Chapter INDIAN to INTERLOPER of I by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

INDIAN to INTERLOPER

INDIAN. This word in English first occurs, according to Dr. Guest, in the following passage:—

A.D. 433-440.

“Mid israelum ic waes

Mid ebreum and indeum, and mid egyptum.” In Guest’s English Rhythms, ii. 86-87.

But it may be queried whether indeum is not here an error for iudeum; the converse error to that supposed to have been made in the printing of Othello’s death-speech—

“of one whose hand

Like the base Judean threw a pearl away.”

Indian used for Mahout.

B.C. ? 116-105.—“And upon the beasts (the elephants) there were strong towers of wood, which covered every one of them, and were girt fast unto them with devices: there were also upon every one two and thirty strong men, that fought upon them, beside the Indian that ruled them.”— I. Maccabees, vi. 37.

B.C. c. 150.—“Of Beasts (i.e. elephants) taken with all their Indians there were ten; and of all the rest, which had thrown their Indians, he got possession after the battle by driving them together.”—Polybius, Bk. i. ch. 40; see also iii. 46, and xi. 1. It is very curious to sec the drivers of Carthaginian elephants thus called Indians, though it may be presumed that this is only a Greek application of the term, not a Carthaginian use.

B.C. c. 20.—“Tertio die … ad Thabusion castellum imminens fluvio Indo ventum est; cui fecerat nomen Indus ab elephanto dejectus.”—Livy, Bk. xxxviii. 14. This Indus or “Indian” river, named after the Mahout thrown into it by his elephant, was somewhere on the borders of Phrygia.

A.D. c. 210.—“Along with this elephant was brought up a female one called Nikaia. And the wife of their Indian being near death placed her child of 30 days old beside this one. And when the woman died a certain marvellous attachment grew up of the Beast towards the child. …”—Athenaeus, xiii. ch. 8.

Indian, for Anglo-Indian.

1816.—“… our best Indians. In the idleness and obscurity of home they look back with fondness to the country where they have been useful and distinguished, like the ghosts of Homer’s heroes, who prefer the exertions of a labourer on the earth to all the listless enjoyments of Elysium.”— Elphinstone, in Life, i. 367.

INDIGO, s. The plant Indigofera tinctoria, L. (N.O. Leguminosae), and the dark blue dye made from it. Greek [Greek Text] Indikon. This word appears from Hippocrates to have been applied in his time to pepper. It is also applied by Dioscorides to the mineral substance (a variety of the red oxide of iron) called Indian red (F. Adams, Appendix to Dunbar’s Lexicon). [Liddell d. Scott call it “a dark-blue dye, indigo.” The dye was used in Egyptian mummy-cloths (Wilkinson, Ancient Egypt, ed. 1878, ii. 163).] A.D. c. 60.—“Of that which is called [Greek Text] Indikon one kind is produced spontaneously, being as it were a scum thrown out by the Indian reeds; but that used for dyeing is a purple efflorescence which floats on the brazen cauldrons, which the craftsmen skim off and dry. That is deemed best which is blue in colour, succulent, and smooth to the touch.”—Dioscorides, v. cap. 107.

c. 70.—“After this … Indico (Indicum) is a colour most esteemed; out of India it commeth; whereupon it tooke the name; and it is nothing els but a slimie mud cleaving to the foame that gathereth about canes and reeds: whiles it is punned or ground, it looketh blacke; but being dissolved it yeeldeth a woonderfull lovely mixture of purple and azur … Indico is valued at 20 denarii the pound. In physicke there is use of this Indico; for it doth assuage swellings that doe stretch the skin.” —Plinie, by Ph. Holland, ii. 531.

c. 80-90.—“This river (Sinthus, i.e. Indus) has 7 mouths … and it has none of them navigable except the middle one only, on which there is a coast mart called Barbaricon. … The articles imported into this mart are. … On the other hand there are exported Costus, Bdellium … and Indian Black ( [Greek Text] Indikon melan, i.e. Indigo).”—Periplus, 38, 39.

1298.—(At Coilum) “They have also abundance of very fine indigo (ynde). This is made of a certain herb which is gathered and [after the roots have been removed] is put into great vessels upon which they pour water, and then leave it till the whole of the plant is decomposed. …”—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. ch. 22.

1584.—“Indico from Zindi and Cambaia.” —Barrett, in Hakl. ii. 413.

[1605-6.—“… for all which we shall buie Ryse, Indico, Lapes Bezar which theare in aboundance are to be hadd.”—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 77.

[1609.—“. … to buy such Comodities as they shall finde there as Indico, of Laher (Lahore), here worth viij^s the pounde Serchis and the best Belondri. …”—Ibid. 287. Serchis is Sarkhej, the Sercaze of Forbes (Or. Mem., 2nd ed. ii. 204) near Ahmadabad: Sir G. Birdwood with some hesitation