Chapter LXXV: Preface: TO SECOND EDITION xi (72)

In consequence of these instructions it was ordered in 1773 that "all duties coming under the description of SAYER _Chelluntah_ (H. _chalantā_, 'in transit'), and _Rah-darry_ (RADAREE) ... and other oppressive impositions on the foreign as well as the internal trade of the country" should be abolished; and, to prevent all pretext of injustice, proportional deductions of rent were conceded to the zemindars in the annual collections. Nevertheless the exactions went on much as before, in defiance of this and repeated orders. And in 1786 the Board of Revenue issued a proclamation declaring that any person levying such duties should be subject to corporal punishment, and that the zemindar in whose zemindarry such an offence might be committed, should forfeit his lands.

Still the evil practices went on till 1790, when Lord Cornwallis took up the matter with intelligence and determination. In the preceding year he had abolished all RADAREE duties in Behar and Benares, but the abuses in Bengal Proper seem to have been more swarming and persistent. On June 11, 1790, orders were issued resuming the collection of all duties indicated into the hands of Government; but this was followed after a few weeks (July 28) by an order abolishing them altogether, with some exceptions, which will be presently alluded to. This double step is explained by the Governor-General in a Minute dated July 18: "When I first proposed the resumption of the SAYER from the Landholders, it appeared to me advisable to continue the former collection (the unauthorised articles excepted) for the current year, in order that by the necessary accounts [we might have the means] for making a fair adjustment of the compensation, and at the same time acquire sufficient knowledge of the collections to enable us to enter upon the regulation of them from the commencement of the ensuing year.... The collections appear to be so numerous, and of so intricate a nature, as to preclude the possibility of regulating them all; and as the establishment of new rates for such articles as it might be thought advisable to continue would require much consideration, ... I recommend that, instead of continuing the collection ... for the current year ... all the existing articles of SAYER collection (with the exception of the Abkarry (ABCARREE) ...) be immediately abolished; and that the Collectors be directed to withdraw their officers from the GUNGES, BAZARS and HAUTS," compensation being duly made. The Board of Revenue could then consider on what few articles of luxury in general consumption it might be proper to reimpose a tax.

The Order of July 28 abolished "all duties, taxes, and collections coming under the denomination of SAYER (with the exception of the Government and Calcutta Customs, the duties levied on pilgrims at Gya, and other places of pilgrimage,—the _Abkarry_ ... which is to be collected on account of the Government ... the collections made in the GUNGES, BAZARS and HAUTS situated within the limits of Calcutta, and such collections as are confirmed to the land-holders and the holders of GUNGES &c. by the published Resolutions of June 11, 1790, namely, rent paid for the use of land (and the like) ... or for orchards, pasture-ground, or fisheries sometimes included in the sayer under the denomination of _phulkur_ (Hind. _phalkar_, from _phal_, 'fruit'), _bunkur_ (from Hind. _ban_, 'forest or pasture-ground'), and _julkur_ (Hind. _jalkar_, from _jal_, 'water')...." These Resolutions are printed with Regn. XXVII. of 1793.

By an order of the Board of Revenue of April 28, 1790, correspondence regarding SAYER was separated from 'Land Revenue'; and on the 16th _idem_ the Abkarry was separately regulated.

The amount in the Accounts credited as Land Revenue in Bengal seems to have included both _Sayer_ and _Abkarry_ down to the Accts. presented to Parliament in 1796. In the "Abstract Statement of Receipts and Disbursements of the Bengal Government" for 1793-94, the "Collections under head of SYER and Abkarry" amount to Rs. 10,98,256. In the Accounts, printed in 1799, for 1794-5 to 1796-7, the "Land and SAYER Revenues" are given, but Abkārī is not mentioned. Among the Receipts and Disbursements for 1800-1 appears "SYER Collections, including Abkaree, 7,81,925."

These forms appear to have remained in force down to 1833. In the accounts presented in 1834, from 1828-9, to 1831-2, with Estimate for 1832-3, Land Revenue is given separately, and next to it SYER and Abkaree Revenue. Except that the spelling was altered back to _Sayer_ and _Abkarry_, this remained till 1856. In 1857 the accounts for 1854-5 showed in separate lines,—

Land Revenue,
Excise Duties, in Calcutta,
SAYER Revenue,
Abkarry ditto.

In the accounts for 1861-2 it became—

Land Revenue,
SAYER and Miscellaneous,
Abkaree,

and in those for 1863-4 SAYER vanished altogether.

The term Sayer has been in use in Madras and Bombay as well as in Bengal. From the former we give an example under 1802; from the latter we have not met with a suitable quotation.

The following entries in the Bengal accounts for 1858-59 will exemplify the application of SAYER in the more recent times of its maintenance:—

_Under Bengal, Behar and Orissa_:

Sale of Trees and Sunken Boats Rs. 555 0 0

_Under Pegu and Martaban Provinces_:

Fisheries Rs. 1,22,874 0 2
Tax on BIRDS' NESTS (q.v.) 7,449 0 0
" on Salt 43,061 3 10
Fees for fruits and gardens 7,287 9 1
Tax on Bees' wax 1,179 8 0
Do. Collections 8,050 0 0
Sale of Government Timbers, &c. 4,19,141 12 8
----------------
6,09,043 1 9

_Under the same_:

Sale proceeds of unclaimed and
confiscated Timbers, Rs. 146 11 10
Net Salvage on Drift Timbers 2,247 10 0
-------------
2,394 5 10

c. 1580.—"SĀĪR _az Gangāpat o aṭrāf-i-Hindowi waghaira_ ..." _i.e._
"SAYER from the Ganges ... and the Hindu districts, &c.... 170,800
_dams_."—_Āīn-i-Akbarī_, orig. i. 395, in detailed Revenues of _Sirkar
Jannatābād_ or _Gaur_; [ed. _Jarrett_, ii. 131].

1751.—"I have heard that Ramkissen Seat who lives in Calcutta has carried
goods to that place without paying the Muxidavad SYRE chowkey (CHOKY)
duties."—_Letter from Nawāb to Prest. Ft. William_, in _Long_, 25.

1788.—"SAIRJAT.—All kinds of taxation besides the land-rent. SAIRS.—Any
place or office appointed for the collection of duties or customs."—_The
Indian Vocabulary_, 112.

1790.—"Without entering into a discussion of privileges founded on
Custom, and of which it is easier to ascertain the abuse than the origin,
I shall briefly remark on the Collections of SAYER, that while they
remain in the hands of the Zemindars, every effort to free the internal
Commerce from the baneful effects of their vexatious impositions must
necessarily prove abortive."—_Minute by the Hon. C. Stuart_, dd. Feb. 10,
quoted by Lord Cornwallis in his Minute of July 18.

" "The Board last day very humanely and politically recommended
unanimously the abolition of the SAYR.

"The statement of Mr. Mercer from Burdwan makes all the SAYR (consisting
of a strange medley of articles taxable, not omitting even
Hermaphrodites) amount only to 58,000 Rupees...."—_Minute by Mr. Law of
the Bd. of Revenue_, forwarded by the Board, July 12.

1792.—"The JUMMA on which a settlement for 10 years has been made is
about (current Rupees) 3,01,00,000 ... which is 9,35,691 Rupees less than
the Average Collections of the three preceding Years. On this Jumma, the
Estimate for 1791-2 is formed, and the SAYER Duties, and some other extra
Collections, formerly included in the Land Revenue, being abolished,
accounts for the Difference...."—_Heads of Mr. Dundas's Speech on the
Finances of the E.I. Company_, June 5, 1792.

1793.—"A Regulation for re-enacting with alterations and modifications,
the Rules passed by the Governor General in Council on 11th June and 28th
July, 1790, and subsequent dates, for the resumption and abolition of
SAYER, or internal Duties and Taxes throughout Bengal, Bahar, and
Orissa," &c. "Passed by the Governor General in Council on the 1st May,
1793...."—_Title of Regulation_, XXVII. of 1793.

1802.—"The Government having reserved to itself the entire exercise of
its discretion in continuing or abolishing, temporarily or permanently,
the articles of revenue included according to the custom and practice of
the country, under the several heads of salt and saltpetre—of the SAYER
or duties by sea or land—of the ABKARRY ...—of the excise ...—of all
takes personal and professional, as well as those derived from markets,
fairs and bazaars—of _lakhiraj_ (see LACKERAGE) lands.... The permanent
land-tax shall be made exclusively of the said articles now
recited."—_Madras Regulation_, XXV. § iv.

1817.—"Besides the land-revenue, some other duties were levied in India,
which were generally included under the denomination of SAYER."—_Mill, H.
of Br. India_, v. 417.

1863.—"The next head was 'SAYER,' an obsolete Arabic word, which has the
same meaning as 'miscellaneous.' It has latterly been composed of a
variety of items connected with the Land Revenue, of which the Revenue
derived from Forests has been the most important. The progress of
improvement has given a value to the Forests which they never had before,
and it has been determined ... to constitute the Revenue derived from
them a separate head of the Public Accounts. The other Miscellaneous
Items of Land Revenue which appeared under 'SAYER,' have therefore been
added to Land Revenue, and what remains has been denominated 'Forest
Revenue.'"—_Sir C. Trevelyan, Financial Statement_, dd. April 30.

SCARLET. See SUCLAT.

SCAVENGER, s. We have been rather startled to find among the MS. records of the India Office, in certain "_Lists of Persons in the Service of the Right. Honble._ the East India Company, in Fort St. George, _and the other Places on the Coast of_ Choromandell," beginning with Feby. 170½, and in the entries for that year, the following:

"_Fort St. David._

"5. _Trevor Gaines_, Land CUSTOMER and SCAVENGER of Cuddalore, 5th
Counc^l....

"6. _Edward Bawgus_, Translator of Country Letters, _Sen. Mercht._

"7. _John Butt_, SCAVENGER and Cornmeeter, Tevenapatam, _Mercht._"

Under 1714 we find again, at Fort St. George:

"_Joseph Smart_, Rentall General and SCAVENGER, 8th of Council,"

and so on, in the entries of most years down to 1761, when we have, for the last time:

"_Samuel Ardley, 7th of Council_, Masulipatam, Land-Customer, Military
Storekeeper, Rentall General, and SCAVENGER."

Some light is thrown upon this surprising occurrence of such a term by a reference to _Cowel's Law Dictionary, or The Interpreter_ (published originally in 1607) new ed. of 1727, where we read:

"SCAVAGE, Scavagium. It is otherwise called _Schevage_, _Shewage_, and
_Scheauwing_; maybe deduced from the Saxon _Seawian_ (Sceawian?)
_Ostendere_, and is a kind of Toll or Custom exacted by Mayors, Sheriffs,
&c., of Merchant-strangers, for Wares _shewed_ or offered to Sale within
their Precincts, which is prohibited by the Statute 19 H. 7, 8. In a
Charter of _Henry_ the Second to the City of _Canterbury_ it is written
_Scewinga_, and (in Mon. Ang. 2, per fol. 890 b.) _Sceawing_; and
elsewhere I find it in Latin _Tributum Ostensorium_. The City of London
still retains the Custom, of which in _An old printed Book of the Customs
of London_, we read thus, _Of which Custom halfen del appertaineth to the
Sheriffs, and the other halfen del to the Hostys in whose Houses the
Merchants been lodged; And it is to wet that_ Scavage _is the Shew by
cause that Merchanties_ (sic) _shewn unto the Sheriffs Merchandizes, of
the which Customs ought to be taken ere that ony thing thereof be sold,
&c._

"SCAVENGER, From the Belgick _Scavan_, to scrape. Two of every Parish
within London and the suburbs are yearly chosen into this Office, who
hire men called Rakers, and carts, to cleanse the streets, and carry away
the Dirt and Filth thereof, mentioned in 14 Car. 2, cap. 2. The Germans
call him a _Drecksimon_, from one _Simon_, a noted Scavenger of Marpurg.

* * * * *

"SCHAVALDUS, The officer who collected the Scavage-Money, which was
sometimes done with Extortion and great Oppression." (Then quotes Hist.
of Durham from Wharton, _Anglia Sacra_, Pt. i. p. 75; "Anno 1311.
Schavaldos insurgentes in Episcopatu (Richardus episcopus) fortiter
composuit. Aliqui suspendebantur, aliqui extra Episcopatum fugabantur.")

In _Spelman_ also (_Glossarium Archaiologicum_, 1688) we find:—

"_Scavagium._] Tributum quod a mercatoribus exigere solent nundinarum
domini, ob licentiam proponendi ibidem venditioni mercimonia, a Saxon
(sceawian) id est, Ostendere, inspicere, Angl. SCHEWAGE and SHEWAGE."
Spelman has no _Scavenger_ or _Scavager_.

The _scavage_ then was a tax upon goods for sale which were liable to duty, the word being, as Skeat points out, a Law French (or Low Latin?) formation from _shew_. ["From O.F. _escauw-er_, to examine, inspect. O. Sax. _skawon_, to behold; cognate with A.S. _sceawian_, to look at." (_Concise Dict._ s.v.)] And the SCAVAGER or SCAVENGER was originally the officer charged with the inspection of the goods and collection of this tax. Passages quoted below from the _Liber Albus_ of the City of London refer to these officers, and Mr. Riley in his translation of that work (1861, p. 34) notes that they were "Officers whose duty it was originally to take custom upon the _Scavage_, _i.e._ inspection of the opening out, of imported goods. At a later date, part of their duty was to see that the streets were kept clean; and hence the modern word 'SCAVENGER,' whose office corresponds with the _rakyer_ (raker) of former times." [The meaning and derivation of this word have been discussed in _Notes & Queries_, 2 ser. ix. 325; 5 ser. v. 49, 452.]

We can hardly doubt then that the office of the Coromandel SCAVENGER of the 18th century, united as we find it with that of "Rentall General," or of "Land-CUSTOMER," and held by a senior member of the Company's Covenanted Service, must be understood in the older sense of Visitor or Inspector of Goods subject to duties, but (till we can find more light) we should suppose rather duties of the nature of bazar tax, such as at a later date we find classed as SAYER (q.v.), than customs on imports from seaward.

It still remains an obscure matter how the charge of the scavagers or scavengers came to be transferred to the oversight of streets and street-cleaning. That this must have become a predominant part of their duty at an early period is shown by the Scavager's Oath which we quote below from the _Liber Albus_. In _Skinner's Etymologicon_, 1671, the definition is _Collector sordium abrasarum_ (erroneously connecting the word with _shaving_ and scraping), whilst he adds: "_Nostri_ SCAVENGERS vilissimo omnium ministerio sordes et purgamenta urbis auferendi funguntur." In _Cotgrave's English-French Dict._, ed. by Howel, 1673, we have: "SCAVINGER. Boueur. Gadouard"—agreeing precisely with our modern use. Neither of these shows any knowledge of the less sordid office attaching to the name. The same remark applies to Lye's _Junius_, 1743. It is therefore remarkable to find such a _survival_ of the latter sense in the service of the Company, and coming down so late as 1761. It must have begun with the very earliest of the Company's establishments in India, for it is probable that the denomination was even then only a survival in England, due to the Company's intimate connection with the city of London. Indeed we learn from Mr. Norton, quoted below, that the term _scavage_ was still alive within the City in 1829.

1268.—"Walterus Hervy et Willelmus de Dunolmo, Ballivi, ut Custodes ...
de Lxxv._l._ vj._s._ & x_d._ de consuetudinibus omnemodarum mercandisarum
venientium de partibus transmarinis ad Civitatem praedictam, de quibus
consuetudo debetur quae vocatur SCAVAGIUM...."—_Mag. Rot._ 59. Hen. III.,
extracted in _T. Madox, H. and Ant. of the Exchequer_, 1779, i. 779.

Prior to 1419.—"Et debent ad dictum Wardemotum per Aldermannum et probos
Wardae, necnon per juratores, eligi Constabularii, SCAVEGEOURS,
Aleconners, Bedelle, et alii Officiarii."—_Liber Albus_, p. 38.

" "SEREMENT DE SCAWAGEOURS. Vous jurrez qe vous surverrez
diligientiement qe lez pavimentz danz vostre Garde soient bien et
droiturelement reparaillez et nyent enhaussez a nosance dez veysyns; et
qe lez chemyns, ruwes, et venelles soient nettez dez fiens et de toutz
maners dez ordures, pur honestee de la citee; et qe toutz les chymyneys,
fournes, terrailles soient de piere, et suffisantement defensables
encontre peril de few; et si vous trovez rien a contraire vous monstrez
al Alderman, issint qe l'Alderman ordeigne pur amendement de celle. Et
ces ne lerrez—si Dieu vous eyde et lez Saintz."—_Ibid._ p. 313.

1594.—Letter from the Lords of the Council to the Lord Mayor and
Aldermen, requesting them to admit John de Cardenas to the office of
Collector of SCAVAGE, the reversion of which had ... been granted to
him.—_Index_ to the _Remembrancia_ of the C. of London (1878), p. 284.

1607.—Letter from the Lord Mayor to the Lord Treasurer ... enclosing a
Petition from the Ward of Aldersgate, complaining that William Court, an
inhabitant of that Ward for 8 or 10 years past, refused to undergo the
office of SCAVENGER in the Parish, claiming exemption ... being
privileged as Clerk to Sir William Spencer, Knight, one of the Auditors
of the Court of Exchequer, and praying that Mr. Court, although
privileged, should be directed to find a substitute or deputy and pay
him.—_Ibid._ 288.

1623.—Letter ... reciting that the City by ancient Charters held ... "the
office of Package and SCAVAGE of Strangers' goods, and merchandise
carried by them by land or water, out of the City and Liberties to
foreign parts, whereby the Customs and Duties due to H.M. had been more
duly paid, and a stricter oversight taken of such commodities so
exported."—_Remembrancia_, p. 321.

1632.—Order in Council, reciting that a Petition had been presented to
the Board from divers Merchants born in London, the sons of Strangers,
complaining that the "Packer of London required of them as much fees for
Package, Balliage, SHEWAGE, &c., as of Strangers not
English-born...."—_Ibid._ 322.

1760.—"Mr. Handle, applying to the Board to have his allowance of
SCAVENGER increased, and representing to us the great fatigue he
undergoes, and loss of time, which the Board being very sensible of.
Agreed we allow him Rs. 20 per month more than before on account of his
diligence and assiduity in that post."—_Ft. William Consn._, in _Long_,
245. It does not appear from this what the duties of the scavenger in Mr.
Handle's case were.

1829.—"The oversight of customable goods. This office, termed in Latin
_supervisus_, is translated in another charter by the words search and
surveying, and in the 2nd Charter of Charles I. it is termed the SCAVAGE,
which appears to have been its most ancient and common name, and that
which is retained to the present day.... The real nature of this duty is
not a toll for _showing_, but a toll paid for the _oversight of showing_;
and under that name (_supervisus apertionis_) it was claimed in an action
of debt in the reign of Charles II.... The duty performed was seeing and
knowing the merchandize on which the King's import customs were paid, in
order that no concealment, or fraudulent practices ... should deprive the
King of his just dues ... (The duty) was well known under the name of
SCAVAGE, in the time of Henry III., and it seems at that time to have
been a franchise of the commonalty."—_G. Norton, Commentaries on the
Hist., &c., of the City of London_, 3rd ed. (1869), pp. 380-381.

Besides the books quoted, see _H. Wedgewood's Etym. Dict._ and _Skeat's_
do., which have furnished useful light, and some references.

SCRIVAN, s. An old word for a clerk or writer, from Port. _escrivão_.

[1616.—"He desired that some English might early on the Morow come to his
howse, wher should meete a SCRIUANO and finish that busines."—_Sir T.
Roe_, Hak. Soc. i. 173. On the same page "The SCRIUANE of
Zulpheckcarcon."]

1673.—"In some Places they write on Cocoe-Leafes dried, and then use an
Iron Style, or else on Paper, when they use a Pen made with a Reed, for
which they have a Brass Case, which holds them and the Ink too, always
stuck at the Girdles of their SCRIVANS."—_Fryer_, 191.

1683.—"Mr. Watson in the Taffaty warehouse without any provocation called
me Pittyful Prodigall SCRIVAN, and told me my Hatt stood too high upon my
head...."—Letter of _S. Langley_, in _Hedges' Diary_, Sept. 5; [Hak. Soc.
i. 108].

SCYMITAR, s. This is an English word for an Asiatic sabre. The common Indian word is _talwār_ (see TULWAUR). We get it through the French _cimiterre_, Ital. _scimeterra_, and according to Marcel Devic originally from Pers. _shamshīr_ (_chimchīr_ as he writes it). This would be still very obscure unless we consider the constant clerical confusion in the Middle Ages between _c_ and _t_, which has led to several metamorphoses of words; of which a notable example is Fr. _carquois_ from Pers. _tīrkash_. _Scimecirra_ representing _shimshīr_ might easily thus become _scimetirra_. But we cannot _prove_ this to have been the real origin. This word (_shamshīr_) was known to Greek writers. Thus:

A.D. 93.—"... Καὶ καθίστησι τὸν πρεσβύτατον παῖδα Μορόβαζον βασιλέα
περιθεῖσα τὸ διάδημα καὶ δοῦσα τὸν σημαντῆρα τοὺ πατρὸς δακτύλιον, τήντε
σαμψηρὰν ὀνομαζομένην παρ' αὐτοῖς."—_Joseph. Antiqq._ xx. ii. 3.

c. A.D. 114.—"Δῶρα φέρει Τραιανῷ ὑφάσματα σηρικὰ καὶ σαμψήρας αἱ δέ εἰσι
σπάθαι βαρβαρικαί."—Quoted in _Suidas Lexicon_, s.v.

1595.—

"... By this SCIMITAR,
That slew the Sophy, and a Persian prince
That won three fields of Sultan Soliman ..."[238]
_Merchant of Venice_, ii. 1.

1610.—"... Anon the Patron starting up, as if of a sodaine restored to
life; like a mad man skips into the boate, and drawing a Turkise CYMITER,
beginneth to lay about him (thinking that his vessell had been surprised
by Pirats), when they all leapt into the sea; and diuing vnder water like
so many Diue-dappers, ascended without the reach of his furie."—_Sandys,
Relation_, &c., 1615, p. 28.

1614.—"Some days ago I visited the house of a goldsmith to see a SCIMITAR
(_scimitarra_) that Nasuhbashá the first vizir, whom I have mentioned
above, had ordered as a present to the Grand Signor. Scabbard and hilt
were all of gold; and all covered with diamonds, so that little or
nothing of the gold was to be seen."—_P. della Valle_, i. 43.

c. 1630.—"They seldome go without their swords (SHAMSHEERS they call
them) form'd like a cresent, of pure metall, broad, and sharper than any
rasor; nor do they value them, unlesse at one blow they can cut in two an
Asinego...."—_Sir T. Herbert_, ed. 1638, p. 228.

1675.—"I kept my hand on the Cock of my Carabine; and my Comrade followed
a foote pace, as well armed; and our Janizary better than either of us
both: but our Armenian had only a SCIMETER."—(Sir) _George Wheler,
Journey into Greece_, London, 1682, p. 252.

1758.—"The Captain of the troop ... made a cut at his head with a
SCYMETAR which Mr. Lally parried with his stick, and a _Coffree_ (CAFFER)
servant who attend him shot the Tanjerine dead with a pistol."—_Orme_, i.
328.

SEACUNNY, s. This is, in the phraseology of the Anglo-Indian marine, a steersman or quartermaster. The word is the Pers. _sukkānī_, from Ar. _sukkān_, 'a helm.'

c. 1580.—"Aos Mocadões, SOCÕES, e Vogas."—_Primor e Honra_, &c. f. 68_v_.
("To the MOCUDDUMS, SEACUNNIES, and oarsmen.")

c. 1590.—"SUKKĀNGĪR, or helmsman. _He_ steers the ship according to the
orders of the _Mu'allim_."—_Āīn_, i. 280.

1805.—"I proposed concealing myself with 5 men among the bales of cloth,
till it should be night, when the Frenchmen being necessarily divided
into two watches might be easily overpowered. This was agreed to ... till
daybreak, when unfortunately descrying the masts of a vessel on our
weather beam, which was immediately supposed to be our old friend, the
sentiments of every person underwent a most unfortunate alteration, and
the Nakhoda, and the SOUCAN, as well as the Supercargo, informed me that
they would not tell a lie for all the world, even to save their lives;
and in short, that they would neither be _airt nor pairt_ in the
business."—Letter of _Leyden_, dd. Oct. 4-7, in _Morton's Life_.

1810.—"The gunners and quartermasters ... are Indian Portuguese; they are
called SECUNNIS."—_Maria Graham_, 85.

[1855.—"... the SEACUNNIES, or helmsmen, were principally Manilla
men."—_Neale, Residence in Siam_, 45.]

SEBUNDY, s. Hind. from Pers. _sihbandī_ (_sih_, 'three'). The _rationale_ of the word is obscure to us. [Platts says it means 'three-monthly or quarterly payment.' The _Madras Gloss._ less probably suggests Pers. _sipāhbandī_ (see SEPOY), 'recruitment.'] It is applied to irregular native soldiery, a sort of militia, or imperfectly disciplined troops for revenue or police duties, &c. Certain local infantry regiments were formerly officially termed _Sebundy_. The last official appearance of the title that we can find is in application to "The _Sebundy_ Corps of Sappers and Miners" employed at Darjeeling. This is in the E.I. Register down to July, 1869, after which the title does not appear in any official list. Of this corps, if we are not mistaken, the late Field-Marshal Lord Napier of Magdala was in charge, as Lieut. Robert Napier, about 1840. An application to Lord Napier, for corroboration of this reminiscence of many years back, drew from him the following interesting note:—

"Captain Gilmore of the (Bengal) Engineers was appointed to open the
settlement of Darjeeling, and to raise two companies of SEBUNDY Sappers,
in order to provide the necessary labour.

"He commenced the work, obtained some (Native) officers and N.C. officers
from the old Bengal Sappers, and enlisted about half of each company.

"The first season found the little colony quite unprepared for the early
commencement of the RAINS. All the COOLIES, who did not die, fled, and
some of the Sappers deserted. Gilmore got sick; and in 1838 I was
suddenly ordered from the extreme border of Bengal—Nyacollee—to relieve
him for one month. I arrived somehow, with a pair of PITARAHS as my sole
possession.

"Just then, our relations with Nepaul became strained, and it was thought
desirable to complete the SEBUNDY Sappers with men from the Border Hills
unconnected with Nepaul—Garrows and similar tribes. Through the Political
Officer the necessary number of men were enlisted and sent to me.

"When they arrived I found, instead of the 'fair recruits' announced, a
number of most unfit men; some of them more or less crippled, or with
defective sight. It seemed probable that, by the process known to us in
India as _uddlee buddlee_ (see BUDLEE), the original recruits had managed
to insert substitutes during the journey! I was much embarrassed as to
what I should do with them; but night was coming on, so I encamped them
on the newly opened road, the only clear space amid the dense jungle on
either side. To complete my difficulty it began to rain, and I pitied my
poor recruits! During the night there was a storm—and in the morning, to
my intense relief, they had all disappeared!

"In the expressive language of my sergeant, there was not a '_visage_' of
the men left.

"The SEBUNDIES were a local corps, designed to furnish a body of
labourers fit for mountain-work. They were armed, and expected to fight
if necessary. Their pay was 6rs. a month, instead of a Sepoy's 7½. The
pensions of the Native officers were smaller than in the regular army,
which was a ground of complaint with the Bengal Sappers, who never
expected in accepting the new service that they would have lower pensions
than those they enlisted for.

"I eventually completed the corps with Nepaulese, and, I think, left them
in a satisfactory condition.

"I was for a long time their only sergeant-major. I supplied the Native
officers and N.C. officers from India with a good pea-jacket each, out of
my private means, and with a little gold-lace made them smart and happy.

"When I visited Darjeeling again in 1872, I found the remnant of my good
Sapper officers living as pensioners, and waiting to give me an
affectionate welcome.

* * * * *

"My month's acting appointment was turned into four years. I walked 30
miles to get to the place, lived much in hovels and temporary huts thrown
up by my Hill-men, and derived more benefit from the climate than from my
previous visit to England. I think I owe much practical teaching to the
Hill-men, the Hills and the Climate. I learnt the worst the elements
could do to me—very nearly—excepting earthquakes! And I think I was thus
prepared for any hard work."

c. 1778.—"At Dacca I made acquaintance with my venerable friend John
Cowe. He had served in the Navy so far back as the memorable siege of
Havannah, was reduced when a lieutenant, at the end of the American War,
went out in the Company's military service, and here I found him in
command of a regiment of SEBUNDEES, or native militia."—_Hon. R.
Lindsay_, in _L. of the Lindsays_, iii. 161.

1785.—"The Board were pleased to direct that in order to supply the place
of the SEBUNDY corps, four regiments of Sepoys be employed in securing
the collection of the revenues."—In _Seton-Karr_, i. 92.

" "One considerable charge upon the Nabob's country was for
extraordinary SIBBENDIES, sepoys and horsemen, who appear to us to be a
very unnecessary incumbrance upon the revenue."—Append. to _Speech on
Nab. of Arcot's Debts_, in _Burke's Works_, iv. 18, ed. 1852.

1796.—"The Collector at Midnapoor having reported the SEBUNDY Corps
attached to that Collectorship, Sufficiently Trained in their Exercise;
the Regular Sepoys who have been Employed on that Duty are to be
withdrawn."—G. O. Feb. 23, in _Suppt._ to _Code of Military Regs._, 1799,
p. 145.

1803.—"The employment of these people therefore ... as SEBUNDY is
advantageous ... it lessens the number of idle and discontented at the
time of general invasion and confusion."—_Wellington, Desp._ (ed. 1837),
ii. 170.

1812.—"SEBUNDY, or provincial corps of native troops."—_Fifth Report_,
38.

1861.—"Sliding down Mount Tendong, the summit of which, with snow lying
there, we crossed, the SEBUNDY Sappers were employed cutting a passage
for the mules; this delayed our march exceedingly."—_Report of Capt.
Impey, R.E._, in _Gawler's Sikhim_, p. 95.

SEEDY, s. Hind. _sīdī_; Arab. _saiyid_, 'lord' (whence the _Cid_ of Spanish romantic history), _saiyidī_, 'my lord'; and Mahr. _siddhī_. Properly an honorific name given in Western India to African Mahommedans, of whom many held high positions in the service of the kings of the Deccan. Of these at least one family has survived in princely position to our own day, viz. the Nawāb of Jangīra (see JUNGEERA), near Bombay. The young heir to this principality, Siddhī Ahmad, after a minority of some years, was installed in the Government in Oct., 1883. But the proper application of the word in the ports and on the shipping of Western India is to negroes in general. [It "is a title still applied to holy men in Marocco and the Maghrib; on the East African coast it is assumed by negro and negroid Moslems, _e.g._ Sidi Mubarak Bombay; and 'Seedy boy' is the Anglo-Indian term for a Zanzibar-man" (_Burton, Ar. Nights_, iv. 231).]

c. 1563.—"And among these was an Abyssinian (_Abexim_) called CIDE
Meriam, a man reckoned a great cavalier, and who entertained 500 horse at
his own charges, and who greatly coveted the city of Daman to quarter
himself in, or at the least the whole of its pergunnas (_parganas_—see
PERGUNNAH) to devour."—_Couto_, VII. x. 8.

[c. 1610.—"The greatest insult that can be passed upon a man is to call
him CISDY—that is to say 'cook.'"—_Pyrard de Laval_, Hak. Soc. i. 173.]

1673.—"An _Hobsy_ or African Coffery (they being preferred here to chief
employments, which they enter on by the name of SIDDIES)."—_Fryer_, 147.

" "He being from a _Hobsy Caphir_ made a free Denizen ... (who only
in this Nation arrive to great Preferment, being the Frizled Woolly-pated
Blacks) under the known style of SYDDIES...."—_Ibid._ 168.

1679.—"The protection which the SIDDEES had given to Gingerah against the
repeated attacks of Sevagi, as well as their frequent annoyance of their
country, had been so much facilitated by their resort to Bombay, that
Sevagi at length determined to compel the English Government to a
stricter neutrality, by reprisals on their own port."—_Orme, Fragments_,
78.

1690.—"As he whose Title is _most Christian_, encouraged him who is its
principal Adversary to invade the Rights of Christendom, so did Senor
Padre _de Pandara_, the Principal Jesuite and in an adjacent Island to
_Bombay_, invite the SÍDDY to exterminate all the Protestants
there."—_Ovington_, 157.

1750-60.—"These (islands) were formerly in the hands of Angria and the
SIDDIES or Moors."—_Grose_, i. 58.

1759.—"The Indian seas having been infested to an intolerable degree by
pirates, the Mogul appointed the SIDDEE, who was chief of a colony of
Coffrees (CAFFER), to be his Admiral. It was a colony which, having been
settled at Dundee-Rajapore, carried on a considerable trade there, and
had likewise many vessels of force."—_Cambridge's Account of the War_,
&c., p. 216.

1800.—"I asked him what he meant by a SIDDEE. He said a _hubshee_. This
is the name by which the Abyssinians are distinguished in India."—_T.
Munro_, in _Life_, i. 287.

1814.—"Among the attendants of the Cambay Nabob ... are several
Abyssinian and Caffree slaves, called by way of courtesy SEDDEES or
Master."—_Forbes, Or. Mem._ iii. 167; [2nd ed. ii. 225].

1832.—"I spoke of a SINDHEE" (_Siddhee_) "or _Habshee_, which is the name
for an Abyssinian in this country lingo."—_Mem. of Col. Mountain_, 121.

1885.—"The inhabitants of this singular tract (Soopah plateau in N.
Canara) were in some parts Mahrattas, and in others of Canarese race, but
there was a third and less numerous section, of pure African descent
called SIDHIS ... descendants of fugitive slaves from Portuguese
settlements ... the same ebony coloured, large-limbed men as are still to
be found on the African coast, with broad, good-humoured, grinning
faces."—_Gordon S. Forbes, Wild Life in Canara_, &c., 32-33.

[1896.—

"We've shouted on seven-ounce nuggets,
We've starved on a SEEDEE boy's pay."
_R. Kipling, The Seven Seas._]

SEEMUL, SIMMUL, &c. (sometimes we have seen SYMBOL, and CYMBAL), s. Hind. _semal_ and _sembhal_; [Skt. _śālmali_]. The (so-called) cotton-tree _Bombax Malabaricum_, D.C. (N.O. _Malvaceae_), which occurs sporadically from Malabar to Sylhet, and from Burma to the Indus and beyond. It is often cultivated. "About March it is a striking object with its immense buttressed trunks, and its large showy red flowers, 6 inches in breadth, clustered on the leafless branches. The flower-buds are used as a potherb and the gum as a medicine" (_Punjab Plants_). We remember to have seen a giant of this species near Kishnagarh, the buttresses of which formed chambers, 12 or 13 feet long and 7 or 8 wide. The silky cotton is only used for stuffing pillows and the like. The wood, though wretched in quality for any ordinary purpose, lasts under water, and is commonly the material for the curbs on which wells are built and sunk in Upper India.

[c. 1807.—"... the Salmoli, or SIMUL ... is one of the most gaudy
ornaments of the forest or village...."—_Buchanan Hamilton, E. India_,
ii. 789.]

SEER, s. Hind. _ser_; Skt. _seṭak_. One of the most generally spread Indian denominations of weight, though, like all Indian measures, varying widely in different parts of the country. And besides the variations of local _ser_ and _ser_ we often find in the same locality a _pakkā_ (PUCKA) and a _kachchhā_ (CUTCHA) ser; a state of things, however, which is human, and not Indian only (see under PUCKA). The _ser_ is generally (at least in upper India) equivalent to 80 _tolas_ or rupee-weights; but even this is far from universally true. The heaviest _ser_ in the _Useful Tables_ (see Thomas's ed. of _Prinsep_) is that called "Coolpahar," equivalent to 123 _tolas_, and weighing 3 lbs. 1 oz. 6¼ dr. avoird.; the lightest is the _ser_ of Malabar and the S. Mahratta country, which is little more than 8 oz. [the Macleod _ser_ of Malabar, introduced in 1802, is of 130 _tolas_; 10 of these weigh 33 _lb._ (_Madras Man._ ii. 516).]

Regulation VII. of the Govt. of India of 1833 is entitled "A Reg. for altering the weight of the Furruckabad Rupee (see RUPEE) and for assimilating it to the legal currency of the Madras and Bombay Presidencies; for adjusting the weight of the Company's sicca Rupee, _and for fixing a standard unit of weight for India_." This is the nearest thing to the establishment of standard weights that existed up to 1870. The preamble says: "It is further convenient to introduce the weight of the Furruckabad Rupee as the unit of a general system of weights for Government transactions throughout India." And Section IV. contains the following:

"The _Tola_ or SICCA weight to be equal to 180 grains troy, and the other
denominations or weights to be derived from this unit, according to the
following scale:—

8 RUTTIES = 1 Masha = 15 troy grains.
12 Mashas = 1 TOLA = 180 ditto.
80 TOLAS (or sicca weight) = 1 SEER = 2½ lbs. troy.
40 SEERS = 1 _Mun_ or _Bazar_ MAUND = 100 lbs. troy."