But there it streams, and richly reams,
My Helicon I ca' that."—
Burns.
It will be seen that Pyrard de Laval uses estang, as if specifically, for the tank of India.
1498.—"And many other saints were there painted on the walls of the church, and these wore diadems, and their portraiture was in a divers kind, for their teeth were so great that they stood an inch beyond the mouth, and every saint had 4 or 5 arms, and below the church stood a great tanque wrought in cut stone like many others that we had seen by the way."—Roteiro de Vasco da Gama, 57.
" "So the Captain Major ordered Nicolas Coelho to go in an armed boat, and see where the water was, and he found in the said island (Anchediva) a building, a church of great ashlar work which had been destroyed by the Moors, as the country people said, only the chapel had been covered with straw, and they used to make their prayers to three black stones which stood in the midst of the body of the chapel. Moreover they found just beyond the church a tanque of wrought ashlar in which we took as much water as we wanted; and at the top of the whole island stood a great tanque of the depth of 4 fathoms, and moreover we found in front of the church a beach where we careened the ship Berrio."—Ibid. 95.
1510.—"Early in the morning these Pagans go to wash at a tank, which tank is a pond of still water (—ad uno Tancho il qual Tancho è una fossa d'acqua morta)."—Varthema, 149.
" "Near to Calicut there is a temple in the midst of a tank, that is, in the middle of a pond of water."—Ibid. 175.
1553.—"In this place where the King (Bahádur Sháh) established his line of battle, on one side there was a great river, and on the other a tank (tanque) of water, such as they are used to make in those parts. For as there are few streams to collect the winter's waters, they make these tanks (which might be more properly called lakes), all lined with stone. They are so big that many are more than a league in compass."—Barros, IV. vi. 5.
c. 1610.—"Son logis estoit éloigné près d'vne lieuë du palais Royal, situé sur vn estang, et basty de pierres, ayant bien demy lieuë de tour, comme rous les autres estangs."—Pyrard de Laval, ed. 1679, i. 262; [Hak. Soc. i. 367].