Chapter NASSICK to NAVAIT of N by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

NASSICK to NAVAIT

NASSICK, n.p. Nasik; [Greek Text] Nasika of Ptolemy (vii. i. 63); an ancient city of Hindu sanctity on the upper course of the Godavery R., and the headquarter of a district of the same name in the Bombay Presidency. A curious discussion took place at the R. Geog. Society in 1867, arising out of a paper by Mr. (afterwards Sir) George Campbell, in which the selection of a capital for British India was determined on logical principles in favour of Nassick. But logic does not decide the site of capitals, though government by logic is quite likely to lose India. Certain highly elaborated magic squares and magic cubes, investigated by the Rev. A. H. Frost (Cambridge Math. Jour., 1857) have been called by him Nasik squares, and Nasik cubes, from his residence in that ancient place (see Encyc. Britan. 9th ed. xv. 215).

NAT, s. Burmese nat, [apparently from Skt. natha, ‘lord’]; a term applied to all spiritual beings, angels, elfs, demons, or what not, including the gods of the Hindus.

[1878.—“Indeed, with the country population of Pegu the worship, or it should rather be said the propitiation of the ‘Náts’ or spirits, enters into every act of their ordinary life, and Buddha’s doctrine seems kept for sacred days and their visits to the kyoung (monastery) or to the pagoda.”—Forbes, British Burma, 222.]

NAUND, s. Hind. nand. A coarse earthen vessel of large size, resembling in shape an inverted bee- hive, and useful for many economic and domestic purposes. The dictionary definition in Fallon, ‘an earthen trough,’ conveys an erroneous idea. [1832.—“The ghuri (see GHURRY), or copper cup, floats usually in a vessel of coarse red pottery filled with water, called a nan.”—Wanderings of a Pilgrim, i. 250.

[1899.—“To prevent the crickets from wandering away when left, I had a large earthen pan placed over them upside down. These pans are termed nands. They are made of the coarsest earthenware, and are very capacious. Those I used were nearly a yard in diameter and about eighteen inches deep.”—Thornhill, Haunts and Hobbies of an Indian Official, 79.]

NAUTCH, s. A kind of ballet-dance performed by women; also any kind of stage entertainment; an European ball. Hind. and Mahr. nach, from Skt. nritya, dancing and stage-playing, through Prakrit nachcha. The word is in European use all over India. [A poggly nautch (see POGGLE) is a fancy-dress ball. Also see POOTLY NAUTCH.] Browning seems fond of using this word, and persists in using it wrongly. In the first of the quotations below he calls Fifine the ‘European nautch,’ which is like calling some Hindu dancing-girl ‘the Indian ballet.’ He repeats the mistake in the second quotation.

[1809.—“You Europeans are apt to picture to yourselves a Nach as a most attractive spectacle, but once witnessed it generally dissolves the illusion.”—Broughton, Letters from a Mahratta Camp, ed. 1892, p. 142.]

1823.—“I joined Lady Macnaghten and a large party this evening to go to a nâch given by a rich native, Rouplall Mullich, on the opening of his new house.”—Mrs. Heber, in Heber, ed. 1844, i. 37.

[1829.—“…a dance by black people which they calls a Notch.…”—Oriental Sport. Mag. ed. 1873, i. 129.]

c. 1831.—“Elle (Begum Sumrou) fit enterrer vivante une jeune esclave, dont elle était jalouse, et donna à son mari un nautch (bal) sur cette horrible tombe.”—Jacquemont, Correspondance, ii. 221.

1872.—

“…let be there was no worst
Of degradation spared Fifine; ordained from first
To last, in body and soul, for one life-long debauch,
The Pariah of the North, the European
Nautch !”

Fifine at the Fair, 31.

1876.—

“…I locked in the swarth little lady—
I swear,
From the head to the foot of her,—well
quite as bare!
‘No Nautch shall cheat me,’ said I,
taking my stand
At this bolt which I draw.…”

Natural Magic, in Pacchiarotto, &c.