Chapter BANDANNA to BANDICOOT of B by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

Jany., MS. Records in India Office.

c. 1760.—“(Betel) in large companies is brought in ready made up on Japan chargers, which they call from the Portuguese name, Bandejahs, something like our tea- boards.”—Grose. i. 237.

1766.—“To Monurbad Dowla Nabob—

R. A. P. 1 Pair Pistols 216 0 0 2 China Bandazes 172 12 9” —Lord Clive’s Durbar Charges, in Long, 433.

Bandeja appears in the Manilla Vocabular of Blumentritt as used there for the present of cakes and sweetmeats, tastefully packed in an elegant basket, and sent to the priest, from the wedding feast. It corresponds therefore to the Indian dali (see DOLLY).

BANDEL, n.p. The name of the old Portuguese settlement in Bengal about a mile above Hoogly, where there still exists a monastery, said to be the oldest church in Bengal (see Imp. Gazeteer). The name is a Port. corruption of bandar, ‘the wharf’; and in this shape the word was applied among the Portuguese to a variety of places. Thus in Correa, under 1541–42, we find mention of a port in the Red Sea, near the mouth, called Bandel dos Malemos (‘of the Pilots’). Chittagong is called Bandel de Chatigão (e.g. in Bocarro, p. 444), corresponding to Bandar Chatgam in the Autobiog. of Jahangar (Elliot, vi. 326). [In the Diary of Sir T. Roe (see below) it is applied to Gombroon], and in the following passage the original no doubt runs Bandar-i-Hughli or Hugli-Bandar. [1616.—“To this Purpose took Bandell theyr foort on the Mayne.”—Sir T. Roe Hak. Soc. i. 129.]

1631.—“…these Europeans increased in number, and erected large substantiaf buildings, which they fortified with cannons, muskets, and other implements of war. In due course a considerable place grew up, which was known by the name of Port of Hûgli.”—’Abdul Hamid, in Elliot, vii. 32.

1753.—“…les établissements formés pour assurer leur commerce sont situés sur les bords de cette rivière. Celui des Portugais, qu’ils ont appelé Bandel, en adoptant le terme Persan de Bender, qui signifie port, est aujourd’hui reduit à peu de chose . . et il est presque çontigu à Ugli en remontant.”—D’Anville, Eclaircissemens, p. 64.

1782.—“There are five European factories within the space of 20 miles, on the opposite banks of the river Ganges in Bengal; Houghly, or Bandell, the Portuguese Presidency; Chinsura, the Dutch; Chandernagore, the French; Sirampore, the Danish; and Calcutta, the English.”—Price’s Observations, &c., p. 51. In Price’s Tracts, i.

BANDICOOT, s. Corr. from the Telegu pandi-kokku, lit. ‘pig-rat.’ The name has spread all over India, as applied to the great rat called by naturalists Mus malabaricus (Shaw), Mus giganteus (Hardwicke), Mus bandicota (Bechstein), [Nesocia bandicota (Blanford, p. 425)]. The word is now used also in Queensland, [and is the origin of the name of the famous Bendigo gold-field (3 ser. N. & Q. ix. 97)].

c. 1330.—“In Lesser India there be some rats as big as foxes, and venomous exceedingly.”—Friar Jordanus, Hak. Soc. 29.

c. 1343.—“They imprison in the dunge ons (of Dwaigir, i.e. Daulatãbãd) those who have been guilty of great crimes. There are in those dungeons enormous rats, bigger than cats. In fact, these latter animals run away from them, and can’t stand against them, for they would get the worst of it. So they are only caught by stratagem. I have seen these rats at Dwaigir, and much amazed I was!”—Ibn Batuta, iv. 47.

Fryer seems to exaggerate worse than the Moor:

1673.—“For Vermin, the strongest huge Rats as big as our Pigs, which burrow under the Houses, and are bold enough to venture on Poultry.”—Fryer, 116.

The following surprisingly confounds two entirely different animals: 1789.—“The Bandicoot, or musk rat, is another troublesome animal, more indeed from its offensive smell than anything else.”—Munro, Narrative, 32. See MUSK-RAT.

[1828.—“They be called Brandy-cutes.”—Or. Sporting Mag. i. 128.]

1879.—“I shall never forget my first night here (on the Cocos Islands). As soon as the Sun had gone down, and the moon risen, thousands upon thousands of rats, in size equal to a bandicoot, appeared.”—Pollok, Sport in B. Burmah, &c., ii. 14.

1880.—“They (wild dogs in Queensland) hunted Kangaroo when in numbers…. but usually preferred smaller and more easily obtained prey, as rats, bandicoots, and ‘possums.”—Blackwood’s Mag., Jan., p. 65.

[1880.—“In England the Collector is to be found riding at anchor in the Bandicoot Club.”—Aberigh-Mackay, Twenty-one Days, 87.]