Chapter CHERRY FOUJ to CHICANE of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

CHERRY FOUJ to CHICANE

CHERRY FOUJ, s. H. chari-fauj ? This curious phrase occurs in the quotations, the second of which explains its meaning. I am not certain what the first part is, but it is most probably chari, in the sense of ‘movable,’ ‘locomotive,’ so that the phrase was equivalent to ‘flying brigade.’ [It may possibly be charhi, for charhni, in the sense of ‘preparation for battle.’] It was evidently a technicality of the Mahratta armies.

1803.—“The object of a cherry fouj, without guns, with two armies after it, must be to fly about and plunder the richest country it can find, not to march through exhausted countries, to make revolutions in cities.”—Elphinstone, in Life, i. 59.

1809.—“Two detachments under…Mahratta chiefs of some consequence, are now employed in levying contributions in different parts of the Jypoor country. Such detachments are called churee fuoj ; they are generally equipped very lightly, with but little artillery ; and are equally formidable in their progress to friend and foe.”—Broughton, Letters from a Mahratta Camp, 128 ; [ed. 1892, page 96].

CHETTY, s. A member of any of the trading castes in S. India, answering in every way to the Banyans of W. and N. India. Malayal. chetti, Tam. shetti, [Tel. setti, in Ceylon seddi]. These have all been supposed to be forms from the Skt. sreshti ; but C. P. Brown (MS.) denies this, and says “Shetti, a shop-keeper, is plain Telegu,” and quite distinct from sreshti. [The same view is taken in the Madras Gloss.] Whence then the H. Seth (see SETT) ? [The word was also used for a ‘merchantman’ : see the quotations from Pyrard on which Gray notes : “I do not know any other authority for the use of the word for merchantships, though it is analogous to our ‘merchantmen.’ ”]

c. 1349.—The word occurs in Ibn Batuta (iv. 259) in the form sati, which he says was given to very rich merchants in China ; and this is one of his questionable statements about that country.

1511.—“The great Afonso Dalboquerque …determined to appoint Ninachatu, because he was a Hindoo, Governor of the Quilins (Cheling) and Chetins.”—Comment. of Af. Dalboq., Hak. Soc. iii. 128 ; [and see quotation from ibid. iii. 146, under KLING].

1516.—“Some of these are called Chettis, who are Gentiles, natives of the province of Cholmender.”—Barbosa, 144.

1552.—“…whom our people commonly call Chatis. These are men with such a genius for merchandise, and so acute in every mode of trade, that among our people when they desire either to blame or praise any man for his subtlety and skill in merchant’s traffic they say of him, ‘he is a Chatim’ ; and they use the word chatinar for ‘to trade,’—which are words now very commonly received among us.”—Barros, I. ix. 3.

c. 1566.—“Ui sono uomini periti che si chiamano Chitini, li quali metteno il prezzo alle perle.”—Cesare Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 390.

1596.—“The vessels of the Chatins of these parts never sail along the coast of Malavar nor towards the north, except in a cafilla, in order to go and come more securely, and to avoid being cut off by the Malavars and other corsairs, who are continually roving in those seas.”—Viceroy’s Proclamation at Goa, in Archiv. Port. Or., fasc. 3, 661.

1598.—“The Souldiers in these dayes give themselves more to be Chettijns [var. lect. Chatiins] and to deale in Marchandise, than to serve the King in his Armado.”—Linschoten, 58 ; [Hak. Soc. i. 202].

[ „ “Most of these vessels were Chetils, that is to say, merchantmen.”—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 345.

[c. 1610.—“Each is composed of fifty or sixty war galiots, without counting those of chetie, or merchantmen.”—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 117.]

1651.—“The Sitty are merchant folk.”— Rogerius, 8.

1686.—“…And that if the Chetty Bazaar people do not immediately open their shops, and sell their grain, etc., as usually, that the goods and commodities in their several ships be confiscated.”—In Wheeler, i. 152.

1726.—“The Sittis are merchant folk and also porters.…”—Valentijn, Choro. 88.

„ “The strength of a Bramin is Knowledge; the strength of a King is Courage; the strength of a Bellale (or Cultivator) is Revenue; the strength of a Chetti is Money.”—Apophthegms of Ceylon, tr. in Valentijn, v. 390.

c. 1754.—“Chitties are a particular kind of merchants in Madras, and are generally very rich, but rank with the left-hand cast.” —Ives, 25.

1796.—“Cetti, mercanti astuti, diligenti, laboriosi, sobrii, frugali, ricchi.”—Fra Paolino, 79.

[CHEYLA, s. “Originally a H. word (chela, Skt. chetaka, chedaka) meaning ‘a servant,’ many changes have been rung upon it in Hindu life, so that it has meant a slave, a household slave, a family retainer, an adopted member of a great family, a dependant relative and a soldier in its secular senses; a follower, a pupil, a disciple and a convert in its ecclesiastical senses. It has passed out of Hindu usage into Muhammadan usage with much the same meanings and ideas attached to it, and has even meant a convert from Hinduism