Obs. Also abda, abath. [a. Pg. abada, the female rhinoceros; ‘perh. Malay; Favre gives bādak (k mute) as rhinoceros, Batta badak, Macassar bāda, Javan. wadak.’ (Col. Yule.) Cf. Arab. abadat, ‘animal fugax, pavidum, immansuetum; fera.’ Freyt.] An early name for the Rhinoceros.
a. 1599. Barker in Hakluyt, II. 591 (1812). We sent commodities to their king to barter for Amber-griese and for the hornes of Abath … Now this Abath is a beast which hath one horne onely in his forehead and is thought to be the female Vnicorne, and is highly esteemed of all the Moores in those parts as a most soverayne remedie against poyson.
1613. Purchas, Pilgr., I. V. ii. 387. Full of Elephants and Abada’s (this Beast is the Rhinoceros). Ibid. (1864), 2. In Bengala are found great numbers of Abdas or Rhinocerotes, whose horne (growing up from his snowt,) is good against poyson, and is much accounted of throughout all India. Ibid. (1625), His Pilgrimes, II. 1773. The Abada or Rhinoceros is not in India, but only in Bengala and Patane.
