Part 25 (1/2)

(37) This statement is incorrect.

(38) The Torlaquis (idle vagabonds), Hadgies (saints), and Dervishes (mendicant friars) of the East, are Gypsies neither by origin nor habits, but are in general people who support themselves in idleness by practising upon the credulity and superst.i.tion of the Moslems.

(39) In the Moorish Arabic, [Arabic text which cannot be reproduced] - or reus al haramin, the literal meaning being, 'heads or captains of thieves.'

(40) A favourite saying amongst this cla.s.s of people is the following: 'Es preciso que cada uno coma de su oficio'; I.E. every one must live by his trade.

(41) For the above well-drawn character of Charles the Third I am indebted to the pen of Louis de Usoz y Rio, my coadjutor in the editing of the New Testament in Spanish (Madrid, 1837). For a further account of this gentleman, the reader is referred to THE BIBLE IN SPAIN, preface, p. xxii.

(42) Steal a horse.

(43) The lame devil: Asmodeus.

(44) Rinconete and Cortadillo.

(45) The great river, or Guadalquiver.

(46) A fountain in Paradise.

(47) A Gypsy word signifying 'exceeding much.'

(48) 'Lengua muy cerrada.'

(49) 'No camelo ser eray, es Calo mi nacimiento; No camelo ser eray, eon ser Cale me contento.'

(50) Armed partisans, or guerillas on horseback: they waged a war of extermination against the French, but at the same time plundered their countrymen without scruple.

(51) The Basques speak a Tartar dialect which strikingly resembles the Mongolian and the Mandchou.

(52) A small nation or rather sect of contrabandistas, who inhabit the valley of Pas amidst the mountains of Santander; they carry long sticks, in the handling of which they are unequalled. Armed with one of these sticks, a smuggler of Pas has been known to beat off two mounted dragoons.

(53) The hostess, Maria Diaz, and her son Joan Jose Lopez, were present when the outcast uttered these prophetic words.

(54) Eodem anno precipue fuit pestis seu mortalitas Forlivio.

(55) This work is styled HISTORIA DE LOS GITANOS, by J. M-, published at Barcelona in the year 1832; it consists of ninety- three very small and scantily furnished pages. Its chief, we might say its only merit, is the style, which is fluent and easy. The writer is a theorist, and sacrifices truth and probability to the shrine of one idea, and that one of the most absurd that ever entered the head of an individual. He endeavours to persuade his readers that the Gitanos are the descendants of the Moors, and the greatest part of his work is a history of those Africans, from the time of their arrival in the Peninsula till their expatriation by Philip the Third. The Gitanos he supposes to be various tribes of wandering Moors, who baffled pursuit amidst the fastnesses of the hills; he denies that they are of the same origin as the Gypsies, Bohemians, etc., of other lands, though he does not back his denial by any proofs, and is confessedly ignorant of the Gitano language, the grand criterion.

(56) A Russian word signifying beans.

(57) The term for poisoning swine in English Gypsy is DRABBING BAWLOR.

(58) Por medio de chalanerias.

(59) The English.

(60) These words are very ancient, and were, perhaps, used by the earliest Spanish Gypsies; they differ much from the language of the present day, and are quite unintelligible to the modern Gitanos.

(61) It was speedily prohibited, together with the Basque gospel; by a royal ordonnance, however, which appeared in the Gazette of Madrid, in August 1838, every public library in the kingdom was empowered to purchase two copies in both languages, as the works in question were allowed to possess some merit IN A LITERARY POINT OF VIEW. For a particular account of the Basque translation, and also some remarks on the Euscarra language, the reader is referred to THE BIBLE IN SPAIN, vol. ii. p. 385-398.

(62) Steal me, Gypsy.