Chapter HANSALERI to HAVILDAR of H by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

a woman, in one case employed to carry water. A female servant of this description is not now known among English families in Bengal.

1706.—

“2 Tendells (see TINDAL).600

1 Hummummee1@200	4	Manjees	10	0	0
5	Dandees (see DANDY)	8	0	0
5	Harrys	9	8	0

List of Men’s Names, &c., immediately in the Service of the Honble, the Vnited Compy. in their Factory of Fort William, Bengall, November, 1706” (MS. in India Office).

c. 1753.—Among the expenses of the Mayor’s Court at Calcutta we find: “A harry…Rs. 1.”—Long, 43.

c. 1754.—“A Harry or water-wench.…”(at Madras).—Ives, 50.

.[“Harries are the same at Bengal, as Frosts (see FARASH) are at Bombay. Their women do all the drudgery at your houses, and the men carry your Palanquin.”—Ibid. 26.]

In a tariff of wages recommended by the “Zemindars of Calcutta,” we have: “Harry-woman to a Family…2 Rs.”—In Seton-Karr, i. 95.

1768-71.—“Every house has likewise…a harry-maid or matarani (see MATRANEE) who carries out the dirt; and a great number of slaves, both male and female.”—Stavorinus, i. 523.

1781.—“2 Harries or Sweepers…6 Rs.

* * * * * 2 Beesties…8 Rs.”

Establishment…under the Chief Magistrate of Banaris, in Appendix to Narr. of Insurrection there, Calcutta, 1782.

[1813.—“He was left to view a considerable time, and was then carried by the Hurries to the Golgotha.”—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. ii. 131.]

HATTY, s. Hind. hathi, the most common word for an elephant; from Skt. hasta, ‘the hand,’ and hasti, ‘the elephant,’ come the Hind. words hath and hathi, with the same meanings. The analogy of the elephant’s trunk to the hand presents itself to Pliny:

“Mandunt ore; spirant et bibunt odoranturque haud inproprie appellatâ manu.”—viii. 10

and to Tennyson:

“…camels knelt
Unbidden, and the brutes of mountain back
That carry kings in castles, bow’d black knees
Of homage, ringing with their serpent hands,
To make her smile, her golden ankle-bells.”

Merlin and Vivien.

c. 1526.—“As for the animals peculiar to Hindustân, one is the elephant, as the Hindustânis call it Hathi, which inhabits the district of Kalpi, the more do the wild elephants increase in number. That is the tract in which the elephant is chiefly taken.”—Baber, 315. This notice of Baber’s shows how remarkably times have changed. No elephants now exist anywhere near the region indicated. [On elephants in Hindustan, see Blochmann’s Ain, i. 618].

[1838.—“You are of course aware that we habitually call elephants Hotties, a name that might be safely applied to every other animal in India, but I suppose the elephants had the first choice of names and took the most appropriate.”—Miss Eden, Up the Country, i. 269.]

HATTYCHOOK, s. Hind. hathichak, servant’s and gardener’s Hind. for the globe artichoke; [the Jerusalem artichoke is hathipich]. This is worth producing, because our word (artichoke) is itself the corruption of an Oriental word thus carried back to the East in a mangled form.

HAUT, s.

a. Hind. hath, (the hand or forearm, and thence) ‘a cubit,’ from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger; a measure of 18 inches, and sometimes more.

[1614.—“A godown 10 Hast high.”—Foster, Letters, ii. 112.

[c. 1810.—“…even in the measurements made by order of the collectors, I am assured, that the only standards used were the different Kazis’ arms, which leaves great room for fraud.…All persons measuring cloth know how to apply their arm, so as to measure a cubit of 18 inches with wonderful exactness.”—Buchanan, Eastern India, ii. 576.]

b. Hind. hat, Skt. hatta, ‘a market held on certain days.’

[1800.—“In this Carnatic…there are no fairs like the hauts of Bengal.”—Buchanan, Mysore, i. 19.

[1818.—“The Hindoos have also market days (hâtûs), when the buyers and sellers assemble, sometimes in an open plain, but in general in market places.”—Ward, Hindoos, i. 151.]

HAVILDAR, s. Hind. havildar. A sepoy non-commissioned officer, corresponding to a sergeant, and wearing the chevrons of a sergeant. This dating from about the middle of the 18th century is the only modern use of the term in that form. It is a corruption of Pers. hawaladar, or hawaldar, ‘one holding