Delhi_, i. 368.]

MOBED, s. P. _mūbid_, a title of Parsee Priests. It is a corruption of the Pehlevi _magô-pat_, 'Lord Magus.'

[1815.—"The rites ordained by the chief MOBUDS are still observed."—_Malcolm, H. of Persia_, ed. 1829, i. 499.]

MOCUDDUM, s. Hind. from Ar. _muḳaddam_, 'praepositus,' a head-man. The technical applications are many; _e.g._ to the headman of a village, responsible for the realisation of the revenue (see LUMBERDAR); to the local head of a caste (see CHOWDRY); to the head man of a body of peons or of a gang of labourers (see MATE), &c. &c. (See further detail in _Wilson_). Cobarruvias (_Tesoro de la Lengua Castellana_, 1611) gives ALMOCADEN, "Capitan de Infanteria."

c. 1347.—"... The princess invited ... the _tandail_ (see TINDAL) or MUKADDAM of the crew, and the _sipāhsālār_ or MUKADDAM of the archers."—_Ibn Batuta_, iv. 250.[164]

1538.—"O MOCADÃO da mazmorra q̃ era o carcereiro d'aquella prisão, tanto q̃ os vio mortos, deu logo rebate disso ao Guazil da justiça...."—_Pinto_, cap. vi.

" "The Jaylor, which in their language is called MOCADAN, repairing in the morning to us, and finding our two companions dead, goes away in all haste therewith to acquaint the _Gauzil_, which is as the Judg with us."—_Cogan's Transl._, p. 8.

1554.—"E a hum naique, com seys piães (peons) e hum MOCADÃO, com seys tochas, hum BÓY de sombreiro, dous MAINATOS," &c.—_Botelho, Tombo_, 57.

1567.—"... furthermore that no infidel shall serve as scrivener, SHROFF (_xarrafo_) MOCADAM (_mocadão_), naique (see NAIK), PEON (_pião_), parpatrim (see PARBUTTY), collector of dues, _corregidor_, interpreter, procurator or solicitor in court, nor in any other office or charge in which he can in any way hold authority over Christians."—_Decree of the Sacred Council of Goa_, Dec. 27. In _Arch. Port. Orient._ fascic. 4.

[1598.—"... a chief Boteson ... which they call MOCADON."—_Linschoten_, Hak. Soc. i. 267.

[c. 1610.—"They call these Lascarys and their captain MONCADON."—_Pyrard de Laval_, Hak. Soc. ii. 117.

[1615.—"The Generall dwelt with the MAKADOW of Swally."—_Sir T. Roe_, Hak. Soc. i. 45; comp. _Danvers, Letters_, i. 234.]

1644.—"Each vessel carries forty mariners and two MOCADONS."—_Bocarro, MS._

1672.—"Il MUCADAMO, cosi chiamano li Padroni di queste barche."—_P. Vincenz. Maria_, 3rd ed. 459.

1680.—"For the better keeping the Boatmen in order, resolved to appoint Black Tom MUCKADUM or Master of the Boatmen, being Christian as he is, his wages being paid at 70 FANAMS per mensem."—_Fort St. Geo. Consn._, Dec. 23, in _Notes and Exts._ No. iii. p. 42.

1870.—"This headman was called the MOKADDAM in the more Northern and Eastern provinces."—_Systems of Land Tenure_ (Cobden Club), 163.

MOCCUDDAMA, s. Hind. from Ar. _muḳaddama_, 'a piece of business,' but especially 'a suit at law.'

MODELLIAR, MODLIAR, s. Used in the Tamil districts of Ceylon (and formerly on the Continent) for a native head-man. It is also a caste title, assumed by certain Tamil people who styled themselves _Śudras_ (an honourable assumption in the South). Tam. _mudaliyār_, _muthaliyār_, an honorific pl. from _mudali_, _muthali_, 'a chief.'

c. 1350.—"When I was staying at Columbum (see QUILON) with those Christian chiefs who are called MODILIAL, and are the owners of the pepper, one morning there came to me ..."—_John de Marignolli_, in _Cathay_, &c., ii. 381.

1522.—"And in opening this foundation they found about a cubit below a grave made of brickwork, white-washed within, as if newly made, in which they found part of the bones of the King who was converted by the holy Apostle, who the natives said they heard was called _Tani_ (Tami) MUDOLYAR, meaning in their tongue 'Thomas Servant of God.'"—_Correa_, ii. 726.

1544.—"... apud Praefectum locis illis quem MUDELIAREM vulgo nuncupant."—_S. Fr. Xaverii Epistolae_, 129.

1607.—"On the part of Dom Fernando MODELIAR, a native of Ceylon, I have received a petition stating his services."—_Letter of K. Philip III._ in _L. das Monções_, 135.

1616.—"These entered the Kingdom of Candy ... and had an encounter with the enemy at Matalé, where they cut off five-and-thirty heads of their people and took certain _araches_ and MODILIARES who are chiefs among them, and who had ... deserted and gone over to the enemy as is the way of the _Chingalas_."—_Bocarro_, 495.

1648.—"The 5 August followed from Candy the MODELIAR, or Great Captain ... in order to inspect the ships."—_Van Spilbergen's Voyage_, 33.

1685.—"The MODELIARES ... and other great men among them put on a shirt and doublet, which those of low caste may not wear."—_Ribeiro_, f. 46.

1708.—"Mon Révérend Père. Vous êtes tellement accoûtumé à vous mêler des affaires de la Compagnie, que non obstant la prière que je vous ai réitérée plusieurs fois de nous laisser en repos, je ne suis pas étonné si vous prenez parti dans l'affaire de Lazaro ci-devant courtier et MODELIAR de la Compagnie."—_Norbert, Mémoires_, i. 274.

1726.—"MODELYAAR. This is the same as Captain."—_Valentijn_ (Ceylon), _Names of Officers_, &c., 9.

1810.—"We ... arrived at Barbareen about two o'clock, where we found that the provident MODELIAR had erected a beautiful rest-house for us, and prepared an excellent collation."—_Maria Graham_, 98.

MOFUSSIL, s., also used adjectively, "The provinces,"—the country stations and districts, as contra-distinguished from 'the Presidency'; or, relatively, the rural localities of a district as contra-distinguished from the SUDDER or chief station, which is the residence of the district authorities. Thus if, in Calcutta, one talks of the Mofussil, he means anywhere in Bengal out of Calcutta; if one at Benares talks of going into the _Mofussil_, he means going anywhere in the Benares division or district (as the case might be) out of the city and station of Benares. And so over India. The word (Hind. from Ar.) _mufaṣṣal_ means properly 'separate, detailed, particular,' and hence 'provincial,' as _mufaṣṣal 'adālat_, a 'provincial court of justice.' This indicates the way in which the word came to have the meaning attached to it.

About 1845 a clever, free-and-easy newspaper, under the name of _The_ MOFUSSILITE, was started at Meerut, by Mr. John Lang, author of _Too Clever by Half_, &c., and endured for many years.

1781.—"... a gentleman lately arrived from the MOUSSEL" (plainly a misprint).—_Hicky's Bengal Gazette_, March 31.

" "A gentleman in the MOFUSSIL, Mr. P., fell out of his chaise and broke his leg...."—_Ibid._, June 30.

1810.—"Either in the Presidency or in the MOFUSSIL...."—_Williamson, V. M._ ii. 499.

1836.—"... the MOFUSSIL newspapers which I have seen, though generally disposed to cavil at all the acts of the Government, have often spoken favourably of the measure."—_T. B. Macaulay_, in _Life_, &c. i. 399.

MOGUL, n.p. This name should properly mean a person of the great nomad race of Mongols, called in Persia, &c., _Mughals_; but in India it has come, in connection with the nominally Mongol, though essentially rather _Turk_, family of Baber, to be applied to all foreign Mahommedans from the countries on the W. and N.W. of India, except the Pathāns. In fact these people themselves make a sharp distinction between the _Mughal Irānī_, of Pers. origin (who is a Shīah), and the _M. Tūrānī_ of Turk origin (who is a Sunni). _Beg_ is the characteristic affix of the Mughal's name, as _Khān_ is of the Pathān's. Among the Mahommedans of S. India the _Moguls_ or _Mughals_ constitute a strongly marked caste. [They are also clearly distinguished in the Punjab and N.W.P.] In the quotation from Baber below, the name still retains its original application. The passage illustrates the tone in which Baber always speaks of his kindred of the Steppe, much as Lord Clyde used sometimes to speak of "confounded Scotchmen."

In Port. writers _Mogol_ or _Mogor_ is often used for "Hindostān," or the territory of the GREAT MOGUL.

1247.—"Terra quaedam est in partibus orientis ... quae MONGAL nominatur. Haec terra quondam populos quatuor habuit: unus Yeka MONGAL, id est magni Mongali...."—_Joannis de Plano Carpini, Hist. Mongalorum_, 645.

1253.—"Dicit nobis supradictus Coiac.... 'Nolite dicere quod dominus noster sit christianus. Non est christianus, sed MOAL'; quia enim nomen christianitatis videtur eis nomen cujusdem gentis ... volentes nomen suum, hoc est MOAL, exaltare super omne nomen, nec volunt vocari _Tartari_."—_Itin. Willielmi de Rubruk_, 259.

1298.—"... MUNGUL, a name sometimes applied to the Tartars."—_Marco Polo_, i. 276 (2nd ed.).

c. 1300.—"Ipsi verò dicunt se descendisse de Gog et Magog. Vnde ipsi dicuntur MOGOLI, quasi corrupto vocabulo _Magogoli_."—_Ricoldus de Monte Crucis_, in _Per. Quatuor_, p. 118.

c. 1308.—"Ὁ δὲ Νογᾶς ... ὃς ἅμα πλείσταις δυνάμεσιν ἐξ ὁμογενῶν Τοχάρων, οὕς αὐτοι Μουγουλίους λέγουσι, ἔξαποσταλεις ἐκ τῶν κατὰ τὰς Κασπίας ἀρχόντων τοῦ γένους οὕς Κάνιδας στομάζουσιν."—_Georg. Pachymeres, de Mich. Palaeol._, lib. v.

c. 1340.—"In the first place from Tana to Gintarchan may be 25 days with an ox-waggon, and from 10 to 12 days with a horse-waggon. On the road you will find plenty of MOCCOLS, that is to say of armed troopers."—_Pegolotti_, on the Land Route to Cathay, in _Cathay_, &c., ii. 287.

1404.—"And the territory of this empire of Samarkand is called the territory of MOGALIA, and the language thereof is called MUGALIA, and they don't understand this language on this side of the River (the Oxus) ... for the character which is used by those of Samarkand beyond the river is not understood or read by those on this side the river; and they call _that_ character MONGALI, and the Emperor keeps by him certain scribes who can read and write this MOGALI character."—_Clavijo_, § ciii. (Comp. _Markham_, 119-120.)

c. 1500.—"The MOGHUL troops, which had come to my assistance, did not attempt to fight, but instead of fighting, betook themselves to dismounting and plundering my own people. Nor is this a solitary instance; such is the uniform practice of these wretches the MOGHULS; if they defeat the enemy they instantly seize the booty; if they are defeated, they plunder and dismount their own allies, and betide what may, carry off the spoil."—_Baber_, 93.

1534.—"And whilst Badur was there in the hills engaged with his pleasures and luxury, there came to him a messenger from the King of the MOGORES of the kingdom of Dely, called Bobor Mirza."—_Correa_, iii. 571.

1536.—"Dicti MOGORES vel à populis Persarum MOGORIBUS, vel quod nunc Turkae à Persis MOGORES appellantur."—Letter from _K. John III._ to _Pope Paul III._

1555.—"Tartaria, otherwyse called MONGAL, As Vincentius wryteth, is in that parte of the earthe, where the Easte and the northe joine together."—_W. Watreman, Fardle of Faciouns._

1563.—"This Kingdom of Dely is very far inland, for the northern part of it marches with the territory of Coraçone (Khorasan).... The MOGORES, whom we call Tartars, conquered it more than 30 years ago...."—_Garcia_, f. 34.

[c. 1590.—"In his time (Naṣiru'ddīn Maḥmūd) the MUGHALS entered the Panjab ..."—_Āīn_. ed. _Jarrett_, ii. 304.

[c. 1610.—"The greatest ships come from the coast of Persia, Arabia, MOGOR."—_Pyrard de Laval_, Hak. Soc. i. 258.

[1636.—India "containeth many Provinces and Realmes, as Cambaiar, Delli, Decan, Bishagar, Malabar, Narsingar, Orixa, Bengala, Sanga, MOGORES, Tipura, Gourous, Ava, Pegua, Aurea Chersonesus, Sina, Camboia, and Campaa."—_T. Blundevil, Description and use of Plancius his Mappe, in Eight Treatises_, ed. 1626, p. 547.]

c. 1650.—"Now shall I tell how the royal house arose in the land of the MONGHOL.... And the Ruler (Chingiz Khan) said, ... 'I will that this people Bèdè, resembling a precious crystal, which even to the completion of my enterprise hath shown the greatest fidelity in every peril, shall take the name of _Köke_ (Blue) MONGHOL...."—_Sanang Setzen_, by _Schmidt_, pp. 57 and 71.

1741.—"Ao mesmo tempo que a paz se ajusterou entre os referidos generaes MOGOR e Marata."—_Bosquejo das Possessões Portug. na Oriente_—_Documentos Comprovativos_, iii. 21 (Lisbon 1853).

1764.—"Whatever MOGULS, whether Oranies or Tooranies, come to offer their services should be received on the aforesaid terms."—_Paper of Articles_ sent to Major Munro by the _Nawab_, in _Long_, 360.

c. 1773.—"... the news-writers of Rai Droog frequently wrote to the Nawaub ... that the besieged Naik ... had attacked the batteries of the besiegers, and had killed a great number of the MOGHULS."—_H. of Hydur_, 317.

1781.—"Wanted an European or MOGUL Coachman that can drive four Horses in hand."—_India Gazette_, June 30.

1800.—"I pushed forward the whole of the Mahratta and MOGUL cavalry in one body...."—_Sir A. Wellesley_ to _Munro, Munro's Life_, i. 268.

1803.—"The MOGUL horse do not appear very active; otherwise they ought certainly to keep the PINDARRIES at a greater distance."—_Wellington_, ii. 281.

In these last two quotations the term is applied distinctively to Hyderabad troops.

1855.—"The MOGULS and others, who at the present day settle in the country, intermarrying with these people (Burmese Mahommedans) speedily sink into the same practical heterodoxies."—_Yule, Mission to Ava_, 151.

MOGUL, THE GREAT, n.p. Sometimes '_The Mogul_' simply. The name by which the Kings of Delhi of the House of Timur were popularly styled, first by the Portuguese (_o grão Mogor_) and after them by Europeans generally. It was analogous to THE SOPHY (q.v.), as applied to the Kings of Persia, or to the 'Great Turk' applied to the Sultan of Turkey. Indeed the latter phrase was probably the model of the present one. As noticed under the preceding article, MOGOL, MOGOR, and also _Mogolistan_ are applied among old writers to the _dominions_ of the Great Mogul. We have found no native idiom precisely suggesting the latter title; but _Mughal_ is thus used in the _Araish-i-Mahfil_ below, and _Mogolistan_ must have been in some native use, for it is a form that Europeans would not have invented. (See quotations from Thevenot here and under MOHWA.)

c. 1563.—"Ma già dodici anni il GRAN MAGOL Re Moro d'Agra et del Deli ... si è impatronito di tutto il Regno de Cambaia."—_V. di Messer Cesare Federici_, in _Ramusio_, iii.

1572.—

"A este o Rei Cambayco soberbissimo Fortaleza darà na rica Dio; Porque contra o MOGOR poderosissimo Lhe ajude a defender o senhorio...." _Camões_, x. 64.

By Burton:

"To him Cambaya's King, that haughtiest Moor, shall yield in wealthy Diu the famous fort that he may gain against the GRAND MOGOR 'spite his stupendous power, your firm support...."

[1609.—"When you shall repair to the GREATE MAGULL."—_Birdwood, First Letter Book_, 325.

[1612.—"Hecchabar (Akbar) the last deceased Emperor of Hindustan, the father of the present GREAT MOGUL."—_Danvers, Letters_, i. 163.]

1615.—"Nam praeter MAGNUM MOGOR cui hodie potissima illius pars subjecta est; qui tum quidem Mahometicae religioni deditus erat, quamuis eam modo cane et angue peius detestetur, vix scio an illius alius rex Mahometana sacra coleret."—_Jarric_, i. 58.

" "... prosecuting my travaile by land, I entered the confines of the GREAT MOGOR...."—_De Monfart_, 15.

1616.—"It (Chitor) is in the country of one Rama, a Prince newly subdued by the MOGUL."—_Sir T. Roe._ [In Hak. Soc. (i. 102) for "the MOGUL" the reading is "this King."]

" "The Seuerall Kingdomes and Prouinces subject to the GREAT MOGOLL Sha Selin Gehangier."—_Idem._ in _Purchas_, i. 578.

" "... the base cowardice of which people hath made The GREAT MOGUL sometimes use this proverb, that one Portuguese would beat three of his people ... and he would further add that one Englishman would beat three Portuguese. The truth is that those Portuguese, especially those born in those Indian colonies, ... are a very low poor-spirited people...."—_Terry_, ed. 1777, 153.

[ " "... a copy of the articles granted by the GREAT MOGOLL may partly serve for precedent."—_Foster, Letters_, iv. 222.]

1623.—"The people are partly Gentile and partly Mahometan, but they live mingled together, and in harmony, because the GREAT MOGUL, to whom Guzerat is now subject ... although he is a Mahometan (yet not altogether that, as they say) makes no difference in his states between one kind of people and the other."—_P. della Valle_, ii. 510; [Hak. Soc. i. 30, where Mr. Grey reads "Gran Moghel"].

1644.—"The King of the inland country, on the confines of this island and fortress of Dlu, is the MOGOR, the greatest Prince in all the East."—_Bocarro_, MS.

1653.—"MOGOL est vn terme des Indes qui signifie blanc, et quand nous disons le GRAND MOGOL, que les Indiens appellent Schah Geanne Roy du monde, c'est qu'il est effectiuement blanc ... nous l'appellons grand Blanc ou GRAND MOGOL, comme nous appellons le Roy des Ottomans grand Turq."—_De la Boullaye-le-Gouz_, ed. 1657, pp. 549-550.

" "This Prince, having taken them all, made fourscore and two of them abjure their faith, who served him in his wars against the GREAT MOGOR, and were every one of them miserably slain in that expedition."—_Cogan's Pinto_, p. 25. The expression is not in Pinto's original, where it is _Rey dos Mogores_ (cap. xx.).

c. 1663.—"Since it is the custom of _Asia_ never to approach Great Persons with Empty Hands, when I had the Honour to kiss the Vest of the GREAT MOGOL _Aureng Zebe_, I presented him with Eight _Roupees_ ..."—_Bernier_, E.T. p. 62; [ed. _Constable_, 200].

1665.—

"... Samarchand by Oxus, Temir's throne, To Paquin of Sinaean Kings; and thence To Agra and Lahor of GREAT MOGUL...." _Paradise Lost_, xi. 389-91.

c. 1665.—"L'Empire du GRAND-MOGOL, qu'on nomme particulierement le MOGOLISTAN, est le plus étendu et le plus puissant des Roiaumes des Indes.... Le GRAND-MOGOL vient en ligne directe de Tamerlan, dont les descendants qui se sont établis aux Indes, se sont fait appeller MOGOLS...."—_Thevenot_, v. 9.

1672.—"In these beasts the GREAT MOGUL takes his pleasure, and on a stately Elephant he rides in person to the arena where they fight."—_Baldaeus_ (Germ. ed.), 21.

1673.—"It is the Flower of their Emperor's Titles to be called the GREAT MOGUL, _Burrore_ (read _Burrow_, see Fryer's Index) MOGUL _Podeshar_, who ... is at present _Auren Zeeb_."—_Fryer_, 195.

1716.—"GRAM MOGOL. Is as much as to say 'Head and king of the Circumcised,' for MOGOL in the language of that country signifies circumcised" (!)—_Bluteau_, s.v.

1727.—"Having made what observations I could, of the Empire of _Persia_, I'll travel along the Seacoast towards _Industan_, or the GREAT MOGUL'S Empire."—_A. Hamilton_, i. 115, [ed. 1744].

1780.—"There are now six or seven fellows in the tent, gravely disputing whether Hyder is, or is not, the person commonly called in Europe the GREAT MOGUL."—Letter of _T. Munro_, in _Life_, i. 27.

1783.—"The first potentate sold by the Company for money, was the GREAT MOGUL—the descendant of Tamerlane."—_Burke, Speech on Fox's E.I. Bill_, iii. 458.

1786.—"That Shah Allum, the prince commonly called the GREAT MOGUL, or, by eminence, the King, is or lately was in possession of the ancient capital of Hindostan...."—_Art. of Charge against Hastings_, in _Burke_, vii. 189.

1807.—"L'Hindoustan est depuis quelque temps dominé par une multitude de petits souverains, qui s'arrachent l'un l'autre leurs possessions. Aucun d'eux ne reconnait comme il faut l'autorité légitime du MOGOL, si ce n'est cependant Messieurs les Anglais, lesquels n'ont pas cessé d'être soumis à son obéissance; en sort qu'actuellement, c'est à dire en 1222 (1807) ils reconnaissent l'autorité suprême d'Akbar Schah, fils de Schah Alam."—_Afsos, Araish-i-Mahfil_, quoted by _Garcin de Tassy, Rel. Mus._ 90.

MOGUL BREECHES, s. Apparently an early name for what we call LONG-DRAWERS or PYJAMAS (qq.v.).

1625.—"... let him have his shirt on and his MOGUL BREECHES; here are women in the house."—_Beaumont & Fletcher, The Fair Maid of the Inn_, iv. 2.

In a picture by Vandyke of William 1st Earl of Denbigh, belonging to the Duke of Hamilton, and exhibited at Edinburgh in July 1883, the subject is represented as out shooting, in a red striped shirt and _pyjamas_, no doubt the "Mogul breeches" of the period.

MOHUR, GOLD, s. The official name of the chief gold coin of British India, Hind. from Pers. _muhr_, a (metallic) seal, and thence a gold coin. It seems possible that the word is taken from _mihr_, 'the sun,' as one of the secondary meanings of that word is 'a golden circlet on the top of an umbrella, or the like' (_Vullers_). [Platts, on the contrary, identifies it with Skt. _mudrā_, 'a seal.']

The term _muhr_, as applied to a coin, appears to have been popular only and quasi-generic, not precise. But that to which it has been most usually applied, at least in recent centuries, is a coin which has always been in use since the foundation of the Mahommedan Empire in Hindustan by the Ghūrī Kings of Ghazni and their freedmen, circa A.D. 1200, tending to a standard weight of 100 _ratis_ (see RUTTEE) of pure gold, or about 175 grains, thus equalling in weight, and probably intended then to equal ten times in value, the silver coin which has for more than three centuries been called RUPEE.

There is good ground for regarding this as the theory of the system.[165] But the gold coins, especially, have deviated from the theory considerably; a deviation which seems to have commenced with the violent innovations of Sultan Mahommed Tughlak (1325-1351), who raised the gold coin to 200 grains, and diminished the silver coin to 140 grains, a change which may have been connected with the enormous influx of gold into Upper India, from the plunder of the immemorial accumulations of the Peninsula in the first quarter of the 14th century. After this the coin again settled down in approximation to the old weight, insomuch that, on taking the weight of 46 different _mohurs_ from the lists given in Prinsep's _Tables_, the average of pure gold is 167.22 grains.[166]

The first gold mohur struck by the Company's Government was issued in 1766, and declared to be a legal tender for 14 sicca rupees. The full weight of this coin was 179.66 grs., containing 149.72 grs. of gold. But it was impossible to render it current at the rate fixed; it was called in, and in 1769 a new mohur was issued to pass as legal tender for 16 sicca rupees. The weight of this was 190.773 grs. (according to Regn. of 1793, 190.894), and it contained 190.086 grs. of gold. Regulation xxxv. of 1793 declared these GOLD MOHURS to be a legal tender in all public and private transactions. Regn. xiv. of 1818 declared, among other things, that "it has been thought advisable to make a slight deduction in the intrinsic value of the GOLD MOHUR to be coined at this Presidency (Fort William), in order to raise the value of fine gold to fine silver, from the present rates of 1 to 14.861 to that of 1 to 15. The GOLD MOHUR will still continue to pass current at the rate of 16 rupees." The new gold mohur was to weigh 204.710 grs., containing fine gold 187.651 grs. Once more Act xvii. of 1835 declared that the only gold coin to be coined at Indian mints should be (with proportionate subdivisions) a GOLD MOHUR or "15 rupee piece" of the weight of 180 grs. troy, containing 165 grs. of pure gold; and declared also that no gold coin should thenceforward be a legal tender of payment in any of the territories of the E.I. Company. There has been since then no substantive change.

A friend (W. Simpson, the accomplished artist) was told in India that GOLD MOHUR was a corruption of _gol_, ('round') _mohr_, indicating a distinction from the square mohurs of some of the Delhi Kings. But this we take to be purely fanciful.

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 1000_l._) 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_ (335_l._ 15_s._ 10¼_d._) 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. 134_v_.

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.

1498.—"... the MOORS never came to the house when this trading went on, and we became aware that they wished us ill, insomuch that when any of us went ashore, in order to annoy us they would spit on the ground, and say 'Portugal, Portugal.'"—_Roteiro de V. da Gama_, p. 75.

" "For you must know, gentlemen, that from the moment you put into port here (Calecut) you caused disturbance of mind to the MOORS of this city, who are numerous and very powerful in the country."—_Correa_, Hak. Soc. 166.

1499.—"We reached a very large island called Sumatra, where pepper grows in considerable quantities.... The Chief is a MOOR, but speaking a different language."—_Santo Stefano_, in _India in the XVth Cent._ [7].

1505.—"Adì 28 zugno vene in Venetia insieme co Sier Alvixe de Boni un sclav MORO el qual portorono i spagnoli da la insula spagniola."—_MS._ in _Museo Civico_ at Venice. Here the term MOOR is applied to a native of Hispaniola!

1513.—"Hanc (Malaccam) rex MAURUS gubernabat."—_Emanuelis Regis Epistola_, f. 1.

1553.—"And for the hatred in which they hold them, and for their abhorrence of the name of _Frangue_, they call in reproach the Christians of our parts of the world _Frangues_ (see FIRINGHEE), just as we improperly call _them_ again _Moors_."—_Barros_, IV. iv. 16.

c. 1560.—"When we lay at Fuquien, we did see certain MOORES, who knew so little of their secte that they could say nothing else but that Mahomet was a MOORE, my father was a MOORE, and I am a MOORE."—_Reports of the Province of China_, done into English by _R. Willes_, in _Hakl._ ii. 557.

1563.—"And as to what you say of Ludovico Vartomano, I have spoken both here and in Portugal, with people who knew him here in India, and they told me that he went about here in the garb of a MOOR, and that he came back among us doing penance for his sins; and that the man never went further than Calecut and Cochin, nor indeed did we at that time navigate those seas that we now navigate."—_Garcia_, f. 30.

1569.—"... always whereas I have spoken of Gentiles is to be understood Idolaters, and whereas I speak of MOORES, I mean Mahomets secte."—_Caesar Frederike_, in _Hakl._ ii. 359.

1610.—"The King was fled for feare of the King of Makasar, who ... would force the King to turne MOORE, for he is a Gentile."—_Midleton_, in _Purchas_, i. 239.

1611.—"Les MORES du pay faisoiẽt courir le bruict, que les notres avoient esté battus."—_Wytfliet, H. des Indes_, iii. 9.

1648.—"King Jangier (Jehāngīr) used to make use of a reproach: That one _Portugees_ was better than three MOORS, and one Hollander or Englishman better than two Portugees."—_Van Twist_, 59.

c. 1665.—"Il y en a de MORES et de Gentils _Raspoutes_ (see RAJPOOT) parce que je savois qu'ils servent mieux que les MORES qui sont superbes, et ne veulent pas qu'on se plaigne d'eux, quelque sotise ou quelque tromperie qu'ils fassent."—_Thevenot_, v. 217.

1673.—"Their Crew were all MOORS (by which Word hereafter must be meant those of the Mahometan faith) apparell'd all in white."—_Fryer_, p. 24.

" "They are a Shame to our Sailors, who can hardly ever work without horrid Oaths and hideous Cursing and Imprecations; and these MOORMEN, on the contrary, never set their Hands to any Labour, but that they sing a Psalm or Prayer, and conclude at every joint Application of it, 'Allah, Allah,' invoking the Name of God."—_Ibid._ pp. 55-56.

1685.—"We putt out a peece of a Red Ancient to appear like a MOOR'S Vessel: not judging it safe to be known to be English; Our nation having lately gott an ill name by abusing ye Inhabitants of these Islands: but no boat would come neer us ..." (in the Maldives).—_Hedges, Diary_, March 9; [Hak. Soc. i. 190].

1688.—"LASCARS, who are MOORS of India."—_Dampier_, ii. 57.

1689.—"The place where they went ashore was a Town of the MOORS: Which name our Seamen give to all the Subjects of the great Mogul, but especially his _Mahometan_ Subjects; calling the Idolators, Gentous or _Rashboots_ (see RAJPOOT)."—_Dampier_, i. 507.

1747.—"We had the Misfortune to be reduced to almost inevitable Danger, for as our Success chiefly depended on the assistance of the MOORS, We were soon brought to the utmost Extremity by being abandoned by them."—_Letter from Ft. St. Geo. to the Court_, May 2 (India Office MS. Records).

1752.—"His successor Mr. Godehue ... even permitted him (Dupleix) to continue the exhibition of those marks of MOORISH dignity, which both Murzafa-jing and Sallabad-jing had permitted him to display."—_Orme_, i. 367.

1757.—In Ives, writing in this year, we constantly find the terms MOORMEN and MOORISH, applied to the forces against which Clive and Watson were acting on the Hoogly.

1763.—"From these origins, time has formed in India a mighty nation of near ten millions of Mahomedans, whom Europeans call MOORS."—_Orme_, ed. 1803, i. 24.

1770.—"Before the Europeans doubled the Cape of Good Hope, the MOORS, who were the only maritime people of India, sailed from Surat and Bengal to Malacca."—_Raynal_ (tr. 1777), i. 210.

1781.—"Mr. Hicky thinks it a Duty incumbent on him to inform his friends in particular, and the Public in General, that an attempt was made to Assassinate him last Thursday Morning between the Hours of One and two o'Clock, by two armed Europeans aided and assisted by a MOORMAN...."—_Hicky's Bengal Gazette_, April 7.

1784.—"Lieutenants Speediman and Rutledge ... were bound, circumcised, and clothed in MOORISH garments."—In _Seton-Karr_, i. 15.

1797.—"Under the head of castes entitled to a favourable term, I believe you comprehend Brahmans, MOORMEN, merchants, and almost every man who does not belong to the Sudra or cultivating caste...."—_Minute of Sir T. Munro_, in _Arbuthnot_, i. 17.

1807.—"The rest of the inhabitants, who are MOORS, and the richer Gentoos, are dressed in various degrees and fashions."—_Ld. Minto in India_, p. 17.

1829.—"I told my MOORMAN, as they call the Mussulmans here, just now to ask the drum-major when the mail for the _Pradwan_ (?) was to be made up."—_Mem. of Col. Mountain_, 2nd ed. p. 80.

1839.—"As I came out of the gate I met some young MOORISH dandies on horseback; one of them was evidently a 'crack-rider,' and began to show off."—_Letters from Madras_, p. 290.

MOORA, s. Sea Hind. _mūrā_, from Port. _amura_, Ital. _mura_; a tack (_Roebuck_).

MOORAH, s. A measure used in the sale of paddy at Bombay and in Guzerat. The true form of this word is doubtful. From Molesworth's _Mahr. Dict._ it would seem that _muḍā_ and _mudī_ are properly cases of rice-straw bound together to contain certain quantities of grain, the former larger and the latter smaller. Hence it would be a vague and varying measure. But there is a land measure of the same name. See _Wilson_, s.v. _Múdi_. [The _Madras Gloss._ gives MOODA, Mal. _mūta_, from _mūtu_, 'to cover,' "a fastening package; especially the packages in a circular form, like a Dutch cheese, fastened with wisps of straw, in which rice is made up in Malabar and Canara." The MOODA is said to be 1 cubic foot and 1,116 cubic inches, and equal to 3 Kulsies (see CULSEY).]

1554.—"(At Baçaim) the _Mura_ of _batee_ (see BATTA) contains 3 candis (see CANDY), which (_batee_) is rice in the husk, and after it is stript it amounts to a candy and a half, and something more."—_A. Nunes_, p. 30.

[1611.—"I send your worship by the bearer 10 MORAES of rice."—_Danvers, Letters_, i. 116.]

1813.—

"Batty Measure.— * * * * * * 25 parahs make 1 MOORAH.[170] 4 candies " 1 MOORAH." _Milburn_, 2nd ed. p. 143.

MOORPUNKY, s. Corr. of _Mor-pankhī_, 'peacock-tailed,' or 'peacock-winged'; the name given to certain state pleasure-boats on the Gangetic rivers, now only (if at all) surviving at Murshīdābād. They are a good deal like the Burmese 'war-boats;' see cut in _Mission to Ava_ (Major Phayre's), p. 4. [A similar boat was the _Feelchehra_ (Hind. _fīl-chehra_, 'elephant-faced'). In a letter of 1784 Warren Hastings writes: "I intend to finish my voyage to-morrow in the _feelchehra_" (_Busteed, Echoes_, 3rd ed. 291).]

1767.—"Charges Dewanny, viz.:—

"A few MOORPUNGKEYS and _beauleahs_ (see BOLIAH) for the service of Mahomed Reza Khan, and on the service at the city some are absolutely necessary ... 25,000 : 0 : 0."—_Dacca Accounts_, in _Long_, 524.

1780.—"Another boat ... very curiously constructed, the MOOR-PUNKY: these are very long and narrow, sometimes extending to upwards of 100 feet in length, and not more than 8 feet in breadth; they are always paddled, sometimes by 40 men, and are steered by a large paddle from the stern, which rises in the shape of a peacock, a snake, or some other animal."—_Hodges_, 40.

[1785.—"... MOOR-PUNKEES, or peacock-boats, which are made as much as possible to resemble the peacock."—_Diary_, in _Forbes, Or. Mem._ 2nd ed. ii. 450.]

MOORS, THE, s. The Hindustani language was in the 18th century commonly thus styled. The idiom is a curious old English one for the denomination of a language, of which 'broad Scots' is perhaps a type, and which we find exemplified in 'Malabars' (see MALABAR) for Tamil, whilst we have also met with _Bengals_ for Bengālī, with _Indostans_ for Urdū, and with _Turks_ for Turkish. The term _Moors_ is probably now entirely obsolete, but down to 1830, at least, some old officers of the Royal army and some old Madras civilians would occasionally use the term as synonymous with what the former would also call 'the black language.' [MOORS for Urdū was certainly in use among the old European pensioners at Chunār as late as 1892.]

The following is a transcript of the title-page of Hadley's Grammar, the earliest English Grammar of Hindustani:[171]

"Grammatical Remarks | on the | Practical and Vulgar Dialect | Of the | Indostan Language | commonly called MOORS | with a Vocabulary | English and MOORS. The Spelling according to | The Persian Orthography | Wherein are | References between Words resembling each other in | Sound and different in Significations | with Literal Translations and Explanations of the Com- | pounded Words and Circumlocutory Expressions | For the more easy attaining the Idiom of the Language | The whole calculated for

The Common Practice in Bengal.

"——Si quid novisti rectius istis, Candidus imperti; si non his utere mecum."

By Capt. GEORGE HADLEY. London: Printed for T. Cadell in the Strand. MDCCLXXII."

Captain Hadley's orthography is on a detestable system. He writes _chookerau, chookeree_, for _chhokrā, chhokrī_ ('boy, girl'); _dolchinney_ for _dāl-chīnī_ ('cinnamon'), &c. His etymological ideas also are loose. Thus he gives shrimps = _chînghra mutchee_, 'fish with legs and claws,' as if the word was from _chang_ (Pers.), 'a hook or claw.' _Bāgḍor_, 'a halter,' or as he writes, _baug-doore_, he derives from _dūr_, 'distance,' instead of _ḍor_, 'a rope.' He has no knowledge of the instrumental case with terminal _ne_, and he does not seem to be aware that _ham_ and _tum_ (_hum_ and _toom_, as he writes) are in reality plurals ('we' and 'you'). The grammar is altogether of a very primitive and tentative character, and far behind that of the R. C. Missionaries, which is referred to s.v. HINDOSTANEE. We have not seen that of Schulz (1745) mentioned under the same.

1752.—"The Centinel was sitting at the top of the gate, singing a MOORISH song."—_Orme_, ed. 1803, i. 272.

1767.—"In order to transact Business of any kind in this Countrey, you must at least have a smattering of the Language for few of the Inhabitants (except in great Towns) speak English. The original Language, of this Countrey (or at least the earliest we know of) is the Bengala or Gentoo.... But the politest Language is the MOORS or Mussulmans and Persian.... The only Language that I know anything of is the Bengala, and that I do not speak perfectly, for you may remember that I had a very poor knack at learning Languages."—_MS. Letter of James Rennell_, March 10.

1779.—"_C._ What language did Mr. Francis speak?

_W._ (_Meerum Kitmutgar_). The same as I do, in broken MOORS."—_Trial of_ Grand _v._ Philip Francis, quoted in _Echoes of Old Calcutta_, 226.

1783.—"MOORS, by not being written, bars all close application."—Letter in _Life of Colebrooke_, 13.

" "The language called 'MOORS' has a written character differing both from the Sanskrit and Bengalee character, it is called _Nagree_, which means 'writing.'"—Letter in _Mem. of Ld. Teignmouth_, i. 104.

1784.—

"Wild perroquets first silence broke, Eager of dangers near to prate; But they in English never spoke, And she began her MOORS of late." _Plassey Plain_, a Ballad by _Sir W. Jones_, in _Works_, ii. 504.

1788.—"_Wants Employment._ A young man who has been some years in Bengal, used to common accounts, understands _Bengallies_, MOORS, Portuguese...."—In _Seton-Karr_, i. 286.

1789.—"... sometimes slept half an hour, sometimes not, and then wrote or talked Persian or MOORS till sunset, when I went to parade."—Letter of _Sir T. Munro_, i. 76.

1802.—"All business is transacted in a barbarous mixture of MOORS, Mahratta, and Gentoo."—_Sir T. Munro_, in _Life_, i. 333.

1803.—"Conceive what society there will be when people speak what they don't think, in MOORS."—_M. Elphinstone_, in _Life_, i. 108.

1804.—"She had a MOORISH woman interpreter, and as I heard her give orders to her interpreter in the MOORISH language ... I must consider the conversation of the first authority."—_Wellington_, iii. 290.

" "_The Stranger's Guide to the Hindoostanic, or Grand Popular Language of India, improperly called_ MOORISH; _by_ J. Borthwick Gilchrist: _Calcutta_."

MOORUM, s. A word used in Western India for gravel, &c., especially as used in road-metal. The word appears to be Mahratti. Molesworth gives "_murūm_, a fissile kind of stone, probably decayed Trap." [_Murukallu_ is the Tel. name for LATERITE. (Also see CABOOK.)]

[1875.—"There are few places where MORRAM, or decomposed granite, is not to be found."—_Gribble, Cuddapah_, 247.

[1883.—"Underneath is MORAMBU, a good filtering medium."—_Le Fanu, Salem_, ii. 43.]

MOOTSUDDY, s. A native accountant. Hind. _mutaṣaddī_ from Ar. _mutaṣaddi_.

1683.—"Cossadass ye Chief Secretary, MUTSUDDIES, and ye Nabobs Chief Eunuch will be paid all their money beforehand."—_Hedges, Diary_, Jan. 6; [Hak. Soc. i. 61].

[1762.—"MUTTASUDDIES." See under GOMASTA.]

1785.—"This representation has caused us the utmost surprise. Whenever the MUTSUDDIES belonging to your department cease to yield you proper obedience, you must give them a severe flogging."—_Tippoo's Letters_, p. 2.

" "Old age has certainly made havock on your understanding, otherwise you would have known that the MUTUSUDDIES here are not the proper persons to determine the market prices there."—_Ibid._ p. 118.

[1809.—"The regular battalions have also been riotous, and confined their MOOTUSUDEE, the officer who keeps their accounts, and transacts the public business on the part of the commandant."—_Broughton, Letters_, ed. 1892, p. 135.]

MOPLAH, s. Malayāl. _māppila_. The usual application of this word is to the indigenous Mahommedans of Malabar; but it is also applied to the indigenous (so-called) Syrian Christians of Cochin and Travancore. In Morton's _Life of Leyden_ the word in the latter application is curiously misprinted as _madilla_. The derivation of the word is very obscure. Wilson gives _mā-pilla_, 'mother's son,' "as sprung from the intercourse of foreign colonists, who were persons unknown, with Malabar women." Nelson, as quoted below interprets the word as 'bridegroom' (it should however rather be 'son-in-law').[172] Dr. Badger suggests that it is from the Arabic verb _falaḥa_, and means 'a cultivator' (compare the _fellah_ of Egypt), whilst Mr. C. P. Brown expresses his conviction that it was a Tamil mispronunciation of the Arabic _mu'abbar_, 'from over the water.' No one of these greatly commends itself. [Mr. Logan (_Malabar_, ii. ccviii.) and the _Madras Glossary_ derive it from Mal. _ma_, Skt. _māha_, 'great,' and Mal. _piḷḷa_, 'a child.' Dr. Gundert's view is that _Māpiḷḷa_ was an honorary title given to colonists from the W., perhaps at first only to their representatives.]

1516.—"In all this country of Malabar there are a great quantity of Moors, who are of the same language and colour as the Gentiles of the country.... They call these Moors MAPULERS; they carry on nearly all the trade of the seaports."—_Barbosa_, 146.

1767.—"Ali Raja, the Chief of Cananore, who was a Muhammadan, and of the tribe called MAPILLA, rejoiced at the success and conquests of a Muhammadan Chief."—_H. of Hydur_, p. 184.

1782.—"... les MAPLETS reçurent les coutumes et les superstitions des Gentils, sous l'empire des quels ils vivoient. C'est pour se conformer aux usages des Malabars, que les enfans des MAPLETS n'héritent point de leurs pères, mais des frères de leurs mères."—_Sonnerat_, i. 193.

1787.—

"Of MOPLAS fierce your hand has tam'd, And monsters that your sword has maim'd." _Life and Letters of J. Ritson_, 1833, i. 114.

1800.—"We are not in the most thriving condition in this country. Polegars, nairs, and MOPLAS in arms on all sides of us."—_Wellington_, i. 43.

1813.—"At one period the MOPLAHS created great commotion in Travancore, and towards the end of the 17th century massacred the chief of Anjengo, and all the English gentlemen belonging to the settlement, when on a public visit to the Queen of Attinga."—_Forbes, Or. Mem._ i. 402; [2nd ed. i. 259].

1868.—"I may add in concluding my notice that the Kallans alone of all the castes of Madura call the Mahometans '_māpilleis_' or bridegrooms (MOPLAHS)."—_Nelson's Madura_, Pt. ii. 55.

MORA, s. Hind. _moṛhā_. A stool (_tabouret_); a footstool. In common colloquial use.

[1795.—"The old man, whose attention had been chiefly attracted by a Ramnaghur MORAH, of which he was desirous to know the construction, ... departed."—_Capt. Blunt_, in _Asiat. Res._, vii. 92.

[1843.—"Whilst seated on a round stool, or MONDAH, in the thanna, ... I entered into conversation with the thannadar...."—_Davidson, Travels in Upper India_, i. 127.]

MORCHAL, s. A fan, or a fly-whisk, made of peacock's feathers. Hind. _morch'hal_.

1673.—"All the heat of the Day they idle it under some shady Tree, at night they come in troops, armed with a great Pole, a MIRCHAL or Peacock's Tail, and a Wallet."—_Fryer_, 95.

1690.—(The heat) "makes us Employ our Peons in Fanning of us with MURCHALS made of Peacock's Feathers, four or five Foot long, in the time of our Entertainments, and when we take our Repose."—_Ovington_, 335.

[1826.—"They (Gosseins) are clothed in a ragged mantle, and carry a long pole, and a MIRCHAL, or peacock's tail."—_Pandurang Hari_, ed. 1873, i. 76.]

MORT-DE-CHIEN, s. A name for cholera, in use, more or less, up to the end of the 18th century, and the former prevalence of which has tended probably to the extraordinary and baseless notion that epidemic cholera never existed in India till the governorship of the Marquis of Hastings. The word in this form is really a corruption of the Portuguese MORDEXIM, shaped by a fanciful French etymology. The Portuguese word again represents the Konkani and Mahratti _moḍachī_, _moḍshī_, or _moḍwashī_, 'cholera,' from a Mahr. verb _moḍnen_, 'to break up, to sink' (as under infirmities, in fact 'to collapse'). The Guzaratī appears to be _moṛchi_ or _moṛachi_.

[1504.—Writing of this year Correa mentions the prevalence of the disease in the Samorin's army, but he gives it no name. "Besides other illness there was one almost sudden, which caused such a pain in the belly that a man hardly survived 8 hours of it."—_Correa_, i. 489.]

1543.—Correa's description is so striking that we give it almost at length: "This WINTER they had in Goa a mortal distemper which the natives call MORXY, and attacking persons of every quality, from the smallest infant at the breast to the old man of fourscore, and also domestic animals and fowls, so that it affected every living thing, male and female. And this malady attacked people without any cause that could be assigned, falling upon sick and sound alike, on the fat and the lean; and nothing in the world was a safeguard against it. And this malady attacked the stomach, caused as some experts affirmed by chill; though later it was maintained that no cause whatever could be discovered. The malady was so powerful and so evil that it immediately produced the symptoms of strong poison; _e.g._, vomiting, constant desire for water, with drying of the stomach; and cramps that contracted the hams and the soles of the feet, with such pains that the patient seemed dead, with the eyes broken and the nails of the fingers and toes black and crumpled. And for this malady our physicians never found any cure; and the patient was carried off in one day, or at the most in a day and night; insomuch that not ten in a hundred recovered, and those who did recover were such as were healed in haste with medicines of little importance known to the natives. So great was the mortality this season that the bells were tolling all day ... insomuch that the governor forbade the tolling of the church bells, not to frighten the people ... and when a man died in the hospital of this malady of MOREXY the Governor ordered all the experts to come together and open the body. But they found nothing wrong except that the paunch was shrunk up like a hen's gizzard, and wrinkled like a piece of scorched leather...."—_Correa_, iv. 288-289.

1563.—"_Page._—Don Jeronymo sends to beg that you will go and visit his brother immediately, for though this is not the time of day for visits, delay would be dangerous, and he will be very thankful that you come at once.

"_Orta._—What is the matter with the patient, and how long has he been ill?

"_Page._—He has got MORXI; and he has been ill two hours.

"_Orta._—I will follow you.

"_Ruano._—Is this the disease that kills so quickly, and that few recover from? Tell me how it is called by our people, and by the natives, and the symptoms of it, and the treatment you use in it.

"_Orta._—Our name for the disease is _Collerica passio_; and the Indians call it _morxi_; whence again by corruption we call it MORDEXI.... It is sharper here than in our own part of the world, for usually it kills in four and twenty hours. And I have seen some cases where the patient did not live more than ten hours. The most that it lasts is four days; but as there is no rule without an exception, I once saw a man with great constancy of virtue who lived twenty days continually throwing up ("_curginosa_"?) ... bile, and died at last. Let us go and see this sick man; and as for the symptoms you will yourself see what a thing it is."—_Garcia_, ff. 74_v_, 75.

1578.—"There is another thing which is useless called by them _canarin_, which the Canarin Brahman physicians usually employ for the _collerica passio_ sickness, which they call MORXI; which sickness is so sharp that it kills in fourteen hours or less."—_Acosta, Tractado_, 27.

1598.—"There reigneth a sicknesse called MORDEXIJN which stealeth uppon men, and handleth them in such sorte, that it weakeneth a man, and maketh him cast out all that he hath in his bodie, and many times his life withall."—_Linschoten_, 67; [Hak. Soc. i. 235; MORXI in ii. 22].

1599.—"The disease which in India is called MORDICIN. This is a species of Colic, which comes on in those countries with such force and vehemence that it kills in a few hours; and there is no remedy discovered. It causes evacuations by stool or vomit, and makes one burst with pain. But there is a herb proper for the cure, which bears the same name of MORDESCIN."—_Carletti_, 227.

1602.—"In those islets (off Aracan) they found bad and brackish water, and certain beans like ours both green and dry, of which they ate some, and in the same moment this gave them a kind of dysentery, which in India they corruptly call MORDEXIM, which ought to be _morxis_, and which the Arabs call _sachaiza_ (Ar. _hayẓat_), which is what Rasis calls _sahida_, a disease which kills in 24 hours. Its action is immediately to produce a sunken and slender pulse, with cold sweat, great inward fire, and excessive thirst, the eyes sunken, great vomitings, and in fact it leaves the natural power so collapsed (_derribada_) that the patient seems like a dead man."—_Couto_, Dec. IV. liv. iv. cap. 10.

c. 1610.—"Il regne entre eux vne autre maladie qui vient a l'improviste, ils la nomment MORDESIN, et vient auec grande douleur des testes, et vomissement, et crient fort, et le plus souvent en meurent."—_Pyrard de Laval_, ii. 19; [Hak. Soc. ii. 13].

1631.—"Pulvis ejus (Calumbac) ad scrup. unius pondus sumptus cholerae prodest, quam MORDEXI incolae vocant."—_Jac. Bontii_, lib. iv. p. 43.

1638.—"... celles qui y regnent le plus, sont celles qu'ils appellent MORDEXIN, qui tue subitement."—_Mandelslo_, 265.

1648.—See also the (questionable) _Voyages Fameux du Sieur Victor le Blanc_, 76.

c. 1665.—"Les Portugais appellent MORDECHIN les quatre sortes de Coliques qu'on souffre dans les Indes ou elles sont frequentes ... ceux qui ont la quatrième soufrent les trois maux ensemble, à savoir le vomissement, le flux de ventre, les extremes douleurs, et je crois que cette derniere est le Colera-Morbus."—_Thevenot_, v. 324.

1673.—"They apply Cauteries most unmercifully in a MORDISHEEN, called so by the Portugals, being a Vomiting with Looseness."—_Fryer_, 114.

[1674.—"The disease called MORDECHI generally commences with a violent fever, accompanied by tremblings, horrors and vomitings; these symptoms are generally followed by delirium and death." He prescribes a hot iron applied to the soles of the feet. He attributes the disease to indigestion, and remarks bitterly that at least the prisoners of the Inquisition were safe from this disease.—_Dellon, Relation de l'Inquisition de Goa_, ii. ch. 71.]

1690.—"The MORDECHINE is another Disease ... which is a violent Vomiting and Looseness."—_Ovington_, 350.

c. 1690.—_Rumphius_, speaking of the JACK-fruit (q.v.): "Non nisi vacuo stomacho edendus est, alias enim ... plerumque oritur _Passio Cholerica_, Portugallis MORDEXI dicta."—_Herb. Amb._, i. 106.

1702.—"Cette grande indigestion qu'on appelle aux Indes MORDECHIN, et que quelques uns de nos Français ont appellée MORT-DE-CHIEN."—_Lettres Edif._, xi. 156.

_Bluteau_ (s.v.) says MORDEXIM is properly a failure of digestion which is very perilous in those parts, unless the native remedy be used. This is to apply a thin rod, like a spit, and heated, under the heel, till the patient screams with pain, and then to slap the same part with the sole of a shoe, &c.

1705.—"Ce mal s'appelle MORT-DE-CHIEN."—_Luillier_, 113.

The following is an example of literal translation, as far as we know, unique:

1716.—"The extraordinary distempers of this country (I. of Bourbon) are the _Cholick_, and what they call the _Dog's Disease_, which is cured by burning the heel of the patient with a hot iron."—_Acct. of the I. of Bourbon_, in _La Roque's Voyage to Arabia the Happy_, &c., E.T. London, 1726, p. 155.

1727.—"... the MORDEXIN (which seizes one suddenly with such oppression and palpitation that he thinks he is going to die on the spot)."—_Valentijn_, v. (Malabar) 5.

c. 1760.—"There is likewise known, on the Malabar coast chiefly, a most violent disorder they call the MORDECHIN; which seizes the patient with such fury of purging, vomiting, and tormina of the intestines, that it will often carry him off in 30 hours."—_Grose_, i. 250.

1768.—"This (cholera morbus) in the East Indies, where it is very frequent and fatal, is called MORT-DE-CHIEN."—_Lind, Essay on Diseases incidental to Hot Climates_, 248.

1778.—In the Vocabulary of the Portuguese _Grammatica Indostana_, we find MORDECHIM, as a Portuguese word, rendered in Hind. by the word _badazmi_, _i.e._ _bad-haẓmī_, 'dyspepsia' (p. 99). The most common modern Hind. term for cholera is Arab. _haiẓah_. The latter word is given by Garcia de Orta in the form _hachaiza_, and in the quotation from Couto as _sachaiza_ (?). Jahāngīr speaks of one of his nobles as dying in the Deccan, of _haiẓah_, in A.D. 1615 (see note to _Elliot_, vi. 346). It is, however, perhaps not to be assumed that _haiẓah_ always means cholera. Thus Macpherson mentions that a violent epidemic, which raged in the Camp of Aurangzīb at Bījapur in 1689, is called so. But in the history of Khāfi Khān (_Elliot_, vii. 337) the general phrases _ta'ūn_ and _wabā_ are used in reference to this disease, whilst the description is that of bubonic plague.

1781.—"Early in the morning of the 21st June (1781) we had two men seized with the MORT-DE-CHIEN."—_Curtis, Diseases of India_, 3rd ed., Edinb., 1807.

1782.—"Les indigestions appellées dans l'Inde MORT-DE-CHIEN, sont fréquentes. Les Castes qui mangent de la viande, nourriture trop pesante pour un climat si chaud, en sont souvent attaquées...."—_Sonnerat_, i. 205. This author writes just after having described two epidemics of cholera under the name of _Flux aigu_. He did not apprehend that this was in fact the real MORT-DE-CHIEN.

1783.—"A disease generally called 'MORT-DE-CHIEN' at this time (during the defence of Onore) raged with great violence among the native inhabitants."—_Forbes, Or. Mem._ iv. 122.

1796.—"Far more dreadful are the consequences of the above-mentioned intestinal colic, called by the Indians _shani_, MORDEXIM, and also _Nircomben_. It is occasioned, as I have said, by the winds blowing from the mountains ... the consequence is that malignant and bilious slimy matter adheres to the bowels, and occasions violent pains, vomiting, fevers, and stupefaction; so that persons attacked with the disease die very often in a few hours. It sometimes happens that 30 or 40 persons die in this manner, in one place, in the course of the day.... In the year 1782 this disease raged with so much fury that a great many persons died of it."—_Fra Paolino_, E.T. 409-410 (orig. see p. 353). As to the names used by Fra Paolino, for his _Shani_ or _Ciani_, we find nothing nearer than Tamil and Mal. _sanni_, 'convulsion, paralysis.' (Winslow in his _Tamil Dict._ specifies 13 kinds of _sanni_. _Komben_ is explained as 'a kind of cholera or smallpox' (!); and _nir-komben_ ('water-k.') as a kind of cholera or bilious diarrhœa.) Paolino adds: "La _droga amara_ costa assai, e non si poteva amministrare a tanti miserabili che perivano. Adunque in mancanza di questa droga amara noi distillasimo in _Tàgara_, o acqua vite di coco, molto sterco di cavalli (!), e l'amministrammo agl'infermi. Tutti quelli che prendevano questa guarivano."

1808.—"MÔRCHEE or MORTSHEE (Guz.) and _Môdee_ (Mah.). A morbid affection in which the symptoms are convulsive action, followed by evacuations of the first passage up and down, with intolerable tenesmus, or twisting-like sensation in the intestines, corresponding remarkably with the cholera-morbus of European synopsists, called by the country people in England (?) MORTISHEEN, and by others MORD-DU-CHIEN and MAUA DES CHIENES, as if it had come from France."—_R. Drummond, Illustrations_, &c. A curious notice; and the author was, we presume, from his title of "Dr.," a medical man. We suppose for _England_ above should be read _India_.

The next quotation is the latest instance of the _familiar_ use of the word that we have met with:

1812.—"General M—— was taken very ill three or four days ago; a kind of fit—MORT DE CHIEN—the doctor said, brought on by eating too many radishes."—_Original Familiar Correspondence between Residents in India_, &c., Edinburgh, 1846, p. 287.

1813.—"MORT DE CHIEN is nothing more than the highest degree of Cholera Morbus."—_Johnson, Infl. of Tropical Climate_, 405.

The second of the following quotations evidently refers to the outbreak of cholera mentioned, after Macpherson, in the next paragraph.

1780.—"I am once or twice a year (!) subject to violent attacks of CHOLERA MORBUS, here called MORT-DE-CHIEN...."—_Impey to Dunning_, quoted by _Sir James Stephen_, ii. 339.

1781.—"The Plague is now broke out in Bengal, and rages with great violence; it has swept away already above 4000 persons. 200 or upwards have been buried in the different Portuguese churches within a few days."—_Hicky's Bengal Gazette_, April 21.

These quotations show that cholera, whether as an epidemic or as sporadic disease, is no new thing in India. Almost in the beginning of the Portuguese expeditions to the East we find apparent examples of the visitations of this terrible scourge, though no precise name is given in the narratives. Thus we read in the Life of Giovanni da Emboli, an adventurous young Florentine who served with the Portuguese, that, arriving in China in 1517, the ships' crews were attacked by a _pessima malatia di frusso_ (virulent flux) of such kind that there died thereof about 70 men, and among these Giovanni himself, and two other Florentines (_Vita_, in _Archiv. Stor. Ital._ 33). Correa says that, in 1503, 20,000 men died of a like disease in the army of the Zamorin. We have given above Correa's description of the terrible Goa pest of 1543, which was most evidently cholera. Madras accounts, according to Macpherson, first mention the disease at Arcot in 1756, and there are frequent notices of it in that neighbourhood between 1763 and 1787. The Hon. R. Lindsay speaks of it as raging at Sylhet in 1781, after carrying off a number of the inhabitants of Calcutta (_Macpherson_, see the quotation of 1781 above). It also raged that year at Ganjam, and out of a division of 5000 Bengal troops under Col. Pearse, who were on the march through that district, 1143 were in a few days sent into hospital, whilst "death raged in the camp with a horror not to be described." The earliest account from the pen of an English physician is by Dr. Paisley, and is dated Madras, Feby. 1774. In 1783 it broke out at Hardwār Fair, and is said, in less than 8 days, to have carried off 20,000 pilgrims. The paucity of cases of cholera among European troops in the returns up to 1817, is ascribed by Dr. Macnamara to the way in which facts were disguised by the current nomenclature of disease. It need not perhaps be denied that the outbreak of 1817 marked a great recrudescence of the disease. But it is a fact that some of the more terrible features of the epidemic, which are then spoken of as quite new, had been prominently described at Goa nearly three centuries before.

See on this subject an article by Dr. J. Macpherson in _Quarterly Review_, for Jany. 1867, and a _Treatise on Asiatic Cholera_, by C. Macnamara, 1876. To these, and especially to the former, we owe several facts and references; though we had recorded quotations relating to MORDEXIN and its identity with cholera some years before even the earlier of these publications.

MORDEXIM, MORDIXIM, s. Also the name of a sea-fish. Bluteau says 'a fish found at the Isle of Quixembe on the Coast of Mozambique, very like _bogas_ (?) or river-pikes.'

MOSELLAY, n.p. A site at Shīrāz often mentioned by Hāfiz as a favourite spot, and near which is his tomb.

c. 1350.—

"Boy! let yon liquid ruby flow, And bid thy pensive heart be glad, Whate'er the frowning zealots say; Tell them that Eden cannot show A stream so clear as Rocnabad; A bower so sweet as MOSSELLAY." _Hafiz_, rendered by _Sir W. Jones_.

1811.—"The stream of Rúknabád murmured near us; and within three or four hundred yards was the MOSSELLÁ and the Tomb of Hafiz."—_W. Ouseley's Travels_, i. 318.

1813.—"Not a shrub now remains of the bower of MOSSELLA, the situation of which is now only marked by the ruins of an ancient tower."—_Macdonald Kinneir's Persia_, 62.

MOSQUE, s. There is no room for doubt as to the original of this word being the Ar. _masjid_, 'a place of worship,' literally the place of _sujūd_, _i.e._ 'prostration.' And the probable course is this. _Masjid_ becomes (1) in Span. _mezquita_, Port. _mesquita_;[173] (2) Ital. _meschita_, _moschea_; French (old) _mosquete_, _mosquée_; (3) Eng. _mosque_. Some of the quotations might suggest a different course of modification, but they would probably mislead.

Apropos of _masjid_ rather than of mosque we have noted a ludicrous misapplication of the word in the advertisement to a newspaper story. "_Musjeed_ the Hindoo: Adventures with the Star of India in the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857." The _Weekly Detroit Free Press, London_, July 1, 1882.

1336.—"Corpusque ipsius perditissimi Pseudo-prophetae ... in civitate quae Mecha dicitur ... pro maximo sanctuario conservatur in pulchrâ ipsorum Ecclesiâ quam MULSCKET vulgariter dicunt."—_Gul. de Boldensele_, in _Canisii Thesaur. ed. Basnage_, iv.

1384.—"Sonvi le MOSQUETTE, cioe chiese de' Saraceni ... dentro tutte bianche ed intonicate ed ingessate."—_Frescobaldi_, 29.

1543.—"And with the stipulation that the 5000 _larin tangas_ which in old times were granted, and are deposited for the expenses of the MIZQUITAS of Baçaim, are to be paid from the said duties as they always have been paid, and in regard to the said MIZQUITAS and the prayers that are made in them there shall be no innovation whatever."—Treaty at Baçaim of the Portuguese with King Bador of Çanbaya (Bahādur Shāh of Guzerat) in _S. Botelho, Tombo_, 137.

1553.—"... but destined yet to unfurl that divine and royal banner of the Soldiery of Christ ... in the Eastern regions of Asia, amidst the infernal MESQUITAS of Arabia and Persia, and all the PAGODES of the heathenism of India, on this side and beyond the Ganges."—_Barros_, I. i. 1.

[c. 1610.—"The principal temple, which they call _Oucourou_ MISQUITTE" (_Hukuru miskitu_, 'Friday mosque').—_Pyrard de Laval_, Hak. Soc. i. 72.]

1616.—"They are very jealous to let their women or MOSCHEES be seen."—_Sir T. Roe_, in _Purchas_, i. 537; [Hak. Soc. ii. 21].

[1623.—"We went to see upon the same Lake a MESCHITA, or temple of the Mahometans."—_P. della Valle_, Hak. Soc. i. 69.]

1634.—

"Que a de abominação MESQUITA immũda Casa, a Deos dedicada hoje se veja." _Malaca Conquistada_, l. xii. 43.

1638.—Mandelslo unreasonably applies the term to all sorts of pagan temples, _e.g._—

"Nor is it only in great Cities that the _Benjans_ have their many MOSQUEYS...."—E.T. 2nd ed. 1669, p. 52.

"The King of _Siam_ is a _Pagan_, nor do his Subjects know any other Religion. They have divers MOSQUEES, Monasteries, and Chappels."—_Ibid._ p. 104.

c. 1662.—"... he did it only for love to their Mammon; and would have sold afterwards for as much more St. Peter's ... to the Turks for a MOSQUITO."—_Crowley_, Discourse concerning the Govt. of O. Cromwell.

1680.—Consn. Ft. St. Geo. March 28: "Records the death of Cassa Verona ... and a dispute arising as to whether his body should be burned by the _Gentues_ or buried by the _Moors_, the latter having stopped the procession on the ground that the deceased was a Mussleman and built a MUSSEET in the Towne to be buried in, the Governor with the advice of his Council sent an order that the body should be burned as a _Gentue_, and not buried by the _Moors_, it being apprehended to be of dangerous consequence to admit the Moors such pretences in the Towne."—_Notes and Exts._ No. iii. p. 14.

1719.—"On condition they had a COWLE granted, exempting them from paying the Pagoda or MUSQUEET duty."—In _Wheeler_, ii. 301.

1727.—"There are no fine Buildings in the City, but many large Houses, and some Caravanserays and MUSCHEITS."—_A. Hamilton_, i. 161; [ed. 1774, i. 163].

c. 1760.—"The Roman Catholic Churches, the Moorish MOSCHS, the Gentoo Pagodas, the worship of the Parsees, are all equally unmolested and tolerated."—_Grose_, i. 44.

[1862.—"... I slept at a MUSHEED, or village house of prayer."—_Brinckman, Rifle in Cashmere_, 78.]

MOSQUITO, s. A gnat is so called in the tropics. The word is Spanish and Port. (dim. of _mosca_, 'a fly'), and probably came into familiar English use from the East Indies, though the earlier quotations show that it was _first_ brought from S. America. A friend annotates here: "Arctic mosquitoes are worst of all; and the Norfolk ones (in the Broads) beat Calcutta!"

It is related of a young Scotch lady of a former generation who on her voyage to India had heard formidable, but vague accounts of this terror of the night, that on seeing an elephant for the first time, she asked: "Will yon be what's called a MUSQUEETAE?"

1539.—"To this misery was there adjoyned the great affliction, which the Flies and Gnats (_por parte dos atabões e_ MOSQUITOS), that coming out of the neighbouring Woods, bit and stung us in such sort, as not one of us but was gore blood."—_Pinto_ (orig. cap. xxiii.), in _Cogan_, p. 29.

1582.—"We were oftentimes greatly annoyed with a kind of flie, which in the Indian tongue is called _Tiquari_, and the Spanish call them MUSKITOS."—_Miles Phillips_, in _Hakl._ iii. 564.

1584.—"The 29 Day we set Saile from Saint Iohns, being many of vs stung before upon Shoare with the MUSKITOS; but the same night we tooke a Spanish Frigat."—_Sir Richard Greenevile's Voyage_, in _Hakl._ iii. 308.

1616 and 1673.—See both _Terry_ and _Fryer_ under CHINTS.

1662.—"At night there is a kind of insect that plagues one mightily; they are called MUSCIETEN,—it is a kind that by their noise and sting cause much irritation."—_Saar_, 68-69.

1673.—"The greatest Pest is the MOSQUITO, which not only wheals, but domineers by its continual Hums."—_Fryer_, 189.

1690.—(The Governor) "carries along with him a _Peon_ or Servant to Fan him, and drive away the busie Flies, and troublesome MUSKETOES. This is done with the Hair of a Horse's Tail."—_Ovington_, 227-8.

1740.—"... all the day we were pestered with great numbers of MUSCATOS, which are not much unlike the gnats in _England_, but more venomous...."—_Anson's Voyage_, 9th ed., 1756, p. 46.

1764.—

"MOSQUITOS, sandflies, seek the sheltered roof, And with full rage the stranger guest assail, Nor spare the sportive child." —_Grainger_, bk. i.

1883.—"Among rank weeds in deserted Bombay gardens, too, there is a large, speckled, unmusical MOSQUITO, raging and importunate and thirsty, which will give a new idea in pain to any one that visits its haunts."—_Tribes on My Frontier_, 27.

MOTURPHA, s. Hind. from Ar. _muḥtarafa_, but according to C. P. B. _mu'tarifa_; [rather Ar. _muḥtarifa_, _muḥtarif_, 'an artizan']. A name technically applied to a number of miscellaneous taxes in Madras and Bombay, such as were called SAYER (q.v.), in Bengal.

[1813.—"MOHTEREFA. An artificer. Taxes, personal and professional, on artificers, merchants and others; also on houses, implements of agriculture, looms, &c., a branch of the SAYER."—_Gloss. 5th Report_, s.v.

1826.—"... for example, the tax on merchants, manufacturers, &c. (called MOHTURFA)...."—_Grant Duff, H. of the Mahrattas_, 3rd ed. 356.]

MOULMEIN, n.p. This is said to be originally a Talaing name _Mut-mwoa-lem_, syllables which mean (or may be made to mean) 'one-eye-destroyed'; and to account for which a cock-and-bull legend is given (probably invented for the purpose): "Tradition says that the city was founded ... by a king with three eyes, having an extra eye in his forehead, but that by the machinations of a woman, the eye in his forehead was destroyed...." (_Mason's Burmah_, 2nd ed. p. 18). The Burmese corrupted the name into _Mau-la-yaing_, whence the foreign (probably Malay) form _Maulmain_. The place so called is on the opposite side of the estuary of the Salwin R. from MARTABAN (q.v.), and has entirely superseded that once famous port. Moulmein, a mere site, was chosen as the headquarters of the Tenasserim provinces, when those became British in 1826 after the first Burmese War. It has lost political importance since the annexation of Pegu, 26 years later, but is a thriving city which numbered in 1881, 53,107 inhabitants; [in 1891, 55,785].

MOUNT DELY, n.p. (See DELLY, MOUNT.)

MOUSE-DEER, s. The beautiful little creature, _Meminna indica_ (Gray), [_Tragulus meminna_, the Indian Chevrotain (_Blanford, Mammalia_, 555),] found in various parts of India, and weighing under 6 lbs., is so called. But the name is also applied to several pigmy species of the genus _Tragulus_, found in the Malay regions, [where, according to Mr. Skeat, it takes in popular tradition the place of Brer Rabbit, outwitting even the tiger, elephant, and crocodile.] All belong to the family of Musk-deer.

MUCHÁN, s. Hind. _machān_, Dekh. _manchān_, Skt. _maṅcha_. An elevated platform; such as the floor of huts among the Indo-Chinese races; or a stage or scaffolding erected to watch a tiger, to guard a field, or what not.

c. 1662.—"As the soil of the country is very damp, the people do not live on the ground-floor, but on the MACHÁN, which is the name for a raised floor."—_Shihábuddín Tálish_, by _Blochmann_, in _J. A. S. B._ xli. Pt. i. 84.

[1882.—"In a shady green MECHAN in some fine tree, watching at the cool of evening...."—_Sanderson, Thirteen Years_, 3rd ed. 284.]

MUCHWA, s. Mahr. _machwā_, Hind. _machuā_, _machwā_. A kind of boat or barge in use about Bombay.

MUCKNA, s. Hind. _makhnā_, [which comes from Skt. _matkuna_, 'a bug, a flea, a beardless man, an elephant without tusks']. A male elephant without tusks or with only rudimentary tusks. These latter are familiar in Bengal, and still more so in Ceylon, where according to Sir S. Baker, "not more than one in 300 has tusks; they are merely provided with short grubbers, projecting generally about 3 inches from the upper jaw, and about 2 inches in diameter." (_The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon_, 11.) Sanderson (_13 Years among the Wild Beasts of India_, [3rd ed. 66]) says: "On the Continent of India _mucknas_, or elephants _born_ without tusks, are decidedly rare ... _Mucknas_ breed in the herds, and the peculiarity is not hereditary or transmitted." This author also states that out of 51 male elephants captured by him in Mysore and Bengal only 5 were _mucknas_. But the definition of a _makhnā_ in Bengal is that which we have given, including those animals which possess only feminine or rudimentary tusks, the 'short grubbers' of Baker; and these latter can hardly be called rare among domesticated elephants. This may be partially due to a preference in purchasers.[174] The same author derives the term from _mukh_, 'face'; but the reason is obscure. Shakespear and Platts give the word as also applied to 'a cock without spurs.'

c. 1780.—"An elephant born with the left tooth only is reckoned sacred; with black spots in the mouth unlucky, and not saleable; the MUKNA or elephant born without teeth is thought the best."—_Hon. R. Lindsay_ in _Lives of the Lindsays_, iii. 194.

MUCOA, MUKUVA, n.p. Malayal. and Tamil, _mukkuvan_ (sing.), 'a diver,' and _mukkuvar_ (pl.). [Logan (_Malabar_, ii. Gloss. s.v.) derives it from Drav. _mukkuha_, 'to dive'; the _Madras Gloss._ gives Tam. _muzhugu_, with the same meaning.] A name applied to the fishermen of the western coast of the Peninsula near C. Comorin. [But Mr. Pringle (_Diary, Ft. St. Geo._ 1st ser.