1673.—"That they should be accounted the Offscum of the People, and as base as the Holencores (whom they account so, because they defile themselves by eating anything)."—Fryer, 28; [and see under [BOY], b].
1690.—"The Halalchors ... are another Sort of Indians at Suratt, the most contemptible, but extremely necessary to be there."—Ovington, 382.
1763.—"And now I must mention the Hallachores, whom I cannot call a Tribe, being rather the refuse of all the Tribes. These are a set of poor unhappy wretches, destined to misery from their birth...."—Reflexions, &c., by Luke Scrafton, Esq., 7-8. It was probably in this passage that Burns (see below) picked up the word.
1783.—"That no Hollocore, Derah, or Chandala caste, shall upon any consideration come out of their houses after 9 o'clock in the morning, lest they should taint the air, or touch the superior Hindoos in the streets."—Mahratta Proclamation at Baroch, in Forbes, Or. Mem. iv. 232.
1786.—"When all my schoolfellows and youthful compeers (those misguided few excepted who joined, to use a Gentoo phrase, the hallachores of the human race) were striking off with eager hope and earnest intent, in some one or other of the many paths of a busy life, I was 'standing idle in the market-place.'"—Letter of Robert Burns, in A. Cunningham's ed. of Works and Life, vi. 63.
1788.—The Indian Vocabulary also gives Hallachore.
1810.—"For the meaner offices we have a Hallalcor or Chandela (one of the most wretched Pariahs)."—Maria Graham, 31.
HALÁLLCUR. V. used in the imperative for infinitive, as is common in the Anglo-Indian use of H. verbs, being Ar.—H. ḥalāl-kar, 'make lawful,' i.e. put (an animal) to death in the manner prescribed to Mahommedans, when it is to be used for food.
[1855.—"Before breakfast I bought a moderately sized sheep for a dollar. Shaykh Hamid 'halaled' (butchered) it according to rule...."—Burton, Pilgrimage, ed. 1893, i. 255.]
1883.—"The diving powers of the poor duck are exhausted.... I have only ... to seize my booty, which has just enough of life left to allow Peer Khan to make it halal, by cutting its throat in the name of Allah, and dividing the webs of its feet."—Tribes on My Frontier, 167.