1868.—"Our only captive this time was a huluq monkey, a shy little beast, and very rarely seen or caught. They have black fur with white breasts, and go about usually in pairs, swinging from branch to branch with incredible agility, and making the forest resound with their strange cachinatory cry...."—T. Lewin, A Fly on the Wheel, 374.
1884.—"He then ... describes a gibbon he had (not an historian nor a book, but a specimen of Hylobates hooluck) who must have been wholly delightful. This engaging anthropoid used to put his arm through Mr. Sterndale's, was extremely clean in his habits ('which,' says Mr. Sterndale thoughtfully and truthfully, 'cannot be said of all the monkey tribe'), and would not go to sleep without a pillow. Of course he died of consumption. The gibbon, however, as a pet has one weakness, that of 'howling in a piercing and somewhat hysterical fashion for some minutes till exhausted.'"—Saty. Review, May 31, on Sterndale's Nat. Hist. of Mammalia of India, &c.
HOOLY, s. Hind. holī (Skt. holākā), [perhaps from the sound made in singing]. The spring festival, held at the approach of the vernal equinox, during the 10 days preceding the full moon of the month P'hālguṇa. It is a sort of carnival in honour of Kṛishna and the milkmaids. Passers-by are chaffed, and pelted with red powder, or drenched with yellow liquids from squirts. Songs, mostly obscene, are sung in praise of Kṛishna, and dances performed round fires. In Bengal the feast is called ḍol jātrā, or 'Swing-cradle festival.' [On the idea underlying the rite, see Frazer, Golden Bough, 2nd ed. iii. 306 seq.]
c. 1590.—"Here is also a place called Cheramutty, where, during the feast of the Hooly, flames issue out of the ground in a most astonishing manner."—Gladwin's Ayeen Akbery, ii. 34; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 173].
[1671.—"In Feb. or March they have a feast the Romanists call Carnival, the Indians Whoolye."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. cccxiv.]
1673.—"... their Hooly, which is at their other Seed-Time."—Fryer, 180.
1727.—"One (Feast) they kept on Sight of a New Moon in February, exceeded the rest in ridiculous Actions and Expense; and this they called the Feast of Wooly, who was ... a fierce fellow in a War with some Giants that infested Sindy...."—A. Hamilton, i. 128; [ed. 1744, i. 129].
1808.—"I have delivered your message to Mr. H. about April day, but he says he understands the learned to place the Hooly as according with May day, and he believes they have no occasion in India to set apart a particular day in the year for the manufacture...."—Letter from Mrs. Halhed to W. Hastings, in Cal. Review, xxvi. 93.
1809.—"... We paid the Muha Raj (Sindhia) the customary visit at the Hohlee. Everything was prepared for playing; but at Captain C.'s particular request, that part of the ceremony was dispensed with. Playing the Hohlee consists in throwing about a quantity of flour, made from a water-nut called [singara], and dyed with red sanders; it is called abeer; and the principal sport is to cast it into the eyes, mouth, and nose of the players, and to splash them all over with water tinged of an orange colour with the flowers of the dak (see [DHAWK]) tree."—Broughton's Letters, p. 87; [ed. 1892, p. 65 seq.].
HOON, s. A gold [Pagoda] (coin), q.v. Hind. hūn, "perhaps from Canar. honnu (gold)"—Wilson. [See Rice, Mysore, i. 801.]