Part 16 (1/2)
”It does, indeed, seem to me,” I replied, ”that if you _had_, some people ere not Gipsies _must_ have learned it”
”Of course,” resuether get to using a few peculiar terms Tailors and shoeabonds who go up and down talking thieves' slang, and iue, I ought to know it” (”So I should think,” I mentally ejaculated, as I contemplated his brazen calmness); ”and I don't know three words of it”
And we, the Gorgios, all s was settled; and the Roue was done for--dead and buried--if, indeed, it ever existed Indeed, as I looked in the Gipsy's face, I began to realise that a ht be talked out of a belief in his own name, and felt a rudie of the Black Wanderers was all a drea of a pot of brass, Paspati a jingling Turkish symbol, and all Rommany a _praeterea nihil_ without the _vox_ To dissipate the delusion, I inquired of the Gipsy--
”You have been in Aame in the west?”
”Yes; many a time On the plains”
”Of course--buffalo--antelope--jack rabbits And once” (I said this as if forgetfully)--”I once ate a hedgehog--no, I don't lance shot from the Gipsy's eye I uttered a first-class password, and if he had any doubt before as to who the Roht be, there was none now But with a courteous smile he replied--
”It's quite the sa I know perfectly hat you mean”
”Porcupines,” I resumed, ”are very common in America The Chippeways call them _hotchewitchi_”
This Rommany as a plumper for the Gipsy, and the twinkle of his eye--the sravity I ever beheld in my life--was lovely I had truravity as his own; and the Gorgios thought our re
”He had more tow upon his distaffe Than Gervais wot of”
But there was one in the party--and I think only one--who had her own private share in the play That one was the pretty young lady Through all the conversation, I observed fro some unaccountable mystery I understood it at once The bread and butter on the table, partly eaten, and the snohite napkin indicated to a feminine eye that some one not of the household had been entertained, and that I was the guest Perhaps she had seen the old wolance at me, but it was evident that she felt a secret What she divined I do not know Should this work ever fall into her hands, she will learn it all, and with it the fact that Gipsies can talk double about as well as any hurave a face as any Ojib'wa of them all
The habits of the Gipsy are pleasantly illustrated by the fact that the collection of ”anientleenerally includes a jackdaw When the foot of the Gorgio is heard near the tent, a loud ”_k_” fro very much like an alarer finds the entire party in all probability asleep So It is said you cannot catch a weasel asleep: I am tempted to add that you can never find a Gipsy awake--but it
Gipsies are very s are very much attached to their masters--so much so that there are numerous instances, perfectly authenticated, of the faithful ani the country alone, at great distances froaht to their owners as a slight testis have no amekeepers, no one can blame them
Gipsies almost invariably prefer, as caninewhich of all others can besince a friend ofbetween dark and dawn, saw a lurcher crossing the Tha went to a Gipsy _tan_, deposited his burden, and at once returned over the river
Dogs once trained to such secret hunting become passionately fond of it, and pursue it unweariedly with incredible secrecy and sagacity Even cats learn it, and I have heard of one which is ”good for three rabbits a week” Dogs, however, bring everything ho of her owner But whether dog or cat, cock or jackdaw, all ani Gipsies do unquestionably becorow sharp, and shrewd, and mysterious A writer in the _Daily News_ of October 19, 1872, speaks of having seen parrots which spoke Ro is, if we study him, a true character Approach a camp: a black hound, with sleepy eyes, lies by a tent; he does not bark at you or act uncivilly, for that foro those eyes are fixed on you By-and-by he disappears--he is sure to do so if there are no people about the _tan_--and then reappears with some dark descendant of the Dom and Dos step out and mutter a feords in Romhest degree, indicating a transition froence You may persuade yourself that the Gipsies do not h he_jucko_ is carefully noting all you do The abject and hu in America was once proverbial: the quaint shrewdness, the droll roguery, the de are beyond all praise
The s to the Gipsies are by no means remarkable for size or beauty, or any of the properties which strike the eye; on the contrary, an ugly, shi+rking, hu, two-and-sixpenny-countenanced cur, if he have but intellect, isaypcians,” I overheard a knot of let, who seeifted with sense enough to kno idiotic he looked ”Would you take seven pounds for him?” asked one ”Avo, I would take seven bar; but I wouldn't take six, nor six an' a half neither”
The stranger who casts an inquisitive eye, though from afar off, into a Gipsy camp, is at once noted; and if he can do this before the wolf--I ift of fern-seed and walk invisible, as was illustrated by the above-e, I paused to ad in October, the autuolden brown or oak red, while here and there the horse-chestnuts spread their saffron robes, waving in the embraces of the breeze like hetairae of the forest Below me ran the silver Thames, and above a few silver clouds--the belles of the air--were following its course, as if to watch the mirror And near the reedy island, at the shadowy point always haunted by three swans, who been there ever since the days of Odin-faith, was the usual punt, with its elderly gentle the dark line of the hedge, was a sight which colish character of the scene--a real Gipsy ca fires; while a the about One Gipsy youth was fishi+ng in the stream from the bank, and beyond him a knot of busy baskete, adown the bank, and found reeted me civilly; and when I spoke Roe; but they did not speak it well, nor did they, indeed, claih their complexions had the peculiar hue which indicates some other than Saxon ade, and yet not regarded as such, these ”travellers” represented a very large class in England, which is as yet but little understood by our writers, whether of fact or fiction
They laughed while telling entlemen who had mistaken them for real Rommany chals, and finally referred me to ”Old Henry,”
further doho ”could talk within the sun at the door of his tent He greeted h, but worked aith his osiers most industriously, while his co virtuous One nursed his infant with tender ereen sticks with a view to converting thes--in fact I was in a ret to say that the instant I uttered a Ronised, this discipline of decorum was immediately relaxed It was not complimentary to my moral character, but it at least showed confidence The Ancient Henry, who bore, as I found, in several respects a strong likeness to the Old Harry, had heard of me, and after a short conversation confided the little fact, that fro thee authority, come to spy into their ways, and to at least order the authority, but, on the contrary, ca to them three pots of beer just at the thirstiest hour of a warht to me from a caravan at some distance, and I was told the latest news of the road
”Matty's got his slangs,” observed Henry, as he inserted a _ranya_ or osier-withy into his basket, and deftly twined it like a serpent to right and left, and als, a hawker's licence
”I'lad to hear it,” I remarked There was deep sincerity in this reply, as I had more than once contributed to the fees for the aforesaid _slangs_, which somehow or other were invariably refused to the applicant At last, however, the slangs cas per head), were now, in their sphere of life, in the position of young men who had received an education or been aifted with all that could be expected froence meant asFitz-Grubber has just got the double-first at Oxford?” or, ”Do you know that old Cheshi+re has ed that appointment in India for his boy?--splendid independence, isn't it?” And I was shrewdly suspected by my audience, as the question inificent opening for the two fortunate youngup the river ”Look there at Ji along the path by the river, close to the hedge
”He thinks you're a _gav-ot some sticks, an' is tryin' to hide them 'cause he daren't throw 'e spectacle to see the dereen sticks, worth perhaps a halfpenny, and such as no living fared a cartload of to anybody
Droll as it really seehed Oh, if charity covereth a multitude of sins, what should not poverty do? I care not through which door it comes--nay, be it by the very portal of Vice herself--when sad and shi+vering poverty stands before et And this child-theft was to obtain the means of work after all And if you ask istrate and denounce the criminal, I can only throw e the Fourth, head of Church and State, who once in society saw a pickpocket re at the king as he did so ”Of course I couldn't say anything,” reood-natured monarch, ”for the rascal took me into his confidence”