Indian Antiquary Vol 60

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 53

FABBUABY, 1931 ]
MISCELLANEA
39
chhattila. The convict must be addressed in the same hawlcor who sells articles of female attire and manner, or he will most probably misspprebend familiar wante, and pattudld exists for those familiar what is said. There is an analogy to this custom with the language for the belt-wearer, .c., the in French Switzerland, where it is common to hear messenger or peon. septante for seventy, and nonnante for ninety.
Total.-In common uge among the convicta, The following words have boon board even in the who are being constantly counted for all sorts mouths of Burmans unable to make themselves of rowong. Petty Officers are told off to count understood in Urdu
them in batches, and as each finishes his batch Bijan.---This means now a barrack for convicte
he brings up his "total." Total kamnd, to compare as distinguished from a barrack for troops or police, the totals. though various corruptions of "barrack" are Dipdtmant for Department: means the Forest also used for that purpose. It is really English in Department, that being the first separate depart. origin, and represents the word " division," the cor- ment created at Port Blair, ruption having taken place on vulgar Urdu lines. Dipdtmant Sahib.--Forest Officer. DipátmantThus "di" has dropped out, v has becomo b and wdid, a convict told off to work in the Forest Depart. the zh sound of ss has become ,, quite according ) ment. to custom. Originally the convicts were divided
Sher Sahib. --Sher shortened from "Overseer" into " divisions," each of which' slept in a barrack. for its likeness to the common Indian word sher, Honoe the present application of the term.
& tiger. An European overseer of convicts. Tdpů.-This means & convict "station." It is Signal.For signal = a gemagram. There was in really good Urdu for an “island." Originally all 1901 an elaborate system of semagraph signala the convict stations were situated on small islands at Port Blair worked by the Military Police. in Port Blair Harbour. Hence its present application
Tikat, tikatliv.-A ticket-of-leave, also its holder. to any convict station, inland or on an island. Tikatwdia, a man with a ticket-of-leave, a self.
Sikshan.--This means now either the "sick list," supporter. Tikat is also used for the wooden or the Female Jail. It is the English word "nook.ticket" worn by labouring convicte. "section." Originally the major division of the
Parmdah.Promotion. This is in common 1180 convicts was into sections, of which No. XVII was amongst the Military Police, and also amongst the the convalescent gang, tho sick and unable to do convicte, who are constantly being transferred from any or full work. The women were of course all in class to claes on "promotion." the Female Section. Hence the present double Kilde, class. The convicts are arranged in application of the word, kept in existence no doubt in the first case owing to the likeness of "sikahan" Sileman, Sikaman.-Sick man, used for a convict to the familiar "sik-man" of the Native Army when in hospital : hence for any human being on Hospitals. Saturd Bijan, i.e., XVIIth Division, is the "sicke-list": hence, again, for any Government also in common use for "convalescent gang."
animal on the "sick-list," 6.9., an elephant, pony, Waipar. The first jail constructed in the Settlebullock. ment was on Viper Island, so named after Blair's RSI, rail, originally a railing, now any kind of xhip. It is now dwarfed by the great Cellular Jail hedge or fence. on Atalanta Point, 80 named after a man-of-war Rashan, ration.-The labouring convicts are all of Blair's day, which is tho Jail par excellence, rationed. Rashan-mit, ration mate; 1.e., the convict much to be avoided in the eyes of the convicte, told off to help the cooks to keep and distribute the the other is simply waipur. Another mighty jail rations. was in 1901 being constructed at Minnie Bay Dadh-lain, lit., the Milk-lines, i.e., a place where (named after another by-gone gunboat), and it would milch-cattle have once been kept. Two or more have been interesting to see what popular term places are so named. would be applied to it, had it ever been completed. Lambd-lain (the Long Line), a well known long By the way, Goplakabang is already Gobang in straggling village in the Northern District. common parlance and script, and the name is likely Namanaghar, lit. Pattern house. The name of a to have “no derivation" in days to come.
village, a convict station and some quarries, because Dhobi.-A washerman, and talash, search, are pure a sample (namuna) house (ghar) for convicte, scoordUrdu, but they are two of the first words pioked by ing to which men on tioket-of-leave must build their Burmans and non-Indians, and it is curious to hear hute, was here set up by the Government. thom in the midst of an otherwise purely Burmese Nimal-bhatta, salt-pang.-More than one place sentonce.
is so called because of a former salt factory on the PAK Afear, for petty officer," is unquestionably spot from sea wator. referred by Native speakers to the perf, belt, they "Portland Cement" becomes simin, rimint, and all wear, and not to the English word. I have heard nirmit. them spoken of simply as pothod, the men who "Mons, meas-house" become Messcott in petitions, wear belts, though in ordinary Anglo-Indian slang being mixture of Eng. "mon" and Hind. powdld, tranglated into "boxwallah," is the bot, house.