I-SAY. The Chinese mob used to call the English soldiers A′says or Isays, from the frequency of this apostrophe in their mouths. (The French gamins, it is said, do the same at Boulogne.) At Amoy the Chinese used to call out after foreigners Akee! Akee! a tradition from the Portuguese Aqui! 'Here!' In Java the French are called by the natives Orang deedong, i.e. the dîtes-donc people. (See Fortune's Two Visits to the Tea Countries, 1853, p. 52; and Notes and Queries in China and Japan, ii. 175.)
[1863.—"The Sepoys were ... invariably called 'Achas.' Acha or good is the constantly recurring answer of a Sepoy when spoken to...."—Fisher, Three Years in China, 146.]
ISKAT, s. Ratlines. A marine term from Port. escada (Roebuck).
[ISLAM, s. Infn. of Ar. salm, 'to be or become safe'; the word generally used by Mahommedans for their religion.
[1616.—"Dated in Achen 1025 according to the rate of Slam."—Foster, Letters, iv. 125.
[1617.—"I demanded the debts ... one [of the debtors] for the valew of 110 r[ials] is termed Slam."—Letter of E. Young, from Jacatra, Oct. 3, I.O. Records: O.C. No. 541.]
ISTOOP, s. Oakum. A marine term from Port. estopa (Roebuck).
ISTUBBUL, s. This usual Hind. word for 'stable' may naturally be imagined to be a corruption of the English word. But it is really Ar. iṣṭabl, though that no doubt came in old times from the Latin stabulum through some Byzantine Greek form.
ITZEBOO, s. A Japanese coin, the smallest silver denomination. Itsi-bū, 'one drachm.' [The N.E.D. gives itse, itche, 'one,' bū, 'division, part, quarter']. Present value about 1s. Marsden says: "Itzebo, a small gold piece of oblong form, being 0.6 inch long, and 0.3 broad. Two specimens weighed 2 dwt. 3 grs. only" (Numism. Orient., 814-5). See Cocks's Diary, i. 176, ii. 77. [The coin does not appear in the last currency list; see Chamberlain, Things Japanese, 3rd ed. 99.]
[1616.—"Ichibos." (See under [KOBANG].)