Chapter BANDICOY to BANGY of B by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

like Hemp-seed, that has an intoxicating Quality.”—A. Hamilton, i. 131.

1763.—“Most of the troops, as is customary during the agitations of this festival, had eaten plentifully of bang.…”—Orme, i. 194.

1784.—“…it does not appear that the use of bank, an intoxicating weed which resembles the hemp of Europe,…is considered even by the most rigid (Hindoo) a breach of the law.”—G. Forster, Journey, ed. 1808, ii. 291.

1789.—“A shop of Bang may be kept with a capital of no more than two shillings, or one rupee. It is only some mats stretched under some tree, where the Bangeras of the town, that is, the vilest of mankind, assemble to drink Bang.”—Note on Seir Mutaqherin, iii. 308.

1868.—

“The Hemp—with which we used to hang
Our prison pets, you felon gang,—
In Eastern climes produces Bang,
Esteemed a drug divine.
As Hashish dressed, its magic powers
Can lap us in Elysian bowers;
But sweeter far our social hours,
O’er a flask of rosy wine.”

Lord Neaves.

BANGED—is also used as a participle, for ‘stimulated by bang,’ e.g. “banged up to the eyes.”

BANGLE, s. H. bangri or bangri. The original word properly means a ring of coloured glass worn on the wrist by women; [the chai of N. India;] but bangle is applied to any native ring-bracelet, and also to an anklet or ring of any kind worn on the ankle or leg. Indian silver bangles on the wrist have recently come into common use among English girls.

1803.—“To the cutwahl he gave a heavy pair of gold bangles, of which he considerably enhanced the value by putting them on his wrists with his own hands.”—Journal of Sir J. Nicholls, in note to Wellington Despatches, ed. 1837, ii. 373.

1809.—“Bangles, or bracelets.”—Maria Graham, 13.

1810.—“Some wear…a stout silver ornament of the ring kind, called a bangle, or karrah [kara] on either wrist.”—Williamson, V. M. i. 305.

1826.—“I am paid with the silver bangles of my enemy, and his cash to boot.”—Pandurang Hari, 27; [ed. 1873, i. 36].

1873.—“Year after year he found some excuse for coming up to Sirmoori—now a proposal for a tax on bangles, now a scheme for a new mode of Hindustani pronunciation.”—The True Reformer, i. 24.

BANGUN, s.—See BRINJAUL.

BANGUR, s. Hind. bangar. In Upper India this name is given to the higher parts of the plain country on which the towns stand—the older alluvium—in contradistinction to the khadar [Khadir] or lower alluvium immediately bordering the great rivers, and forming the limit of their inundation and modern divagations; the khadar having been cut out from the bangar by the river. Medlicott spells bhangar (Man. of Geol. of India, i. 404).

BANGY, BANGHY, &c. s. H. bahangi, Mahr. bangi; Skt. vihangama, and vihangika.

a. A shoulder- yoke for carrying loads, the yoke or bangy resting on the shoulder, while the load is apportioned at either end in two equal weights, and generally hung by cords. The milkmaid’s yoke is the nearest approach to a survival of the bangy-staff in England. Also such a yoke with its pair of baskets or boxes.—(See PITARRAH).

b. Hence a parcel post, carried originally in this way, was called bangy or dawk-bangy, even when the primitive mode of transport had long become obsolete. “A bangy parcel” is a parcel received or sent by such post.

a.—

1789.—

“But I’ll give them 2000, with Bhanges and Coolies,
With elephants, camels, with hackeries and doolies.”

Letters of Simpkin the Second, p. 57.

1803.—“We take with us indeed, in six banghys, sufficient changes of linen.”—Ld. Valentia, i. 67.

1810.—“The bangy-wollah, that is the bearer who carries the bangy, supports the bamboo on his shoulder, so as to equipoise the baskets suspended at each end.”—Williamson, V. M. i. 323.

[1843.—“I engaged eight