Chapter DHOOLY to DHOW of D by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

DHOOLY to DHOW

DHOOLY, DOOLIE, s. A covered litter; Hind. doli. It consists of a cot or frame, suspended by the four corners from a bamboo pole, and is carried by two or four men (see figure in Herklots, Qanoon-e-Islam, pl. vii. fig. 4). Doli is from dolna, ‘to swing.’ The word is also applied to the meat- (or milk-) safe, which is usually slung to a tree, or to a hook in the verandah. As it is lighter and cheaper than a palankin it costs less both to buy or hire and to carry, and is used by the poorer classes. It also forms the usual ambulance of the Indian army. Hence the familiar story of the orator in Parliament who, in celebrating a battle in India, spoke of the “ferocious Doolies rushing down from the mountain and carrying off the wounded”; a story which, to our regret, we have not been able to verify. [According to one account the words were used by Burke: “After a sanguinary engagement, the said Warren Hastings had actually ordered ferocious Doolys to seize upon the wounded” (2nd ser. Notes & Queries, iv. 367).

[But Burke knew too much of India to make this mistake. In the Calcutta Review (Dec. 1846, p. 286, footnote) Herbert Edwardes, writing on the first Sikh War, says: “It is not long since a member of the British Legislature, recounting the incidents of one of our Indian fights, informed his countrymen that ‘the ferocious Duli’ rushed from the hills and carried off the wounded soldiers.”] Dula occurs in Ibn Batuta, but the translators render palankin,’ and do not notice the word.

c. 1343.—“The principal vehicle of the people (of Malabar) is a dula, carried on the shoulders of slaves and hired men. Those who do not ride in a dula, whoever they may be, go on foot.”—Ibn Batuta, iv. 73.

c. 1590.—“The Kahárs or Pálkí bearers. They form a class of foot servants peculiar to India. With their pálkís…and dúlís, they walk so evenly that the man inside is not inconvenienced by any jolting.”—Ain, i. 254; [and see the account of the sukhasan, ibid. ii. 122].

1609.—“He turned Moore, and bereaved his elder Brother of this holde by this stratageme. He invited him and his women to a Banket, which his Brother requiting with like inuitation of him and his, in steed of women he sends choice Souldiers well appointed, and close couered, two and two in a Dowle.”—Hawkins, in Purchas, i. 435.

1662.—“The Rájah and the Phúkans travel in singhásans, and chiefs and rich people in dúlís, made in a most ridiculous way.”—Mir Jumlah’s Invasion of Asam, tr. by Blochmann, in J. As. Soc. Ben., xli., pt. I. 80.

1702.—“…un Douli, c’est une voiture moins honorable que le palanquin.”—Lettres Edif. xi. 143.

c. 1760.—“Doolies are much of the same material as the andolas [see ANDOR]; but made of the meanest materials.”—Grose, i. 155.

c. 1768.—“…leaving all his wounded…on the field of battle, telling them to be of good cheer, for that he would send Doolies for them from Astara….”—H. of Hydur Naik, 226.

1774.—“If by a dooley, chairs, or any other contrivance they can be secured from the fatigues and hazards of the way, the expense is to be no objection.”—Letter of W. Hastings, in Markham’s Tibet, 18.

1785.—“You must despatch Doolies to Dhârwâr to bring back the wounded men.”—Letters of Tippoo, 133.

1789.—“…doolies, or sick beds, which are a mean representation of a palanquin: the number attached to a corps is in the proportion of one to every ten men, with four bearers to each.”—Munro, Narrative, 184.

1845.—“Head Qrs., Kurrachee, 27 Decr., 1845.

“The Governor desires that it may be made known to the Doolee-wallas and Camel-men, that no increase of wages shall be given to them. They are very highly paid. If any man deserts, the Governor will have him pursued by the police, and if caught he shall be hanged.”—G. O. by Sir Charles Napier, 113.

1872.—“At last…a woman arrived from Dargánagar with a dúlí and two bearers, for carrying Máláti.”—Govinda Samanta, ii. 7.

1880.—“The consequence of holding that this would be a Trust enforceable in a Court of Law would be so monstrous that persons would be probably startled…if it be a Trust, then every one of those persons in England or in India—from persons of the highest rank down to the lowest dhoolie-bearer, might file a bill for the administration of the Trust.”—Ld. Justice James, Judgment on the Kirwee and Banda Prize Appeal, 13th April.

1883.—“I have great pleasure here in bearing my testimony to the courage and devotion of the Indian dhooly-bearers. I…never knew them shrink from the dangers of the battle-field, or neglect or forsake a wounded European. I have several times seen one of these bearers killed and many of them disabled while carrying a wounded soldier out of action.”—Surgeon- General Munro, C.B., Reminiscences of Mil. Service with the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders, p. 193.

DHOON, s. Hind. dun. A word in N. India specially applied to the flat valleys, parallel to the base of the Himalaya, and lying between the rise of that mountain mass and the low tertiary ranges known as the sub-Himalayan or Siwalik Hills (q.v.), or rather between the interior and exterior of these ranges.