1404.—"When the ambassadors arrived in the city of Khoi, they found in it an ambassador, whom the Sultan of Babylon had sent to Timour Bey.... He had also with him 6 rare birds and a beast called jornufa ..." (then follows a very good description).—Clavijo, by Markham, pp. 86-87.
c. 1430.—"Item, I have also been in Lesser India, which is a fine Kingdom. The capital is called Dily. In this country are many elephants, and animals called surnasa (for surnafa), which is like a stag, but is a tall animal and has a long neck, 4 fathoms in length or longer."—Schiltberger, Hak. Soc. 47.
1471.—"After this was brought foorthe a giraffa, which they call Girnaffa, a beaste as long legged as a great horse, or rather more; but the hinder legges are halfe a foote shorter than the former," &c. (The Italian in Ramusio, ii. f. 102, has "vna Zirapha, la quale essi chiamano Zirnapha ouer Giraffa.")—Josafa Barbaro, in Venetians in Persia, Hak. Soc. 54.
1554.—"Il ne fut onc que les grands seigneurs quelques barbares qu'ilz aient esté, n'aimassent qu'on leurs presentast les bestes d'estranges pais. Aussi en auons veu plusieurs au chasteau du Caire ... entre lesquelles est celle qu'ilz nomment vulgairement Zurnapa."—P. Belon, f. 118. It is remarkable to find Belon adopting this Persian form in Egypt.
GIRJA, s. This is a word for a Christian church, commonly used on the Bengal side of India, from Port. igreja, itself a corruption of ecclesia. Khāfī Khān (c. 1720) speaking of the Portuguese at Hoogly, says they called their places of worship Kalīsā (Elliot, vii. 211). No doubt Kalīsā, as well as igreja, is a form of ecclesia, but the superficial resemblance is small, so it may be suspected that the Musulman writer was speaking from book-knowledge only.
1885.—"It is related that a certain Maulví, celebrated for the power of his curses, was called upon by his fellow religionists to curse a certain church built by the English in close proximity to a Masjid. Anxious to stand well with them, and at the same time not to offend his English rulers, he got out of the difficulty by cursing the building thus:
'Gir jā ghar! Gir jā ghar! Gir jā!'
(i.e.) 'Fall down, house! Fall down, house! Fall down!' or simply
'Church-house! Church-house! Church!'"—W. J. D'Gruyther, in Panjab Notes and Queries, ii. 125.
The word is also in use in the Indian Archipelago: