1648.—"The Frassy for the Tents."—Van Twist, 86.
1673.—"Where live the Frasses or Porters also."—Fryer, 67.
1764.—(Allowances to the Resident at Murshīdābād).
* * * * *
"Public servants as follows:—1 Vakeel, 2 Moonshees, 4 Chobdars, 2 Jemadars, 20 Peons, 10 Mussalchees, 12 Bearers, 2 Chowry Bearers, and such a number of Frosts and Lascars as he may have occasion for removing his tents."—In Long, 406.
[1812.—"Much of course depends upon the chief of the Feroshes or tent-pitchers, called the Ferosh-Bashee, who must necessarily be very active."—Morier, Journey through Persia, 70.]
1824.—"Call the ferashes ... and let them beat the rogues on the soles of their feet, till they produce the fifty ducats."—Hajji Baba (ed. 1835), 40.
[1859.—
"The Sultan rises and the dark Ferrash
Strikes and prepares it for another guest."
FitzGerald, Omar Khayyam, xlv.]
FEDEA, FUDDEA, s. A denomination of money formerly current in Bombay and the adjoining coast; Mahr. p'hadyā (qu. Ar. fidya, ransom?). It constantly occurs in the account statements of the 16th century, e.g. of Nunez (1554) as a money of account, of which 4 went to the silver tanga, [see TANGA] 20 to the Pardao. In Milburn (1813) it is a pice or copper coin, of which 50 went to a rupee. Prof. Robertson Smith suggests that this may be the Ar. denomination of a small coin used in Egypt, faḍḍa (i.e. 'silverling'). It may be an objection that the letter ẓwād used in that word is generally pronounced in India as a z. The faḍḍa is the Turkish pāra, 1⁄40 of a piastre, an infinitesimal value now. [Burton (Arabian Nights, xi. 98) gives 2000 faddahs as equal about 1s. 2d.] But, according to Lane, the name was originally given to half-dirhems, coined early in the 15th century, and these would be worth about 5⅔d. The fedea of 1554 would be about 4¼d. This rather indicates the identity of the names.
FERÁZEE, s. Properly Ar. farāiẓī, from farāiẓ (pl. of farẓ) 'the divine ordinances.' A name applied to a body of Mahommedan Puritans in Bengal, kindred to the Wahābis of Arabia. They represent a reaction and protest against the corrupt condition and pagan practices into which Mahommedanism in Eastern India had fallen, analogous to the former decay of native Christianity in the south (see MALABAR RITES). This reaction was begun by Hajji Sharīyatullah, a native of the village of Daulatpūr, in the district of Farīdpūr, who was killed in an agrarian riot in 1831. His son Dūdū Mīyān succeeded him as head of the sect. Since his death, some 35 years ago, the influence of the body is said to have diminished, but it had spread very largely through Lower Bengal. The Farāiẓī wraps his dhoty (q.v.) round his loins, without crossing it between his legs, a practice which he regards as heathenish, as a Bedouin would.
FEROZESHUHUR, FEROSHUHR, PHERŪSHAHR, n.p. The last of these appears to be the correct representation of this name of the scene of the hard-fought battle of 21st-22nd December, 1845. For, according to Col. R. C. Temple, the Editor of Panjab Notes and Queries, ii. 116 (1885), the village was named after Bhāī Pherū, a Sikh saint of the beginning of the century, who lies buried at Mīān-ke-Taḥṣīl in Lahore District.
FETISH, s. A natural object, or animal, made an object of worship. From Port. fetiço, feitiço, or fetisso (old Span. fechizo), apparently from factitius, signifying first 'artificial,' and then 'unnatural,' 'wrought by charms,' &c. The word is not Anglo-Indian; but it was at an early date applied by the Portuguese to the magical figures, &c., used by natives in Africa and India, and has thence been adopted into French and English. The word has of late years acquired a special and technical meaning, chiefly through the writings of Comte. [See Jevons, Intr. to the Science of Rel. 166 seqq.] Raynouard (Lex. Roman.) has fachurier, fachilador, for 'a sorcerer,' which he places under fat, i.e. fatum, and cites old Catalan fadador, old Span. hadador, and then Port. feiticeiro, &c. But he has mixed up the derivatives of two different words, fatum and factitius. Prof. Max Müller quotes, from Muratori, a work of 1311 which has: "incantationes, sacrilegia, auguria, vel malefica, quae facturae seu praestigia vulgariter appellantur." And
