Chapter PORCA to PORGO of P by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

me ha mandato sei vasi di porzellana excellitissimi et grãdi: quatro bochali de argento grandi cõ certi altri vasi al modo loro per credentia.”—Letter of K. Emanuel, 13.

1516.—“They make in this country a great quantity of porcelains of different sorts, very fine and good, which form for them a great article of trade for all parts, and they make them in this way. They take the shells of sea-snails (? caracoli), and eggshells, and pound them, and with other ingredients make a paste, which they put underground to refine for the space of 80 or 100 years, and this mass of paste they leave as a fortune to their children. …”—Barbosa, in Ramusio, i. 320c.

1553.—(In China) “The service of their meals is the most elegant that can be, everything being of very fine procelana (although they also make use of silver and gold plate), and they eat everything with a fork made after their fashion, never putting a hand into their food, much or little.”—Barros, III. ii. 7.

1554.—(After a suggestion of the identity of the vasa murrhina of the ancients): “Ce nom de Porcelaine est donné à plusieurs coquilles de mer. Et pource qu’vn beau Vaisseau d’vne coquille de mer ne se pourroit rendre mieux à propos suyuãt le nom antique, que de l’appeller de Porceláine i’ay pensé que les coquilles polies et luysantes, resemblants à Nacre de perles, ont quelque affinité auec la matière des vases de Porcelaine antiques: ioinct aussi que le peuple Frãçois nomme les patesnostres faictes de gros vignols, patenostres de Porcelaine. Les susdicts vases de Porcelaine sont transparents, et coustent bien cher au Caire, et disent mesmement qu’ilz les apportent des Indes. Mais cela ne me sembla vraysemblable: car on n’en voirroit pas si grande quantité, ne de si grãdes pieces, s’il failloit apporter de si loing. Vne esguiere, vn pot, ou vn autre vaisseau pour petite qu’elle soit, couste vn ducat: si c’est quelque grãd vase, il coustera d’auantage.”—P. Belon, Observations, f. 134.

c. 1560.—“And because there are many opinions among the Portugals which have not beene in China, about where this Porcelane is made, and touching the substance whereof it is made, some saying, that it is of oysters shels, others of dung rotten of a long time, because they were not enformed of the truth, I thought it conuenient to tell here the substance. …”—Gaspar da Cruz, in Purchas, iii. 177.

[1605–6.—“… China dishes or Puselen.”—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 77.

[1612.—“Balanced one part with sandal wood, Porcelain and pepper.”—Danvers, Letters, i. 197.]

1615.—“If we had in England beds of porcelain such as they have in China,— which porcelain is a kind of plaster buried in the earth, and by length of time congealed and glazed into that substance; this were an artificial mine, and part of that substance. …”—Bacon, Argument on Impeachment of Waste; Works, by Spedding, &c., 1859, vii. 528.

c. 1630.—“The Bannyans all along the sea-shore pitch their Booths … for there they sell Callicoes, China-satten, Purcellain-ware, scrutores or Cabbinets. …”—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1665, p. 45.

1650.—“We are not thoroughly resolved concerning Porcellane or China dishes, that according to common belief they are made of earth, which lieth in preparation about an hundred years underground; for the relations thereof are not only divers but contrary; and Authors agree not herein. …”—Sir Thomas Browne, Vulgar Errors, ii. 5.

[1652.—“Invited by Lady Gerrard I went to London, where we had a greate supper; all the vessels, which were innumerable, were of Porcelan, she having the most ample and richest collection of that curiositie in England.”—Evelyn, Diary, March 19.]

1726.—In a list of the treasures left by Akbar, which is given by Valentijn, we find:

“In Porcelyn, &c., Ropias 2507747.”—iv. (Suratte), 217.

1880.—“‘Vasella quidem delicatiora et caerulea et venusta, quibus inhaeret nescimus quid elegantiae, porcellana vocantur, quasi (sed nescimus quare) a porcellis. In partibus autem Britanniae quae septentrionem spectant, vocabulo forsan analogo, vasa grossiora et fusca pigs appellant barbari, quasi (sed quare iterum nescimus) a porcis.’ Narrischchen und Weitgeholt, Etymol. Universale, s.v. ‘Blue China.’”—Motto to An Ode in Brown Pig, St. James’s Gazette, July 17.

PORGO, s. We know this word only from its occurrence in the passage quoted; and most probably the explanation suggested by the editor of the Notes is correct, viz. that it represents Port. peragua. This word is perhaps the same as pirogue, used by the French for a canoe or ‘dug-out’; a term said by Littré to be (piroga) Carib. [On the passage from T. B. quoted below Sir H. Yule has the following note: “J. (i.e. T.) B., the author, gives a rough drawing. It represents the Purgoe as a somewhat high-sterned lighter, not very large, with five oarpins a side. I cannot identify it exactly with any kind of modern boat of which I have found a representation. It is perhaps most like the palwar. I think it must be an Orissa word, but I have not been able to trace it in any dictionary, Uriya or Bengali.” On this Col. Temple says: “The modern Indian palwar (Malay palwa) is a skiff, and would not answer the description.” Anderson (loc. cit.) mentions that in 1685 several “well-laden Purgoes” and boats had put in for shelter at Rameswaram to the northward of Madapollam, i.e. on the Coromandel Coast. There seems to be no such word known