1623.—"Il capitano ... sperava che potessimo esser vicini alla città di Daman; laqual esta dentro il golfo di Cambaia a man destra...."—P. della Valle, ii. 499 [Hak. Soc. i. 15].
DAMANI, s. Applied to a kind of squall. (See [ELEPHANTA].)
DAMMER, s. This word is applied to various resins in different parts of India, chiefly as substitutes for pitch. The word appears to be Malayo-Javanese damar, used generically for resins, a class of substances the origin of which is probably often uncertain. [Mr. Skeat notes that the Malay damar means rosin and a torch made of rosin, the latter consisting of a regular cylindrical case, made of bamboo or other suitable material, filled to the top with rosin and ignited.] To one of the dammer-producing trees in the Archipelago the name Dammara alba, Rumph. (N. O. Coniferae), has been given, and this furnishes the 'East India Dammer' of English varnish-makers. In Burma the dammer used is derived from at least three different genera of the N. O. Dipterocarpeae; in Bengal it is derived from the sāl tree (see [SAUL-WOOD]) (Shorea robusta) and other Shoreae, as well as by importation from transmarine sources. In S. India "white dammer," "Dammer Pitch," or Piney resin, is the produce of Vateria indica, and "black dammer" of Canarium strictum; in Cutch the dammer used is stated by Lieut. Leech (Bombay Selections, No. xv. p. 215-216) to be made from chandrūz (or chandras = copal) boiled with an equal quantity of oil. This is probably Fryer's 'rosin taken out of the sea' (infra). [On the other hand Mr. Pringle (Diary, &c., Fort St. George, 1st ser. iv. 178) quotes Crawfurd (Malay Archip. i. 455): (Dammer) "exudes through the bark, and is either found adhering to the trunk and branches in large lumps, or in masses on the ground, under the trees. As these often grow near the sea-side or on banks of rivers, the damar is frequently floated away and collected at different places as drift"; and adds: "The dammer used for caulking the masula boats at Madras when Fryer was there, may have been, and probably was, imported from the Archipelago, and the fact that the resin was largely collected as drift may have been mentioned in answer to his enquiries.">[ Some of the Malay dammer also seems, from Major M‘Nair's statement, to be, like copal, fossil. [On this Mr. Skeat says: "It is true that it is sometimes dug up out of the ground, possibly because it may form on the roots of certain trees, or because a great mass of it will fall and partially bury itself in the ground by its own weight, but I have never heard of its being found actually fossilised, and I should question the fact seriously.">[
The word is sometimes used in India [and by the Malays, see above] for 'a torch,' because torches are formed of rags dipped in it. This is perhaps the use which accounts for Haex's explanation below.
1584.—"Demnar (for demmar) from Siacca and Blinton" (i.e. Siak and Billiton).—Barret, in Hakl. ii. 43.
1631.—In Haex's Malay Vocabulary: "Damar, Lumen quod accenditur."
1673.—"The Boat is not strengthened with Knee-Timbers as ours are, the bended Planks are sowed together with Rope-yarn of the Cocoe, and calked with Dammar (a sort of Rosin taken out of the sea)."—Fryer, 37.
" "The long continued Current from the Inland Parts (at Surat) through the vast Wildernesses of huge Woods and Forests, wafts great Rafts of Timber for Shipping and Building: and Damar for Pitch, the finest sented Bitumen (if it be not a gum or Rosin) I ever met with."—Ibid. 121.
1727.—"Damar, a gum that is used for making Pitch and Tar for the use of Shipping."—A. Hamilton, ii. 73; [ed. 1744, ii. 72].
c. 1755.—"A Demar-Boy (Torch-boy)."—Ives, 50.