CAIMAL, s. A Nair chief; a word often occurring in the old Portuguese historians. It is Malayāl. kaimal.
1504.—"So they consulted with the Zamorin, and the Moors offered their agency to send and poison the wells at Cochin, so as to kill all the Portuguese, and also to send Nairs in disguise to kill any of our people that they found in the palm-woods, and away from the town.... And meanwhile the Mangate Caimal, and the Caimal of Primbalam, and the Caimal of Diamper, seeing that the Zamorin's affairs were going from bad to worse, and that the castles which the Italians were making were all wind and nonsense, that it was already August when ships might be arriving from Portugal ... departed to their own estates with a multitude of their followers, and sent to the King of Cochin their [ollas] of allegiance."—Correa, i. 482.
1566.—"... certain lords bearing title, whom they call Caimals" (caimães).—Damian de Goës, Chron. del Rei Dom Emmanuel, p. 49.
1606.—"The Malabars give the name of Caimals (Caimães) to certain great lords of vassals, who are with their governments haughty as kings; but most of them have confederation and alliance with some of the great kings, whom they stand bound to aid and defend...."—Gouvea, f. 27v.
1634.—
"Ficarão seus Caimais prezos e mortos."
Malaca Conquistada, v. 10.
CAIQUE, s. The small skiff used at Constantinople, Turkish ḳāīḳ. Is it by accident, or by a radical connection through Turkish tribes on the Arctic shores of Siberia, that the Greenlander's kayak is so closely identical? [The Stanf. Dict. says that the latter word is Esquimaux, and recognises no connection with the former.]
CAJAN, s. This is a name given by Sprengel (Cajanus indicus), and by Linnæus (Cytisus cajan), to the leguminous shrub which gives [dhall] (q.v.). A kindred plant has been called Dolichos catjang, Willdenow. We do not know the origin of this name. The Cajan was introduced to America by the slave-traders from Africa. De Candolle finds it impossible to say whether its native region is India or Africa. (See [DHALL], [CALAVANCE].) [According to Mr. Skeat the word is Malay. poko'kachang, 'the plant which gives beans,' quite a different word from kajang which gives us Cadjan.]
CAJEPUT, s. The name of a fragrant essential oil produced especially in Celebes and the neighbouring island of Bouro. A large quantity is exported from Singapore and Batavia. It is used most frequently as an external application, but also internally, especially (of late) in cases of cholera. The name is taken from the Malay kayu-putih, i.e. 'Lignum album.' Filet (see p. 140) gives six different trees as producing the oil, which is derived from the distillation of the leaves. The chief of these trees is Melaleuca leucadendron, L., a tree diffused from the Malay Peninsula to N.S. Wales. The drug and tree were first described by Rumphius, who died 1693. (See Hanbury and Flückiger, 247 [and Wallace, Malay Arch., ed. 1890, p. 294].)