Chapter GHOUL to GHURRY of G by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

GHOUL to GHURRY

GHOUL, s. Ar. ghul, P. ghol. A goblin, [Greek Text] empousa, or man-devouring demon, especially haunting wildernesses.

c. 70.—“In the deserts of Affricke yee shall meet oftentimes with fairies,¹appearing in the shape of men and women; but they vanish soone away, like fantasticall illusions.”—Pliny, by Ph. Holland, vii. 2.

c. 940.—“The Arabs relate many strange stories about the Ghul and their transformations.… The Arabs allege that the two feet of the Ghul are ass’s feet.… These Ghul appeared to traveller in the night, and at hours when one meets with no one on the road; the traveller taking them for some of their companions followed them, but the Ghul led them astray, and caused them to lose their way.”—Mas’udi, iii. 314 seqq. (There is much more after the copious and higgledy-piggledy Plinian fashion of this writer.

c. 1420.—“In exitu deserti…rem mirandam dicit contigisse. Nam cum circiter mediam noctem quiescentes magno murmurestrepituque audito suspicarenturomnes, Arabes praedones ad se spoliandos venire …viderunt plurimas equitum turmas transeuntium.… Plures qui id antea viderant, daemones (ghuls, no doubt) esse per desertum vagantes asseruere.”—Nic. Conti, in Poggio, iv.

1814.—“The Afghauns believe each of the numerous solitudes in the mountains and desarts of their country to be inhabited by a lonely daemon, whom they call Ghoolee Beeabaun (the Goule or Spirit of the Waste); they represent him as a gigantic and frightful spectre (who devours any passenger whom chance may bring within his haunts.”—Elphinstone’s Caubul, ed. 1839, i. 291.

[GHURRA, s. Hind. ghara, Skt- ghata. A water-pot made of clay, of a spheroidal shape, known in S. India as the Chatty.

[1827.—“.…the Rajah sent…60 Gurrahs (earthen vessels holding a gallon) of sugar-candy and sweetmeats.”—Mundy, Pen and Pencil Sketches, 66.]

GHURRY, GURREE, s. Hind-ghari. A clepsydra or water-instrument for measuring time, consisting of a floating cup with a small hole in it, adjusted so that it fills and sinks in a fixed time; also the gong by which the time so indicated is struck. This latter is properly ghariyal. Hence also a clock or watch; also the 60th part of a day and night, equal therefore to 24 minutes, was in old Hindu custom the space of time indicated by the elepsydra just mentioned, and was called a ghari. But in Anglo-Indian usage, the word is employed for ’an hour,’ [or some indefinite period of time]. The water-instrument is sometimes called Pun-Ghurry (panghari quasi pani-ghari); also the Sun-dial, Dhoop-Ghurry (dhup, ‘sunshine’); the hour-glass, Ret-Ghurry (ret, reta, ‘sand’). (Ancient).—“The magistrate, having employed the first four Ghurries of the day in bathing and praying,…shall sit upon the Judgment Seat.”—Code of the Gentoo Lows (Halhed, 1776), 104.

[1526].—“Gheri.” See under PUHUR.

[c. 1590.—An elaborate account of this method of measuring time will be found in Ain, ed, Jarrett, iii. 15 seq.

[1616.—“About a guary after, the rest of my company arrived with the money.”—Foster, Letters, iv. 343.]

1633.—“First they take a great Pot of Water…and putting therein a little Pot (this lesser pot having a small hole in the bottome of it), the water issuing into it having filled it, then they strike on a great plate of brasse, or very fine metal, which stroak maketh a very great sound; this stroak or parcell of time they call a Goome, the small Pot being full they call a Gree, 8 grees make a Par, which Par (see PUHUR) is three hours by our accompt.”— W. Bruton, in Hakl. v. 51.

1709.—“Or un gari est une de leurs heures, mais qui est bien petite en comparaison des notres; car elle n’est que de vingtneuf minutes et environ quarante-trois secondes.”(?)—Letters Edif. xi. 233.

1785.—“We have fixed the Coss at 6,000 Guz, which distance must be travelled by the postmen in a Ghurry and a half.…If the letters are not delivered according to this rate…you must flog the Hurkârehs belonging to you.”—Tippoo’s Letters, 215.

[1869.—Wallace describes an instrument of this kind in use on board a native vessel. “I tested it with my watch and found that it hardly varied a minute from one hour to another, nor did the motion of the vessel have any effect upon it, as the water in the bucket of course kept level.”—Wallace, Malay Archip., ed. 1890, p. 314.]

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