Chapter OART to OMEDWAUR of O by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

8 who are great confidants of the king, and men held in great honour, who always stand before him with their pens in their hand and a bundle of paper under their arm ; and each of them has always several of these leaves in blank but signed at the top by the king, and when he commands them to despatch any business they write it on these leaves.”—Pp. 110–111, Hak. Soc., but translation modified.

1553.—“All the Gentiles of India…when they wish to commit anything to written record, do it on certain palm-leaves which they call olla, of the breadth of two fingers.”—Barros, I. ix. 3.

„ “All the rest of the town was of wood, thatched with a kind of palm-leaf, which they call ola.”—Ibid. I. iv. vii.

1561. — “All this was written by the king’s writer, whose business it is to prepare his olas, which are palm-leaves, which they use for writing-paper, scratching it with an iron point.”—Correa, i. 212–213. Correa uses the word in three applications : (a) for a palm-leaf as just quoted ; (b) for a palm-leaf letter ; and (c) for (Coco) palm-leaf thatch.

1563. — “…in the Maldiva Islands they make a kind of vessel which with its nails, its sails, and its cordage is all made of palm ; with the fronds (which we call olla in Malavar) they cover houses and vessels.”—Garcia, f. 67.

1586. — “I answered that I was from Venice, that my name was Gasparo Balbi …and that I brought the emeralds from Venice expressly to present to his majesty, whose fame for goodness, courtesy, and greatness flew through all the world…and all this was written down on an olla, and read by the aforesaid ‘Master of the Word’ to his Majesty.”—G. Balbi, f. 104.

„ “But to show that he did this as a matter of justice, he sent a further order that nothing should be done till they received an olla, or letter of his sign manual written in letters of gold ; and so he (the King of Pegù) ordered all the families of those nobles to be kept prisoners, even to the women big with child, and the infants in bands, and so he caused the whole of them to be led upon the said scaffolding ; and then the king sent the olla, ordering them to be burnt ; and the Decagini executed the order, and burned the whole of them.”—Ibid. f. 112–113.

[1598.—“Sayles which they make of the leaves, which leaves are called Olas.” —Linschoten, Hak. Soc. ii. 45.

[1611. — “Two Ollahs, one to Gimpa Raya.…”—Danvers, Letters, i. 154.]

1626. — “The writing was on leaves of Palme, which they call Olla.” —Purchas, Pilgrimage, 554.

1673.—“The houses are low, and thatched with ollas of the Cocoe-Trees.”—Fryer, 66.

c. 1690.—“…Ola peculiariter Malabaris dicta, et inter alia Papyri loco adhibetur.”—Rumphius, i. 2.

1718. —“…Damulian Leaves, commonly called Oles.”—Prop. of the Gospel, &c., iii. 37.

1760.—“He (King Alompra) said he would give orders for Olios to be made out for delivering of what Englishmen were in his Kingdom to me.”—Capt. Alves, in Dalrymple, Or. Rep. i. 377.

1806.— “Many persons had their Ollahs in their hands, writing the sermon in Tamil shorthand.”—Buchanan, Christian Res. 2nd ed. 70.

1860. — “The books of the Singhalese are formed to-day, as they have been for ages past, of olas, or strips taken from the young leaves of the Talipot or the Palmyra palm.”—Tennent, Ceylon, i. 512.

1870. — “…Un manuscrit sur olles. …”—Revue Critique, June 11, 374.

OMEDWAUR, s. Hind. from Pers. ummedwar (ummed, umed, ‘hope’) ; literally, therefore, ‘a hopeful one’ ; i.e. “an expectant, a candidate for employment, one who awaits a favourable answer to some representation or request.” (Wilson.)

1816.—“The thoughts of being three or four years an omeedwar, and of staying out here till fifty deterred me.”—M. Elphinstone, in Life, i. 344.