" "A man (Col. Gordon) who had wrought such wonders with means so modest as a levy of Coolies ... needed, we may be sure, only to be put to the highest test to show how just those were who had marked him out in his Crimean days as a youth whose extraordinary genius for war could not be surpassed in the army that lay before Sebastopol."—Sat. Review, Aug. 16, 203.
1875.—"A long row of cottages, evidently pattern-built ... announced the presence of Coolies, Indian or Chinese."—Palgrave, Dutch Guiana, ch. i.
The word Cooly has passed into English thieves' jargon in the sense of 'a soldier' (v. Slang Dict.).
COOMKEE, adj., used as sub. This is a derivative from P. kumak, 'aid,' and must have been widely diffused in India, for we find it specialised in different senses in the extreme West and East, besides having in both the general sense of 'auxiliary.'
[(a) In the Moghul army the term is used for auxiliary troops.
[c. 1590.—"Some troops are levied occasionally to strengthen the munsubs, and they are called Kummeky (or auxiliaries)."—Gladwin, Ayeen Akbery, ed. 1800, i. 188; in Blochmann, i. 232, Kumakis.
[1858.—"The great landholders despise them (the ordinary levies) but respect the Komukee corps...."—Sleeman, Journey through Oudh, i. 30.]
(b) Kumakī, in N. and S. Canara, is applied to a defined portion of forest, from which the proprietor of the village or estate has the privilege of supplying himself with wood for house-building, &c. (except from the reserved kinds of wood), with leaves and twigs for manure, fodder, &c. (See [COOMRY]). [The system is described by Sturrock, Man. S. Canara, i. 16, 224 seqq.]
(c). Koomkee, in Bengal, is the technical name of the female elephant used as a decoy in capturing a male.
1807.—"When an elephant is in a proper state to be removed from the Keddah, he is conducted either by koomkies (i.e. decoy females) or by tame males."—Williamson, Oriental Field Sports, folio ed., p. 30.