Chapter CAIQUE to CALAVANCE of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

CAIQUE to CALAVANCE

CAIQUE, s. The small skiff used at Constantinople, Turkish kaik. Is it by accident, or by a radical connection through Turkish tribes on the Arctic shores of Siberia, that the Greenlander’s kayak is so closely identical? [The Stanf. Dict. says that the latter word is Esquimaux, and recognises no connection with the former.]

CAJAN, s. This is a name given by Sprengel (Cajanus indicus), and by Linnæus (Cytisus cajan), to the leguminous shrub which gives dhall (q.v.). A kindred plant has been called Dolichos catjang, Willdenow. We do not know the origin of this name. The Cajan was introduced to America by the slave-traders from Africa. De Candolle finds it impossible to say whether its native region is India or Africa. (See DHALL, CALAVANCE.) [According to Mr. Skeat the word is Malay. poko’kachang, ‘the plant which gives beans,’ quite a different word from kajang which gives us Cadjan.]

CAJEPUT, s. The name of a fragrant essential oil produced especially in Celebes and the neighbouring island of Bouro. A large quantity is exported from Singapore and Batavia. It is used most frequently as an external application, but also internally, especially (of late) in cases of cholera. The name is taken from the Malay kayu-putih, i.e. ‘Lignum album.’ Filet (see p. 140) gives six different trees as producing the oil, which is derived from the distillation of the leaves. The chief of these trees is Melaleuca leucadendron, L., a tree diffused from the Malay Peninsula to N.S. Wales. The drug and tree were first described by Rumphius, who died 1693. (See Hanbury and Flückiger, 247 [and Wallace, Malay Arch., ed. 1890, p. 294].)

CAKSEN, s. This is Sea H. for Coxswain (Roebuck).

CALALUZ, s. A kind of swift rowing vessel often mentioned by the Portuguese writers as used in the Indian Archipelago. We do not know the etymology, nor the exact character of the craft. [According to Mr. Skeat, the word is Jav. kelulus, kalulus, spelt keloeles by Klinkert, and explained by him as a kind of vessel. The word seems to be derived from loeloes, ‘to go right through anything,’ and thus the literal translation would be ‘the threader,’ the reference being, as in the case of most Malay boat names, to the special figure-head from which the boat was supposed to derive its whole character.]

[1513.—Calauz, according to Mr. Whiteway, is the form of the word in Andrade’s Letter to Albuquerque of Feb. 22nd.—India Office MS.]

1525.—“4 great lancharas, and 6 calaluzes and manchuas which row very fast.”—Lembrança, 8.

1539.—“The King (of Achin) set forward with the greatest possible despatch, a great armament of 200 rowing vessels, of which the greater part were lancharas, joangas, and calaluzes, besides 15 high-sided junks.” —F. M. Pinto, cap. xxxii.

1552.—“The King of Siam … ordered to be built a fleet of some 200 sail, almost all lancharas and calaluzes, which are rowing-vessels.” —Barros, II. vi. 1.

1613.—“And having embarked with some companions in a caleluz or rowing vessel. …”—Godinho de Eredia, f. 51.

CALAMANDER WOOD, s. A beautiful kind of rose-wood got from a Ceylon tree (Diospyros quaesita). Tennent regards the name as a Dutch corruption of Coromandel wood (i. 118), and Drury, we see, calls one of the ebony-trees (D. melanoxylon) “Coromandel-ebony.” Forbes Watson gives as Singhalese names of the wood Calumidiriya, Kalumederiye, &c., and the term Kalumadiriya is given with this meaning in Clough’s Singh. Dict.; still in absence of further information, it may remain doubtful if this be not a borrowed word. It may be worth while to observe that, according to Tavernier, [ed. Ball, ii. 4] the “painted calicoes” or “chites” of Masulipatam were called “Calmendar, that is to say, done with a pencil” (Kalam- dar?), and possibly this appellation may have been given by traders to a delicately veined wood. [The N.E.D. suggests that the Singh. terms quoted above may be adaptations from the Dutch.]

1777.—“In the Cingalese language Calaminder is said to signify a black flaming tree. The heart, or woody part of it, is extremely handsome, with whitish or pale yellow and black or brown veins, streaks and waves.”—Thunberg, iv. 205-6.

1813.—“Calaminder wood” appears among Ceylon products in Milburn, i. 345.

1825.—“A great deal of the furniture in Ceylon is made of ebony, as well as of the Calamander