Chapter MUSSUCK to MUSTEES of M by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

MUSSUCK to MUSTEES

MUSSUCK, s. The leathern waterbag, consisting of the entire skin of a large goat, stript of the hair and dressed, which is carried by a bhishti (see BHEESTY). Hind. mashak, Skt. masaka.

[1610.—“Mussocke.” See under RUPEE.

[1751.—“7 hands of Musuk” (probably meaning Bhistis).—In Yule, Hedges’ Diary, Hak. Soc. II. xi.]

1842.—“Might] it not be worth while to try the experiment of having ‘mussucks’ made of waterproof cloth in England ?”—Sir G. Arthur, in Ind. Adm. of Lord Ellenborough, 220.

MUSSULMAN, adj. and s. Mahommedan. Muslim, ‘resigning’ or ‘submitting’ (sc. oneself to God), is the name given by Mahommed to the Faithful. The Persian plural of this is Muslimân, which appears to have been adopted as a singular, and the word Musliman or Musalman thus formed. [Others explain it as either from Ar. pl. Muslimin, or from Muslim-man, ‘like a Muslim,’ the former of which is adopted by Platts as most probable.]

1246.—“Intravimus terram Biserminorum. Isti homines linguam Comanicam loquebantur, et adhuc loquuntur ; sed legem Sarracenorum tenent.”—Plano Carpini, in Rec. de Voyages, &c. iv. 750.

c. 1540.—“…disse por tres vezes, Lah, hilah, hilah, lah Muhamed roçol halah, o Massoleymoens e homes justos da santa ley de Mafamede.”—Pinto, ch. lix.

1559.—“Although each horde (of Tartars) has its proper name, e.g. particularly the horde of the Savolhensians…and many others, which are in truth Mahometans ; yet do they hold it for a grievous insult and reproach to be called and styled Turks ; they wish to be styled Besermani, and by this name the Turks also desire to be styled.”—Herberstein, in Ramusio, ii. f. 171.

[1568.—“I have noted here before that if any Christian will become a Busorman,…and be a Mahumetan of their religion, they give him any gifts…”—A. Edward, in Hakl. i. 442.]

c. 1580.—“Tutti sopradetti Tartari seguitano la fede de’ Turchi et alla Turchesca credono, ma si tegono a gran vergogna, e molto si corrociano l’esser detti Turchi, secondo che all’ incontro godono d’esser Besurmani, cioè gete eletta, chiamati.”—Descrittione della Sarmatia Evropea del magn. caval. Aless. Gvagnino, in Ramusio, ii. Pt. ii. f. 72.

1619.—“…i Musulmani, cioè i salvati : che cosa pazzamente si chiamano fra di loro i maomettani.”—P. della Valle, i. 794.

„ “The precepts of the Moslemans are first, circumcision…”—Gabriel Sionita, in Purchas, ii. 1504.

1653.—“…son infanterie d’Indistannis Mansulmans, ou Indiens de la secte des Sonnis.”—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, 233.

1673.—“Yet here are a sort of bold, lusty, and most an end, drunken Beggars of the Musslemen Cast, that if they see a Christian in good clothes, mounted on a stately horse…are presently upon their Punctilio’s with God Almighty, and interrogate him, Why he suffers him to go a Foot, and in Rags, and this Coffery (see CAFFER) (Unbeliever) to vaunt it thus ?”—Fryer, 91.

1788.—“We escape an ambiguous termination by adopting Moslem instead of Musulman in the plural number.”—Gibbon, pref. to vol. iv.

MUST, adj. Pers. mast, ‘drunk.’ It is applied in Persia also, and in India specially, to male animals, such as elephants and camels, in a state of periodical excitement.

[1882.—“Fits of Must differ in duration in different animals (elephants) ; in some they last for a few weeks, in others for even four or five months.”—Sanderson, Thirteen Years, 3rd ed., 59.]

MUSTEES, MESTIZ, &c., s. A half-caste. A corruption of the Port. mestiço, having the same meaning ; “a mixling ; applied to human beings and animals born of a father and mother of different species, like a mule” (Bluteau) ; French, métis and métif. 1546.—“The Governor in honour of this great action (the victory at Diu) ordered that all the mestiços who were in Dio should be inscribed in the Book, and that pay and subsistence should be assigned to them,—subject to the King’s confirmation. For a regulation had been sent to India that no mestiço of India should be given pay or subsistence : for, as it was laid down, it was their duty to serve for nothing, seeing that they had their houses and heritages in the country, and being on their native soil were bound to defend it.”—Correa, iv. 580.

1552.—“…the sight of whom as soon as they came, caused immediately to gather about them a number of the natives, Moors in belief, and Negroes with curly hair in appearance, and some of them only swarthy, as being mistiços.”—Barros, I. ii. 1.

1586.—“…che se sono nati qua di donne indiane, gli domandano mestizi.”—Sassetti, in De Gubernatis, 188.

1588.—“…an Interpretour…which was a Mestizo, that is halfe