Chapter HAVILDAR’S GUARD to HIMALÝA of H by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

by Fishers, as are also Ingellie and Kidgerie (see KEDGEREE), two neighbouring Islands on the West Side of the Mouth of the Ganges.”—A. Hamilton, i. 275; [ed. 1744, ii. 2].

1758.—In apprehension of a French Fleet the Select Committee at Fort William recommend: “That the pagoda at Ingelie should be washed black, the great tree at the place cut down, and the buoys removed.”—In Long, 153.

1784.—“Ships laying at Kedgeree, Ingellee, or any other parts of the great River.”—In Seton-Karr, i. 37.

HILSA, s. Hind. hilsa, Skt. ilisa, illisa; a rich and savoury fish of the shad kind (Clupea ilisha, Day), called in books the ‘sable-fish’ (a name, from the Port. savel, quite obsolete in India) and on the Indus pulla (palla). The large shad which of late has been commonly sold by London fishmongers in the beginning of summer, is very near the hilsa, but not so rich. The hilsa is a sea-fish, ascending the river to spawn, and is taken as high as Delhi on the Jumna, as high as Mandalay on the Irawadi (Day). It is also taken in the Guzerat rivers, though not in the short and shallow streams of the Concan, nor in the Deccan rivers, from which it seems to be excluded by the rocky obstructions. It is the special fish of Sind under the name of palla, and monopolizes the name of fish, just as salmon does on the Scotch rivers (Dr. Macdonald’s Acct. of Bombay Fisheries, 1883).

1539.—“…A little Island, called Apofingua (Ape-Fingan)…inhabited by poor people who live by the fishing of shads (que vive de la pescaria dos saveis).”—Pinto (orig. cap. xviii.), Cogan, p. 22.

1613.—“Na quella costa marittima occidental de Viontana (Ujong-Tana, Malay Peninsula) habitavão Saletes pescadores que não tinhão outro tratto…salvo de sua pescarya de saveis, donde so aproveitarão das ovas chamado Turabos, passados por salmeura.”—Eredia de Godinho, 22. [On this Mr. Skeat points out that “Saletes pescadores” must mean “Fishermen of the Straits” (Mal. selat, “straits”); and when he calls them “Turabos” he is trying to reproduce the Malay name of this fish, terubok (pron. trubo).]

1810.—“The hilsah (or sable-fish) seems to be midway between a mackerel and a salmon.”—Williamson, V. M. ii. 154–5.

1813.—Forbes calls it the sable or salmon-fish, and says “it a little resembles the European fish (salmon) from which it is named.”—Or. Mem. i. 53; [2nd ed. i. 36].

1824.—“The fishery, we were told by these people, was of the ‘Hilsa’ or ‘Sable-fish.’”—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 81.

HIMALÝA, n.p. This is the common pronunciation of the name of the great range

“Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds,”

properly Himalâya, ‘the Abode of Snow’; also called Himavat, ‘the Snowy’; Himagiri and Himasaila; Himadri, Himakuta, &c., from various forms of which the ancients made Imaus, Emodus, &c. Pliny had got somewhere the true meaning of the name:“…a montibus Hemodis, quorum promontorium Imaus vocatur nivosum significante…”(vi. 17). We do not know how far back the use of the modern name is to be found. [The references in early Hindu literature are collected by Atkinson (Himalayan Gazetteer, ii. 273 seqq.).] We do not find it in Baber, who gives Siwalak as the Indian name of the mountains (see SIWALIK). The oldest occurrence we know of is in the Ain, which gives in the Geographical Tables, under the Third Climate, Koh-i-Himalah (orig. ii. 36); [ed. Jarrett, iii. 69]). This is disguised in Gladwin’s version by a wrong reading into Kerdehmaleh (ed. 1800, ii. 367).¹ This form (Himmaleh) is used by Major Rennell, but hardly as if it was yet a familiar term. In Elphinstone’s Letters Himaleh or some other spelling of that form is always used (see below). When we get to Bishop Heber we find Himalaya, the established English form.

1822.—“What pleases me most is the contrast between your present enjoyment, and your former sickness and despondency. Depend upon it England will turn out as well as Hemaleh.”—Elphinstone to Major Close, in Life, ii. 139; see also i. 336, where it is written Himalleh.

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