Chapter CASTEES to CAT’S-EYE of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

Pitt, iv. 218.) This may have introduced the word in English and led to its use as ‘old cat’ for a shrewish hag.]

CATECHU, also CUTCH and CAUT, s. An astringent extract from the wood of several species of Acacia (Acacia catechu, Willd.), the khair, and Acacia suma, Kurz, Ac. sundra, D. C. and probably more. The extract is called in H. kath, [Skt. kvath, ‘to decoct’], but the two first commercial names which we have given are doubtless taken from the southern forms of the word, e.g. Can. kachu, Tam. kasu, Malay kachu. De Orta, whose judgments are always worthy of respect, considered it to be the lycium of the ancients, and always applied that name to it ; but Dr. Royle has shown that lycium was an extract from certain species of berberis, known in the bazars as rasot. Cutch is first mentioned by Barbosa, among the drugs imported into Malacca. But it remained unknown in Europe till brought from Japan about the middle of the 17th century. In the 4th ed. of Schröder’s Pharmacop. Medico-chymica, Lyons, 1654, it is briefly described as Catechu or Terra Japonica, “genus terrae exoticae” (Hanbury and Flückiger, 214). This misnomer has long survived.

1516.—“…drugs from Cambay ; amongst which there is a drug which we do not possess, and which they call puchô (see PUTCHOCK) and another called cachô.”— Barbosa, 191.

1554.—“The bahar of Cate, which here (at Ormuz) they call cacho, is the same as that of rice.”—A. Nunes, 22.

1563.—“Colloquio XXXI. Concerning the wood vulgarly called Cate ; and containing profitable matter on that subject.”— Garcia, f. 125.

1578.—“The Indians use this Cate mixt with Areca, and with Betel, and by itself without other mixture.”—Acosta, Tract. 150.

1585.—Sassetti mentions catu as derived from the Khadira tree, i.e. in modern Hindi the Khair (Skt. khadira).

[1616.—“010 bags Catcha.”—Foster, Letters, iv. 127.]

1617.—“And there was rec. out of the Adviz, viz…7 hhds. drugs cacha ; 5 hampers pochok” (see PUTCHOCK).—Cock’s Dairy, i. 294.

1759.—“Hortal [see HURTAUL] and Cotch, Earth-oil, and Wood-oil.”—List of Burma Products in Dalrymple, Oriental Repert. i. 109.

c. 1760.—“To these three articles (betel, areca, and chunam) is often added for luxury what they call cachoonda, a Japan-earth, which from perfumes and other mixtures, chiefly manufactured at Goa, receives such improvement as to be sold to advantage when re- imported to Japan.…Another addition too they use of what they call Catchoo, being a blackish granulated perfumed composition.…”—Grose, i. 238.

1813.—“…The peasants manufacture catechu, or terra Japonica, from the Keiri [khair] tree (Mimosa catechy) which grows wild on the hills of Kankana, but in no other part of the Indian Peninsula” [erroneous].—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 303 ; [2nd ed. i. 193].

CATHAY, n.p. China ; originally Northern China. The origin of the name is given in the quotation below from the Introduction to Marco Polo. In the 16th century, and even later, from a misunderstanding of the medieval travellers, Cathay was supposed to be a country north of China, and is so represented in many maps. Its identity with China was fully recognised by P. Martin Martini in his Atlas Sinensis ; also by Valentijn, iv. China, 2.

1247.—“Kitai autem…homines sunt pagani, qui habent literam specialem… homines benigni et humani satis esse videantur. Barbam non habent, et in dispositione faciei satis concordant cum Mongalis, non tamen sunt in facie ita lati…meliores artifices non inveniuntur in toto mundo… terra eorum est opulenta valde.”—J. de Plano Carpini, Hist. Mongalorum, 653–4.

1253.—“Ultra est magna Cataya, qui antiquitus, ut credo, dicebantur Seres.… Isti Catai sunt parvi homines, loquendo multum aspirantes per nares et…habent parvam aperturam oculorum,” &c.—Itin. Wilhelmi de Rubruk, 291–2.

c. 1330.—“Cathay is a very great Empire, which extendeth over more than c. days’ journey, and it hath only one lord.…”— Friar Jordanus, p. 54.

1404.—“E lo mas alxofar [see ALJOFAR] que en el mundo se ha, se pesia e falla en aql mar del Catay.”—Clavijo, f. 32.

1555.—“The Yndians called Catheies have eche man many wiues.”—Watreman, Fardle of Faciouns, M. ii.

1598.—“In the lande lying westward from China, they say there are white people, and the land called Cathaia, where (as it is thought) are many Christians, and that it should confine and border upon Persia.”— Linschoten, 57 ; [Hak. Soc. i. 126].

[1602.—“…and arriued at any porte within the dominions of the kingdomes of Cataya, China, or Japan.”—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 24. Here