Part 1 (1/2)

The English Gipsies and Their Language

by Charles G Leland

PREFACE

As Author of this book, I beg leave to observe that all which is stated in it relative to the custoathered directly froe here given, whether in conversations, stories, or sayings, was taken frohest respect for the labours of Mr George Borrow in this field, I have carefully avoided repeating hi from Siland Whatever the deinal collection of material fresh from nature, and not a reproduction from books There are, it is true, two German Gipsy letters from other works, but these lish one

I ratefully of every true Gipsy I have ever met, and of the cheerfulness hich they have invariably assisted me in my labour to the extent of their humble abilities Other writers have had ios_ and unwillingness to i and communicative I have never had occasion to co thereat want of such very poor people was generally kept in check by their natural politeness, which always manifests itself when they are treated properly In fact, the first effort which I ever inated in a voluntary offer frouage” And as she also suggested that I should set forth the knowledge which Ito Mr Borrow's having done so), Iacquired and published anything which my Gipsy friends would not have had made known to the public

Mr Borrow has very well and truly said that it is not by passing a few hours ae of their characteristics; and I think that this book presents abundant evidence that its contents were not gathered by slight and superficial intercourse with the Roradually and sye, into a fae of the circumstances of the common life of humble people, be they Gipsies, Indians, or whites, that one can surprise unawares those little inner traits which constitute the _characteristic_ However thisthese pages--possibly much better than I do myself--hoas I was able to collect whatever they contain that is new

The book contains soreat curious centre and secret of all the noland, THE ROMMANY, with comments on the fact, that of the many novel or story-writers who have described the ”Travellers” of the Roads, very few have penetrated the real nature of their life It gives several incidents illustrating the character of the Gipsy, and some information of a very curious nature in reference to the respect of the English Gipsies for their dead, and the strange manner in which they testify it I believe that this will be found to be fully and distinctly illustrated by anecdotes and a narrative in the original Gipsy language, with a translation There is also a chapter containing in Rolish a very characteristic letter from a full-blood Gipsy to a relative, which was dictated toincidents of Gipsy life--trading in horses, fortune-telling, and cock-shying I have also given accounts of conversations with Gipsies, introducing in their language and in English their own re others, on one which indicates that ard for our Saviour, because His birth and life appear to them to be like that of the Rommany There is a collection of a nulish which were probably derived froling, and finally a nuarded byand curious, since they are nearly all speciround between the anecdote and fable, and abounding in Gipsy traits So Gipsies, and others owe their existence alination and childlike fancies of an old Gipsy assistant, or were developed frohly and truly Roht into shape, passed through a purely ”unsophisticated” Gipsy mind, and was finally declared to be _tacho_, or sound, by real Rommanis The truth is, that it is a difficult led or ; so that to print it, restitution and invention becoorse and fern, and who intermitted his earnest conversation with a little wooden bear to point out toover the two beautiful little girls in the flowers on the carpet, such fables as I have given sprang up of theh they often required the influence of a better disciplined uide thelish Vocabulary which I propose shall follow this work is many times over more extensive than any ever before published, and it will also be found interesting to all philologists by its establishi+ng the very curious fact that this last wave of the prih it has lost the original forradation, consists of the sarah disappeared, the words are almost without exception the saary, or Turkey It is generally believed that English Gipsy is a land predoht exa land the Rolish word to what they correctly call their language I e of Rommany extends To this at least I can testify, that the Gipsy to whoh he often used ”slang,” invariably discriminated correctly between it and Rommany; and I have often ade which has induced the Gipsies for so enerations to teach their children this difference {0a} Almost every hich my assistant declared to be Gipsy I have found either in Hindustani or in the works of Pott, Liebi+ch, or Paspati On this subject I would remark by the way, that many words which appear to have been taken by the Gipsies froes are in reality Indian

And as I have honestly done what I could to give the English reader freshof that which was gathered by others, I sincerely trust that I may not be held to sharp account (as the authors of such books very often are) for not having given more or done more or done it better than was really inaway as rapidly as Indians in North Ain; they abound in quaint characteristics, and yet aleneration will deeply regret the loss of

There are complete dictionaries of the Dacotah and es, and every detail of the rude life of those savages has been carefully recorded; while the autobiographic romances of Mr Borrow and Mr Simson's History contain nearly all the inforlish Gipsies Yet of these triters, Mr Borrow is the only one who had, so to speak, an inside view of his subject, or was a philologist

In conclusion I would remark, that if I have not, like many writers on the poor Gipsies, abused them for certain proverbial faults, it has been because they never troubled ht it to my notice; and I certainly never took the pains to hunt it up to the discredit of people who always behaved decently to rateful than the lower orders of other races in Europe or America; and I believe that where their respect and syht Like all people who are regarded as outcasts, they are very proud of being trusted, and under this influence will co acts of honesty And with this I commend my book to the public Should it be favourably received, I will add fresh reading to it; in any case I shall at least have the satisfaction of knowing that I dida very curious and greatly-neglected subject It is merely as a collection of material that I offer it; let those who can use it, do what they ith it

If I have not given in this book a sketch of the history of the Gipsies, or statistics of their numbers, or accounts of their social condition in different countries, it is because nearly everything of the kind e Borrow and Walter Simson, which are in all respectable libraries, and may be obtained from any bookseller

I would remark to any impatient reader for mere entertainment, who e in the following pages, that _the principal object of the Author was to collect and preserve such specie_, and that the title-page itself indirectly indicates such an object I have, however, invariably given with the Gipsy a translation ilish--at ti of words may be readily apprehended I call especial attention to this fact, so that no one es with Ro this book, or in fact after the whole of the first part ritten, I passed a winter in Egypt; and as that country is still supposed by many people to be the fatherland of the Gipsies, and as very little is known relative to the Ro what I could learn on the subject, though it does not refer directly to the Gipsies of England Those who are interested in the latter will readily pardon the addition

There are now in existence about three hundred works on the Gipsies, but of the entire nuathered froists of Europe have taken a great interest in their language, which is now included in ”Die Sprachen Europas” as the only Indian tongue spoken in this quarter of the world; and I believe that English Gipsy is really the only strongly-distinct Rommany dialect which has never as yet been illustrated by copious specimens or a vocabulary of any extent I therefore trust that the critical reader will reat difficulties under which I have laboured, and not bla done better that which, so far as I can ascertain, would possibly not have been done at all Within the raathered the es, is, as the reader will observe, alh it still abounds in Hindu words to a far greater extent than has been hitherto supposed

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY

The Roland--Its peculiar and thoroughly hidden Nature--Gipsy Character and the Causes which for--Gipsy ideas of Religion The Scripture story of the Seven Whistlers--The Baker's Daughter--Difficulties of acquiring Rommany--The Fable of the Cat--The Chinese, the Ah the valuable and curious works of Mr George Borrow have been in part for more than twenty years before the British public, {1} it may still be doubted whether many, even of our scholars, are aware of the reical facts which are connected with an immense proportion of our out-of-door population There are, indeed, very few people who know, that every time we look froreatly in favour of the assertion, that we shall see at least one man who bears in his lish born; though it was probably in the open air, and English bred, albeit his breeding was of the roads

For go where you will, though you may not know it, you encounter at every step, in one form or the other, _the Ro few and far between, because the ”close cultivation”

of the present generation, which has enclosed nearly all the waste land in England, has left no spot in many a day's journey, where ”the travellers,” as they call theht the fire and boil the kettle undisturbed There is almost ”no tan to hatch,” or place to stay in So it has co theone across the Great Water to Ahtily, the raias_ or ”running horses,” or trading in the as easily as a mouse in a cheese, on the endless roads and in the forests And so one there, that I aht of a real old-fashi+oned gipsy will be as rare in England as a Sioux or pawnee warrior in the streets of New York or Philadelphia But there is a modified and yet real Roour, so long as a regularly organised nomadic class exists on our roads--and it is the true nature and inner life of this class which has ree A ar, the proprietor of so show, a horse-dealer, or a tinker He may be eloquent, as a Cheap Jack, noisy as a Punch, or musical with a fiddle at fairs He s, or vend baskets in a caravan; he may keep cock-shys and Aunt Sallys at races But whatever hethose who follow these and sis which he represents, are literally ios_, are known to one another, and who still speak aue which the researches of the greatest living philologists have indicated, is in all probability not e, an elder though vagabond sister or cousin of that ancient language

For THE ROMMANY is the characteristic leaven of all the real tras of Great Britain And by this word I arded, however, as a test of superior knowledge of ”the roads,” but a curious _inner life_ and freeence, ties of blood and information, useful to a class who have much in common with one another, and very little in common with the settled tradesman or worthy citizen The hahoht hair indicate no trace of Oriental blood, may not be a _churdo_, or _pash-ratt_, or half-blood, or _half-scrag_, as a full Gipsy ht contemptuously term him, but he ipsified,” bya Gipsy wife; and by the way be it said, such wolish itinerants, and the best suited for ”a traveller”

But in any case he has taken pains to pick up all the Gipsy he can If he is a tinker, he knows _Kennick_, or cant, or thieves' slang by nature, but the Rommany, which has very feords in coe of the h, what it was originally, a sort of sacred Sanscrit, known only to the Brahe is only commonplace _Prakrit_, which anybody e, he entleman, ask him about it, he will probably deny that he ever heard of its existence Should he be very thirsty, and your , it is, however, not i a pot of beer at your expense, he rin, the fact that he _has_ heard that the Gipsies have a queer kind of language of their own; and then, if you have any Rommany yourself at coreater or less fluency Mr Simeon, in his ”History of the Gipsies,” asserts that there is not a tinker or scissors- grinder in Great Britain who cannot talk this language, and rees with his declaration, to this extent--that they all have soht itthose who are not connected in sohtest indication of it is invariably taken as an irrefutable proof of relationshi+p with the the Marine Parade in Brighton, I overtook a tinker Wishi+ng him to sharpen some tools for me, I directed him to proceed to my home, and _en route_ spoke to him in Gipsy As he was quite fair in complexion, I casually remarked, ”I should have never supposed you could speak Roravely, in a tone as of gentle reproach, ”You don't look a Gipsy yourself, sir; but you know you _are_ one--_you talk like one_”

Truly, the secret of the Roland It seero and the Roe, in which the writer has shown fae of the vast e class, the itinerants of the roads Mr dickens has set before us Cheap Jacks, and a number of men ere, in their very face, of the class of which I speak; but I cannot recall in his writings any indication that he knew that these ular secret life with their _confreres_, or that they could speak a strange language; for we e which is, in the led Mr dickens, however, did not pretend, as some have done, to specially treat of Gipsies, and he e of any mysteries He simply reflected popular life as he saw it But there areforth Roinals as a Pastor Fido is like a common shepherd One novel which I once read, is so full of ”the dark blood,” that it ipsy; he lives a his kind--the book is full of them; and yet, with all due respect to its author, who is one of the ifted and best- informed roinning to end, there is not in the novel the slightest indication of any real and fa into the e, has been so much the custom, from Sir Walter Scott to the present day, that readers are soon is pure Roland, since the vocabulary of cant appended to the ”English Rogue,” published in 1680, was long believed to be Gipsy; and Captain Grose, the antiquary, who should have known better, speaks with the sae to see learned and shreriters, who pride the every elenorant of the habits, e people arhways and bye-ways! We have had the squire and the governess, my lord and all Bohemia--Bohemia, artistic and literary--but where are our _Vrais Bohero and Ro the children of Rom, or the descendants of the worshi+ppers of Rama, or the Doms or Coptic Romi, whatever their ancestors may have been, more that is quaint and adapted to the purposes of the novelist, than is to be found in any other class of the inhabitants of England You may not detect a trace of it on the roads; but once becoe specimen of a Gipsy, pass many days in conversation with him, and above all acquire his confidence and respect, and you onder that such a being, so entirely different from yourself, could exist in Europe in the nineteenth century It is said that those who can converse with Irish peasants in their own native tongue, forher opinions of their appreciation of the beautiful, and of the elements of humour and pathos in their hearts, than do those who know their thoughts only through the lish I know from my own observation that this is quite the case with the Indians of North America, and it is unquestionably so with the Gipsy When you know a true specimen to the depths of his soul, you will find a character so entirely strange, so utterly at variance with your ordinary conceptions of hueration whatever to declare that it would be a very difficult task for the best writer to convey to the ent reader an idea of his subject's nature You have in hi whose every condition of life is in direct contradiction to what you suppose every land must be ”I was born in the open air,” said a Gipsy to me a few days since; ”and put me down anywhere, in the fields or woods, I can always support , since it was of A in the lonely forests We pity with tearsus, whose life is one of luxury compared to that which the Gipsy, who despises them, enjoys with a zest worth more than riches