Sea Of Poppies Part 36

digh (*Roebuck): Neel was firmly of the opinion that this Laskari equivalent of the nautical sense of the word 'point', as in 'points of sailing' or 'headings in relation to the wind', came from the Bengali word for 'direction'.

dinghy: From time to time, Neel would inscribe a question mark against words which had been rewarded, in his view, beyond their just desserts. Neel's interrogation of dinghy was scored with an especially heavy hand, for of all the Bengali words for river-craft this one seemed to him the least likely to be raised to coolinhood, the dingi being the meanest of boats.

doasta: 'This is one spiritous liquor about which the good Admiral Smyth is right; he describes it as: "An inferior spirit often drugged or doctored for unwary sailors in the pestiferous dens of filthy Calcutta and other seaports in India".'

dol (*Roebuck): Several of Neel's Jack-Chits are devoted to the lascars' words for the architecture of a sailing vessel. 'Dol is what they call a mast, and for sail they use a borrowing from the English serh (though I have sometimes heard them employ the good Bengali word pal). To these are attached many other terms, of greater specificity: thus trikat (often misp.r.o.nounced "tirkat") is "fore-" when attached to either dol or serh; bara is "main-"; kilmi is "mizzen-", and sabar is t'gallant. A jury mast goes by the apt name phaltu-dol. As for the other sails: a sawai is a staysail; a gavi is a topsail; a tabar is a royal; a gabar is a sky-sc.r.a.per; a dastur is a stu'nsail; and a spanker is a drawal. By combining these elements they are able to point to the most insignificant sc.r.a.ps of canvas - in their speech, the fore-t'gallant-stu'nsail is the trikatsabar-dastur, and they have no need even to attach the word serh for their intention to be perfectly understood. The most curious words are reserved, however, for the tangle of tackle that projects agil from the vessel's head: the jib, for example, is a jib, which malums imagine merely to be a Laskari misp.r.o.nunciation of the English word, little knowing that it means "tongue" in Hind.; their word for fly ing jib, fulanajib, might be similarly mistaken by those who did not know that it might also mean "anything's tongue"; but most curious of all is the word for the very tip of this spar, which is called the shaitan-jib. Could it be because to work there is indeed to feel the terror of sitting upon the Devil's tongue?'

doll/dal: Neel would have been glad, I think, to learn that the Oracular form for this commonest of Indian foods is dal, rather than either doll (not to be confused with pootly) or the mysterious dhal, which is of course the Hind./Bengali word for 'shield'. In one of his jottings he speculates that it is often thus spelled in English because it refers to a popular battlefield dish, 'lentils cooked in a shield.'

doolally/doolally-tap: 'An illness once greatly prevalent among sahibs and mems, being the English equivalent of the Malay "amok". It derived its name from Deolali, where there was a well-known asylum. I believe it to have been one of the side-effects of laudanum, which would account for its present desuetude.'

dosooti/dosootie (*The Glossary): Literally 'two yarn', coa.r.s.e cotton cloth; 'I was astonished to learn from Mr Reid that in America Dosootie is considered the highest quality of shirt fabric.'

druggerman (*The Glossary): 'Like moonshies, dubashes and linkisters, a mystery of language - an interpreter whose t.i.tle derives from the Arabic-Persian tarjuman.'

dubba/dubber: This word owes its presence in the Chrestomathy to lascars, who made the Hind. word for 'box' or 'container' a common article of nautical usage.

dubbah/dubber (*The Admiral): Neel took exception to the Admiral's definition of this term: 'a coa.r.s.e leathern vessel for holding liquids in India.' 'Almost never in Hind. is this common term for container applied to a receptacle that holds liquids. Such a usage is clearly exceptional, even among those who occasionally apply it to certain objects that are necessary for the proper conduct of stool-pijjin.' See also dawk.

duffadar/dafadar: One of those many ranks of lower officialdom that found an afterlife in the Oracle. 'The magnitude of the part these men once played in our lives can be easily judged by looking at any kalkatiya migrant's certificate of emigration, on the back of which is almost always noted the name of the duffadar who was responsible for the recruitment (and usually in the scribbled Bengali script of some harried cranny).'

dumbcow/dumcao (*The Glossary): 'The popularity of this word and its steady advance towards the Peerage of the Verb is due no doubt to its bilingual expressiveness, a dumbcowing being a harangue intended to cow - or better still gubbrow - its victim into dumbness.'

dumbpoke: Kitchens which served 'ca.s.seroles' never failed to ignite Neel's ire, for he believed that word to be an insufferable piece of pretension, especially when the dumbpoke was at hand and ready to use. The recent resurrection of the Hind. original dumpukht would in no wise have consoled him, since it is now used in a strictly Hind. sense.

dungaree/dungri: 'What dinghy was to boats, the Hind. dungri was to cloth - a coa.r.s.e cotton fabric unworthy of survival, far less coolin-dom.'

dupatta dooputty: See chuddar chadar.

durwauza-bund (*The Glossary): 'These were the words which khidmutgars would use to turn away unwanted visitors: in a BeeBee's mind the use of the Hind. for "closed door" was more acceptable than an outright lie. The Oracle is sure to welcome it, for the sheer cunning of its reasoning.'

durzee: 'The mystery of tailoring.'

f.a.ghfur of Maha Chin (*The Glossary): 'Such was the Laskari phrase for the "Emperor of China", and if you asked to whom it referred, they would tell you, almost always, that the personage in question was the Raja of Chin-kalan, which was but their name for Canton.'

faltu-or phaltu-dol (*Roebuck): 'This is, strictly speaking, the Laskari term for "jury-mast", and it is in that sense that it often finds employment in shipboard girlery, being understood to refer to a foreshortened, unreliable or deficient organ of increase.'

faltu/phaltu-tanni (*Roebuck): See turnee.

fanqui: 'The anglice of fan-kwei, which the The Linkister defines as "foreign devil". The term may easily, and less offensively, be translated as "unfamiliar spirit".'

foozle/foozilow: 'Almost certainly from the Hind. phuslana, "to make a fool of ", which is said to have been further transformed in America to foozle and even comfoozle.'

free: Neel was much in love with this word and would have been glad to know that the Oracle had fully acknowledged it to be a derivation from the common Sanskrit and Hind. root priya ('dear' or 'beloved'). 'As for the truth of "freedom" it will remain for -ever elusive until such time as it is wrested free of English; not till then will the fuller meaning of priya be restored to it.'

fulanajib (Roebuck): Flying-jib. See dol .

fuleeta-pup (*The Glossary): 'A consummer's mishearing of "fritter-puff " that found its way into the lexicon against all odds.'

gabar (*Roebuck): Skysc.r.a.per or sky-sail. See dol.

gadda gudda gadha / gudder (*The Glossary): 'Why is it that when the sahib borrows a Hind. zoological term, it is only for the purposes of abuse? It is, of course, impossible to deny that gadha is often used in Hind. to mean "fool", but it is true also that the a.s.s is the familiar of the Lord of Mysteries, Vishwakarma. Ooloo/ullu, similarly, may well sometimes be used to mean "fool", but who can forget that the owl is also the familiar of the G.o.ddess Lakshmi? As for bandar, it has none of the abusive implications of its English usage, being employed rather as a term of affection or endearment, in the sense of "mischievous".'

galee girley gali (*The Glossary): 'Oaths, obscenities; from which girlery, the equivalent of the Bengali gali-gola - pertaining to abuse'.

ganta/ghanta: 'Bell, from which Hind. "hour". But to "ring your ganta" is considered girlery.'

gavi (*Roebuck): Topsail. See dol .

ghungta: See dooputty/dupatta.

girlery: See galee .

girmitiya: 'The genius of the Bhojpuri language,' writes Neel, 'derives this memorable term from the root girmit, which is a corruption of Eng. "agreement" [or indenture]'.

G.o.down: See backshall .

gol-c.u.mra (*The Glossary): See c.u.mra.

gomusta/gomushta: 'For this mystery of the daftar there can be no simple definition, for he is to be seen discharging as many functions as can be said to exist in such a place: he writes accounts, he dumbcows, he gubbrows, he serves as a druggerman when needed. All that can be said of him with any certainty is that the t.i.tle could not come to him until he had gained the Burra Sahib's ear.'

goolmaul/gollmaul (*The Glossary): Neel took issue with Sir Henry's defi -nition of this word as 'mix-up': 'It is patently evident that this word was once merely Hind. slang for "zero" (literally "circular thing"). In this sense it referred originally to a conundrum or puzzle. It was only by extension that it came to mean "mix-up", but of late it has been so overburdened by this connotation that it is now generally used to signify an uproar, or a great fuss.'

goozle-c.o.o.nuh/goozul-khana (*The Glossary): See bobachee.

gordower (*The Glossary): 'A type of Bengal boat as ugly as its name.'

grag (*Roebuck): Grog, from which the term by which taverns were affectionately known: grag-ghars.

griblee (*Roebuck): Graplin, der. Eng.

griffin/griff: See pucka.

gubber (*The Glossary): 'That this bandooki coin bore a resemblance to the Hind. for "cow-dung" gave it many added uses in the dufter, for the cranny could not be dumbcowed for saying to a Burra Sahib: "Sir, may your pockets be weighed down with gubbers."'