Chapter SNEAKER to SOLA of S by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

march distant from Culua (Quiloa), and that from Sofala t o Yufi (Nufi) … is a month’s march. From Yufi they bring gold-dust to Sofala.”—Ibn Batuta, ii. 192–3.

1499.—“Coming to Moçambique (i.e. Vasco and his squadron on their return) they did not desire to go in because there was no need, so they kept their course, and being off the coast of Çofala, the pilots warned the officers that they should be alert and ready to strike sail, and at night they should keep their course, with little sail set, and a good look-out, for just thereabouts there was a river belonging to a place called Çofala, whence there sometimes issued a tremendous squall, which tore up trees and carried cattle and all into the sea. …”—Correa, Lendas, i. 134–135.

1516.—“… at xviii. leagues from them there is a river, which is not very large, whereon is a town of the Moors called Sofala, close to which town the King of Portugal has a fort. These Moors established themselves there a long time ago on account of the great trade in gold, which they carry on with the Gentiles of the mainland.”—Barbosa, 4.

1523.—“Item—that as regards all the ships and goods of the said Realm of Urmuz, and its ports and vassals, they shall be secure by land and by sea, and they shall be as free to navigate where they please as vassals of the King our lord, save only that they shall not navigate inside the Strait of Mecca, nor yet to Çoffala and the ports of that coast, as that is forbidden by the King our lord. …”—Treaty of Dom Duarto de Menezes, with the King of Ormuz, in Botelho, Tombo, 80.

1553.—“Vasco da Gama … was afraid that there was some gulf running far inland, from which he would not be able to get out. And this apprehension made him so careful to keep well from the shore that he passed without even seeing the town of Çofala, so famous in these parts for the quantity of gold which the Moors procured there from the Blacks of the country by trade. …”—Barros, I. iv. 3.

1572.—

“… Fizemos desta costa algum desvio

Deitando para o pégo toda a armada: Porque, ventando Noto manso e frio, Não nos apanhasse a agua da enseada, Que a costa faz alli daquella banda, Donde a rica Sofala o ouro manda.” Camões, v. 73.

By Burton:

“off from the coast-line for a spell we stood,

till deep blue water ’neath our kelsons lay;

for frigid Notus, in his fainty mood, was fain to drive us leewards to the Bay made in that quarter by the crookèd shore, whence rich Sofála sendeth golden ore.”

1665.—

“Mombaza and Quiloa and Melind,

And Sofala, thought Ophir, to the realm Of Congo, and Angola farthest south.” Paradise Lost, xi. 399 seqq.

Milton, it may be noticed, misplaces the accent, reading Sófala.

1727.—“Between Dolagoa and Mosambique is a dangerous Sea-coast, it was formerly known by the names of Suffola and Cuama, but now by the Portuguese, who know that country best, is called Sena.”—A. Hamilton, i. 8 [ed. 1744].

SOLA, vulg. SOLAR, s. This is properly Hind. shola, corrupted by the Bengali inability to utter the shibboleth, to sola, and often again into solar by English people, led astray by the usual “striving after meaning.” Shola is the name of the plant Aeschynomene aspera, L. (N.O. Leguminosae), and is particularly applied to the light pith of that plant, from which the light thick Sola topees, or pith hats, are made. The material is also used to pad the roofs of palankins, as a protection against the sun’s power, and for various minor purposes, e.g. for slips of tinder, for making models, &c. The word, until its wide diffusion within the last 45 years, was peculiar to the Bengal Presidency. In the Deccan the thing is called bhend, Mahr. bhenda, and in Tamil. netti, [‘breaking with a crackle.’] Solar hats are now often advertised in London. [Hats made of elder pith were used in S. Europe in the early 16th century. In Albert Dürer’s Diary in the Netherlands (1520–21) we find: “Also Tomasin has given me a plaited hat of elder-pith” (Mrs. Heaton, Life of Albrecht Dürer, 269). Miss Eden, in 1839, speaks of Europeans wearing “broad white feather hats to keep off the sun” (Up the Country, ii. 56). Illustrations of the various shapes of Sola hats used in Bengal about 1854 will be found in Grant, Rural Life in Bengal, 105 seq.]

1836.—“I stopped at a fisherman’s, to look at the curiously-shaped floats he used for his very large and heavy fishing-nets; each float was formed of eight pieces of shola, tied together by the ends. … When this light and spongy pith is wetted, it can be cut into thin layers, which pasted together are formed into hats; Chinese paper appears to be made of the same material.”—Wanderings of a Pilgrim, ii. 100.

1872.—“In a moment the flint gave out a spark of fire, which fell into the solá; the sulphur match was applied; and an earthen lamp. …”—Govinda Samanta, i. 10.

1878.—“My solar topee (pith hat) was whisked away