"Polo, Tent-pegging, Hurlingham, the Rink,
I leave all these delights."
Browning, Inn Album, 23.
POLLOCK-SAUG, s. Hind. pālak, pālak-sāg; a poor vegetable, called also 'country spinach' (Beta vulgaris, or B. Bengalensis, Roxb.). [Riddell (Domest. Econ. 579) calls it 'Bengal Beet.']
POLONGA, TIC-POLONGA, s. A very poisonous snake, so called in Ceylon (Bungarus? or Daboia elegans?); Singh. poloñgarā. [The Madras Gloss. identifies it with the Daboia elegans, and calls it 'Chain viper,' 'Necklace snake,' 'Russell's viper,' or [cobra manilla]. The Singh. name is said to be titpolanga, tit, 'spotted,' polanga, 'viper.']
1681.—"There is another venomous snake called Polongo, the most venomous of all, that kills cattel. Two sorts of them I have seen, the one green, the other of reddish gray, full of white rings along the sides, and about five or six feet long."—Knox, 29.
1825.—"There are only four snakes ascertained to be poisonous; the [cobra de capello] is the most common, but its bite is not so certainly fatal as that of the tic polonga, which destroys life in a few minutes."—Mrs. Heber, in H.'s Journal, ed. 1844, ii. 167.
POMFRET, POMPHRET, s. A genus of sea-fish of broad compressed form, embracing several species, of good repute for the table on all the Indian coasts. According to Day they are all reducible to Stromateus sinensis, 'the white Pomfret,' Str. cinereus, which is, when immature, 'the silver Pomfret,' and when mature, 'the gray Pomfret,' and Str. niger, 'the black P.' The French of Pondicherry call the fish pample. We cannot connect it with the πομπίλος of Aelian (xv. 23) and Athenaeus (Lib. VII. cap. xviii. seqq.) which is identified with a very different fish, the 'pilot-fish' (Naucrates ductor of Day). The name is probably from the Portuguese, and a corruption of pampano, 'a vine-leaf,' from supposed resemblance; this is the Portuguese name of a fish which occurs just where the pomfret should be mentioned. Thus:
[1598.—"The best fish is called Mordexiin, Pampano, and Tatiingo."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. ii. 11.]
1613.—"The fishes of this Mediterranean (the Malayan sea) are very savoury [sables], and [seer fish] (serras) and pampanos, and rays...."—Godinho de Eredia, f. 33v.