Page:Hobson-Jobson a glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological, historical, geographical and discursive.djvu/408

FLYING-FOX. without the walls, &c., being present."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 452.

1816.—

1885.—"After I had changed my riding-habit for my one other gown, I came out to join the general under the tent-fly...."—Boots and Saddles, by Mrs. Custer, p. 42 (American work).

FLYING-FOX, s. Popular name of the great bat (Pteropus Edwardsi, Geoff). In the daytime these bats roost in large colonies, hundreds or thousands of them pendent from the branches of some great ficus. Jerdon says of these bats: "If water is at hand, a tank, or river, or the sea, they fly cautiously down and touch the water, but I could not ascertain if they took a sip, or merely dipped part of their bodies in" (Mammals of India, p. 18). The truth is, as Sir George Yule has told us from his own observation, that the bat in its skimming flight dips its breast in the water, and then imbibes the moisture from its own wet fur. Probably this is the first record of a curious fact in natural history. "I have been positively assured by natives that on the Odeypore lake in Rajputana, the crocodiles rise to catch these bats, as they follow in line, touching the water. Fancy fly-fishing for crocodile with such a fly!" (Communication from M.-Gen. R. H. Keatinge.) [On the other hand Mr. Blanford says: "I have often observed this habit: the head is lowered, the animal pauses in its flight, and the water is just touched, I believe, by the tongue or lower jaw. I have no doubt that some water is drunk, and this is the opinion of both Tickell and M‘Master. The former says that flying-foxes in confinement drink at all hours, lapping with their tongues. The latter has noticed many other bats drink in the evening as well as the flying-foxes." (Mammalia of India, 258).]

1298.—"... all over India the birds and beasts are entirely different from ours, all but ... the Quail.... For example, they have bats—I mean those birds that fly by night and have no feathers of any kind; well, their birds of this kind are as big as a goshawk!"—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. ch. 17.

c. 1328:—"There be also bats really and truly as big as kites. These birds fly nowhither by day, but only when the sun sets. Wonderful! By day they hang themselves up on trees by the feet, with their bodies downwards, and in the daytime they look just like big fruit on the tree."—Friar Jordanus, p. 19.

1555.—"On the road we occasionally saw trees whose top reached the skies, and on which one saw marvellous bats, whose wings stretched some 14 palms. But these bats were not seen on every tree."—Sidi 'Ali, 91.

[c. 1590.—Writing of the Sarkār of Kābul, 'Abul Faẓl says: "There is an animal called a flying-fox, which flies upward about the space of a yard." This is copied from Baber, and the animal meant is perhaps the flying squirrel.—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, ii. 406.

[1623.—"I saw Batts as big as Crows."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 103.]

1813.—"The enormous bats which darken its branches frequently exceed 6 feet in length from the tip of each wing, and from their resemblance to that animal are not improperly called flying-foxes."—''Forbes, Or. Mem.'' iii. 246; [2nd ed. ii. 269].

[1869.—"They (in Batchian) are almost the only people in the Archipelago who eat the great fruit-eating bats called by us &apos;flying foxes&apos; ... they are generally cooked with abundance of spices and condiments, and are really very good eating, something like hare."—Wallace, Malay Archip., ed. 1890, p. 256.]

1882.—"... it is a common belief in some places that emigrant coolies hang with heads downward, like flying-foxes, or are ground in mills for oil."—Pioneer Mail, Dec. 13, p. 579.

FOGASS, s. A word of Port. origin used in S. India; fogaça, from fogo, 'fire,' a cake baked in embers. It is composed of minced radish with chillies, &c., used as a sort of curry, and eaten with rice.

1554.—"... fecimus iter per amoenas et non infrugiferas Bulgarorum convalles: quo fere tempore pani usu sumus subcinericio, fugacias vocant."—Busbequii Epist. i. p. 42.

FOLIUM INDICUM. (See .) The article appears under this name in Milburn (1813, i. 283), as an article of trade.

FOOL'S RACK, s. (For Rack see .) Fool Rack is originally, as will be seen from Garcia and Acosta, the name of the strongest distillation from toddy or sura, the 'flower' (p'hūl, in H. and Mahr.) of the spirit. But the 'striving after meaning' caused the English corruption of this name to be applied to a peculiarly abominable and