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barkandazes ; five ‘rope’ (ras) of buffaloes ; ten ‘chains’ (zanjir) of elephants ; twenty ‘grips’ (kabza) of swords, &c.
But I was not aware of the extent of the idiom in the munshi’s repertory till I found it displayed in Mr.
Carnegy’s Kachahri Technicalities, under the head of Muhawara (Idioms or Phrases). Besides those
just quoted, we there find ’adad (‘number’) used with coins, utensils, and sleeveless garments ; dana
(‘grain’) with pearls and coral beads ; dast (‘hand’) with falcons, &c., shields, and robes of honour ; jild
(volume, lit. ‘skin’) with books ; muhar (‘nose-bit’) with camels ; kita (‘portion,’ piecey !) with precious
stones, gardens, tanks, fields, letters ; manzil (‘a stage on a journey, an alighting place’) with tents,
boats, houses, carriages, beds, howdas, &c. ; saz (‘an instrument’) with guitars, &c.; silk (‘thread’) with
necklaces of all sorts, &c. Several of these, with others purely Turkish, are used also in Osmanli Turkish.3
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