A History of the Gipsies: with Specimens of the Gipsy LanguageSimson, Walter
History
A History of the Gipsies: with Specimens of the Gipsy Language
Simson, Walter
Romanies; Romanies -- Languages
ninety years of age, and was, from his youth, impressed with a belief
that he would die in the house in which he was born; although he had
travelled a great part of the continent, and, while in the army, had
been in various engagements. He fell sick when at some distance from the
place of his nativity, but he hired a conveyance, and drove with haste
to die on his favourite spot. To this house he was allowed admittance,
where he closed his earthly career, in about forty-eight hours after his
arrival. Like others of his tribe, Drummond, at times, gave tokens of
protection to some of his particular friends, outside of the circle of
his own fraternity.
James Robertson, a Gipsy closely related to the Lochgellie band, of whom
I have already made mention, frequently danced, with his wife and
numerous sisters, in a particular fashion, changing and regulating the
figures of the dance by means of a bonnet; being, I believe, the same
dance which I have attempted to describe as performed by others of the
tribe in Scotland. When his wife and sisters got intoxicated, which was
often the case, it was a wild and extravagant scene to behold those
light-footed damsels, with loose and flowing hair, dancing, with great
spirit, on the grass, in the open field, while James was, with all his
"might and main," like the devil playing to the witches, in "Tam o'
Shanter," keeping the bacchanalians in fierce and animated music. When
like to flag in his exertions to please them with his fiddle, they have
been heard calling loudly to him, like Maggy Lawder to Rob the Ranter,
"Play up, Jamie Robertson; if ever we do weel, it will be a wonder;"
being totally regardless of all sense of decorum and decency.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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