1809.—"Two naked dandys paddling at the head of the vessel."—Ld. Valentia, i. 67.
1824.—"I am indeed often surprised to observe the difference between my dandees (who are nearly the colour of a black teapot) and the generality of the peasants whom we meet."—Bp. Heber, i. 149 (ed. 1844).
—— (b). A kind of ascetic who carries a staff. Same etymology. See Solvyns, who gives a plate of such an one.
[1828.—"... the Dandi is distinguished by carrying a small Dand, or wand, with several processes or projections from it, and a piece of cloth dyed with red ochre, in which the Brahmanical cord is supposed to be enshrined, attached to it."—H. H. Wilson, Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus, ed. 1861, i. 193.]
—— (c). H. same spelling, and same etymology. A kind of vehicle used in the Himālaya, consisting of a strong cloth slung like a hammock to a bamboo staff, and carried by two (or more) men. The traveller can either sit sideways, or lie on his back. It is much the same as the Malabar [muncheel] (q.v.), [and P. della Valle describes a similar vehicle which he says the Portuguese call Rete (Hak. Soc. i. 183)].
[1875.—"The nearest approach to travelling in a dandi I can think of, is sitting in a half-reefed top-sail in a storm, with the head and shoulders above the yard."—Wilson, Abode of Snow, 103.]
1876.—"In the lower hills when she did not walk she travelled in a dandy."—Kinloch, Large Game Shooting in Thibet, 2nd S., p. vii.
DANGUR, n.p. H. Ḍhāngar, the name by which members of various tribes of Chūtiā Nāgpūr, but especially of the Orāons, are generally known when they go out to distant provinces to seek employment as labourers ("coolies"). A very large proportion of those who emigrate to the tea-plantations of E. India, and also to Mauritius and other colonies, belong to the Orāon tribe. The etymology of the term Ḍhāngar is doubtful. The late Gen. Dalton says: "It is a word that from its apparent derivation (dāng or dhāng, 'a hill') may mean any hill-man; but amongst several tribes of the Southern tributary Maháls, the terms Dhángar and Dhángarin mean the youth of the two sexes, both in highland and lowland villages, and it cannot be considered the national designation of any particular tribe" (Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, 245) [and see Risley, Tribes and Castes, i. 219].
DARCHEENEE, s. P. dār-chīnī, 'China-stick,' i.e. cinnamon.
1563.—"... The people of Ormuz, because this bark was brought for sale there by those who had come from China, called it dar-chini, which in Persian means 'wood of China,' and so they sold it in Alexandria...."—Garcia, f. 59-60.