Boro Duvel, or "Great God," an Old Gipsy term for Water--Bishnoo or
Vishnu, the Rain-God--The Rain, called God's Blood by Gipsies--The Snow,
"Angel's Feathers."--Mahadeva--Buddha--The Simurgh--The Pintni or
Mermaid--The Nag or Blind-Worm--Nagari and Niggering--The Nile--Nats and
Nautches, Naubat and Nobbet--A Puncher--Pitch, Piller and
Pivlibeebee--Quod--Kishmet or Destiny--The Koran in England--"Sass"--
Sherengro--Sarserin--Shali or Rice--The Shaster in England--The Evil
Eye--Sikhs--Stan, Hindostan, Iranistan--The true origin of Slang--Tat,
the Essence of Being--Bahar and Bar--The Origin of the Words Rom and
Romni.--Dom and Domni--The Hindi tem--Gipsy and Hindustani points of
the Compass--Salaam and Shulam--Sarisham!--The Cups--Women's treading
on objects--Horseflesh--English and Foreign Gipsies--Bohemian and
Rommany.
A learned Sclavonian--Michael von Kogalnitschan--has said of Rommany,
that he found it interesting to be able to study a Hindu dialect in the
heart of Europe. He is quite right; but as mythology far surpasses any
philology in interest, as regards its relations to poetry, how much more
wonderful is it to find--to-day in England--traces of the tremendous
avatars, whose souls were gods, long ago in India. And though these
traces be faint, it is still apparent enough that they really exist.
One day an old Gipsy, who is said to be more than usually "deep" in
Rommany, and to have had unusual opportunity for acquiring such knowledge
from Gipsies older and deeper than himself, sent word to me, to know if
"the rye" was aware that Boro Duvel, or the Great God, was an old Rommany
expression for water? I thought that this was a singular message to come
from a tent at Battersea, and asked my special Gipsy _factotum_, why God
should be called water, or water, God? And he replied in the following
words:
"Panni is the Boro Duvel, and it is Bishnoo or Vishnoo, because it pells
alay from the Boro Duvel. '_Vishnu is the Boro Duvel then_?'--Avali.
There can't be no stretch adoi--can there, rya? Duvel is Duvel all the
world over--but by the right _formation_, Vishnoo is the Duvel's ratt.
I've shuned adovo but dusta cheiruses. An' the snow is poris, that jals
from the angels' winguses. And what I penned, that Bishnoo is the
Duvel's ratt, is puro Rommanis, and jinned by saw our foki." {110}
Now in India, Vishnu and Indra are the gods of the rain.
The learned, who insist that as there ought to be, so there must be, but
a single source of derivation for every word, ignoring the fact that a
dozen causes may aid in its formation, will at once declare that, as
Bishnoo or Vishnoo is derived from the old Gipsy Brishni or Brschindo,
and this from the Hindu Barish, and the Sanscrit Varish or Prish, there
can be "no rational ground" for connecting the English Gipsy word with
the Hindu god. But who can tell what secret undercurrents of dim
tradition and vague association may have come down to the present day
from the olden time. That rain should be often called God's blood, and
water bearing the name of Vishnu be termed God, and that this should be
regarded as a specially curious bit of Gipsy lore, is at any rate
remarkable enough.
As for the Gipsies in question ever having heard of Vishnu and other gods
(as a friend suggests to me), save in this dim tradition, I can only say,
that I doubt whether either of them ever heard even of the apostles; and
I satisfied myself that the one who brought the secret had never heard of
Joseph, was pitiably ignorant of Potiphar's wife, and only knew of
"Mozhus" or Moses, that he "once heerd he was on the bulrushes."
Mahadeva, or Mahadev, exists apparently in the mouth of every English
Gipsy in the phrase "Maduveleste!" or, God bless you. This word Maduvel
is often changed to Mi--duvel, and is generally supposed to mean "My
God;" but I was once assured, that the _old_ and correct form was Ma,
meaning great, and that it only meant great in connection with Duvel.
A curious illustration of a lost word returning by chance to its original
source was given one day, when I asked a Gipsy if he knew such a word as
Buddha? He promptly replied, "Yes; that a booderi or boodha mush was an
_old_ man;" and pointing to a Chinese image of Buddha, said: "That is a
Boohda." He meant nothing more than that it represented an aged person,
but the coincidence was at least remarkable. Budha in Hindustani really
signifies an old man.
The same Gipsy, observing on the chimney-piece a quaint image of a
Chinese griffin--a hideous little goblin with wings--informed me that the
Gipsy name for it was a Seemor or Seemorus, and further declared that the
same word meant a dolphin. "But a dolphin has no wings," I remarked.
"Oh, hasn't it?" rejoined the Gipsy; "its _fins_ are its wings, if it
hadn't wings it could not be a Seemor." I think I recognise in this
Seemor, the Simurgh or Griffin of Persian fable. {112} I could learn
nothing more than this, that the Gipsy had always regarded a dolphin as
resembling a large-headed winged monster, which he called a Seemor.
NAG is a snake in Hindustani. The English Gipsies still retain this
primaeval word, but apply it only to the blind-worm. It is, however,
remarkable that the Nag, or blind-worm, is, in the opinion of the
Rommany, the most mysterious of creatures. I have been told that "when a
nag mullers it's hardus as a kosh, and you can pogger it like a swagler's
toov," "When a blind-worm dies it is as hard as a stick, and you can
break it like a pipe-stem." They also believe that the Nag is gifted, so
far as his will goes, with incredible malignity, and say of him--
"If he could dick sim's he can shoon,
He wouldn't mukk mush or grai jal an the drum."
"If he could see as well as he can hear, he would not allow man or horse
to go on the road."
The Hindi alphabet Deva Nagari, "the writing of the gods," is commonly
called Nagari. A common English Gipsy word for writing is "niggering."
"He niggered sar he could pooker adree a chinamangree." The resemblance
between _nagari_ and _nigger_ may, it is true, be merely accidental, but
the reader, who will ascertain by examination of the vocabulary the
proportion of Rommany words unquestionably Indian, will admit that the
terms have probably a common origin.
From Sanskrit to English Gipsy may be regarded as a descent "from the
Nile to a street-gutter," but it is amusing at least to find a passable
parallel for this simile. _Nill_ in Gipsy is a rivulet, a river, or a
gutter. Nala is in Hindustani a brook; nali, a kennel: and it has been
conjectured that the Indian word indicates that of the great river of
Egypt.
All of my readers have heard of the Nautch girls, the so-called
_bayaderes_ or dancing-girls of India; but very few, I suppose, are aware
that their generic name is remotely preserved in several English Gipsy
words. Nachna in Hindustani means to dance, while the Nats, who are a
kind of Gipsies, are generally jugglers, dancers, and musicians. A
_natua_ is one of these Nats, and in English Gipsy _nautering_ means
going about with music. Other attractions may be added, but, as I have
heard a Gipsy say, "it always takes music to go _a-nauterin_' or
_nobbin_'."
_Naubat_ in the language of the Hindu Nats signifies "time, turn, and
instruments of music sounding at the gate of a great man, at certain
intervals." "Nobbet," which is a Gipsy word well known to all itinerant
negro minstrels, means to go about with music to get money. "To nobbet
round the tem, bosherin'." It also implies time or turn, as I inferred
from what I was told on inquiry. "You can shoon dovo at the wellgooras
when yeck rakkers the waver, You jal and nobbet." "You can hear that at
the fairs when one says to the other, You go and nobbet," meaning, "It is
your turn to play now."
_Nachna_, to dance (Hindustani), appears to be reflected in the English
Gipsy "nitchering," moving restlessly, fidgeting and dancing about.
Nobbeting, I was told, "_is_ nauterin'--it's all one, rya!"
_Paejama_ in India means very loose trousers; and it is worth noting that
Gipsies call loose leggings, trousers, or "overalls," peajamangris. This
may be Anglo-Indian derived from the Gorgios. Whether "pea-jacket"
belongs in part to this family, I will not attempt to decide.
Living constantly among the vulgar and uneducated, it is not to be
wondered at that the English Gipsies should have often given a vulgar
English and slangy term to many words originally Oriental. I have found
that, without exception, there is a disposition among most people to
promptly declare that all these words were taken, "of course," from
English slang. Thus, when I heard a Gipsy speak of his fist as a
"puncher," I naturally concluded that he did so because he regarded its
natural use to be to "punch" heads with. But on asking him why he gave
it that name, he promptly replied, "Because it takes pange (five) fingers
to make a fist." And since _panja_ means in Hindustani a hand with the
five fingers extended, it is no violent assumption to conclude that even
_puncher_ may owe quite as much to Hindustani as to English, though I
cheerfully admit that it would perhaps never have existed had it not been
for English associations. Thus a Gipsy calls a pedlar a _packer_ or
_pack-mush_. Now, how much of this word is due to the English word pack
or packer, and how much to _paikar_, meaning in Hindustani a pedlar? I
believe that there has been as much of the one as of the other, and that
this doubly-formative influence, or _influence of continuation_, should
be seriously considered as regards all Rommany words which resemble in
sound others of the same meaning, either in Hindustani or in English. It
should also be observed that the Gipsy, while he is to the last degree
inaccurate and a blunderer as regards _English_ words (a fact pointed out
long ago by the Rev. Mr Crabb), has, however, retained with great
persistence hundreds of Hindu terms. Not being very familiar with
peasant English, I have generally found Gipsies more intelligible in
Rommany than in the language of their "stepfather-land," and have often
asked my principal informant to tell me in Gipsy what I could not
comprehend in "Anglo-Saxon."
"To pitch together" does not in English mean to stick together, although
_pitch_ sticks, but it does in Gipsy; and in Hindustani, _pichchi_ means
sticking or adhering. I find in all cases of such resemblance that the
Gipsy word has invariably a closer affinity as regards meaning to the
Hindu than to the English, and that its tendencies are always rather
Oriental than Anglo-Saxon. As an illustration, I may point out _piller_
(English Gipsy) to attack, having an affinity in _pilna_ (Hindustani),
with the same meaning. Many readers will at once revert to _pill_,
_piller_, and _pillage_--all simply _implying_ attack, but really meaning
to _rob_, or robbery. But _piller_ in English Gipsy also means, as in
Hindustani, to assault indecently; and this is almost conclusive as to
its Eastern origin.
It is remarkable that the Gipsies in England, or all the world over,
have, like the Hindus, a distinctly descriptive expression for every
degree of relationship. Thus a _pivli beebee_ in English Gipsy, or
_pupheri bahim_ in Hindustani, is a father's sister's daughter. This in
English, as in French or German, is simply a cousin.
_Quod_, imprisonment, is an old English cant and Gipsy word which Mr
Hotten attempts to derive from a college quadrangle; but when we find
that the Hindu _quaid_ also means confinement, the probability is that it
is to it we owe this singular term.
There are many words in which it is evident that the Hindu Gipsy meaning
has been shifted from a cognate subject. Thus _putti_, the hub of a
wheel in Gipsy, means the felly of a wheel in Hindustani. _Kaizy_, to
rub a horse down, or scrape him, in the original tongue signifies "to tie
up a horse's head by passing the bridle to his tail," to prevent his
kicking while being rubbed or 'scraped. _Quasur_, or _kasur_, is in
Hindustani flame: in English Gipsy _kessur_ signifies smoke; but I have
heard a Gipsy more than once apply the same term to flame and smoke, just
as _miraben_ stands for both life and death.
Very Oriental is the word kismet, or destiny, as most of my readers are
probably aware. It is also English Gipsy, and was explained to me as
follows: "A man's _kismut_ is what he's bound to kair--it's the kismut of
his see. Some men's kismut is better'n wavers, 'cos they've got more
better chiv. Some men's kismut's to bikin grais, and some to bikin
kanis; but saw foki has their kismut, an' they can't pen chichi elsus."
In English, "A man's destiny is what he is bound to do--it is the fate of
his soul (life). Some men's destiny is better than others, because they
have more command of language. Some are fated to sell horses, and others
to sell hens; but all people have their mission, and can do nothing
else."
_Quran_ in the East means the Koran, and quran uthara to take an oath. In
English Gipsy kurran, or kurraben, is also an oath, and it seems strange
that such a word from such a source should exist in England. It is,
however, more interesting as indicating that the Gipsies did not leave
India until familiarised with Mohammedan rule. "He kaired his kurran pre
the Duvel's Bavol that he would jal 'vree the tem for a besh." "He swore
his oath upon God's Breath (the Bible) that he would leave the country
for a year." Upon inquiring of the Gipsy who uttered this phrase why he
called the Bible "God's Breath," he replied naively, "It's sim to the
Duvel's jivaben, just the same as His breathus." "It is like God's life,
just the same as His breath."
It is to be observed that _nearly all the words which Gipsies claim as
Gipsy_, _notwithstanding their resemblance to English_, _are to be found
in Hindustani_. Thus _rutter_, to copulate, certainly resembles the
English _rut_, but it is quite as much allied to _rutana_ (Hindustani),
meaning the same thing. "Sass," or sauce, meaning in Gipsy, bold,
forward impudence, is identical with the same English word, but it agrees
very well with the Hindu _sahas_, bold, and was perhaps born of the
latter term, although it has been brought up by the former.
Dr A. F. Pott remarks of the German Gipsy word _schetra_, or violin, that
he could nowhere find in Rommany a similar instrument with an Indian
name. Surrhingee, or sarunghee, is the common Hindu word for a violin;
and the English Gipsies, on being asked if they knew it, promptly replied
that it was "an old word for the neck or head of a fiddle." It is true
they also called it sarengro, surhingro, and shorengro, the latter word
indicating that it might have been derived from sherro-engro--_i.e_.,
"head-thing." But after making proper allowance for the Gipsy tendency,
or rather passion, for perverting words towards possible derivations, it
seems very probable that the term is purely Hindu.
Zuhru, or Zohru, means in the East Venus, or the morning star; and it is
pleasant to find a reflection of the rosy goddess in the Gipsy _soor_,
signifying "early in the morning." I have been told that there is a
Rommany word much resembling _soor_, meaning the early star, but my
informant could not give me its exact sound. _Dood of the sala_ is the
common name for Venus. Sunrise is indicated by the eccentric term of
"_kam-left the panni_" or sun-left the water. "It wells from the waver
tem you jin," said my informant, in explanation. "The sun comes from a
foreign country, and first leaves that land, and then leaves the sea,
before it gets here."
When a Gipsy is prowling for hens, or any other little waifs, and wishes
to leave a broken trail, so that his tracks may not be identified, he
will walk with the feet interlocked--one being placed outside the
other--making what in America is very naturally termed a snake-trail.
This he calls _sarserin_, and in Hindu _sarasana_ means to creep along
like a snake.
Supposing that the Hindu word for rice, _shali_, could hardly have been
lost, I asked a Gipsy if he knew it, and he at once replied, "_Shali giv_
is small grain-corn, werry little grainuses indeed."
_Shalita_ in Hindustani is a canvas sack in which a tent is carried. The
English Gipsy has confused this word with _shelter_, and yet calls a
small or "shelter" tent a shelter _gunno_, or bag. "For we rolls up the
big tent in the shelter tent, to carry it." A tent cloth or canvas is in
Gipsy a _shummy_, evidently derived from the Hindu shumiyana, a canopy or
awning.
It is a very curious fact that the English Gipsies call the Scripture or
Bible the _Shaster_, and I record this with the more pleasure, since it
fully establishes Mr Borrow as the first discoverer of the word in
Rommany, and vindicates him from the suspicion with which his assertion
was received by Dr Pott. On this subject the latter speaks as follows:--
"Eschastra de Moyses, l. ii. 22; [Greek text], M.; Sanskrit, castra;
Hind., shastr, m. Hindu religious books, Hindu law, Scripture,
institutes of science (Shakespeare). In proportion to the importance of
the real existence of this word among the Gipsies must be the suspicion
with which we regard it, when it depends, as in this instance, only on
Borrow's assertion, who, in case of need, to supply a non-existing word,
may have easily taken one from the Sanskrit."--_Die Zigeuner_, vol. ii.
p. 224.
The word _shaster_ was given to me very distinctly by a Gipsy, who
further volunteered the information, that it not only meant the
Scriptures, but also any written book whatever, and somewhat marred the
dignity of the sublime association of the Bible and Shaster, by adding
that "any feller's bettin'-book on the race-ground was a _shasterni lil_,
'cos it's written."
I have never heard of the evil eye among the lower orders of English, but
among Gipsies a belief in it is as common as among Hindus, and both
indicate it by the same word, _seer_ or _sihr_. In India _sihr_, it is
true, is applied to enchantment or magic in general, but in this case the
whole may very well stand for a part. I may add that my own
communications on the subject of the _jettatura_, and the proper means of
averting it by means of crab's claws, horns, and the usual sign of the
fore and little finger, were received by a Gipsy auditor with great faith
and interest.
To show, teach, or learn, is expressed in Gipsy by the word _sikker_,
_sig_, or _seek_. The reader may not be aware that the Sikhs of India
derive their name from the same root, as appears from the following
extract from Dr Paspati's _etudes_: "_Sikava_, v. prim. 1 cl. 1 conj.
part, siklo', montrer, apprendre. Sanskrit, s'iks', to learn, to acquire
science; siksaka, adj., a learner, a teacher. Hindustani, seek'hna,
v.a., to learn, to acquire; seek'h, s.f., admonition." I next inquired
why they were called Seeks, and they told me it was a word borrowed from
one of the commandments of their founder, which signifies 'learn thou,'
and that it was adopted to distinguish the sect soon after he
disappeared. The word, as is well known, has the same import in the
Hindoovee" ("Asiatic Researches," vol. i. p. 293, and vol. ii. p. 200).
This was a noble word to give a name to a body of followers supposed to
be devoted to knowledge and truth.
The English Gipsy calls a mermaid a _pintni_; in Hindu it is _bint ool
buhr_, a maid of the sea. Bero in Gipsy is the sea or a ship, but the
Rommany had reduced the term to the original _bint_, by which a girl is
known all over the East.
"Ya bint' Eeskendereyeh."
_Stan_ is a word confounded by Gipsies with both _stand_, a place at the
races or a fair, and _tan_, a stopping-place, from which it was probably
derived. But it agrees in sound and meaning with the Eastern _stan_, "a
place, station," and by application "country," so familiar to the reader
in Hindustan, Iranistan, Beloochistan, and many other names. It is
curious to find in the Gipsy tan not only the root-word of a tent, but
also the "Alabama," or "here we rest," applied by the world's early
travellers to so many places in the Morning Land.
_Slang_ does _not_ mean, as Mr Hotten asserts, the secret language of the
Gipsies, but is applied by them to acting; to speaking theatrical
language, as in a play; to being an acrobat, or taking part in a show. It
is a very old Gipsy word, and indicates plainly enough the origin of the
cant word "slang." Using other men's words, and adopting a conventional
language, strikes a Gipsy as _artificial_; and many men not Gipsies
express this feeling by speaking of conventional stage language as
"theatrical slang." Its antiquity and origin appear in the Hindu swangi,
an actor; swang, mockery, disguise, sham; and swang lena, to imitate. As
regards the sound of the words, most English Gipsies would call swang
"slang" as faithfully as a Cockney would exchange _hat_ with '_at_.
Deepest among deep words in India is _tat_, an element, a principle, the
essence of being; but it is almost amusing to hear an English Gipsy say
"that's the tatto (or tat) of it," meaning thereby "the thing itself,"
the whole of it. And thus the ultimate point of Brahma, and the infinite
depth of all transcendental philosophy, may reappear in a cheap,
portable, and convenient form, as a declaration that the real meaning of
some mysterious transaction was that it amounted to a sixpenny swindle at
thimble-rig; for to such base uses have the Shaster and the Vedas come in
England.
It is, however, pleasant to find the Persian _bahar_, a garden, recalling
Bahar Danush, the garden of knowledge (Hindustani, bagh), reappearing in
the English Gipsy _bar_. "She pirryed adree the bar lellin ruzhers."
"She walked in the garden plucking flowers." And it is also like old
times and the Arabian Nights at home, to know that bazaar is a Gipsy
word, though it be now quite obsolete, and signifies no longer a public
street for shops, but an open field.
But of all words which identify the Gipsies with the East, and which
prove their Hindu origin, those by which they call themselves Rom and
Romni are most conclusive. In India the Dom caste is one of the lowest,
whose business it is for the men to remove carcasses, while the Domni, or
female Dom, sings at weddings. Everything known of the Dom identifies
them with Gipsies. As for the sound of the word, any one need only ask
the first Gipsy whom he meets to pronounce the Hindu _d_ or the word Dom,
and he will find it at once converted into _l_ or _r_. There are, it is
true, other castes and classes in India, such as Nats, the roving
Banjaree, Thugs, &c., all of which have left unmistakable traces on the
Gipsies, from which I conclude that at some time when these pariahs
became too numerous and dangerous there was a general expulsion of them
from India. {124}
I would call particular attention to my suggestion that the Corn of India
is the true parent of the Rom, because all that is known of the former
caste indicates an affinity between them. The Dom pariahs of India who
carry out or touch dead bodies, also eat the bodies of animals that have
died a natural death, as do the Gipsies of England. The occupation of
the Domni and Romni, dancing and making music at festivals, are
strikingly allied. I was reminded of this at the last opera which I
witnessed at Covent Garden, on seeing stage Gipsies introduced as part of
the fete in "La Traviata."
A curious indication of the Indian origin of the Gipsies may be found in
the fact that they speak of every foreign country beyond sea as the Hindi
tem, Hindi being in Hindustani their own word for Indian. Nothing was
more natural than that the Rommany on first coming to England should
speak of far-away regions as being the same as the land they had left,
and among such ignorant people the second generation could hardly fail to
extend the term and make it generic. At present an Irishman is a _Hindi
tem mush_, or Hindu; and it is rather curious, by the way, that a few
years ago in America everything that was _anti_-Irish or native American
received the same appellation, in allusion to the exclusive system of
castes.
Although the Gipsies have sadly confounded the Hindu terms for the
"cardinal points," no one can deny that their own are of Indian origin.
Uttar is north in Hindustani, and Utar is west in Rommany. As it was
explained to me, I was told that "Utar means west and wet too, because
the west wind is wet." _Shimal_ is also north in Hindu; and on asking a
Gipsy what it meant, he promptly replied, "It's where the snow comes
from." _Poorub_ is the east in Hindustani; in Gipsy it is changed to
porus, and means the west.
This confusion of terms is incidental to every rude race, and it must be
constantly borne in mind that it is very common in Gipsy. Night suggests
day, or black white, to the most cultivated mind; but the Gipsy confuses
the name, and calls yesterday and to-morrow, or light and shadow, by the
same word. More than this, he is prone to confuse almost all opposites
on all occasions, and wonders that you do not promptly accept and
understand what his own people comprehend. This is not the case among
the Indians of North America, because oratory, involving the accurate use
of words, is among them the one great art; nor are the negroes, despite
their heedless ignorance, so deficient, since they are at least very fond
of elegant expressions and forcible preaching. I am positive and
confident that it would be ten times easier to learn a language from the
wildest Indian on the North American continent than from any real English
Gipsy, although the latter may be inclined with all his heart and soul to
teach, even to the extent of passing his leisure days in "skirmishing"
about among the tents picking up old Rommany words. Now the Gipsy has
passed his entire life in the busiest scenes of civilisation, and is
familiar with all its refined rascalities; yet notwithstanding this, I
have found by experience that the most untutored Kaw or Chippewa, as
ignorant of English as I was ignorant of his language, and with no means
of intelligence between us save signs, was a genius as regards ability to
teach language when compared to most Gipsies.
Everybody has heard of the Oriental _salaam_! In English Gipsy _shulam_
means a greeting. "Shulam to your kokero!" is another form of
_sarishan_! the common form of salutation. The Hindu _sar i sham_
signifies "early in the evening," from which I infer that the Dom or Rom
was a nocturnal character like the Night-Cavalier of Quevedo, and who
sang when night fell, "Arouse ye, then, my merry men!" or who said "Good-
evening!" just as we say (or used to say) "Good-day!" {127}
A very curious point of affinity between the Gipsies and Hindus may be
found in a custom which was described to me by a Rom in the following
words:--
"When a mush mullers, an' the juvas adree his ker can't _kair habben_
because they feel so naflo 'bout the rom being gone, or the chavi or
juvalo mush, or whoever it may be, then their friends for trin divvuses
kairs their habben an' bitchers it a lende. An' that's tacho Rommanis,
an' they wouldn't be dessen Rommany chuls that wouldn't kair dovo for
mushis in sig an' tukli."
"When a man dies, and the women in his house cannot prepare food
(literally, make food) as they feel so badly because the man is gone (or
the girl, or young man, or whoever it may be), then their friends for
three days prepare their food and send it to them. And that is real
Rommany (custom), and they would not be decent Rommany fellows who would
not do that for people in sorrow and distress."
Precisely the same custom prevails in India, where it is characterised by
a phrase strikingly identical with the English Gipsy term for it. In
England it is to _kair habben_, in Hindustani (Brice, Hin. Dict.) "karwa
khana is the food that is sent for three days from relations to a family
in which one of the members has died." The Hindu karwana, to make or to
cause to do, and kara, to do, are the origin of the English Gipsy _kair_
(to make or cook), while from khana, or 'hana, to eat, comes _haw_ and
_habben_, or food.
The reader who is familiar with the religious observances of India is
probably aware of the extraordinary regard in which the cup is held by
many sects. In Germany, as Mr Liebich declares, drinking-cups are kept
by the Gipsies with superstitious regard, the utmost care being taken
that they never fall to the ground. "Should this happen, the cup is
_never_ used again. By touching the ground it becomes sacred, and should
no more be used. When a Gipsy cares for nothing else, he keeps his
drinking-cup under every circumstance." I have not been able to
ascertain whether this species of regard for the cup ever existed in
England, but I know of many who could not be induced to drink from a
white cup or bowl, the reason alleged being the very frivolous and
insufficient one, that it reminded them of a blood-basin. It is almost
needless to say that this could never have been the origin of the
antipathy. No such consideration deters English peasants from using
white crockery drinking-vessels.
In Germany, among the Gipsies, if a woman has trodden on any object, or
if the skirt of her dress has swept over or touched it, it is either
destroyed, or if of value, is disposed of or never used again. I found
on inquiry that the same custom still prevails among the old Gipsy
families in England, and that if the object be a crockery plate or cup,
it is at once broken. For this reason, even more than for convenience,
real Gipsies are accustomed to hang every cooking utensil, and all that
pertains to the table, high up in their waggons. It is almost needless
to point out how closely these ideas agree with those of many Hindus. The
Gipsy eats every and any thing except horseflesh. Among themselves,
while talking Rommany, they will boast of having eaten _mullo baulors_,
or pigs that have died a natural death, and _hotchewitchi_, or hedgehog,
as did the belle of a Gipsy party to me at Walton-on-Thames in the summer
of 1872. They can give no reason whatever for this inconsistent
abstinence. But Mr Simson in his "History of the Gipsies" has adduced a
mass of curious facts, indicating a special superstitious regard for the
horse among the Rommany in Scotland, and identifying it with certain
customs in India. It would be a curious matter of research could we
learn whether the missionaries of the Middle Ages, who made abstinence
from horse-flesh a point of salvation (when preaching in Germany and in
Scandinavia), derived their superstition, in common with the Gipsies,
from India.
There can be no doubt that in seeking for the Indian origin of many Gipsy
words we are often bewildered, and that no field in philology presents
such opportunity for pugnacious critics to either attack or defend the
validity of the proofs alleged. The very word for "doubtful" or
"ambiguous," _dubeni_ or _dub'na_, is of this description. Is it derived
from the Hindu _dhoobd'ha_, which every Gipsy would pronounce _doobna_,
or from the English _dubious_, which has been made to assume the Gipsy-
Indian termination _na_? Of this word I was naively told, "If a juva's
bori (girl is big), that's _dub'ni_; and if she's shuvalo (swelled up),
_that's_ dubni: for it may pen (say) she's kaired a tikno (is
_enceinte_), and it may pen she hasn't." But when we find that the
English Gipsy also employs the word _dukkeni_ for "doubtful," and compare
it with the Hindustani _dhokna_ or _dukna_, the true derivation becomes
apparent.
Had Dr Pott or Dr Paspati had recourse to the plan which I adopted of
reading a copious Hindustani dictionary entirely through, word by word,
to a patient Gipsy, noting down all which he recognised, and his
renderings of them, it is very possible that these learned men would in
Germany and Turkey have collected a mass of overwhelming proof as to the
Indian origin of Rommany. At present the dictionary which I intend shall
follow this work shows that, so far as the Rommany dialects have been
published, that of England contains a far greater number of almost
unchanged Hindu words than any other, a fact to which I would especially
call the attention of all who are interested in this curious language.
And what is more, I am certain that the supply is far from being
exhausted, and that by patient research among old Gipsies, the
Anglo-Rommany vocabulary might be increased to possibly five or six
thousand words.
It is very possible that when they first came from the East to Europe the
Gipsies had a very copious supply of words, for there were men among them
of superior intelligence. But in Turkey, as in Germany, they have not
been brought into such close contact with the _Gorgios_ as in England:
they have not preserved their familiarity with so many ideas, and
consequently their vocabulary has diminished. Most of the Continental
Gipsies are still wild, black wanderers, unfamiliar with many things for
which the English Gipsy has at least a name, and to which he has
continued to apply old Indian words. Every one familiar with the subject
knows that the English Gipsies in America are far more intelligent than
their German Rommany cousins. A few years ago a large party of the
latter appeared at an English racecourse, where they excited much
attention, but greatly disgusted the English Roms, not as rivals, but
simply from their habits. "They couldn't do a thing but beg," said my
informant. "They jinned (knew) nothing else: they were the dirtiest
Gipsies I ever saw; and when the juvas suckled the children, they
sikkered their burks (showed their breasts) as I never saw women do
before foki." Such people would not, as a rule, know so many words as
those who looked down on them.
The conclusion which I have drawn from studying Anglo-Rommany, and
different works on India, is that the Gipsies are the descendants of a
vast number of Hindus, of the primitive tribes of Hindustan, who were
expelled or emigrated from that country early in the fourteenth century.
I believe they were chiefly of the primitive tribes, because evidence
which I have given indicates that they were identical with the two castes
of the Doms and Nats--the latter being, in fact, at the present day, the
real Gipsies of India. Other low castes and outcasts were probably
included in the emigration, but I believe that future research will prove
that they were all of the old stock. The first Pariahs of India may have
consisted entirely of those who refused to embrace the religion of their
conquerors.
It has been coolly asserted by a recent writer that Gipsies are not
proved to be of Hindu origin because "a few" Hindu words are to be found
in their language. What the proportion of such words really is may be
ascertained from the dictionary which will follow this work. But
throwing aside all the evidence afforded by language, traditions,
manners, and customs, one irrefutable proof still remains in the physical
resemblance between Gipsies all the world over and the natives of India.
Even in Egypt, the country claimed by the Gipsies themselves as their
remote great-grandfather-land, the native Gipsy is not Egyptian in his
appearance but Hindu. The peculiar brilliancy of the eye and its
expression in the Indian is common to the Gipsy, but not to the Egyptian
or Arab; and every donkey-boy in Cairo knows the difference between the
_Rhagarin_ and the native as to personal appearance. I have seen both
Hindus in Cairo and Gipsies, and the resemblance to each other is as
marked as their difference from Egyptians.
A few years ago an article on the Rommany language appeared in the
"Atlantic Magazine" (Boston, U.S., America), in which the writer declared
that Gipsy has very little affinity with Hindustani, but a great deal
with Bohemian or Chech--in fact, he maintained, if I remember right, that
a Chech and a Rom could understand one another in either of their
respective tongues. I once devoted my time for several months to
unintermitted study of Chech, and consequently do not speak in entire
ignorance when I declare that true Rommany contains scores of Hindu words
to one of Bohemian. {133}