1849 Jrnl. Asiatic Soc. Bengal 18: Pt. i 54 I had heard that the Ripoogiri Garrows had barricaded the road in several places and planted it thickly with ‘Panjees’, or sharp bamboo spikes.

1872 E. T. Dalton Descr. Ethnol. Bengal 11 They [sc. the Singphos] are skilled in fortifying naturally difficult positions, using freely the ‘panja’, a bamboo stake of different lengths sharpened at both ends and stuck in the ground.

1876 R. G. Woodthorpe in H. L. Thuillier Gen. Rep. Topogr. Surveys India 1874–5 61 Steep approaches, very thickly planted with ‘panjees’.

1878 G. P. Sanderson Thirteen Years among Wild Beasts of India xvii. 233 So I must explain that panjies are..a device for..the discouragement, of visitors.

1927 Blackwood's Mag. June 819/1 Others were planting sharp-pointed panjis in the undergrowth round the village to impale the enemy as they rush to the assault.

1950 J. H. Williams Elephant Bill iii. 47 The only effective fence against elephants is what is called the punge... The punge fence, or trap, is made of..sharpened and lightly roasted..bamboo stakes of varying length.

1966 Time 4 Feb. 18 Children helped to fashion the village's huts and whittled vicious punji stakes of bamboo.

1973 R. Hayes Hungarian Game xxxvi. 216 A workbench directly beneath the window. The thing was loaded with tools; it would be like jumping into a punji pit.

1993 Wired Mar. (Premiere Issue) 95/2 As the situation became more hopeless, they sent in more American flesh to be ambushed and pierced with punji sticks.

1878 G. P. Sanderson Thirteen Years among Wild Beasts of India xvii. 233 Until 1870 this distant abode of the British Lion [sc. Tura in the Garo Hills] was defended by a stockade..whilst the neighbourhood was pleasantly panjied. The uninitiated may imagine that this panjieing is some ornamental arrangement of the grounds.