Chapter GRUNTH to GUARDAFUI of G by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

creatures resembling the Alligator—one called Kobbera guion, 5 or 6 feet long, and not eatable; the other called tolla guion, very like the former, but “which is eaten, and reckoned excellent meat…and I suppose it is the same with that which in the W. Indies is called the guiana” (pp. 30, 31). The names are possibly Portuguese, and Kobberaguion may be Cobra-guana.

1704.—“The Guano is a sort of Creature some of which are found on the land, some in the water…stewed with a little Spice they make good Broth.”—Funnel, in Dampier, iv. 51.

1711.—“Here are Monkeys, Gaunas, Lissards, large Snakes, and Alligators.”—Lockyer, 47.

1780.—“They have here an amphibious animal called the guana, a species of the crocodile or alligator, of which soup is made equal to that of turtle. This I take upon hearsay, for it is to me of all others the most loathsome of animals, not less so than the toad.”—Munro’s Narrative, 36.

c. 1830.—“Had I known I was dining upon a guana, or large wood-lizard, I scarcely think I would have made so hearty a meal.”—Tom Cringle (ed. 1863), 178.

1879.—“Captain Shaw asked the Imaum of one of the mosques of Malacca about alligator’s eggs, a few days ago, and his reply was, that the young that went down to the sea became alligators, and those that came up the river became iguanas.”—Miss Bird, Golden Chersonese, 200.

1881.—“The chief of Mudhol State belongs to the Bhonslá family.…The name, however, has been entirely superseded by the second designation of Ghorpade, which is said to have been acquired by one of the family who managed to scale a fort previously deemed impregnable, by fastening a cord around the body of a ghorpad or iguana.”—Imperial Gazetteer, vi. 437.

1883.—“Who can look on that anachronism, an iguana (I mean the large monitor which Europeans in India generally call an iguana, sometimes a guano!) basking, four feet long, on a sunny bank…”—Tribes on My Frontier, 36.

1885.—“One of my moonshis, José Prethoo, a Concani of one of the numerous families descended from Xavier’s converts, gravely informed me that in the old days iguanas were used in gaining access to besieged places; for, said he, a large iguana, sahib, is so strong that if 3 or 4 men laid hold of its tail he could drag them up a wall or tree!”—Gordon Forbes, Wild Life in Canara, 56.

GUARDAFUI, CAPE, n.p. The eastern horn of Africa, pointing towards India. We have the name from the Portuguese, and it has been alleged to have been so called by them as meaning, ‘Take you heed!’ (Gardezvous, in fact.) But this is etymology of the species that so confidently derives ‘Bombay’ from Boa Bahia. Bruce, again (see below), gives dogmatically an interpretation which is equally unfounded. We must look to history, and not to the ‘moral consciousness’ of anybody. The country adjoining this horn of Africa, the Regio Aromatum of the ancients, seems to have been called by the Arabs Hafun a name which we find in the Periplus in the shape of Opone. This name Hafun was applied to a town, no doubt the true Opone, which Barbosa (1516) mentions under the name of Afuni, and it still survives in those of two remarkable promontories, viz. the Peninsula of Ras Hafun (the Chersonnesus of the Periplus, the Zingis of Ptolemy, the Cape d’Affui and d’Orfui of old maps and nautical directories), and the cape of Jard-Hafun (or according to the Egyptian pronunciation, Gard-Hafun), i.e. Guardafui. The nearest possible meaning of jard that we can find is ‘a wide or spacious tract of land without herbage.’ Sir R. Burton (Commentary on Camõens, iv. 489) interprets jard as=Bay, “from a break in the dreadful granite wall, lately provided by Egypt with a lighthouse.” The last statement is unfortunately an error. The intended light seems as far off as ever. [There is still no lighthouse, and shipowners differ as to its advantage; see answer by Secretary of State, in House of Commons, Times, March 14, 1902.] We cannot judge of the ground of his interpretation of jard.

An attempt has been made to connect the name Hafun with the Arabic af’a, ‘pleasant odours.’ It would then, be the equivalent of the ancient Reg. Aromatum. This is tempting, but very questionable. We should have mentioned that Guardafui is the site of the mart and Promontory of the Spices described by the author of the Periplus as the furthest point and abrupt termination of the continent of Barbarice (or eastern Africa), towards the Orient ( [Greek Text] to twn Arwmatwn emporion kai akrwthrion teleutaion thV barbarikhV mpeirou proV anatolhn apokopon).

According to C. Müller our Guardafui is called by the natives Ras Aser; their Ras Jardafun being a point some 12 m. to the south, which on some charts is called Ras Shenarif, and which is also the [Greek Text] Tabai of the Periplus (Geog. Gr. Minores, i. 263).

1516.—“And that the said ships from his ports (K. of Coulam’s) shall not go inwards from the Strait and