Chapter CAWNPORE to CAZEE of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

CAWNPORE to CAZEE

CAWNPORE, n.p. The correct name is Kanhpur, ‘the town of Kanh, Kanhaiya or Krishna.’ The city of the Doab so called, having in 1891 a population of 188,712, has grown up entirely under British rule, at first as the bazar and dependence of the cantonment established here under a treaty made with the Nabob of Oudh in 1766, and afterwards as a great mart of trade.

CAYMAN, s. This is not used in India. It is an American name for an alligator ; from the Carib acayuman (Littré). But it appears formerly to have been in general use among the Dutch in the East. [It is one of those words “which the Portuguese or Spaniards very early caught up in one part of the world, and naturalised in another.” (N.E.D.)].

1530.—“The country is extravagantly hot ; and the rivers are full of Caimans, which are certain water- lizards (lagarti).”—Nunno de Guzman, in Ramusio, iii. 339.

1598.—“In this river (Zaire or Congo) there are living divers kinds of creatures, and in particular, mighty great crocodiles, which the country people there call Caiman.”—Pigafetta, in Harleian Coll. of Voyages, ii. 533.

This is an instance of the way in which we so often see a word belonging to a different quarter of the world undoubtingly ascribed to Africa or Asia, as the case may be. In the next quotation we find it ascribed to India.

1631.—“Lib. v. cap. iii. De Crocodilo qui per totam Indiam cayman audit.”—Bontius, Hist. Nat. et Med.

1672.—“The figures so represented in Adam’s footsteps were…41. The King of the Caimans or Crocodiles.”—Baldaeus (Germ. ed.), 148.

1692.—“Anno 1692 there were 3 newly arrived soldiers…near a certain gibbet that stood by the river outside the boom, so sharply pursued by a Kaieman that they were obliged to climb the gibbet for safety whilst the creature standing up on his hind feet reached with his snout to the very top of the gibbet.”—Valentijn, iv. 231.

CAYOLAQUE, s. Kayu=‘wood,’ in Malay. Laka is given in Crawfurd’s Malay Dict. as “name of a red wood used as incense, Myristica iners.” In his Descr. Dict. he calls it the “Tanarius major ; a tree with a red-coloured wood, a native of Sumatra, used in dyeing and in pharmacy. It is an article of considerable native trade, and is chiefly exported to China” (p. 204). [The word, according to Mr. Skeat, is probably kayu, ‘wood,’ lakh, ‘red dye’ (see LAC), but the combined form is not in Klinkert, nor are these trees in Ridley’s plant list. He gives Laka-laka or Malaka as the name of the phyllanthus emblica.]

1510.—“There also grows here a very great quantity of lacca for making red colour, and the tree of this is formed like our trees which produce walnuts.”—Varthema, p. 238.

c. 1560.—“I being in Cantan there was a rich (bed) made wrought with Iuorie, and of a sweet wood which they call Cayolaque, and of Sandalum, that was prized at 1500 Crownes.”—Gaspar Da Cruz, in Purchas, iii. 177.

1585.—“Euerie morning and euening they do offer vnto their idolles frankensence, benjamin, wood of aguila, and cayolaque, the which is maruelous sweete.…”—Mendoza’s China, i. 58.

CAZEE, KAJEE, &c., s. Arab. kadi, ‘a judge,’ the letter zwad with which it is spelt being always pronounced in India like a z. The form Cadi, familiar from its use in the old version of the Arabian Nights, comes to us from the Levant. The word with the article, al-kadi, becomes in Spanish alcalde ;¹ not alcaide, which is from ka’ad, ‘a chief’ ; nor alguacil, which is from wazar. So Dozy and Engelmann, no doubt correctly. But in Pinto, cap. 8, we find “ao guazil da justica q em elles he como corregedor entre nos” ; where guazil seems to stand for kazi.

It is not easy to give an accurate account of the position of the Kazi in British India, which has gone through variations of which a distinct record cannot be found. But the following outline is believed to be substantially correct.

Under Adawlut I have given a brief sketch of the history of the judiciary under the Company in the Bengal Presidency. Down to 1790 the greater part of the administration of criminal justice was still in the hands of native judges, and other native officials of various kinds, though under European supervision in varying forms. But the native judiciary, except in positions of a quite subordinate character, then ceased. It was, however, still in substance Mahommedan law that was administered in criminal cases, and also in civil cases between Mahommedans as affecting succession, &c. And a Kazi and a Mufti were retained in the Provincial Courts of Appeal and Circuit as the exponents of Mahommedan law, and the deliverers of a formal Futwa. There was also a Kazi- al-Kozat, or chief Kazi of Bengal, Behar and Orissa, attached to the Sudder Courts of Dewanny and