[1675.—"Nor does this exempt them from pishcashing the Nabob's Crewry or Governour."—Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. ccxxxix.]
[CROTCHEY, KURACHEE,> properly Karāchi, the sea-port and chief town of the province of Sind, which is a creation of the British rule, no town appearing to have existed on the site before 1725. In As Suyūti's History of the Caliphs (E.T. p. 229) the capture of Kīrakh or Kīraj is mentioned. Sir H. M. Elliot thinks that this place was probably situated in if not named from Kachh. Jarrett (Āīn, ii. 344, note) supposes this to be Karāchi, which Elliot identified with the Krokala of Arrian. Here, according to Curtius, dwelt the Arabioi or Arabitai. The harbour of Karāchi was possibly the Porus Alexandri, where Nearchus was detained by the monsoon for twenty-four days (see McCrindle, Ancient India, 167, 262).
[1812.—"From Crotchey to Cape Monze the people call themselves Balouches."—Morier, Journey through Persia, p. 5.
[1839.—"... spices of all kinds, which are carried from Bombay ... to Koratchee or other ports in Sind."—Elphinstone's Caubul, i. 384.]
CROW-PHEASANT, s. The popular Anglo-Indian name of a somewhat ignoble bird (Fam. Cuculidae), common all over the plains of India, in Burma, and the Islands, viz. Centropus rufipennis, Illiger. It is held in India to give omens.
1878.—"The crow-pheasant stalks past with his chestnut wings drooping by his side."—Phil. Robinson, In My Indian Garden, 7.
1883.—"There is that ungainly object the coucal, crow-pheasant, jungle-crow, or whatever else you like to call the miscellaneous thing, as it clambers through a creeper-laden bush or spreads its reddish-bay wings and makes a slow voyage to the next tree. To judge by its appearance only it might be a crow developing for a peacock, but its voice seems to have been borrowed from a black-faced monkey."—Tribes on my Frontier, 155.
CUBEB, s. The fruit of the Piper Cubeba, a climbing shrub of the Malay region. [Its Hind. name kabāb chīnī marks its importation from the East by Chinese merchants.] The word and the articles were well known in Europe in the Middle Ages, the former being taken directly from the Arab. kabābah. It was used as a spice like other peppers, though less common. The importation into Europe had become infinitesimal, when it revived in last century, owing to the medicinal power of the article having become known to our medical officers during the British occupation of Java (1811-15). Several particulars of interest will be found in Hanbury and Flückiger's Pharmacog. 526, and in the notes to Marco Polo, ii. 380.
c. 943.—"The territories of this Prince (the Maharaja of the Isles) produce all sorts of spices and aromatics.... The exports are camphor, lign-aloes, clove, sandal-wood, betel-nut, nutmeg, cardamom, cubeb (al-kabābah)...."—Maṣ'ūdi, i. 341 seq.
13th cent.—