Chapter JENNYE to JOCOLE of J by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

JENNYE to JOCOLE

JENNYE, n.p. Hind. Janai. The name of a great river in Bengal, which is in fact a portion of the course of the Brahmaputra (see BURRAMPOOTER), and the conditions of which are explained in the following passage written by one of the authors of this Glossary many years ago: “In Rennell’s time, the Burrampooter, after issuing westward from the Assam valley, swept south-eastward, and forming with the Ganges a fluvial peninsula, entered the sea abreast of that river below Dacca. And so almost all English maps persist in representing it, though this eastern channel is now, unless in the rainy season, shallow and insignificant; the vast body of the Burrampooter cutting across the neck of the peninsula under the name of Jenai, and uniting with the Ganges near Pubna (about 150 miles N.E. of Calcutta), from which point the two rivers under the name of Pudda (Padda) flow on in mighty union to the sea.” (Blackwood’s Mag., March 1852, p. 338.) The river is indicated as an offshoot of the Burrampooter in Rennell’s Bengal Atlas (Map No. 6) under the name of Jenni, but it is not mentioned in his Memoir of the Map of Hindostan. The great change of the river’s course was palpably imminent at the beginning of the last century; for Buchanan (c. 1809) says: “The river threatens to carry away all the vicinity of Dewangunj, and perhaps to force its way into the heart of Nator.” (Eastern India, iii. 394; see also 377.) Nator or Nattore was the territory now called Rajshahi District. The real direction of the change has been further south. The Janai is also called the Jamuna (see under JUMNA). Hooker calls it Jummal (?) noticing that the maps still led him to suppose the Burrampooter flowed 70 miles further east (see Him. Journals, ed. 1855, ii. 259).

JENNYRICKSHAW, s. Read Capt. Gill’s description below. Giles states the word to be taken from the Japanese pronunciation of three characters, reading jin-riki-sha, signifying ‘Man—Strength—Cart.’ The term is therefore, observes our friend E. C. Baber, an exact equivalent of “Pullman-Car”! The article has been introduced into India, and is now in use at Simla and other hill-stations. [The invention of the vehicle is attributed to various people—to an Englishman known as “Public-spirited Smith” (8 ser. Notes and Queries, viii. 325); to native Japanese about 1868–70, or to an American named Goble, “half-cobbler and half-missionary.” See Chamberlain, Things Japanese, 3rd ed. 236 seq.]

1876.—“A machine called a jinnyrickshaw is the usual public conveyance of Shanghai. This is an importation from Japan, and is admirably adapted for the flat country, where the roads are good, and coolie hire cheap.… In shape they are like a buggy, but very much smaller, with room inside for one person only. One coolie goes into the shafts and runs along at the rate of 6 miles an hour; if the distance is long, he is usually accompanied by a companion who runs behind, and they take it in turn to draw the vehicle.”—W. Gill, River of Golden Sand, i. 10. See also p. 163.

1880.—“The Kuruma or jin-ri-ki-sha consists of a light perambulator body, an adjustable hood of oiled paper, a velvet or cloth lining and cushion, a well for parcels under the seat, two high slim wheels, and a pair of shafts connected by a bar at the ends.”—Miss Bird, Japan, i. 18. [1885.—“We … got into rickshaws to make an otherwise impossible descent to the theatre.”—Lady Dufferin, Viceregal Life, 89.]

JEZYA, s. Ar. jizya. The poll-tax which the Musulman law imposes on subjects who are not Moslem.

[c. 630 A.D. See under JEHAUD.]

c. 1300.—“The Kázi replied … ‘No doctor but the great doctor (Hanifa) to whose school we belong, has assented to the imposition of Jizya on Hindus. Doctors of other schools allow of no alternative but “Death or Islam.” ’ ”—Zia-ud-din Barni, in Elliot, iii. 184.

1683.—“Understand what custome ye English paid formerly, and compare ye difference between that and our last order for taking custome and Jidgea. If they pay no more than they did formerly, they complain without occasion. If more, write what it is, and there shall be an abatement.”—Vizier’s Letter to Nabob, in Hedges, Diary, July 18; [Hak. Soc. i. 100].

1686.—“Books of accounts received from Dacca, with advice that it was reported at the Court there that the Poll-money or Judgeea lately ordered by the Mogul would be exacted of the English and Dutch. … Among the orders issued to Pattana Cossumbazar, and Dacca, instructions are given to the latter place not to pay the Judgeea or Poll-tax, if demanded.”—Ft. St. Geo. Consns. (on Tour) Sept. 29 and Oct. 10; Notes and Extracts, No. i. p. 49.

1765.—“When the Hindoo Rajahs … submitted to Tamarlane; it was on these capital stipulations: That … the emperors should never impose the jesserah (or poll-tax) upon the Hindoos.”—Holwell, Hist. Events, i. 37.