Volume 2

The cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia : commercial, industrial and scientific, products of the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, useful arts and manufactures / by Edward Balfour.

  • Balfour, Edward, 1813-1889.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia : commercial, industrial and scientific, products of the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, useful arts and manufactures / by Edward Balfour. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    above that number; and a list was appended of some 20 more who were able to repeat from 3000 to 9000 verses. It is noticeable that more than two-thirds of the successful competitors were women, showing how strong the faculty of memory is among the sex as a general rule. HAFIZ, a lyric poet, native of Shiraz, author of the Dewan-i-Hafiz. Many of his poems have been translated; one by Sir William Jones, and which perhaps surpasses the original, commences with ‘ Sweet maid, if thou wouldst charm my sight, And bid these arms thy neck enfold; That rosy cheek, that lily hand, Would give thy lover more delight Than all Bokhara’s vaunted gold— Than all the gems of Samarkand.’ Hafiz is his takhallus, or poetical appellation. His own name was Muhammad Shams-ud-Din. Very little is known of his life ; and it appears to have been in no degree remarkable for incident. He was born at Shiraz in the beginning of the 14th century, and died and was buried near there in a.d. 1338. He is now regarded as a holy man, and oblations are offered at his shrine. He is buried in a small garden about half a mile outside the walls of the town. The tomb over his remains was erected by Karim Khan. It is a block of white marble in the form of a coffin, on which are cut, in the most exquisite Persian characters, two of his poems, and the date of his death. A copy of his works is kept in an adjoining house. The white material with which the tomb is formed, has become, from exposure to the weather, very much discoloured, and adds to the sombre effect pro- duced by the cypress trees that surround it. Four well-known distichs of Hafiz inculcate the return of good for evil: ' Learn from yon orient shell to love thy foe, And store with pearls the hand that brings thee woe : Free, like yon rock, from base vindictive pride, Emblaze with gems the wrist that rends thy side : Mark where yon tree rewards the stony shower With fruit nectareous, or the balmy flower: All Nature calls aloud—Shall man do less Than heal the smiter, and the railer bless?’ —Pottinger's Tr. pp. 241-2; Ouseley, pp. 241-2; Sir William Jones; As. Res. iv.; MacGregor, iv. p. 557. HAFT. Pees. Seven:— Haft-Aklim, the seven climates, into which Mahomedan geographers divide the earth. The term is meant to include the whole world, and kings have sometimes assumed the title of King of the Seven Climates. It applies, however, to the northern hemisphere, which they partition into zones of various breadth, from east to west. Haft-Kishwar has the same meaning and allusion as Haft-Aklim ; and the sovereignty of the world is sometimes assumed under that title. Haft-Dhat, literally seven metals, corresponding to the planets, each of which ruled a metal: hence Mohar, the sun, for gold ; Chandra, the moon, for silver. Haft-Hind, the seven rivers of the Panjab. Haft-Khaneh, or Satgurh group of caves, is one of the Behar caves in the neighbourhood of Raja- griha, the most ancient caves in India, about 200 b.c. The others are the Milkmaid’s cave, the Brahman Girl’s cave, the Nagarjun cave, and in the neighbourhood are the Kama chapara and Lomas Rishi caves. Haft-Rang, a beautiful variety of the rose. Haft-Lang, a tribe of the Bakhtiari. Haft-Tan, literally seven persons who, in the early days of Mahomedanism, were worshipped in Kurdistan by the Ali Ilahi sect as the incarnate deity. Baba Yadgar was one of the seven persons. His tomb is in the pass of Zardah, and is the holy place of the Ali Ilahi sectarians, who believe in upwards of a thousand incarnations of the godhead. At the time of the Arab invasion of Persia, the Zardah pass was regarded as the abode of Elias. HAFT-AKLIM. Amin Ahmad, Razi, author of a history of the Persian poets, entitled Haft-Aklim, or the Seven Climates, has illustrated his work with much geographical matter. Ahmad was surnamed Razi, being a native of Rai. Amin Ahmad said the cuneiform character was then unintelligible to the learned of all religions.—Ouseley's Tr. ii. 402, iii. 10. HAGENIA ABYSSINIA, the kosso or kousso, a moderate-sized tree of Abyssinia. Its flowers are largely used in tapeworm. It is a drastic purgative, and is largely used by the races who eat raw flesh. HAGGIS. Sultan Baber compares the jack- fruit to a haggis. ‘You would say,’ quoth he (p. 325), ‘ that the tree was hung all round with haggises.’—Yule, Cathay, ii. p. 362. HAIGA, a clan of Brahmans in Canara. HAIHAYA, son of Yadu, and grandson of Nahusha. The Haihaya are mentioned as a power- ful nation, who defeated and killed Jamadagni, and are supposed to be the same with the Persians. In Colonel Tod’s time, a tribe of this race were occupying the top of the valley of Sohagpur in Baghelcund. They were aware of their ancient lineage, and though few in number, they were still celebrated for their valour. HAIL. In Exodus ix. 24, it is mentioned that there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. Hail- storms of India occur in very limited patches, and seldom last above 15 or 20 minutes ; but falls of hail occur simultaneously in places many miles apart. The hail occasionally consists of masses of ice, destroying houses, men, cattle, goats, and sheep. At the end of the 18th century, a mass fell at Seringapatam the size of an elephant, which took three days to melt. On the 10th April 1822, at Bangalore, 27 bullocks were killed. In May 1823, a violent hail-storm, with stones of considerable size, occurred at Hyderabad in the Dekhan. Sufficient quantities were collected to cool the wine for several days. At Dharwar, in May or June 1825, a hail-storm occurred, with hail in size from that of a filbert to a pigeon’s egg. In 1826, a mass, nearly a cubic yard in size, fell in Kandesh. At Kotah, on the 5th March 1827, 6 persons were killed, 7 others severely injured, and animals and birds killed and hurt. In April 1838, a mass of hailstones, 25 feet in its larger diameter, fell at Dharwar. On the 22d May, after a violent hail-storm 80 miles south of Bangalore, an immense block of ice, consisting of hailstones cemented together, was found in a dry well. On the 12th May 1853, in the Himalaya, north of Peshawur, 84 human beings and 3000 oxen were killed by masses of ice, nearly a foot in circumference, hard, compact, and spherical.