Chapter CARNATIC FASHION to CARYOTA of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

discovered her to be a very great Portugal carrack bound for Goa.”—Terry, in Purchas ; [ed. 1777, p. 34].

1620.—“The harbor at Nangasaque is the best in all Japon, wheare there may be 1000 seale of shipps ride landlockt, and the greatest shipps or carickes in the world …ride before the towne within a cable’s length of the shore in 7 or 8 fathom water at least.”—Cocks, Letter to Batavia, ii. 313.

c. 1620.—“Il faut attendre là des Pilotes du lieu, que les Gouverneurs de Bombaim et de Marsagão ont soin d’envoyer tout à l’heure, pour conduire le Vaisseau à Turumba [i.e. Trombay] où les Caraques ont coustume d’hyverner.”—Routier…des Indes Or., by Aleixo da Motta, in Thevenot.

c. 1635.—

“The bigger Whale, like some huge carrack lay
Which wanted Sea room for her foes to play.…”

Waller, Battle of the Summer Islands.

1653.—“…pour moy il me vouloit loger en son Palais, et que si i’auois la volonté de retourner a Lisbone par mer, il me feroit embarquer sur les premieres Karaques.…”—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 213.

1660.—“And further, That every Merchant Denizen who shall hereafter ship any Goods or Merchandize in any Carrack or Galley shall pay to your Majesty all manner of Customs, and all the Subsidies aforesaid, as any Alien born out of the Realm.”—Act 12 Car. II. cap. iv. s. iv. (Tonnage and Poundage).

c. 1680.—“To this City of the floating…which foreigners, with a little variation from carroços, call carracas.”— Vieira, quoted by Bluteau.

1684.—“…there was a Carack of Portugal cast away upon the Reef having on board at that Time 4,000,000 of Guilders in Gold…a present from the King of Siam to the King of Portugal.”—Cowley, 32, in Dampier’s Voyages, iv.

CARRAWAY, s. This word for the seed of Carum carui, L., is (probably through Sp. alcaravea) from the Arabic karawiya. It is curious that the English form is thus closer to the Arabic than either the Spanish, or the French and Italian carvi, which last has passed into Scotch as carvy. But the Arabic itself is a corruption [not immediately, N.E.D.] of Lat. careum, or Gr. [Greek Text] karon (Dozy).

CARTMEEL, s. This is, at least in the Punjab, the ordinary form that ‘mail-cart’ takes among the natives. Such inversions are not uncommon. Thus Sir David Ochterlony was always called by the Sepoys Loni- okhtar. In our memory an officer named Holroyd was always called by the Sepoys Roydal, [and Brownlow, Lobrun. By another curious corruption Mackintosh becomes Makkhani-tosh, ‘buttered toast’!]

CARTOOCE, s. A cartridge ; kartus, Sepoy H. ; [comp. TOSTDAUN].

CARYOTA, s. This is the botanical name (Caryota urens L.) of a magnificent palm growing in the moister forest regions, as in the Western Ghauts and in Eastern Bengal, in Ceylon, and in Burma. A conspicuous character is presented by its enormous bipinnate leaves, somewhat resembling colossal bracken-fronds, 15 to 25 feet long, 10 to 12 in width ; also by the huge pendent clusters of its inflorescence and seeds, the latter like masses of rosaries 10 feet long and upwards. It affords much Toddy (q.v.) made into spirit and sugar, and is the tree chiefly affording these products in Ceylon, where it is called Kitul. It also affords a kind of sago, and a woolly substance found at the foot of the leaf-stalks is sometimes used for caulking, and forms a good tinder. The sp. name urens is derived from the acrid, burning taste of the fruit. It is called, according to Brandis, the Mhar-palm in Western India. We know of no Hindustani or familiar Anglo-Indian name. [Watt, (Econ. Dict. ii. 206) says that it is known in Bombay as the Hill or Sago palm. It has penetrated in Upper India as far as Chunar.] The name Caryota seems taken from Pliny, but his application is to a kind of date-palm ; his statement that it afforded the best wine of the East probably suggested the transfer.

c. A.D. 70.—“Ab his caryotae maxume celebrantur, et cibo quidem et suco uberrimae, ex quibus praecipua vina orienti, iniqua capiti, unde pomo nomen.”—Pliny, xiii. § 9.

1681.—“The next tree is the Kettule. It groweth straight, but not so tall or big as a Coker-Nut-Tree ; the inside nothing but a white pith, as the former. It yieldeth a sort of Liquor…very sweet and pleasing to the Pallate.…The which Liquor they boyl and make a kind of brown sugar called Jaggory [see JAGGERY], &c.”— Knox, p. 15.

1777.—“The Caryota urens, called the Saguer tree, grew between Salatiga and Kopping, and was said to be the