The English Gipsies and Their Language

llustrations from Life-Gipsy Job and the Cigars-Oaths by the Dead-Universal Gipsy Custom of never Mentioning the Nam

e and good among the dead. I have already spoken of many Gipsies reminding me, by their entirely unconscious ungodliness, of thorough Hegelians. I may now add, that, like the Positivists, they seem

and kin of any one in the world. His very name-rom, a husband-indicates it. His children, as almost every writer on him, from Grellmann down to the present day, has observed, are more thoroughly indulged and spoiled than any non-gipsy can

of February 1872, that a Gipsy said to me, "It is nine years since

raining from some usage or indulgence in honour of the departed-a sacrifice, as it were, to their manes-and I believe that, by inquiring, it will be found to exist among all Gipsies in all parts of the world. In England it is shown by observances which are maintained at great personal inconvenience, som

rally, the comments of a full-blooded Gipsy on this custom-the translation being annexed. I should state that the

oovs 'em kennā since my pal's chavo Job mu

del mandy the levinor and a dozen cigaras. I pet em adrée my poachy an' jailed apré the purge and latched odói my pal's chavo, an' he pook'd mandy, 'Where you jāllin to, kāko?' And I penned: 'Job, I've lelled some covvas for tute.' 'Tácho,' says he-so I del

to my pal-don't spare the gry-mukk her jāl!' So he del mi a fino grai, and I kistered eight mee so sig that I thought I'd mored her. An' I pet her drée the stanya, an' I jālled a lay in the pūv and' odói I dicked J

a? in my poachy.' Mandy and my pens was by him, but his romni was avree, adrée the boro tan, bikinin covvas, for she'

achy and there mandy lastered the cigaras. And f

me chairuses in her jivaben, she'd lel a bitti nokengro avree my mokto, and when I'd pen, 'Deari juvo, what do you ka

e wont pi levinor for panj or ten besh, some wont haw the kāmmaben matcho that the chav

chavo's gilli'-and some won't kel. 'No, I can't kel, the last time I

lo pal?' 'Kek-kek-mandy never tooved since minno juvo pelled a lay in the panni, and never jālled avree kekoomi a jivaben.' 'Well, let's jāl and kair paiass with the ko

l's chavo, Job, never hawed

; I never smoke them now since my brother's

ve me the ale, and a dozen cigars. I put them in my pocket, and went on the road and found there my brother's son, and he asked me, 'Where (are) you going, uncle?' And I said: 'Job, I have something for you.' 'Good,' says he-so I gave him the

pal,-don't spare the horse-let her go!' So he gave me a fine horse, and I rode eight miles so fast that I thought I'd killed her. And I put her in the stable, and I went down into the field, and there I

y pocket.' I and my sisters were by him, but his wife was outside in the great tent, selling things, for she ne

pocket, and there I found the cigars. And

es in her life she'd take a bit of snuff out (from) my box; and when I'd say, 'Dear wife, what do you d

some won't drink ale for five or ten years; some won't eat the favourite fish that the

and some won't dance-'No, I can't dance, the last time I danced w

l, take some tobacco, brother?' 'No, no, I have not smoked since my wife fell in the water and never came out again alive.' 'Well, let's go and pla

nephew Job, never ate plum

e German Gipsies, who, I am firmly convinced, represent in language and customs their English brethren as the latter were three centuries ago, this reverence for the departed assumes an even deeper and more serious charac

l he swore by his dead wife-by his "mullo juvo." And when he had said this, his sister promptly remarked: "Now you have sworn by her, I know you will do it." He narrated this to me the next day, adding that he was going to put a tent up, about a mile away, and live there. I asked him if he ever swore by his dead father, to which he said: "Alwa

carefully avoiding mentioning their names, even when they are borne by other persons or are characteristic of certain things. So that when a Gipsy maiden named Forella once died, her entire nation, among w

he exact words and views of a real Rommany on this subject, I made

My chavo's nav was Horfer or Horferus, but the bitti chavis penned him Wacker. Well, yeck divvus pré the wellgooro o' the graias prasters, my juvo dicked a boro doll adrée some hev of a buttika

them do so still. My boy's name was Horfer or Horferus (Orpheus), but the children called him Wacker. Well, one day at the great fair of the races, my wife saw a large doll in some windo

rogated on the sam

r by a waver nav:-dovo's to pen I'd lel some bongonav sar's Polly or Sukey. An' it was the sār covva with my dādes nav-if I dicked a mush with a nav

that's to say, I'd take some nick-name, such as Polly or Sukey. And it was the same thing with my father's name-if I saw a man with a name that was the same as h

om the information will not be new, that there are to be found everywhere among

some object of value with the corpse, as is, however, done by most wild races. On questioning

dy the waver divvus, that trin thousand bars was gavvered posh yeck o' the Chilcotts. An I've shooned o' some Stanleys were buried with sonnakai w

me the other day, that three thousand pounds were hidden with one of the Chilcotts. And I have heard of some Stanleys who were buri

s of Comte-the Positivists-the most highly cultivated scholars of the most refined form of philosophy in its latest stage, and find that their ultimate and practical manifestation of la religion, is quite the same as that of those unaffected and natural Positivists, the Gipsies. With these, as with the others, our fathers find their immortality in our short-lived memo

this black and God-wanting shadow dances behind the solid Theism of "The People," affording proof that if the latter can be preserved, even in the wildest wanderings, to illustrate Holy Writ-so can gipsydom-for no apparent purpose whatever. How often have we heard that the preservation of the Jews is a phenomenon without equal? And yet they both live-the sad and sober Jew, the gay and tipsy Gipsy, Shemite and Aryan-the on

of faith, and, to the last degree, indifferent and rationalistic, he satisfies the demands of Feuerbach; devoted to the positive and to the memory of the dead, he is the ideal of the greatest French philosophy, while as a wanderer on the face of the earth-not neglectful of picking up things en ro

hatch for mandy an' kair me kushto."-My God stand up for me and make me well. "That" he added, in an explanatory tone, "is what you say when you're sick." These instances, however, indicate no deep-seated conviction, though they are certainly curious, and, in their extreme simplicity, affecting. That truly good man, the Rev. James Crabb, in his touching little book, "The Gipsies' Advocate," gave numbers of instances of Gipsy conversions to religion and of real piety among them, which occurred afte

e and way among the poor Gipsies; and the fact that he is mentioned to the present day, by them, with respect and love, proves that missionaries