Chapter SWALLOW to SWEET POTATO of S by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

[SWAMY JEWELRY, s. A kind of gold and silver jewelry, made chiefly at Trichinopoly, in European shapes covered with grotesque mythological figures.

[1880.—“In the characteristic Swami work of the Madras Presidency the ornamentation consists of figures of the Puranic gods in high relief, either beaten out from the surface, or affixed to it, whether by soldering, or wedging, or screwing them on.”—Birdwood, Industr. Arts, 152.]

SWAMY-PAGODA, s. A coin formerly current at Madras; probably so called from the figure of an idol on it. Milburn gives 100 Swamy Pagodas=110 Star Pagodas. A “three swami pagoda” was a name given to a gold coin bearing on the obverse the effigy of Chenna Keswam Swami (a title of Krishna) and on the reverse Lakshmi and Rukmini (C.P.B.).

SWATCH, s. This is a marine term which probably has various applications beyond Indian limits. But the only two instances of its application are both Indian, viz. “the Swatch of No Ground,” or elliptically “The Swatch,” marked in all the charts just off the Ganges Delta, and a space bearing the same name, and probably produced by analogous tidal action, off the Indus Delta. [The word is not to be found in Smyth, Sailor’s Word-book.]

1726.—In Valentijn’s first map of Bengal, though no name is applied there is a space marked “no ground with 60 raam (fathoms?) of line.”

1863.—(Ganges). “There is still one other phenomenon.…This is the existence of a great depression, or hole, in the middle of the Bay of Bengal, known in the charts as the ‘Swatch of No Ground.’”—Fergusson, on Recent Changes in the Delta of the Ganges, Qy. Jour. Geol. Soc., Aug. 1863.

1877.—(Indus). “This is the famous Swatch of no ground where the lead falls at once into 200 fathoms.”—Burton, Sind Revisited, 21.

[1878.—“He (Capt. Lloyd, in 1840) describes the remarkable phenomenon at the head of the Bay of Bengal, similar to that reported by Captain Selby off the mouths of the Indus, called ‘the Swatch of no ground.’ It is a deep chasm, open to seaward and very steep on the north-west face, with no soundings at 250 fathoms.”—Markham, Mem. of Indian Surveys, 27.]

[SWEET APPLE, s. An Anglo-Indian corruption of sitaphal, ‘the fruit of Sita,’ the Musk Melon, Fr. Potiron. Cucurbita moschata (see CUSTARD-APPLE).]

SWEET OLEANDER, s. This is in fact the common oleander, Nerium odorum, Ait.

1880.—“Nothing is more charming than, even in the upland valleys of the Mahratta country, to come out of a wood of all outlandish trees and flowers suddenly on the dry winter bed of some mountain stream, grown along the banks, or on the little islets of verdure in mid (shingle) stream, with clumps of mixed tamarisk and lovely blooming oleander.”—Birdwood, MS. 9.

SWEET POTATO, s. The root of Batatas edulis, Choisy (Convolvulus Batatas, L.), N.O. Convolvulaceae; a very palatable vegetable, grown in most parts of India. Though extensively cultivated in America, and in the W. Indies, it has been alleged in various books (e.g. in Eng. Cyclop. Nat. Hist. Section, and in Drury’s Useful Plants of India), that the plant is a native of the Malay islands. The Eng. Cyc. even states that batatas is the Malay name. But the whole allegation is probably founded in error. The Malay names of the plant, as given by Crawfurd, are Kaledek, Ubi Jawa, and Ubi Kastila, the last two names meaning ‘Java yam,’ and ‘Spanish yam,’ and indicating the foreign origin of the vegetable. In India, at least in the Bengal Presidency, natives commonly call it shakarkand, P.—Ar., literally ‘sugar-candy,’ a name equally suggesting that it is not indigenous among them. And in fact when we turn to Oviedo, we find the following distinct statement: “Batatas are a staple food of the Indians, both in the Island of Spagnuola and in the others…and a ripe Batata properly dressed is just as good as a marchpane twist of sugar and almonds, and better indeed.…When Batatas are well ripened, they are often carried to Spain, i.e., if the voyage be a quiet one; for if there be delay they get spoilt at sea. I myself have carried them from this city of S. Domingo to the city of Avila in Spain, and although they did not arrive as good as they should be, yet they were thought a great deal of, and reckoned a singular and precious kind of fruit.”—In Ramusio, iii. f. 134.

It must be observed however that several distinct varieties are cultivated