[c. 1610.—"The Jaques is a tree of the height of a chestnut."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 366.
[1623.—"We had Ziacche, a fruit very rare at this time."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. ii. 264.]
1673.—"Without the town (Madras) grows their Rice ... Jawks, a Coat of Armour over it, like an Hedg-hog's, guards its weighty Fruit."—Fryer, 40.
1810.—"The jack-wood ... at first yellow, becomes on exposure to the air of the colour of mahogany, and is of as fine a grain."—Maria Graham, 101.
1878.—"The monstrous jack that in its eccentric bulk contains a whole magazine of tastes and smells."—Ph. Robinson, In My Indian Garden, 49-50.
It will be observed that the older authorities mention two varieties of the fruit by the names of shakī and barkī, or modifications of these, different kinds according to Jordanus, only from different parts of the tree according to Ibn Batuta. P. Vincenzo Maria (1672) also distinguishes two kinds, one of which he calls Giacha Barca, the other Giacha papa or girasole. And Rheede, the great authority on Malabar plants, says (iii. 19):
"Of this tree, however, they reckon more than 30 varieties, distinguished by the quality of their fruit, but all may be reduced to two kinds; the fruit of one kind distinguished by plump and succulent pulp of delicious honey flavour, being the varaka; that of the other, filled with softer and more flabby pulp of inferior flavour, being the Tsjakapa."
More modern writers seem to have less perception in such matters than the old travellers, who entered more fully and sympathetically into native tastes. Drury says, however, "There are several varieties, but what is called the Honey-jack is by far the sweetest and best."
"He that desireth to see more hereof let him reade Ludovicus Romanus, in his fifth Booke and fifteene Chapter of his Navigaciouns, and Christopherus a Costa in his cap. of Iaca, and Gracia ab Horto, in the Second Booke and fourth Chapter," saith the learned Paludanus.... And if there be anybody so unreasonable, so say we too—by all means let him do so! [A part of this article is derived from the notes to Jordanus by one of the present writers. We may also add, in aid of such further investigation, that Paludanus is the Latinised name of v.d. Broecke, the commentator on Linschoten. "Ludovicus Romanus" is our old friend Varthema, and "Gracia ab Horto" is Garcia De Orta.]
JACKAL, s. The Canis aureus, L., seldom seen in the daytime, unless it be fighting with the vultures for carrion, but in shrieking multitudes, or rather what seem multitudes from the noise they make, entering the precincts of villages, towns, of Calcutta itself, after dark, and startling the newcomer with their hideous yells. Our word is not apparently Anglo-Indian, being taken from the Turkish chaḳāl. But the Pers. shaghāl is close, and Skt. srigāla, 'the howler,' is probably the first form. The common Hind. word is gīdar, ['the greedy one,' Skt. gṛidh]. The jackal takes the place of the fox as the object of hunting 'meets' in India; the indigenous fox being too small for sport.