Chapter UJUNGTANAH to UMBRELLA of U by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

UJUNGTANAH to UMBRELLA

UJUNGTANAH, n.p.This is the Malay name (nearly answering to ‘Land’s End,’ from Ujung, ‘point or promontory,’ and tanah, ‘land’) of the extreme end of the Malay Peninsula terminating in what the maps call Pt. Romania. In Godinho de Eredia’s Declaracam de Malaca the term is applied to the whole Peninsula, but owing to the interchangeable use of u, v, and of j, i, it appears there throughout as Viontana. The name is often applied by the Portuguese writers to the kingdom of Johor, in which the Malay dynasty of Malacca established itself when expelled by Alboquerque in 1511; and it is even applied (as in the quotation from Barros) to their capital.

c. 1539.—“After that the King of Jantana had taken that oath before a great Cacis (Casis) of his, called Raia Moulana, upon a festival day when as they solemnized their Ramadan (Ramdam) …”—Pinto, in Cogan’s E.T., p. 36.

1553.—“And that you may understand the position of the city of Ujantana, which Don Stephen went to attack, you must know that Ujantana is the most southerly and the most easterly point of the mainland of the Malaca coast, which from this Point (distant from the equator about a degree, and from Malaca something more than 40 leagues) turns north in the direction of the Kingdom of Siam. … On the western side of this Point a river runs into the sea, so deep that ships can run up it 4 leagues beyond the bar, and along its banks, well inland, King Alaudin had established a big town. …”—Barros, IV. xi. 13.

1554.—“… en Muar, in Ojantana. …” —Botelho, Tombo, 105.

UMBRELLA, s. This word is of course not Indian or Anglo-Indian, but the thing is very prominent in India, and some interest attaches to the history of the word and thing in Europe. We shall collect here a few quotations bearing upon this. The knowledge and use of this serviceable instrument seems to have gone through extraordinary eclipses. It is frequent as an accompaniment of royalty in the Nineveh sculptures; it was in general Indian use in the time of Alexander; it occurs in old Indian inscriptions, on Greek vases, and in Greek and Latin literature; it was in use at the court of Byzantium, and at that of the Great Khan in Mongolia, in medieval Venice, and more recently in the semi-savage courts of Madagascar and Ashantee. Yet it was evidently a strange object, needing particular description, to John Marignolli (c. 1350), Ruy Clavijo (c. 1404), Barbosa (1516), John de Barros (1553), and Minsheu (1617). See also CHATTA, and SOMBRERO.

c. B.C. 325.—“ [Greek Text] TouV de pwgwnaV legei NearcoV oti baptontai ’ Indoi … [Greek Text] kai skiadia oti proballontai, tou qereoV, osoi ouk hmelhmenoi ’ [Greek Text] Indwn.”—Arrian, Indica, xvi.

c. B.C. 2.

“Ipse tene distenta suis umbracula virgis;

Ovid, Art. Amat. ii. 209–210.

c. A.D. 5.
“Aurea pellebant rapidos umbracula soles
Quae tamen Herculeae sustinuere manus.” Ibid. Fasti, ii. 311–312. c. A.D. 100.
“En, cui tu viridem umbellam, cui succina mittas
Grandia natalis quoties redit. …”
Juvenal, ix. 50–51.

c. 200.—“… [Greek Text] epemye de kai klinhn autw arguropoda, kai strwmnhn, kai skhnhn ouranorofon anqinhn, kai qronon arguroun, kai epicruson skiadion …”—Athenaeus, Lib. ii. Epit. § 31.

c. 380.—“Ubi si inter aurata flabella laciniis sericis insiderint muscae, vel per foramen umbraculi pensilis radiolus irruperit solis, queruntur quod non sunt apud Cimmerios nati.”—Ammianus Marcellinus, XXVIII. iv.

1248.—“Ibi etiam quoddam Solinum (v. Soliolum), sive tentoriolum, quod portatur super caput Imperatoris, fuit praesentatum eidem, quod totum erat praeparatum cum gemmis.”—Joan. de Plano Carpini, in Rec. de V., iv. 759–760.

c. 1292.—“Et a haute festes porte Monsignor le Dus une corone d’or … et la ou il vait a hautes festes si vait apres lui un damoiseau qui porte une unbrele de dras à or sur son chief …”

and again:

“Et apres s’en vet Monsignor li Dus desos l’onbrele que li dona Monsignor l’Apostoille; et cele onbrele est d’un dras (a) or, que la porte un damosiaus entre ses mains, que s’en vet totes voies apres Monsignor li Dus.”—Venetian Chronicle of Martino da Canale, Archiv. Stor. Ital., I. Ser. viii. 214, 560.

1298.—“Et