Chapter CANDAREEN to CANGUE of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

brought from that island” —a fact probably invented for the nonce. But the writer was the same wiseacre who (in the year 1829) characterised the book of Marco Polo as a “clumsily compiled ecclesiastical fiction disguised as a Book of Travels” (see Introduction to Marco Polo, 2nd ed. pp. 112–113).

c. 1343.—“A centinajo si vende giengiovo, cannella, lacca, incenso, indaco… verzino scorzuto, zucchero…zucchero candi… porcellane…costo…”—Pegolotti, p. 134.

1461.—“…Un ampoletto di balsamo. Teriaca bossoletti 15. Zuccheri Moccari (?) panni 42. Zuccheri canditi, scattole 5. …”—List of Presents from Sultan of Egypt to the Doge. (See under BENJAMIN.)

c. 1596.—“ White sugar candy (kandi safed)…5 ½ dams per ser.”—Ain, i. 63.

1627.—“Sugar Candie, or Stone Sugar.”—Minshew, 2nd ed. s.v.

1727.—“The Trade they have to China is divided between them and Surat…the Gross of their own Cargo, which consists in Sugar, Sugar-candy, Allom, and some Drugs…are all for the Surat Market.”—A. Hamilton, i. 371.

CANGUE, s, A square board, or portable pillory of wood, used in China as a punishment, or rather, as Dr. Wells Williams says, as a kind of censure, carrying no disgrace ; strange as that seems to us, with whom the essence of the pillory is disgrace. The frame weighs up to 30 lbs., a weight limited by law. It is made to rest on the shoulders without chafing the neck, but so broad as to prevent the wearer from feeding himself. It is generally taken off at night (Giles, [and see Gray, China, i. 55 seqq.]).

The Cangue was introduced into China by the Tartar dynasty of Wei in the 5th century, and is first mentioned under A.D. 481. In the Kwang-yun (a Chin. Dict. published A.D. 1009) it is called kanggiai (modern mandarin hiang-hiai), i.e. ‘Neck-fetter.’ From this old form probably the Anamites have derived their word for it, gong, and the Cantonese k’ang-ka, ‘to wear the Cangue,’ a survival (as frequently happens in Chinese vernaculars) of an ancient term with a new orthography. It is probable that the Portuguese took the word from one of these latter forms, and associated it with their own canga, ‘an ox-yoke,’ or‘porter’s yoke for carrying burdens.’ [This view is rejected by the N.E.D. on the authority of Prof. Legge, and the word is regarded as derived from the Port. form given above. In reply to an enquiry, Prof. Giles writes : “I am entirely of opinion that the word is from the Port., and not from any Chinese term.”] The thing is alluded to by F. M. Pinto and other early writers on China, who do not give it a name.

Something of this kind was in use in countries of Western Asia, called in P. doshaka (bilignum). And this word is applied to the Chinese cangue in one of our quotations. Doshaka, however, is explained in the lexicon Burhan-i-Kati as ‘a piece of timber with two branches placed on the neck of a criminal’ (Quatremère, in Not. et Extr. xiv. 172. 173).

1420.—“…made the ambassadors come forward side by side with certain prisoners. …Some of these had a doshaka on their necks.”—Shah Rukh’s Mission to China, in Cathay, p. cciv.

[1525.—Castanheda (Bk. VI. ch. 71, p. 154) speaks of women who had come from Portugal in the ships without leave, being tied up in a caga and whipped.]

c. 1540.—“…Ordered us to be put in a horrid prison with fetters on our feet, manacles on our hands, and collars on our necks. …”—F. M. Pinto, (orig.) ch. lxxxiv.

1585.—“ Also they doo lay on them a certaine covering of timber, wherein remaineth no more space of hollownesse than their bodies doth make : thus they are vsed that are condemned to death.”—Mendoza (tr. by Parke, 1599), Hak. Soc. i. 117–118.

1696.—“ He was imprisoned, congoed, tormented, but making friends with his Money…was cleared, and made Under-Customer.…”—Bowyer’s Journal at Cochin China, in Dalrymple, Or. Rep. i. 81.

[1705.—“All the people were under confinement in separate houses and also in congass”—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. cccxl.

“I desir’d several Times to wait upon” the Governour ; but could not, he was so taken up with over-halling the Goods, that came from Pulo Condore, and weighing the Money, which was found to amount to 21,300 Tale. At last upon the 28th, I was obliged to appear as a Criminal in Congas, before the Governour and his Grand Council, attended with all the Slaves in the Congas.” —Letter from Mr. James Conyngham, survivor of the Pulo Condore massacre, in Lockyer, p. 93. Lockyer adds: “I understood the Congas to be Thumbolts” (p. 95).

1727.—“With his neck in the congoes which are a pair of Stocks made of bamboos.” —A. Hamilton, ii. 175.

1779.—“Aussitôt on les mit tous trois en prison, des chaines aux pieds, une cangue au cou.”—Lettres Edif. xxv. 427.

1797.—“The punishment of the cha, usually called by Europeans the cangue, is generally inflicted for petty crimes.”—Staunton Embassy, &c., ii. 492.

1878.—“…frapper sur les joues a l’aide d’une petite lame de cuir ; c’est, je crois, la seule correction infligée aux femmes, car je n’en ai jamais vu aucune porter la cangue.” —Léon Rousset, A Travers la Chine, 124.