1782.—"Le tabac y réussit très bien; les chiroutes de Manille sont renommées dans toute l'Inde par leur goût agréable; aussi les Dames dans ce pays fument-elles toute la journée."—Sonnerat, Voyage, iii. 43.
1792.—"At that time (c. 1757) I have seen the officers mount guard many's the time and oft ... neither did they at that time carry your fusees, but had a long Pole with an iron head to it.... With this in one Hand and a Chiroot in the other you saw them saluting away at the Main Guard."—Madras Courier, April 3.
1810.—"The lowest classes of Europeans, as also of the natives ... frequently smoke cheroots, exactly corresponding with the Spanish segar, though usually made rather more bulky."—Williamson, V. M. i. 499.
1811.—"Dire que le T'cherout est la cigarre, c'est me dispenser d'en faire la description."—Solvyns, iii.
[1823.—"He amused himself by smoking several carrotes."—Owen, Narr. ii. 50.]
1875.—"The meal despatched, all who were not on duty lay down ... almost too tired to smoke their cheroots before falling asleep."—The Dilemma, ch. xxxvii.
CHERRY FOUJ, s. H. charī-fauj? This curious phrase occurs in the quotations, the second of which explains its meaning. I am not certain what the first part is, but it is most probably charī, in the sense of 'movable,' 'locomotive,' so that the phrase was equivalent to 'flying brigade.' [It may possibly be chaṛhī, for chaṛhnī, in the sense of 'preparation for battle.'] It was evidently a technicality of the Mahratta armies.
1803.—"The object of a cherry fouj, without guns, with two armies after it, must be to fly about and plunder the richest country it can find, not to march through exhausted countries, to make revolutions in cities."—Elphinstone, in Life, i. 59.
1809.—"Two detachments under ... Mahratta chiefs of some consequence, are now employed in levying contributions in different parts of the Jypoor country. Such detachments are called churee fuoj; they are generally equipped very lightly, with but little artillery; and are equally formidable in their progress to friend and foe."—Broughton, Letters from a Mahratta Camp, 128; [ed. 1892, p. 96].
CHETTY, s. A member of any of the trading castes in S. India, answering in every way to the [Banyans] of W. and N. India. Malayāl. cheṭṭi, Tam. sheṭṭi, [Tel. seṭṭi, in Ceylon seḍḍi]. These have all been supposed to be forms from the Skt. śreshṭi; but C. P. Brown (MS.) denies this, and says "Shetti, a shop-keeper, is plain Telegu," and quite distinct from śreshṭi. [The same view is taken in the Madras Gloss.] Whence then the H. Seṭh (see [SETT])? [The word was also used for a 'merchantman': see the quotations from Pyrard on which Gray notes: "I do not know any other authority for the use of the word for merchantships, though it is analogous to our merchantmen.'">[