The English Gipsies and Their Language

'.-Khapana and Hopper.-Hoppera-glasses.-The little wooden Bear.-Huckeny Ponkee, Hanky Panky, Hocus-pocus, and Hokkeny Bāro.-Burning a Gipsy Witch alive in America.-Daniel in the Lions' Den.-Gi

ement in Gipsy Life.-Jackdaws and Dogs.-Their Uses.-Lurchers and Poachers.-A Gipsy Camp.-The Ancient Henry.-I am mistaken for a Magistrate or Policeman.-Gipsies of Three Grades.-The Slangs.-Jim and the Twigs.-Beer rained from Heaven.-Fortune-telling.-A golden Opportunity to live at my Ease.-Petulamengro.-I hear of a New York Friend.-The Professor's Legend of the Olive-leaf and the Dove

nologists more industrious and better informed than myself to decide. In any case, the possible common Aryan source will tend to obscure the truth, just as it often does the derivation of Rommany words. But nothing can detract from the

nion was of black ones, correctly surmising that he would

covvas; and the puro beng, you jin, is kaulo, an' has shtor herros an' dui mushis-a

creatures, and things of the devil; and the old devil, you know, is black, and has four legs a

er a resemblance to a white ghost rather repulsive. But the Gipsy lives by night a strange life, and the reader who peruses carefully the storie

sidered he had a right to be regarded as a true believer-the only drawback being this, that he was apparently under the conviction that all human beings were "Ch

rd) as janwur for a hanimal? āvo (yes

e lav (know the wo

t was a jomper? for if a toad's a hanim

that have jivaben (all living things)-for jompers, and bitti

r about 'em, such as the lions an' helephants at the well-gooroos (fairs), or cows with five le

ed Rommany will drink, if possible, from white crockery. But they have peculiar fancies as to other colours. Till within a few years in Great Britain, as at the present day in Germany, their fondness for green coa

s a blonde is of light blue; and all true kaulo or dark Rommany chāls delight in a bright yellow pongdishler, or neckerchief, and a red waistcoat. The long red cloak of the old Gipsy fortune-teller is, however, truly dear to her heart; she feels as if there were luck in i

believe it to be peculiar to themselves. One said in my presence, "There was a kauli juva that dicked the evil yack ad mandy the sala-my chavo's

ng-my son's wife-and after that I heard that my son was ill. A squint-e

ation, and advance his views. One day my old Rom hearing an artist speak of having rejected some uncalled

own juva (every man his own girl),

ntly to questions as to his language, the trouble was tenfold increased when he began to see his way

a word as punji? It's

; that's a wery goo

s it R

'll go first-rat

make it out

hto. Suppose a man sells 'punge-cake, would'n

rocess, and could never understand why it was I then rejected them. By the former method I ran the risk of obtaining false Hindustani Gipsy words, though I very much doubt whether I was ever caught by it in a single instance; so strict were the tests which I adopted, the commonest being that of submitting the words to other Gipsies, or questioning him on them some days after

khapana (pronounced almost hopana) (to ma

is when you rikker 'em awayus (carry them away, steal them), and gaverit (hide it) tally your chuckko (under your coat). An' I

then treated himself to a good long pull. But the glance of triumph which shot from his black-basilisk eyes, and the joyous smi

bles, as practised by Gipsy women. The Gipsy woman goes to a house, and after telling the simple-minded and credulous housewife that there is a treasure buried in the cellar, persuades her that as "silver draws silver,"

ce from the fact, which I have never before seen pointed out, that hoggu bazee, which sounds very much like it, means in Hindustani legerdemain. English Gipsies have an extraordinary fancy for adding the termination us in a most irregular manner to word

ly occurred in the United States, somewhere in the west, the details of which had been

e and played huckeny pokee on a farmer's wif

with a smile of joy flashing from his eyes, the une

ing story to a child. "All the money that that poor woman ha

into an irrepressible laugh; he couldn't

ll yet," I added. "There

hi prastered avree (ran away

she d

er, and sent her to

I re

at did

URNT HE

ng time he had spoken to me, had this good and virtuous man, of

ntry-s'up mi duvel! I'l

lions' den, she said, "And there is good Daniel, and there are those naughty lions, who are going to eat him all

w that such affairs are natu

g the Greeks of old with Mercury amid the singing of leafy brooks, there is a tinkling of, at least, petty larceny. Witness the following, which came forth one day from a Gi

We'll lel moro habben acai, and jāl andūrer by-an'-byus, an' then jāl by rātti, so's the Gorgios won't dick us. I jins a kūshti

and. We'll take our food here, and go further on by-and-by, and then go by night, so that the Gorgios won't see us. I know a fine

rouble with the gavengroes (police)

interested by a remark or a question, he would reply by bursting int

What's tute?' he pens to the prastramengro; 'I'll del you thrin bar to lel

re. "What are you?" he said to the policeman, "I'll give you three pounds

have often take

avree an' never ch

k it off and never

was t

led a boro bittus-twelve or thirteen bar. Then I nashered my wongur, an' penned I wouldn't pyass koomi, an' I'd latch what I had in my poachy. Adoi I jālled from the gudli 'dree the toss-ring for a pāshora, when I dicked a waver mush, an' he putched mandy, '

been a-koorin'. But she penned, 'Why, you haven't got your hovalos an; you didn't koor tute's hova

than when I'd nashered saw the waver covvas. An' my poor juvā ruvved ajaw, for she had no chāvo. I had in those

but he never lelled no bāk. He'd chore from his o

ood bit-twelve or thirteen pounds. Then I lost my money, and said I would play no more, and would keep what I had in my pocket. Then I went from the noise in the toss-ring for half an hour, when I saw another man, and he asked me, 'What

been fighting. But she said, 'Why, you have not your stockings on; you didn't fight your sto

than when I lost all the other things. And my poor wife cried again, for she had no child. I had in

e never had any luck. He'd steal from his own

and integrity of his own life and character. These little essays on his moral perfection were expressed with a touching artlessness and child-like simplicity which would carry conviction to any one whose heart had not been utterly hardened, or whose eye-teeth had not been remarkably well cut, by contact with the

n agony until the milkman and baker had removed their feet from her steps. Now, the appearance of the professor (who always affected the old Gipsy style), in striped corduroy coat, leather breeches and gaiters, red waistcoat, yellow neck-handkerchief, and a frightfully-dilapidated old white hat, was not, it must be admitted, entirely adapted to the exterior of a highly respectable mansion. "And he had such a vile way of looking, as if he were a-waitin' for some friend to come out o' the 'ouse." It is almost needless to say that this apparition attracted the police from afar off and all about, or that they gathered around him like buzzards near a departed lamb. I w

of the owner, was dictated by the most delicate feeling. Not less remarkable than his strict politeness was the mysterious charm which this antique nomad unquestionably exer

g of the wild and weird in the mountain Italian life of these ex-contadine seemed to wake like unholy fire, and answer sympathetically to the Gipsy wizard-spell. Over mountain and sea, and through dark forests with legends of streghe and Zingari, these semi-outlaws of society, the Neapolitan and Rommany, recognised each other intuitively. The handsomest young gentleman in England coul

y that he was personally acquainted, as he verily believed, with every policeman in England. "You

ess air-and smile! I shall ne

of hundreds of policemen-every one pointing after you and saying

astonished that I had found out the truth. "That's just what th

ce," I remarked. "Do y

nstant, and then

! that villain gives the police more trouble than any other man in the country!' 'Thank you, sir,' says I, wery respectable to him. 'I'm glad to see you're earnin' a 'onest livin' for once,' says he. 'How much do you get for carryin' that there bundle?' 'A sixpence, rya!' says I. 'It's twice as much as you ought to have,'

, old Honesty. What is t

, rya. Gaverit." And to illustr

nashered to keravit, an' the mush who lel

t I forgot to do it, and the man who

that they spoke their ancient tongue very imperfectly, and were ignorant of certain Rommany words which I myself, albeit a stranger, knew very well, and would fain teach them. But instead of accepting my instructions in a docile spirit of ignorant humility, I have in

hich is utterly indescribable to a prosaic modern-souled man, but which is delightfully piquant to others. Many a time among Gipsies I have felt, I confess with pleasure, all the subtlest spirit of fun combined with picture-memories of Hayraddin Maugrabin-witch-legends and the "Egyptians;" for in their ignorance they are still an unconscious race, and do not know what the world writes about them. They are n

beneath a Gipsy roof. I was, en voyage, at a little cathedral town, when learning that some Gipsies lived in a village eight miles distant, I hired a carriage and rode over to see them. I found my way to a neat cottage, and on entering it discovered t

ed by the most respectable ladies and gentlemen. This much I had learned from my coachman. But I kept a steady

. I did not come here to l

don't know what the gentleman is sa

me-I'm the nicest gentleman you ever saw in all your life, and

talking?" cried the old dame, bu

ye-mi

e jin a R

rakker Ro

n and k

you well enough, but I never

ing blue smoke that a Gipsy was near. So I went over the bridge, and sure enough there on the ground lay a full-grown Petulamengro, while his brown juva tended the pot. And when I spoke to her in Rommany she could

t, for I don't want them to hear our rakkerben. Let us take a drop of brandy-life is short, and here's my bottle. I

oshno

an' th

'pré the b

juva h

oomer to

hould live to see a rye like you! A boro rye rakkerin' R

,' but an equivoque). It's muttermengri

d. You won't go away like a Go

but tea I haven't tasted t

hiladelphia. Everything in the cottage was scrupulously neat-there was even an approach to style. The furniture and ornaments were superior to those found in common peasant houses. There was

hey will, and into the grimmest gloom of goblin-land, there will never be wanting flashes of light, though they be gleams diavoline, corpse-candlelights, elfin sparkles, and the unearthly blue lume of the eyes of silent night-hags wandering slow. In the forgotten grave of the sorcerer burns steadily through long centuries the Rosicrucian lamp, and even to hi

one attempt to persuade the twenty-stone half-illiterate and wholly old-fashioned rural magistrate of the last century that the poor devil of a hen-stealing Gipsy dragged before him knew that which would send thrills of joy through the most learned philologist in Europe, and cause the great band of scho

I never met with such a perfect replica of Old Mother Baubo, the mother of all the witches, as I once encountered at a certain race. Swarthy, black-eyed, stout, half-centuried, fiercely cunning, and immoderately sensual, her first salutation was expressed in a phrase such a

e devil's fiddling, and his wife entered. For in rushed a Gipsy boy announcing that Gorgios (or, as I may say, "wite trash") were near at hand, and evidently bent on entering. That this irruption of the enemy gave a taci-turn to our riotry and revelling will be believed. I tossed the brandy in the cup into the fire; it flashed up, and with it a quick memory of the spilt and blazing wit

face so expressive of self-control allied to wary suspicion. He was neatly dressed, but in a subdued Gipsy style, the principal indication being that of a pair of "cords," which, however, any gentlema

l, and all at once, so polite and gentle, and so readily acquainted and cosmo-polite-quite beyond the average English standard; and not the least charming part of the whole performance was the skill wi

n George Borrow's "Gipsies in Spain," in which the woman blesses the child in Spanish, and mutters curses on it meanwhile in Zincali? So it was that my dear old hostess blessed the sweet young lady, and "prodigalled" co

he had spoken of the excellent behaviour and morals of his tribe-and I belie

ch a thing as a Gipsy language? one he

redulity, but who was himself superior to all

people have invented about Gipsies. As if

ed, "that if you had, some people who

own words. And there are common vagabonds who go up and down talking thieves' slang, and imposing it on people for Gipsy. But as for any Gipsy ton

face, I began to realise that a man might be talked out of a belief in his own name, and felt a rudimentary sensation to the effect that the language of the Black Wanderers was all a dream,

rica. Did you ever hu

a time. On

(I said this as if forgetfully)-"I once ate a hedg

password, and if he had any doubt before as to who the Rommany rye

rcupine or hedgehog. I know

ery common in America. The Chip

he darkest night of gravity I ever beheld in my life-was lovely. I had trumped his card at any rate with

e tow upon

rvais w

once. The bread and butter on the table, partly eaten, and the snow-white napkin indicated to a feminine eye that some one not of the household had been entertained, and that I was the guest. Perhaps she had seen the old woman's quick glance at me, but it was evident that she fel

Gorgio is heard near the tent, a loud "wā-āwk" from the wary bird (sounding very much like an alarm) at once proclaims the fact; and on approaching, the stranger finds the entire party in all probability aslee

other game, which they carefully and secretly brought by night to their owners as a slight testimonial of their regard and gratitude. As the dogs have no moral appreciation of the Game Laws, save as manifested in gamekeepers, no one can blame them. Gipsies almost invariably prefer, as canine manifesters of devotion, lurche

en parrots which spoke Rommany among the Gipsies of Epping Forest. A Gipsy dog is, if we study him, a true character. Approach a camp: a black hound, with sleepy eyes, lies by a tent; he does not bark at you or act uncivilly, for that forms no part of his master's life or plans, but wherever you go those eyes are fixed on you. By-and-by he disappears-he is sure to do so if there are no people about the tan-and then reappears with some dark descendant of the Dom and Domni. I have always been under the impression that these dogs step out and mutter a few

e have but intellect, is much more their affaire. Yesterday morning, while sitting among the tents of "ye Egypcians," I overheard a knot of men discussing the merits of a degraded-looking doglet, who seemed as if he must ha

here and there the horse-chestnuts spread their saffron robes, waving in the embraces of the breeze like hetair? of the forest. Below me ran the silver Thames, and above a few silver clouds-the belles of the air-were following its course, as if to watch themselves in the watery winding mirror. And near the reedy island, at the shadowy point always haunted by three swans, whom I suspect of having been there ever since the days of Odin-faith, w

, and yet not regarded as such, these "travellers" represented a very large class in England, which is as yet but little understood by our writers, whether of fact or fiction. They laughed while telling me anecdotes of gentlemen who had mistaken them for real Rommany chals, and finally referred me to "Old Henry," further down, who "could talk with me." This ancient I found a hundred yards beyond

, had heard of me, and after a short conversation confided the little fact, that from the moment in which I had been seen watching them, they were sure I was a gav-mush, or police or village authority, come to spy into their ways, and to at least order them to move on. But when they found that I was not as o

y into his basket, and deftly twined it like a serpent to right and left, and

e now, in their sphere of life, in the position of young men who had received an education or been amply established in business, and were gifted with all that could be expected from a doting father. In its way this bit of intelligence meant as much to the basketmaker as, "Have you heard that young Fitz-Grubber has j

, pointing up the rive

r off, shirking along the path

he's got some sticks, an' is tryin' to hide them '

rty do? I care not through which door it comes-nay, be it by the very portal of Vice herself-when sad and shivering poverty stands before me in humble form, I can only forgive and forget. And this child-theft was to obtain the means of work after all. And if you ask me why I did not at once proceed to the next magistrate and denounce the crimina

heaven into this happy family. These basketmakers were not real Gipsies, but churdi or half-bloods, though they spoke with scorn of the two chair-menders, who

ess that I thought this was deeply unjust to the imposed-upon and beerless William; but it was another case of confidence, and he who sits among Gipsies by hedgerows green must not be over-particular. Il faut heurler avec les loups.

coat, a pair of high boots on his feet, and therewith-basta! He had evidently met at one time with Mr George Borrow, as appeared by his accurate description of that gentleman's appearance, though he did not know his name. "Ah! he

's the man who has be

he inquired, with the air of one who is about to "come down with a stunner." "He did it a-dukkerin'." {171} But he pronounced the word durkerin'; and I, detecting a

could do that. But I suppose you could," he continued, looking at me admiringly. "You know all the ways of the Gor

y ways have been proposed to me of alleviating its expenses; as, for instance, when the old professor earnestly commended that we two should obtain (I trust honestly) a donkey and a rinkni juva, who by telling fortunes should entirely contribute to our maintenance, and so wander cost-free, and kost-frei over merrie England. But I threw away the golden opportunity-ruthlessly rejected it-thereby incurring the scorn of all scientific philologists (none of whom, I t

a very pretty little girl of seven or eight years with a younger brother. While talking to the children, their father approached leading a horse. I had never seen him before, but he welcomed me politely in Rommany, saying that I had been pointed ou

uncle were, indeed, hard at work among the masons in a new building not far off, though they lived like true Gipsies in a tent. Petulamengro, as the name is commonly given at the present day, was evidently very proud of his Rommany, and talked little else: but he could not speak it nearly so well nor so f

ulamengro asked me if I had ever met in America wit

othing in his appearance indicates in the slightest degree any affinity with the Rommany. He is not the only real or partial Gipsy whom I kno

ucated, generally results in intellectual and physical vigour. The English Gipsy has greatly changed from

who have only a very slight trace of the dark blood or kālo ratt, there are in Great Britain many thousands. Of the true stock there are

iar," and gives them a feeling of free-masonry, and of guarding a social secret, long after they leave the roads and b

*

d that it was true; but after considering the subject deeply, and dividing the deliberations between his pipe and a little wooden bear

em apré, he was in the bero, an' didn't jin if there was any puvius about, so he bitchered the chillico avree. An' the chillico was a dove, 'cause dove-us is like Duvel, an' pāsh o' the Duvel an' Duvel's chillico. So the dove mukkered avree an' jalled round the tem till he latchered the puvius; for when he dickered a tan an' l

rought the land out, he was in the ship, and didn't know if there was any earth about him, so he sent the bird out. And the bird was a dove, because dove is like Duvel (God), and half God and God's bird. So the dove flew away and went around the world till he found the earth; for when he saw a place and took a

nformed me, with cheerfulness not unmingled with the dignified pride characteristic of erudition, and

they were atrash o' lester. He was so surrelo that yeckorus when he poggered avree a ker, an' it had a b

ris and mukked 'em jāl. And they nashered avree like puro bengis, sig in the sala, w

m a koorin', they kaired it sidd pré the chingerben drum. Now Samson was a seehiatty mush, wery cāmmoben to the juvas, so they got a wery rinkeni chi to kutter an' kuzzer him. So yuv welled a lāki to a worretty tan,

erin' him, Samson chivved his wasters kettenus the boro chongurs of the sturaben, and bongered his kokerus adrée, an

nd they were afraid of him. He was so strong that once when he broke into a house, and it had

t them go. And they ran away like old devils, early in the morning, when

m by fighting, they did it otherwise by an opposite way. Now Samson was a man full of life, very fond of the girls, so they got a very pretty woman to cajole and coax him. And he went with her to a lo

and teasing him, Samson threw his hands around the great pillars of the prison, and bowed himself in, and all

so he

at the judgment

en you soves alay (go in sleep, o

over promised his mistress to love her after death, ever on "into the dream beyond." And here I had the same thought as beautifully expressed by an old Gipsy, who, he declared, fo

o God suggested an inquiry into the

ghosts), Puro. Can every

ti; an' yeckorus I had a grai that was trasher 'drée a tem langs the rikkorus of a drum, pāsh a boro park where a mush had been mullered. He prastered a mee pauli, but pāsh a cheirus he welled apopli to

ghosts by the night; and once I had a horse that was frightened in a place by the side of a road, near a great park where a man had been murdered. He ran a mile behind, but after a while came back

"sometimes hunt men

he juckals avree, and me

they k

in' with it a rikkorus, an' the waver pīro straightus-your patteran'll dick as if a bongo-herroed mush had been apré the puvius. (I jinned a mush yeckorus that had a dui chokkas kair

, a'ter they soom it they won't jāl adoi chichi no moreus,

ot twisted, going with it to one side, and the other foot straight-your trail will look as if a crooked-legged man had been on the ground. (I knew a man once that had a pa

water, they will not go there any more afte

n be learned from the Gipsies. Tell me, now, when you

besh in the bāvol puv firstus. We'd putch the farming rye for mukkaben to hatch the rātti adrée the granja,but we'd sooner suv under t

sooner stay in the open field (literally, air-field). We would ask the farmer for leave to stop the night in the barn, but we'

That the wandering Rommany can live at all is indeed wonderful, since not only are all other human beings less exposed to suffering than many of them, but even foxes and rabbits are better protected in their holes from storms and frost. The Indians of North America have, without ex

rsonal" advertisements) certain sentences apparently written in some very strange foreign tongue, but which the better informed are aware are made by transposing letters according to the rules of cryptography or secret writing. Now it is estimated that there are in Great Britain at least one thousand lovers of occult lore and quaint curiosa, decipher

f mine, who had a genius for that sort of thing, sat h

the great Edgar A. Poe, the American poet-cryptographer. But to reveal the secret in full, I may as well say, dear reader, that you must take printers' type

he had to deal with an old hand-one of those aggravating fellows who are up to cryp-a man who can write

by. Quires of paper were exhausted; he worked all day and all the evening wit

nows the Latine

Toscanie he h

l four o'clock in the afternoon, when I entered, and the mystic advertisement was submitted to me. I glanced at it, and at once read it into English, thoug

y'l kek pukka til tute muks a mandi. Tute's di's see se welni poggado. Shom atrash t

not tell till you give me leave. Your mother's heart is wellnigh broken. I am afraid

y state in addition, that I found that in the very house in which I was living, and at the same ti

philologist; and such students are generally aware that there are copious vocabularies of all the other Gipsy dialects of Europe easy to obtain from any bookseller. Had my friend used the works of Pott or Paspati, Ascoli or Grellman, he would have found it an easy thing to translate this advertisement. The truth simply is, that for scholars there is not a single secret or hidden word in English Gipsy or in any ot

having risen from the roads live a secret life, so to speak, but I have never seen one. But they have songs; and one day I was told that in my neighbourhood there lived a young Gipsy woman who was a poetess and made Rommany ballads. "She can't write," said

F A RUMM

e gargers

ers roun

o lel my

on (meri

air) up to my

y chung

happy Rac

led to sturrib

bon, to s

lelled to

here mandy g

SLAT

e Gorgios around me! try

my knees in blood,

son, to prison; my husband is taken to