Chapter HOG-PLUM to HOOGLY of H by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

HOG-PLUM to HOOGLY

HOG-PLUM, s. The austere fruit of the amra (Hind.), Spondias mangifera, Pers. (Ord. Terebinthaceae), is sometimes so called; also called the wild mango. It is used in curries, pickles, and tarts. It is a native of various parts of India, and is cultivated in many tropical climates.

1852.—“The Karens have a tradition that in those golden days when God dwelt with men, all nations came before him on a certain day, each with an offering from the fruits of their lands, and the Karens selected the hog’s plum for this oblation; which gave such offence that God cursed the Karen nation and placed it lowest. …”—Mason’s Burmah, ed. 1860, p. 461.

HOKCHEW, HOKSIEU, AUCHEO, etc., n.p. These are forms which the names of the great Chinese port of Fuh-chau, the capital of Fuhkien, takes in many old works. They, in fact, imitate the pronunciation in the Fuh-kien dialect, which is Hokchiu; Fuh-kien similarly being called Hoh-kien. 1585.—“After they had travelled more than halfe a league in the suburbs of the cittie of Aucheo, they met with a post that came from the vizroy.”—Mendoza, ii. 78.

1616.—“Also this day arrived a small China bark or soma from Hochchew, laden with silk and stuffes.”—Cocks, i. 219.

HOME. In Anglo-Indian and colonial speech this means England.

1837.—“Home always means England; nobody calls India home—not even those who have been here thirty years or more, and are never likely to return to Europe.”— Letters from Madras, 92.

1865.—“You may perhaps remember how often in times past we debated, with a seriousness becoming the gravity of the subject, what article of food we should each of us respectively indulge in, on our first arrival at home.”—Waring, Tropical Resident, 154.

So also in the West Indies:

c. 1830.—“… ‘Oh, your cousin Mary, I forgot—fine girl, Tom—may do for you at home yonder’ (all Creoles speak of England as home, although they may never have seen it).”—Tom Cringle, ed. 1863, 238.

HONG, s. The Chinese word is hang, meaning ‘a row or rank’; a, house of business; at Canton a warehouse, a factory, and particularly applied to the establishments of the European nations (“Foreign Hongs”), and to those of the so-called “Hong-Merchants.” These were a body of merchants who had the monopoly of trade with foreigners, in return for which privilege they became security for the good behaviour of the foreigners, and for their payment of dues. The guild of these merchants was called ‘The Hong.’ The monopoly seems to have been first established about 1720–30, and it was terminated under the Treaty of Nanking, in 1842. The Hong merchants are of course not mentioned in Lockyer (1711), nor by A. Hamilton (in China previous to and after 1700, pubd. 1727). The latter uses the word, however, and the rudiments of the institution may be traced not only in this narrative, but in that of Ibn Batuta. c. 1346.—“When a Musulman trader arrives in a Chinese city, he is allowed to choose whether he will take up his quarters with one of the merchants of his own faith settled in the country, or will go to an inn. If he prefers to go and lodge with a merchant, they count all his money and confide it to the merchant of his choice; the latter then takes charge of all expenditure on account of the stranger’s wants, but acts with perfect integrity. …”—Ibn Batuta, iv. 265–6.

1727.—“When I arrived at Canton the Hapoa (see HOPPO) ordered me lodgings for myself, my Men, and Cargo, in (a) Haung or Inn belonging to one of his Merchants … and when I went abroad, I had always some Servants belonging to the Haung to follow me at a Distance.”—A. Hamilton, ii. 227; [ed. 1744.]

1782.—“… l’Opeou (see HOPPO) … s’embarque en grande ceremonie dans une galère pavoisée, emmenant ordinairement avec lui trois ou quatre Hanistes.”—Sonnerat, ii. 236.

„ “… Les loges Européennes s’appellent hams.”—Ibid. 245.

1783.—“It is stated indeed that a monopolizing Company in Canton, called the Cohong, had reduced commerce there to a desperate state.”—Report of Com. on Affairs of India, Burke, vi. 461.

1797.—“A Society of Hong, or united merchants, who are answerable for one another, both to the Government and the foreign nations.”—Sir G. Staunton, Embassy to China, ii. 565.

1882.—“The Hong merchants (collectively the Co-hong) of a body corporate, date from 1720.”—The Fankwae at Canton, p. 34.

Cohong is, we believe, though speaking with diffidence, an exogamous union between the Latin co- and the Chinese hong. [Mr. G. T. Gardner confirms this explanation, and writes: “The term used in Canton itself is invariable: ‘The Thirteen Hong,’ or ‘The Thirteen Firms’; and as these thirteen firms formed an association that had at one time the monopoly of the foreign