Chapter MANGELIN to MANGO of M by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

MANGELIN to MANGO

MANGELIN, s. A small weight, corresponding in a general way to a carat (q.v.), used in the S. of India and in Ceylon for weighing precious stones. The word is Telegu manjali; in Tamil manjadi, [from Skt. manju, ‘beautiful’]; the seed of the Adenanthera pavonina (Compare RUTTEE). On the origin of this weight see Sir W. Elliot’s Coins of S. India. The manjadi seed was used as a measure of weight from very early times. A parcel of 50 taken at random gave an average weight of 4·13 grs. Three parcels of 10 each, selected by eye as large, gave average 5·02 and 5·03 (op. cit. p.47).

1516.—Diamonds “… sell by a weight which is called a Mangiar, which is equal to 2 tare and 2/3, and 2 tare make a carat of good weight, and 4 tare weigh one fanam.” —Barbosa, in Ramusio, i. f. 321v.

1554.—(In Ceylon) “A calamja contains 20 mamgelins, each mamgelim 8 grains of rice; a Portugues of gold weighs 8 calamjas and 2 mangelius.”—A. Nunez, 35.

1584.—“There is another sort of weight called Mangiallino, which is 5 graines of Venice weight, and therewith they weigh diamants and other jewels.”—Barret, in Hakl. ii. 409.

1611.—“Quem não sabe a grandeza das minas de finissimos diamantes do Reyno de Bisnaga, donde cada dia, e cada hora se tiram peças de tamanho de hum ovo, e muitas de sessenta e oitenta mangelins.”— Couto, Dialogo do Soldato Pratico, 154.

1665.—“Le poids principal des Diamans est le mangelin; il pèse cinq grains et trois cinquièmes.”—Thevenot, v. 293.

1676.—“At the mine of Raolconda they weigh by Mangelins, a Mangelin being one Carat and three quarters, that is 7 grains. … At the Mine of Soumelpore in Bengal they weigh by Rati’s (see RUTTEE), and the Rati is 7/8 of a Carat, or 3½ grains. In the Kingdoms of Golconda and Visapour, they make use of Mangelins, but a Mangelin in those parts is not above 1 carat and 3/8. The Portugals in Goa make use of the same Weights in Goa; but a Mangelin there is not above 5 grains.”—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 141; [ed. Ball, ii. 87, and see ii. 433.]

MANGO, s. The royal fruit of the Mangifera indica, when of good quality is one of the richest and best fruits in the world. The original of the word is Tamil man-kay or man-gay, i.e. man fruit (the tree being mamarum, ‘man- tree’). The Portuguese formed from this manga, which we have adopted as mango. The tree is wild in the forests of various parts of India; but the fruit of the wild tree is uneatable.

The word has sometimes been supposed to be Malay; but it was in fact introduced into the Archipelago, along with the fruit itself, from S. India. Rumphius (Herb. Amboyn. i. 95) traces its then recent introduction into the islands, and says that it is called (Malaicè) “mangka, vel vulgo Manga et Mapelaam.” This last word is only the Tamil Mapalam, i.e. ‘man fruit’ again. The close approximation of the Malay mangka to the Portu guese form might suggest that the latter name was derived from Malacca. But we see manga already used by Varthema, who, according to Garcia, never really went beyond Malabar. [Mr. Skeat writes: “The modern standard Malay word is mangga, from which the Port. form was probably taken. The other Malay form quoted from Rumphius is in standard Malay mapelam, with mepelam, hempelam, ampelam, and ’pelam or ’plam as variants. The Javanese is pelem.”]

The word has been taken to Madagascar, apparently by the Malayan colonists, whose language has left so large an impression there, in the precise shape mangka. Had the fruit been an Arab importation it is improbable that the name would have been introduced in that form.

The N. Indian names are Am and Amba, and variations of these we find in several of the older European writers. Thus Fr. Jordanus, who had been in the Konkan, and appreciated the progenitors of the Goa and Bombay Mango (c. 1328), calls the fruit Aniba. Some 30 years later John de’ Marignolli calls the tree “amburan, having a fruit of excellent fragrance and flavour, somewhat like a peach” (Cathay, &c., ii. 362). Garcia de Orta shows how early the Bombay fruit was prized. He seems to have been the owner of the parent tree. The Skt. name is Amra, and this we find in Hwen T’sang (c. 645) phoneticised as ’An-mo-lo.

The mango is probably the fruit alluded to by Theophrastus as having caused dysentery in the army of Alexander. (See the passage S.V. JACK).

c. 1328.—“Est etiam alia arbor quae fructus facit ad modum pruni, grosissimos, qui vocantur Aniba. Hi sunt fructus ita dulces et amabiles, quod ore tenus exprimi hoc minimè possit.”—Fr. Jordanus, in Rec. de Voyages, &c., iv. 42.

c. 1334.—“The mango tree (’anba) resembles an orange-tree, but is larger and more leafy; no other tree gives so much shade, but this shade is unwholesome, and whoever sleeps under it gets fever.”—Ibn Batuta, iii. 125. At ii. 185 he writes ’anba. [The same charge is made against the tamarind; see Burton, Ar. Nights, iii. 81.]

c. 1349.—“They have also another tree called Amburan, having a fruit of excellent fragrance and flavour, somewhat like a peach.”—John de’ Marignolli, in Cathay,