of Godolphin’s Award between the Old and the New E. I. Co., in Charters, &c., p. 358.
1727.—“The
current money in Surat: Bitter Almonds go 32 to a Pice: | 1 Annoe is | 4 Pice. | | 1 Rupee | 16 Annoes. |
In Bengal their Accounts are kept in Pice:
12 to an Annoe. 16 Annoes to a Rupee.” A. Hamilton, ii.
App. pp. 5, 8. ANT, WHITE, s. The insect (Termes bellicosus of naturalists) not properly an ant, of whose destructive
powers there are in India so many disagreeable experiences, and so many marvellous stories. The
phrase was perhaps taken up by the English from the Port. formigas branchas, which is in Bluteau’s
Dict. (1713, iv. 175). But indeed exactly the same expression is used in the 14th century by our medieval
authority. It is, we believe, a fact that these insects have been established at Rochelle in France, for a
long period, and more recently at St. Helena. They exist also at the Convent of Mt. Sinai, and a species
in Queensland.
A.D. c. 250.—It seems probable that Aelian speaks of White Ants.—“But the Indian ants construct a
kind of heaped-up dwellings, and these not in depressed or flat positions easily liable to be flooded,
but in lofty and elevated positions…”—De Nat. Animal. xvi. cap. 15.
c. 1328.—“Est etiam unum genus
parvissimarum formicarum sicut lana albarum, quarum durities dentium tanta est quod etiam ligna
rodunt et venas lapidum; et quotquot breviter inveniunt siccum super terram, et pannos laneos, et bombycinos
laniant; et faciunt ad modum muri crustam unam de arenâ minutissimâ, ita quod sol non possit eas tangere; et
sic remanent coopertae; verum est quod si contingat illam crustam frangi, et solem eas tangere, quam
citius moriuntur.—Fr. Jordanus, p. 53.
1679.—“But there is yet a far greater inconvenience in this Country,
which proceeds from the infinite number of white Emmets, which though they are but little, have teeth
so sharp, that they will eat down a wooden Post in a short time. And if great care be not taken in the
places where you lock up your Bales of Silk, in four and twenty hours they will eat through a Bale, as if
it had been saw’d in two in the middle.”—Tacernier’s Tunquin, E. T., p. 11.
1688.—“Here are also abundance
of Ants of several sorts, and Wood-lice, called by the English in the East Indies, White Ants.” —Dampier,
ii. 127.
1713.—“On voit encore des fourmis de plusieurs espèces; la plus pernicieuse est celle que les
Européens ont nommé fourmi blanche.”—Lettres Edifiantes, xii. 98.
1727.—“He then began to form Projects
how to clear Accounts with his Master’s Creditors, without putting anything in their Pockets. The first
was on 500 chests of Japon Copper.…and they were brought into Account of Profit and Loss, for so much
eaten up by the White Ants.”—A. Hamilton, ii. 169.
1751.—“.… concerning the Organ, we sent for the
Revd. Mr. Bellamy, who declared that when Mr. Frankland applied to him for it that he told him that it
was not in his power to give it, but wished it was removed from thence, as Mr. Pearson informed him it
was eaten up by the White Ants.”—Ft. Will. Cons., Aug. 12. In Long, 25.
1789.—“The White Ant is
an insect greatly dreaded in every house; and this is not to be wondered at, as the devastation it occasions
is almost incredible.”—Munro, Narrative, 31.
1876.—“The metal cases of his baggage are disagreeably
suggestive of White Ants, and such omnivorous vermin.”—Sat. Review, No. 1057, p. 6. APIL, s. Transfer
of Eng. ‘Appeal’; in general native use, in connection with our Courts.
1872.—“There is no Sindi, however wild, that cannot now understand ‘Rasid’ (receipt) [Raseed] and
‘Apil’ (appeal).”—Burton, Sind Revisited, i. 283. APOLLO BUNDER, n.p. A well-known wharf at Bombay. A street near it is called Apollo Street, and
a gate of the Fort leading to it ‘the Apollo Gate.’ The name is said to be a corruption, and probably is
so, but of what it is a corruption is not clear. The quotations given afford different suggestions, and Dr
Wilson’s dictum is entitled to respect, though we do not know what palawa here means Sir G. Birdwood
writes that it used to be said in Bombay, that Apollo-bandar was a corr. of palwa-bandar, because
the pier was the place where the boats used to land palwa fish. But we know of no fish so called; it is
however possible that the palla or Sable-fish (Hilsa) is meant, which is so called in Bombay, as well
as in Sind. [The Ain (ii. 338) speaks of “a kind of fish called palwah which comes up into the Indus
from the sea, unrivalled for its fine and exquisite flavour,” which is the Hilsa.] On the other hand we
may observe that there was at Calcutta in 1748 a frequented tavern called the Apollo (see Long, p.
11). And it is not impossible that a house of the same name may have given its title to the Bombay
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