Chapter ANDAMAN to ANICUT of A by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

(Burnell’s Reprint) p. 12.

1552.—“The Moors all were on foot, and their Captain was a valiant Turk, who as being their Captain, for the honour of the thing was carried in an Andor on the shoulders of 4 men, from which he gave his orders as if he were on horseback.”—Barros, II. vi. viii.

[1574.—See quotation under PUNDIT.]

1623.—Della Valle describes three kinds of shoulder-borne vehicles in use at Goa: (1) reti or nets, which were evidently the simple hammock, muncheel or dandy; (2) the andor; and (3) the palankin. “And these two, the palankins and the andors, also differ from one another, for in the andor the cane which sustains it is, as it is in the reti, straight; whereas in the palankin, for the greater convenience of the inmate, and to give more room for raising his head, the cane is arched upward like this, W For this purpose the canes are bent when they are small and tender. And those vehicles are the most commodious and honourable that have the curved canes, for such canes, of good quality and strength to bear the weight, are not numerous; so they sell for 100 or 120 pardaos each, or about 60 of our scudi.”—P. della Valle, ii. 610.

c. 1760.—“Of the same nature as palankeens, but of a different name, are what they call andolas.…these are much cheaper, and less esteemed.”—Grose, i. 155.

ANDRUM, s. Malayal. andram. The form of hydrocele common in S. India. It was first described by Kaempfer, in his Decas, Leyden, 1694. —(See also his Amoenitates Exoticae, Fascic. iii. pp. 557 seqq.)

c. 1550.—“In the most eminent parts of it (Siam) are thick Forests of Angelin wood, whereof thousands of ships might be made.” —Pinto, in Cogan, p. 285; see also p. 64.

1598.—“There are in India other wonderfull and thicke trees, whereof Shippes are made: there are trees by Cochiin, that are called Angelina, whereof certaine scutes or skiffes called Tones [Doney] are made.…it is so strong and hard a woode that Iron in tract of time would bee consumed thereby by reason of the hardness of the woode.”— Linschoten, ch. 58 [Hak. Soc. ii. 56].

1644.—“Another thing which this province of Mallavar produces, in abundance and of excellent quality, is timber, particularly that called Angelim, which is most durable, lasting many years, insomuch that even if you desire to build a great number of ships, or vessels of any kind.…you may make them all in a year.”—Bocarro, MS. f. 315.

ANGENGO, n.p. A place on the Travancore coast, the site of an old English Factory; properly said to be Añju-tengu, Añchutennu, Malayal; the trivial meaning of which would be “five cocoa-nuts.” This name gives rise to the marvellous rhapsody of the once famous Abbé Raynal, regarding “Sterne’s Eliza,” of which we quote below a few sentences from the 3½ pages of close print which it fills.

1711.—“…Anjenge is a small Fort belonging to the English East India Company. There are about 40 Soldiers to defend it…most of whom are Topazes, or mungrel Portuguese.”—Lockyer, 199.

1782.—“Territoire d’Anjinga; tu n’es rien: mais tu as donné naissance à Eliza. Un jour, ces entrepôts…ne subsisteront plus…mais si mes écrits ont quelque durée, le nom d’Anjinga restera dans le mémoire des hommes…Anjinga, c’est à l’influence de ton heureux climat qu’elle devoit, sans doute, cet accord presqu’incompatible de volupté et de décence qui accompagnoit toute sa personne, et qui se mêloit à tous ses mouvements, &c., &c.”—Hist. Philosophique des Deux Indes, ii. 72–73.

ANICUT, s. Used in the irrigation of the Madras Presidency for the dam constructed across a river to fill and regulate the supply of the channels drawn off from it; the cardinal work in fact of the great irrigation systems. The word, which has of late years become familiar all over India, is the Tam. comp. anai- kattu, “Dam-building.’

1776.—“Sir— We have received your letter of the 24th. If the Rajah pleases to go to the Anacut, to see the repair of the bank, we can have no objection, but it will not be convenient that you should leave the garrison at present.”—Letter from Council at Madras to Lt.-Col. Harper, Comm. at Tanjore, in E. I. Papers, 1777, 4to, i. 836.

1784.—“As the cultivation of the Tanjore country appears, by all the surveys and reports of our engineers employed in that service, to depend altogether on a supply of water by the Cauvery, which can only be secured by keeping the Anicut and banks in repair, we think it necessary to repeat to you our orders of the 4th July, 1777, on the subject of these repairs.”—Desp. of Court of Directors, Oct. 27th, as amended by Bd. of Control, in Burke, iv. 104.

1793.—“The Annicut is no doubt