Chapter SARBATANE to SATIGAM of S by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

SARBATANE to SATIGAM

SARBATANE, SARBACANE, s. This is not Anglo-Indian, but it often occurs in French works on the East, as applied to the blowing-tubes used by various tribes of the Indian Islands for discharging small arrows, often poisoned. The same instrument is used among the tribes of northern South America, and in some parts of Madagascar. The word comes through the Span. cebratana, cerbatana, zarbatana, also Port. sarabatana, &c., Ital. cerbotana, Mod. Greek [Greek Text] zarobotana, from the Ar. zabatana, ‘a tube for blowing pellets’ (a pea-shooter in fact!). Dozy says that the r must have been sounded in the Arabic of the Spanish Moors, as Pedro de Alcala translates zebratana by Ar. zarbatana. The resemblance of this to the Malay sumpitan (q.v.) is curious, though it is not easy to suggest a transition, if the Arabic word is, as it appears, old enough to have been introduced into Spanish. There is apparently, however, no doubt that in Arabic it is a borrowed word. The Malay word seems to be formed directly from sumpit, ‘to discharge from the mouth by a forcible expiration’ (Crawfurd, Mal. Dict.).

[1516.—“… the force which had accompanied the King, very well armed, many of them with bows, others carrying blowing tubes with poisoned arrows (Zarvatanas com setas ervadas.…”—Comm. of Dalboquerque, Hak. Soc. iii. 104.]

SARBOJI, s. This is the name of some weapon used in the extreme south of India; but we have not been able to ascertain its character or etymology. We conjecture, however, that it may be the long lance or pike, 18 or 20 feet long, which was the characteristic and formidable weapon of the Marava Colleries (q.v.). See Bp. Caldwell’s H. of Tinnevelly, p. 103 and passim; [Stuart, Man. of Tinnevelly, 50. This explanation is probably incorrect. Welsh (Military Rem. i. 104) defines sarabogies as “a species of park guns, for firing salutes at feasts, &c.; but not used in war.” It has been suggested that the word is simply Hind. sirbojha, ‘a head-load,’ and Dr. Grierson writes: “ ‘Laden with a head’ may refer to a head carried home on a spear.” Dr. Pope writes: “Sarboji is not found in any Dravidian dialect, as far as I know. It is a synonym for Sivaji. Sarva (sarbo)-ji is honorific. In the Tanjore Inscription it is Serfogi. In mythology Siva’s name is ‘arrow,’ ‘spear,’ and ‘head-burthen,’ of course by metonomy.” Mr. Brandt suggests Tam. seru, “war,” bugei, “a tube.” No weapon of the name appears in Mr. Egerton’s Hand- book of Indian Arms.] 1801.—“The Rt. Hon. the Governor in Council … orders and directs all persons, whether Polygars (see BOLIGAR), Colleries, or other inhabitants possessed of arms in the Provinces of Dindigul, Tinnevelly, Ramnadpuram, Sivagangai, and Madura, to deliver the said arms, consisting of Muskets, Matchlocks, Pikes, Gingauls (see GINGALL), and Sarabogoi to Lieut.-Col. Agnew.…”—Procl. by Madras Govt., dd. 1st Decr., in Bp. Caldwell’s Hist. p. 227.

c. 1814.—“Those who carry spear and sword have land given them producing 5 kalams of rice; those bearing muskets, 7 kalams; those bearing the sarboji, 9 kalams; those bearing the sanjali (see GINGALL), or gun for two men, 14 kalams.…” —Account of the Marávas, from Máckenzie MSS. in Madras Journal, iv. 360.

SAREE, s. Hind. sari, sarhi. The cloth which constitutes the main part of a woman’s dress in N. India, wrapt round the body and then thrown over the head.

1598.—“… likewise they make whole pieces or webbes of this hearbe, sometimes mixed and woven with silke.… Those webs are named sarijn …”—Linschoten, 28; [Hak. Soc. i. 96].

1785.—“… Her clothes were taken off, and a red silk covering (a saurry) put upon her.”—Acct. of a Suttee, in Seton-Karr, i. 90.

SARNAU, SORNAU, n.p. A name often given to Siam in the early part of the 16th century; from Shahr- i-nao, Pers. ‘New-city’; the name by which Yuthia or Ayodhya (see JUDEA), the capital founded on the Menam about 1350, seems to have become known to the traders of the Persian Gulf. Mr. Braddell (J. Ind. Arch. v. 317) has suggested that the name (Sheher-al-nawi, as he calls it) refers to the distinction spoken of by La Loubère between the Thai-Yai, an older people of the race, and the Thai-Noi, the people known to us as Siamese. But this is less probable. We have still a city of Siam called Lophaburi, anciently a capital, and the name of which appears to be a Sanskrit or Pali form, Nava-pura, meaning the same as Shahr-i-nao; and this indeed may have first given rise to the latter name. The Cernove of Nicolo Conti (c. 1430) is generally supposed to refer to a city of Bengal, and one of the present writers has