Chapter CAFILA to CAIMAL of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

CAFILA to CAIMAL

CAFILA, s. Arab. kafila; a body or convoy of travellers, a Caravan (q.v.). Also used in some of the following quotations for a sea convoy.

1552.—“Those roads of which we speak are the general routes of the Cafilas, which are sometimes of 3,000 or 4,000 men … for the country is very perilous because of both hill-people and plain-people, who haunt the roads to rob travellers.”—Barros, IV. vi. 1.

1596.—“The ships of Chatins (see CHETTY) of these parts are not to sail along the coast of Malavar or to the north except in a cafilla, that they may come and go more securely, and not be cut off by the Malavars and other corsairs.”—Proclamation of Goa Viceroy, in Archiv. Port. Or., fasc. iii. 661.

[1598.—“Two Caffylen, that is companies of people and Camelles.”—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. ii. 159.]

1616.—“A cafilowe consisting of 200 broadcloths,” &c.—Foster, Letters, iv. 276.]

[1617.—“By the failing of the Goa Caffila.” —Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. ii. 402.]

1623.—“Non navigammo di notte, perchè la cafila era molto grande, al mio parere di più di ducento vascelli.”—P. della Valle, ii. 587; [and comp. Hak. Soc. i. 18].

1630.—“… some of the Raiahs … making Outroades prey on the Caffaloes passing by the Way.…”—Lord, Banian’s Religion, 81.

1672.—“Several times yearly numerous cafilas of merchant barques, collected in the Portuguese towns, traverse this channel (the Gulf of Cambay), and these always await the greater security of the full moon. It is also observed that the vessels which go through with this voyage should not be joined and fastened with iron, for so great is the abundance of loadstone in the bottom, that indubitably such vessels go to pieces and break up.”—P. Vincenzo, 109. A curious survival of the old legend of the Loadstone Rocks.

1673.—“… Time enough before the Caphalas out of the Country come with their Wares.”—Fryer, 86.

1727.—“In Anno 1699, a pretty rich Caffila was robbed by a Band of 4 or 5000 villains … which struck Terror on all that had commerce at Tatta.”—A. Hamilton, i. 116.

1867.—“It was a curious sight to see, as was seen in those days, a carriage enter one of the northern gates of Palermo preceded and followed by a large convoy of armed and mounted travellers, a kind of Kafila, that would have been more in place in the opening chapters of one of James’s romances than in the latter half of the 19th century.” —Quarterly Review, Jan., 101-2.

CAFIRISTAN, n.p. P. Kafiristan, the country of Kafirs, i.e. of the pagan tribes of the Hindu Kush noticed in the article Caffer.

c. 1514.—“In Cheghânserâi there are neither grapes nor vineyards; but they bring the wines down the river from Kaferistân.… So prevalent is the use of wine among them that every Kafer has a khig, or leathern bottle of wine about his neck; they drink wine instead of water.” —Autobiog. of Baber, p. 144.

[c. 1590.—The Káfirs in the Túmáns of Alishang and Najrao are mentioned in the Ain, tr. Jarrett, ii. 406.]

1603.—“… they fell in with a certain pilgrim and devotee, from whom they learned that at a distance of 30 days’ journey there was a city called Capperstam, into which no Mahomedan was allowed to enter …” —Journey of Bened. Goës, in Cathay, &c. ii. 554.

CAIMAL, s. A Nair chief; a word often occurring in the old Portuguese historians. It is Malayal. kaimal.

1504.—“So they consulted with the Zamorin, and the Moors offered their agency to send and poison the wells at Cochin, so as to kill all the Portuguese, and also to send Nairs in disguise to kill any of our people that they found in the palm-woods, and away from the town.… And meanwhile the Mangate Caimal, and the Caimal of Primbalam, and the Caimal of Diamper, seeing that the Zamorin’s affairs were going from bad to worse, and that the castles which the Italians were making were all wind and nonsense, that it was already August when ships might be arriving from Portugal … departed to their own estates with a multitude of their followers, and sent to the King of Cochin their ollas of allegiance.”—Correa, i. 482.

1566.—“… certain lords bearing title, whom they call Caimals” (caimães).—Damian de Goës, Chron. del Rei Dom Emmanuel, p. 49.

1606.—“The Malabars give the name of Caimals (Caimães) to certain great lords of vassals, who are with their governments haughty as kings; but most of them have confederation and alliance with some of the great kings, whom they stand bound to aid and defend …”—Gouvea, f. 27v.

1634.—

“Ficarão seus Caimais prezos e mortos.”