c. 1407.—"Suddenly, in the midst of the night they saw the Sultan's camp approaching, accompanied by a great number of mashal."—Abdurazzāk, in N. & Exts. xiv. Pt. i. 153.
1673.—"The Duties[[178]] march like Furies with their lighted mussals in their hands, they are Pots filled with Oyl in an Iron Hoop like our Beacons, and set on fire by stinking rags."—Fryer, 33.
1705.—"... flambeaux qu'ils appellent Mansalles."—Luillier, 89.
1809.—"These Mussal or link-boys."—Ld. Valentia, i. 17.
1810.—"The Mosaul, or flambeau, consists of old rags, wrapped very closely round a small stick."—Williamson, V. M. i. 219.
[1813.—"These nocturnal processions illumined by many hundred massauls or torches, illustrate the parable of the ten virgins...."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. ii. 274.
[1857.—"Near him was another Hindoo ... he is called a Mussal; and the lamps and lights are his special department."—Lady Falkland, Chow-Chow, 2nd ed. i. 35.]
MUSSAULCHEE, s. Hind. mash'alchī from mash'al (see [MUSSAUL]), with the Turkish termination chī, generally implying an agent. [In the Arabian Nights (Burton, i. 239) al-masha'ilī is the executioner.] The word properly means a link-boy, and was formerly familiar in that sense as the epithet of the person who ran alongside of a palankin on a night journey, bearing a mussaul. "In Central India it is the special duty of the barber (nāī) to carry the torch; hence nāī commonly = 'torch-bearer'" (M.-Gen. Keatinge). The word [or sometimes in the corrupt form mussaul] is however still more frequent as applied to a humble domestic, whose duty was formerly of a like kind, as may be seen in the quotation from Ld. Valentia, but who now looks after lamps and washes dishes, &c., in old English phrase 'a scullion.'
1610.—"He always had in service 500 Massalgees."—Finch, in Purchas, i. 432.
1662.—(In Asam) "they fix the head of the corpse rigidly with poles, and put a lamp with plenty of oil, and a mash'alchí [torch-bearer] alive into the vault, to look after the lamp."—Shihábuddín Tálish, tr. by Blochmann, in J.A.S.B. xli. Pt. i. 82.