Chapter SHAMEEANA to SHAN of S by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

SHAMEEANA to SHAN

SHAMEEANA, SEMIANNA, s. Pers. shamiyana or shamiyana [very doubtfully derived from Pers. shah, ‘king,’ miyana, ‘centre’], an awning or flat tent-roof, sometimes without sides, but often in the present day with canauts; sometimes pitched like a porch before a large tent; often used by civil officers, when on tour, to hold their court or office proceedings coram populo, and in a manner generally accessible. [In the early records the word is used for a kind of striped calico.]

c. 1590.—“The Shamyanah-awning is made of various sizes, but never more than of 12 yards square.”—Ain, i. 54.

[1609.—“A sort of Calico here called semijanes are also in abundance, it is broader than the Calico.”—Danvers, Letters, i. 29.]

[1613.—“The Hector having certain chueckeros (chucker) of fine Semian chowters.”—Ibid. i. 217. In Foster, iv. 239, semanes.]

1616.—“… there is erected a throne foure foote from the ground in the Durbar Court from the backe whereof, to the place where the King comes out, a square of 56 paces long, and 43 broad was rayled in, and covered with fair Semiaenes or Canopies of Cloth of Gold, Silke, or Velvet ioyned together, and sustained with Canes so covered.”—Sir T. Roe, in Purchás, i.; Hak. Soc. i. 142.

[1676.—“We desire you to furnish him with all things necessary for his voyage, … with bridle and sadle, Semeanoes, canatts (Canaut). …”—Forrest, Bombay Letters, i. 89.]

1814.—“I had seldom occasion to look out for gardens or pleasure grounds to pitch my tent or erect my Summiniana or Shamyana, the whole country being generally a garden.”—Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 455; 2nd ed. ii. 64. In ii. 294 he writes Shumeeana].

1857.—“At an early hour we retired to rest. Our beds were arranged under large canopies, open on all sides, and which are termed by the natives ‘Shameanahs.’ ”—M. Thornhill, Personal Adventures, 14.

SHAMPOO, v. To knead and press the muscles with the view of relieving fatigue, &c. The word has now long been familiarly used in England. The Hind. verb is champna, from the imperative of which, champo, this is most probably a corruption, as in the case of Bunow, Puckerow, &c. The process is described, though not named, by Terry, in 1616: “Taking thus their ease, they often call their Barbers, who tenderly gripe and smite their Armes and other parts of their bodies instead of exercise, to stirre the bloud. It is a pleasing wantonnesse, and much valued in these hot climes.” (In Purchas, ii. 1475). The process was familiar to the Romans under the Empire, whose slaves employed in this way were styled tractator and tractatrix. [Perhaps the earliest reference to the practice is in Strabo (McCrindle, Ancient India, 72).] But with the ancients it seems to have been allied to vice, for which there is no ground that we know in the Indian custom.

1748.—“Shampooing is an operation not known in Europe, and is peculiar to the Chinese, which I had once the curiosity to go through, and for which I paid but a trifle. However, had I not seen several China merchants shampooed before me, I should have been apprehensive of danger, even at the sight of all the different instruments. …” (The account is good, but too long for extract.)—A Voyage to the E. Indies in 1747 and 1748. London, 1762, p. 226.

1750–60.—“The practice of champing, which by the best intelligence I could gather is derived from the Chinese, may not be unworthy particularizing, as it is little known to the modern Europeans. …”—Grose, i. 113. This writer quotes Martial, iii. Ep. 82, and Seneca, Epist. 66, to show that the practice was known in ancient Rome.

1800.—“The Sultan generally rose at break of day: after being champoed, and rubbed, he washed himself, and read the Koran for an hour.”—Beatson, War with Tippoo, p. 159.

[1810.—“Shampoeing may be compared to a gentle kneading of the whole person, and is the same operation described by the voyagers to the Southern and Pacific ocean.”—Wilks, Hist. Sketches, Madras reprint, i. 276.]

„ ‘Then whilst they fanned the children, or champooed them if they were restless, they used to tell stories, some of which dealt of marvels as great as those recorded in the 1001 Nights.”—Mrs. Sherwood, Autobiog. 410.

„ “That considerable relief is obtained from shampoing, cannot be doubted; I have repeatedly been restored surprisingly from severe fatigue. …”—Williamson, V. M. ii. 198.

1813.—“There is sometimes a voluptuousness in the climate of India, a stillness in nature, an indescribable softness, which soothes the mind, and gives it up to the most delightful sensations: independent of the effects of opium, champoing, and other luxuries indulged in by oriental sensualists.’—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 35; [2nd ed. i. 25.]

SHAN, n.p. The name which we have learned from the Burmese to apply to the people who call themselves the great T’ai, kindred to the Siamese, and occupying extensive tracts in Indo-China, intermediate between