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gasbar, perhaps « treasurer », which is also an Elamite place-name, but prefers to think of the Semitic
'Ραβσάκης, 'Ραψάκης of the Bible, believed to be a proper name by the Septuagint although it is
the name of a charge, and spelt here backwards, « by a witticism well known in the East ».

236. GAUENISPOLA (< *GAUMISPOLA)

gauenispola F, FA, FB necuueran Z nespola TA³
guanauis pola FAt nenispola TA¹ nocueran R
necuram LT

YULE (Y, II, 300) has adopted « Gauenispola »; it is « Ganenispola » in B¹, 443, but is acciden-
tally omitted in RR, 288. There is something wrong with the text here and, as YULE says, correc-
tions by copyists have made it worse; but it is certain that the name, as YULE has observed (Y,
II, 307; cf. also III, 145), is the « Gomispola » of other travellers, the « Pulo Gommes » of the Neptune
Oriental. It is a small island off Achin Head, in the direction of the Nicobar Islands. The Turkish
Muḥīt, using Arabic sources of c. 1500, mentions several times جامس فله Jāmis-fulah = Gāmispula
cf. Fe, 704). Accordingly, I have little hesitation in restoring Polo's form to « *Gaumispola ».
Cf. also FERRAND, in JA, 1922, 94-95.


237. GAVI

gaui F, FB, L, VB, Z; R goni VA gouy FA, FB
ghavi TA¹ goru P goym G
giaui TA³ goui F, L, VB graui V
gioni LT

All the good Mss. give « Gavi », not « Govi » as in YULE; RR and B¹ read « Gavi ». The « Gavi »,
according to Polo, were low-caste Hindoos, who ate beef. Although the commentators say nothing
about it, the word would seem to go back to Skr. gavya, derived from go, « cow », but the term as
the name of a caste is apparently not met with in the texts, nor is it in modern usage. Gavya means
« devoted to the cow ».
Even by reading « Govi », there is no satisfactory equivalence. The lowest class on the Coro-
mandel coast was that of the Paraiyans (> Pariahs); on the Malabar coast, they were the Mukkuvan
(cf. DAMES, Barbosa, II, 64; YULE, Hobson-Jobson², s. v. « Mucoa, Mukuva »), who were known also
(*Mugwa; cf. TP, 1915, 450); but one does not see how the first syllable could have been
dropped by Polo.