Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.16019

c10.16019

1553.—“. . . Before the foundation of Malaca, in this Cingapura . . . met all the navigators of the seas to the West of India and of those to the East of it, which last embrace the regions of Siam, China, Choampa, Camboja, and the many thousand islands that lie in that Orient. And these two quarters the natives of the land distinguish as Dybananguim (di-bāwa-angin) and Ataz Anguim (*ātas-angin*) which are as much as to say ‘below the winds’ and ‘above the winds,’ below being West and above East.”—*Barros*, Dec. II. Liv. vi. cap. i. In this passage De Barros goes unusually astray, for the use of the Malay expressions which he quotes, *bawa-angin* (or *di-bawah* *angin*, ‘below the wind,’ and *ātas* (or *di-ātas*) *angin*, ‘above the wind,’ is just the reverse of his explanation, the former meaning the east, and the latter the west (see below).