The Zincali Part 25

(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.

(63) A species of gendarme or armed policeman. The Miquelets have existed in Spain for upwards of two hundred years. They are called Miquelets, from the name of their original leader. They are generally Aragonese by nation, and reclaimed robbers.

(64) Those who may be desirous of perusing the originals of the following rhymes should consult former editions of this work.

(65) For the original, see other editions.

(66) For this information concerning Palmireno, and also for a sight of the somewhat rare volume written by him, the author was indebted to a kind friend, a native of Spain.

(67) A very unfair inference; that some of the Gypsies did not understand the author when he spoke Romaic, was no proof that their own private language was a feigned one, invented for thievish purposes.

(68) Of all these, the most terrible, and whose sway endured for the longest period, were the Mongols, as they were called: few, however, of his original Mongolian warriors followed Timour in the invasion of India. His armies latterly appear to have consisted chiefly of Turcomans and Persians. It was to obtain popularity amongst these soldiery that he abandoned his old religion, a kind of fetish, or sorcery, and became a Mahometan.

(69) As quoted by Adelung, MITHRIDATES, vol. i.

(70) Mithridates.

(70) For example, in the HISTORIA DE LOS GITANOS, of which we have had occasion to speak in the first part of the present work: amongst other things the author says, p. 95, 'If there exist any similitude of customs between the Gitanos and the Gypsies, the Zigeuners, the Zingari, and the Bohemians, they (the Gitanos) cannot, however, be confounded with these nomad castes, nor the same origin be attributed to them; . . . all that we shall find in common between these people will be, that the one (the Gypsies, etc.) arrived fugitives from the heart of Asia by the steppes of Tartary, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, while the Gitanos, descended from the Arab or Morisco tribes, came from the coast of Africa as conquerors at the beginning of the eighth.'

He gets rid of any evidence with respect to the origin of the Gitanos which their language might be capable of affording in the following summary manner: 'As to the particular jargon which they use, any investigation which people might pretend to make would be quite useless; in the first place, on account of the reserve which they exhibit on this point; and secondly, because, in the event of some being found sufficiently communicative, the information which they could impart would lead to no advantageous result, owing to their extreme ignorance.'

It is scarcely worth while to offer a remark on reasoning which could only emanate from an understanding of the very lowest order, - so the Gitanos are so extremely ignorant, that however frank they might wish to be, they would be unable to tell the curious inquirer the names for bread and water, meat and salt, in their own peculiar tongue - for, a.s.suredly, had they sense enough to afford that slight quantum of information, it would lead to two very advantageous results, by proving, first, that they spoke the same language as the Gypsies, etc., and were consequently the same people - and secondly, that they came not from the coast of Northern Africa, where only Arabic and s.h.i.+llah are spoken, but from the heart of Asia, three words of the four being pure Sanscrit.

(72) As given in the MITHRIDATES of Adelung.

(73) Possibly from the Russian BOLOSS, which has the same signification.

(74) Basque, BURUA.

(75) Sanscrit, SCHIRRA.

(76) These two words, which Hervas supposes to be Italian used in an improper sense, are probably of quite another origin. LEN, in Gitano, signifies 'river,' whilst VADI in Russian is equivalent to water.

(77) It is not our intention to weary the reader with prolix specimens; nevertheless, in corroboration of what we have a.s.serted, we shall take the liberty of offering a few. Piar, to drink, (p.

188,) is Sanscrit, PIAVA. Basilea, gallows, (p. 158,) is Russian, BECILITZ. Caramo, wine, and gurapo, galley, (pp. 162, 176,) Arabic, HARAM (which literally signifies that which is forbidden) and GRAB. Iza, (p. 179,) harlot, Turkish, KIZE. Harton, bread, (p. 177,) Greek, ARTOS. Guido, good, and hurgamandera, harlot, (pp. 177, 178,) German, GUT and HURE. Tiple, wine, (p. 197,) is the same as the English word tipple, Gypsy, TAPILLAR.

(78) This word is pure Wallachian ([Greek text which cannot be reproduced]), and was brought by the Gypsies into England; it means 'booty,' or what is called in the present cant language, 'swag.'

The Gypsies call booty 'louripen.'

(79) Christmas, literally Wine-day.

(80) Irishman or beggar, literally a dirty squalid person.

(81) Guineas.

(82) Silver teapots.

(83) The Gypsy word for a certain town.