THE ORIENTAL INTERPRETER AND Treasury of East India Knowledge. A COMPANION TO "THE HAND-BOOK OF BRITISH INDIA." BY J. H. STOCQUELER, ESQ. AUTHOR OF "The Hand-Book of India;" "The Memorials of Afghanistan ;" Fifteen Months' Pilgrimage LONDON: JAMES MADDEN, 8, LEADENHALL STREET; AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, MDCCCXLVIII. CALIFORNIA PREFACE. THIS is a compilation. It has been suggested by the compiler's daily experience of the almost universal ignorance of Oriental terms, phrases, expressions, places. Every fortnight brings a mail from India, and the intelligence which it imparts is fraught with words which perplex the multitude. The despatches from India-the conversation of Orientaliststhe speeches in Parliament, turning upon Eastern affairs-the Oriental novels, travels, and statistical works likewise abound with terms "caviare to the general." The new arrival in India, ignorant of the language of the country, is puzzled, for some time, to comprehend his countrymen, whose conversation “ wears strange suits," and even he, who has been for years a sojourner in India is, to the last, unacquainted with the meaning of numerous words which occur in his daily newspaper, the Courts of Law, and the communications of his Mofussil or up-country correspondents. The following pages impart a knowledge of all the terms in question as far as they have occurred to the communicant during an examination of two or three years, diligently pursued, and an appeal to his recollection of the phrases in common use in India and Persia. The authorities from whom the "explanations" have been borrowed are numerous. They are mentioned below, as much from a sense of 593898 |