Chapter JAMES AND MARY to JANGOMAY of J by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

Every one takes them, the weak for safety and protection, those who are stronger, and travel in great companies and well armed, take them only as witnesses that they are not aggressors in case of any dispute with the Nairs.”—Pyrard de Laval, ch. xxv.; [Hak. Soc. i. 339, and see Mr. Gray’s note in loco].

1672.—“The safest of all journeyings in India are those through the Kingdom of the Nairs and the Samorin, if you travel with Giancadas, the most perilous if you go alone. These Giancadas are certain heathen men, who venture their own life and the lives of their kinsfolk for small remuneration, to guarantee the safety of travellers.”—P. Vincenzo Maria, 127.

See also Chungathum, in Burton’s Goa, p. 198.

JANGAR, s. A raft. Port. jangada. [“A double platform canoe made by placing a floor of boards across two boats, with a bamboo railing.” (Madras Gloss.).] This word, chiefly colloquial, is the Tamil-Malayal. shangadam, channatam (for the derivation of which see JANCADA). It is a word of particular interest as being one of the few Dravidian words, [but perhaps ultimately of Skt. origin], preserved in the remains of classical antiquity, occurring in the Periplus as our quotation shows. Bluteau does not call the word an Indian term.

c. 80-90.—“The vessels belonging to these places (Camara, Poduce, and Sopatma on the east coast) which hug the shore to Limyrice (Dimyrice), and others also called [Greek Text] Saggara, which consist of the largest canoes of single timbers lashed together; and again those biggest of all which sail to Chryse and Ganges, and are called [Greek Text] Kolandiofwnta.”—Periplus, in Müller’s Geog. Gr. Min., i. “The first part of this name for boats or ships is most probably the Tam. kulinda= hollowed: the last odam=boat.”—Burnell, S.I. Palaeography, 612.

c. 1504.—“He held in readiness many jangadas of timber.”—Correa, Lendas, I. i. 476.

c. 1540.—“… and to that purpose had already commanded two great Rafts (jãgadas), covered with dry wood, barrels of pitch and other combustible stuff, to be placed at the entering into the Port.”—Pinto (orig. cap. xlvi.), in Cogan, p. 56.

1553.—“… the fleet … which might consist of more than 200 rowing vessels of all kinds, a great part of them combined into jangadas in order to carry a greater mass of men, and among them two of these contrivances on which were 150 men.”—Barros, II. i. 5.

1598.—“Such as stayed in the ship, some tooke bords, deals, and other peeces of wood, and bound them together (which y^e Portingals cal Iangadas) every man what they could catch, all hoping to save their lives, but of all those there came but two men safe to shore.”—Linschoten, p. 147; [Hak. Soc. ii. 181; and see Mr. Gray on Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 53 seq.].

1602.—“For his object was to see if he could rescue them in jangadas, which he ordered him immediately to put together of baulks, planks, and oars.”—Couto, Dec. IV. liv. iv. cap. 10.

1756.—“… having set fire to a jungodo of Boats, these driving down towards the Fleet, compelled them to weigh.”—Capt. Jackson, in Dalrymple’s Or. Rep. i. 199.

c. 1790.—“Sangarie.” See quotation under HACKERY.

c. 1793.—“Nous nous remîmes en chemin à six heures du matin, et passâmes la rivière dans un sangarie ou canot fait d’un palmier creusé.”—Haafner, ii. 77.

JANGOMAY, ZANGOMAY, JAMAHEY, &c., n.p. The town and state of Siamese Laos, called by the Burmese Zimmé, by the Siamese Xiengmai or Kiang-mai, &c., is so called in narratives of the 17th century. Serious efforts to establish trade with this place were made by the E.I. Company in the early part of the 17th century, of which notice will be found in Purchas, Pilgrimage, and Sainsbury, e.g. in vol. i. (1614), pp. 311, 325; (1615) p. 425; (1617) ii. p. 90. The place has again become the scene of commercial and political interest; an English Vice-Consulate has been established; and a railway survey undertaken. [See Hallett, A Thousand Miles on an Elephant, 74 seqq.]

c. 1544.—“Out of this Lake of Singapamor … do four very large and deep rivers proceed, whereof the first … runneth Eastward through all the Kingdoms of Sornau and Siam …; the Second, Jangumaa … disimboking into the Sea by the Bar of Martabano in the Kingdom of Pegu.…”—Pinto (in Cogan, 165).

1553.—(Barros illustrates the position of the different kingdoms of India by the figure of a (left) hand, laid with the palm downwards) “And as regards the western part, following always the sinew of the forefinger, it will correspond with the ranges of mountains running from north to south along which lie the kingdom of Avá, and Bremá, and Jangomá.”—III. ii. 5.

c. 1587.—“I went from Pegu to Iamayhey, which is in the Countrey of the Langeiannes, whom we call Iangomes; it is five and twentie dayes iourney to Northeast from Pegu.… Hither to Iamayhey come many Merchants out of China, and bring great store of Muske, Gold, Silver, and