Chapter TURAKA to TURKEY of T by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

Turkish hat,” &c.—Glossographia, or a Dictionary interpreting the Hard Words of whatsoever language, now used in our refined English Tongue, &c., the 4th ed., by T.E., of the Inner Temple, Esq. In the Savoy, 1674.

1676.—“Mahamed Alibeg returning into Persia out of India … presented Cha-Sefi the second with a Coco-nut about the bigness of an Austrich-egg … there was taken out of it a Turbant that had 60 cubits of calicut in length to make it, the cloath being so fine that you could hardly feel it.”—Tavernier, E.T. p. 127; [ed. Ball, ii. 7].

1687.—In a detail of the high officers of the Sultan’s Court we find:

“5. The Tulbentar Aga, he that makes up his Turbant.”

A little below another personage (apparently) is called Tulban-oghlani (‘The Turban Page’)—Ricaut, Present State of the Ottoman Empire, p. 14.

1711.—“Their common Dress is a piece of blew Callico, wrap’d in a Role round their Heads for a Turbat.”—Lockyer, 57.

1745.—“The Turks hold the Sultan’s Turban in honour to such a degree that they hardly dare touch it … but he himself has, among the servants of his privy chamber, one whose special duty it is to adjust his Turban, or head-tire, and who is thence called Tulbentar or Dulbentar Aga, or Dulbendar Aga, also called by some Dulbend Oghani (Oghlani), or Page of the Turban.”—Zedler, Universal Lexicon, s.v.

c. 1760.—“They (the Sepoys) are chiefly armed in the country manner, with sword and target, and wear the Indian dress, the turbant, the cabay (Cabaya) or vest, and long drawers.”—Grose, i. 39.

1843.—“The mutiny of Vellore was caused by a slight shown to the Mahomedan turban; the mutiny of Banglore by disrespect said to have been shown to a Mahomedan place of worship.”—Macaulay, Speech on Gates of Somnauth.

TURKEY, s. This fowl is called in Hindustani peru, very possibly an indication that it came to India, perhaps first to the Spanish settlements in the Archipelago, across the Pacific, as the red pepper known as Chili did. In Tamil the bird is called van-kori, ‘great fowl.’ Our European names of it involve a complication of mistakes and confusions. We name it as if it came from the Levant. But the name turkey would appear to have been originally applied to another of the Pavonidae, the guinea-fowl, Meleagris of the ancients. Minsheu’s explanations (quoted below) show strange confusions between the two birds. The French coq d’Inde or Dindon points only ambiguously to India, but the German Calecutische Hahn and the Dutch Kalkoen (from Calicut) are specific in error as indicating the origin of the Turkey in the East. This misnomer may have arisen from the nearly simultaneous discovery of America and of the Cape route to Calicut, by Spain and Portugal respectively. It may also have been connected with the fact that Malabar produced domestic fowls of extraordinary size. Of these Ibn Batuta (quoted below) makes quaint mention. Zedler’s great German Lexicon of Universal Knowledge, a work published as late as 1745, says that these birds (turkeys) were called Calecutische and Indische because they were brought by the Portuguese from the Malabar coast. Dr. Caldwell cites a curious disproof of the antiquity of certain Tamil verses from their containing a simile of which the turkey forms the subject. And native scholars, instead of admitting the anachronism, have boldly maintained that the turkey had always been found in India (Dravidian Gramm. 2nd ed. p. 137). Padre Paolino was apparently of the same opinion, for whilst explaining that the etymology of Calicut is “Castle of the Fowls,” he asserts that Turkeys (Galli d’India) came originally from India; being herein, as he often is, positive and wrong. In 1615 we find W. Edwards, the E.I. Co.’s agent at Ajmir, writing to send the Mogul “three or four Turkey cocks and hens, for he hath three cocks but no hens’ (Colonial Paper, E. i. c. 388). Here, however, the ambiguity between the real turkey and the guinea-fowl may possibly arise. In Egypt the bird is called Dik - Rumi, ‘fowl of Rum’ (i.e. of Turkey), probably a rendering of the English term.

c. 1347.—“The first time in my life that I saw a China cock was in the city of Kaulam. I had at first taken it for an ostrich, and I was looking at it with great wonder, when the owner said to me, ‘Pooh! there are cocks in China much bigger than that!’ and when I got there I found that he had said no more than the truth.”—Ibn Batuta, iv. 257.

c. 1550.—“One is a species of peacock that has been brought to Europe, and commonly called the Indian fowl.”—Girolamo Benzoni, 148.

1627.—“Turky Cocke, or cocke of India, avis ita dicta, quod ex Africa, et vt nonulli volunt alii, ex India vel Arabia ad nos altata sit. B. Endische haen. T. Endianisch hun, Calccuttisch hun.… H. Pavon de las Indias. G. Poulle d’Inde. H. 2. Gallepauo. L. Gallo-pauo, quod de vtriusque natura videtur participare … ave Numidicae, á Numidia, Meleagris … à [Greek Text] mulaV, i. niger, and [Greek Text] agroV, ager, quod in Æthiopia praecipuè inveniuntur.

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