c. 1662.—"As the soil of the country is very damp, the people do not live on the ground-floor, but on the machán, which is the name for a raised floor."—Shihábuddín Tálish, by Blochmann, in J. A. S. B. xli. Pt. i. 84.

[1882.—"In a shady green mechan in some fine tree, watching at the cool of evening...."—Sanderson, Thirteen Years, 3rd ed. 284.]

MUCHWA, s. Mahr. machwā, Hind. machuā, machwā. A kind of boat or barge in use about Bombay.

MUCKNA, s. Hind. makhnā, [which comes from Skt. matkuna, 'a bug, a flea, a beardless man, an elephant without tusks']. A male elephant without tusks or with only rudimentary tusks. These latter are familiar in Bengal, and still more so in Ceylon, where according to Sir S. Baker, "not more than one in 300 has tusks; they are merely provided with short grubbers, projecting generally about 3 inches from the upper jaw, and about 2 inches in diameter." (The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon, 11.) Sanderson (13 Years among the Wild Beasts of India, [3rd ed. 66]) says: "On the Continent of India mucknas, or elephants born without tusks, are decidedly rare ... Mucknas breed in the herds, and the peculiarity is not hereditary or transmitted." This author also states that out of 51 male elephants captured by him in Mysore and Bengal only 5 were mucknas. But the definition of a makhnā in Bengal is that which we have given, including those animals which possess only feminine or rudimentary tusks, the 'short grubbers' of Baker; and these latter can hardly be called rare among domesticated elephants. This may be partially due to a preference in purchasers.[[174]] The same author derives the term from mukh, 'face'; but the reason is obscure. Shakespear and Platts give the word as also applied to 'a cock without spurs.'

c. 1780.—"An elephant born with the left tooth only is reckoned sacred; with black spots in the mouth unlucky, and not saleable; the mukna or elephant born without teeth is thought the best."—Hon. R. Lindsay in Lives of the Lindsays, iii. 194.

MUCOA, MUKUVA, n.p. Malayal. and Tamil, mukkuvan (sing.), 'a diver,' and mukkuvar (pl.). [Logan (Malabar, ii. Gloss. s.v.) derives it from Drav. mukkuha, 'to dive'; the Madras Gloss. gives Tam. muzhugu, with the same meaning.] A name applied to the fishermen of the western coast of the Peninsula near C. Comorin. [But Mr. Pringle (Diary, Ft. St. Geo. 1st ser. iii. 187) points out that formerly as now, the word was of much more general application. Orme in a passage quoted below employs it of boatmen at Karikal. The use of the word extended as far N. as Madras, and on the W. coast; it was not confined to the extreme S.] It was among these, and among the corresponding class of Paravars on the east coast, that F. Xavier's most noted labours in India occurred.

1510.—"The fourth class are called Mechua, and these are fishers."—Varthema, 142.

1525.—"And Dom João had secret speech with a married Christian whose wife and children were inside the fort, and a valiant man, with whom he arranged to give him 200 [pardaos] (and that he gave him on the spot) to set fire to houses that stood round the fort.... So this Christian, called Duarte Fernandes ... put on a lot of old rags and tags, and powdered himself with ashes after the fashion of jogues (see [JOGEE]) ... also defiling his hair with a mixture of oil and ashes, and disguising himself like a regular jogue, whilst he tied under his rags a parcel of gunpowder and pieces of slow-match, and so commending himself to God, in which all joined, slipped out of the fort by night, and as the day broke, he came to certain huts of macuas, which are fishermen, and began to beg alms in the usual palaver of the jogues, i.e. prayers for their long life and health, and the conquest of enemies, and easy deliveries for their womenkind, and prosperity for their children, and other grand things."—Correa, ii. 871.

1552.—Barros has mucuaria, 'a fisherman's village.'

1600.—"Those who gave the best reception to the Gospel were the Macóas; and, as they had no church in which to assemble, they did so in the fields and on the shores, and with such fervour that the Father found himself at times with 5000 or 6000 souls about him."—Lucena, Vida do P. F. Xavier, 117.