_Forlot, Firlot, or Furlet_ (Vol. i., p. 371.).--It may be interesting to
your correspondent J. S. to be informed that there is a measure of capacity
in universal use in this part of India called a _fara_ or _fura_, which is
identical in shape, and, as nearly as can be judged by the eye, in size,
with the Scottish _furlet_. The _fura_ is divided into sixteen _pilys_, a
small measure in universal use here; in like manner as the _furlet_ is
divided into sixteen _lipys_, which measure was, and I presume still is, in
general use throughout Scotland. A friend informs me that, in the west of
Scotland, the common pronunciation of the word _furlet_ is exactly the same
as that of the word _fura_ here by the Mahrattas. It is unnecessary to
point out the numerous instances in which such changes as that from _pily_
to _lipy_ take place _per metathesem_.
Now, an interesting subject of investigation, supposing the coincidence
above noticed not to be an accidental one, would be to trace the links of
connexion between these words; and in this, some of your German readers may
be enabled to afford valuable aid.
As an illustration of the same article being in use in widely distant
localities, I may mention that on returning to England from a voyage to
China, I brought with me a Chinese _abacus_ or _swanpan_, the instrument in
general use among the Chinese for performing the ordinary computations of
addition, subtraction, &c., thinking it a grand article of curiosity,
particularly in a remote seaport town on the east coast, with which to
astonish the natives. But what was my chagrin when I was informed by an
honest Baltic skipper, that to him, at least the instrument was no rarity
at all; that he had seen them used hundreds of times for the same purposes
at various ports in the Baltic; and that, moreover, he had one of them in
his home at that very time, which he forthwith produced.