Chapter CACOULI to CAFFER of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

CACOULI to CAFFER

CACOULI, s. This occurs in the App. to the Journal d’Antoine Galland, at Constantinople in 1673: “Dragmes de Cacouli, drogue qu’on use dans le Cahue,” i.e. in coffee (ii. 206). This is Pers. Arab. kakula for Cardamom, as in the quotation from Garcia. We may remark that Kakula was a place somewhere on the Gulf of Siam, famous for its fine aloes-wood (see Ibn Batuta, iv. 240-44). And a bastard kind of Cardamom appears to be exported from Siam, Amomum xanthoides, Wal.

1563.—“O. Avicena gives a chapter on the cacullá, dividing it into the bigger and the less … calling one of them cacollá quebir, and the other cacollá ceguer [Ar. kabir, saglir], which is as much as to say greater cardamom and smaller cardamom.”— Garcia De O., f. 47v.

1759.—“These Vakeels … stated that the Rani (of Bednore) would pay a yearly sum of 100,000 Hoons or Pagodas, besides a tribute of other valuable articles, such as Foful (betel), Dates, Sandal-wood, Kakul … black pepper, &c.”—Hist. of Hydur Naik, 133.

CADDY, s. i.e. tea-caddy. This is possibly, as Crawfurd suggests, from Catty (q.v.), and may have been originally applied to a small box containing a catty or two of tea. The suggestion is confirmed by this advertisement:

1792.—“By R. Henderson … A Quantity of Tea in Quarter Chests and Caddies, imported last season.…”—Madras Courier, Dec. 2.

CADET, s. (From Prov. capdet, and Low Lat. capitettum, [dim. of caput, ‘head’] Skeat). This word is of course by no means exclusively Anglo-Indian, but it was in exceptionally common and familiar use in India. As all young officers appointed to the Indian army went out to that country as cadets, and were only promoted to ensigncies and posted to regiments after their arrival—in olden days sometimes a considerable time after their arrival. In those days there was a building in Fort William known as the ‘Cadet Barrack’; and for some time early in last century the cadets after their arrival were sent to a sort of college at Baraset; a system which led to no good, and was speedily abolished. 1763.—“We should very gladly comply with your request for sending you young persons to be brought up as assistants in the Engineering branch, but as we find it extremely difficult to procure such, you will do well to employ any who have a talent that way among the cadets or others.”—Court’s Letter, in Long, 290.

1769.—“Upon our leaving England, the cadets and writers used the great cabin promiscuously; but finding they were troublesome and quarrelsome, we brought a Bill into the house for their ejectment.” —Life of Lord Teignmouth, i. 15.

1781.—“The Cadets of the end of the years 1771 and beginning of 1772 served in the country four years as Cadets and carried the musket all the time.”—Letter in Hicky’s Bengal Gazette, Sept. 29.

CADJAN, s. Jav. and Malay kajang, [or according to Mr. Skeat, kajang], meaning ‘palm-leaves,’ especially those of the Nipa (q.v.) palm, dressed for thatching or matting. Favre’s Dict. renders the word feuilles entrelacées. It has been introduced by foreigners into S. and W. India, where it is used in two senses:

a. Coco-palm leaves matted, the common substitute for thatch in S. India.

1673.—“… flags especially in their Villages (by them called Cajans, being Cocoe-tree branches) upheld with some few sticks, supplying both Sides and Coverings to their Cottages.”—Fryer, 17. In his Explanatory Index Fryer gives ‘Cajan, a bough of a Toddy-tree.’

c. 1680.—“Ex iis (foliis) quoque rudiores mattae, Cadjang vocatae, conficiuntur, quibus aedium muri et navium orae, quum frumentum aliquod in iis deponere velimus, obteguntur.”—Rumphius, i. 71.

1727.—“We travelled 8 or 10 miles before we came to his (the Cananore Raja’s) Palace, which was built with Twigs, and covered with Cadjans or Cocoa-nut Tree Leaves woven together.”—A. Hamilton, i: 296.

1809.—“The lower classes (at Bombay) content themselves with small huts, mostly of clay, and roofed with cadjan.”—Maria Graham, 4.

1860.—“Houses are timbered with its wood, and roofed with its plaited fronds, which under the name of cadjans, are likewise employed for constructing partitions and fences.”—Tennent’s Ceylon, ii. 126.

b. A strip of fan-palm leaf, i.e. either