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196
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(JULY, 1918
NOTES AND QUERIES.
SPREAD OF HOBSON-JOBSON IN
corporal talking about the domes and marionettes
of Baghdad.'" MESOPOTAMIA
B-Corruptions of European words. The war has naturally brought about a new 1. Shamin dafar. Fr. chemin de fer : & railway. crop of Hobson-Jobsons and corruptions of
"An Arab asked me the other day where the new English and European languages which are begin.
shemin duffer was going to be.'" ning to be reported and are worth collecting from
2. Sataronbil, terumbil. An automobile, motor the commencement for the sake of future studente
car. "The men of the desert call our motors of philology.
*stronbille' or 'terumbills,' a truly onomatopæic Mr. Edmund Candler, the representative of the
word." British Press in Mesopotamia, is responsible for
3. Antika. Any "antique." "The urohin who those contained in the following extracts taken
holds out a faked curio at Babylon asks you to rom a letter published in the (London) Observer on
buy an antion." (This is an old expression in the the 12th May 1918.
Near East through the Italian antica. The Editor A.-Hobson-Jobsons.
heard it used continually in the bazaar in Cairo
50 years ago. The expression used in enquiries 1. Imshi. Imperative of Ar, verb mashi, to go:go,
then was usually, andak haja antica ? Is there get out. To vanish, a vanisher (one who vanishes).
any antique with you? Have you any arcient "There was a small port on the Euphrates whero
yems ?). the villagers were called 'imshis' by the British rank
4. Kuntracht. A contractor. Fr. contrat and and file. The word, with its Djinn-like [Ar. jinn,
Turki chi, an agent, & handler. "The contractor veneric term for supernatural beings of darkness)
is the contrachi (contrat and chi, the Turkish suggestion of disappearance, is very apt."
termination that implies agent)." (Ct. mash alchi, 2. Makoo. Contracted form of Ar. mi yakan, it the lamp man,' the male kitchen-maid,' or is becoming nothing. There is none, not to betweenie' of the Anglo-Indiaa household : lit. had, cut of stock. "I only know of one instance the man who handles the lamps (properly torches, in which 'makool has been applied to an individual, mash al).- ED.). and that is Makoo Effendi of Mr. Never has), a
5. Damful. To deceive. "At Aden I hear the picturesque dignified old gentleman, a sort of
Arabs have coined a verb from an English expletive, general factotum, contractor and agent, whom we
damful,' which is conjugated in all its moods and have inherited from the Turk. He stands with the
tenses. I damfuled you' (damfaltuk], you palms of his hands turned up and resting on his
damfulei me' [damfattani], with the Arab hips, his eyes fixed on the far horizon empty of
inflection hope, the personification of 'makoo. If you talk about work,' said a subaltern to me, he falls 6. Finish. To finish, end, be done for. “It has all of a tremble and spins out 'makoos' by the spread from Basrah to Samarrah and to the remotyard.'"
est villages of the desert. A familiar greeting 3. bill-bellum. Ar. B'il-balam, in the river boat.
from the Arabs as we went up the Tigris was Turk Any kind of river boat." In Basrah you have
finish,' and it was always accompanied with an soldiers oalling out for a "bill-bellum.'
eloquent gesture of finality.” 4. Marionette. Ar. mandral, a turret : the mina
R. C. TEMPLE. rets of a mosque. The other day I heard a
