Chapter ANILE to APOLLO BUNDER of A by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

street and wharf. But Sir Michael Westropp’s quotation below shows that Pallo was at least the native representation of the name more than 150 years ago. We may add that a native told Mr W. G. Pedder, of the Bombay C.S., from whom we have it, that the name was due to the site having been the place where the “poli” cake, eaten at the Holi festival, was baked. And so we leave the matter.

[1823.—“Lieut. Mudge had a tent on Apollo-green for astronomical observations.”—Owen, Narrative, i. 327.]

1847.—“A little after sunset, on 2nd Jan. 1843, I left my domicile in Ambrolie, and drove to the Pálawá bandar, which receives from our accommodative countrymen the more classical name of Apollo pier.”—Wilson, Lands of the Bible, p. 4.

1860.—“And atte what place ye Knyghte came to Londe, theyre ye ffolke.…worschyppen II Idolys in cheefe. Ye ffyrste is Apollo, wherefore ye cheefe londynge place of theyr Metropole is hyght Apollo-Bundar.…”—Ext. from a MS. of Sir John Mandeville, lately discovered. (A friend here queries: ‘By Mr. Shapira?’)

1877.—“This bunder is of comparatively recent date. Its name ‘Apollo’ is an English corruption of the native word Pallow (fish), and it was probably not extended and brought into use for passenger traffic till about the year 1819.....”—Maclean, Guide to Bombay, 167. The last work adds a note: “Sir Michael Westropp gives a different derivation.…: Polo, a corruption of Pálwa, derived from Pál, which inter alia means a fighting vessel, by which kind of craft the locality was probably frequented. From Pálwa or Pálwar, the bunder now called Apollo is supposed to take its name. In the memorial of a grant of land, dated 5th Dec., 1743, the pákhádé in question is called Pallo.”—High Court Reports, iv. pt. 3.

[1880.—“His mind is not prehensile like the tail of the Apollo Bundar.”—Aberigh- Mackay, Twenty-one Days in India, p. 141.]