1691.—"His honour was carried by the Amaals, i.e. the Palankyn bearers 12 in number, sitting in his Palankyn."—Valentijn, v. 266.
1711.—"Hamalage, or Cooley-hire, at 1 coz (see [GOSBECK]) for every maund Tabrees."—Tariff in Lockyer, 243.
1750-60.—"The Hamauls or porters, who make a livelihood of carrying goods to and from the warehouses."—Grose, i. 120.
1809.—"The palankeen-bearers are here called hamauls (a word signifying carrier) ... these people come chiefly from the Mahratta country, and are of the coombie or agricultural caste."—Maria Graham, 2.
1813.—For Hamauls at Bussora, see Milburn, i. 126.
1840.—"The hamals groaned under the weight of their precious load, the Apostle of the Ganges" (Dr. Duff to wit).—Smith's Life of Dr. John Wilson, 1878, p. 282.
1877.—"The stately iron gate enclosing the front garden of the Russian Embassy was beset by a motley crowd.... Hamals, or street porters, bent double under the burden of heavy trunks and boxes, would come now and then up one or other of the two semicircular avenues."—Letter from Constantinople, in Times, May 7.
HUMMING-BIRD, s. This name is popularly applied in some parts of India to the sun-birds (sub-fam. Nectarininae).
HUMP, s. 'Calcutta humps' are the salted humps of Indian oxen exported from that city. (See under [BUFFALO].)
HURCARRA, HIRCARA, &c., s. Hind. harkārā, 'a messenger, a courier; an emissary, a spy' (Wilson). The etymology, according to the same authority, is har, 'every,' kār, 'business.' The word became very familiar in the Gilchristian spelling Hurkaru, from the existence of a Calcutta newspaper bearing that title (Bengal Hurkaru, generally enunciated by non-Indians as Hurkĕroó), for the first 60 years of last century, or thereabouts.