The reader will find in this book sketches of experiences among gypsies
of different nations by one who speaks their language and is conversant
with their ways. These embrace descriptions of the justly famed musical
gypsies of St. Petersburg and Moscow, by whom the writer was received
literally as a brother; of the Austrian gypsies, especially those
composing the first Romany orchestra of that country, selected by Liszt,
and who played for their friend as they declared they had never played
before for any man; and also of the English, Welsh, Oriental, and
American brethren of the dark blood and the tents. I believe that the
account of interviews with American gypsies will possess at least the
charm of novelty, but little having as yet been written on this extensive
and very interesting branch of our nomadic population. To these I have
added a characteristic letter in the gypsy language, with translation by
a lady, legendary stories, poems, and finally the substance of two
papers, one of which I read before the British Philological Society, and
the other before the Oriental Congress at Florence, in 1878. Those who
study ethnology will be interested to learn from these papers,
subsequently combined in an article in the "Saturday Review," that I have
definitely determined the existence in India of a peculiar tribe of
gypsies, who are _par eminence_ the Romanys of the East, and whose
language is there what it is in England, the same in vocabulary, and the
chief slang of the roads. This I claim as a discovery, having learned it
from a Hindoo who had been himself a gypsy in his native land. Many
writers have suggested the Jats, Banjars, and others as probable
ancestors or type-givers of the race; but the existence of the _Rom
himself_ in India, bearing the distinctive name of Rom, has never before
been set forth in any book or by any other writer. I have also given
what may in reason be regarded as settling the immensely disputed origin
of the word "Zingan," by the gypsies' own account of its etymology, which
was beyond all question brought by them from India.
In addition to this I have given in a chapter certain conversations with
men of note, such as Thomas Carlyle, Lord Lytton, Mr. Roebuck, and
others, on gypsies; an account of the first and family names and personal
characteristics of English and American Romanys, prepared for me by a
very famous old gypsy; and finally a chapter on the "Shelta Thari," or
Tinkers' Language, a very curious jargon or language, never mentioned
before by any writer except Shakespeare. What this tongue may be, beyond
the fact that it is purely Celtic, and that it does not seem to be
identical with any other Celtic dialect, is unknown to me. I class it
with the gypsy, because all who speak it are also acquainted with Romany.
For an attempt to set forth the tone or feeling in which the sketches are
conceived, I refer the reader to the Introduction.
When I published my "English Gypsies and their Language," a reviewer
declared that I "had added nothing to our" (that is, his) "knowledge on
the subject." As it is always pleasant to meet with a man of superior
information, I said nothing. And as I had carefully read everything ever
printed on the Romany, and had given a very respectable collection of
what was new to me as well as to all my Romany rye colleagues in Europe,
I could only grieve to think that such treasures of learning should thus
remain hidden in the brain of one who had never at any time or in any
other way manifested the possession of any remarkable knowledge. Nobody
can tell in this world what others may know, but I modestly suggest that
what I have set forth in this work, on the origin of the gypsies, though
it may be known to the reviewer in question, has at least never been set
before the public by anybody but myself, and that it deserves further
investigation. No account of the tribes of the East mentions the Rom or
Trablus, and yet I have personally met with and thoroughly examined one
of them. In like manner, the "Shelta Thari" has remained till the
present day entirely unknown to all writers on either the languages or
the nomadic people of Great Britain. If we are so ignorant of the
wanderers among us, and at our very doors, it is not remarkable that we
should be ignorant of those of India.