Chapter CUSTOM to CYRUS of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

CUSTOM to CYRUS

CUSTOM, s. Used in Madras as the equivalent of Dustoor, Dustoory, of which it is a translation. Both words illustrate the origin of Customs in the solemn revenue sense.

1683.—“Threder and Barker positively denied ye overweight, ye Merchants proved it by their books; but ye skeyne out of every draught was confest, and claimed as their due, having been always the custom.”—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 83.

1768–71.—“Banyans, who…serve in this capacity without any fixed pay, but they know how much more they may charge upon every rupee, than they have in reality paid, and this is called costumado.”—Stavorinus, E.T., i. 522.

CUSTOMER, s. Used in old books of Indian trade for the native official who exacted duties. [The word was in common use in England from 1448 to 1748; see N.E.D.]

[1609.—“His houses…are seized on by the Customer.”—Danvers, Letters, i. 25; and comp. Foster, ibid. ii. 225.

[1615.—“The Customer should come and visitt them.”—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. i. 44.]

1682.—“The several affronts, insolences, and abuses dayly put upon us by Boolchund, our chief Customer.—Hedges, Diary, [Hak. Soc. i. 33].

CUTCH, s. See CATECHU.

CUTCH, n.p. Properly Kachchh, a native State in the West of India, immediately adjoining Sind, the Rajput ruler of which is called the Rao. The name does not occur, as far as we have found, in any of the earlier Portuguese writers, nor in Linschoten, [but the latter mentions the gulf under the name of Jaqueta (Hak. Soc. i. 56 seq.)]. The Skt. word kachchha seems to mean a morass or low, flat land.

c. 1030.—“At this place (Mansura) the river (Indus) divides into two streams one empties itself into the sea in the neighbourhood of the city of Lúháráni, and the other branches off to the east to the borders of Kach.”—Al-Biruni, in Elliot, i. 49.

Again, “Kach, the country producing gum” (i.e. mukal or bdellium), p. 66.

The port mentioned in the next three extracts was probably Mandavi (this name is said to signify “Custom-House”; [mandwi, ‘a temporary hut,’ is a term commonly applied to a bazaar in N. India].

1611.—“Cuts-nagore, a place not far from the River of Zinde.”—Nic. Dounton, in Purchas, i. 307.

[1612.—“The other ship which proved of Cuts-nagana.”—Danvers, Letters, i. 179.]

c. 1615.—“Francisco Sodre…who was serving as captain-major of the fortress of Dio, went to Cache, with twelve ships and a sanguicel, to inflict chastisement for the arrogance and insolence of these blacks (“…pela soberbia e desaforos d’estes negros.…”—“Of these niggers!”), thinking that he might do it as easily as Gaspar de Mello had punished those of Por.”—Bocarro, 257.

[c. 1661.—“Dara…traversing with speed the territories of the Raja Katche soon reached the province of Guzarate.…”—Bernier, ed. Constable, 73.]

1727.—“The first town on the south side of the Indus is Cutch-naggen.”—A. Hamilton, i. 131; [ed. 1744].

CUTCH GUNDAVA, n.p. Kachchh Gandava or Kachchi, a province of Biluchistan, under the Khan of Kela’t, adjoining our province of Sind; a level plain, subject to inordinate heat in summer, and to the visitation of the simum. Across the northern part of this plain runs the railway from Sukkur to Sibi. Gandava, the chief place, has been shown by Sir H. Elliot to be the Kandabil or Kandhabel of the Arab geographers of the 9th and 10th centuries. The name in its modern shape, or what seems intended for the same, occurs in the Persian version of the Chachnamah, or H. of

A cutcha Brick is a sun-dried brick.
„ House is built of mud, or of sun-dried brick.
„ Road is earthwork only.
„ Appointment is acting or temporary.
„ Settlement is one where the land is held without lease.
„ Account or Estimate, is one which is rough, superficial, and untrustworthy.
„ Maund, or Seer, is the smaller, where two weights are in use, as often happens.
„ Major is a brevet or local Major.
„ Colour is one that won’t wash.
„ Fever is a simple ague or a light attack.
„ Pice generally means one of those amorphous coppers, current in up-country bazars at varying rates of value.
„ Coss—see analogy under