Chapter PÁLAGILÁSS to PALANKEEN of P by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

their Service should “lay aside the expense of either horse, chair, or Palankeen, during their Writership.” The Writers of Fort William (4th Nov. 1756) remonstrated, begging “to be indulged in keeping a Palankeen for such months of the year as the excessive heats and violent rains make it impossible to go on foot without the utmost hazard of their health.” The Court, however, replied (11 Feb. 1756): “We very well know that the indulging Writers with Palankeens has not a little contributed to the neglect of business we complain of, by affording them opportunities of rambling”; and again, with an obduracy and fervour too great for grammar (March 3, 1758): “We do most positively order and direct (and will admit of no representation for postponing the execution of) that no Writer whatsoever be permitted to keep either palankeen, horse, or chaise, during his Writership, on pain of being immediately dismissed from our service.”—In Long, pp. 54, 71, 130.

1780.—“The Nawaub, on seeing his condition, was struck with grief and compassion; but…did not even bend his eyebrow at the sight, but lifting up the curtain of the Palkee with his own hand, he saw that the eagle of his (Ali Ruza’s) soul, at one flight had winged its way to the gardens of Paradise.”—H. of Hydur, p. 429.

1784.—

“The Sun in gaudy palanqueen
Curtain’d with purple, fring’d with gold,
Firing no more heav’n’s vault serene,
Retir’d to sup with Ganges old.”

Plassy Plain, a ballad by Sir W. Jones; in Life and Works, ed. 1807, ii. 503.

1804.—“Give orders that a palanquin may be made for me; let it be very light, with the pannels made of canvas instead of wood, and the poles fixed as for a dooley. Your Bengally palanquins are so heavy that they cannot be used out of Calcutta.”—Wellington (to Major Shaw), June 20.

The following measures a change in ideas. A palankin is now hardly ever used by a European, even of humble position, much less by the opulent:

1808.—“Palkee. A litter well known in India, called by the English Palankeen. A Guzerat punster (aware of no other) hazards the Etymology Pa-lakhee [paolakhi] a thing requiring an annual income of a quarter Lack to support it and corresponding luxuries.”—R. Drummond, Illustrations, &c.

„ “The conveyances of the island (Madeira) are of three kinds, viz.: horses, mules, and a litter, ycleped a palanquin, being a chair in the shape of a bathing-tub, with a pole across, carried by two men, as doolees are in the east.”—Welsh, Reminiscences, i. 282.

1809.—

“Woe! Woe! around their palankeen, As on a bridal day With symphony and dance and song, Their kindred and their friends come on, The dance of sacrifice! The funeral song!”

Kehama, i. 6.

c. 1830.—“Un curieux indiscret reçut un galet dans la tête; on l’emporta baigné de sang, couché dans un palanquin.”—V. Jacquemont, Corr. i. 67.

1880.—“It will amaze readers in these days to learn that the Governor-General sometimes condescended to be carried in a Palanquin—a mode of conveyance which, except for long journeys away from rail-roads, has long been abandoned to portly Baboos, and Eurasian clerks.”—Sat. Rev., Feb. 14.

1881.—“In the great procession on Corpus Christi Day, when the Pope is carried in a palanquin round the Piazza of St. Peter, it is generally believed that the cushions and furniture of the palanquin are so arranged as to enable him to bear the fatigue of the ceremony by sitting whilst to the spectator he appears to be kneeling.”—Dean Stanley, Christian Institutions, 231.

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