Chapter SHINTOO to SHOE-FLOWER of S by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

silver ingot, which bears some resemblance to a native shoe. May be of any weight from 1 oz. and even less, to 50 and sometimes 100 oz., and is always stamped by the assayer and banker, in evidence of purity” (Gloss. of Reference, 128). [In Hissar the Chinese silver is called silli from the slabs (sil) in which it is sold (Maclagan, Mon. on Gold and Silver Work in Punjab, p. 5).] The same form of ingot was probably the balish (or yastok) of the Middle Ages, respecting which see Cathay, &c., 115, 481, &c. Both of these latter words mean also ‘a cushion,’ which is perhaps as good a comparison as either ‘shoe’ or ‘boat.’ The word now used in C. Asia is yambu. There are cuts of the gold and silver ingots in Tavernier, whose words suggest what is probably the true origin of the popular English name, viz. a corruption of the Dutch Goldschuyt. 1566.—“… valuable goods exported from this country (China) … are first, a quantity of gold, which is carried to India, in loaves in the shape of boats. …”—C. Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 391b.

1611.—“Then, I tell you, from China I could load ships with cakes of gold fashioned like boats, containing, each of them, roundly speaking, 2 marks weight, and so each cake will be worth 280 pardaos.”—Couto, Dialogo do Soldado Pratico, p. 155.

1676.—“The Pieces of Gold mark’d Fig. 1, and 2, are by the Hollanders called Goltschut, that is to say, a Boat of Gold, because they are in the form of a Boat. Other Nations call them Loaves of Gold. … The Great Pieces come to 12 hundred Gilders of Holland Money, and thirteen hundred and fifty Livres of our Money.”—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 8.

1702.—“Sent the Moolah to be delivered the Nabob, Dewan, and Buxie 48 China Oranges … but the Dewan bid the Moolah write the Governor for a hundred more that he might send them to Court; which is understood to be One Hundred shoes of gold, or so many thousand pagodas or rupees.”—In Wheeler, i. 397.

1704.—“Price Currant, July, 1704, (at Malacca) … Gold, China, in Shoos 94 Touch.”—Lockyer, 70.

1862.—“A silver ingot ‘Yambu’ weighs about 2 (Indian) seers … = 4 lbs., and is worth 165 Co.’s rupees. Koomoosh, also called ‘Yambucha,’ or small silver ingot, is worth 33 Rs. … 5 yambuchas, being equal to 1 yambu. There are two descriptions of ‘yambucha’; one is a square piece of silver, having a Chinese stamp on it; the other … in the form of a boat, has no stamp. The Yambu is in the form of a boat, and has a Chinese stamp on it.”—Punjab Trade Report, App. ccxxvi.-xxviii. 1.

1875.—“The yámbú or kúrs is a silver ingot something the shape of a deep boat with projecting bow and stern. The upper surface is lightly hollowed, and stamped with a Chinese inscription. It is said to be pure silver, and to weigh 50 (Cashghar) ser = 30,000 grains English.”—Report of Forsyth’s Mission to Kashghar, 494.

[1876.—“… he received his pay in Chinese yambs (gold coins), at the rate of 128 rubles each, while the real commercial value was only 115 rubles.”—Schuyler, Turkistan, ii. 322.

[1901.—A piece of Chinese shoe money, value 10 taels, was exhibited before the Numismatic Society.—Athenaeum, Jan. 26, p. 118. Perhaps the largest specimen known of Chinese “boat-money” was exhibited. It weighed 89 ½ ounces troy, and represented 50 taels, or £8, 8s. 0d. English.—Ibid. Jan. 25, 1902, p. 120].

SHOE-FLOWER, s. A name given in Madras Presidency to the flower of the Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis, L. It is a literal translation of the Tam. shapattupu, Singh. sappattumala, a name given because the flowers are used at Madras to blacken shoes. The Malay name Kempang sapatu means the same. Voigt gives shoe-flower as the English name, and adds: “Petals astringent, used by the Chinese to blacken their shoes (?) and eyebrows” (Hortus Suburbanus Calcuttensis, 116-7); see also Drury, s.v. The notion of the Chinese blackening their shoes is surely an error, but perhaps they use it to blacken leather for European use.

[1773.—“The flower (Trepalta, or Morroock) (which commonly by us is called Shoe-flower, because used to black our shoes) is very large, of a deep but beautiful crimson colour.”—Ives, 475.]

1791.—“La nuit suivante … je joignis aux pavots … une fleur de foule sapatte, qui sert aux cordonniers à teindre leurs cuirs en noir.”—B. de St. Pierre, Chaumière Indienne. This foule-sapatte is apparently some quasi Hindustani form of the name (phul-sabat?) used by the Portuguese.