1829.—"The moment the picket heard them, they fired their long ginjalls, which kill a mile off."—Shipp's Mem. iii. 40.
[1900.—"Gingals, or Jingals, are long tapering guns, six to fourteen feet in length, borne on the shoulders of two men and fired by a third. They have a stand, or tripod, reminding one of a telescope...."—Ball, Things Chinese, 38.]
GINGELI, GINGELLY, &c. s. The common trade name for the seed and oil of Sesamum indicum, v. orientale. There is a H. [not in Platts' Dict.] and Mahr. form jinjalī, but most probably this also is a trade name introduced by the Portuguese. The word appears to be Arabic al-juljulān, which was pronounced in Spain al-jonjolīn (Dozy and Engelmann, 146-7), whence Spanish aljonjoli, Italian giuggiolino, zerzelino, &c., Port. girgelim, zirzelim, &c., Fr. jugeoline, &c., in the Philippine Islands ajonjoli. The proper H. name is til. It is the σήσαμον of Dioscorides (ii. 121), and of Theophrastus (Hist. Plant. i. 11). [See Watt, Econ. Dict. VI. ii. 510 seqq.]
1510.—"Much grain grows here (at Zeila) ... oil in great quantity, made not from olives, but from zerzalino."—Varthema, 86.
1552.—"There is a great amount of gergelim."—Castanheda, 24.
[1554.—"... oil of Jergelim and quoquo ([Coco])."—Botelho, Tombo, 54.]
1599.—"... Oyle of Zezeline, which they make of a Seed, and it is very good to eate, or to fry fish withal."—C. Fredericke, ii. 358.
1606.—"They performed certain anointings of the whole body, when they baptized, with oil of coco-nut, or of gergelim."—Gouvea, f. 39.
c. 1610.—"I'achetay de ce poisson frit en l'huile de gerselin (petite semence comme nauete dont ils font huile) qui est de tres-mauvais goust."—Mocquet, 232.
[1638.—Mr. Whiteway notes that "in a letter of Amra Rodriguez to the King, of Nov. 30 (India Office MSS. Book of the Monssons, vol. iv.), he says: 'From Masulipatam to the furthest point of the Bay of Bengal runs the coast which we call that of Gergilim.' They got Gingeli thence, I suppose.">[