Banian
BAN'IAN, noun A man's undress or morning gown, as worn by the Banians in the E. Indies.
2. A Gentoo servant, employed as an agent in commerce.
3. A tree in India.
Banian days, in seamen's language, are three days in a week, in which the sailors have no flesh meat served out to them. This use of the term seems to be borrowed from the Banians in Asia, who, believing in a metempsychosis, will eat no flesh, nor even kill noxious animals.