Chapter MACASSAR to MACHEEN of M by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

as be good.”—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 36; also see 67.]

1705.—“It is the commonly received opinion that Cloves, Nutmegs, Mace, and Cinnamon all grow upon one tree; but it is a great mistake.”—Funnel, in Dampier, iv. 179.

MACE, s.

b. Jav. and Malay mas. [Mr. Skeat writes: “Mas is really short for amas or emas, one of those curious forms with prefixed a, as in the case of abada, which are probably native, but may have been influenced by Portuguese.”] A weight used in Sumatra, being, according to Crawfurd, 1-16th of a Malay tael (q.v.), or about 40 grains (but see below). Mace is also the name of a small gold coin of Achin, weighing 9 grs. and worth about 1s. 1d. And mace was adopted in the language of European traders in China to denominate the tenth part of the Chinese liang or tael of silver; the 100th part of the same value being denominated in like manner candareen (q.v.). The word is originally Skt. masha, ‘a bean,’ and then ‘a particular weight of gold’ (comp. CARAT, RUTTEE).

1539.—“… by intervention of this thirdsman whom the Moor employed as broker they agreed on my price with the merchant at seven mazes of gold, which in our money makes a 1400 reys, at the rate of a half cruzado the maz.”—Pinto, cap. xxv. Cogan has, “the fishermen sold me to the merchant for seven mazes of gold, which amounts in our money to seventeen shillings and sixpence.”—p. 31.

1554.—“The weight with which they weigh (at Malaca) gold, musk, seed-pearl, coral, calambuco … consists of cates which contain 20 tael, each tael 16 mazes, each maz 20 cumduryns. Also one paual 4 mazes, one maz 4 cupões (see KOBANG), one cupão 5 cumduryns (see CANDAREEN).”—A. Nunez, 39.

1598.—“Likewise a Tael of Malacca is 16 Mases.”—Linschoten, 44; [Hak. Soc. i. 149].

1599.—“Bezar sive Bazar (i.e. Bezoar, q.v.) per Masas venditur.”—De Bry, ii. 64.

1625.—“I have also sent by Master Tomkins of their coine (Achin) … that is of gold named a Mas, and is ninepence halfpenie neerest.”—Capt. T. Davis, in Purchas, i. 117.

1813.—“Milburn gives the following table of weights used at Achin, but it is quite inconsistent with the statements of Crawfurd and Linschoten above.

4	copangs	= 1 mace
5	mace	= 1 mayam
16	mayam	= 1 tale
5	tales	= 1 bancal
20	bancals	= 1 catty.
200	catties	= 1 bahar.”

Milburn, ii. 329. [Mr. Skeat notes that here “copang” is Malay kupang; tale, tali; bancal, bongkal.]

MACHEEN, MAHACHEEN, n.p. This name, Maha-china, “Great China,” is one by which China was known in India in the early centuries of our era, and the term is still to be heard in India in the same sense in which Al-Biruni uses it, saying that all beyond the great mountains (Himalaya) is Maha-chin. But “in later times the majority, not knowing the meaning of the expression, seem to have used it pleonastically coupled with Chin, to denote the same thing, Chin and Machin, a phrase having some analogy to the way Sind and Hind was used to express all India, but a stronger one to Gog and Magog, as applied to the northern nations of Asia.” And eventually Chin was discovered to be the eldest son of Japhet, and Machin his grandson; which is much the same as saying that Britain was the eldest son of Brut the Trojan, and Great Britain his grandson! (Cathay and the Way Thither, page cxix.).

In the days of the Mongol supremacy in China, when Chinese affairs were for a time more distinctly conceived in Western Asia, and the name of Manzi as denoting Southern China, unconquered by the Mongols till 1275, was current in the West, it would appear that this name was confounded with Machin, and the latter thus acquired a specific but erroneous application. One author of the 16th century also (quoted by Klaproth, J. As. Soc. ser. 2, tom. i. 115) distinguishes Chin and Machin as N. and S. China, but this distinction seems never to have been entertained by the Hindus. Ibn Batuta sometimes distinguishes Sin (i.e. Chin) as South China from Khitai (see CATHAY) as North China. In times when intimacy with China had again ceased, the double name seems to have recovered its old vagueness as a rotund way of saying China, and had no more plurality of sense than in modern parlance Sodor and Man. But then comes an occasional new application of Machin to Indo-China, as in Conti (followed by Fra Mauro). An exceptional application, arising from the Arab habit of applying the name of a country to the capital or the chief port frequented by them, arose in the Middle Ages, through which Canton became known in the West as the city of Machin, or in Persian translation Chinkalan, i.e. Great Chin.

Mahachina as applied to China:

636.—“ ‘In what country exists the kingdom of the Great Thang?’ asked the king (Siladitya of Kanauj), ‘how far is it from this?’ “ ‘It is situated,’ replied he (Hwen T’sang), ‘to the N.E. of this kingdom, and is distant several ten-thousands of li. It is the country which the Indian people