[1876.—"... he received his pay in Chinese yambs (gold coins), at the rate of 128 rubles each, while the real commercial value was only 115 rubles."—Schuyler, Turkistan, ii. 322.
[1901.—A piece of Chinese shoe money, value 10 taels, was exhibited before the Numismatic Society.—Athenaeum, Jan. 26, p. 118. Perhaps the largest specimen known of Chinese "boat-money" was exhibited. It weighed 89½ ounces troy, and represented 50 taels, or £8, 8s. 0d. English.—Ibid. Jan. 25, 1902, p. 120].
SHOE-FLOWER, s. A name given in Madras Presidency to the flower of the Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis, L. It is a literal translation of the Tam. shapāttupu, Singh. sappattumala, a name given because the flowers are used at Madras to blacken shoes. The Malay name Kempang sapatu means the same. Voigt gives shoe-flower as the English name, and adds: "Petals astringent, used by the Chinese to blacken their shoes (?) and eyebrows" (Hortus Suburbanus Calcuttensis, 116-7); see also Drury, s.v. The notion of the Chinese blackening their shoes is surely an error, but perhaps they use it to blacken leather for European use.
[1773.—"The flower (Trepalta, or Morroock) (which commonly by us is called Shoe-flower, because used to black our shoes) is very large, of a deep but beautiful crimson colour."—Ives, 475.]
1791.—"La nuit suivante ... je joignis aux pavots ... une fleur de foule sapatte, qui sert aux cordonniers à teindre leurs cuirs en noir."—B. de St. Pierre, Chaumière Indienne. This foule-sapatte is apparently some quasi Hindustani form of the name (phul-sabāt?) used by the Portuguese.
SHOE-GOOSE, s. This ludicrous corruption of the Pers. siyāh-gosh, lit. 'black-ear,' i.e. lynx (Felis Caracal) occurs in the passage below from A. Hamilton. [The corruption of the same word by the Times, below, is equally amusing.]
[c. 1330.—"... ounces, and another kind something like a greyhound, having only the ears black, and the whole body perfectly white, which among these people is called Siagois."—Friar Jordanus, 18.]
1727.—"Antelopes, Hares and Foxes, are their wild game, which they hunt with Dogs, Leopards, and a small fierce creature called by them a Shoe-goose."—A. Hamilton, i. 124; [ed. 1744, i. 125].
1802.—"... between the cat and the lion, are the ... syagush, the lynx, the tiger-cat...."—Ritson, Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food, 12.
1813.—"The Moguls train another beast for antelope-hunting called the Syah-gush, or black-ears, which appears to be the same as the caracal, or Russian lynx."—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 277; [2nd ed. i. 175 and 169].