Chapter SABAIO to SAGO of S by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

Garcia de Orta calls it croco Indiaco, ‘Indian saffron.’ Indeed, Dozy shows that the Arab. kurkum for turmeric (whence the bot. Lat. curcuma) is probably taken from the Greek [Greek Text] krokoV or obl. [Greek Text] krokon. Moodeen Sherif says that kurkum is applied to saffron in many Persian and other writers.

c. 1200.—“The Persians call this root al-Hard, and the inhabitants of Basra call it al-Kurkum, and al- Kurkum is Saffron. They call these plants Saffron because they dye yellow in the same way as Saffron does.”—Ibn Baithar, ii. 370.

1563.—“R. Since there is nothing else to be said on this subject, let us speak of what we call ‘country saffron.’

“O. This is a medicine that should be spoken of, since it is in use by the Indian physicians; it is a medicine and article of trade much exported to Arabia and Persia. In this city (Goa) there is little of it, but much in Malabar, i.e. in Cananor and Calecut. The Canarins call the root alad; and the Malabars sometimes give it the same name, but more properly call it mangale, and the Malays cunhet; the Persians, darzard, which is as much as to say ‘yellow-wood.’ The Arabs call it habet; and all of them, each in turn, say that this saffron does not exist in Persia, nor in Arabia, nor in Turkey, except what comes from India.”—Garcia, f. 78v. Further on he identifies it with curcuma.

1726.—“Curcuma, or Indian Saffron.”— Valentijn, Chor. 42.

SAGAR-PESHA, s. Camp-followers, or the body of servants in a private establishment. The word, though usually pronounced in vulgar Hind. as written above, is Pers. shagird-pesha (lit. shagird, ‘a disciple, a servant,’ and pesha, ‘business’).

[1767.—“Saggur Depessah-pay. …”— In Long, 513.]

SAGO, s. From Malay sagu. The farinaceous pith taken out of the stem of several species of a particular genus of palm, especially Metroxylon laeve, Mart., and M. Rumphii, Willd., found in every part of the Indian Archipelago, including the Philippines, wherever there is proper soil. They are most abundant in the eastern part of the region indicated, including the Moluccas and N. Guinea, which probably formed the original habitat; and in these they supply the sole bread of the natives. In the remaining parts of the Archipelago, sago is the food only of certain wild tribes, or consumed (as in Mindanao) by the poor only, or prepared (as at Singapore, &c.) for export. There are supposed to be five species producing the article.

1298.—“They have a kind of trees that produce flour, and excellent flour it is for food. These trees are very tall and thick, but have a very thin bark, and inside the bark they are crammed with flour.”—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. ch. xi.

1330.—“But as for the trees which produce flour, tis after this fashion. … And the result is the best pasta in the world, from which they make whatever they choose, cates of sorts, and excellent bread, of which I, Friar Odoric, have eaten.”—Fr. Odoric, in Cathay, &c., 32.

1522.—“Their bread (in Tidore) they make of the wood of a certain tree like a palm-tree, and they make it in this way. They take a piece of this wood, and extract from it certain long black thorns which are situated there; then they pound it, and make bread of it which they call sagu. They make provision of this bread for their sea voyages.”—Pigafetta, Hak. Soc. p. 136. This is a bad description, and seems to refer to the Sagwire, not the true sago-tree.

1552.—“There are also other trees which are called cagus, from the pith of which bread is made.”—Castanheda, vi. 24.

1553.—“Generally, although they have some millet and rice, all the people of the Isles of Maluco eat a certain food which they call Sagum, which is the pith of a tree like a palm-tree, except that the leaf is softer and smoother, and the green of it is rather dark.”—Barros, III. v. 5.

1579.—“… and a Kind of meale which they call Sago, made of the toppes of certaine trees, tasting in the Mouth like some curds, but melts away like sugar.”— Drake’s Voyage, Hak. Soc. p. 142.

„ Also in a list of “Certaine Wordes of the Naturall Language of Iaua”; “Sagu, bread of the Countrey.”—Hakl. iv. 246.

c. 1690.—“Primo Sagus genuina, Malaice Sagu, sive Lapia tuni, h.e. vera Sagu.”— Rumphius, i. 75. (We cannot make out the language of lapia tuni.)

1727.—“And the inland people subsist mostly on Sagow, the Pith of a small Twig split and dried in the Sun.”—A. Hamilton, ii. 93; [ed. 1744].

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