Chapter PUTTEE to PYSE of P by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

Orient. Sport. Mag., reprint 1873, i. 64.]

1881.—“The rest of our attire consisted of that particularly light and airy white flannel garment, known throughout India as a pajama suit.”—Haekel, Ceylon, 329.

PYKE, PAIK, s. Wilson gives only one original of the term so expressed in Anglo-Indian speech. He writes: “Páík or Páyik, corruptly Pyke, Hind. &c. (from S. padatika), Páík or Páyak, Mar. A footman, an armed attendant, an inferior police and revenue officer, a messenger, a courier, a village watchman: in Cuttack the Páíks formerly constituted a local militia, holding land of the Zamindárs or Rájas by the tenure of military service,” &c., quoting Bengal Regulations. [Platts also treats the two words as identical.] But it seems clear to us that there are here two terms rolled together:

a. Pers. Paik, ‘a foot-runner or courier.’ We do not know whether this is an old Persian word or a Mongol introduction. According to Hammer Purgstall it was the term in use at the Court of the Mongol princes, as quoted below. Both the words occur in the Ain, but differently spelt, and that with which we now deal is spelt paik (with the fatha point).

c. 1590.—“The Jilaudár (see under JULIBDAR) and the Paik (a runner). Their monthly pay varies from 1200 to 120d. (dams), according to their speed and manner of service. Some of them will run from 50 to 100 kroh (Coss) per day.”—Ain, E.T. by Blochmann, i. 138 (see orig. i. 144).

1673.—At the Court of Constantinople: “Les Peiks venoient ensuite, avec leurs bonnets d’argent doré ornés d’un petit plumage de héron, un arc et un carquois chargé de flèches.”—Journal d’A. Galland, i. 98.

1687.—“…the under officers and servants called Agiam-Oglans, who are designed to the meaner uses of the Seragho…most commonly the sons of Christians taken from their Parents at the age of 10 or 12 years.… These are: 1, Porters, 2, Bostangies or Gardiners…5, Paicks and Solacks.…”—Sir Paul Rycaut, Present State of the Ottoman Empire, 19.

1761.—“Ahmad Sultán then commissioned Sháh Pasand Khán…the harkáras (see HURCARRA) and the Paiks, to go and procure information as to the state and strength of the Mahratta army.”—Muhammad Jáfar Shámlu, in Elliot, viii. 151–2.

1840.—“The express - riders (Eilbothen) accomplished 50 farsangs a- day, so that an express came in 4 days from Khorasan to Tebris (Tabriz).… The Foot - runners carrying letters (Peik), whose name at least is maintained to this day at both the Persian and Osmanli Courts, accomplished 30 farsangs a-day.”—Hammer Purgstall, Gesch. der Golden Horde, 243.

[1868.—“The Payeke is entrusted with the tchilim (see CHILLUM) (pipe), which at court (Khiva) is made of gold or silver, and must be replenished with fresh water every time it is filled with tobacco.”—Vambery, Sketches, 89.]

b. Hind paik and payik (also Mahr.) from Skt. padatika, and padika, ‘a foot-soldier,’ with the other specific application given by Wilson, exclusive of ‘courier.’ In some narratives the word seems to answer exactly to peon. In the first quotation, which is from the Ain, the word, it will be seen, is different from that quoted under (a) from the same source.

c. 1590.—“It was the custom in those times, for the palace (of the King of Bengal) to be guarded by several thousand pykes (payak), who are a kind of infantry. An eunuch entered into a confederacy with these guards, who one night killed the King, Futteh Shah, when the Eunuch ascended the throne, under the title of Barbuck Shah.”—Gladwin’s Tr., ed. 1800, ii. 19 (orig. i. 415; [Jarrett (ii. 149) gives the word as Páyiks].


In the next quotation the word seems to be the same, though used for ‘a seaman.’ Compare uses of Lascar. c. 1615.—“(His fleet) consisted of 20 beaked vessels, all well manned with the sailors whom they call paiques, as well as with Portuguese soldiers and topazes who were excellent musketeers; 50 hired jalias (see GALLEVAT) of like sort and his own (Sebastian Gonçalves’s) galliot (see GALLEVAT), which was about the size of a patacho, with 14 demi-falcons on each broadside, two pieces of 18 to 20 lbs. calibre in the forecastle, and 60 Portuguese soldiers, with more than 40 topazes and Cafres (see CAFFER).”—Bocarro, Decada, 452.

1722.—Among a detail of charges at this period in the Zemindárry of Rajshahi appears:

“9. Paikan, or the pikes, guard of villages, everywhere necessary…2,161 rupees.”—Fifth Report, App. p. 345.

The following quotation from an Indian Regulation of Ld. Cornwallis’s time