Chapter SHOE-GOOSE to SHULWAURS of S by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

poet says of his mare: “Her forefeet scatter the gravel every midday, as the dirhams are scattered at their testing by the sairaf” (W. R. S.)

1554.—“Salaries of the officers of the Custom Houses, and other charges for these which the Treasurers have to pay. … Also to the Xarrafo, whose charge it is to see to the money, two pardaos a month, which make for a year seven thousand and two hundred reis.”—Botelho, Tombo, in Subsidios, 238.

1560.—“There are in the city many and very wealthy carafos who change money.”—Tenreiro, ch. i.

1584.—“5 tangas make a seraphin (see XERAFINE) of gold; but if one would change them into basaruchies (see BUDGROOK) he may have 5 tangas and 16 basaruchies, which ouerplus they call cerafagio. …”—Barret, in Hakl. ii. 410.

1585.—“This present year, because only two ships came to Goa, (the reals) have sold at 12 per cent. of Xarafaggio (shroffage), as this commission is called, from the word Xaraffo, which is the title of the banker.”—Sassetti, in De Gubernatis, Storia, p. 203.

1598.—“There is in every place of the street exchangers of money, by them called Xaraffos, which are all christian Jewes.”—Linschoten, 66; [Hak. Soc. i. 231, and see 244.]

c. 1610.—“Dans ce Marché … aussi sont les changeurs qu’ils nomment Cherafes, dont il y en a en plusieurs autres endroits; leurs boutiques sont aux bouts des ruës et carrefours, toutes couuertes de monnoye, dont ils payent tribut au Roy.”—Pyrard de Laval, ii. 39; [Hak. Soc. ii. 67].

[1614.—“… having been borne in hand by our Sarafes to pay money there.”—Foster, Letters, iii. 282. The “Sheriff of Bantam” (ibid. iv. 7) may perhaps be a shroff, but compare Shereef.]

1673.—“It could not be improved till the Governor had released the Shroffs or Bankers.”—Fryer, 413.

1697–8.—“In addition to the cash and property which they had got by plunder, the enemy fixed two lacs of rupees as the price of the ransom of the prisoners. … To make up the balance, the Sarráfs and merchants of Nandurbár were importuned to raise a sum, small or great, by way of loan. But they would not consent.”—Kháfi Khán, in Elliot, vii. 362.

1750.—“… the Irruption of the Morattoes into Carnatica, was another event that brought several eminent Shroffs and wealthy Merchants into our Town; insomuch, that I may say, there was hardly a Shroff of any Note, in the Mogul empire but had a House in it; in a word, Madrass was become the Admiration of all the Country People, and the Envy of all our European Neighbours.”—Letter to a Proprietor of the E. I. Co. 53–54.

1809.—“I had the satisfaction of hearing the Court order them (i.e. Gen. Martin’s executors) to pay two lacs and a half to the plaintiff, a shroff of Lucknow.”—Ld. Valentia, i. 243.

[1891.—“The banker in Persia is looked on simply as a small tradesman—in fact the business of the Serof is despised.”—Wills, in the Land of the Lion and the Sun, 192].

SHROFF, TO, v. This verb is applied properly to the sorting of different rupees or other coins, so as to discard refuse, and to fix the various amounts of discount or agio upon the rest, establishing the value in standard coin. Hence figuratively ‘to sift,’ choosing the good (men, horses, facts, or what not) and rejecting the inferior.

[1554.—(See under BATTA, b.)]

1878.—“Shroffing schools are common in Canton, where teachers of the art keep bad dollars for the purpose of exercising their pupils; and several works on the subject have been published there, with numerous illustrations of dollars and other foreign coins, the methods of scooping out silver and filling up with copper or lead, comparisons between genuine and counterfeit dollars, the difference between native and foreign milling, etc., etc.”—Giles, Glossary of Reference, 129.

1882.—(The Compradore) “derived a profit from the process of shroffing which (the money received) underwent before being deposited in the Treasury.”—The Fankwae at Canton, 55.

SHRUB, s. See under SHERBET.

SHULWAURS, s. Trousers, or drawers rather, of the Oriental kind, the same as pyjammas, long-drawers, or mogul - breeches (qq.v). The Persian is shalwar, which according to Prof. Max Müller is more correctly shulvar, from shul, ‘the thigh,’ related to Latin crus, cruris, and to Skt. kshura or khura, ‘hoof’ (see Pusey on Daniel, 570). Be this as it may, the Ar. form is sirwal (vulg. sharwal), pl. sarawil, [which Burton (Arab. Nights, i. 205) translates ‘bag-trousers’ and ‘petticoat-trousers,’ “the latter being the divided skirt of the future.”] This appears in the ordinary editions of the Book of Daniel in Greek, as [Greek Text] sarabara and also in the Vulgate, as follows: “Et capillus capitis eorum non esset adustus, et sarabala eorum non fuissent immutata, et odor ignis. non transisset per eos” (iii. 27). The original word is sarbalin,