Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.307

c10.307

1552.—De Barros, speaking of the capture of the Island of Beth (Beyt, off the N.W. point of Kāthiāwār) by Nuno da Cunha in 1531, says: “But the natives of Guzarat stood in such fear of Sultan Badur that they would not consent to the terms. And so, like people determined on death, all that night they shaved their heads (this is a superstitious practice of those who despise life, people whom they call in India Amaucos) and betook themselves to their mosque, and there devoted their persons to death . . . and as an earnest of this vow, and an example of this resolution, the Captain ordered a great fire to be made, and cast into it his wife, and a little son that he had, and all his household and his goods, in fear lest anything of his should fall into our possession.” Others did the like, and then they fell upon the Portuguese.—Dec. IV. iv. 13.