s of India in the
form _chawbuck_. It is a Persian word, spelt _chabouk_ by Moore, in
_Lalla Rookh_. It was adopted by the Portuguese as _chabuco_, "in the
Portuguese India, a whip or scourge"[23] (Vieyra, _Port. Dict._, 1794).
_Fetish_, an African idol, first occurs in the records of the early
navigators, collected and published by Hakluyt and Purchas. It is the
Port. _feitico_, Lat. _factitius_, artificial, applied by the Portuguese
explorers to the graven images of the heathen. The corresponding Old Fr.
_faitis_ is rather a complimentary adjective, and everyone remembers the
lady in Chaucer who spoke French fairly and _fetousli_. _Palaver_, also
a travellers' word from the African coast, is Port. _palavra_, word,
speech, Greco-Lat. _parabola_. It is thus a doublet of _parole_ and
_parable_, and is related to _parley_. _Ayah_, an Indian nurse, is Port.
_aia_, nurse, of unknown origin. _Caste_ is Port. _casta_, pure, and a
doublet of _chaste_. _Tank_, an Anglo-Indian word of which the meaning
has narrowed in this country, is Port. _tanque_, a pool or cistern, Lat.
_stagnum_, whence Old Fr. _estang_ (_etang_) and provincial Eng.
_stank_, a dam, or a pond banked round. _Cobra_ is the Portuguese for
snake, cognate with Fr. _couleuvre_, Lat. _coluber_ (see p. 7). We use
it as an abbreviation for _cobra de capello_, hooded snake, the second
part of which is identical with Fr. _chapeau_ and cognate with _cape_,
_chapel_ (p. 152), _chaplet_, a garland, and _chaperon_, a "protecting"
hood. From still further afield than India comes _joss_, a Chinese god,
a corruption of Port. _deos_, Lat. _deus_. Even _mandarin_ comes from
Portuguese, and not Chinese, but it is an Eastern word, ultimately of
Sanskrit origin.

[Page Heading: GORILLA--SILK]

The word _gorilla_ is perhaps African, but more than two thousand years
separate its first appearance from its present use. In the 5th or 6th
century, B.C., a Carthaginian navigator named Hanno sailed beyond the
Pillars of Hercules along the west coast of Africa. He probably followed
very much the same route as Sir Richard Dalyngridge and Saxon Hugh when
they voyaged with Witta the Viking. He wrote in Punic a record of his
adventures, which was received with the incredulity usually accorded to
travellers' tales. Among the wonders he encountered were some hairy
savages called _gorillas_. His work was translated into Greek and later
on into several European languages, so that the word became