c. 1804.—"I had a tonjon, or open palanquin, in which I rode."—Mrs. Sherwood, Autobiog. 283.
1810.—"About Dacca, Chittagong, Tipperah, and other mountainous parts, a very light kind of conveyance is in use, called a taum-jaung, i.e. 'a support to the feet.'"—Williamson, V.M. i. 322-23.
" "Some of the party at the tents sent a tonjon, or open chair, carried like a palankeen, to meet me."—Maria Graham, 166.
[1827.—"In accordance with Lady D'Oyly's earnest wish I go out every morning in her tonjin."—Diary of Mrs. Fenton, 100.]
1829.—"I had been conveyed to the hill in Hanson's tonjon, which differs only from a palanquin in being like the body of a gig with a head to it."—Mem. of Col. Mountain, 88.
[1832.—"... I never seat myself in the palankeen or thonjaun without a feeling bordering on self-reproach...."—Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali, Observations, i. 320.]
1839.—"He reined up his ragged horse, facing me, and dancing about till I had passed; then he dashed past me at full gallop, wheeled round, and charged my tonjon, bending down to his saddlebow, pretending to throw a lance, showing his teeth, and uttering a loud quack!"—Letters from Madras, 290.
[1849.—"We proceeded to Nawabgunge, the minister riding out with me, for some miles, to take leave, as I sat in my tonjohn."—Sleeman, Journey through Oudh, i. 2.]
TOOLSY, s. The holy Basil of the Hindus (Ocimum sanctum, L.), Skt. tulsī or tulasī, frequently planted in a vase upon a pedestal of masonry in the vicinity of Hindu temples or dwellings. Sometimes the ashes of deceased relatives are preserved in these domestic shrines. The practice is alluded to by Fr. Odoric as in use at Tana, near Bombay (see Cathay, i. 59, c. 1322); and it is accurately described by the later ecclesiastic quoted below. See also Ward's Hindoos, ii. 203. The plant has also a kind of sanctity in the Greek Church, and a character for sanitary value at least on the shores of the Mediterranean generally.
[c. 1650.—"They who bear the tulasī round the neck ... they are Vaishnavas, and sanctify the world."—Bhaktā Mālā, in H. H. Wilson's Works, i. 41.]