Chapter MOTURPHA to MUCOA of M by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

; but the reason is obscure. Shakespear and Platts give the word as also applied to ‘a cock without spurs.’

c. 1780.—“An elephant born with the left tooth only is reckoned sacred ; with black spots in the mouth unlucky, and not saleable ; the mukna or elephant born without teeth is thought the best.”—Hon. R. Lindsay in Lives of the Lindsays, iii. 194.

MUCOA, MUKUVA, n.p. Malayal. and Tamil, mukkuvan (sing.), ‘a diver,’ and mukkuvar (pl.). [Logan (Malabar, ii. Gloss. s.v.) derives it from Drav. mukkuha, ‘to dive’ ; the Madras Gloss. gives Tam. muzhugu, with the same meaning.] A name applied to the fishermen of the western coast of the Peninsula near C. Comorin. [But Mr. Pringle. (Diary, Ft. St. Geo. 1st ser. iii. 187) points out that formerly as now, the word was of much more general application. Orme in a passage quoted below employs it of boatmen at Karikal. The use of the word extended as far N. as Madras, and on the W. coast ; it was not confined to the extreme S.] It was among these, and among the corresponding class of Paravars on the east coast, that F. Xavier’s most noted labours in India occurred. 1510.—“The fourth class are called Mechua, and these are fishers.”—Varthema, 142.

1525.—“And Dom João had secret speech with a married Christian whose wife and children were inside the fort, and a valiant man, with whom he arranged to give him 200 pardaos (and that he gave him on the spot) to set fire to houses that stood round the fort.…So this Christian, called Duarte Fernandes…put on a lot of old rags and tags, and powdered himself with ashes after the fashion of jogues (see JOGEE) …also defiling his hair with a mixture of oil and ashes, and disguising himself like a regular jogue, whilst he tied under his rags a parcel of gunpowder and pieces of slow- match, and so commending himself to God, in which all joined, slipped out of the fort by night, and as the day broke, he came to certain huts of macuas, which are fishermen, and began to beg alms in the usual palaver of the jogues, i.e. prayers for their long life and health, and the conquest of enemies, and easy deliveries for their womenkind, and prosperity for their children, and other grand things.”—Correa, ii. 871.

1552.—Barros has mucuaria, ‘a fisherman’s village.’

1600.—“Those who gave the best reception to the Gospel were the Macóas ; and, as they had no church in which to assemble, they did so in the fields and on the shores, and with such fervour that the Father found himself at times with 5000 or 6000 souls about him.”—Lucena, Vida do P. F. Xavier, 117.

[c. 1610.—“These mariners are called Moucois.”—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 314.]

1615.—“Edixit ut Macuae omnes, id est vilissima plebecula et piscatu vivens, Christiana sacra susciperent.”—Jarric, i. 390.

1626.—“The Muchoa or Mechoe are Fishers…the men Theeues, the women Harlots, with whom they please.…”— —Purchas, Pilgrimage, 553.

1677.—Resolved “to raise the rates of hire of the Mesullas (see MUSSOOLA) boatmen called Macquars.”—Ft. St. Geo. Consn., Jan 12, in Notes and Exts. No. i. 54.

[1684.—“The Maquas or Boatmen ye Ordinary Astralogers (sic) for weather did …prognosticate great Rains.…”— Pringle, Diary, Ft. St. Geo., 1st ser. iii. 131.]

1727.—“They may marry into lower Tribes…and so may the Muckwas, or Fishers, who, I think, are a higher tribe than the Poulias (see POLEA).”—A. Hamilton, i. 310, [ed. 1744, i. 312].

[1738.—“Gastos com Nairos, Tibas, Maquas.”—Agreement, in Logan, Malabar, ii. 36.]

1745.—“The Macoas, a kind of Malabars, who have specially this business, and, as we might say, the exclusive privilege in all that concerns sea-faring.”—Norbert, i. 227–8.

1746.—“194 Macquars attending the seaside at night…(P.) 8 : 8 : 40.”—Account of Extraordinary Expenses, at Ft. St. David (India Office MS. Records).

1760.—“Fifteen massoolas (see MUSSOOLA) accompanied the ships ; they took in 170 of the troops, besides the Macoas, who are the black fellows that row them.” —Orme, ed. 1803, iii. 617.

[1813.—“The Muckwas or Macuars of Tellicherry are an industrious, useful set of people.”—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. i. 202.]