Charles G. Leland - The English Gipsies and Their Language

C >> Charles G. Leland >> The English Gipsies and Their Language

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15

THE ENGLISH GIPSIES AND THEIR LANGUAGE
By Charles G. Leland

Author of "Hans Breitmann's Ballads," "The Music Lesson of Confucius,"
Etc. Etc.

Second Edition

LONDON
TRUBNER & CO., 57 & 59 LUDGATE HILL
1874

[_All rights reserved_]

PREFACE.

As Author of this book, I beg leave to observe that all which is stated
in it relative to the customs or peculiarities of Gipsies _was gathered
directly from Gipsies themselves_; and that every word of their language
here given, whether in conversations, stories, or sayings, was taken from
Gipsy mouths. While entertaining the highest respect for the labours of
Mr George Borrow in this field, I have carefully avoided repeating him in
the least detail; neither have I taken anything from Simson, Hoyland, or
any other writer on the Rommany race in England. Whatever the demerits
of the work may be, it can at least claim to be an original collection of
material fresh from nature, and not a reproduction from books. There
are, it is true, two German Gipsy letters from other works, but these may
be excused as illustrative of an English one.

I may here in all sincerity speak kindly and gratefully of every true
Gipsy I have ever met, and of the cheerfulness with which they have
invariably assisted me in my labour to the extent of their humble
abilities. Other writers have had much to say of their incredible
distrust of _Gorgios_ and unwillingness to impart their language, but I
have always found them obliging and communicative. I have never had
occasion to complain of rapacity or greediness among them; on the
contrary, I have often wondered to see how the great want of such very
poor people was generally kept in check by their natural politeness,
which always manifests itself when they are treated properly. In fact,
the first effort which I ever made to acquire a knowledge of English
Rommany originated in a voluntary offer from an intelligent old dame to
teach me "the old Egyptian language." And as she also suggested that I
should set forth the knowledge which I might acquire from her and her
relatives in a book (referring to Mr Borrow's having done so), I may hold
myself fully acquitted from the charge of having acquired and published
anything which my Gipsy friends would not have had made known to the
public.

Mr Borrow has very well and truly said that it is not by passing a few
hours among Gipsies that one can acquire a knowledge of their
characteristics; and I think that this book presents abundant evidence
that its contents were not gathered by slight and superficial intercourse
with the Rommany. It is only by entering gradually and sympathetically,
without any parade of patronage, into a familiar knowledge of the
circumstances of the common life of humble people, be they Gipsies,
Indians, or whites, that one can surprise unawares those little inner
traits which constitute the _characteristic_. However this may be, the
reader will readily enough understand, on perusing these pages--possibly
much better than I do myself--how it was I was able to collect whatever
they contain that is new.

The book contains some remarks on that great curious centre and secret of
all the nomadic and vagabond life in England, THE ROMMANY, with comments
on the fact, that of the many novel or story-writers who have described
the "Travellers" of the Roads, very few have penetrated the real nature
of their life. It gives several incidents illustrating the character of
the Gipsy, and some information of a very curious nature in reference to
the respect of the English Gipsies for their dead, and the strange manner
in which they testify it. I believe that this will be found to be fully
and distinctly illustrated by anecdotes and a narrative in the original
Gipsy language, with a translation. There is also a chapter containing
in Rommany and English a very characteristic letter from a full-blood
Gipsy to a relative, which was dictated to me, and which gives a sketch
of the leading incidents of Gipsy life--trading in horses,
fortune-telling, and cock-shying. I have also given accounts of
conversations with Gipsies, introducing in their language and in English
their own remarks (noted down by me) on certain curious customs; among
others, on one which indicates that many of them profess among themselves
a certain regard for our Saviour, because His birth and life appear to
them to be like that of the Rommany. There is a collection of a number
of words now current in vulgar English which were probably derived from
Gipsy, such as row, shindy, pal, trash, bosh, and niggling, and finally a
number of _Gudli_ or short stories. These _Gudli_ have been regarded by
my literary friends as interesting and curious, since they are nearly all
specimens of a form of original narrative occupying a middle ground
between the anecdote and fable, and abounding in Gipsy traits. Some of
them are given word for word as they are current among Gipsies, and
others owe their existence almost entirely either to the vivid
imagination and childlike fancies of an old Gipsy assistant, or were
developed from some hint or imperfect saying or story. But all are
thoroughly and truly Rommany; for every one, after being brought into
shape, passed through a purely "unsophisticated" Gipsy mind, and was
finally declared to be _tacho_, or sound, by real Rommanis. The truth
is, that it is a difficult matter to hear a story among English Gipsies
which is not mangled or marred in the telling; so that to print it,
restitution and invention become inevitable. But with a man who lived in
a tent among the gorse and fern, and who intermitted his earnest
conversation with a little wooden bear to point out to me the gentleman
on horseback riding over the two beautiful little girls in the flowers on
the carpet, such fables as I have given sprang up of themselves, owing
nothing to books, though they often required the influence of a better
disciplined mind to guide them to a consistent termination.

The Rommany English Vocabulary which I propose shall follow this work is
many times over more extensive than any ever before published, and it
will also be found interesting to all philologists by its establishing
the very curious fact that this last wave of the primitive Aryan-Indian
ocean which spread over Europe, though it has lost the original form in
its subsidence and degradation, consists of the same substance--or, in
other words, that although the grammar has wellnigh disappeared, the
words are almost without exception the same as those used in India,
Germany, Hungary, or Turkey. It is generally believed that English Gipsy
is a mere jargon of the cant and slang of all nations, that of England
predominating; but a very slight examination of the Vocabulary will show
that during more than three hundred years in England the Rommany have not
admitted a single English word to what they correctly call their
language. I mean, of course, so far as my own knowledge of Rommany
extends. To this at least I can testify, that the Gipsy to whom I was
principally indebted for words, though he often used "slang," invariably
discriminated correctly between it and Rommany; and I have often admired
the extraordinary pride in their language which has induced the Gipsies
for so many generations to teach their children this difference. {0a}
Almost every word which my assistant declared to be Gipsy I have found
either in Hindustani or in the works of Pott, Liebich, or Paspati. On
this subject I would remark by the way, that many words which appear to
have been taken by the Gipsies from modern languages are in reality
Indian.

And as I have honestly done what I could to give the English reader fresh
material on the Gipsies, and not a rewarming of that which was gathered
by others, I sincerely trust that I may not be held to sharp account (as
the authors of such books very often are) for not having given more or
done more or done it better than was really in my power. Gipsies in
England are passing away as rapidly as Indians in North America. They
keep among themselves the most singular fragments of their Oriental
origin; they abound in quaint characteristics, and yet almost nothing is
done to preserve what another generation will deeply regret the loss of.
There are complete dictionaries of the Dacotah and many other American
Indian languages, and every detail of the rude life of those savages has
been carefully recorded; while the autobiographic romances of Mr Borrow
and Mr Simson's History contain nearly all the information of any value
extant relative to the English Gipsies. Yet of these two writers, Mr
Borrow is the only one who had, so to speak, an inside view of his
subject, or was a philologist.

In conclusion I would remark, that if I have not, like many writers on
the poor Gipsies, abused them for certain proverbial faults, it has been
because they never troubled me with anything very serious of the kind, or
brought it to my notice; and I certainly never took the pains to hunt it
up to the discredit of people who always behaved decently to me. I have
found them more cheerful, polite, and grateful than the lower orders of
other races in Europe or America; and I believe that where their respect
and sympathy are secured, they are quite as upright. Like all people who
are regarded as outcasts, they are very proud of being trusted, and under
this influence will commit the most daring acts of honesty. And with
this I commend my book to the public. Should it be favourably received,
I will add fresh reading to it; in any case I shall at least have the
satisfaction of knowing that I did my best to collect material
illustrating a very curious and greatly-neglected subject. It is merely
as a collection of material that I offer it; let those who can use it, do
what they will with it.

If I have not given in this book a sketch of the history of the Gipsies,
or statistics of their numbers, or accounts of their social condition in
different countries, it is because nearly everything of the kind may be
found in the works of George Borrow and Walter Simson, which are in all
respectable libraries, and may be obtained from any bookseller.

I would remark to any impatient reader for mere entertainment, who may
find fault with the abundance of Rommany or Gipsy language in the
following pages, that _the principal object of the Author was to collect
and preserve such specimens of a rapidly-vanishing language_, and that
the title-page itself indirectly indicates such an object. I have,
however, invariably given with the Gipsy a translation immediately
following the text in plain English--at times very plain--in order that
the literal meaning of words may be readily apprehended. I call especial
attention to this fact, so that no one may accuse me of encumbering my
pages with Rommany.

While writing this book, or in fact after the whole of the first part was
written, I passed a winter in Egypt; and as that country is still
supposed by many people to be the fatherland of the Gipsies, and as very
little is known relative to the Rommany there, I have taken the liberty
of communicating what I could learn on the subject, though it does not
refer directly to the Gipsies of England. Those who are interested in
the latter will readily pardon the addition.

There are now in existence about three hundred works on the Gipsies, but
of the entire number comparatively few contain fresh material gathered
from the Rommany themselves. Of late years the first philologists of
Europe have taken a great interest in their language, which is now
included in "Die Sprachen Europas" as the only Indian tongue spoken in
this quarter of the world; and I believe that English Gipsy is really the
only strongly-distinct Rommany dialect which has never as yet been
illustrated by copious specimens or a vocabulary of any extent. I
therefore trust that the critical reader will make due allowances for the
very great difficulties under which I have laboured, and not blame me for
not having done better that which, so far as I can ascertain, would
possibly not have been done at all. Within the memory of man the popular
Rommany of this country was really grammatical; that which is now spoken,
and from which I gathered the material for the following pages, is, as
the reader will observe, almost entirely English as to its structure,
although it still abounds in Hindu words to a far greater extent than has
been hitherto supposed.

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.

The Rommany of the Roads.--The Secret of Vagabond Life in England.--Its
peculiar and thoroughly hidden Nature.--Gipsy Character and the Causes
which formed it.--Moral Results of hungry Marauding.--Gipsy ideas of
Religion. The Scripture story of the Seven Whistlers.--The Baker's
Daughter.--Difficulties of acquiring Rommany.--The Fable of the Cat.--The
Chinese, the American Indian, and the Wandering Gipsy.

Although the valuable and curious works of Mr George Borrow have been in
part for more than twenty years before the British public, {1} it may
still be doubted whether many, even of our scholars, are aware of the
remarkable, social, and philological facts which are connected with an
immense proportion of our out-of-door population. There are, indeed,
very few people who know, that every time we look from the window into a
crowded street, the chances are greatly in favour of the assertion, that
we shall see at least one man who bears in his memory some hundreds of
Sanscrit roots, and that man English born; though it was probably in the
open air, and English bred, albeit his breeding was of the roads.

For go where you will, though you may not know it, you encounter at every
step, in one form or the other, _the Rommany_. True, the dwellers in
tents are becoming few and far between, because the "close cultivation"
of the present generation, which has enclosed nearly all the waste land
in England, has left no spot in many a day's journey, where "the
travellers," as they call themselves, can light the fire and boil the
kettle undisturbed. There is almost "no tan to hatch," or place to stay
in. So it has come to pass, that those among them who cannot settle down
like unto the Gentiles, have gone across the Great Water to America,
which is their true Canaan, where they flourish mightily, the more
enterprising making a good thing of it, by _prastering graias_ or
"running horses," or trading in them, while the idler or more moral ones,
pick up their living as easily as a mouse in a cheese, on the endless
roads and in the forests. And so many of them have gone there, that I am
sure the child is now born, to whom the sight of a real old-fashioned
gipsy will be as rare in England as a Sioux or Pawnee warrior in the
streets of New York or Philadelphia. But there is a modified and yet
real Rommany-dom, which lives and will live with great vigour, so long as
a regularly organised nomadic class exists on our roads--and it is the
true nature and inner life of this class which has remained for ages, an
impenetrable mystery to the world at large. A member of it may be a
tramp and a beggar, the proprietor of some valuable travelling show, a
horse-dealer, or a tinker. He may be eloquent, as a Cheap Jack, noisy as
a Punch, or musical with a fiddle at fairs. He may "peddle" pottery,
make and sell skewers and clothes-pegs, or vend baskets in a caravan; he
may keep cock-shys and Aunt Sallys at races. But whatever he may be,
depend upon it, reader, that among those who follow these and similar
callings which he represents, are literally many thousands who,
unsuspected by the _Gorgios_, are known to one another, and who still
speak among themselves, more or less, that curious old tongue which the
researches of the greatest living philologists have indicated, is in all
probability not merely allied to Sanscrit, but perhaps in point of age,
an elder though vagabond sister or cousin of that ancient language.

For THE ROMMANY is the characteristic leaven of all the real tramp life
and nomadic callings of Great Britain. And by this word I mean not the
language alone, which is regarded, however, as a test of superior
knowledge of "the roads," but a curious _inner life_ and freemasonry of
secret intelligence, ties of blood and information, useful to a class who
have much in common with one another, and very little in common with the
settled tradesman or worthy citizen. The hawker whom you meet, and whose
blue eyes and light hair indicate no trace of Oriental blood, may not be
a _churdo_, or _pash-ratt_, or half-blood, or _half-scrag_, as a full
Gipsy might contemptuously term him, but he may be, of his kind, a
quadroon or octoroon, or he may have "gipsified," by marrying a Gipsy
wife; and by the way be it said, such women make by far the best wives to
be found among English itinerants, and the best suited for "a traveller."
But in any case he has taken pains to pick up all the Gipsy he can. If
he is a tinker, he knows _Kennick_, or cant, or thieves' slang by nature,
but the Rommany, which has very few words in common with the former, is
the true language of the mysteries; in fact, it has with him become,
strangely enough, what it was originally, a sort of sacred Sanscrit,
known only to the Brahmins of the roads, compared to which the other
language is only commonplace _Prakrit_, which anybody may acquire.

He is proud of his knowledge, he makes of it a deep mystery; and if you,
a gentleman, ask him about it, he will probably deny that he ever heard
of its existence. Should he be very thirsty, and your manners frank and
assuring, it is, however, not impossible that after draining a pot of
beer at your expense, he may recall, with a grin, the fact that he _has_
heard that the Gipsies have a queer kind of language of their own; and
then, if you have any Rommany yourself at command, he will perhaps
_rakker Rommanis_ with greater or less fluency. Mr Simeon, in his
"History of the Gipsies," asserts that there is not a tinker or scissors-
grinder in Great Britain who cannot talk this language, and my own
experience agrees with his declaration, to this extent--that they all
have some knowledge of it, or claim to have it, however slight it may be.

So rare is a knowledge of Rommany among those who are not connected in
some way with Gipsies, that the slightest indication of it is invariably
taken as an irrefutable proof of relationship with them. It is but a few
weeks since, as I was walking along the Marine Parade in Brighton, I
overtook a tinker. Wishing him to sharpen some tools for me, I directed
him to proceed to my home, and _en route_ spoke to him in Gipsy. As he
was quite fair in complexion, I casually remarked, "I should have never
supposed you could speak Rommany--you don't look like it." To which he
replied, very gravely, in a tone as of gentle reproach, "You don't look a
Gipsy yourself, sir; but you know you _are_ one--_you talk like one_."

Truly, the secret of the Rommany has been well kept in England. It seems
so to me when I reflect that, with the exception of Lavengro and the
Rommany Rye, {5} I cannot recall a single novel, in our language, in
which the writer has shown familiarity with the _real_ life, habits, or
language of the vast majority of that very large class, the itinerants of
the roads. Mr Dickens has set before us Cheap Jacks, and a number of men
who were, in their very face, of the class of which I speak; but I cannot
recall in his writings any indication that he knew that these men had a
singular secret life with their _confreres_, or that they could speak a
strange language; for we may well call that language strange which is, in
the main, Sanscrit, with many Persian words intermingled. Mr Dickens,
however, did not pretend, as some have done, to specially treat of
Gipsies, and he made no affectation of a knowledge of any mysteries. He
simply reflected popular life as he saw it. But there are many novels
and tales, old and new, devoted to setting forth Rommany life and
conversation, which are as much like the originals as a Pastor Fido is
like a common shepherd. One novel which I once read, is so full of "the
dark blood," that it might almost be called a gipsy novel. The hero is a
gipsy; he lives among his kind--the book is full of them; and yet, with
all due respect to its author, who is one of the most gifted and best-
informed romance writers of the century, I must declare that, from
beginning to end, there is not in the novel the slightest indication of
any real and familiar knowledge of gipsies. Again, to put thieves' slang
into the mouths of gipsies, as their natural and habitual language, has
been so much the custom, from Sir Walter Scott to the present day, that
readers are sometimes gravely assured in good faith that this jargon is
pure Rommany. But this is an old error in England, since the vocabulary
of cant appended to the "English Rogue," published in 1680, was long
believed to be Gipsy; and Captain Grose, the antiquary, who should have
known better, speaks with the same ignorance.

It is, indeed, strange to see learned and shrewd writers, who pride
themselves on truthfully depicting every element of European life, and
every type of every society, so ignorant of the habits, manners, and
language of thousands of really strange people who swarm on the highways
and bye-ways! We have had the squire and the governess, my lord and all
Bohemia--Bohemia, artistic and literary--but where are our _Vrais
Bohemiens_?--Out of Lavengro and Rommany Rye--nowhere. Yet there is to
be found among the children of Rom, or the descendants of the worshippers
of Rama, or the Doms or Coptic Romi, whatever their ancestors may have
been, more that is quaint and adapted to the purposes of the novelist,
than is to be found in any other class of the inhabitants of England. You
may not detect a trace of it on the roads; but once become truly
acquainted with a fair average specimen of a Gipsy, pass many days in
conversation with him, and above all acquire his confidence and respect,
and you will wonder that such a being, so entirely different from
yourself, could exist in Europe in the nineteenth century. It is said
that those who can converse with Irish peasants in their own native
tongue, form far higher opinions of their appreciation of the beautiful,
and of the elements of humour and pathos in their hearts, than do those
who know their thoughts only through the medium of English. I know from
my own observation that this is quite the case with the Indians of North
America, and it is unquestionably so with the Gipsy. When you know a
true specimen to the depths of his soul, you will find a character so
entirely strange, so utterly at variance with your ordinary conceptions
of humanity, that it is no exaggeration whatever to declare that it would
be a very difficult task for the best writer to convey to the most
intelligent reader an idea of his subject's nature. You have in him, to
begin with, a being whose every condition of life is in direct
contradiction to what you suppose every man's life in England must be. "I
was born in the open air," said a Gipsy to me a few days since; "and put
me down anywhere, in the fields or woods, I can always support myself."
Understand me, he did not mean by pilfering, since it was of America that
we were speaking, and of living in the lonely forests. We pity with
tears many of the poor among us, whose life is one of luxury compared to
that which the Gipsy, who despises them, enjoys with a zest worth more
than riches.

"What a country America must be," quoth Pirengro, the Walker, to me, on
the occasion just referred to. "Why, my pal, who's just welled apopli
from dovo tem--(my brother, who has just returned from that country),
tells me that when a cow or anything dies there, they just chuck it away,
and nobody ask a word for any of it." "What would _you_ do," he
continued, "if you were in the fields and had nothing to eat?"

I replied, "that if any could be found, I should hunt for fern-roots."

"I could do better than that," he said. "I should hunt for a
_hotchewitchi_,--a hedge-hog,--and I should be sure to find one; there's
no better eating."

Whereupon assuming his left hand to be an imaginary hedge-hog, he
proceeded to score and turn and dress it for ideal cooking with a case-
knife.

"And what had you for dinner to-day?" I inquired.

"Some cocks' heads. They're very fine--very fine indeed!"

Now it is curious but true that there is no person in the world more
particular as to what he eats than the half-starved English or Irish
peasant, whose sufferings have so often been set forth for our
condolence. We may be equally foolish, you and I--in fact chemistry
proves it--when we are disgusted at the idea of feeding on many things
which mere association and superstition render revolting. But the old
fashioned gipsy has none of these qualms--he is haunted by no ghost of
society--save the policeman, he knows none of its terrors. Whatever is
edible he eats, except horse-meat; wherever there is an empty spot he
sleeps; and the man who can do this devoid of shame, without caring a pin
for what the world says--nay, without even knowing that he does not care,
or that he is peculiar--is independent to a degree which of itself
confers a character which is not easy to understand.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15