1763.—"Received a letter from Dacca dated 29th Novr., desiring our orders with regard to the Fakirs who were taken prisoners at the retaking of Dacca."—Ft. William Cons. Dec. 5, in Long, 342. On these latter Fakirs, see under SUNYASEE.
1770.—"Singular expedients have been tried by men jealous of superiority to share with the Bramins the veneration of the multitude; this has given rise to a race of monks known in India by the name of Fakirs."—Raynal (tr. 1777), i. 49.
1774.—"The character of a fakir is held in great estimation in this country."—Bogle, in Markham's Tibet, 23.
1856.—
"There stalks a row of Hindoo devotees,
Bedaubed with ashes, their foul matted hair
Down to their heels; their blear eyes fiercely scowl
Beneath their painted brows. On this side struts
A Mussulman Fakeer, who tells his beads,
By way of prayer, but cursing all the while
The heathen."—The Banyan Tree.
FALAUN, s. Ar. falān, fulān, and H. fulāna, falāna, 'such an one,' 'a certain one'; Span. and Port. fulano, Heb. Fuluni (Ruth iv. 1). In Elphinstone's Life we see that this was the term by which he and his friend Strachey used to indicate their master in early days, and a man whom they much respected, Sir Barry Close. And gradually, by a process of Hobson-Jobson, this was turned into Forlorn.
FANÁM, s. The denomination of a small coin long in use in S. India, Malayāl. and Tamil paṇam, 'money,' from Skt. paṇa, [rt. paṇ, 'to barter']. There is also a Dekhani form of the word, falam. In Telugu it is called rūka. The form fanam was probably of Arabic origin, as we find it long prior to the Portuguese period. The fanam was anciently a gold coin, but latterly of silver, or sometimes of base gold. It bore various local values, but according to the old Madras monetary system, prevailing till 1818, 42 fanams went to one star pagoda, and a Madras fanam was therefore worth about 2d. (see Prinsep's Useful Tables, by E. Thomas, p. 18). The weights of a large number of ancient fanams given by Mr. Thomas in a note to his Pathan Kings of Delhi show that the average weight was 6 grs. of gold (p. 170). Fanams are still met with on the west coast, and as late as 1862 were received at the treasuries of Malabar and Calicut. As the coins were very small they used to be counted by means of a small board or dish, having a large number of holes or pits. On this a pile of fanams was shaken, and then swept off, leaving the holes filled. About the time named Rs. 5000 worth of gold fanams were sold off at those treasuries. [Mr. Logan names various kinds of fanams: the vīrāy, or gold, of which 4 went to a rupee; new vīrāy, or gold, 3½ to a rupee; in silver, 5 to a rupee; the rāsī fanam, the most ancient of the indigenous fanams, now of fictitious value; the sultānī fanam of Tippoo in 1790-92, of which 3½ went to a rupee (Malabar, ii. Gloss. clxxix.).]
c. 1348.—"And these latter (Malabar Christians) are the Masters of the public steelyard, from which I derived, as a perquisite of my office as Pope's Legate, every month a hundred gold fan, and a thousand when I left."—John Marignolli, in Cathay, 343.
1442.—"In this country they have three kinds of money, made of gold mixed with alloy ... the third called fanom, is equivalent in value to the tenth part of the last mentioned coin" (partāb, vid. pardao).—Abdurrazāk, in India in the XVth Cent. p. 26.
1498.—"Fifty fanoeens, which are equal to 3 cruzados."—Roteiro de V. da Gama, 107.
1505.—"Quivi spendeno ducati d'auro veneziani e monete di auro et argento e metalle, chiamano vna moneta de argento fanone. XX vagliono vn ducato. Tara e vn altra moneta de metale. XV vagliono vn Fanone."—Italian version of Letter from Dom Manuel of Portugal (Reprint by A. Burnell, 1881), p. 12.
1510.—"He also coins a silver money called tare, and others of gold, 20 of which go to a pardao, and are called fanom. And of these small coins of silver, there go sixteen to a fanom."—Varthema, Hak. Soc. 130.
[1515.—"They would take our cruzados at 19 fanams."—Albuquerque's Treaty with