The Gypsies

This bewildering speech was received with admiring awe, and we departed.  I should have liked to hear the comments on us which passed that evening among the gypsy denizens of Mammy Sauerkraut’s Row.

It is apropos of living double lives, and playing parts, and the charm of stealing away unseen, like naughty children, to romp with the tabooed offspring of outlawed neighbors, that I write this, to introduce a letter from a lady, who has kindly permitted me to publish it.  It tells its own story of two existences, two souls in one.  I give it as it was written, first in Romany, and then in English:—

I had written the foregoing, and had enveloped and directed it to be mailed, when I met in a lady-book entitled “Magyarland” with the following passages:—

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“It is not difficult for a Slav to become a poet; he takes in poetic sentiment as a river does water from its source.  The first sounds he is conscious of are the words of his mother singing to him as she rocks his cradle.  Then, as she watches the dawning of intelligence in his infant face, her mother language is that of poetry, which she improvises at the moment, and though he never saw the flowers nor the snow-capped mountains, nor the flowing streams and rivers, he describes them out of his inner consciousness, and the influence which the varied sounds of nature have upon his mind.”

Noon in Cairo.

A silent old court-yard, half sun and half shadow in which quaintly graceful, strangely curving columns seem to have taken from long companionship with trees something of their inner life, while the palms, their neighbors, from long in-door existence, look as if they had in turn acquired household or animal instincts, if not human sympathies.  And as the younger the race the more it seeks for poets and orators to express in thought what it only feels, so these dumb pillars and plants found their poet and orator in the fountain which sang or spoke for them strangely and sweetly all night and day, uttering for them not only their waking thoughts, but their dreams.  It gave a voice, too, to the ancient Persian tiles and the Cufic inscriptions which had seen the caliphs, and it told endless stories of Zobeide and Mesrour and Haroun al Raschid.

It is not remarkable that among the myriad manteias of olden days there should have been one by shells.  The sound of the sea as heard in the nautilus or conch, when

“It remembers its august abode
And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there,”

As the sibyls sat in caves, so the sorceress sat in the dark archway, immovable when not sought, mysterious as are all her kind, and something to wonder at.  It was after passing her, and feeling by quick intuition what she was, that the court-yard became a fairy-land, and the fountain its poet, and the palm-trees Tamar maids.  There are people who believe there is no mystery, that an analysis of the gypsy sorceress would have shown an ignorant outcast; but while nature gives chiaro-oscuro and beauty, and while God is the Unknown, I believe that the more light there is cast by science the more stupendous will be the new abysses of darkness revealed.  These natures must be taken with the life in them, not dead,—and their life is mystery.  The Hungarian gypsy lives in an intense mystery, yes, in true magic in his singing.  You may say that he cannot, like Orpheus, move rocks or tame beasts with his music.  If he could he could do no more than astonish and move us, and he does that now, and the why is as deep a mystery as that would be.

“Till my heart is full of longing
  For the secret of the sea,
And the heart of the great ocean
  Sends a thrilling pulse through me.”

Trust not the Ghoul, love,
  Heed not his smile;
Out of the Mosque, love,
  He stole the tile.

One day my friend the Palmer from over the sea came to me with a present.  It was a beautiful Persian tile.

“Where did you get it?” I asked.

“I stole it out of a mosque in Syria.”

“Did you ever read my Johnnykin?”

“Of course not.”

“I know you never did.”  Here I repeated the verse.  “But you remember what the Persian poet says:—

“‘And never since the vine-clad earth was young
Was some great crime committed on the earth,
But that some poet prophesied the deed.’”

“True, and also what the great Tsigane poet sang:—

“‘O manush te lela sossi choredó,
Wafodiro se te choramengró.’

“He who takes the stolen ring,
Is worse than he who stole the thing.”

“And it would have been better for you, while you were dukkerin or prophesying, to have prophesied about something more valuable than a tile.”

And so it came to pass that the two Persian tiles, one given by a descendant of the Prophet, and the other the subject of a prophecy, rest in my cabinet side by side.

I saw many gypsies in Egypt, but learned little from them.  What I found I stated in a work called the “Egyptian Sketch Book.”  It was to this effect: My first information was derived from the late Khedivé Ismael, who during an interview with me said, “There are in Egypt many people known as Rhagarin, or Ghagarin, who are probably the same as the gypsies of Europe.  They are wanderers, who live in tents, and are regarded with contempt even by the peasantry.  Their women tell fortunes, tattoo, and sell small wares; the men work in iron.  They are all adroit thieves, and noted as such.  The men may sometimes be seen going round the country with monkeys.  In fact, they appear to be in all respects the same people as the gypsies of Europe.”

I spoke to the woman in Romany, using such words as would have been intelligible to any of her race in any other country; but she did not understand me, and declared that she could speak nothing but Arabic.  At my request Mahomet explained to her that I had come from a distant country in Orobba, or Europe, where there were many Rhagarin, who said that their fathers came from Egypt, and that I wished to know if any in the old country could speak the old language.  She replied that the Rhagarin of Montesinos could still speak it; but that her people in Egypt had lost the tongue.  Mahomet, in translating, here remarked that Montesinos meant Mount Sinai or Syria.  I then asked her if the Rhagarin had no peculiar name for themselves, and she answered, “Yes; we call ourselves Tatâren.”

After this Mahomet took me to a number of Rhagarin.  They all resembled the one whom I had seen, and all were sellers of small articles and fortune-tellers.  They all differed slightly from common Egyptians in appearance, and were more unlike them in not being importunate for money, nor disagreeable in their manners.  But though they were as certainly gypsies as old Charlotte Cooper herself, none of them could speak Romany.  I used to amuse myself by imagining what some of my English gypsy friends would have done if turned loose in Cairo among their cousins.  How naturally old Charlotte would have waylaid and “dukkered” and amazed the English ladies in the Muskee, and how easily that reprobate old amiable cosmopolite, the Windsor Frog, would have mingled with the motley mob of donkey-boys and tourists before Shepherd’s Hotel, and appointed himself an attaché to their excursions to the Pyramids, and drunk their pale ale or anything else to their healths, and then at the end of the day have claimed a wage for his politeness!  And how well the climate would have agreed with them, and how they would have agreed that it was of all lands the best for tannin, or tenting out, in the world!

Abdullah first made his appearance before me at Shepherd’s Hotel, and despite his amazing natural impudence, which appeared to such splendid advantage in the street that I always thought he must be a lineal descendant of the brazen serpent himself, he evinced a certain timidity which was to me inexplicable, until I recalled that the big snake of Irish legends had shown the same modesty when Saint Patrick wanted him to enter the chest which he had prepared for his prison.  “Sure, it’s a nate little house I’ve made for yees,” said the saint, “wid an iligant parlor.”  “I don’t like the look av it at all, at all,” says the sarpent, as he squinted at it suspiciously, “and I’m loath to inter it.”

I often met Abdullah after that, and helped him to several very good exhibitions.  Two or three things I learned from him.  One was that the cobra, when wide awake, yet not too violently excited, lifts its head and maintains a curious swaying motion, which, when accompanied by music, may readily be mistaken for dancing acquired from a teacher.  The Hindu sappa-wallahs make people believe that this “dancing” is really the result of tuition, and that it is influenced by music.  Later, I found that the common people in Egypt continue to believe that the snakes which Abdullah and his tribe exhibit are as dangerous and deadly as can be, and that they are managed by magic.  Whether they believe, as it was held of old by the Rabbis, that serpents are to be tamed by sorcery only on the Sabbath, I never learned.

The last snake-masters whom I came across were two sailors at the Oriental Seamen’s Home in London.  And strangely enough, on the day of my visit they had obtained in London, of all places, a very large and profitable job; for they had been employed to draw the teeth of all the poisonous serpents in the Zoological Garden.  Whether these practitioners ever applied for or received positions as members of the Dental College I do not know, any more than if they were entitled to practice as surgeons without licenses.  Like all the Hindu sappa-wallahs, or snake-men, they are what in Europe would be called gypsies.

The following list gives the names of the principal gypsy families in England, with their characteristics.  It was prepared for me by an old, well-known Romany, of full blood.  Those which have (a) appended to them are known to have representatives in America.  For myself, I believe that gypsies bearing all these names are to be found in both countries.  I would also state that the personal characteristics attributed to certain families are by no means very strictly applicable, neither do any of them confine themselves rigidly to any particular part of England.  I have met, for instance, with Bosvilles, Lees, Coopers, Smiths, Bucklands, etc., in every part of England as well as Wales.  I am aware that the list is imperfect in all respects.

Ayres.

Bailey (a).  Half-bloods.  Also called rich.  Roam in Sussex.

Barton.  Lower Wiltshire.

Black.  Hampshire.

Bosville (a).  Generally spread, but are specially to be found in Devonshire.  I have found several fine specimens of real Romanys among the American Bosvilles.  In Romany, Chumomishto, that is, Buss (or Kiss) well.

Broadway (a).  Somerset.

Buckland.  In Gloucestershire, but abounding over England.  Sometimes called Chokamengro, that is Tailor.

Chapman (a).  Half-blood, and are commonly spoken of as a rich clan.  Travel all over England.

Chilcott (vul. Chilcock).

Clarke.  Half-blood.  Portsmouth.

Cooper (a).  Chiefly found in Berkshire and Windsor.  In Romany, Vardo mescro.

Davies.

Dickens.  Half-blood.

Dighton.  Blackheath.

Draper.  Hertfordshire.

Finch.

Fuller.  Hardly half-blood, but talk Romany.

Gray.  Essex.  In Romany, Gry, or horse.

Hare (a).  Chiefly in Hampshire.

Hazard.  Half-blood.  Windsor.

Herne.  Oxfordshire and London.  “Of this name there are,” says Borrow (Romano Lavo-Lil), “two gypsy renderings: (1.)  Rosar-mescro or Ratzie-mescro, that is, duck-fellow; the duck being substituted for the heron, for which there is no word in Romany, this being done because there is a resemblance in the sound of Heron and Herne.  (2.)  Balor-engre, or Hairy People, the translator having confounded Herne with Haaren, Old English for hairs.”

Hicks.  Half-blood.  Berkshire.

Hughes.  Wiltshire.

Ingraham (a).  Wales and Birmingham, or in the Kálo tem or Black Country.

James.  Half-blood.

Jenkins.  Wiltshire.

Jones.  Half-blood.  Headquarters at Battersea, near London.

Lewis.  Hampshire.

Locke.  Somerset and Gloucestershire.

Lovel.  Known in Romany as Kamlo, or Kamescro, that is, lover.  London, but are found everywhere.

Loveridge.  Travel in Oxfordshire; are in London at Shepherd’s Bush.

Marshall.  As much Scotch as English, especially in Dumfriesshire and Galloway, in which latter region, in Saint Cuthbert’s church-yard, lies buried the “old man” of the race, who died at the age of one hundred and seven.  In Romany Makkado-tan-engree, that is, Fellows of the Marshes.  Also known as Bungoror, cork-fellows and Chikkenemengree, china or earthenware (lit. dirt or clay) men, from their cutting corks, and peddling pottery, or mending china.

Matthews.  Half-blood.  Surrey.

North.

Petulengro, or Smith.  The Romany name Petulengro means Master of the Horseshoe; that is, Smith.  The gypsy who made this list declared that he had been acquainted with Jasper Petulengro, of Borrow’s Lavengro, and that he died near Norwich about sixty years ago.  The Smiths are general as travelers, but are chiefly to be found in the East of England.

Pike.  Berkshire.

Pinfold, or Penfold.  Half and quarter blood.  Widely extended, but most at home in London.

Róllin (Roland?).  Half-blood.  Chiefly about London.

Scamp.  Chiefly in Kent.  A small clan.  Mr. Borrow derives this name from the Sanskrit Ksump, to go.  I trust that it has not a more recent and purely English derivation.

Shaw.

Small (a).  Found in West England, chiefly in Somerset and Devonshire.

Taylor.  A clan described as diddikai, or half-bloods.  Chiefly in London.  This clan should be the only one known as Chokamengro.

Turner.

Walker.  Half-blood.  Travel about Surrey.

Wells (a).  Half-blood.  Somerset.

Wharton.  Worton.  I have only met the Whartons in America.

Wheeler.  Pure and half-blood.  Battersea.

White.

The Coopers are short, dark, and very active.

The Dightons are very dark and stout.

The Drapers are very tall and large and dark.

The Faas are at Kirk Yetholm, in Scotland.

The Grays are very large and fair.

The Greenes are small and dark.

The Gregories range from Surrey to Suffolk.

The Hares are large, stout, and dark.

The Hazards are tall and fair.

The Hernes (Herons) are very large and dark.

The Hicks are very large, strong, and fair.

The Hughes are short, stubby, and dark.

The Ingrahams are fair and all of medium height.

The Jenkins are dark, not large, and active.

The Jones are fair and of middling height.

The Lanes are fair and of medium height.

The Lees are dark, tall, and stout.

The Lewis are dark and of medium height.

The Lights are half-bloods, and travel in Middlesex.

The Lockes are shortish, dark, and large.

The Lovells are dark and large.

The Maces are about Norwich.

The Matthews are thick, short, and stout, fair, and good fighters.

The Millers are at Battersea.

North.  Are to be found at Shepherd’s Bush.

The Olivers are in Kent.

The Pikes are light and very tall.

The Pinfolds are light, rather tall, not heavy.  (Are really a Norfolk family.  F. Groome.)

The Rolands are rather large and dark.

The Scamps are very dark and stout.

The Shaws travel in Middlesex.

The Smalls are tall, stout, and fair.

The Smiths are dark, rather tall, slender, and active.

The Stanleys are tall, dark, and handsome.

The Turners are also in Norfolk and Suffolk.

The Walkers are stout and fair.

The Wells are very light and tall.

The Wheelers are thin and fair.

The Whites are short and light.

The Youngs are very dark.  They travel in the northern counties, and belong both to Scotland and England.

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The following is a collection of the more remarkable “fore” or Christian names of Romanys:—