Chapter BANDICOY to BANGY of B by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

BANDICOY to BANGY

BANDICOY, s. The colloquial name in S. India of the fruit of Hibiscus esculentus; Tamil vendai-khai, i.e. unripe fruit of the vendai, called in H. bhendi. See BENDY.

BANDO! H. imperative bandho, ‘tie or make fast.’ “This and probably other Indian words have been naturalised in the docks on the Thames frequented by Lascar crews. I have heard a London lighter- man, in the Victoria Docks, throw a rope ashore to another Londoner, calling out, Bando!”—(M.-Gen. Keatinge.)

BANDY, s. A carriage, bullock-carriage, buggy, or cart. This word is usual in both the S. and W. Presidencies, but is unknown in Bengal, and in the N.W.P. It is the Tamil vandi, Telug. bandi, ‘a cart or vehicle.’ The word, as bendi, is also used in Java. [Mr Skeat writes—“Klinkert has Mal. bendi, ‘a chaise or caleche,’ but I have not heard the word in standard Malay, though Clifford and Swett. have bendu, ‘a kind of sedan-chair carried by men,’ and the commoner word tandu ‘a sedan-chair or litter,’ which I have heard in Selangor. Wilkinson says that kereta (i.e. kreta bendi) is used to signify any two-wheeled vehicle in Johor.”]

1791.—“To be sold, an elegant new and fashionable Bandy, with copper panels, lined with Morocco leather.”—Madras Courier, 29th Sept.

1800.—“No wheel-carriages can be used in Canara, not even a buffalo-bandy.”—Letter of Sir T. Munro, in Life, i. 243.

1810.—“None but open carriages are used in Ceylon; we therefore went in bandies, or, in plain English, gigs.”—Maria Graham, 88.

1826.—“Those persons who have not European coachmen have the horses of their…‘bandies’ or gigs, led by these men…Gigs and hackeries all go here (in Ceylon) by the name of bandy.”—Heber (ed. 1844), ii. 152.

1829.—“A mighty solemn old man, seated in an open bundy (read bandy) (as a gig with a head that has an opening behind is called) at Madras.”—Mem. of Col. Mountain, 2nd ed. 84.

1860.—“Bullock bandies, covered with cajans met us.”—Tennent’s Ceylon, ii. 146.

1862.—“At Coimbatore I bought a bandy or country cart of the simplest construction.”—Markham’s Peru and India, 393.

BANG, BHANG, s. H. bhang, the dried leaves and small stalks of hemp (i.e. Cannabis indica), used to cause intoxication, either by smoking, or when eaten mixed up into a sweetmeat (see MAJOON). Hashish of the Arabs is substantially the same; Birdwood says it “consists of the tender tops of the plants after flowering.” [Bhang is usually derived from Skt. bhanga, ‘breaking,’ but Burton derives both it and the Ar. banj from the old Coptie Nibanj, “meaning a preparation of hemp; and here it is easy to recognise the Homeric Nepenthe.”

“On the other hand, not a few apply the word to the henbane (hyoscyamus niger) so much used in mediæval Europe. The Kámús evidently means henbane, distinguishing it from Hashísh al haráfísh, ‘rascal’s grass,’ i.e. the herb Pantagruelion…The use of Bhang doubtless dates from the dawn of civilisation, whose earliest social pleasures would be inebriants. Herodotus (iv. c. 75) shows the Scythians burning the seeds (leaves and capsules) in worship and becoming drunk upon the fumes, as do the S. African Bush-men of the present day.”—(Arab. Nights, i. 65.)]

1563.—“The great Sultan Badur told Martim Affonzo de Souza, for whom he had a great liking, and to whom he told all his secrets, that when in the night he had a desire to visit Portugal, and the Brazil, and Turkey, and Arabia, and Persia, all he had to do was to eat a little bangue….”—Garcia, f. 26.

1578.—“Bangue is a plant resembling hemp, or the Cannabis of the Latins…the Arabs call this Bangue ‘Axis’ ” (i.e. Hashish).—C. Acosta, 360–61.

1598.—“They have…. also many kinds of Drogues, as Amfion, or Opium, Camfora, Bangue and Sandall Wood.”—Linschoten, 19; [Hak. Soc. i. 61; also see ii. 115].

1606.—“O mais de tepo estava cheo de bangue.”—Gouvea, 93.

1638.—“Il se fit apporter vn petit cabinet d’or…. dont il tira deux layettes, et prit dans l’vne de l’offion, ou opium, et dans l’autre du bengi, qui est vne certaine drogue ou poudre, dont ils se seruent pour s’exciter à la luxure.”—Mandelslo, Paris, 1659, 150.

1685.—“I have two sorts of the Bangue, which were sent from two several places of the East Indies; they both differ much from our Hemp, although they seem to differ most as to their magnitude.”—Dr. Hans Sloane to Mr. Ray, in Ray’s Correspondence, 1848, p. 160.

1673.—“Bang (a pleasant intoxicating Seed mixed with Milk).…”—Fryer, 91.

1711.—“Bang has likewise its Vertues attributed to it; for being used as Tea, it inebriates, or exhilarates them according to the Quantity they take.”—Lockyer, 61.

1727.—“Before they engage in a Fight, they drink Bang, which is made of a Seed