Chapter NARCONDAM to NARSINGA of N by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

(whence Skt. nalada), spikenard. Skt. nada, a reed.”] The plant was first identified in modern times by Sir W. Jones. See in Canticles, i. 12, and iv. 13, 14.

B.C. c. 25.—

“Cur non sub altâ vel platano, vel hac
Pinu jacentes sic temere, et rosâ
Canos odorati capillos,
Dum licet, Assyriâque nardo
Potamus uncti ?”

Horace, Odes, II. xi.

A.D. 29.—“ [Greek Text] Kai dntoV autou en Bhqania, en th oikia SimwnoV . . . hlqe gung ecousa alabastron murou, nardou pistikhV polutelouV…”—St. Mark, xiv. 3.

c. A.D. 70.—“As touching the leafe of Nardus, it were good that we discoursed thereof at large, seeing that it is one of the principal ingredients aromaticall that goe to the making of most costly and precious ointments.…The head of Nardus spreadeth into certain spikes and ears, whereby it hath a twofold use both as spike and also as leafe.”—Pliny (Ph. Holland), xii. 12.

c. A.D. 90.—“ [Greek Text] Katagetai de di authV (OzhnhV) kai apo twn anw topwn, h dia PwklsidoV kataferomenh nardoV, h Kaspapurhnh, kai h Paropanishnh, kai h Kabolith, kai h dia thV parakeimenhV SkuqiaV.”—Periplus, § 48 (corrected by Fabricius).

c. A.D. 545.—“…also to Sindu, where you get the musk or castorin, and androstachyn” (for nardostachys, i.e. spikenard).—Cosmas, in Cathay, p. clxxviii.

1563.—“I know no other spikenard (espique-nardo) in this country, except what I have already told you, that which comes from Chitor and Mandou, regions on the confines of Deli, Bengala, and the Decan.”—Garcia, f. 191.

1790.—“We may on the whole be assured that the nardus of Ptolemy, the Indian Sumbul of the Persians and Arabs, the Jatámánsì of the Hindus, and the spikenard of our shops, are one and the same plant.”—Sir W. Jones, in As. Res. ii. 410.

c. 1781.—

“My first shuts out thieves from your house or your room,
My second expresses a Syrian perfume;
My whole is a man in whose converse is shared
The strength of a Bar and the sweetness of Nard.”—

Charade on Bishop Barnard by Dr. Johnson.

NARGEELA, NARGILEH, s. Properly the coco-nut (Skt. narikera, -kela, or -keli; Pers. nargil; Greek of Cosmas, [Greek Text] Argellion); thence the hubble-bubble, or hooka in its simplest form, as made from a coco-nut shell; and thence again, in Persia, a hooka or water-pipe with a glass or metal vase.

[c. 545.—“Argell.” See under SURA.

[1623.—“Narghil, like the palm in the leaves also, and is that which we call Nux Indica.”—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 40.

[1758.—“An Argile, or smoking tube, and coffee, were immediately brought us…”—Ives, 271.

[1813.—“…the Persians smoked their culloons and nargills.…”—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. ii: 173.]

NARROWS, THE, n.p. A name applied by the Hoogly pilots for at least two centuries to the part of the river immediately below Hoogly Point, now known as ‘Hoogly Bight.’ See Mr. Barlow’s note on Hedges’ Diary, i. 64.

1684.—“About 11 o’clock we met with ye Good-hope, at an anchor in ye Narrows, without Hugly River,¹ and ordered him upon ye first of ye flood to weigh, and make all haste he could to Hugly…”—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 64.

1711.—“From the lower Point of the Narrows on the Starboard-side…the Eastern Shore is to be kept close aboard, until past the said Creek, afterwards allowing only a small Birth for the Point off the River of Rogues, commonly called by the Country People, Adegom.…From the River of Rogues, the Starboard Shore, with a great Ship, ought to be kept close aboard down to the Channel Trees, for in the Offing lies the Grand middle Ground.…”—English Pilot, p. 57.

NARSINGA, n.p. This is the name most frequently applied in the 16th and 17th centuries to the kingdom in Southern India, otherwise termed Vijayanagara or Bisnagar (q.v.), the latest powerful Hindu kingdom in the Peninsula. This kingdom was founded on the ruins of the Belala dynasty reigning at Dwara Samudra, about A.D. 1341 [see Rice, Mysore, i. 344 seqq.]. The original dynasty of Vijayanagara became extinct about 1487, and was replaced by Narasinha, a prince of Telugu origin, who reigned till 1508. He was therefore reigning at the time of the first arrival of the Portuguese, and the name of Narsinga, which they