Chapter GUICOWAR to GUM-GUM of G by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

no potion, no unguent to be remedied: they have no other way to destroy them, save by rowling them about a pin or peg, not unlike the treble of theorbo.”—Sir T. Herbert, p. 128.

1664.—“…nor obliged to drink of those naughty waters…full of nastiness of so many people and beasts…that do cause such fevers, which are very hard to cure, and which breed also certain very dangerous worms in the legs…they are commonly of the bigness and length of a small Vialstring…and they must be drawn out little by little, from day to day, gently winding them about a little twig about the bigness of a needle, for fear of breaking them.”—Bernier, E.T. 114; [ed. Constable, 355].

1676.—“Guinea Worms are very frequent in some Places of the West Indies…I rather judge that they are generated by drinking bad water.”—Dampier, ii. 89–90.

1712.—“Haec vita est Ormusiensium, imò civium totius littoris Persici, ut perpetuas in corpore calamitates ferant ex coeli intemperie: modo sudore diffluunt; modo vexantur furunculis; nunc cibi sunt, mox aquae inopes; saepè ventis urentibus, semper sole torrente, squalent et quis omnia recenseat? Unum ex aerumnis gravioribus induco: nimirum Lumbricorum singulare genus, quod non in intestinis, sed in musculis per corporis ambitum natales invenit. Latini medici vermem illum nomine donant [Greek Text] tou drakontiou, s. Dracunculi…Guineenses nigritae linguâ suâ…vermes illos vocant Ickòn, ut produnt reduces ex aurifero illo Africae littore.…”—Kaempfer, Amoen. Exot., 524–5. Kaempfer speculates as to why the old physicians called it dracunculus; but the name was evidently taken from the [Greek Text] drakontion of Agatharchides, quoted above.

1768.—“The less dangerous diseases which attack Europeans in Guinea are, the dry belly-ache, and a worm which breeds in the flesh.…Dr. Rouppe observes that the disease of the Guinea-worm is infectious.”—Lind on Diseases of Hot Climates, pp. 53, 54.

1774.—See an account of this pest under the name of “le ver des nerfs (Vena Medinensis),” in Niebuhr, Desc. de l’Arabic, 117. The name given by Niebuhr is, as we learn from kaempfer’s remarks, ‘arak Medini, the Medina nerve (rather than vein).

[1821.—“The doctor himself is just going off to the Cape, half-dead from the Kotah fever; and, as if that were not enough, the narooa, or guinea-worm, has blanched his cheek and made him a cripple.”—Tod, Annals, ed. 1884, ii. 743.]

GUJPUTTY, n.p. (See COSPETIR.)

GUM-GUM, s. We had supposed this word to be an invention of the late Charles Dickens, but it seems to be a real Indian, or Anglo-Indian, word. The nearest approximation in Shakespear’s Dict. is gamak, ‘sound of the kettledrum.’ But the word is perhaps a Malay plural of gong originally; see the quotation from Osbeck. [The quotations from Bowdich and Medley (from Scott, Malay Words, p. 53) perhaps indicate an African origin.]

[1659.—“…The roar of great guns, the sounding of trumpets, the beating of drums, and the noise of the gomgommen of the Indians.”—From the account of the Dutch attack (1659) on a village in Ceram, given in Wouter Schouten, Reistogt nadr en door Oostindiën, 4th ed. 1775, i. 55. In the Dutch version, “en het geraas van de gomgommen der Indiaanen.” The French of 1707 (i. 92) has “au bruit du canon, des trompettes, des tambour et des gomgommes Indiennes.”

[1731.—“One of the Hottentot Instruments of Musick is common to several Negro Nations, and is called both by Negroes and Hottentots, gom- gom…is a Bow of Iron, or Olive Wood, strung with twisted Sheep-Gut or Sinews.”—Medley, tr. Kolben’s Cape of Good Hope, i. 271.]

c. 1750–60.—“A music far from delightful, consisting of little drums they call Gum-gums, cymbals, and a sort of fife.”—Grose, i. 139.

1768–71.—“They have a certain kind of musical instruments called gom-goms, consisting in hollow iron bowls, of various sizes and tones, upon which a man strikes with an iron or wooden stick…not unlike a set of bells.”—Stavorinus, E.T. i. 215. See also p. 65.

1771.—“At night we heard a sort of music, partly made by insects, and partly by the noise of the Gungung.”—Osbeck, i. 185.

[1819.—“The gong-gongs and drums were beat all around us.”—Bowdich, Mission to Ashantee, i. 7, 136.]

1836.—“‘Did you ever hear a tom-tom, Sir?’ sternly enquired the Captain…

‘A what?’ asked Hardy, rather taken aback.

‘A tom-tom.’

‘Never!’

‘Nor a gum-gum?’

‘Never!’

‘What is a gum- gum?’ eagerly enquired several young ladies.”—Sketches by Boz, The Steam Excursion.

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