Chapter DELING to DEMIJOHN of D by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

DELING to DEMIJOHN

DELING, s. This was a kind of hammock conveyance, suspended from a pole, mentioned by the old travellers in Pegu. The word is not known to Burmese scholars, and is perhaps a Persian word. Meninski gives “deleng, adj. pendulus, suspensus.” The thing seems to be the Malayalam Manchil. (See MUNCHEEL and DANDY).

1569.—“Carried in a closet which they call Deling, in the which a man shall be very well accommodated, with cushions under his head.”—Caesar Frederike, in Hakl. ii. 367.

1585.—“This Delingo is a strong cotton cloth doubled,… as big as an ordinary rug, and having an iron at each end to attach it by, so that in the middle it hangs like a pouch or purse. These irons are attached to a very thick cane, and this is borne by four men.… When you go on a journey, a cushion is put at the head of this Delingo, and you get in, and lay your head on the cushion,” &c.—Gasparo Balbi, f. 99b.

1587.—“From Cirion we went to Macao, which is a pretie towne, where we left our boats and Paroes, and in the morning taking Delingeges, which are a kind of Coches made of cords and cloth quilted, and carried vpon a stang betweene 3 and 4 men: we came to Pegu the same day.”—R. Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 391.

DELLY, MOUNT, n.p. Port. Monte D’Eli. A mountain on the Malabar coast which forms a remarkable object from seaward, and the name of which occurs sometimes as applied to a State or City adjoining the mountain. It is prominently mentioned in all the old books on India, though strange to say the Map of India in Keith Johnstone’s Royal Atlas has neither name nor indication of this famous hill. [It is shown in Constable’s Hand Atlas.] It was, according to Correa, the first Indian land seen by Vasco da Gama. The name is Malayal. Eli mala, ‘High Mountain.’ Several erroneous explanations have however been given. A common one is that it means ‘Seven Hills. This arose with the compiler of the local Skt. Mahatmya or legend, who rendered the name Saptasaila, ‘Seven Hills,’ confounding eli with elu, ‘seven,’ which has no application. Again we shall find it explained as ‘Rat-hill’; but here eli is substituted for eli. [The Madras Gloss. gives the word as Mal. ezhimala, and explains it as ‘Rat-hill,’ “because infested by rats.”] The position of the town and port of Ely or Hili mentioned by the older travellers is a little doubtful, but see Marco Polo, notes to Bk. III. ch. xxiv. The Ely-Maide of the Peutingerian Tables is not unlikely to be an indication of Ely.

1298.—“Eli is a Kingdom towards the west, about 300 miles from Comari.… There is no proper harbour in the country, but there are many rivers with good estuaries, wide and deep.”—Marco Polo, Bk. III. ch. 24.

c. 1330.—“Three days journey beyond this city (M anjarur, i.e. Mangalore) there is a great hill which projects into the sea, and is descried by travellers from afar, the promontory called Hili.”—Abulfeda, in Gildemeister, 185.

c. 1343.—“At the end of that time we set off for Hili, where we arrived two days later. It is a large well-built town on a great bay (or estuary) which big ships enter.”—Ibn Batuta, iv. 81.

c. 1440.—“Proceeding onwards he … arrived at two cities situated on the sea shore, one named Pacamuria, and the other Helly.”—Nicolo Conti, in India in the XVth Cent. p. 6.

1516.—“After passing this place along the coast is the Mountain Dely, on the edge of the sea; it is a round mountain, very lofty, in the midst of low land; all the ships of the Moors and the Gentiles … sight this mountain … and make their reckoning by it.”—Barbosa, 149.

c. 1562.—“In twenty days they got sight of land, which the pilots foretold before that they saw it, this was a great mountain which is on the coast of India, in the Kingdom of Cananor, which the people of the country in their language call the mountain Dely, elly meaning ‘the rat,’¹ and they call it Mount Dely, because in this mountain there are so many rats that they could never make a village there.”—Correa, Three Voyages, &c., Hak. Soc. 145.

1579.—“… Malik Ben Habeeb … proceeded first to Quilon … and after erecting a mosque in that town and settling his wife there, he himself journeyed on to [Hili Marawi].…”—Rowlandson’s Tr. of Tohfutul-Mujahideen, p. 54. (Here and elsewhere in this ill- edited book Hili Marawi is read and printed Hubaee Murawee).

[1623.—“… a high Hill, inland near the seashore, call’d Monte Deli.”—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. ii. 355].

1638.—“Sur le midy nous passames à la veüe de Monte-Leone, qui est vne haute montagne dont les Malabares descouurent de loin les vaisseaux, qu’ils peuuent attaquer avec aduantage.”—Mandelslo, 275.

1727.—“And three leagues south from Mount Delly is a spacious deep River called Balliapatam, where the English Company had once a Factory for Pepper.”—A. Hamilton, i. 291; [ed. 1744, ii. 293].

1759.—“We are further to remark that the late troubles at Tellicherry, which proved almost fatal to that settlement, took rise from a dispute with our linguist and