Chapter BHAT to BHOOSA of B by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

to bestow on one another, like Mehtar, Khalifa, &c. The title in this case has some justification. No class of men (as all Anglo-Indians will agree) is so diligent, so faithful, so unobtrusive, and uncomplaining as that of the bihishtis. And often in battle they have shown their courage and fidelity in supplying water to the wounded in face of much personal danger.

[c. 1660.—“Even the men ials and carriers of water belonging to that nation (the Pathans) are high-spirited and war-like.”—Bernier, ed. Constable, 207.]

1773.—“Bheestee, Waterman” (etc.)—Fergusson, Dict. of the Hindostan Language, &c.

1781.—“I have the happiness to inform you of the fall of Bijah Gurh on the 9th inst. with the loss of only 1 sepoy, 1 beasty, and a cossy (? Cossid) killed…”—Letter in India Gazette of Nov. 24th.
1782.—(Table of Wages in Calcutta)

Consummah	10 Rs.
Kistmutdar	6 ”
Beasty	5 ”

India Gazette, Oct. 12.

Five Rupees continued to be the standard wage of a bihishti for full 80 years after the date given.

1810.—“…If he carries the water himself in the skin of a goat, prepared for that purpose, he then receives the designation of Bheesty.”—Williamson, V.M. i. 229.

1829.—“Dressing in a hurry, find the drunken bheesty…has mistaken your boot for the goglet in which you carry your water on the line of march.”—Camp Miseries, in John Shipp, ii. 149. N.B.—We never knew a drunken bheesty.

1878.—“Here comes a seal carrying a porpoise on its back. No! it is only our friend the bheesty.”—In my Indian Garden, 79.

[1898

“Of all them black-faced crew,
The finest man I knew
Was our regimental bhisti, Ganga Din.”

R. Kipling, Barrack-room Ballads, p. 23.]

BHIKTY, s. The usual Calcutta name for the fish Lates calcarifer. See COCKUP.

BHOOSA, s. H. Mahr. bhus, bhusa; the husks and straw of various kinds of corn, beaten up into chaff by the feet of the oxen on the threshing-floor; used as the common food of cattle all over India.

[1829.—“Every commune is surrounded with a circumvallation of thorns…and the stacks of bhoos, or ‘chaff,’ which are placed at intervals, give it the appearance of a respectable fortification. These bhoos stacks are erected to provide provender for the cattle in scanty rainy seasons.”—Tod, Annals, Calcutta reprint, i. 737.]