Chapter PAWN to PEDIR of P by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

PAWN to PEDIR

PAWN, s. The betel-leaf (q.v.) Hind. pan, from Skt. parna, ‘a leaf.’ It is a North Indian term, and is generally used for the combination of betel, areca-nut, lime, &c., which is politely offered (along with otto of roses) to visitors, and which intimates the termination of the visit. This is more fully termed pawn- sooparie (supari, [Skt. supriya, ‘pleasant,’] is Hind. for areca). “These leaves are not vsed to bee eaten alone, but because of their bitternesse they are eaten with a certaine kind of fruit, which the Malabars and Portugalls call Arecca, the Gusurates and Decanijns Suparijs.…” (In Purchas, ii. 1781).

1616.—“The King giving mee many good words, and two pieces of his Pawne out of his Dish, to eate of the same he was eating. …”—Sir T. Roe, in Purchas, i. 576; [Hak. Soc. ii. 453].

[1623.—“…a plant, whose leaves resemble a Heart, call’d here pan, but in other parts of India, Betle.”—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 36.]

1673.—“…it is the only Indian entertainment, commonly called Pawn.”—Fryer, p. 140.

1809.—“On our departure pawn and roses were presented, but we were spared the attar, which is every way detestable.”—Ld. Valentia, i. 101.

PAWNEE, s. Hind. pani, ‘water.’ The word is used extensively in Anglo-Indian compound names, such as bilayutee pawnee, ‘soda-water,’ brandy-pawnee, Khush-bo pawnee (for European scents), &c., &c. An old friend, Gen. J. T. Boileau, R.E. (Bengal), contributes from memory the following Hindi ode to Water, on the Pindaric theme [Greek Text] ariston men udwr, or the Thaletic one [Greek Text] arch de twn pantwn udwr!

“Pani kua, pani tal;
Pani ata, pani dal;
Pani bagh, pani ramna;
Pani Ganga, pani Jumna;
Pani h ansta, pani rota;
Pani jagta, pani sota;
Pani bap, pani ma;
Bara nam Pana ka!”

Thus rudely done into English:

“Thou, Water, stor’st our Wells and Tanks,
Thou fillest Gunga’s, Jumna’s banks;
Thou Water, sendest daily food,
And fruit and flowers and needful wood;
Thou, Water, laugh’st, thou, Water, weepest;
Thou, Water, wak’st, thou, Water, sleepest;
—Father, Mother, in thee blent,—
Hail, O glorious element!”

PAWNEE, KALLA, s. Hind. kala pani, i.e. ‘Black Water’; the name of dread by which natives of the interior of India designate the Sea, with especial reference to a voyage across it, and to transportation to penal settlements beyond it. “Hindu servants and sepoys used to object to cross the Indus, and called that the kala pani. I think they used to assert that they lost caste by crossing it, which might have induced them to call it by the same name as the ocean,—or possibly they believed it to be part of the river that flows round the world, or the country beyond it to be outside the limits of Aryavartta” (Note by Lt.-Col. J. M. Trotter).

1823.—“An agent of mine , who was for some days with Cheetoo” (a famous Pindari leader), “told me he raved continually about Kala Panee, and that one of his followers assured him when the Pindarry chief slept, he used in his dreams to repeat these dreaded words aloud.”—Sir J. Malcolm, Central India (2nd ed.), i. 446.

1833.—“Kala Pany, dark water, in allusion to the Ocean, is the term used by the Natives to express transportation. Those in the interior picture the place to be an island of a very dreadful description, and full of malevolent beings, and covered with snakes and other vile and dangerous nondescript animals.”—Mackintosh, Acc. of the Tribe of Ramoosies, 44.

PAYEN-GHAUT, n.p. The country on the coast below the Ghauts or passes leading up to the table- land of the Deccan. It was applied usually on the west coast, but the expression Carnatic Payen- ghaut is also pretty frequent, as applied to the low country of Madras on the east side of the Peninsula, from Hind. and Mahr. ghat, combined with Pers. pain, ‘below.’ [It is generally used as equivalent to Talaghat, “but some Musalmans seem t o draw the distinction that the Payin-ghat is nearer to the foot of the Ghats than the Talaghat” (Le Fanu, Man. of Salem, ii. 338).]

1629–30.—“But (’Azam Khán) found that the enemy having placed their elephants and baggage in the fort of Dhárúr, had the design of descending the Páyín-ghát.”—Abdu’l Hamíd Lahori, in Elliot, vii. 17.

1784.—“Peace and friendship…between the said Company and the Nabob Tippo Sultan Bahauder, and their friends