Chapter CLASSY to COBRA DE CAPELLO of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

Batuta (on Maldives), iv. 112, also 311.

1578.—“…They eat it with a sort of dried fish, which comes from the Islands of Maledivia, and resembles jerked beef, and it is called Comalamasa.”—Acosta, 103.

c. 1610.—“Ce poisson qui se prend ainsi, s’apelle generalement en leur langue cobolly masse, c’est à dire du poisson noir.… Ils le font cuire en de l’eau de mer, et puis le font secher au feu sur des clayes, en sorte qu’estant sec il se garde fort long-temps.”—Pyrard de Lacal, i. 138; see also 141; [Hak. Soe. i. 190 (with Gray’s note) and 194].

1727.—“The Bonetta is caught with Hook and Line, or with nets…they cut the Fish from the Back-bone on each Side, and lay them in a Shade to dry, sprinkling them sometimes with Sea Water. When they are dry enough…they wrap them up in Leaves of Cocoa-nut Trees, and put them a Foot or two under the Surface of the Sand, and with the Heat of the Sun, they become baked as hard as Stock-fish, and Ships come from Atcheen…and purchase them with Gold-dust. I have seen Comelamash (for that is their name after they are dried) sell at Atcheen for 8L. Sterl. per 1000.”—A. Hamilton, i. 347; [ed. 1744, i. 350].

1783.—“Many Maldivia boats come yearly to Atcheen, and bring chiefly dried bonnetta in small pieces about two or three ounces; this is a sort of staple article of commerce, many shops in the Bazar deal in it only, having large quantities piled up, put in matt bags. It is when properly cured, hard like horn in the middle; when kept long the worm gets to it.”—Forrest, V. to Mergui, 45.

1813.—“The fish called Commel mutch, so much esteemed in Malabar, is caught at Minicoy.”—Milburn, i. 321, also 336.

1841.—“The Sultan of the Maldiva Islands sends an agent or minister every year to the government of Ceylon with presents consisting of…a considerable quantity of dried fish, consisting of bonitos, albicores, and fish called by the inhabitants of the Maldivas the black fish, or comboli mas.”—J. R. As. Soc. vi. 75.

The same article contains a Maldivian vocabulary, in which we have “Bonito or goomulmutch…kannelimas” (p. 49). Thus we have in this one paper three corrupt forms of the same expression, viz. comboli mas, kanneli mas, and goomulmutch, all attempts at the true Maldivian term kalubili-mas, ‘black bonito fish.’

COBRA DE CAPELLO, or simply COBRA, s. The venomous snake Naja tripudians. Cobra [Lat. colubra] is Port. for ‘snake’; cobra de capello, ‘snake of (the) hood.’ [In the following we have a curious translation of the name: “Another sort, which is called Chapel-snakes, because they keep in Chapels or Churches, and sometimes in Houses” (A Relation of Two Several Voyages made into the East Indies, by Christopher Fryke, Surg.…London, 1700, p. 291).]

1523.—“A few days before, cobras de capello had been secretly introduced into the fort, which bit some black people who died thereof, both men and women; and when this news became known it was perceived that they must have been introduced by the hand of some one, for since the fort was made never had the like been heard of.”—Correa, ii. 776.

1539.—“Vimos tãbe aquy grande soma de cobras de capello, da grossura de coxa de hu home, e tão peçonhentas em tanto estremo, que dizião os negros que se chegarão cõ a baba da boca a qualquer cousa viva, logo em proviso cahia morta em terra…”—Pinto, cap. xiv.

“…Adders that were copped on the crowns of their heads, as big as a man’s thigh, and so venomous, as the Negroes of the country informed us, that if any living thing came within the reach of their breath, it dyed presently.…”—Cogan’s Transl., p. 17.

1563.—“In the beautiful island of Ceylon…there are yet many serpents of the kind which are vulgarly called Cobras de capello; and in Latin we may call them regulus serpens.”—Garcia, f. 156.

1672.—“In Jafnapatam, in my time, there lay among others in garrison a certain High German who was commonly known as the Snake-Catcher; and this man was summoned by our Commander…to lay hold of a Cobre Capel that was in his Chamber. And this the man did, merely holding his hat before his eyes, and seizing it with his hand, without any damage.…I had my suspicions that this was done by some devilry…but he maintained that it was all by natural means.…”—Baldaeus (Germ. ed.), 25.

Some forty-nine or fifty years ago a staff-sergeant at Delhi had a bull-dog that used to catch cobras in much the same way as this High-Dutchman did.

1710.—“The Brother Francisco Rodriguez persevered for the whole 40 days in these exercises, and as the house was of clay, and his cell adjoined the garden, it was invaded by cobra de capelo, and he made report of this inconvenience to the Father-Rector. But his answer was that these were not the snakes that did spiritual harm; and so left the Brother in the same cell. This and other admirable instances have always led me to doubt if S. Paul did not communicate to his Paulists in India the same virtue as of the tongues of S. Paul,¹ for the snakes in these parts are so numerous and so venomous, and though our Missionaries make such long journeys through wild uncultivated places, there is no account to this day that any Paulist