Part 18 (2/2)

They made sieves of horse-hair or of leather, iron nails, and similar small ironware, or o almost naked, unless the cold co The little boys ran about naked Although both Christians and Mahometans declared that they buried their dead in remote hill corners, or burned theood Mahometans, and as such buried their dead in Mahometan cemeteries” (This corresponds to their custoeneration, and the earnestness which they display at present to secure regular burial like Christians) ”But as their instruction is even ious information is so liion at all, or the simplest of all As to wine, they are less strict than ypt there were many _Nury_”

The sayptian Gipsies a not inconsiderable vocabulary of their language, and says: ”I find many Arabic, Turkish, and some Greek words in it; it appears to e, which was perhaps theirdictionaries” The words which he gives appear to yptian-Arabic, with its usual adibberish, and sometimes with one word substituted for another to hide the oives the word _nisnaszeha_, a fox, and states that it is of unknown origin The truth is, _nisnas_ means a monkey, and, like most of Seetzen's ”Nuri” words, is inflected with an _a_ final, as if one should say ”on; but I should not be astonished, either, if the Shekh who for a serly aided Seetzen to note it down, had ”sold” hiyptian to be the real babble of the nursery There are a very few Rommany words in this vocabulary, but then it should be remembered that there are some Arabic words in Rommany

The street-cry of the Gipsy women in Cairo is [ARABIC TEXT which cannot be reproduced] ”_Neduqq wanetahir_!” ”We tattoo and circu In the ”Deutscher Drago under the word Zigeuner:--

”Gipsy--in Egypt, Gagri” (pronounced ar_; in Syria, _Newari_, plural _Nawar_ When they go about with monkeys, they are called _Kurudati_, froypt call theypt (_vide_ Kre to Von Gobineau, they are called in Syria Kurbati, [ARABIC TEXT which cannot be reproduced] (_vide_ 'Zeitschrift der D M G,' xi 690)”

More than this of the Gipsies in Egypt the deponent sayeth not He has interrogated the oracles, and they were dumb That there are Roms in the land of Mizr his eyes have shown, but whether any of them can talk Ro was printed, I have found in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_ (Vol XVI, Part 2, 1856, p 285), an article on The Gipsies in Egypt, by the late Captain Newbold, FRS, which gives yptian Gipsies, as Captain Newbold found, are extremely jealous and suspicious of any inquiry into their habits andthe them to unreserved communication

These Gipsies are divided into three kinds, the Helebis, Ghagars (Rhagarin), and Nuris or Nawer Of the Rhagars there are sixteen thousand The Helebi are most prosperous of all these, and their women, who are called Fehe and sorcery The male Helebis are chiefly ostensible dealers in horses and cattle, but have a bad character for honesty Soypt, though not known to be Gipsies--(a stateht on the circumstance that neither the chief of police hied efforts, could find a single Gipsy for arin, and do not suffer their daughters to interirls The Fehearin are not The arin are tinkers and blacksmiths, and sell cheap jewellery or instruments of iron and brass Many of them are athletes, mountebanks, and monkey-exhibitors; the women are rope-dancers andthe names of Romani, Meddahin, Ghurradin, Barmeki (Barmecides), Waled Abu Tenna, Beit er Rafai, Hearin are distinctly different in their personal appearance fro the eyes and expression peculiar to all Gipsies Captain Newbold, in fact, assuer than the ordinary run of travellers, and roae towns, can hardly fail to notice the strange appearance of certain feuish them from the ordinary Fellah Arabs and Cophts of the country”

”The Nuris or Nawers are hereditary thieves, but are now (1856) employed as police and watchypt they intermarry with the Fellahin or Arabs of the soil, from whom, in physical appearance and dress, they can hardly be distinguished Outwardly they profess Mohammedanisars (or Rhagarin)”

Each of these tribes or classes speak a separate and distinct dialect or jargon That of the Rhagarin e spoken by the Kurbats, or Gipsies of Syria ”It seems to me probable,” says Captain Newbold, ”that the whole of these tribes had one coin in India, or the adjacent countries on its Western frontier, and that the difference in the jargons they now speak is owing to their sojourn in the various countries through which they have passed _This is certain_, _that the Gipsies are strangers in the land of Egypt_”

I a the speciiven by Captain Newbold, with the important addition made by Mr W

Burckhardt Barker, that I could not converse with the Rhagarin That of the Nawers does not contain a single hich would be recognised as Roons are, if not positively either few and far between, strangely distorted froar Arabic It is very curious that while in England such a ree proportion of Hindustani words have been preserved, they have been lost in the East, in countries comparatively near the fatherland--India

I would, in conclusion to this work, remark that nuists as belonging to Greek, Slavonian, and other languages, were originally Hindu, and have only changed their form a little because the wanderers found a resemblance to the old word in a new one I ain of these words froar dialects of Persia, and such words as are not put down in dictionaries, owing to their provincial character I have found, on questioning a Persian gentle of ar Persian, though they were not in the Persian dictionary which I used

ROMMANI GUDLI; OR, GIPSY STORIES AND FABLES

The Gipsy to whom I was chiefly indebted for the material of this book frequently narrated tohis people, and being a ination, often invented others of a siest to erly take it up, and readily complete the tale But if I helped him so like a picture, it was always the Gipsy who gave it Rommany characteristics and conferred colour It was often very difficult for him to distinctly recall an old story or clearly develop anything of the kind, whether it involved an effort of ination, and here he required aid I have never in my life met with any rotesque fancy, with such an entire incapacity to appreciate either hue of culture The ible to hied to repeat such poetry several times before he could comprehend it Yet he would, while I was otherwise occupied than with hie of a little bear on the chihted a Hoffues which often startled me With more education, he would have become a Rommany Bid- pai; and since India is the fatherland of the fable, heitimately from that source

I may state that those stories, which were made entirely; as a feere; or in part, by my assistant and myself, were afterwards received with approbation by ordinary Gipsies as being thoroughly Roe_ of the stories, it is all literally and faithfully that of a Gipsy, word by word, written down as he uttered it, when, after we had got a _gudlo_ into shape, he told it finally over, which he invariably did with great eagerness, ending with an improvised moral

GUDLO I HOW A GIPSY SAVED A CHILD'S LIFE BY BREAKING A WINDOW

'Pre yeck divvus (or yeckorus) a Rommany chal was kairin' pyass with the koshters, an' he wussered a kosh 'pre the hev of a boro ker an' poggered it Welled the prastralass” But when they jawed adree the ker, they lastered the kosh had mullered a divio juckal that was jawan' to dant the chavo So the rani del the Rory

But yeck koshter that poggers a hev doesn't muller a juckal

TRANSLATION

On a day (or once) a Gipsy was playing at cockshy, and he threw a stick through theof a great house and broke the glass Calass” But when they went into the house, they found the stick had killed a ave the Gipsy a gold watch and a good horse

But every stick that breaks adoes not kill a dog