1796.—"Guingani are cotton stuffs of Bengal and the Coromandel coast, in which the cotton is interwoven with thread made from certain barks of trees."—Fra Paolino, Viaggio, p. 35.
GINGI, JINJEE, &c., n.p. Properly Chenji, [Shenji; and this from Tam. shingi, Skt. sṛingi, 'a hill']. A once celebrated hill-fortress in S. Arcot, 50 [44] m. N.E. of Cuddalore, 35 m. N.W. from Pondicherry, and at one time the seat of a Mahratta principality. It played an important part in the wars of the first three-quarters of the 18th century, and was held by the French from 1750 to 1761. The place is now entirely deserted.
c. 1616.—"And then they were to publish a proclamation in Negapatam, that no one was to trade at Tevenapatam, at Porto Novo, or at any other port of the Naik of Ginja, or of the King of Massulapatam, because these were declared enemies of the state, and all possible war should be made on them for having received among them the Hollanders...."—Bocarro, p. 619.
1675.—"Approve the treaty with the Cawn [see [KHAN]] of Chengie."—Letter from Court to Fort St. Geo. In Notes and Exts., No. i. 5.
1680.—"Advice received ... that Santogee, a younger brother of Sevagee's, had seized upon Rougnaut Pundit, the Soobidar of Chengy Country, and put him in irons."—Ibid. No. iii. 44.
1752.—"It consists of two towns, called the Great and Little Gingee.... They are both surrounded by one wall, 3 miles in circumference, which incloses the two towns, and five mountains of ragged rock, on the summits of which are built 5 strong forts.... The place is inaccessible, except from the east and south-east.... The place was well supplied with all manner of stores, and garrisoned by 150 Europeans, and sepoys and black people in great numbers...."—Cambridge, Account of the War, &c., 32-33.
GINSENG, s. A medical root which has an extraordinary reputation in China as a restorative, and sells there at prices ranging from 6 to 400 dollars an ounce. The plant is Aralia Ginseng, Benth. (N.O. Araliaceae). The second word represents the Chinese name Jên-Shên. In the literary style the drug is called simply Shên. And possibly Jên, or 'Man,' has been prefixed on account of the forked radish, man-like aspect of the root. European practitioners do not recognise its alleged virtues. That which is most valued comes from Corea, but it grows also in Mongolia and Manchuria. A kind much less esteemed, the root of Panax quinquefolium, L., is imported into China from America. A very closely-allied plant occurs in the Himālaya, A. Pseudo-Ginseng, Benth. Ginseng is first mentioned by Alv. Semedo (Madrid, 1642). [See Ball, Things Chinese, 268 seq., where Dr. P. Smith seems to believe that it has some medicinal value.]
GIRAFFE, s. English, not Anglo-Indian. Fr. girafe, It. giraffa, Sp. and Port. girafa, old Sp. azorafa, and these from Ar. al-zarāfa, a cameleopard. The Pers. surnāpa, zurnāpa, seems to be a form curiously divergent of the same word, perhaps nearer the original. The older Italians sometimes make giraffa into seraph. It is not impossible that the latter word, in its biblical use, may be radically connected with giraffe.
The oldest mention of the animal is in the Septuagint version of Deut. xiv. 5, where the word zămăr, rendered in the English Bible 'chamois,' is translated καμηλοπαρδάλις; and so also in the Vulgate camelopardalus, [probably the 'wild goat' of the Targums, not the giraffe (Encycl. Bibl. i. 722)]. We quote some other ancient notices of the animal, before the introduction of the word before us:
c. B.C. 20.—"The animals called camelopards (καμηλοπαρδάλεις) present a mixture of both the animals comprehended in this appellation. In size they are smaller than camels, and shorter in the neck; but in the distinctive form of the head and eyes. In the curvature of the back again they have some resemblance to a camel, but in colour and hair, and in the length of tail, they are like panthers."—Diodorus, ii. 51.