Chapter ZERBAFT to ZOBO of Z by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

islands that lie in that Orient. And these two quarters the natives of the land distinguish as Dybananguim (di-bawa-angin) and Ataz Anguim (atas-angin) which are as much as to say ‘below the winds’ and ‘above the winds,’ below being West and above East.”—Barros, Dec. II. Liv. vi. cap. i. In this passage De Barros goes unusually astray, for the use of the Malay expressions which he quotes, bawa-angin (or di-bawah) ‘below the wind,’ and atas (or di-atas) angin, ‘above the wind,’ is just the reverse of his explanation, the former meaning the east, and the latter the west (see below).

c. 1590.—“Kalanbak (see CALAMBAK) is the wood of a tree brought from Zírbád (?)”—Ain, i. 81. A mistaken explanation is given in the foot-note from a native authority, but this is corrected by Prof. Blochmann at p. 616.

1726.—“The Malayers are also commonly called Orang di Bawah Angin, or ‘people beneath the wind,’ otherwise Easterlings, as those of the West, and particularly the Arabs, are called Orang Atas Angin, or ‘people above the wind,’ and known as Westerlings.”—Valentijn, v. 310.

„ “The land of the Peninsula, &c., was called by the geographers Zierbaad, meaning in Persian ‘beneath the wind.’ ”—Ibid. 317.

1856.—“There is a peculiar idiom of the Malay language, connected with the monsoons. … The Malays call all countries west of their own ‘countries above the wind,’ and their own and all countries east of it ‘countries below the wind.’ … The origin of the phrase admits of no explanation, unless it have reference to the most important of the two monsoons, the western, that which brought to the Malayan countries the traders of India.”—Crawfurd’s Desc. Dict. 288.

ZOBO, ZHOBO, DSOMO, &c., s. Names us ed in the semi-Tibetan tracts of the Himalaya for hybrids between the yak bull and the ordinary hill cow, much used in transport and agriculture. See quotation under ZEBU. The following are the connected Tibetan terms, according to Jaeschke’s Dict. (p. 463): “mdzo, a mongrel bred of Yak bull and common cow; bri-indzo, a mongrel bred of common bull and yak cow; mdzopo, a male; mdzo-mo, a female animal of the kind, both valued as domestic cattle.” [Writing of the Lower Himalaya, Mr. Atkinson says: “When the sire is a yak and the dam a hill cow, the hybrid is called jubu; when the parentage is reversed, the produce is called garjo. The jubu is found more valuable than the other hybrid or than either of the pure stocks” (Himalayan Gazetteer, ii. 38). Also see Ain, ed. Jarrett, ii. 350.]

1298.—“There are wild cattle in that country almost as big as elephants, splendid creatures, covered everywhere but in the back with shaggy hair a good four palms long. They are partly black, partly white, and really wonderfully fine creatures, and the hair or wool is extremely fine and white, finer and whiter than silk. Messer Marco brought some to Venice as a great curiosity, and so it was reckoned by those who saw it. There are also plenty of them tame, which have been caught young. They also cross these with the common cow, and the cattle from this cross are wonderful beasts, and better for work than other animals. These the people use commonly for burden and general work, and in the plough as well; and at the latter they will do twice as much work as any other cattle, being such very strong beasts.”—Marco Polo, Bk. i. ch. 57.

1854.—“The Zobo, or cross between the yak and the hill-cow (much resembling the English cow) is but rarely seen in these mountains (Sikkim), though common in the N.W. Himalaya.”—Hooker’s Him. Journals, 2d ed. i. 203.

[1871.—“The plough in Lahoul … is worked by a pair of dzos (hybrids between the cow and yak).”—Harcourt, Him. Dists of Kooloo, Lahoul, and Spiti, 180.

[1875.—“Ploughing is done chiefly with the hybrid of the yak bull and the common cow; this they call zo if male and zomo if female.”—Drew, Jummoo and Kashmir, 246.]