Chapter CENTIPEDE to CHACKUR of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

things, sandal-wood, spikenard, cinnamon, cloves, brazil, and various spices.…”—Kasvini, in Gildemeister, 203.

1298.—“You come to the island of Seilan, which is in good sooth the best island of its size in the world.”—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. ch. 14.

c. 1300—“There are two courses…from this place (Ma’bar) ; one leads by sea to Chín and Máchín, passing by the island of Sílán.”—Rashíduddín, in Elliot, i. 70.

1300—“There is another island called Sillan.…In this…there is an exceeding great mountain, of which the folkrelate that it was upon it that Adam mourned for his son one hundred years.”—Fr. Odoric, in Cathay, i. 98

c. 1337.—“I met in this city (Brussa) t he pious sheikh ‘Abd - Allah - al - Misri, the Traveller. He was a worthy man. He made the circuit of the earth, except he never entered China, nor the island of Sarandíb, nor Andalusia, nor the Sudan. I have excelled him, for I have visited those regions.”—Ibn Batuta, ii. 321.

c. 1350.—“…I proceeded to sea by Seyllan, a glorious mountain opposite to Paradise.…’Tis said the sound of the waters falling from the fountain of Paradise is heard there.”—Marignolli, in Cathay, ii. 346.

c. 1420.—“In the middle of the Gulf there is a very noble island called Zeilam, which is 3000 miles in circumference, and on which they find by digging, rubies, saffires, garnets, and those stones which are called cats’- eyes.”—N. Conti, in India in the XVth Century, 7.

1498.—“…much ginger, and pepper, and cinnamon, but this is not so fine as that which comes from an island which is called Cillam, and which is 8 days distant from Calicut.”—Roteiro de V. da Gama, 88.

1514.—“Passando avanti intra la terra e il mare si truova l’isola di Zolan dove nasce la cannella.…”—Giov. da Empoli, in Archiv. Stor. Ital., Append. 79.

1516.—“Leaving these islands of Mahal-diva…there is a very large and beautiful island which the Moors, Arabs, and Persians call Ceylam, and the Indians call it Ylinarim.”—Barbosa, 166.

1586.—“This Ceylon is a brave Iland, very fruitful and fair.”—Hakl. ii. 397.

[1605. —“Heare you shall buie theis Comodities following of the Inhabitants of Selland.”—Birdwood; First Letter Book, 84.

[1615.—“40 tons of cinnamon of Celand.” —Foster, Letters, iii. 277.

[ „ “Here is arrived a ship out of Holland…at present turning under Silon.”—Ibid. iv. 34.]

1682.—“…having run 35 miles North without seeing Zeilon.”—Hedges, Diary, July 7 ; [Hak. Soc. i. 28].

1727.—A. Hamilton writes Zeloan (i. 340, &c.), and as late as 1780, in Dunn’s Naval Directory, we find Zeloan throughout.

1781.—“We explored the whole coast of Zelone, from Pt. Pedro to the Little Basses, looked into every port and spoke to every vessel we saw, without hearing of French vessels.”—Price’s Letter to Ph. Francis, in Tracts, i. 9.

1830.—

“For dearer to him are the shells that sleep
By his own sweet native stream,
Than all the pearls of Serendeep,
Or the Ava ruby’s gleam !
Home ! Home ! Friends—health—repose,
What are Golconda’s gems to those ?”

Bengal Annual.

CHABEE, s. H. chabi, chabhi, ‘a key,’ from Port. chave. In Bengali it becomes sabi, and in Tam. savi. In Sea-H. ‘a fid.’

CHABOOTRA, s. H. chabutra and chabutara, a paved or plastered platform, often attached to a house, or in a garden.

c. 1810.—“It was a burning evening in June, when, after sunset, I accompanied Mr. Sherwood to Mr. Martin’s bungalow.…We were conducted to the Cherbuter…this Cherbuter was many feet square, and chairs were set for the guests.”—Autobiog. of Mrs. Sherwood, 345.

1811.—“…the Chabootah or Terrace.” —Williamson, V. M. ii. 114.

1827.—“The splendid procession, having entered the royal gardens, approached through a long avenue of lofty trees, a chabootra or platform of white marble canopied by arches of the same material.”— Sir W. Scott, The Surgeon’s Daughter, ch. xiv:

1834.—“We rode up to the Chabootra, which has a large enclosed court before it, and the Darogha received us with the respect which my showy escort claimed.”—Mem. of Col. Mountain, 133:

CHACKUR, s. P.—H. chakar, ‘a servant.’ The word is hardly ever now used in Anglo-Indian households except as a sort of rhyming amplification to Naukar (see NOKUR) : “Naukar-chakar,” the whole following. But in a past generation there was a distinction made between naukar, the superior servant, such as a munshi, a gomashta, a chobdar, a khansama, &c., and chakar, a menial servant. Williamson gives a curious list of both classes, showing what a large Calcutta household embraced at the beginning of last century (V. M. i. 185–187).

1810.—“Such is the superiority claimed by the nokers, that to ask one of them ‘whose chauker he is ? ’ would be considered a gross insult.”—Williamson, i. 187.