Hobson-Jobson / A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive

by Sir Henry Yule; A. C. Burnell

Do mar a natural ferocidade...."

Camões, vii. 22.

Englished by Burton:

"The country-people call this range the Ghaut,

and from its foot-hills scanty breadth there be,

whose seaward-sloping coast-plain long hath fought

'gainst Ocean's natural ferocity...."

1623.—"We commenced then to ascend the mountain-(range) which the people of the country call Gat, and which traverses in the middle the whole length of that part of India which projects into the sea, bathed on the east side by the Gulf of Bengal, and on the west by the Ocean, or Sea of Goa."—P. della Valle, ii. 32; [Hak. Soc. ii. 222].

1673.—"The Mountains here are one continued ridge ... and are all along called Gaot."—Fryer, 187.

1685.—"On les appelle, montagnes de Gatte, c'est comme qui diroit montagnes de montagnes, Gatte en langue du pays ne signifiant autre chose que montagne" (quite wrong).—Ribeyro, Ceylan, (Fr. Transl.), p. 4.