Well, this was the letter. A translation will be found following it.

THE PANNI GAV, Dec. 16, 1871.

MY KAMLI CHAVI,—Kushti bak! My cammoben to turo mush an' turo dadas an' besto bak. We've had wafri bak, my pen's been naflo this here cooricus, we're doin' very wafro and couldn't lel no wongur. Your dui pals are kairin kushto, prasturin 'bout the tem, bickinin covvas. {65} Your puro kako welled acai to his pen, and hatched trin divvus, and jawed avree like a puro jucko, and never del mandy a poshero.

Kek adusta nevvi. A rakli acai lelled a hora waver divvus from a waver rakli, and the one who nashered it pens: "Del it pauli a mandi and I wont dukker tute! Del it apre!" But the waver rakli penned "kek," and so they bitchered for the prastramengro. He lelled the juva to the wardo, and just before she welled odoi, she hatched her wast in her poachy, an' chiv it avree, and the prastramengro hatched it apre. So they bitchered her for shurabun.

(Here my Gipsy suggested that stardo or staramangro might be used for greater elegance, in place of shurabun.)

I've got kek gry and can't lel no wongur to kin kek. My kamli chavi, if you could bitch me a few bars it would be cammoben. I rikkers my covvas apre mi dumo kenna. I dicked my kako, waver divvus adree a lot o Rommany chals, saw a piin'. There was the juvas a koorin adoi and the mushis a koorin an' there was a boro chingaree, some with kali yakkas an' some with sherros chinned so the ratt jalled alay 'pre the drum. There was dui or trin bar to pessur in the sala for the graias an' mylas that got in pandamam (pandapenn).

Your pal's got a kushti gry that can jal alangus the drum kushto. L—- too's got a baro kushto gry. He jawed to the wellgooro, to the boro gav, with a poggobavescro gry an' a nokengro. You could a mored dovo gry an' kek penn'd a lav tute. I del it some ballovas to hatch his bavol and I bikened it for 9 bar, to a rye that you jins kushto. Lotti was at the wellgooro dukkerin the ranis. She lelled some kushti habben, an' her jellico was saw porder, when she dicked her mush and shelled. "Havacai! I've got some fine habben!" She penned to a rakli, "Pet your wonger adree turo wast an I'll dukker tute." An' she lelled a pash bar from the rani. She penned her: "You kaums a rye a longo duros. He's a kaulo and there's a waver rye, a pauno, that kaums you too, an' you'll soon lel a chinamangree. Tute'll rummorben before dui besh, an' be the dye of trin chavis.'

There was a gry jallin with a wardo langus the drum, an' I dicked a raklo, an' putsched (pootched) him. "How much wongur?" an' he pookered man'y "Desh bar;" I penned: "Is dovo, noko gry?" "Avali." Well, a Rommany chul del him desh bar for the gry an' bikined it for twelve bar to a boro rye. It was a fino kaulo gry with a boro herree, but had a naflo piro; it was the nearo piro an' was a dellemescro. He del it some hopium drab to hatch adoi, and tooled his solivengro upo the purgis.

At the paiass with the koshters a rye welled and Wantelo shelled avree: "Trin kosters for a horra, eighteen for a shekori!" An' the rye lelled a koshter an' we had pange collos for trin dozenos. The rye kaired paiass kushto and lelled pange cocoanuts, and lelled us to his wardo, and dell'd mandy trin currus of tatty panni, so that I was most matto. He was a kushti rye and his rani was as good as the rye.

There was a waver mush a playin, an' mandy penned: "Pen the kosh paulier, hatch 'em odoi, don't well adoorer or he'll lel saw the covvos! Chiv 'em pauli!" A chi rakkered the ryes an' got fifteen cullos from yeck. And no moro the divvus from your kaum pal,

M.



TRANSLATION.

THE WATER VILLAGE, Dec. 16, 1871.

MY DEAR DAUGHTER,—Good luck! my love to your husband and your father, and best luck! We've had bad fortune, my sister has been sick this here week, we're doing very badly and could not get any money. Your two brothers are doing well, running about the country selling things. Your old uncle came to his sister and stayed three days, and went away like an old dog and never gave me a penny.

Nothing much new. A girl here took a watch the other day from another girl, and the one who lost it said: "Give it back to me and I won't hurt you." But the other girl said "No," and so they sent for the constable. He took the girl to the station (or carriage), and just before she got there she put her hand in her pocket and threw it away, and the policeman picked it up. So they sent her to prison.

I have no horse, and can't get any money to buy none. My dear daughter, if you could send me a few pounds it would be agreeable. I carry my traps on my back now. I saw my uncle the other day among a lot of Gipsies, all drinking. There were the women fighting there, and the men fighting, and there was a great shindy, some with black eyes, and some with heads cut so that the blood ran down on the road. There were two or three pounds to pay in the morning for the horses and asses that were in the pound.

Your brother has got a capital horse that can go along the road nicely. L—-, too, has a large fine horse. He went to the fair in —- with a broken-winded horse and a glandered. You could have killed that horse and nobody said a word to you. I gave it some lard to stop his breathing, and I sold it for nine pound to a gentleman whom you know well.

Lotty was at the fair telling fortunes to the ladies. She got some excellent food, and her apron was quite full, when she saw her husband and cried out: "Come here! I've got some nice victuals!" She said to a girl: "Put you money in your hand and I'll tell you your fortune." And she took half a sovereign from the lady. She told her: "You love a gentleman who is far away. He is dark, and there is another gentleman, a fair-haired man that loves you, and you'll soon get a letter. You'll marry before two years, and be the mother of three children."

There was a horse going with a waggon along the road; and I saw a youth, and asked him, "How much money?" (for the horse), and he replied to me, "Ten pounds." I said, "Is that your horse?" "Yes." Well, a Gipsy gave him ten pounds for the horse, and sold it for twelve pounds to a great gentleman. It was a good black horse, with a (handsome) strong leg (literally large), but it had a bad foot; it was the near foot, and it was a kicker. He gave it some opium medicament to keep quiet (literally to stop there), and held his rein (i.e., trotted him so as to show his pace, and conceal his faults) on the road.

At the cock-shy a gentleman came, and Wantelo halloed out, "Three sticks for a penny, eighteen for a sixpence!" And the gentleman took a stick, and we had five shillings for three dozen throws! The gentleman played well, and got five cocoanuts, and took us to his carriage and gave me three glasses of brandy, so that I was almost drunk. He was a good gentleman, and his lady was as good as her husband.

There was another man playing; and I said, "Set the sticks more back, set 'em there; don't go further or he'll get all the things! Set 'em back!" A Gipsy girl talked to the gentlemen (i.e., persuaded them to play), and got fifteen shillings from one. And no more to-day from your dear brother,

M.

* * * * *

One thing in the foregoing letter is worth noting. Every remark or incident occurring in it is literally true—drawn from life—pur et simple. It is, indeed, almost the resume of the entire life of many poor Gipsies during the summer. And I may add that the language in which it is written, though not the "deep" or grammatical Gipsy, in which no English words occur—as for instance in the Lord's Prayer, as given by Mr Borrow in his appendix to the Gipsies in Spain {70}—is still really a fair specimen of the Rommany of the present day, which is spoken at races by cock-shysters and fortune-tellers.

The "Water Village," from which it is dated, is the generic term among Gipsies for all towns by the sea-side. The phrase kushto (or kushti), bak!—"good luck!" is after "Sarishan!" or "how are you?" the common greeting among Gipsies. The fight is from life and to the life; and the "two or three pounds to pay in the morning for the horses and asses that got impounded," indicates its magnitude. To have a beast in pound in consequence of a frolic, is a common disaster in Gipsy life.

During the dictation of the foregoing letter, my Gipsy paused at the word "broken-winded horse," when I asked him how he could stop the heavy breathing?

"With ballovas (or lard and starch)—long enough to sell it."

"But how would you sell a glandered horse?"

Here he described, with great ingenuity, the manner in which he would tool or manage the horse—an art in which Gipsies excel all the world over—and which, as Mr Borrow tells us, they call in Spain "de pacuaro," which is pure Persian.

"But that would not stop the running. How would you prevent that?"

"I don't know."

"Then I am a better graiengro than you, for I know a powder, and with a penny's worth of it I could stop the glanders in the worst case, long enough to sell the horse. I once knew an old horse-dealer who paid sixty pounds for a nokengro (a glandered horse) which had been powdered in this way."

The Gipsy listened to me in great admiration. About a week afterwards I heard he had spoken of me as follows:—

"Don't talk about knowing. My rye knows more than anybody. He can cheat any man in England selling him a glandered horse."

Had this letter been strictly confined to the limits originally intended, it would have spoken only of the sufferings of the family, the want of money, and possibly, the acquisition of a new horse by the brother. In this case it bears a decided family-likeness to the following letter in the German-Gipsy dialect, which originally appeared in a book entitled, Beytrag zur Rottwellischen Grammatik, oder Worterbuch von der Zigeuner Spracke, Leipzig 1755, and which was republished by Dr A. F. Pott in his stupendous work, Die Zigeuner in Europa und Asien. Halle, 1844.



GERMAN GIPSY.

MIRI KOMLI ROMNI,—Ertiewium Francfurtter wium te gajum apro Newoforo. Apro drum ne his mange mishdo. Mare manush tschingerwenes ketteni. Tschiel his te midschach wettra. Tschawe wele naswele. Dowa ker, kai me gaijam medre gazdias tele; mare ziga t'o terno kalbo nahsle penge. O flachso te hanfa te wulla te schwigarizakri te stifftshakri ho spinderde gotshias nina. Lopennawa, wium ke tshorero te wiam hallauter nange Denkerdum tschingerwam mangi kasht te mre wastiengri butin, oder hunte di kaw te kinnaw tschommoni pre te bikkewaw pale, te de denkerwaw te ehrnahrwaw man kiacke. Me bium kiacke kuremangrender pene aper mande, buten tschingerde buten trinen marde te man, tshimaster apri butin tshidde. O bolloben te rackel tutt andre sawe kolester, kai me wium adre te me tshawa tiro rum shin andro meraben.



TRANSLATION.

MY DEAR WIFE,—Before I came to Frankfort I went to Neustadt. On the way it did not go well with me. Our men quarrelled together. It was cold and wet weather. The children were ill. That house into which we had gone burnt down; our kid and the young calf run away. The flax and hemp and wool [which] the sister-in-law and step-daughter spun are also burned. In short, I say I became so poor that we all went naked. I thought of cutting wood and working by hand, or I should go into business and sell something. I think I will make my living so. I was so treated by the soldiers. They fell on us, wounded many, three they killed, and I was taken to prison to work for life. Heaven preserve you in all things from that into which I have fallen, and I remain thy husband unto death.

* * * * *

It is the same sad story in all, wretchedness, poverty, losses, and hunger. In the English letter there was a chingari—a shindy; in the German they have a tshinger, which is nearly the same word, and means the same. It may be remarked as curious that the word meraben at the end of the letter, meaning death, is used by English Gipsies to signify life as well.

"Dick at the gorgios, The gorgios round mandy; Trying to take my meripon, My meripon away."

The third letter is also in the German-Gipsy dialect, and requires a little explanation. Once a man named Charles Augustus was arrested as a beggar and suspected Gipsy, and brought before Mr Richard Liebich, who appears to have been nothing less in the total than the Furstlich Reuss- Plauenschem Criminalrathe und Vorstande des Furstlichen Criminalgerichts zu Lobenstein—in fact, a rather lofty local magistrate. Before this terrible title Charles appeared, and swore stoutly that he was no more a Rommany chal than he was one of the Apostles—for be it remembered, reader, that in Germany at the present day, the mere fact of being a Gipsy is still treated as a crime. Suddenly the judge attacked him with the words—"Tu hal rom, me hom, rakker tschatschopenn!"—"Thou art a Gipsy, I am a Gipsy, speak the truth." And Charles, looking up in amazement and seeing the black hair and brown face of the judge, verily believed that he was of the blood of Dom. So crossing his arms on his breast in true Oriental style, he salaamed deeply, and in a submissive voice said—"Me hom rom"—"I am a Gipsy."

The judge did not abuse the confidence gained by his little trick, since he appears to have taken Charles under his wing, employed him in small jobs (in America we should say chores, but the word would be frightfully significant, if applied to a Gipsy), {75} and finally dismissed him. And Charles replied Rommanesquely, by asking for something. His application was as follows:—



GERMAN GIPSY.

"LICHTENBERG ANE DESCHE OCHDADO, Januar 1859.

"LADSCHO BARO RAI,—Me hunde dschinawe duge gole dui trin Lawinser mire zelle gowe, har geas mange an demaro foro de demare Birengerenser. Har weum me stildo gage lean demare Birengere mr lowe dele, de har weum biro gage lean jon man dran o stilibin bri, de mangum me mr lowe lender, gai deum dele. Jon pendin len wellen geg mander. Gai me deum miro lowe lende, naste pennene jon gar wawer. Brinscherdo lowe hi an i Gissig, o baro godder lolo paro, trin Chairingere de jeg dschildo gotter sinagro lowe. Man weas mr lowe gar gobe dschanel o Baro Dewel ani Bolebin. Miro baaro bargerbin vaschge demare Ladschebin bennawe. O baro Dewel de pleisserwel de maro ladscho sii i pure sasde Tschiwaha demende demaro zelo Beero. De hadzin e Birengere miro lowe, dale mangawa me len de bidschin jon mire lowe gadder o foro Naile abbi Bidschebasger wurtum sikk. Gai me dschingerdum ab demende, hi gar dschadscho, gai miri romni hass mando, gowe hi dschadscho. Obaaro Dewel de bleiserwel de mange de menge demaro Ladscho Sii. Miero Bargerbin. De me dschawe demaro gandelo Waleddo.

CHARLES AUGUSTIN."



TRANSLATION.

"LICHTENBERG, January 18, 1859.

"GOOD GREAT SIR,—I must write to you with these two or three words my whole business (gowe, English Gipsy covvo, literally 'thing,') how it happened to me in your town, by your servants (literally 'footmen'). When I was arrested, your servants took my money away, and when I was freed they took me out of prison. I asked my money of them which I had given up. They said they had got none from me. That I gave them my money they cannot deny. The said (literally, known) money is in a purse, a great piece, red (and) old, three kreutzers, and a yellow piece of good-for- nothing money. I did not get my money, as the great God in heaven knows. My great thanks for your goodness, I say. The great God reward your good heart with long healthy life, you and your whole family. And if your servants find my money, I beg they will send it to the town Naila, by the post at once. That I cursed you is not true; that my wife was drunk is true. The great God reward your good heart. My thanks. And I remain, your obedient servant,

CHARLES AUGUSTIN."

Those who attempt to read this letter in the original, should be informed that German Gipsy is, as compared to the English or Spanish dialects, almost a perfect language; in fact, Pott has by incredible industry, actually restored it to its primitive complete form; and its orthography is now settled. Against this orthography poor Charles Augustin sins sadly, and yet it may be doubted whether many English tramps and beggars could write a better letter.

The especial Gipsy characteristic in this letter is the constant use of the name of God, and the pious profusion of blessings. "She's the blessing-est old woman I ever came across," was very well said of an old Rommany dame in England. And yet these well-wishings are not always insincere, and they are earnest enough when uttered in Gipsy.



CHAPTER VI. GIPSY WORDS WHICH HAVE PASSED INTO ENGLISH SLANG.

Jockey.—Tool.—Cove or Covey.—Hook, Hookey, and Walker, Hocus, Hanky- Panky, and Hocus-Pocus.—Shindy.—Row.—Chivvy.—Bunged Eye.—Shavers.— Clichy.—Caliban.—A Rum 'un.—Pal.—Trash.—Cadger.—Cad.—Bosh.—Bats.— Chee-chee.—The Cheese.—Chiv Fencer.—Cooter.—Gorger.—Dick.—Dook.— Tanner.—Drum.—Gibberish.—Ken.—Lil.—Loure.—Loafer.—Maunder.—Moke.— Parny.—Posh.—Queer. Raclan.—Bivvy.—Rigs.—Moll.—Distarabin.—Tiny.— Toffer.—Tool.—Punch.—Wardo.—Voker (one of Mr Hotten's Gipsy words).— Welcher.—Yack.—Lushy.—A Mull.—Pross.—Toshers.—Up to Trap.—Barney.— Beebee.—Cull, Culley.—Jomer.—Bloke.—Duffer.—Niggling.—Mug.— Bamboozle, Slang, and Bite.—Rules to be observed in determining the Etymology of Gipsy Words.

Though the language of the Gipsies has been kept a great secret for centuries, still a few words have in England oozed out here and there from some unguarded crevice, and become a portion of our tongue. There is, it must be admitted, a great difficulty in tracing, with anything like accuracy, the real origin or identity of such expressions. Some of them came into English centuries ago, and during that time great changes have taken place in Rommany. At least one-third of the words now used by Scottish Gipsies are unintelligible to their English brothers. To satisfy myself on this point, I have examined an intelligent English Gipsy on the Scottish Gipsy vocabularies in Mr Simpson's work, and found it was as I anticipated; a statement which will not appear incredible when it is remembered, that even the Rommany of Yetholm have a dialect marked and distinct from that of other Scotch Gipsies. As for England, numbers of the words collected by William Marsden, and Jacob Bryant, in 1784-5, Dr Bright in 1817, and by Harriott in 1830, are not known at the present day to any Gipsies whom I have met. Again, it should be remembered that the pronunciation of Rommany differs widely with individuals; thus the word which is given as cumbo, a hill, by Bryant, I have heard very distinctly pronounced choomure.

I believe that to Mr Borrow is due the discovery that the word JOCKEY is of Gipsy origin, and derived from chuckni, which means a whip. For nothing is more clearly established than that the jockey-whip was the original term in which this word first made its appearance on the turf, and that the chuckni was a peculiar form of whip, very long and heavy, first used by the Gipsies. "Jockeyism," says Mr Borrow, "properly means the management of a whip, and the word jockey is neither more nor less than the term, slightly modified, by which they designate the formidable whips which they usually carry, and which are at present in general use among horse-traffickers, under the title of jockey-whips." In Hungary and Germany the word occurs as tschuckini or chookni, and tschupni.

Many of my readers are doubtless familiar with the word to TOOL as applied to dexterously managing the reins and driving horses. 'To tool the horses down the road,' is indeed rather a fine word of its class, being as much used in certain clubs as in stables, and often denotes stylish and gentlemanly driving. And the term is without the slightest modification, either of pronunciation or meaning, directly and simply Gipsy, and is used by Gipsies in the same way. It has, however, in Rommany, as a primitive meaning—to hold, or to take. Thus I have heard of a feeble old fellow that "he could not tool himself togetherus"—for which last word, by the way, kettenus might have been more correctly substituted.

COVE is not an elegant, though a very old, word, but it is well known, and I have no doubt as to its having come from the Gipsy. In Rommany, all the world over, cova means "a thing," but it is almost indefinite in its applicability. "It is," says Pott, "a general helper on all occasions; is used as substantive and adjective, and has a far wider scope than the Latin res." Thus covo may mean "that man;" covi, "that woman;" and covo or cuvvo, as it very often does in English, "that, there." It sometimes appears in the word acovat, or this. There is no expression more frequent in a Gipsy's mouth, and it is precisely the one which would be probably overheard by "Gorgios" and applied to persons. I believe that it first made its appearance in English slang as covey, and was then pronounced cuvvy, being subsequently abbreviated into cove.

Quite a little family of words has come into English from the Rommany, Hocben, huckaben, hokkeny, or hooker, all meaning a lie, or to lie, deception and humbug. Mr Borrow shows us that hocus, to "bewitch" liquor with an opiate, and hoax, are probably Rommany from this root, and I have no doubt that the expression, "Yes, with a hook," meaning "it is false," comes from the same. The well-known "Hookey" who corresponds so closely with his untruthful and disreputable pal "Walker," is decidedly of the streets—gipsy. In German Gipsy we find chochavav and hochewawa, and in Roumanian Gipsy kokao—a lie. Hanky-panky and Hocus-pocus are each one half almost pure Hindustani. {81}

A SHINDY approaches so nearly in sound to the Gipsy word chingaree, which means precisely the same thing, that the suggestion is at least worth consideration. And it also greatly resembles chindi, which may be translated as "cutting up," and also quarrel. "To cut up shindies" was the first form in which this extraordinary word reached the public. In the original Gipsy tongue the word to quarrel is chinger-av, meaning also (Pott, Zigeuner, p. 209) to cut, hew, and fight, while to cut is chinav. "Cutting up" is, if the reader reflects, a very unmeaning word as applied to outrageous or noisy pranks; but in Gipsy, whether English, German, or Oriental, it is perfectly sensible and logical, involving the idea of quarrelling, separating, dividing, cutting, and stabbing. What, indeed, could be more absurd than the expression "cutting up shines," unless we attribute to shine its legitimate Gipsy meaning of a piece cut off, and its cognate meaning, a noise?

I can see but little reason for saying that a man cut away or that he shinned it, for run away, unless we have recourse to Gipsy, though I only offer this as a mere suggestion.

"Applico" to shindy we have the word ROW, meaning nearly the same thing and as nearly Gipsy in every respect as can be. It is in Gipsy at the present day in England, correctly, rov, or roven—to cry—but v and w are so frequently transposed that we may consider them as the same letter. Raw or me rauaw, "I howl" or "cry," is German Gipsy. Rowan is given by Pott as equivalent to the Latin ululatus, which constituted a very respectable row as regards mere noise. "Rowdy" comes from "row" and both are very good Gipsy in their origin. In Hindustani Rao mut is "don't cry!"

CHIVVY is a common English vulgar word, meaning to goad, drive, vex, hunt, or throw as it were here and there. It is purely Gipsy, and seems to have more than one root. Chiv, chib, or chipe, in Rommany, mean a tongue, inferring scolding, and chiv anything sharp-pointed, as for instance a dagger, or goad or knife. But the old Gipsy word chiv-av among its numerous meanings has exactly that of casting, throwing, pitching, and driving. To chiv in English Gipsy means as much and more than to fix in America, in fact, it is applied to almost any kind of action.

It may be remarked in this connection, that in German or continental Gipsy, which represents the English in a great measure as it once was, and which is far more perfect as to grammar, we find different words, which in English have become blended into one. Thus, chib or chiv, a tongue, and tschiwawa (or chiv-ava), to lay, place, lean, sow, sink, set upright, move, harness, cover up, are united in England into chiv, which embraces the whole. "Chiv it apre" may be applied to throwing anything, to covering it up, to lifting it, to setting it, to pushing it, to circulating, and in fact to a very great number of similar verbs.

There is, I think, no rational connection between the BUNG of a barrel and an eye which has been closed by a blow. One might as well get the simile from a knot in a tree or a cork in a flask. But when we reflect on the constant mingling of Gipsies with prizefighters, it is almost evident that the word BONGO may have been the origin of it. A bongo yakko or yak, means a distorted, crooked, or, in fact, a bunged eye. It also means lame, crooked, or sinister, and by a very singular figure of speech, Bongo Tem or the Crooked Land is the name for hell. {83}

SHAVERS, as a quaint nick-name for children, is possibly inexplicable, unless we resort to Gipsy, where we find it used as directly as possible. Chavo is the Rommany word for child all the world over, and the English term chavies, in Scottish Gipsy shavies, or shavers, leaves us but little room for doubt. I am not aware to what extent the term "little shavers" is applied to children in England, but in America it is as common as any cant word can be.

I do not know the origin of the French word CLICHY, as applied to the noted prison of that name, but it is perhaps not undeserving the comment that in Continental Gipsy it means a key and a bolt.

I have been struck with the fact that CALIBAN, the monster in "The Tempest," by Shakespeare, has an appellation which literally signifies blackness in Gipsy. In fact, this very word, or Cauliban, is given in one of the Gipsy vocabularies for "black." Kaulopen or Kauloben would, however, be more correct.

"A regular RUM 'un" was the form in which the application of the word "rum" to strange, difficult, or distinguished, was first introduced to the British public. This, I honestly believe (as Mr Borrow indicates), came from Rum or Rom, a Gipsy. It is a peculiar word, and all of its peculiarities might well be assumed by the sporting Gipsy, who is always, in his way, a character, gifted with an indescribable self-confidence, as are all "horsey" men characters, "sports" and boxers, which enables them to keep to perfection the German eleventh commandment, "Thou shall not let thyself be bluffed!"—i.e., abashed.

PAL is a common cant word for brother or friend, and it is purely Gipsy, having come directly from that language, without the slightest change. On the Continent it is prala, or pral. In England it sometimes takes the form "pel."

TRASH is derived by Mr Wedgwood (Dictionary of English Etymology, 1872) from the old word trousse, signifying the clipping of trees. But in old Gipsy or in the German Gipsy of the present day, as in the Turkish Rommany, it means so directly "fear, mental weakness and worthlessness," that it may possibly have had a Rommany origin. Terror in Gipsy is trash, while thirst is trush, and both are to be found in the Hindustani. Tras, which means thirst and alarm or terror.

It should be observed that in no instance can these Gipsy words have been borrowed from English slang. They are all to be found in German Gipsy, which is in its turn identical with the Rommany language of India—of the Nats, Bhazeghurs, Doms, Multanee or Banjoree, as I find the primitive wandering Gipsies termed by different writers.

I am aware that the word CAD was applied to the conductor of an omnibus, or to a non-student at Universities, before it became a synonym for vulgar fellow, yet I believe that it was abbreviated from cadger, and that this is simply the Gipsy word Gorgio, which often means a man in the abstract. I have seen this word printed as gorger in English slang. CODGER, which is common, is applied, as Gipsies use the term Gorgio, contemptuously, and it sounds still more like it.

BOSH, signifying nothing, or in fact empty humbug, is generally credited to the Turkish language, but I can see no reason for going to the Turks for what the Gipsies at home already had, in all probability, from the same Persian source, or else from the Sanskrit. With the Gipsies, bosh is a fiddle, music, noise, barking, and very often an idle sound or nonsense. "Stop your bosherin," or "your bosh," is what they would term flickin lav, or current phrase.

"BATS," a low term for a pair of boots, especially bad ones, is, I think, from the Gipsy and Hindustani pat, a foot, generally called, however, by the Rommany in England, Tom Pats. "To pad the hoof," and "to stand pad "—the latter phrase meaning to stand upright, or to stand and beg, are probably derived from pat. It should be borne in mind that Gipsies, in all countries, are in the habit of changing certain letters, so that p and b, like l and n, or k and g hard, may often be regarded as identical.

"CHEE-CHEE," "be silent!" or "fie," is termed "Anglo-Indian," by the author of the Slang Dictionary, but we need not go to India of the present day for a term which is familiar to every Gipsy and "traveller" in England, and which, as Mr Simson discovered long ago, is an excellent "spell" to discourage the advances of thimble-riggers and similar gentry, at fairs, or in public places.

CHEESE, or "THE CHEESE," meaning that anything is pre-eminent or superior; in fact, "the thing," is supposed by many to be of gipsy origin because Gipsies use it, and it is to be found as "chiz" in Hindustani, in which language it means a thing. Gipsies do not, however, seem to regard it themselves, as tacho or true Rommanis, despite this testimony, and I am inclined to think that it partly originated in some wag's perversion of the French word chose.

In London, a man who sells cutlery in the streets is called a CHIVE FENCER, a term evidently derived from the Gipsy chiv, a sharp-pointed instrument or knife. A knife is also called a chiv by the lowest class all over England.

COUTER or COOTER is a common English slang term for a guinea. It was not necessary for the author of the Slang Dictionary to go to the banks of the Danube for the origin of a word which is in the mouths of all English Gipsies, and which was brought to England by their ancestors. A sovereign, a pound, in Gipsy, is a bar.

A GORGER, meaning a gentleman, or well-dressed man, and in theatrical parlance, a manager, is derived by the author of the Slang Dictionary—absurdly enough, it must be confessed—from "gorgeous,"—a word with which it has no more in common than with gouges or chisels. A gorger or gorgio—the two are often confounded—is the common Gipsy word for one who is not Gipsy, and very often means with them a rye or gentleman, and indeed any man whatever. Actors sometimes call a fellow- performer a cully-gorger.

DICK, an English slang word for sight, or seeing, is purely Gipsy in its origin, and in common use by Rommanis over all the world.

DOOK, to tell fortunes, and DOOKING, fortune-telling, are derived by the writer last cited, correctly enough, from the Gipsy dukkerin,—a fact which I specify, since it is one of the very rare instances in which he has not blundered when commenting on Rommany words, or other persons' works.

Mr Borrow has told us that a TANNER or sixpence, sometimes called a Downer, owes its pseudonym to the Gipsy word tawno or tano, meaning "little"—the sixpence being the little coin as compared with a shilling.

DRUM or DROM, is the common English Gipsy word for a road. In English slang it is applied, not only to highways, but also to houses.

If the word GIBBERISH was, as has been asserted, first applied to the language of the Gipsies, it may have been derived either from "Gip," the nickname for Gipsy, with ish or rish appended as in Engl-ish, I- rish, or from the Rommany word Jib signifying a language.

KEN, a low term for a house, is possibly of Gipsy origin. The common word in every Rommany dialect for a house is, however, neither ken nor khan, but Ker.

LIL, a book, a letter, has passed from the Gipsies to the low "Gorgios," though it is not a very common word. In Rommany it can be correctly applied only to a letter or a piece of paper, which is written on, though English Gipsies call all books by this name, and often speak of a letter as a Chinamangri.

LOUR or LOWR, and LOAVER, are all vulgar terms for money, and combine two Gipsy words, the one lovo or lovey, and the other loure, to steal. The reason for the combination or confusion is obvious. The author of the Slang Dictionary, in order to explain this word, goes as usual to the Wallachian Gipsies, for what he might have learned from the first tinker in the streets of London. I should remark on the word loure, that Mr Borrow has shown its original identity with loot, the Hindustani for plunder or booty.

I believe that the American word loafer owes something to this Gipsy root, as well as to the German laufer (landlaufer), and Mexican Spanish galeofar, and for this reason, that when the term first began to be popular in 1834 or 1835, I can distinctly remember that it meant to pilfer. Such, at least, is my earliest recollection, and of hearing school boys ask one another in jest, of their acquisitions or gifts, "Where did you loaf that from?" A petty pilferer was a loafer, but in a very short time all of the tribe of loungers in the sun, and disreputable pickers up of unconsidered trifles, now known as bummers, were called loafers. On this point my memory is positive, and I call attention to it, since the word in question has been the subject of much conjecture in America.

It is a very curious fact, that while the word loot is unquestionably Anglo-Indian, and only a recent importation into our English "slanguage," it has always been at the same time English-Gipsy, although it never rose to the surface.

MAUNDER, to stroll about and beg, has been derived from Mand, the Anglo- Saxon for a basket, but is quite as likely to have come from Maunder, the Gipsy for "to beg." Mumper, a beggar, is also from the same source.

MOKE, a donkey, is said to be Gipsy, by Mr Hotten, but Gipsies themselves do not use the word, nor does it belong to their usual language. The proper Rommany word for an ass is myla.

PARNY, a vulgar word for rain, is supposed to have come into England from the "Anglo-Indian" source, but it is more likely that it was derived from the Gipsy panni or water. "Brandy pawnee" is undoubtedly an Anglo-Indian word, but it is used by a very different class of people from those who know the meaning of Parny.

POSH, which has found its way into vulgar popularity, as a term for small coins, and sometimes for money in general, is the diminutive of the Gipsy word pashero or poshero, a half-penny, from pash a half, and haura or harra, a penny.

QUEER, meaning across, cross, contradictory, or bad, is "supposed" to be the German word quer, introduced by the Gipsies. In their own language atut means across or against, though to curry (German and Turkish Gipsy kurava), has some of the slang meaning attributed to queer. An English rogue will say, "to shove the queer," meaning to pass counterfeit money, while the Gipsy term would be to chiv wafri lovvo, or lovey.

"RAGLAN, a married woman, originally Gipsy, but now a term with English tramps" (The Slang Dictionary, London 1865). In Gipsy, raklo is a youth or boy, and rakli, a girl; Arabic, ragol, a man. I am informed, on good authority, that these words are known in India, though I cannot find them in dictionaries. They are possibly transposed from Lurka a youth and lurki a girl, such transpositions being common among the lowest classes in India.

RUMMY or RUMY, as applied to women, is simply the Gipsy word romi, a contraction of romni, a wife; the husband being her rom.

BIVVY for beer, has been derived from the Italian bevere, but it is probably Gipsy, since in the old form of the latter language, Biava or Piava, means to drink. To pivit, is still known among English Gipsies.

RIGS—running one's rigs is said to be Gipsy, but the only meaning of rig, so far as I am able to ascertain in Rommany, is a side or an edge. It is, however, possible that one's side may in earlier times have been equivalent to "face, or encounter." To rikker or rigger in Gipsy, is to carry anything.

MOLL, a female companion, is probably merely the nickname for Mary, but it is worth observing, that Mal in old Gipsy, or in German Gipsy, means an associate, and Mahar a wife, in Hindustani.

STASH, to be quiet, to stop, is, I think, a variation of the common Gipsy word hatch, which means precisely the same thing, and is derived from the older word atchava.

STURABAN, a prison, is purely Gipsy. Mr Hotten says it is from the Gipsy distarabin, but there is no such word beginning with dis, in the English Rommany dialect. In German Gipsy a prison is called stillapenn.

TINY or TEENY has been derived from the Gipsy tano, meaning "little."

TOFFER, a woman who is well dressed in new clean clothes, probably gets the name from the Gipsy tove, to wash (German Gipsy Tovava). She is, so to speak, freshly washed. To this class belong Toff, a dandy; Tofficky, dressy or gay, and Toft, a dandy or swell.

TOOL as applied to stealing, picking pockets, and burglary, is, like tool, to drive with the reins; derived beyond doubt from the Gipsy word tool, to take or hold. In all the Continental Rommany dialects it is Tulliwawa.

PUNCH, it is generally thought, is Anglo-Indian, derived directly from the Hindustani Pantch or five, from the five ingredients which enter into its composition, but it may have partially got its name from some sporting Gipsy in whose language the word for five is the same as in Sanskrit. There have been thousands of "swell" Rommany chals who have moved in sporting circles of a higher class than they are to be found in at the present day.

"VARDO formerly was Old Cant for a waggon" (The Slang Dictionary). It may be added that it is pure Gipsy, and is still known at the present day to every Rom in England. In Turkish Gipsy, Vordon means a vehicle, in German Gipsy, Wortin.

"Can you VOKER Rommany?" is given by Mr Hotten as meaning "Can you speak Gipsy,"—but there is no such word in Rommany as voker. He probably meant "Can you rakker"—pronounced very often Roker. Continental Gipsy Rakkervava. Mr Hotten derives it from the Latin Vocare!

I do not know the origin of WELCHER, a betting cheat, but it is worthy of remark that in old Gipsy a Walshdo or Welsher meant a Frenchman (from the German Walsch) or any foreigner of the Latin races.

YACK, a watch, probably received its name from the Gipsy Yak an eye, in the old times when watches were called bull's eyes.

LUSHY, to be tipsy, and LUSH, are attributed for their origin to the name of Lushington, a once well-known London brewer, but when we find Losho and Loshano in a Gipsy dialect, meaning jolly, from such a Sanskrit root as Lush; as Paspati derives it, there seems to be some ground for supposing the words to be purely Rommany. Dr Johnson said of lush that it was "opposite to pale," and this curiously enough shows its first source, whether as a "slang" word or as indicative of colour, since one of its early Sanskrit meanings is light or radiance. This identity of the so regarded vulgar and the refined, continually confronts us in studying Rommany.

"To make a MULL of anything," meaning thereby to spoil or confuse it, if it be derived, as is said, from the Gipsy, must have come from Mullo meaning dead, and the Sanskrit Mara. There is, however, no such Gipsy word as mull, in the sense of entangling or spoiling.

PROSS is a theatrical slang word, meaning to instruct and train a tyro. As there are several stage words of manifest Gipsy origin, I am inclined to derive this from the old Gipsy Priss, to read. In English Gipsy Prasser or Pross means to ridicule or scorn. Something of this is implied in the slang word Pross, since it also means "to sponge upon a comrade," &c., "for drink."

TOSHERS are in English low language, "men who steal copper from ship's bottoms." I cannot form any direct connection between this word and any in English Gipsy, but it is curious that in Turkish Gipsy Tasi is a cup, and in Turkish Persian it means, according to Paspati, a copper basin used in the baths. It is as characteristic of English Gipsy as of any of its cognate dialects, that we often find lurking in it the most remarkable Oriental fragments, which cannot be directly traced through the regular line of transmission.

UP TO TRAP means, in common slang, intelligent. It is worth observing, that in Gipsy, drab or trap (which words were pronounced alike by the first Gipsies who came from Germany to England), is used for medicine or poison, and the employment of the latter is regarded, even at the present, as the greatest Rommany secret. Indeed, it is only a few days since a Gipsy said to me, "If you know drab, you're up to everything; for there's nothing goes above that." With drab the Gipsy secures game, fish, pigs, and poultry; he quiets kicking horses until they can be sold; and last, not least, kills or catches rats and mice. As with the Indians of North America, medicine—whether to kill or cure—is to the Gipsy the art of arts, and those who affect a knowledge of it are always regarded as the most intelligent. It is, however, remarkable, that the Gipsy, though he lives in fields and woods, is, all the world over, far inferior to the American Indian as regards a knowledge of the properties of herbs or minerals. One may pick the first fifty plants which he sees in the woods, and show them to the first Indian whom he meets, with the absolute certainty that the latter will give him a name for every one, and describe in detail their qualities and their use as remedies. The Gipsy seldom has a name for anything of the kind. The country people in America, and even the farmers' boys, have probably inherited by tradition much of this knowledge from the aborigines.

BARNEY, a mob or crowd, may be derived from the Gipsy baro, great or many, which sometimes takes the form of barno or barni, and which suggests the Hindustani Bahrna "to increase, proceed, to gain, to be promoted;" and Bharna, "to fill, to satisfy, to be filled, &c."—(Brice's "Hindustani and English Dictionary." London, Trubner & Co., 1864).

BEEBEE, which the author of the Slang Dictionary declares means a lady, and is "Anglo-Indian," is in general use among English Gipsies for aunt. It is also a respectful form of address to any middle-aged woman, among friends.

CULL or CULLY, meaning a man or boy, in Old English cant, is certainly of Gipsy origin. Chulai signifies man in Spanish Gipsy (Borrow), and Khulai a gentleman, according to Paspati; in Turkish Rommany—a distinction which the word cully often preserves in England, even when used in a derogatory sense, as of a dupe.

JOMER, a sweetheart or female favourite, has probably some connection in derivation with choomer, a kiss, in Gipsy.

BLOKE, a common coarse word for a man, may be of Gipsy origin; since, as the author of the Slang Dictionary declares, it may be found in Hindustani, as Loke. "Lok, people, a world, region."—("Brice's Hind. Dictionary.") Bala' lok, a gentleman.

A DUFFER, which is an old English cant term, expressive of contempt for a man, may be derived from the Gipsy Adovo, "that," "that man," or "that fellow there." Adovo is frequently pronounced almost like "a duffer," or "a duvva."

NIGGLING, which means idling, wasting time, doing anything slowly, may be derived from some other Indo-European source, but in English Gipsy it means to go slowly, "to potter along," and in fact it is the same as the English word. That it is pure old Rommany appears from the fact that it is to be found as Niglavava in Turkish Gipsy, meaning "I go," which is also found in Nikliovava and Nikavava, which are in turn probably derived from the Hindustani Nikalna, "To issue, to go forth or out," &c. (Brice, Hind. Dic.) Niggle is one of the English Gipsy words which are used in the East, but which I have not been able to find in the German Rommany, proving that here, as in other countries, certain old forms have been preserved, though they have been lost where the vocabulary is far more copious, and the grammar much more perfect.

MUG, a face, is derived by Mr Wedgwood from the Italian MOCCA, a mocking or apish mouth (Dictionary of English Etymology), but in English Gipsy we have not only mui, meaning the face, but the older forms from which the English word was probably taken, such as Mak'h (Paspati), and finally the Hindustani Mook and the Sanskrit Mukha, mouth or face (Shakespeare, Hind. Dic., p. 745). In all cases where a word is so "slangy" as mug, it seems more likely that it should have been derived from Rommany than from Italian, since it is only within a few years that any considerable number of the words of the latter language was imparted to the lower classes of London.

BAMBOOZLE, BITE, and SLANG are all declared by the author of the Slang Dictionary to be Gipsy, but, with the exception of the last word, I am unable to verify their Rommany origin. Bambhorna does indeed mean in Hindustani (Brice), "to bite or to worry," and bamboo-bakshish to deceive by paying with a whipping, while swang, as signifying mimicking, acting, disguise and sham, whether of words or deeds, very curiously conveys the spirit of the word slang. As for bite I almost hesitate to suggest the possibility of a connection between it and Bidorna, to laugh at. I offer not only these three suggested derivations, but also most of the others, with every reservation. For many of these words, as for instance bite, etymologists have already suggested far more plausible and more probable derivations, and if I have found a place for Rommany "roots," it is simply because what is the most plausible, and apparently the most probable, is not always the true origin. But as I firmly believe that there is much more Gipsy in English, especially in English slang and cant, than the world is aware of, I think it advisable to suggest what I can, leaving to abler philologists the task of testing its value.

Writers on such subjects err, almost without an exception, in insisting on one accurately defined and singly derived source for every word, when perhaps three or four have combined to form it. The habits of thought and methods of study followed by philologists render them especially open to this charge. They wish to establish every form as symmetrical and mathematical, where nature has been freakish and bizarre. Some years ago when I published certain poems in the broken English spoken by Germans, an American philologist, named Haldemann, demonstrated to his own satisfaction that the language which I had put into Hans Breitmann's mouth was inaccurate, because I had not reduced it to an uniform dialect, making the same word the same in spelling and pronunciation on all occasions, when the most accurate observation had convinced me, as it must any one, that those who have only partially learned a language continually vary their methods of uttering its words.

That some words have come from one source and been aided by another, is continually apparent in English Gipsy, as for instance in the word for reins, "guiders," which, until the Rommany reached England, was voidas. In this instance the resemblance in sound between the words undoubtedly conduced to an union. Gibberish may have come from the Gipsy, and at the same time owe something to gabble, jabber, and the old Norse or Icelandic gifra. Lush may owe something to Mr Lushington, something to the earlier English lush, or rosy, and something to the Gipsy and Sanskrit. It is not at all unlikely that the word codger owes, through cadger, a part of its being to kid, a basket, as Mr Halliwell suggests (Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1852), and yet come quite as directly from gorger or gorgio. "The cheese" probably has the Gipsy-Hidustani chiz for a father, and the French chose for a mother, while both originally sprung thousands of years ago in the great parting of the Aryan nations, to be united after so long a separation in a distant island in the far northern seas.

The etymologist who hesitates to adopt this principle of joint sources of derivation, will find abundant instances of something very like it in many English Gipsy words themselves, which, as belonging to a language in extreme decay, have been formed directly from different, but somewhat similarly sounding, words, in the parent German or Eastern Rommany. Thus, schukker, pretty; bi-shukker, slow; tschukko, dry, and tschororanes, secretly, have in England all united in shukar, which expresses all of their meanings.



CHAPTER VII. PROVERBS AND CHANCE PHRASES.

An Old Gipsy Proverb—Common Proverbs in Gipsy Dress—Quaint Sayings—Characteristic Rommany Picture-Phrases.

Every race has not only its peculiar proverbs, sayings, and catch-words, but also idiomatic phrases which constitute a characteristic chiaroscuro, if not colour. The Gipsies in England have of course borrowed much from the Gorgios, but now and then something of their own appears. In illustration of all this, I give the following expressions noted down from Gipsy conversation:—

Tacho like my dad. True like my father.

Kushto like my dad. Good like my father.

This is a true Gipsy proverb, used as a strongly marked indication of approbation or belief.

Kushto bak. Good luck!

As the Genoese of old greeted their friends with the word Guadagna! or "Gain!" indicating as Rabelais declares, their sordid character, so the Gipsy, whose life is precarious, and who depends upon chance for his daily bread, replies to "Sarishan!" (good day!) with "Kushto bak!" or "Good luck to you!" The Arabic "Baksheesh" is from the same root as bak, i.e., bacht.

When there's a boro bavol, huller the tan parl the waver rikk pauli the bor. When the wind is high, move the tent to the other side of the hedge behind it.

That is to say, change sides in an emergency.

"Hatch apre! Hushti! The prastramengro's wellin! Jal the graias avree! Prastee!"

"Jump up! Wide awake there! The policeman's coming! Run the horses off! Scamper!"

This is an alarm in camp, and constitutes a sufficiently graphic picture. The hint to run the horses off indicates a very doubtful title to their possession.

The prastramengro pens me mustn't hatch acai.

The policeman says we mustn't stop here.

No phrase is heard more frequently among Gipsies, who are continually in trouble with the police as to their right to stop and pitch their tents on commons.

I can hatch apre for pange (panj) divvuses.

I can stop here for five days.

A common phrase indicating content, and equivalent to, "I would like to sit here for a week."

The graias have taddered at the kas-stoggus—we must jal an durer—the gorgio's dicked us!

The horses have been pulling at the hay-stack—we must hurry away—the man has seen us!

When Gipsies have remained over night on a farm, it sometimes happens that their horses and asses—inadvertently of course—find their way to the haystacks or into a good field. Humanum est errare!

Yeck mush can lel a grai ta panni, but twenty cant kair him pi.

One man can take a horse to water, but twenty can't make him drink.

A well-known proverb.

A chirrico 'dree the mast is worth dui 'dree the bor.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush (hedge).

Never kin a pong dishler nor lel a romni by momeli dood.

Never buy a handkerchief nor choose a wife by candle-light.

Always jal by the divvus.

Always go by the day.

Chin tutes chuckko by tute's kaum.

Cut your coat according to your fancy. This is a Gipsy variation of an old proverb.

Fino ranyas kair fino trushnees.

Nice reeds make nice baskets.

He can't tool his kokerus togetherus (kettenus).

He can't hold himself together. Spoken of an infirm old man.

Too boot of a mush for his kokero.

Too much of a man for himself; i.e., he thinks too much of himself.

He's too boot of a mush to rakker a pauveri chavo.

He's too proud too speak to a poor man. This was used, not in depreciation of a certain nobleman, whom the Gipsy who gave it to me had often seen, but admiringly, as if such hauteur were a commendable quality.

More (koomi) covvas the well.

There are more things to come. Spoken of food on a table, and equivalent to "Don't go yet." The appears to be used in this as in many other instances, instead of to for the sake of euphony.

The jivaben has jawed avree out of his gad.

The life has gone out of his shirt, i.e., body. This intimates a long and close connection between the body and the under garment. "Avree out of," a phrase in which the Gipsy word is immediately followed by its English equivalent, is a common form of expression for the sake of clearness.

I toves my own gad.

I wash my own shirt.

A saying indicating celibacy or independence.

Mo rakkerfor a pennis when tute can't lel it.

Don't ask for a thing when you can't get it.

The wongurs kairs the grasni jal.

Money makes the mare go.

It's allers the boro matcho that pet-a-lay 'dree the panni.

It is always the largest fish that falls back into the water.

Bengis your see! Beng in tutes bukko!

The devil in your heart. The devil in your body, or bowels.

This is a common form of imprecation among Gipsies all over the world.

Jawin sar a mush mullerin adree the boro naflo-ker.

Going like a man dying in the hospital.

Rikker it adree tute's kokero see an' kek'll jin.

Keep it a secret in your own heart, and nobody will know it.

Del sar mush a sigaben to hair his jivaben. Give every man a chance to make his living.

It's sim to a choomer, kushti for kek till it's pordered atween dui.

It's like a kiss, good for nothing until it is divided between two.

A cloudy sala often purabens to a fino divvus.

A cloudy morning often changes to a fine day.

Iuzhiou panni never jalled avree from a chickli tan.

Clean water never came out from a dirty place.

Sar mush must jal to the cangry, yeck divvus or the waver.

Every man must go to the church (i.e., be buried) some day or other.

Kek mush ever lelled adusta mongur.

No man ever got money enough.

Pale the wafri bak jals the kushti bak.

Behind bad luck comes good luck.

Saw mushis ain't got the sim kammoben as wavers.

All men have not the same tastes.

Lel the tacho pirro, an' it's pash kaired.

Well begun is half done.

Whilst tute's rakkerin the cheiruses jal.

While you are talking the times (hours) fly.

Wafri bak in a boro ker, sim's adree a bitti her.

There may be adversity in a large house as well as in a small one.

The kushtiest covvas allers jal avree siggest.

The best is soonest gone.

To dick a puro pal is as cammoben as a kushti habben.

To see an old friend is as agreeable as a good meal.

When tuti's pals chinger yeck with a waver, don't tute jal adoi.

When your brothers quarrel don't you meddle.

Pet up with the rakkerin an' mor pen chichi.

Endure the chattering and say nothing.

When a mush dels tute a grai tute man dick 'dree lester's mui.

When a man gives you a horse you must not look in his mouth.

Man jal atut the puvius.

Do not go across the field. Intimating that one should travel in the proper road.

There's a kushti sovaben at the kunsus of a duro drum.

There is a sweet sleep at the end of a long road.

Kair the cammodearer.

Make the best of it.

Rikker dovo adree tute's see.

Keep that a secret.

The koomi foki the tacho.

The more the merrier.

The pishom kairs the gudlo.

The bee makes the honey. Id est, each does his own work.

The pishom lels the gudlo avree the roozhers.

The bee gets honey from flowers. Id est, seeks it in the right place.

Hatch till the dood wells apre.

Wait till the moon rises. A very characteristic Gipsy saying.

Can't pen shukker atut lendy.

You cannot say aught against them.

He's boccalo ajaw to haw his chokkas.

He's hungry enough to eat his shoes.

The puro beng is a fino mush!

The devil is a nice character.

Mansha tu pal!

Cheer up, brother. Be a man! Spoken to any one who seems dejected. This corresponds partially to the German Gipsy Manuschwari! which is, however, rather an evil wish and a curse, meaning according to Dr Liebich (Die Zigeuner) the gallows, dire need, and epilepsy. Both in English and German it is, however, derived from Manusch, a man.

He's a hunnalo nakin mush.

He is an avaricious man. Literally, a spiteful nosed man.

Tute can hair a covva ferridearer if you jal shukar.

You can do a thing better if you go about it secretly.

We're lullero adoi we don't jin the jib.

We are dumb where we do not understand the language.

Chucked (chivved) saw the habben avree.

He threw all the victuals about. A melancholy proverb, meaning that state of irritable intoxication when a man comes home and abuses his family.

A myla that rikkers tute is kushtier to kistur than a grai that chivs you apre.

An ass that carries you is better than a horse that throws you off.

The juva, that sikkers her burk will sikker her bull.

"Free of her lips, free of her hips."

He sims mandy dree the mui—like a puvengro.

He resembles me—like a potato.

Yeck hotchewitchi sims a waver as yeck bubby sims the waver.

One hedgehog is as like another as two peas.

He mored men dui.

He killed both of us. A sarcastic expression.

I dicked their stadees an langis sherros.

I saw their hats on their heads. Apropos of amazement at some very ordinary thing.

When you've tatti panni and rikker tutes kokero pash matto you can jal apre the wen sar a grai.

When you have brandy (spirits), and keep yourself half drunk, you can go through the winter like a horse.



CHAPTER VIII. INDICATIONS OF THE INDIAN ORIGIN OF THE GIPSIES.

Boro Duvel, or "Great God," an Old Gipsy term for Water—Bishnoo or Vishnu, the Rain-God—The Rain, called God's Blood by Gipsies—The Snow, "Angel's Feathers."—Mahadeva—Buddha—The Simurgh—The Pintni or Mermaid—The Nag or Blind-Worm—Nagari and Niggering—The Nile—Nats and Nautches, Naubat and Nobbet—A Puncher—Pitch, Piller and Pivlibeebee—Quod—Kishmet or Destiny—The Koran in England—"Sass"— Sherengro—Sarserin—Shali or Rice—The Shaster in England—The Evil Eye—Sikhs—Stan, Hindostan, Iranistan—The true origin of Slang—Tat, the Essence of Being—Bahar and Bar—The Origin of the Words Rom and Romni.—Dom and Domni—The Hindi tem—Gipsy and Hindustani points of the Compass—Salaam and Shulam—Sarisham!—The Cups—Women's treading on objects—Horseflesh—English and Foreign Gipsies—Bohemian and Rommany.

A learned Sclavonian—Michael von Kogalnitschan—has said of Rommany, that he found it interesting to be able to study a Hindu dialect in the heart of Europe. He is quite right; but as mythology far surpasses any philology in interest, as regards its relations to poetry, how much more wonderful is it to find—to-day in England—traces of the tremendous avatars, whose souls were gods, long ago in India. And though these traces be faint, it is still apparent enough that they really exist.

One day an old Gipsy, who is said to be more than usually "deep" in Rommany, and to have had unusual opportunity for acquiring such knowledge from Gipsies older and deeper than himself, sent word to me, to know if "the rye" was aware that Boro Duvel, or the Great God, was an old Rommany expression for water? I thought that this was a singular message to come from a tent at Battersea, and asked my special Gipsy factotum, why God should be called water, or water, God? And he replied in the following words:

"Panni is the Boro Duvel, and it is Bishnoo or Vishnoo, because it pells alay from the Boro Duvel. 'Vishnu is the Boro Duvel then?'—Avali. There can't be no stretch adoi—can there, rya? Duvel is Duvel all the world over—but by the right formation, Vishnoo is the Duvel's ratt. I've shuned adovo but dusta cheiruses. An' the snow is poris, that jals from the angels' winguses. And what I penned, that Bishnoo is the Duvel's ratt, is puro Rommanis, and jinned by saw our foki." {110}

Now in India, Vishnu and Indra are the gods of the rain.

The learned, who insist that as there ought to be, so there must be, but a single source of derivation for every word, ignoring the fact that a dozen causes may aid in its formation, will at once declare that, as Bishnoo or Vishnoo is derived from the old Gipsy Brishni or Brschindo, and this from the Hindu Barish, and the Sanscrit Varish or Prish, there can be "no rational ground" for connecting the English Gipsy word with the Hindu god. But who can tell what secret undercurrents of dim tradition and vague association may have come down to the present day from the olden time. That rain should be often called God's blood, and water bearing the name of Vishnu be termed God, and that this should be regarded as a specially curious bit of Gipsy lore, is at any rate remarkable enough.

As for the Gipsies in question ever having heard of Vishnu and other gods (as a friend suggests to me), save in this dim tradition, I can only say, that I doubt whether either of them ever heard even of the apostles; and I satisfied myself that the one who brought the secret had never heard of Joseph, was pitiably ignorant of Potiphar's wife, and only knew of "Mozhus" or Moses, that he "once heerd he was on the bulrushes."

Mahadeva, or Mahadev, exists apparently in the mouth of every English Gipsy in the phrase "Maduveleste!" or, God bless you. This word Maduvel is often changed to Mi—duvel, and is generally supposed to mean "My God;" but I was once assured, that the old and correct form was Ma, meaning great, and that it only meant great in connection with Duvel.

A curious illustration of a lost word returning by chance to its original source was given one day, when I asked a Gipsy if he knew such a word as Buddha? He promptly replied, "Yes; that a booderi or boodha mush was an old man;" and pointing to a Chinese image of Buddha, said: "That is a Boohda." He meant nothing more than that it represented an aged person, but the coincidence was at least remarkable. Budha in Hindustani really signifies an old man.

The same Gipsy, observing on the chimney-piece a quaint image of a Chinese griffin—a hideous little goblin with wings—informed me that the Gipsy name for it was a Seemor or Seemorus, and further declared that the same word meant a dolphin. "But a dolphin has no wings," I remarked. "Oh, hasn't it?" rejoined the Gipsy; "its fins are its wings, if it hadn't wings it could not be a Seemor." I think I recognise in this Seemor, the Simurgh or Griffin of Persian fable. {112} I could learn nothing more than this, that the Gipsy had always regarded a dolphin as resembling a large-headed winged monster, which he called a Seemor.

NAG is a snake in Hindustani. The English Gipsies still retain this primaeval word, but apply it only to the blind-worm. It is, however, remarkable that the Nag, or blind-worm, is, in the opinion of the Rommany, the most mysterious of creatures. I have been told that "when a nag mullers it's hardus as a kosh, and you can pogger it like a swagler's toov," "When a blind-worm dies it is as hard as a stick, and you can break it like a pipe-stem." They also believe that the Nag is gifted, so far as his will goes, with incredible malignity, and say of him—

"If he could dick sim's he can shoon, He wouldn't mukk mush or grai jal an the drum."

"If he could see as well as he can hear, he would not allow man or horse to go on the road."

The Hindi alphabet Deva Nagari, "the writing of the gods," is commonly called Nagari. A common English Gipsy word for writing is "niggering." "He niggered sar he could pooker adree a chinamangree." The resemblance between nagari and nigger may, it is true, be merely accidental, but the reader, who will ascertain by examination of the vocabulary the proportion of Rommany words unquestionably Indian, will admit that the terms have probably a common origin.

From Sanskrit to English Gipsy may be regarded as a descent "from the Nile to a street-gutter," but it is amusing at least to find a passable parallel for this simile. Nill in Gipsy is a rivulet, a river, or a gutter. Nala is in Hindustani a brook; nali, a kennel: and it has been conjectured that the Indian word indicates that of the great river of Egypt.

All of my readers have heard of the Nautch girls, the so-called bayaderes or dancing-girls of India; but very few, I suppose, are aware that their generic name is remotely preserved in several English Gipsy words. Nachna in Hindustani means to dance, while the Nats, who are a kind of Gipsies, are generally jugglers, dancers, and musicians. A natua is one of these Nats, and in English Gipsy nautering means going about with music. Other attractions may be added, but, as I have heard a Gipsy say, "it always takes music to go a-nauterin' or nobbin'."

Naubat in the language of the Hindu Nats signifies "time, turn, and instruments of music sounding at the gate of a great man, at certain intervals." "Nobbet," which is a Gipsy word well known to all itinerant negro minstrels, means to go about with music to get money. "To nobbet round the tem, bosherin'." It also implies time or turn, as I inferred from what I was told on inquiry. "You can shoon dovo at the wellgooras when yeck rakkers the waver, You jal and nobbet." "You can hear that at the fairs when one says to the other, You go and nobbet," meaning, "It is your turn to play now."

Nachna, to dance (Hindustani), appears to be reflected in the English Gipsy "nitchering," moving restlessly, fidgeting and dancing about. Nobbeting, I was told, "is nauterin'—it's all one, rya!"

Paejama in India means very loose trousers; and it is worth noting that Gipsies call loose leggings, trousers, or "overalls," peajamangris. This may be Anglo-Indian derived from the Gorgios. Whether "pea-jacket" belongs in part to this family, I will not attempt to decide.

Living constantly among the vulgar and uneducated, it is not to be wondered at that the English Gipsies should have often given a vulgar English and slangy term to many words originally Oriental. I have found that, without exception, there is a disposition among most people to promptly declare that all these words were taken, "of course," from English slang. Thus, when I heard a Gipsy speak of his fist as a "puncher," I naturally concluded that he did so because he regarded its natural use to be to "punch" heads with. But on asking him why he gave it that name, he promptly replied, "Because it takes pange (five) fingers to make a fist." And since panja means in Hindustani a hand with the five fingers extended, it is no violent assumption to conclude that even puncher may owe quite as much to Hindustani as to English, though I cheerfully admit that it would perhaps never have existed had it not been for English associations. Thus a Gipsy calls a pedlar a packer or pack-mush. Now, how much of this word is due to the English word pack or packer, and how much to paikar, meaning in Hindustani a pedlar? I believe that there has been as much of the one as of the other, and that this doubly-formative influence, or influence of continuation, should be seriously considered as regards all Rommany words which resemble in sound others of the same meaning, either in Hindustani or in English. It should also be observed that the Gipsy, while he is to the last degree inaccurate and a blunderer as regards English words (a fact pointed out long ago by the Rev. Mr Crabb), has, however, retained with great persistence hundreds of Hindu terms. Not being very familiar with peasant English, I have generally found Gipsies more intelligible in Rommany than in the language of their "stepfather-land," and have often asked my principal informant to tell me in Gipsy what I could not comprehend in "Anglo-Saxon."

"To pitch together" does not in English mean to stick together, although pitch sticks, but it does in Gipsy; and in Hindustani, pichchi means sticking or adhering. I find in all cases of such resemblance that the Gipsy word has invariably a closer affinity as regards meaning to the Hindu than to the English, and that its tendencies are always rather Oriental than Anglo-Saxon. As an illustration, I may point out piller (English Gipsy) to attack, having an affinity in pilna (Hindustani), with the same meaning. Many readers will at once revert to pill, piller, and pillage—all simply implying attack, but really meaning to rob, or robbery. But piller in English Gipsy also means, as in Hindustani, to assault indecently; and this is almost conclusive as to its Eastern origin.

It is remarkable that the Gipsies in England, or all the world over, have, like the Hindus, a distinctly descriptive expression for every degree of relationship. Thus a pivli beebee in English Gipsy, or pupheri bahim in Hindustani, is a father's sister's daughter. This in English, as in French or German, is simply a cousin.

Quod, imprisonment, is an old English cant and Gipsy word which Mr Hotten attempts to derive from a college quadrangle; but when we find that the Hindu quaid also means confinement, the probability is that it is to it we owe this singular term.

There are many words in which it is evident that the Hindu Gipsy meaning has been shifted from a cognate subject. Thus putti, the hub of a wheel in Gipsy, means the felly of a wheel in Hindustani. Kaizy, to rub a horse down, or scrape him, in the original tongue signifies "to tie up a horse's head by passing the bridle to his tail," to prevent his kicking while being rubbed or 'scraped. Quasur, or kasur, is in Hindustani flame: in English Gipsy kessur signifies smoke; but I have heard a Gipsy more than once apply the same term to flame and smoke, just as miraben stands for both life and death.

Very Oriental is the word kismet, or destiny, as most of my readers are probably aware. It is also English Gipsy, and was explained to me as follows: "A man's kismut is what he's bound to kair—it's the kismut of his see. Some men's kismut is better'n wavers, 'cos they've got more better chiv. Some men's kismut's to bikin grais, and some to bikin kanis; but saw foki has their kismut, an' they can't pen chichi elsus." In English, "A man's destiny is what he is bound to do—it is the fate of his soul (life). Some men's destiny is better than others, because they have more command of language. Some are fated to sell horses, and others to sell hens; but all people have their mission, and can do nothing else."

Quran in the East means the Koran, and quran uthara to take an oath. In English Gipsy kurran, or kurraben, is also an oath, and it seems strange that such a word from such a source should exist in England. It is, however, more interesting as indicating that the Gipsies did not leave India until familiarised with Mohammedan rule. "He kaired his kurran pre the Duvel's Bavol that he would jal 'vree the tem for a besh." "He swore his oath upon God's Breath (the Bible) that he would leave the country for a year." Upon inquiring of the Gipsy who uttered this phrase why he called the Bible "God's Breath," he replied naively, "It's sim to the Duvel's jivaben, just the same as His breathus." "It is like God's life, just the same as His breath."

It is to be observed that nearly all the words which Gipsies claim as Gipsy, notwithstanding their resemblance to English, are to be found in Hindustani. Thus rutter, to copulate, certainly resembles the English rut, but it is quite as much allied to rutana (Hindustani), meaning the same thing. "Sass," or sauce, meaning in Gipsy, bold, forward impudence, is identical with the same English word, but it agrees very well with the Hindu sahas, bold, and was perhaps born of the latter term, although it has been brought up by the former.

Dr A. F. Pott remarks of the German Gipsy word schetra, or violin, that he could nowhere find in Rommany a similar instrument with an Indian name. Surrhingee, or sarunghee, is the common Hindu word for a violin; and the English Gipsies, on being asked if they knew it, promptly replied that it was "an old word for the neck or head of a fiddle." It is true they also called it sarengro, surhingro, and shorengro, the latter word indicating that it might have been derived from sherro-engro—i.e., "head-thing." But after making proper allowance for the Gipsy tendency, or rather passion, for perverting words towards possible derivations, it seems very probable that the term is purely Hindu.

Zuhru, or Zohru, means in the East Venus, or the morning star; and it is pleasant to find a reflection of the rosy goddess in the Gipsy soor, signifying "early in the morning." I have been told that there is a Rommany word much resembling soor, meaning the early star, but my informant could not give me its exact sound. Dood of the sala is the common name for Venus. Sunrise is indicated by the eccentric term of "kam-left the panni" or sun-left the water. "It wells from the waver tem you jin," said my informant, in explanation. "The sun comes from a foreign country, and first leaves that land, and then leaves the sea, before it gets here."

When a Gipsy is prowling for hens, or any other little waifs, and wishes to leave a broken trail, so that his tracks may not be identified, he will walk with the feet interlocked—one being placed outside the other—making what in America is very naturally termed a snake-trail. This he calls sarserin, and in Hindu sarasana means to creep along like a snake.

Supposing that the Hindu word for rice, shali, could hardly have been lost, I asked a Gipsy if he knew it, and he at once replied, "Shali giv is small grain-corn, werry little grainuses indeed."

Shalita in Hindustani is a canvas sack in which a tent is carried. The English Gipsy has confused this word with shelter, and yet calls a small or "shelter" tent a shelter gunno, or bag. "For we rolls up the big tent in the shelter tent, to carry it." A tent cloth or canvas is in Gipsy a shummy, evidently derived from the Hindu shumiyana, a canopy or awning.

It is a very curious fact that the English Gipsies call the Scripture or Bible the Shaster, and I record this with the more pleasure, since it fully establishes Mr Borrow as the first discoverer of the word in Rommany, and vindicates him from the suspicion with which his assertion was received by Dr Pott. On this subject the latter speaks as follows:—

"Eschastra de Moyses, l. ii. 22; [Greek text], M.; Sanskrit, castra; Hind., shastr, m. Hindu religious books, Hindu law, Scripture, institutes of science (Shakespeare). In proportion to the importance of the real existence of this word among the Gipsies must be the suspicion with which we regard it, when it depends, as in this instance, only on Borrow's assertion, who, in case of need, to supply a non-existing word, may have easily taken one from the Sanskrit."—Die Zigeuner, vol. ii. p. 224.

The word shaster was given to me very distinctly by a Gipsy, who further volunteered the information, that it not only meant the Scriptures, but also any written book whatever, and somewhat marred the dignity of the sublime association of the Bible and Shaster, by adding that "any feller's bettin'-book on the race-ground was a shasterni lil, 'cos it's written."

I have never heard of the evil eye among the lower orders of English, but among Gipsies a belief in it is as common as among Hindus, and both indicate it by the same word, seer or sihr. In India sihr, it is true, is applied to enchantment or magic in general, but in this case the whole may very well stand for a part. I may add that my own communications on the subject of the jettatura, and the proper means of averting it by means of crab's claws, horns, and the usual sign of the fore and little finger, were received by a Gipsy auditor with great faith and interest.

To show, teach, or learn, is expressed in Gipsy by the word sikker, sig, or seek. The reader may not be aware that the Sikhs of India derive their name from the same root, as appears from the following extract from Dr Paspati's etudes: "Sikava, v. prim. 1 cl. 1 conj. part, siklo', montrer, apprendre. Sanskrit, s'iks', to learn, to acquire science; siksaka, adj., a learner, a teacher. Hindustani, seek'hna, v.a., to learn, to acquire; seek'h, s.f., admonition." I next inquired why they were called Seeks, and they told me it was a word borrowed from one of the commandments of their founder, which signifies 'learn thou,' and that it was adopted to distinguish the sect soon after he disappeared. The word, as is well known, has the same import in the Hindoovee" ("Asiatic Researches," vol. i. p. 293, and vol. ii. p. 200). This was a noble word to give a name to a body of followers supposed to be devoted to knowledge and truth.

The English Gipsy calls a mermaid a pintni; in Hindu it is bint ool buhr, a maid of the sea. Bero in Gipsy is the sea or a ship, but the Rommany had reduced the term to the original bint, by which a girl is known all over the East.

"Ya bint' Eeskendereyeh."

Stan is a word confounded by Gipsies with both stand, a place at the races or a fair, and tan, a stopping-place, from which it was probably derived. But it agrees in sound and meaning with the Eastern stan, "a place, station," and by application "country," so familiar to the reader in Hindustan, Iranistan, Beloochistan, and many other names. It is curious to find in the Gipsy tan not only the root-word of a tent, but also the "Alabama," or "here we rest," applied by the world's early travellers to so many places in the Morning Land.

Slang does not mean, as Mr Hotten asserts, the secret language of the Gipsies, but is applied by them to acting; to speaking theatrical language, as in a play; to being an acrobat, or taking part in a show. It is a very old Gipsy word, and indicates plainly enough the origin of the cant word "slang." Using other men's words, and adopting a conventional language, strikes a Gipsy as artificial; and many men not Gipsies express this feeling by speaking of conventional stage language as "theatrical slang." Its antiquity and origin appear in the Hindu swangi, an actor; swang, mockery, disguise, sham; and swang lena, to imitate. As regards the sound of the words, most English Gipsies would call swang "slang" as faithfully as a Cockney would exchange hat with 'at.

Deepest among deep words in India is tat, an element, a principle, the essence of being; but it is almost amusing to hear an English Gipsy say "that's the tatto (or tat) of it," meaning thereby "the thing itself," the whole of it. And thus the ultimate point of Brahma, and the infinite depth of all transcendental philosophy, may reappear in a cheap, portable, and convenient form, as a declaration that the real meaning of some mysterious transaction was that it amounted to a sixpenny swindle at thimble-rig; for to such base uses have the Shaster and the Vedas come in England.

It is, however, pleasant to find the Persian bahar, a garden, recalling Bahar Danush, the garden of knowledge (Hindustani, bagh), reappearing in the English Gipsy bar. "She pirryed adree the bar lellin ruzhers." "She walked in the garden plucking flowers." And it is also like old times and the Arabian Nights at home, to know that bazaar is a Gipsy word, though it be now quite obsolete, and signifies no longer a public street for shops, but an open field.

But of all words which identify the Gipsies with the East, and which prove their Hindu origin, those by which they call themselves Rom and Romni are most conclusive. In India the Dom caste is one of the lowest, whose business it is for the men to remove carcasses, while the Domni, or female Dom, sings at weddings. Everything known of the Dom identifies them with Gipsies. As for the sound of the word, any one need only ask the first Gipsy whom he meets to pronounce the Hindu d or the word Dom, and he will find it at once converted into l or r. There are, it is true, other castes and classes in India, such as Nats, the roving Banjaree, Thugs, &c., all of which have left unmistakable traces on the Gipsies, from which I conclude that at some time when these pariahs became too numerous and dangerous there was a general expulsion of them from India. {124}

I would call particular attention to my suggestion that the Corn of India is the true parent of the Rom, because all that is known of the former caste indicates an affinity between them. The Dom pariahs of India who carry out or touch dead bodies, also eat the bodies of animals that have died a natural death, as do the Gipsies of England. The occupation of the Domni and Romni, dancing and making music at festivals, are strikingly allied. I was reminded of this at the last opera which I witnessed at Covent Garden, on seeing stage Gipsies introduced as part of the fete in "La Traviata."