Chapter TOBRA to TOMAUN of T by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

TOBRA to TOMAUN

TOBRA, s. Hind. tobra, [which, according to Platts, is Skt. protha, ‘nose of a horse,’ inverted]. The leather nose-bag in which a horse’s feed is administered. “In the Nerbudda valley, in Central India, the women wear a profusion of toe-rings, some standing up an inch high. Their shoes are consequently curiously shaped, and are called tobras” (M.-Gen. R. H. Keatinge). As we should say, ‘buckets.’ [The use of the nosebag is referred to by Sir T. Herbert (ed. 1634): “The horses (of the Persians) feed usually of barley and chopt-straw put into a bag, and fastened about their heads, which implyes the manger.” Also see TURA.]

1808.—“ … stable-boys are apt to serve themselves to a part out of the poor beasts allowance; to prevent which a thrifty housewife sees it put into a tobra, or mouth bag, and spits thereon to make the Hostler loathe and leave it alone.”—Drummond, Illustrations, &c.

[1875.—“One of the horsemen dropped his tobra or nose-bag.”—Drew Jummoo, 240.]

TODDY, s. A corruption of Hind. tari, i.e. the fermented sap of the tar or palmyra, Skt. tala, and also of other palms, such as the date, the coco-palm, and the Caryota urens; palm-wine. Toddy is generally the substance used in India as yeast, to leaven bread. The word, as is well known, has received a new application in Scotland, the immediate history of which we have not traced. The tala-tree seems to be indicated, though confusedly, in this passage of Megasthenes from Arrian:

c. B.C. 320.—“Megasthenes tells us … the Indians were in old times nomadic … were so barbarous that they wore the skins of such wild animals as they could kill, and subsisted (?) on the bark of trees; that these trees were called in the Indian speech tala, and that there grew on them as there grows at the tops of the (date) palm trees, a fruit resembling balls of wool.”—Arrian, Indica, vii., tr. by McCrindle.

c. 1330.—“ … There is another tree of a different species, which … gives all the year round a white liquor, pleasant to drink, which tree is called tari.”—Fr. Jordanus, 16.

[1554.—“There is in Gujaret a tree of the palm-tribe, called tari agadji (millet tree). From its branches cups are suspended, and when the cut end of a branch is placed into one of these vessels, a sweet liquid, something of the nature of arrack, flows out in a continuous stream … and presently changes into a most wonderful wine.”—Travels of Sidi Ali Reis, trans. A. Vambéry, page 29.]

[1609–10.—“Tarree.” See under SURA.]

1611.—“Palmiti Wine, which they call Taddy.”—N. Dounton, in Purchas, i. 298.

[1614.—“A sort of wine that distilleth out of the Palmetto trees, called Tadie.”—Foster, Letters, iii. 4.]

1615.—

“ … And then more to glad yee
Weele have a health to al our friends in Tadee.”

Verses to T. Coryat, in Crudities, iii. 47.

1623.—“ … on board of which we stayed till nightfall, entertaining with conversation and drinking tari, a liquor which is drawn from the coco-nut trees, of a whitish colour, a little turbid, and of a somewhat rough taste, though with a blending in sweetness, and not unpalatable, something like one of our vini piccanti. It will also intoxicate, like wine, if drunk over freely.”—P. della Valle, ii. 530; [Hak. Soc. i. 62].

[1634.—“The Toddy-tree is like the Date of Palm; the Wine called Toddy is got by wounding and piercing the Tree, and putting a Jar or Pitcher under it, so as the Liquor may drop into it.”—Sir T. Herbert, in Harris, i. 408.]

1648.—“The country … is planted with palmito-trees, from which a sap is drawn called Terry, that they very commonly drink.”—Van Twist, 12.

1653.—“ … le tari qui est le vin ordinaire des Indes.”—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, 246.

1673.—“The Natives singing and roaring all Night long; being drunk with Toddy, the Wine of the Cocoe.”—Fryer, 53.

„ “As for the rest, they are very respectful, unless the Seamen and Soldiers get drunk, either with Toddy or Bang.”—Ibid. 91.

1686.—“Besides the Liquor or Water in the Fruit, there is also a sort of Wine drawn from the Tree called Toddy, which looks like Whey.”—Dampier, i. 293.

1705.—“ … cette liqueurs’ appelle tarif.”—Luillier, 43.

1710.—This word was in common use at Madras.—Wheeler, ii. 125.

1750.—“J. Was vor Leute trincken Taddy? C. Die Soldaten, die Land Portugiesen, die Parreier (see PARIAH) und Schiffleute trincken diesen Taddy.”—Madras, oder Fort St. George, &c., Halle, 1750.

1857.—“It is the unfermented juice of the Palmyra which is used as food: when allowed to ferment, which it will do before midday, if left to itself, it is changed into a sweet, intoxicating drink called ‘kal’ or ‘toddy.’”—Bp. Caldwell, Lectures on Tinnevelly Mission, page 33.

¶ “The Rat, returning