Chapter CULMUREEA to CURIA MURIA of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

CULMUREEA to CURIA MURIA

CULMUREEA, KOORMUREEA, s. Nautical H. kalmariya, ‘a calm,’ taken direct from Port. calmaria (Roebuck).

CULSEY, s. According to the quotation a weight of about a candy (q.v.). We have traced the word, which is rare, also in Prinsep’s Tables (ed. Thomas, p. 115), as a measure in Bhuj, kalsi. And we find R. Drummond gives it: “Kulsee or Culsy (Guz.). A weight of sixteen maunds” (the Guzerat maunds are about 40 Ibs., therefore kalsi=about 640 lbs.). [The word is probably Skt. kalasi, ‘a water jar,’ and hence a grain measure. The Madras Gloss. gives Can. kalasi as a measure of capacity holding 14 Seers.]

1813.—“So plentiful are mangos…that during my residence in Guzerat they were sold in the public markets for one rupee the culsey; or 600 pounds in English weight.”—Forbes, Orient. Mem. i. 30; [2d. ed. i. 20].

CUMBLY, CUMLY, CUMMUL, s. A blanket; a coarse woollen cloth. Skt. kambala, appearing in the vernaculars in slightly varying forms, e.g. H. kamli. Our first quotation shows a curious attempt to connect this word with the Arab. hammal, ‘a porter’ (see HUMMAUL), and with the camel’s hair of John Baptist’s raiment. The word is introduced into Portuguese as cambolim, ‘a cloak.’ c. 1350.—“It is customary to make of those fibres wet-weather mantles for those rustics whom they call camalls,¹ whose business it is to carry burdens, and also to carry men and women on their shoulders in palankins (lecticis).…A garment, such as I mean, of this camall cloth (and not camel cloth) I wore till I got to Florence.…No doubt the raiment of John the Baptist was of that kind. For, as regards camel’s hair, it is, next to silk, the softest stuff in the world, and never could have been meant.…”—John Marignolli, in Cathay, 366.

1606.—“We wear nothing more frequently than those cambolins.”—Gouvea, f. 132.

[c. 1610.—“Of it they make also good store of cloaks and capes, called by the Indians Mansaus, and by the Portuguese ‘Ormus cambalis.”—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 240.]

1673.—“Leaving off to wonder at the natives quivering and quaking after Sunset wrapping themselves in a combly or Hair-Cloth.”—Fryer, 54.

1690.—“Camlees, which are a sort of Hair Coat made in Persia.…”—Ovington, 455.

1718.—“But as a body called the Cammul- poshes, or blanket wearers, were going to join Qhandaoran, their commander, they fell in with a body of troops of Mahratta horse, who forbade their going further.”—Seir Mutaqherin, i. 143.

1781.—“One comley as a covering…4 fanams, 6 dubs, O cash.”—Prison Expenses of Hon. J. Lindsay, Lives of Lindsays, iii.

1798.—“…a large black Kummul, or blanket.”—G. Forster, Travels, i. 194.

1800.—“One of the old gentlemen, observing that I looked very hard at his cumly, was alarmed lest I should think he possessed numerous flocks of sheep.”—Letter of Sir T. Munro, in Life, i. 281.

1813.—Forbes has cameleens.—Or. Mem. i. 195; [2d. ed. i. 108].

CUMMERBUND, s. A girdle. H. from P. kamar-band, i.e. ‘loin-band.’ Such an article of dress is habitually worn by domestic servants, peons, and irregular troops; but any waist-belt is so termed.

[1534.—“And tying on a cummerbund (camarabando) of yellow silk.”—Correa, iii. 588. Camarabandes in Dalboquerque, Comm., Hak. Soc. iv. 104.]

1552.—“The Governor arriving at Goa received there a present of a rich cloth of Persia which is called comarbãdos, being of gold and silk.”—Castanheda, iii. 396.

1616.—“The nobleman of Xaxma sent to have a sample of gallie pottes, jugges, podingers, lookinglasses, table bookes, chint bramport, and combarbands, with the prices.”—Cocks’s Diary, i. 147.

1638.—“Ils serrent la veste d’vne ceinture, qu’ils appellent Commerbant.”—Mandelslo, 223.

1648.—“In the middle they have a well adjusted girdle, called a Commerbant.”—Van Twist, 55.

1727.—“They have also a fine Turband, embroidered Shoes, and a Dagger of Value, stuck into a fine Cummerband, or Sash.”—A. Hamilton, i. 229; [ed. 1744, ii. 233].

1810.—“They generally have the turbans and cummer-bunds of the same colour, by way of livery.”—Williamson, V. M. i. 274.

[1826.—“My white coat was loose, for want of a kumberbund.”—Pandurang Hari, ed. 1873, i. 275.]

1880.—“…The Punjab seems to have found out Manchester. A meeting of native merchants at Umritsur…describes the effects of a shower of rain on the English-made turbans and Kummerbunds as if their heads and loins were enveloped by layers of starch.”—Pioneer Mail, June 17.