1789.—"The White Ant is an insect greatly dreaded in every house; and this is not to be wondered at, as the devastation it occasions is almost incredible."—Munro, Narrative, 31.
1876.—"The metal cases of his baggage are disagreeably suggestive of White Ants, and such omnivorous vermin."—Sat. Review, No. 1057, p. 6.
APĪL, s. Transfer of Eng. 'Appeal'; in general native use, in connection with our Courts.
1872.—"There is no Sindi, however wild, that cannot now understand 'Rasíd' (receipt) [[Raseed]] and 'Apīl' (appeal)."—Burton, Sind Revisited, i. 283.
APOLLO BUNDER, n.p. A well-known wharf at Bombay. A street near it is called Apollo Street, and a gate of the Fort leading to it 'the Apollo Gate.' The name is said to be a corruption, and probably is so, but of what it is a corruption is not clear. The quotations given afford different suggestions, and Dr Wilson's dictum is entitled to respect, though we do not know what pālawā here means. Sir G. Birdwood writes that it used to be said in Bombay, that Apollo-bandar was a corr. of palwa-bandar, because the pier was the place where the boats used to land palwa fish. But we know of no fish so called; it is however possible that the palla or Sable-fish ([Hilsa]) is meant, which is so called in Bombay, as well as in Sind. [The Āīn (ii. 338) speaks of "a kind of fish called palwah which comes up into the Indus from the sea, unrivalled for its fine and exquisite flavour," which is the Hilsa.] On the other hand we may observe that there was at Calcutta in 1748 a frequented tavern called the Apollo (see Long, p. 11). And it is not impossible that a house of the same name may have given its title to the Bombay street and wharf. But Sir Michael Westropp's quotation below shows that Pallo was at least the native representation of the name more than 150 years ago. We may add that a native told Mr W. G. Pedder, of the Bombay C.S., from whom we have it, that the name was due to the site having been the place where the "poli" cake, eaten at the Holi festival, was baked. And so we leave the matter.
[1823.—"Lieut. Mudge had a tent on Apollo-green for astronomical observations."—Owen, Narrative, i. 327.]
1847.—"A little after sunset, on 2nd Jan. 1843, I left my domicile in Ambrolie, and drove to the Pálawá bandar, which receives from our accommodative countrymen the more classical name of Apollo pier."—Wilson, Lands of the Bible, p. 4.
1860.—"And atte what place ye Knyghte came to Londe, theyre ye ffolke ... worschyppen II Idolys in cheefe. Ye ffyrste is Apollo, wherefore yē cheefe londynge place of theyr Metropole is hyght Apollo-Bundar...."—Ext. from a MS. of Sir John Mandeville, lately discovered. (A friend here queries: 'By Mr. Shapira?')
1877.—"This bunder is of comparatively recent date. Its name 'Apollo' is an English corruption of the native word Pallow (fish), and it was probably not extended and brought into use for passenger traffic till about the year 1819...."—Maclean, Guide to Bombay, 167. The last work adds a note: "Sir Michael Westropp gives a different derivation....: Polo, a corruption of Pálwa, derived from Pál, which inter alia means a fighting vessel, by which kind of craft the locality was probably frequented. From Pálwa or Pálwar, the bunder now called Apollo is supposed to take its name. In the memorial of a grant of land, dated 5th Dec., 1743, the pákhádé in question is called Pallo."—High Court Reports, iv. pt. 3.
[1880.—"His mind is not prehensile like the tail of the Apollo Bundar."—Aberigh-Mackay, Twenty-one Days in India, p. 141.]