1784.—(At Acheen) "there are five great officers of state who are named Maha Rajah, Laxamana (see [LAXIMANA]), Raja Oolah, Ooloo Ballang, and Parkah Rajah."—Forrest, V. to Mergui, 41.
1811.—"The ulu balang are military officers, forming the body-guard of the Sultan, and prepared on all occasions to execute his orders."—Marsden, H. of Sumatra, 3rd ed. 351.
OOPLAH, s. Cow dung patted into cakes, and dried and stacked for fuel. Hind. uplā. It is in S. India called [bratty] (q.v.).
1672.—"The allowance of cowdunge and wood was—for every basket of cowdunge, 2 cakes for the Gentu Pagoda; for Peddinagg the watchman, of every baskett of cowdunge, 5 cakes."—Orders at Ft. St. Geo., Notes and Exts. i. 56.
[Another name for the fuel is kaṇḍā.
[1809.—"... small flat cakes of cow-dung, mixed with a little chopped straw and water, and dried in the sun, are used for fuel; they are called kundhas...."—Broughton, Letters from a Mahratta Camp, ed. 1892, p. 158.]
This fuel which is also common in Egypt and Western Asia, appears to have been not unknown even in England a century ago, thus:—
1789.—"We rode about 20 miles that day (near Woburn), the country ... is very open, with little or no wood. They have even less fuel than we (i.e. in Scotland), and the poor burn cow-dung, which they scrape off the ground, and set up to burn as we do divots (i.e. turf)."—Lord Minto, in Life, i. 301.
1863.—A passage in Mr. Marsh's Man and Nature, p. 242, contains a similar fact in reference to the practice, in consequence of the absence of wood, in France between Grenoble and Briançon.
[For the use of this fuel, in Tartary under the name of argols, see Huc, Travels, 2nd ed. i. 23. Numerous examples of its use are collected in 8 ser. Notes and Queries, iv. 226, 277, 377, 417.