Chapter JOOL to JOWAULLA MOOKHEE of J by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

JOOL to JOWAULLA MOOKHEE

JOOL, JHOOL, s. Hind. jhul, supposed by Shakespear (no doubt correctly) to be a corrupt form of the Ar. jull, having much the same meaning; [but Platts takes it from jhulna, ‘to dangle’]. Housings, body clothing of a horse, elephant, or other domesticated animal; often a quilt, used as such. In colloquial use all over India. The modern Arabs use the plur. jilal as a singular. This Dozy defines as “couverture en laine plus ou moins ornée de dessins, très large, très chaude et enveloppant le poitrail et la croupe du cheval” (exactly the Indian jhul)—also “ornement de soie qu’on étend sur la croupe des chevaux aux jours de fête.”

[1819.—“Dr. Duncan … took the jhool, or broadcloth housing from the elephant. …”—Tod. Personal Narr. in Annals, Calcutta reprint, i. 715.]

1880.—“Horse Jhools, &c., at shortest notice.”—Advt. in Madras Mail, Feb. 13.

JOOLA, s. Hind. jhula. The ordinary meaning of the word ‘a swing’; but in the Himalaya it is specifically applied to the rude suspension bridges used there.

[1812.—“There are several kinds of bridges constructed for the passage of strong currents and rivers, but the most common are the Sángha and Jhula” (a description of both follows).—Asiat. Res. xi. 475.]

1830.—“Our chief object in descending to the Sutlej was to swing on a Joolah bridge. The bridge consists of 7 grass ropes, about twice the thickness of your thumb, tied to a single post on either bank. A piece of the hollowed trunk of a tree, half a yard long, slips upon these ropes, and from this 4 loops from the same grass rope depend. The passenger hangs in the loops, placing a couple of ropes under each thigh, and holds on by pegs in the block over his head; the signal is given, and he is drawn over by an eighth rope.”—Mem. of Col. Mountain, 114.

JOSS, s. An idol. This is a corruption of the Portuguese Deos, ‘God,’ first taken up in the ‘Pidgin’ language of the Chinese ports from the Portuguese, and then adopted from that jargon by Europeans as if they had got hold of a Chinese word. [See CHIN-CHIN.]

1659.—“But the Devil (whom the Chinese commonly called Joosje) is a mighty and powerful Prince of the World.”—Walter Schulz, 17.

„ “In a four-cornered cabinet in their” dwelling-rooms, they have, as it were, an altar, and thereon an image … this they call Josin.”—Saar, ed. 1672, p. 27:

1677.—“All the Sinese keep a limning of the Devil in their houses. … They paint him with two horns on his head, and commonly call him Josie (Joosje).”—Gerret Vermeulen, Oost Indische Voyagie, 33.

1711.—“I know but little of their Religion, more than that every Man has a small Joss or God in his own House.”—Lockyer, 181.

1727.—“Their Josses or Demi-gods some of human shape, some of monstrous Figure.”—A. Hamilton, ii. 266; [ed. 1744, ii. 265].

c. 1790.—

“Down with dukes, earls, and lords, those
pagan Josses,
False gods! away with stars and strings and crosses.”

Peter Pindar, Ode to Kien Long.

1798.—“The images which the Chinese worship are called joostje by the Dutch, and joss by the English seamen. The latter is evidently a corruption of the former, which being a Dutch nickname for the devil, was probably given to these idols by the Dutch who first saw them.”—Stavorinus, E.T. i. 173.

This is of course quite wrong.

JOSS-HOUSE, s. An idol temple in China or Japan. From joss, as explained in the last article.

1750-52.—“The sailors, and even some books of voyages … call the pagodas Yoss-houses, for on enquiring of a Chinese for the name of the idol, he answers Grande Yoss, instead of Gran Dios.”—Olof. Toreen, 232.

1760-1810.—“On the 8th, 18th, and 28th day of the Moon those foreign barbarians may visit the Flower Gardens, and the Honam Joss-house, but not in droves of over ten at a time.”—‘8 Regulations’ at Canton, from The Fankwae at Canton (1882), p. 29.

1840.—“Every town, every village, it is true, abounds with Joss-houses, upon which large sums of money have been spent.”—Mem. Col. Mountain,