[c. 1590.—"This tract is inhabited by an important Baloch tribe called Kalmani."—Āīn, trans. Jarret, ii. 337.]
1613.—The Boloches are of Mahomet's Religion. They deale much in Camels, most of them robbers...."—N. Whittington, in Purchas, i. 485.
1648.—"Among the Machumatists next to the Pattans are the Blotias of great strength" [? Wilāyatī].—Van Twist, 58.
1727.—"They were lodged in a Caravanseray, when the Ballowches came with about 300 to attack them; but they had a brave warm Reception, and left four Score of their Number dead on the Spot, without the loss of one Dutch Man."—A. Hamilton, i. 107.
1813.—Milburn calls them Bloaches (Or. Com. i. 145).
1844.—"Officers must not shoot Peacocks: if they do the Belooches will shoot officers—at least so they have threatened, and M.-G. Napier has not the slightest doubt but that they will keep their word. There are no wild peacocks in Scinde,—they are all private property and sacred birds, and no man has any right whatever to shoot them."—Gen. Orders by Sir C. Napier.
BINKY-NABOB, s. This title occurs in documents regarding Hyder and Tippoo, e.g. in Gen. Stewart's desp. of 8th March 1799: "Mohammed Rezza, the Binky Nabob." [Also see Wilks, Mysoor, Madras reprint, ii. 346.] It is properly benkī-nawāb, from Canarese benkī, 'fire,' and means the Commandant of the Artillery.
BIRD OF PARADISE. The name given to various beautiful birds of the family Paradiseidae, of which many species are now known, inhabiting N. Guinea and the smaller islands adjoining it. The largest species was called by Linnæus Paradisaea apoda, in allusion to the fable that these birds had no feet (the dried skins brought for sale to the Moluccas having usually none attached to them). The name Manucode which Buffon adopted for these birds occurs in the form Manucodiata in some of the following quotations. It is a corruption of the Javanese name Manuk-devata, 'the Bird of the Gods,' which our popular term renders with sufficient accuracy. [The Siamese word for 'bird,' according to Mr. Skeat, is nok, perhaps from manok.]
c. 1430.—"In majori Java avis præcipua reperitur sine pedibus, instar palumbi, pluma levi, cauda oblonga, semper in arboribus quiescens: caro non editur, pellis et cauda habentur pretiosiores, quibus pro ornamento capitis utuntur."—N. Conti, in Poggius de Varietate Fortunae, lib. iv.
1552.—"The Kings of the said (Moluccas) began only a few years ago to believe in the immortality of souls, taught by no other argument than this, that they had seen a most beautiful little bird, which never alighted on the ground or on any other terrestrial object, but which they had sometimes seen to come from the sky, that is to say, when it was dead and fell to the ground. And the Machometan traders who traffic in those islands assured them that this little bird was a native of Paradise, and that Paradise was the place where the souls of the dead are; and on this account the princes attached themselves to the sect of the Machometans, because it promised them many marvellous things regarding this place of souls. This little bird they called by the name of Manucodiata...."—Letter of Maximilian of Transylvania, Sec. to the Emp. Charles V., in Ramusio, i. f. 351v; see also f. 352.