Chapter REGULATION PROVINCES to RESHIRE of R by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

REGULATION PROVINCES to RESHIRE

REGULATION PROVINCES. See this explained under NON-REGULATION.

REGUR, s. Dakh. Hind. regar, also legar. The peculiar black loamy soil, commonly called by English people in India ‘black cotton soil.’ The word may possibly be connected with H.—P. reg, ‘sand’; but regada and regadi is given by Wilson as Telugu. [Platts connects it with Skt. rekha, ‘a furrow.’] This soil is not found in Beng al, with some restricted exception in the Rajmahal Hills. It is found everywhere on the plains of the Deccan trap-country, except near the coast. Tracts of it are scattered t hrough the valley of the Krishna, and it occupies the flats of Coimbatore, Madura, Salem, Tanjore, Ramnad, and Tinnevelly. It occurs north of the Nerbudda in Saugor, and occasionally on the plain of the eastern side of the Peninsula, and composes the great flat of Surat and Broach in Guzerat. It is also found in Pegu. The origin of regar has been much debated. We can only give the conclusion as stated in the Manual of the Geology of India, from which some preceding particulars are drawn: “Regur has been shown on fairly trustworthy evidence to result from the impregnation of certain argillaceous formations with organic matter, but…the process which has taken place is imperfectly understood, and…some peculiarities in distribution yet require explanation.”—Op. cit. i. 434.

REH, s. [Hind. reh, Skt. rej, ‘to shine, shake, quiver.’] A saline efflorescence which comes to the surface in extensive tracts of Upper India, rendering the soil sterile. The salts (chiefly sulphate of soda mixed with more or less of common salt and carbonate of soda) are superficial in the soil, for in the worst reh tracts sweet water is obtainable at depths below 60 or 80 feet. [Plains infested with these salts are very commonly known in N. India as Oosur Plains (Hind. usar, Skt. ushara, ‘impregnated with salt.’)] The phenomenon seems due to the climate of Upper India, where the ground is rendered hard and impervious to water by the scorching sun, the parching winds, and the treeless character of the country, so that there is little or no water-circulation in the subsoil. The salts in question, which appear to be such of the substances resulting from the decomposition of rock, or of the detritus derived from rock, and from the formation of the soil, as are not assimilated by plants, accumulate under such circumstances, not being diluted and removed by the natural purifying process of percolation of the rain-water. This accumulation of salts is brought to the surface by capillary action after the rains, and evaporated, leaving the salts as an efflorescence on the surface. From time to time the process culminates on considerable tracts of land, which are thus rendered barren. The canal-irrigation of the Upper Provinces has led to some aggravation of the evil. The level of the canal-waters being generally high, they raise the level of the reh-polluted water in the soil, and produce in the lower tracts a great increase of the efflorescence. A partial remedy for this lies in the provision of drainage for the subsoil water, but this has only to a small extent been yet carried out. [See a full account in Watt, Econ. Dict. VI. pt. i. 400 seqq.]

REINOL, s. A term formerly in use among the Portuguese at Goa, and applied apparently to ‘Johnny Newcomes’ or Griffins (q.v.). It is from reino, ‘the Kingdom’ (viz. of Portugal). The word was also sometimes used to distinguish the European Portuguese from the country-born.

1598.—“…they take great pleasure and laugh at him, calling him Reynol, which is a name given in iest to such as newly come from Portingall, and know not how to behave themselves in such grave manner, and with such ceremonies as the Portingales use there in India.”—Linschoten, ch. xxxi.; [Hak. Soc. i. 208].

c. 1610.—“…quand ces soldats Portugais arriuent de nouueau aux Indes portans encor leurs habits du pays, ceux qui sont là de long tes quand ils les voyent par les ruës les appellent Renol, chargez de poux, et mille autres iniures et mocqueries.”—Mocquet, 304.

[” “When they are newly arrived in the Indies, they are called Raignolles, that is to say ‘men of the Kingdom,’ and the older hands mock them until they have made one or two voyages with them, and have learned the manners and customs of the Indies; this name sticks to them until the fleet arrives the year following.”—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 123.

[1727.—“The Reynolds or European fidalgos.”—A. Hamilton, ed. 1744, i. 251.]

At a later date the word seems to have been applied to Portuguese deserters who took service with the E.I. Co. Thus:

c. 1760.—“With respect to the military, the common men are chiefly such as the Company sends out in their ships, or deserters from the several nations settled in India, Dutch, French, or Portuguese, which last are commonly known by the name of Reynols.”—Grose, i. 38.