Chapter PATTAMAR to PAWL of P by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

more than a foot high; there are no doors only flaps at one end. Pal is generally used to denote a sleeping tent for Europeans; the roof slopes on both sides from a longitudinal ridge-pole; the sides are much higher than in the sholdari, and there is a door at one end; the fly is almost invariably single. The Raoti (see ROWTEE) is incorrectly used in some places to denote a sleeping pal; it is, properly speaking, I believe, a larger tent, of the same kind, but with doors in the side, not at the end. In some parts I have found they use the word pal as equivalent to sholdari and biltan (? bell-tent).”]

1785.—“Where is the great quantity of baggage belonging to you, seeing that you have nothing besides tents, pawls, and other such necessary articles?”—Tippoo’s Letters, p. 49.

1793.—“There were not, I believe, more than two small Pauls, or tents, among the whole of the deputation that escorted us from Patna.”—Kirkpatrick’s Nepaul, p. 118.

[1809.—“The shops which compose the Bazars, are mostly formed of blankets or coarse cloth stretched over a bamboo, or some other stick for a ridge-pole, supported at either end by a forked stick fixed in the ground. These habitations are called pals.”—Broughton, Letters, ed. 1892, p. 20.]

1827.—“It would perhaps be worth while to record…the matériel and personnel of my camp equipment; an humble captain and single man travelling on the most economical principles. One double-poled tent, one routee (see ROWTEE), or small tent, a pâl or servants’ tent, 2 elephants, 6 camels, 4 horses, a pony, a buggy, and 24 servants, besides mahouts, serwâns or camel-drivers, and tent pitchers.”—Mundy, Journal of a Tour in India, [3rd ed. p. 8]. We may note that this is an absurd exaggeration of any equipment that, even seventy-five years since, would have characterised the march of a “humble captain travelling on economical principles,” or any one under the position of a highly-placed civilian. Captain Mundy must have been enormously extravagant.

[1849.—“…we breakfasted merrily under a paul (a tent without walls, just like two cards leaning against each other).”—Mrs. Mackenzie, Life in the Mission, ii. 141.]