the Samorin, Alguns Documentos da Torre do Tombo, p. 373.]
1516.—"Eight fine rubies of the weight of one fanão ... are worth fanões 10."—Barbosa (Lisbon ed.), 384.
1553.—"In the ceremony of dubbing a knight he is to go with all his kinsfolk and friends, in pomp and festal procession, to the House of the King ... and make him an offering of 60 of those pieces of gold which they call Fanões, each of which may be worth 20 reis of our money."—De Barros, Dec. I. liv. ix. cap. iii.
1582.—In the English transl. of 'Castañeda' is a passage identical with the preceding, in which the word is written "Fannon."—Fol. 36b.
" "In this city of Negapatan aforesaid are current certain coins called fannò.... They are of base gold, and are worth in our money 10 soldi each, and 17 are equal to a zecchin of Venetian gold."—Gasp. Balbi, f. 84v.
c. 1610.—"Ils nous donnent tous les jours a chacun un Panan, qui est vne pièce d'or monnoye du Roy qui vaut environ quatre sols et demy."—Pyrard de Laval, i. 250; [Hak. Soc. i. 350; in i. 365 Panants].
[c. 1665.—"... if there is not found in every thousand oysters the value of 5 fanos of pearls—that is to say a half ecu of our money,—it is accepted as a proof that the fishing will not be good...."—Tavernier, ed. Ball, ii. 117 seq.]
1678.—"2. Whosoever shall profane the name of God by swearing or cursing, he shall pay 4 fanams to the use of the poore for every oath or curse."—Orders agreed on by the Governor and Council of Ft. St. Geo. Oct. 28. In Notes and Exts. No. i. 85.
1752.—"N.B. 36 Fanams to a Pagoda, is the exchange, by which all the servants belonging to the Company receive their salaries. But in the Bazar the general exchange in Trade is 40 to 42."—T. Brooks, p. 8.
1784.—This is probably the word which occurs in a "Song by a Gentleman of the Navy when a Prisoner in Bangalore Jail" (temp. Hyder 'Ali).
"Ye Bucks of Seringapatam,
Ye Captives so cheerful and gay;
How sweet with a golden sanam
You spun the slow moments away."
In Seton-Karr, i. 19.
1785.—"You are desired to lay a silver fanam, a piece worth three pence, upon the ground. This, which is the smallest of all coins, the elephant feels about till he finds."—Caraccioli's Life of Clive, i. 288.
1803.—"The pay I have given the boatmen is one gold fanam for every day they do not work, and two gold fanams for every day they do."—From Sir A. Wellesley, in Life of Munro, i. 342.FAN-PALM, s. The usual application of this name is to the Borassus flabelliformis, L. (see BRAB, PALMYRA), which is no doubt the type on which our ladies' fans have been formed. But it is also sometimes applied to the Talipot (q.v.); and it is exceptionally (and surely erroneously) applied by Sir L. Pelly (J.R.G.S. xxxv. 232) to the "Traveller's Tree," i.e. the Madagascar Ravenala (Urania speciosa).
FANQUI, s. Chin. fan-kwei, 'foreign demon'; sometimes with the affix tsz or tsŭ, 'son'; the popular Chinese name for Europeans. ["During the 15th and 16th centuries large numbers of black slaves of both sexes from the E. I. Archipelago were purchased by the great houses of Canton to serve as gate-keepers. They were called 'devil slaves,' and it is not improbable that the term 'foreign devil,' so freely used by the Chinese for foreigners, may have had this origin."—Ball, Things Chinese, 535.]
FARÁSH, FERÁSH, FRASH, s. Ar.—H. farrāsh, [farsh, 'to spread (a carpet)']. A menial servant whose proper business is to spread carpets, pitch tents, &c., and, in fact, in a house, to do housemaid's work; employed also in Persia to administer the bastinado. The word was in more common use in India two centuries ago than now. One of the highest hereditary officers of Sindhia's Court is called the Farāsh-khāna-wālā. [The same word used for the tamarisk tree (Tamarix gallica) is a corr. of the Ar. farās.]
c. 1513.—"And the gentlemen rode ... upon horses from the king's stables, attended by his servants whom they call farazes, who groom and feed them."—Correa, Lendas, II. i. 364.
(Here it seems to be used for Syce (q.v.) or groom).
[1548.—"Ffarazes." See under BATTA, a.]
c. 1590.—"Besides, there are employed 1000 Farráshes, natives of Irán, Turán, and Hindostán."—Āīn, i. 47.
