The English Gipsies and Their Language Part 27

{30} Two hundred (shel) years growing, two hundred years losing his coat, two hundred years before he dies, and then he loses all his blood and is no longer good.

{32} The words of the Gipsy, as I took them down from his own lips, were as follows:--

"Bawris are kushto habben. You can latcher adusta 'pre the bors. When they're pirraben pauli the puvius, or tale the koshters, they're kek kushti habben. The kushtiest are sovven sar the wen. Lel'em and tove 'em and chiv 'em adree the kavi, with panny an' a bitti lun. The simmun's kushto for the yellow jaundice."

I would remind the reader that in _every instance_ where the original Gipsy language is given, it was written down or _noted_ during conversation, and subsequently written out and read to a Gipsy, by whom it was corrected. And I again beg the reader to remember, that every Rommany phrase is followed by a translation into English.

{33} Dr Pott intimates that _scharos_, a globe, may be identical with _sherro_, a head. When we find, however, that in German Rommany _tscharo_ means goblet, pitcher, vessel, and in fact cup, it seems as if the Gipsy had hit upon the correct derivation.

{34} "Dovos yect o' the covvos that saw foki jins. When you lel a wart 'pre tutes wasters you jal 'pre the drum or 'dree the puvius till you latcher a kaulo bawris--yeck o' the boro kind with kek ker apre him, an'

del it apre the caro of a kaulo kosh in the bor, and ear the bawris mullers, yeck divvus pauli the waver for shtar or pange divvuses the wart'll kinner away-us. 'Dusta chairusses I've pukkered dovo to Gorgios, an' Gorgios have kaired it, an' the warts have yuzhered avree their wasters."

{35} Among certain tribes in North America, tobacco is both burned before and smoked "unto" the Great Spirit.

{38} This word palindrome, though Greek, is intelligible to every Gipsy.

In both languages it means "back on the road."

{53} The Krallis's Gav, King's Village, a term also applied to Windsor.

{65} p.r.o.nounced cuv-vas, like _covers_ without the _r_.

{70} The Lord's Prayer in pure English Gipsy:--

"Moro Dad, savo djives oteh drey o charos, te caumen Gorgio ta Rommanny chal tiro nav, te awel tiro tem, te kairen tiro lav aukko prey puv, sar kairdios oteh drey o charos. Dey men todivvus more divvuskoe moro, ta for dey men pazorrhus tukey sar men for-denna len pazhorrus amande; ma muck te petrenna drey caik temptaciones; ley men abri sor doschder. Tiro se o tem, mi-duvel, tiro o zoozlu vast, tiro sor koskopen drey sor cheros. Avali. Tachipen."

Specimens of old English Gipsy, preserving grammatical forms, may be found in Bright's Hungary (Appendix). London, 1818. I call attention to the fact that all the specimens of the language which I give in this book simply represent _the modern and greatly corrupted_ Rommany of the roads, which has, however, a.s.sumed a peculiar form of its own.

{75} In gipsy _ch.o.r.es_ would mean swindles. In America it is applied to small jobs.

{81} Vide chapter x.

{83} This should be _Bengo-tem_ or devil land, but the Gipsy who gave me the word declared it was _bongo_.

{110} In English: "Water is the Great G.o.d, and it is Bishnoo or Vishnoo because it falls from G.o.d. _Vishnu is then the Great G.o.d_?" "Yes; there can be no forced meaning there, can there, sir? Duvel (G.o.d) is Duvel all the world over; but correctly speaking, Vishnu is G.o.d's blood--I have heard that many times. And the snow is feathers that fall from the angels' wings. And what I said, that Bishnoo is G.o.d's Blood is old Gipsy, and known by all our people."

{112} "Simurgh--a fabulous bird, _a griffin_."--_Brice's Hindustani Dictionary_.

{124} Romi in Coptic signifies _a man_.

{127} Since writing the above I have been told that among many Hindus "(good) evening" is the common greeting at any time of the day. And more recently still, meeting a gentleman who during twelve years in India had paid especial attention to all the dialects, I greeted him, as an experiment, with "Sarisham!" He replied, 'Why, that's more elegant than common Hindu--it's Persian!" "Sarisham" is, in fact, still in use in India, as among the Gipsies. And as the latter often corrupt it into _sha'shan_, so the vulgar Hindus call it "shan!" Sarishan means in Gipsy, "How are you?" but its affinity with _sarisham_ is evident.

{133} Miklosich ("Uber die Mundarten de der Zigeuner," Wien, 1872) gives, it is true, 647 Rommany words of Slavonic origin, but many of these are also Hindustani. Moreover, Dr Miklosich treats as Gipsy words numbers of Slavonian words which Gipsies in Slavonian lands have Rommanised, but which are not generally Gipsy.

{171} Fortune-telling.

{189} In Egypt, as in Syria, every child is more or less marked by tattooing. Infants of the first families, even among Christians, are thus stamped.

{206} The Royston rook or crow has a greyish-white back, but is with this exception entirely black.

{209} The peac.o.c.k and turkey are called lady-birds in Rommany, because, as a Gipsy told me, "they spread out their clothes, and hold up their heads and look fine, and walk proud, like great ladies." I have heard a swan called a pauno rani chillico--a white lady-bird.

{210} To make skewers is a common employment among the poorer English Gipsies.

{213} This rhyme and metre (such as they are) were purely accidental with my narrator; but as they occurred _verb. et lit_., I set them down.

{218} This story is well known to most "travellers." It is also true, the "hero" being a _pash-and-pash_, or half-blood Rommany chal, whose name was told to me.

{219} The reader will find in Lord Lytton's "Harold" mention of an Anglo- Saxon superst.i.tion very similar to that embodied in the story of the Seven Whistlers. This story is, however, entirely Gipsy.

{221a} This, which is a common story among the English Gipsies, and told exactly in the words here given, is implicitly believed in by them.

Unfortunately, the terrible legends, but too well authenticated, of the persecutions to which their ancestors were subjected, render it very probable that it may have occurred as narrated. When Gipsies were hung and transported merely for _being_ Gipsies, it is not unlikely that a persecution to death may have originated in even such a trifle as the alleged theft of a dish-clout.

{221b} Although they bear it with remarkable _apparent_ indifference, Gipsies are in reality extremely susceptible to being looked at or laughed at.

{235} This story was told me in a Gipsy tent near Brighton, and afterwards repeated by one of the auditors while I transcribed it.