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.]
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