Does "tapall" or "tappies" mean "mail" in English?

Solution 1:

Hobson-Jobson says

TAPPAUL , s. The word used in S. India for 'post,' in all the senses in which dawk (q.v.) is used in Northern India. Its origin is obscure. C. P. Brown suggests connection with the Fr. étape (which is the same originally as the Eng. staple). It is sometimes found in the end of the 18th century written tappa or tappy. But this seems to have been derived from Telugu clerks, who sometimes write tappā as a singular of tappālu, taking the latter for a plural (C.P.B.). Wilson appears to give the word a southern origin. But though its use is confined to the South and West, Mr. Beames assigns to it an Aryan origin: "ṭappā 'post-office,' i.e. place where letters are stamped, ṭappāl 'letter-post' (ṭappā + alya = 'stamping-house')," connecting it radically with ṭāpā 'a coop,' ṭāpnā 'to tap,' 'flatten,' 'beat down,' ṭapak 'a sledge hammer,' ṭīpnā 'to press,' &c. [with which Platts agrees.]

1799 -- "You will perceive that we have but a small chance of establishing the tappal to Poonah." -- Wellington, i. 50.

1800 -- "The Tappal does not go 30 miles a day." -- T. Munro, in Life, i. 244.

1809 -- "Requiring only two sets of bearers I knew I might go by tappaul the whole way to Seringapatam." -- Ld. Valentia, i. 385.