1755.—(If the land wind blow on a person sleeping) "the consequence of this is always dangerous, as it seldom fails to bring on a fit of the Barbiers (as it is called in this country), that is, a total deprivation of the use of the limbs."—Ives, 77.
[c. 1757.—"There was a disease common to the lower class of Europeans, called the Barbers, a species of palsy, owing to exposure to the land winds after a fit of intoxication."—In Carey, Good Old Days, ii. 266.]
1768.—"The barbiers, a species of palsy, is a disease most frequent in India. It distresses chiefly the lower class of Europeans, who when intoxicated with liquors frequently sleep in the open air, exposed to the land winds."—Lind on Diseases of Hot Climates, 260. (See [BERIBERI].)
BARGANY, BRAGANY, H. bārakānī. The name of a small silver coin current in W. India at the time of the Portuguese occupation of Goa, and afterwards valued at 40 reis (then about 5¼d.). The name of the coin was apparently a survival of a very old system of coinage-nomenclature. Kānī is an old Indian word, perhaps Dravidian in origin, indicating ¼ of ¼ of ¼, or 1-64th part. It was applied to the jital (see [JEETUL]) or 64th part of the mediæval Delhi silver tanka—this latter coin being the prototype in weight and position of the Rupee, as the kānī therefore was of the modern Anglo-Indian pice (= 1-64th of a Rupee). There were in the currency of Mohammed Tughlak (1324-1351) of Delhi, aliquot parts of the tanka, Dokānīs, Shash-kānīs, Hasht-kānīs, Dwāzda-kānīs, and Shānzda-kānīs, representing, as the Persian numerals indicate, pieces of 2, 6, 8, 12, and 16 kānīs or jitals. (See E. Thomas, Pathan Kings of Delhi, pp. 218-219.) Other fractional pieces were added by Fīroz Shāh, Mohammed's son and successor (see Id. 276 seqq. and quotation under c. 1360, below). Some of these terms long survived, e.g. do-kānī in localities of Western and Southern India, and in Western India in the present case the bārakānī or 12 kānī, a vernacular form of the dwāzda-kānī of Mohammed Tughlak.
1330.—"Thousands of men from various quarters, who possessed thousands of these copper coins ... now brought them to the treasury, and received in exchange gold tankas and silver tankas ([Tanga]), shash-gānīs and du-gānīs, which they carried to their homes."—Táríkh-i-Fíroz-Sháhi, in Elliot, iii. 240-241.
c. 1350—"Sultan Fíroz issued several varieties of coins. There was the gold tanka and the silver tanka. There were also distinct coins of the respective value of 48, 25, 24, 12, 10, 8 and 6, and one jītal, known as chihal-o-hasht-gānī, bist-o-panjgānī, bist-o-chahār-gānī, dwāzdah-gānī, dah-gānī, hasht-gānī, shāsh-gānī, and yak jītal."—Ibid. 357-358.
1510.—Barganym, in quotation from Correa under [Pardao].
1554.—"E as tamgas brancas que se recebem dos foros, são de 4 barganis a tamga, e de 24 leaes o bargany ..." i.e. "And the white tangas that are received in payment of land revenues are at the rate of 4 barganis to the tanga, and of 24 leals to the bargany."—A. Nunez, in Subsidios, p. 31.
" "Statement of the Revenues which the King our Lord holds in the Island and City of Guoa.
"Item—The Islands of Tiçoary, and Divar, and that of Chorão, and Johão, all of them, pay in land revenue (de foro) according to ancient custom 36,474 white tanguas, 3 barguanis, and 21 leals, at the tale of 3 barguanis to the tangua and 24 leals to the barguanim, the same thing as 24 bazarucos, amounting to 14,006 pardaos, 1 tangua and 47 leals, making 4,201,9162⁄5 reis. The Isle of Tiçoary ([Salsette]) is the largest, and on it stands the city of Guoa; the others are much smaller and are annexed to it, they being all contiguous, only separated by rivers."—Botelho, Tombo, ibid. pp. 46-7.