Chapter SARBATANE to SATIGAM of S by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

identified it with Lakhnaoti or Gaur, an official name of which in the 14th cent. was Shahr-i-nao. But it is just possible that Siam was the country spoken of.

1442.—“The inhabitants of the sea-coasts arrive here (at Ormuz) from the counties of Chín, Java, Bengal, the cities of Zirbád, Tenásiri, Sokotora, Shahr-i-nao.…”— Abdurrazzak, in Not. et Exts., xiv. 429.

1498.—“Xarnauz is of Christians, and the King is Christian; it is 50 days voyage with a fair wind from Calicut. The King … has 400 elephants of war; in the land is much benzoin … and there is aloes-wood …”—Roteiro de Vasco da Gamá, 110.

1510.—“… They said they were from a city called Sarnau, and had brought for sale silken stuffs, and aloeswood, and benzoin, and musk.”—Varthema, 212.

1514.—“… Tannazzari, Sarnau, where is produced all the finest white benzoin, storax, and lac finer than that of Martaman.” —Letter of Giov. d’Empoli, in Arch. Storico Italiano, App. 80.

1540.—“… all along the coast of Malaya, and within the Land, a great King commands, who for a more famous and recommendable Title above all other Kings, causeth himself to be called Prechau Saleu, Emperor of all Sornau, which is a Country wherein there are thirteen kingdoms, by us commonly called Siam” (Sião).—Pinto (orig. cap. xxxvi.), in Cogan, p. 43.

c. 1612.—“It is related of Siam, formerly called Sheher-al-Nawi, to which Country all lands under the wind here were tributary, that there was a King called Bubannia, who when he heard of the greatness of Malacca sent to demand submission and homage of that kingdom.”—Sijara Malayu, in J. Ind. Arch. v. 454.

1726.—“About 1340 reigned in the kingdom of Siam (then called Sjaharnouw or Sornau), a very powerful Prince.”— Valentijn, v. 319.

SARONG, s. Malay. sarung; the body-cloth, or long kilt, tucked or girt at the waist, and generally of coloured silk or cotton, which forms the chief article of dress of the Malays and Javanese. The same article of dress, and the name (saran) are used in Ceylon. It is an old Indian form of dress, but is now used only by some of the people of the south; e.g. on the coast of Malabar, where it is worn by the Hindus (white), by the Mappilas (Moplah) of that coast, and the Labbais (Lubbye) of Coromandel (coloured), and by the Bants of Canara, who wear it of a dark blue. With the Labbais the coloured sarong is a modern adoption from the Malays. Crawfurd seems to explain sarung as Javanese, meaning first ‘a case or sheath,’ and then a wrapper or garment. But, both in the Malay islands and in Ceylon, the word is no doubt taken from Skt. saranga, meaning ‘variegated’ and also ‘a garment.’

[1830.—“… the cloth or sarong, which has been described by Mr. Marsden to be ‘not unlike a Scots highlander’s plaid in appearance, being a piece of party-coloured cloth, about 6 or 8 feet long, and 3 or 4 feet wide, sewed together at the ends, forming, as some writers have described it, a wide sack without a bottom.’ With the Maláyus, the sarong is either worn slung over the shoulders as a sash, or tucked round the waist and descending to the ankles, so as to enclose the legs like a petticoat.”—Raffles, Java, i. 96.]

1868.—“He wore a sarong or Malay petticoat, and a green jacket.”—Wallace, Mal. Arch. 171.

SATIGAM, n.p. Satgaon, formerly and from remote times a port of much trade on the right bank of the Hoogly R., 30 m. above Calcutta, but for two and a half centuries utterly decayed, and now only the site of a few huts, with a ruined mosque as the only relique of former importance. It is situated at the bifurcation of the Saraswati channel from the Hoogly, and the decay dates from the silting up of the former. It was commonly called by the Portuguese Porto Pequeno (q.v.).

c. 1340.—“About this time the rebellion of Fakhrá broke out in Bengal. Fakhrá and his Bengali forces killed Kádar Khán (Governor of Lakhnauti).… He then plundered the treasury of Lakhnauti, and secured possession of that place and of Satgánw and Sunárgánw.”—Zia-ud-din Barni, in Elliot, iii. 243.

1535.—“In this year Diogo Rabello, finishing his term of service as Captain and Factor of the Choromandel fishery, with license from the Governor went to Bengal in a vessel of his … and he went well armed along with two foists which equipped with his own money, the Governor only lending him artillery and nothing more.… So this Diogo Rabello arrived at the Port of Satigaon, where he found two great ships of Cambaya which three days before had arrived with great quantity of merchandise, selling and buying: and these, without touching them, he caused to quit the port and go down the river, forbidding them to carry on any trade, and he also sent one of the foists, with 30 men, to the other port of Chatigaon, where they found three ships from the Coast of Choromandel, which were driven away from the port. And Diogo