KIDGEREE AND GYMKHANA 193 



of words which have come to us with the things 

 which they signify, and retain their meaning though 

 the thing itself may have undergone some change/ 

 Curry as made in England is sometimes not recog- 

 nisable by a new arrival from India, and Kidgeree is 

 applied to a preparation of rice and fish, whereas it 

 means properly a dish of rice, split peas and butter, 

 or " ghee." Fish may be eaten with it, but is not 

 an ingredient of it. Bazaar may be classed with 

 these words, and also Polo, which is merely the name 

 for a polo ball in the language of one of the Hima- 

 layan tribes from whom we learned the game. It 

 is said to have been played in England for the first 

 time at Aldershot in 1871. 



More interest attaches to Gymkhana, for neither 

 the word nor the thing which it signifies is Indian, 

 though both originated in India, and the derivation 

 of the word is unknown, though it is scarcely fifty 

 years old. Several hybrid derivations have been 

 suggested, none of them probable, and I lean to the 

 suggestion that the starting-point of the word may 

 have been " jumkhana, a term which, though it is 

 not in Forbes' s Hindustani Dictionary, I have heard 

 a native apply to a large cotton carpet, such as 

 native acrobats, or wrestlers, might spread when 

 about to give a performance. Our use of the words 

 Arena, Stage, Boards, Footlights, etc., shows how 

 easily a carpet might give name to a place of meeting 

 for athletic exercises. 



There is another class of words which have come 



