Chapter GUNGE to GUTTA PERCHA of G by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

the soldiers calling on me as ‘Ghureeb purwur,’ the Goomashta, not to be outdone, exclaiming ‘Donai, Lord Sahib! Donai! Rajah!’” (Read Dohai and see DOAI).—Heber, i. 266. See also p. 279.

1867.—“‘Protector of the poor! he cried, prostrating himself at my feet, ‘help thy most unworthy and wretched slave! An unblest and evil-minded alligator has this day devoured my little daughter. She went down to the river to fill her earthen jar with water, and the evil one dragged her down, and has devoured her. Alas! she had on her gold bangles. Great is my misfortune!’”—Lt-Col. Lewin, A Fly on the Wheel, p. 99.

GURJAUT, n.p. The popular and official name of certain forest tracts at the back of Orissa. The word is a hybrid, being the Hind. garh, ‘a fort,’ Persianised into a plural garhjat, in ignorance of which we have seen, in quasi-official documents, the use of a further English plural, Gurjauts or garhjats, which is like ‘fortses.’ [In the quotation below, the writer seems to think it a name of a class of people.] This manner of denominating such tracts from the isolated occupation by fortified posts seems to be very ancient in that part of India. We have in Ptolemy and the Periplus Dosarene or Desaréné, apparently representing Skt. Dasarna, quasi dasan rina, ‘having Ten Forts,’ which the lists of the Brhat Sanhita shew us in this part of India (J.R. As. Soc., N.S., v. 83). The forest tract behind Orissa is called in the grant of an Orissa king, Nava Koti, ‘the Nine Forts’ (J.A.S.B. xxxiii. 84); and we have, in this region, further in the interior, the province of Chattisgarh, ’36 Forts.’

[1820.—“At present nearly one half of this extensive region is under the immediate jurisdiction of the British Government; the other possessed by tributary zemindars called Ghurjauts, or hill chiefs.…”—Hamilton, Description of Hindostan, ii. 32.]

GURRY.

a. A little fort; Hind. garhi. Also Gurr. i.e. garh, ‘a fort.’

b. See GHURRY.

a.—

1693.—“…many of his Heathen Nobles, only such as were befriended by strong Gurrs, or Fastnesses upon the Mountains.…”—Fryer, 165.

1786.—“…The Zemindars in 4 pergunnahs are so refractory as to have forfeited (read fortified) themselves in their gurries, and to refuse all payments of revenue.”—Articles against W. Hastings, in Burke, vii. 59.

[1835.—“A shot was at once fired upon them from a high Ghurree.”—Forbes, Ras Mala, ed. 1878, p. 521.]

GUTTA PERCHA, s. This is the Malay name Gatah Pertja, i.e. ‘Sap of the Percha,’ Dichopsis Gutta, Benth. (Isonandra Gutta, Hooker; N.O. Sapotaceae). Dr. Oxley writes (J. Ind. Archip. i. 22) that percha is properly the name of a tree which produces a spurious article; the real gutta p. is produced by the túbau. [Mr. Maxwell (Ind. Ant. xvii. 358) points out that the proper reading is taban.] The product was first brought to notice in 1843 by Dr. Montgomery. It is collected by first ringing the tree and then felling it, and no doubt by this process the article will speedily become extinct. The history of G. P. is, however, far from well known. Several trees are known to contribute to the exported article; their juices being mixed together. [Mr. Scott (Malay Words, 55 seqq.) writes the word getah percha, or getah perchah, ‘gum of percha,’ and remarks that it has been otherwise explained as meaning ‘gum of Sumatra,’ “there being another word percha, a name of Sumatra, as well as a third word percha, ‘a rag, a remnant.’” Mr. Maxwell (loc. cit.) writes: “It is still uncertain whether there is a gutta-producing tree called Percha by the Malays. My experience is that they give the name of Perchah to that kind of getah taban which hardens into strips in boiling. These are stuck together and made into balls for export.”]

[1847.—“Gutta Percha is a remarkable example of the rapidity with which a really useful invention becomes of importance to the English public. A year ago it was almost unknown, but now its peculiar properties are daily being made more available in some new branch of the useful or ornamental arts.”—Mundy, Journal, in Narrative of Events in Borneo and Celebes, ii. 342 seq. (quoted by Scott, loc. cit.).]

1868.—“The late Mr. d’Almeida was the first to call the attention of the public to the substance now so well known as gutta-percha. At that time the Isonandra Gutta was an abundant tree in the forests of Singapore, and was first known to the Malays, who made use of the juice which they obtained by cutting down the trees.…Mr. d’Almeida…acting under the advice of a friend, forwarded some of the substance to the Society of Arts. There it met with no immediate attention, and was put away uncared for. A year or two afterwards