Chapter DARCHEENEE to DATURA of D by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

DARCHEENEE to DATURA

DARCHEENEE, s. P. dar-chini, ‘China-stick,’ i.e. cinnamon.

1563.—“…The people of Ormuz, because this bark was brought for sale there by those who had come from China, called it dar-chini, which in Persian means ‘wood of China,’ and so they sold it in Alexandria.…”—Garcia, f. 59–60.

1621.—“As for cinnamon which you wrote was called by the Arabs dartzeni, I assure you that the dar-síni, as the Arabs say, or dar-chini as the Persians and Turks call it, is nothing but our ordinary canella.”—P. della Valle, ii. 206-7.

DARJEELING, DARJILING, n.p. A famous sanitarium in the Eastern Himalaya, the cession of which was purchased from the Raja of Sikkim in 1835; a tract largely added to by annexation in 1849, following on an outrage committed by the Sikkim Minister in imprisoning Dr. (afterwards Sir) Joseph Hooker and the late Dr. A. Campbell, Superintendent of Darjeeling. The sanitarium stands at 6500 to 7500 feet above the sea. The popular Tibetan spelling of the name is, according to Jaeshcke, rDorrje-glin, ‘Land of the Dorje,’ i.e. ‘of the Adamant or thunderbolt,’ the ritual sceptre of the Lamas. But ‘according to several titles of books in the Petersburg list of MSS. it ought properly to be spelt Dar-rgyas-glin’ (Tib. Eng. Dict. p. 287).

DARÓGA, s. P. and H. darogha. This word seems to be originally Mongol (see Kovalevsky’s Dict. No. 1672). In any case it is one of those terms brought by the Mongol hosts from the far East. In their nomenclature it was applied to a Governor of a province or city, and in this sense it continued to be used under Timur and his immediate successors. But it is the tendency of official titles, as of denominations of coin, to descend in value; and that of darogha has in later days been bestowed on a variety of humbler persons. Wilson defines the word thus: “The chief native officer in various departments under the native government, a superintendent, a manager: but in later times he is especially the head of a police, customs, or excise station.” Under the British Police system, from 1793 to 1862-63, the Darogha was a local Chief of Police, or Head Constable, [and this is still the popular title in the N.W.P. for the officer in charge of a Police Station.] The word occurs in the sense of a Governor in a Mongol inscription, of the year 1314, found in the Chinese Province of Shensi, which is given by Pauthier in his Marc. Pol., p. 773. The Mongol Governor of Moscow, during a part of the Tartar domination in Russia, is called in the old Russian Chronicles Doroga (see Hammer, Golden Horde, 384). And according to the same writer the word appears in a Byzantine writer (unnamed) as [Greek Text] DarmgaV (ibid. 238-9). The Byzantine form and the passages below of 1404 and 1665 seem to imply some former variation in pronunciation. But Clavijo has also dorroga in § clii.

c. 1220.—“Tuli Khan named as Darugha at Merv one called Barmas, and himself marched upon Nishapur.”—Abulghazi, by Desmaisons, 135.

1404.—“And in this city (Tauris) there was a kinsman of the Emperor as Magistrate thereof, whom they call Derrega, and he treated the said Ambassadors with much respect.”—Clavijo, § lxxxii. Comp. Markham, 90.

1441.—“…I reached the city of Kerman.… The deroghah (governor) the Emir Hadji Mohamed Kaiaschirin, being then absent.…”—Abdurrazzak, in India in the XVth Cent., p. 5.

c. 1590.—“The officers and servants attached to the Imperial Stables. 1. The Atbegi.… 2. The Daroghah. There is one appointed for each stable.…”—Ain, tr. Blochmann, i. 137.

1621.—“The 10th of October, the daroga, or Governor of Ispahan, Mir Abdulaazim, the King’s son-in-law, who, as was afterwards seen in that charge of his, was a downright madman.…”—p. della Valle, ii. 166.

1665.—“There stands a Derega, upon each side of the River, who will not suffer any person to pass without leave.”—Tavernier, E.T., ii. 52; [ed. Ball, i. 117].

1673.—“The Droger, or Mayor of the City, or Captain of the Watch, or the Rounds; It is his duty to preside with the Main Guard a-nights before the Palace-gates.”—Fryer, 339.

1673.—“The Droger being Master of his Science, persists; what comfort can I reap from your Disturbance?”—Fryer, 389.

1682.—“I received a letter from Mr. Hill at Rajemaul advising ye Droga of ye Mint would not obey a Copy, but required at least a sight of ye Original.”—Hedges, Diary, Dec. 14; [Hak. Soc. i. 57].

c. 1781.—“About this time, however, one day being very angry, the Darogha, or master of the mint, presented himself, and asked the Nawaub what device he would have struck on his new copper coinage. Hydur, in a violent passion, told him to stamp an obscene figure on it.”—Hydur Naik, tr. by Miles, 488.

1812.—“Each division is guarded by a Darogha, with an establishment or armed men.”—Fifth Report, 44.

DATCHIN, s. This word is used in old books of Travel and Trade for a steelyard employed in China and the Archipelago. It is given by Leyden as a Malay word for ‘balance,’ in his Comp. Vocab. of Barma,