Charade on Bishop Barnard by Dr. Johnson.
NARGEELA, NARGILEH, s. Properly the coco-nut (Skt. nārikera, -kela, or -keli; Pers. nārgīl; Greek of Cosmas, Ἀργέλλιον); thence the [hubble-bubble], or [hooka] in its simplest form, as made from a coco-nut shell; and thence again, in Persia, a hooka or water-pipe with a glass or metal vase.
[c. 545.—"Argell." See under [SURA].
[1623.—"Narghil, like the palm in the leaves also, and is that which we call Nux Indica."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 40.
[1758.—"An Argile, or smoking tube, and coffee, were immediately brought us ..."—Ives, 271.
[1813.—"... the Persians smoked their culloons and nargills...."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. ii. 173.]
NARROWS, THE, n.p. A name applied by the Hoogly pilots for at least two centuries to the part of the river immediately below Hoogly Point, now known as 'Hoogly Bight.' See Mr. Barlow's note on Hedges' Diary, i. 64.
1684.—"About 11 o'clock we met with ye Good-hope, at an anchor in ye Narrows, without Hugly River,[[189]] and ordered him upon ye first of ye flood to weigh, and make all haste he could to Hugly ..."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 64.
1711.—"From the lower Point of the Narrows on the Starboard-side ... the Eastern Shore is to be kept close aboard, until past the said Creek, afterwards allowing only a small Birth for the Point off the [River of Rogues], commonly called by the Country People, Adegom.... From the River of Rogues, the Starboard Shore, with a great Ship, ought to be kept close aboard down to the Channel Trees, for in the Offing lies the Grand middle Ground...."—English Pilot, p. 57.
NARSINGA, n.p. This is the name most frequently applied in the 16th and 17th centuries to the kingdom in Southern India, otherwise termed Vijayanagara or [Bisnagar] (q.v.), the latest powerful Hindu kingdom in the Peninsula. This kingdom was founded on the ruins of the Belāla dynasty reigning at Dwāra Samudra, about A.D. 1341 [see Rice, Mysore, i. 344 seqq.]. The original dynasty of Vijayanagara became extinct about 1487, and was replaced by Narasiṉha, a prince of Telugu origin, who reigned till 1508. He was therefore reigning at the time of the first arrival of the Portuguese, and the name of Narsinga, which they learned to apply to the kingdom from his name, continued to be applied to it for nearly two centuries.